Downplaying to the end the meaning of what his young players now face, Brad Stevens sent out a text Monday night warning about distractions.
After another game of big shots, this time with a late Jae Crowder corner jumper putting a dramatic close to the Celtics’ 95-93 win over Toronto last night, the distractions only get bigger.
The Celtics clinched the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference and a first-round playoff series with the No. 2 Cleveland Cavaliers thanks to the win. It’s hard to not look ahead, but the coach is trying his best to combat human nature.
“Obviously there are going to be distractions as we move forward,” Stevens said, “so every night there’s going to be distractions and that can’t be an excuse for playing well and playing together and gutting it out. Our guys are excited to play. To have a chance to play against the very best in the league is a great opportunity.
“With me it’s about how we achieved this small thing in the big picture of progress, but it’s progress. The next couple of weeks there will be distractions. The next few years.”
By the time their first-round series concludes, this step could indeed look very small.
But right now the Celtics have great cause to elevate their hopes.
According to stat guru Dick Lipe, the Celtics have led all Eastern Conference teams since Feb. 3 with an 18-6 record against conference competition — better, even, than what Cleveland has accomplished. Then there’s the overall 19-11 record since the Feb. 19 trade deadline.
Distractions can also be inspiring.
“I’m ready to go to war with these guys — I’m ready to go to war,” Crowder said.
Granted, many of these late-season wins have come against teams altered in the name of rest and healing.
Think of Sunday’s win over a Cavaliers team lacking LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love and J.R. Smith, or last Friday in Cleveland when James and Love played limited minutes, and Irving didn’t play at all.
Last night the Raptors played Kyle Lowry and Amir Johnson — both absent from the Celts’ overtime win April 4 in Toronto — and sat their big scorer from that night, DeMar DeRozan.
Not that it matters to a Celtics team hell-bent on proving it deserves the conference’s seventh seed.
Crowder’s shot would have been big against anyone — in last night’s case with three-tenths of a second on the clock, and a double team of Tyler Hansbrough and Terrence Ross up tight.
“I was the No. 1 option. Brad draws up some good stuff,” Crowder said of the play, which answered Lowry’s game-tying drive past Marcus Smart with 10 seconds left. “He knows exactly how they are going to play the inbound at that time of the game. You just got to believe in him and execute it.”
The loss stung the Raptors, whose April 4 loss came on Smart’s buzzer-beating put-back at the end of overtime.
Five Celtics finished in double figures last night, none with more than 14 points, and two others with nine. It’s the kind of balance they will need against the Cavaliers. But once again they were also at their best down the stretch.
Evan Turner’s big baseline jumper from the right side with 35.2 seconds left gave the Celtics a 91-89 lead, but the Raptors matched that ATO (after timeout) play with a workable scheme of their own.
Lowry drove from the top of the circle for a 91-91 tie with 31.1 seconds left.
Down the other end Turner drove the lane, missed and jumped between two Raptors to win the rebound near the foul line. He drove again, drew coverage, and found an open Tyler Zeller under the basket with 14 seconds left for a 93-91 lead.
That’s when Lowry blew past Smart for the 93-93 tie. Turner nearly lost the ball out of bounds down the other end, though it was ruled out of bounds off Ross.
The Celtics took possession with 3.1 seconds left, Crowder curled to the right corner, and buried his game-winner over a double team.
“We have to fight for everything we get,” said Turner, once again proven right last night.
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