There comes a point in time where an NBA coach can’t worry about massaging the egos of his team. That time has come for Brad Stevens.
After another close-but-no cigar special Friday night at TD Garden, Stevens said that he’s seeing some signs of life from his now 13-25 squad. But not enough. The Celtics shot 60 percent in the first half, competed hard for three quarters and even led the Bulls by three at the half. But Boston, as it often has this season, ran out of gas in the fourth and fell, 119-105.
Asked if he’s concerned about his constantly changing roster and the impact it might have heading on a brutal six-game western road swing, Stevens was brutally honest.
“I’m not as worried about keeping them up,” Stevens said. “I think we need to get better off of that. I thought we didn’t have enough ‘ we weren’t as tight as we need to be against that level of talent. We were loose in our coverages and a little loose on the ball and it hurt us. They’ve got some great, great players that stepped up and made plays and really separated the game.
“But even when we were going back and forth I didn’t feel like ‘ I didn’t feel like it was sustainable at that rate, the way we were playing. So, yeah, I don’t know, hey’¦we’re employed to do everything we can, to have everything we have, and to manage the ups and downs throughout a season. Players and coaches. And it’s on us as individuals to be up and ready. And certainly you have to help some guys through that and help manage some of that but, you know, we can’t spend our time managing feelings right now; we have to spend our time getting better.”
As was the case with the Hawks on Wednesday night, Stevens didn’t have as big a problem with the defense in fourth quarter as he did with the poor offensive execution that led to easy baskets and open looks.
“Well I thought our offense provided them some baskets with our ‘ you know, we had some moments of shoddy ball-handling in that stretch,” he said. “We were pretty sure with the ball most of the night. The offensive glass hurt us, as it has against them, but again, I thought we were better than we were before but they just seemed to get some timely baskets off of that.
“But then the three-pointer by (E’twaun) Moore that he hit at the top of the key that stretched it from three to six I thought took the wind out of our sails; I didn’t think we responded well to that. The next play they hit another three; it’s nine. And it snowballed on us. We can’t, we can’t let that happen. We’ve just got to say hey, we guarded, that was one of our best possessions defensively, and Moore hits a big shot. Move on, move on to the next play. We didn’t respond as well as we need to.”
And like Wednesday against Atlanta, Stevens is hoping his team was paying close attention to how the Bulls play.
‘Their offense was excellent,” Stevens said. “And their offense was well-choreographed, well-designed, and well executed by multiple all-stars. But that means we have to be tighter, and we weren’t tight enough. We’re just going to hold them to that standard; I think it’s easy to look out there and see (Derrick) Rose being Rose, which is good for him, not good for everybody else that’s playing against him. And then (Pau) Gasol and (Jimmy) Butler just continue to play at the level they’ve been playing at.”
Stevens did get a vote of confidence from a man who knows a thing or two about coaching defense.
“Brad’s done a great job with these guys,” said Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau. “Their young guys are tough and you can tell that their veterans have done a great job, they’re playing for the team. They’re in every game, I watch a lot of their games and they’re hard to guard’¦.They play very unselfishly and that says a lot about Brad and the guys they have on the team.”
