Seeding or health? What is more important to the Boston Celtics?
Should the Boston Celtics push for seeding this season or should they be more conservative and value their player’s health and ease the burden during the regular season? During the past few years, head coach Doc Rivers clearly has adopted the latter strategy, while in the process having extreme confidence in his team’s ability to win games on the road. Last season was a bit different from previous ones in that he had to rest his players and make sure he didn’t burn them out. The lockout crammed 66 games into 4 months. Rivers did not have a choice as he had an older team. Veterans simply do not heal an injury as quickly as a younger player.
With the NBA transitioning back to a normal 82 game schedule, does it make sense for the Celtics to punt seeding and focus on scaling back the player’s minutes for the playoffs, or should they go all out to get the number one seed and secure home court advantage?
There are many varying opinions on what strategy is best. I clearly believe that it is more important for the team to be healthy and well rested in the playoffs then risking injury to a key player such as Kevin Garnett or Paul Pierce. Would it be nice to have home court advantage against the Miami Heat? Sure, absolutely. But the difference is that this team clearly has the ability to go on the road and win a big game. They have the championship DNA to back this up and Doc Rivers knows he can go into the American Airlines arena and win a game he has to have. Look at last season for instance. With the series tied 2-2, the Celtics won a huge game 5 and took commanding control of the series heading back to Boston. Unfortunately, they woke up Lebron James in the process. Over the past few years, Lebron has always disappeared in the playoffs against the Celtics but last year he changed all of that. He displayed one of the greatest performances in NBA playoff history to even the series in game 6 and ultimately leading the Heat to a game 7 victory and a championship in the process. Nevertheless, the Celtics have won the big road games over the years when they count. Garnett, Pierce, Rajon Rondo, and Jason Terry have all won NBA championships. They know what it takes to win.
The strategy that Rivers has adopted over the past few years has clearly worked. He has been continuously criticized, especially last season when everyone called the Celtics finished. They arose from the doldrums and made an epic playoff run. He knew he could win on the road. In the third to last game of the season this past year, the Celtics played the Atlanta Hawks in Atlanta. If they had won that game, they would have secured home court advantage in their following playoff series against the Hawks. Rivers decided to rest his starters that game, ultimately forfeiting the chance to have an extra home game in the series. His plan worked out as the team won game 2 on the road and finished the series in 6 games.
The Boston Celtics are as battle tested as a team can be and clearly have the ability to win the big games. They have another realistic chance to win a championship this year and Rivers should stick to what has worked. No need to fix something if it isn’t broken.
Rob Lunder covers the Boston Celtics for Rant Sports. For all Celtics news, check out the Boston Celtics homepage on Rant Sports.
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