Kemba Walker is exactly what the Boston Celtics need to win

Boston Celtics point guard Kemba Walker’s calming presence and killer instinct in the fourth quarter is exactly what the team needed to win games.

You don’t get the nickname “Cardiac Kemba” for shrinking under bright lights.

So it should come as no surprise when Boston Celtics point guard Kemba Walker is called on to close out a game the bench mob was having trouble with.

Nor that he was used as an example of professionalism in so doing by head coach Brad Stevens when Boston frittered away a commanding lead late in Monday’s game against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Forced off the bench and back into action after likely thinking his night was over, the UConn product didn’t bat an eye, sinking three consecutive treys to rapidly ice the game for good.

“If you want to be special, then model after Kemba,” said Stevens (via the Boston Herald’s Steve Bulpett).

“Because Kemba sits over there, thinks his night is done, gets put back in the game, drills three threes and ends it. I mean, special is not for everybody but that’s just different. That’s just always ready, always wanting to be called upon, always loving the play. He’s not untying his shoes, he’s staying ready because he knows this game can change in a heartbeat.”

For his part, the Bronx native didn’t mind coming back in, and was even thankful that the basketball gods were kind to him as he tried to tamp down a feisty Cavaliers outfit.

“Just as one of the leaders I feel like I have to stay engaged,” explained the All-NBA floor general, alluding to that while there’s a clearer hierarchy than last season, there’s also more sharing of leadership duties, which has likely helped the chemistry driving the team’s success.

“You just never know what to expect. This league, guys can score so fast and easy. You just never know when teams will come back,” he added.

Even, evidently, the lowly 5-15 Cavs.

“I just knew that [Cleveland was] feeling pretty good trying to make a run,” noted Walker, conscious of the fact that while a young, comparatively talent-poor outfit, the Cavaliers also fought hard on a day-to-day basis.

Any NBA team, even the worst, can beat an opponent trying to sleepwalk through an assumed win, which, for stretches of Monday’s tilt, would have been an accurate description of the level of play Boston exhibited.

“[The Cavs are] a team that’s never going to quit. Regardless of their record they always play extremely hard, so for me I know why he put me back in,” the Connecticut product added.

“When you’re in those kinds of situations and teams are playing well, trying to make comebacks and I just knew why he put me back in. He put me in to kind of close the game out.”

One of last season’s biggest issues was dropping games they should have won to lesser opponents. Absent a veteran to refocus an offense such as Walker provides, more than a few games like Monday’s were lost.

“In this league, 20-point leads go so fast and teams can score in bunches really fast, regardless of the score,” he added. “So you just have to stay engaged.”

Walker’s perspective is refreshing for Celtics fans who suffered through countless games of the starters taking their foot off the gas — if it ever made it on that pedal in the first place — only to see commanding leads evaporate.

A perspective coach Stevens has been taking note of.

“His ability to change the course of a game in any fourth quarter that you play, it’s amazing,” he offered (via MassLive’s Tom Westerholm).

“But I would say that that coupled with his work ethic and his love of basketball,” were the primary things that set the New Yorker apart from many of his peers, in ways that have been paying dividends for Boston.

“The challenging part of this schedule is it does get monotonous … That separates even more the guys who really love it. And he really loves it.”

“I think [Kemba is] probably going to be looking for a game at the Y when we’re not playing,” said the former Butler coach, alluding to a quirk in the schedule that will see the Celtics have five days off ahead of a Dec. 18 meeting with the Dallas Mavericks.

“I think that’s the way he’s built”, Stevens added.

With seven rookies joining the team this season and one of the youngest rosters in the league, that’s the sort of player you want providing an example of how to win the games you should, and have a shot at those you shouldn’t.

As Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum continue to round into the players many hoped they would be and Gordon Hayward re-establishes himself as an elite talent in the league, having a special player like Walker on the team will raise the ceiling of the Celtics to levels few hoped for at the start of this season.