The NBA regular season is winding down with just over a week left until things wrap up on Sunday, April 12th. The Celtics have five games left to go, and with the two seed all but locked up, we may see the team start to take its foot off the gas and prioritize rest and health in the coming days.
It has been great to see them get some big tune-up, blowout wins over the Bucks and Heat recently, and though they haven’t really been tested, they have quietly approached these like playoff games, and given us a sneak preview of what we can expect to see in the playoffs.
In these two games (before the fourth quarter in Milwaukee, when things got completely out of hand), Boston has leaned heavily on their five starters: Derrick White, Jaylen Brown, Sam Hauser, Jayson Tatum, and Neemias Queta, plus Payton Pritchard, with all those guys seeing close to 30 minutes and above.
They’ve used Luka Garza as a generic backup big man, slotting in around 15-20 minutes, and the same for Baylor Scheierman as a backup wing. They’ve thrown in Jordan Walsh sparingly, and used Tatum at the five in some instances, but for the most part, we’ve seen an eight-man playoff-type rotation for the competitive portion of the last two games.
Celtics tightening rotation a sign of things to come
It’s tough to see guys like Hugo Gonzalez, Walsh, and Ron Harper Jr. get exiled after having great seasons, but that’s what it’s all about. The regular season is long, guys are in and out of the lineup, and teams need to find ways to navigate 82 games while keeping their best players fresh for the playoffs.
That’s exactly what Joe Mazzulla and his staff have done this year, and the fact that it hurts to bench these guys is a testament to how much they have stepped up and developed. They’ll be big parts of the rotation moving forward, and there’s still a chance they’ll get dusted off in the playoffs at some point if circumstances call for it.
The importance of staying ready cannot be understated, and this group of players has embodied that mantra all season. Gonzalez won’t be demoralized. Instead, he’ll understand what’s happening, and the young rookie knows that he may get called on to guard a player like Cade Cunningham or Jalen Brunson for important stretches a month from now. And I expect he’ll be ready.
Garza vs. Vucevic the final piece of the puzzle
The only real question remaining is what will happen with the backup big man minutes once Nikola Vucevic returns from his finger injury. Garza has played very well recently, but Vooch was the deadline prize who is theoretically supposed to add another element on offense.
There isn’t room to play three big men, so another tough decision will have to be made. Personally, I think Luka has earned the minutes, and I don’t love the idea of rushing Vooch back up to speed in a playoff setting.
I’m also not sold on the upside he offers, as Garza has proven to be a reliable three-point shooter with a nice finishing touch around the rim, a relentless knack for offensive rebounding, and a great motor that at least partly makes up for his defensive shortcomings.
That will be worked out in the coming days and weeks, if Vooch is able to get healthy at all, but for now, it seems like we finally know what to expect moving forward. It has been a long path with a lot of odd rotations and no semblance of a pattern. But the picture is finally coming into frame, and the Celtics look like they are peaking at the right time, and they’re ready to go on a big run.