The Boston Celtics return from All-Star week to a west coast road trip, and they’ll need their sea legs beneath them if they don’t want to stumble.
The lavish praise for forward Jayson Tatum and point guard Kemba Walker for their All-Star performances won’t help them win the games they need to catch the Toronto Raptors for the two seed, nor will it help integrate the return of long-injured center Robert Williams III into the team’s rotation.
Only games that count will do that, and Boston has four straight away from home to contend with starting Friday, with the lowly Minnesota Timberwolves in Minneapolis.
The Celtics will see the schedule’s intensity ratchet up quickly, though, with a rematch with the Los Angeles Lakers on that team’s home floor comes next, on Sunday, Feb 23.
Possessing the NBA’s second-best record and a desire to get even for the drubbing they received earlier this season at TD Garden, the game should be the toughest of the four-game road trip.
The following game will be against the Portland Trailblazers on Feb. 25, likely without star point guard Damian Lillard, who may still be recovering from a strained groin keeping him out of All-Star action.
Can the Celtics steal the second seed from the Raptors? https://t.co/EZwxTssc9I
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) February 18, 2020
Boston then faces the Utah Jazz, who were starting to resemble the contender many expected to start the year going into the break; it’ll take a good effort from the team over every game to emerge from the west coast swing without a losing record, and a great one to have a shot at three wins.
“This team’s got good fight,” explained head coach Brad Stevens (via the Boston Herald’s Mark Murphy).
“It’s got good toughness, and that’s been really fun. This last six weeks has been really hard from the standpoint of not having any more than one day off between games. To finish it off with eight of nine and to go into the break is a good thing. Now, when we come back from the break, after we take a deep breath, we have to bring that same competitive spirit to that road trip.”
That competitive spirit is not assumed by the team over the past few months as it has been in past seasons — and to a lesser extent, earlier in this one.
Earlier iterations of this Celtics team would have slacked off after big wins over teams like the Lakers and the Clippers, but Stevens downplayed the significance.
“I’d say [the win over the Clippers had] very little significance.
“But we’ll take it and we’ll move on and try to be as good as we can be when that time comes. I think that’s the bottom line. You have to prove that you can do it and there’s a lot that we can work on. I think we’re realistic that we have a lot to work on and that’s a good thing.”
“I think guys are embracing that,” he added.
Over the first two-thirds of the season, it’s certainly showed.
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