Stevens has praise after G2 win vs Raps, but cautions job isn’t done

Boston Celtics head coach Brad Stevens has plenty of praise for his team after their Game 2 win over Toronto, but cautions the job isn’t done.

Boston Celtics head coach Brad Stevens had a lot of praise for his players in their Game 2 win over the Toronto Raptors in the East Semis, but he was careful to balance it with the struggle remaining to get past a very dangerous Raptors squad as well.

In particular, he had praise for center Robert Williams III’s play in the first quarter, who had some of his best postseason play of his still-young career.

“He’s the only reason we were in the game in the first quarter,” offered Stevens. “I did not think we started well.”

“I thought our first six minutes were sloppy, and I didn’t think we got to our spots. I think the pace that Toronto was playing at was much different than our pace, but when he came in, he changed it for us, made enough plays to get us into the quarter … so he’s been great. But we’re going to keep rotating those guys; I came really close to putting [Enes] Kanter in when we were down 12 because I know he can score and and rebound and, but other guys were able to step up and everybody else has to keep ready.”

“That rotating center spots been good for us,” he added.

Teammate Grant Williams had a few solid plays as well, though he played considerably less in this contest.

And Marcus Smart’s five straight threes were simply uncanny.

“When Grant Williams was out there, I thought he gave us great minutes rebounding the ball and guarding his yard on [Pascal] Siakam a few times. But then, Marcus obviously makes the big shots, but our defense went up to a different level too.”

“They’re a real hard team to play against and keep coming at you,” observed the Celtics coach.

True to his ‘never too high, never too low’ ethos, Stevens emphasized how lucky they were to have come away with the win, hinting that one should not expect the defending champs to continue shooting around 25% from deep in this series.

“A couple of those three years go in, and that game can change pretty quick. But one thing’s for certain when we leave tonight, we know that we’ve got a hell of a battle on Thursday. So, get in the ice baths whatever you need to do, because it’s going to be right back like that on Thursday [for Game 3].”

This is the right way to be approaching the situation with a team that came back from being down 0-2 as recently as last season against a team that had just dispatched the Celtics in five games (the Milwaukee Bucks), only to come back and win it.

In fact, there’s a good chance this series could be the biggest challenge Boston faces in the postseason before the NBA Finals, no matter how things shake out.

With the Bucks down a game already in their series with the Heat and the Celtics having bested their opponent in two of their three meetings, the biggest thing Boston can due to punch a ticket to the finals might just be taking care of Game 3, as obvious as that might sound.

And so far, the Celtics have been all business, their plan of attack singularly focused on the next game in front of them, no matter what else is going on — and so, so much is going on.

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