Brad Stevens is making sure no one on the Boston Celtics is satisfied with just winning games
The Boston Celtics suffered another concerning loss to the Indiana Pacers, allowing the Toronto Raptors to jump ahead of them in the standings, despite still being half a game behind. The loss itself is not the most concerning part, because the Pacers are a good team that can be competitive against anyone in the East.
The real problem is that the Celtics let themselves go down by over 25 points, putting themselves in a near impossible situation. It is great that they mounted the comeback, and put themselves in a position to win. The problem is that we have seen the Celtics do that time and time again, and it is not how they will reach their goal this season.
It is great to have the confidence that no lead is every going to be safe against you, and it helps a lot when you have been arguably the most clutch team in the NBA. The problem is that the Celtics continuously play far worse than their best, and they will not survive by making things this hard on themselves this many times.
Even in their victory against the Wizards, they needed crazy late game heroics and a screw up from the opponent to win. The Celtics have been great at bringing out those moments in their opponent, but it is not how you sustain success and you cannot depend on that happening in the playoffs.
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The Celtics have the most wins in the East, and really have exceeded outside expectations since the Gordon Hayward injury. That being said, the organization is able to see that this current roster has the potential to be a lot better on the court, and accountability is going to be key the rest of the way.
Even if the Celtics are wining a lot of these games, they have problems that have been seen by everyone, and Brad Stevens is not going to accept that. In fact, Stevens is the one that is going to hold everyone accountable, from the top to the bottom, including himself.
Following their loss to the Pacers, Stevens had this to say: “I have to do a better job of holding us accountable. We will have enough practice time to work on that. Then it’s desire to do it.”
Stevens has a problem with all the shortcuts the team is taking on offense, and the first person he looks to is himself. Stevens is a clear cut coach of the year favorite, and the moment something starts going wrong, he looks to himself at what he can do better.
Stevens holding himself accountable like this means two things. Firstly, he is never going to be complacent. No amount of wins is going to stop Stevens from wanting this team to grow, and if you look at the results he gets following the All Star break in his career, it is no surprise to see that he has this kind of mentality.
Stevens is always working on what he can do to get the most out of his players, and right now he knows they are not getting enough on offense. Stevens sees the talent they have, and feels as though they are trying to take the easy way out too often, rather than play the team ball that makes them so successful.
Stevens will start with himself, and that means he will be working on finding even more ways to put these players on a stronger position. When Stevens sets that example, however, is goes far beyond that.
We have seen that Kyrie Irving is willing to buy into everything that Stevens has been doing this season, and Irving is where everything starts on offense for the Celtics. Stevens knows that Irving needs to be a part of everything this offense wants to do, and the moment he adapts his approach, the rest of the players will follow.
The Celtics have seen some great potential on offense this season, but they clearly are unable to sustain that. The Celtics have an idea of what they need to look like to be at their best on offense, but too often are they settling for less.
It is a lot easier to settle and take those shortcuts when you are winning as many games as the Celtics, but Stevens has spoken about how misleading their record is, meaning he is focusing on a lot more than just the standings.
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The Celtics are winning games at a rate this season that wold make a lot of teams complacent, figuring they do not want to mess with something that is leading to this kind of success. The Celtics, however, have much bigger goals and when the head coach holds himself responsible for helping the players, everyone else will follow with the approach that is needed to improve on what has been a great season.