Robb: Brad Stevens shows his value in win over Sixers

PHILADELPHIA -- The Celtics were in a heap of trouble Friday night at the Wells Fargo Center in the third quarter against the 76ers. The offense was stalling, J.J. Redick and Jerryd Bayless were getting open looks and Brad Stevens seemingly had nowhere to turn for help on his inexperienced bench. Instead, he opted for a guy that wasn’t even a permanent member of the 15-man roster: Jabari Bird.

The emergency call-up was actually watching the Celtics as a fan on Tuesday night in Los Angeles when Gordon Hayward went down with a gruesome leg injury. The team told Bird to hop on a plane so he could join the active roster on Wednesday night in Milwaukee.

"I was already packed. I was ready to go to the G League,” Bird said after Friday’s 102-92 win over the Sixers. "We got training camp coming up and my bags were already packed, I was ready to get out of the house. Then I got the call to go to Boston and I was like, ‘OK, I’m ready to. Just get me a flight.’"

Bird was likely around for emergency depth, but the No. 56 pick in the 2017 NBA Draft had played just 28 minutes in the preseason. Even with injuries sidelining Marcus Smart, Marcus Morris and Hayward, there were plenty of rookies ahead of him on the depth chart. Yet, Stevens saw something in the two-way player that made him believe he was exactly what the team needed while facing an eight-point deficit in the third quarter.

"So all the way through preseason and training camp, I felt like (Bird) was one of our better perimeter defenders,” Stevens said. "I think he's got a huge upside. His rebounding spoke for itself in the preseason practices and his ability to guard on the ball, especially shooters cutting off screens. Just really good. He's not afraid and you knew he would step up.”

Bird played 14 of the game’s final 18 minutes, helping to keep Philly’s shooters at bay while the visitors chipped away at the deficit. Later in the half, Stevens turned to another unlikely bench contributor in Shane Larkin to captain the offense, and the 25-year-old responded with eight points in the final frame while running a smooth pick-and-pop game with Al Horford.

Again, Stevens somehow knew Larkin was exactly what the Celtics needed after searching to find the right combination to beat Philadelphia for three quarters.

“If you remember in the exhibition season, he kind of finished that game out, that Charlotte game, just running simple pick-and-rolls,” Stevens explained. “He's such a handful with his speed and quickness. He allows other guys to play off the ball a little bit. Obviously, he's a small guy but he makes up for it with his speed and skill.”

Larkin’s presence opened the door for Horford (nine fourth-quarter points) and Kyrie Irving (seven fourth-quarter points) to get the ball in better spots down the stretch and get the offense back on track.

While Larkin and Bird certainly deserve praise for coming up big in their stints, just as much credit has to go to Stevens for pushing the right buttons while staring at the prospect of an 0-3 start to the season. How many coaches would have had the gall to go with a two-way rookie who only played 28 preseason minutes, and with a third-string point guard for crunch time minutes in such a big spot?

Stevens not only isn’t afraid of trying unconventional combinations like that, he’s also not afraid to stick with them. Bird played 12-straight minutes in the second half while Larkin handled the ball for several possessions in crunch time instead of deferring to Irving. It took him awhile, but the head coach found the right formula to beat a hungry Sixers team and perhaps put his team on the path back to normalcy with the returns of Smart and Morris looming next week.

“We spent a lot of time on us in the last two days and I was more pleased with how we played in that fourth quarter,” Stevens explained. “Sometimes your shots go down and sometimes they don't, but we played with a better purpose than we did in the other two fourth quarters. We had a lot of guys step up. I thought Jabari Bird coming in and guarding Redick (was big) and Shane Larkin was tremendous. We needed everybody. ... This is a great win. This is a really hard win. This is a really good one to build off of.”

Stevens and the Celtics have been a dealt a tough hand in the last week and the road doesn't get any easier with three of Boston's next four games coming against likely playoff teams (Milwaukee, Miami, San Antonio). A disastrous start to the season could have been in the cards today if the visitors didn't find a way to rally. Luckily, Stevens found a way to make the best out of a bad situation in a game that should be prominently featured on his Coach of the Year campaign reel next spring.