The Boston Celtics have found the proverbial reset button at the exact right time, entering the postseason with a new approach, focused on one team for an entire week and able to break down tasks in a much more efficient ways than in the regular season.
“I think at this point it’s about who can beat a team in a seven-game series,” said point guard Kyrie Irving, according to Jay King of The Athletic. “It’s just a reset button.”
In a way, the postseason lends itself better to the Celtics' mentality, which has been to return to the Eastern Conference Finals and finally take that last step after falling inches short of the NBA Finals last season.
For some, that would involve an evolution coming into the playoffs, being a better team than they were in the regular season with a renewed sense of camaraderie.
“We’re not that same team,” said forward Marcus Morris. “Guys understand what’s the goal in here and I think it shows on the court. We’re backing each other up. Every game, somebody else is stepping up. Our depth has been a strong point for us.”
Irving and the Celtics won't make much of their efficient first-round sweep of the Indiana Pacers, knowing there's a bigger task at hand that basking in their glory, as they ready up for a second-round matchup against the East-leading Milwaukee Bucks.
“You can obviously take some momentum going into it and be proud of the performance you put on, but a week later it doesn’t even matter,” Irving said. “So you’ve gotta prove it once again. You’ve gotta prove why you were successful last series. You’ve gotta prove how ready you are for that next step because it’s closer and closer to a goal that other teams are trying to get as well. So it’s just a sense of maturity. So I think that for the guys on this team, enjoy it the first few days then we go back to practice and get locked back in. That’s the great thing about a sweep. You get to go back, get some days off and reset.”
If that reset button has indeed work, then we're in for a much better series than the seven games it took for these teams to duke it out in the first round in 2018, as Irving and Gordon Hayward will now be present to give this Bucks team the full potency of this array of talent.
Follow Us
Subscribe