The countdown to the regular season opener is on Tuesday night and the Celtics are beginning to show more signs of their former selves according to Brad Stevens.
The Celtics have held five practices since their final preseason tuneup eight days ago in Cleveland and the progress by their returning All-Stars over that span has been noticed across the organization.
"I thought Kyrie and Gordon had a really good week last week," Stevens noted before practice on Sunday. "Probably not all the surprising after both dealing with little setbacks injury-wise. They both had three good days of practice, and I thought those two and Daniel (Theis) stood out as the guys that probably made the biggest jumps in one week. I think that, just like those guys, we haven’t talked about him as much, but it’s different to come back from an injury and have to play, be asked to go full speed right out of the gate. He’s done a good job now of progressing. He had a good week."
Some of their teammates gave the trio a similar vote of confidence after what was an underwhelming preseason for the entire squad.
"They looking way more comfortable and way better now," Terry Rozier explained. "That’s expected when you come off an injury and not playing for a while, you still gotta get back in it no matter who you are, and those guys look good. That’s always a great help. Those guys are like the main reason we’re picking it back up, just to have those guys feel more comfortable."
The challenge from the C's perspective early on was simply a lack of practice time that resulted in a lack of cohesiveness on the floor in preseason games. With three games bunched together within five days, there was no time to nail down schemes to the degree that was needed and that impacted performance.
"Having those games condensed -- probably in the first eight or nine days we had four preseason games, it didn’t really work in our favor in terms of trying to build continuity in our group," Irving noted. "We have a long way to go but it was also beneficial to see kind of how hard we need to play and the level we need to play. And we’ve been trying to recreate that in practice which has been great.”
While Irving showed flashes of brilliance during his brief preseason slate, it's the change in mentality that has stood out the most to Stevens.
"I just thought they were all probably more comfortable in knowing when to be aggressive, but also much more aggressive," Stevens said. "And we played Daniel a lot with our second team and kind of rotated Baynes and Horford so Daniel would get more reps. I think sometimes you just need more reps, so all three felt like they made good strides."
The question now is just how well will those strides translate to the regular season. The C's had a very long way to go from the end of the preseason and they didn't get to where they want to be at the end of camp.
"You’re going to make mistakes," Stevens said. "It’s the early part of the season. You’re going to make mistakes in the later part of the season. It’s, do you move on to the next play? Do you play with great intensity? Do you play with multiple efforts all the way through? Do you share the ball? Do you do the little things that help teammates have success? We’ll be able to get a lot of information this week as we have somewhat thus far."
Other practice leftovers
- Stevens was at Fenway to watch Game 1 of the ALCS and noted that he's been using this Red Sox team as an example for his group to learn from in the way they sacrifice. "They've always rebounded when something tough has happened," Stevens said. "And we’ve used those guys as examples quite a bit. The Brock Holt example last week of going for the cycle and getting a DNP the next day, is how you win, right? And being willing to take on those roles, both as the guy that did it and the guy that replaced him the next night in Kinsler, those things matter. They’ve set a great example for us as we move into a new year."
- The team had perfect attendance at practice after Robert Williams returned. He had missed two days due to illness.
- Jayson Tatum with a fun line about his workouts with Joel Embiid this summer after battling last postseason: "I just kept reminding him that we almost swept them. We should have swept them, but we let them win one game."
- Tatum is far more at ease in year two of his NBA career despite opening up the season with another Eastern Conference heavyweight: "It’s like night and day. Last year, we were playing the Cavs, playing LeBron. This year, we’re not playing LeBron. So I’m not as nervous," he said.
- The Celtics will have one more tuneup practice on Monday afternoon before opening up against the Sixers on Tuesday night at the TD Garden.