Tag: toucher & rich

‘I don’t think this team is done yet,’ says Ainge after Game 4 loss

Danny Ainge still thinks the Boston Celtics have some gas left in the tank in their Eastern Conference Finals series with the Miami Heat.

“I don’t think this team is done yet,” said Boston Celtics team president Danny Ainge in one of his frequent appearances on the popular local radio show “Toucher & Rich” after Boston’s Game 4 loss to the Miami Heat

Ainge remained optimistic of his team’s chances in their East Finals series with the Heat despite being down three games to one, sharing that it looked like the players had indeed prepared for the game, but lacked the ability to maintain focus.

Asked if he thought coach Brad Stevens might be partially at fault, the former Celtic shooting guard dismissed the idea flatly.

“I’ve sat on the bench watching one of my players shoot free throws, and thinking, ‘If he makes these free throws I’m a great coach and if he misses I’m a terrible coach,’ and it’s just obviously not the way,” explained Ainge.

“That’s just the way that we look at it sometimes,” he added. “If we had squeaked out a win last night we don’t question anything, but when you lose by three points you question everything.”

On the issue of what it was on Miami’s end that was giving Boston such a hard time, the Celtics GM had a few ideas.

“I think that the zone defense has been challenging for us at times,” Ainge offered. “I think we’ve gotten a lot of great shots, we [haven’t] been able to knock them down. We had in the first half last night so many wide open shots that we normally make.”

Another issue may simply be unchangeable aspects of roster composition that are a byproduct of the still-recent rebuild.

While there are some older players on the roster, such as Kemba Walker, Gordon Hayward and Brad Wanamaker, most of the team is much closer to 20 than the average age of those three players.

“I don’t know if our guys are at the stage of their career where they can continue to play with the same force defensively, and focus when things aren’t going their way. A lot of that is just maturity. A lot of that is we just have 22 and 23 [year-old players in big roles].”

“I’m not making excuses for age, because our young guys have been through a lot, and had some shining, brilliant moments,” added Ainge.

Whether or not this team simply needs older bodies — or more experience — to advance will be tested and decided on Friday in Game 5.

Whether they do or do not, one thing is certain — this team will go down fighting, no matter what.

[jwplayer KHSNeCLY]

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Danny Ainge is ‘not too concerned’ about player health going forward

Despite an unexpected resurgence of the ‘Hospital Celtics’ this week, Boston team president Danny Ainge isn’t especially worried about his team’s health.

Boston Celtics team president made his weekly appearance on Toucher and Rich Thursday morning, and spoke at length on the surprise return of the Hospital Celtics.

Boston had been trending towards returning to full health after starting point guard Kemba Walker had been cleared to play on a balky knee that had kept him out from the 2020 NBA All-Star Game to the Mar. 3 overtime loss to the Brooklyn Nets.

Second-year reserve center Robert Williams III was about to return from a severely bruised hip that had him out since early December as well. Then, things started to go sideways in the health department.

Guard Marcus Smart and forward Jayson Tatum came down with a bug, and forward Gordon Hayward hyperextended his knee against Brooklyn. In the same game, shooting guard Jaylen Brown pulled his right hamstring.

Still, Ainge is unfazed.

“I’m not too concerned about any one player, I think everybody’s going to be fine within a week-ish or less,” he told the hosts. “But, I’m not really sure what the update is today.”

When asked specifically about Brown and Hayward, Ainge replied about the former first.

“Jaylen has a strained hamstring, and those just are a little bit scary to have. We don’t really want to mess around with it. He’s had that before years ago in the playoffs, and came right back and played. But, we’ll probably give him some time off and make sure he’s healthy.”

Regarding the Butler product, Ainge said, “Gordon had a hyperextended knee-type situation, and got bumped into the knee,” tactfully omitting it was teammate Daniel Theis who accidentally collided with the Indiana native.

“I think he’s feeling better yesterday, but I’m not really ready [or] prepared to tell you when he’s going to be back,” added Ainge, “but I think he’s going to be fine.”

As far as injuries go, while it’s no fun being down several key players just as Boston starts to dig in to the stretch run in the battle for the East’s second seed, they are all of a very short-term and hopefully minor nature.

Ainge is correct in his assessment that there isn’t much cause for concern now, as these are the types of problems it’s best to proceed cautiously with in order to avoid a recurrence in the postseason.

Don’t be terribly surprised if Brown in particular gets longer than a week off to let his hamstring heal completely.

The toughest remaining games in the schedule sit right across this coming week during which the Cal-Berkeley product will be out, with games against the Utah Jazz, Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers waiting.

In fact, with the earliest game Brown could return for the Mar. 12 road game against the Milwaukee Bucks, the rest of the schedule is almost devoid of teams with winning records.

In fact, with only two remaining games with the Miami Heat and one each with the Bucks, Pacers and Toronto Raptors, it won’t surprise to Hayward sit as well against his former team on Friday as well — if not longer.

The schedule will have plenty of nights for players to play limited minutes and rest when called for in order to gear up for the postseason without sacrificing too much risk at losing the two seed to the Raptors as a result.

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