Celtics Coach Ime Udoka is trying to figure out the best way to rest his stars for the playoffs while also securing a good seed in the playoffs. Marta Lavandier/Associated Press
Life is chaotic for the Boston Celtics, with little-to-no clarity on who they’ll face in the playoffs with nearly all 10 playoff spots still up for grabs in the Eastern Conference.
That leaves Celtics Coach Ime Udoka trying to figure out exactly how he is going to rest players. Boston clinched a playoff spot a long time ago – meaning it is safe from the play-in tournament – but its seed is still unknown, so the final three games are still important.
Still, the Celtics are looking to rest their starters and fine-tune their rotation.
“A lot of it will have to do with seeding and standings and kind of what happens as far as that,” Udoka said about resting players. “We’re going one-by-one, honestly, and start with Chicago. Based on results and whatever else happens around us … we’re just taking it Chicago first and then figuring out down the line. And, obviously, it has to do with opponents and what they end up doing as well.”
Boston plays Chicago on Wednesday and Milwaukee on Thursday, before facing the Grizzlies in Memphis in the regular-season finale on Sunday.
Udoka said he has never seen the standings quite so jumble in his years as a player and a coach. He did remember in 2017-18 when the Spurs lost the regular-season finale to the Pelicans to fall to seventh in the West. They could have been as high as third.
While seeding is hugely important – especially for the Celtics to make a deep playoff run – Udoka said the team’s focusing more on itself. The preparation aspect is crucial, and playoff teams do have about a week of rest once the regular season concludes April 10. Udoka has stressed he wants the Celtics to be playing their best heading into the postseason.
“That’s what I keep saying: Playing our best basketball and playing well,” Udoka said. “And that kind of leads into, or lends into winning. And the results kind of go from there. Just the winning, and so we’ll see how Chicago goes and play from there.”
There’s also the balancing act of ramping up minutes while keeping guys fresh. That’s not so much of an issue for Jayson Tatum, who just turned 24 and already plays plenty of minutes in crunch time. But for a guy like Al Horford, 35, keeping him fresh, and sharp, is important.
The Celtics have been able to rely on a productive bench in recent weeks. It’ll be a team effort to make up for Robert Williams’ absence before he can make a hopeful return later in the postseason.
“It’s more of the same, preparation wise, we know what we’re gonna get into, it’s just a matter of the standings more so than anything,” Udoka said. “And so being out of the play-in and having that week to prepare, obviously, we’ll know who our opponent is by then. And so that is what it is.”
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