Brad Stevens was interviewed before the Celtics’ game vs the Miami Heat on Tuesday night. Boston had dropped the ball on Sunday, losing 130-124 in a vital seeding game against Miami. With the team poised for revenge on Tuesday night, Stevens was asked what the mindset of the team is coming into another important game with Jaylen Brown ruled out for the season. “I think obviously you feel for Jaylen, he had a great year, he’s such an important part of us… first and foremost you think about him… we’re going to have to make small tweaks to reinvent ourselves on the fly… ultimately that’s the challenge and the task.” When asked about the timeline on Brown’s torn ligament in his wrist, Stevens said “He wasn’t exactly 100% sure when it first started… it was sore at times… he went for imaging on Friday and that’s when he found out… the first time that I had heard of it, or even heard of a wrist injury that was bothering him to the point of getting it scanned, was Friday… he played through a lot.”
When asked what Stevens will do to help the team move forward after another blow to their chances of a deep playoff run, Stevens said “We’ve been here before… you make small tweaks to not overhaul yourself, but reinvent yourself… you play a style that’s more suited maybe to other guys that will get more time… we have to be able to adjust to that… we’ve had the misfortune of the injuries and COVID all the way through… I like the guys in the room, there’s going to be a lot more required of our best players… that’s a challenge they’re going to have to step up to… we have enough in the room to be a nuisance.” Stevens said the team was checking in with Brown after every game and that he wasn’t in on every conversation concerning his health, but that they have a plan moving forward for surgery and recovery for the young star.
With Brown out and both Fournier and Nesmith expected to step up, Stevens said “You certainly have different ways and different people that you can go to… it basically has forced, in the last few games at least, Jayson to spend more time on the bigger guys… that’s tough for Kemba and Fournier to do… there’s a physicality that we’re going to have to find [without Jaylen Brown]... I certainly think Aaron has separated himself as a guy that’s going to continue to play all the way through, no matter how long we play.”
