Robb: Celtics Embracing Underdog Mentality Versus Hawks
BOSTON – The Celtics are not strangers to being underdogs. In fact, the team is full of players that have dealt with the label their entire career, according to starting power forward Jared Sullinger.
"I think a lot of guys we have on this basketball team were underdogs," Sullinger said at Celtics practice on Friday. "Everybody thought Evan Turner was a bust as a No. 2 pick, you got Isaiah being too small, Amir [Johnson] going in the second round. Jae [Crowder], it seemed like no one wanted him in Dallas. He came here and made a home for himself. Me being a late first round pick. I could keep going and going. We have an underdog team."
That group has established itself with a 48-win season but still hasn't been able to shed that feeling of disrespect heading into the first round of its series against the fourth-seeded Atlanta Hawks. The two teams tied for the third seed in the regular season, but most NBA experts are giving the edge to Atlanta, something that hasn't gone unnoticed by All-Star point guard Isaiah Thomas.
"We're the underdog," Thomas said. "I watch NBA TV, I watch all the little things, they have Atlanta winning. Everybody has Atlanta winning. They all count us out. The pressure's on Atlanta. We just have to go in there and execute and do what we've been doing all year and I think we give ourselves a good chance to win this series."
Officially, the Hawks will be favored by 5.5 points for Game 1 with the added benefit of homecourt at Phillips Arena. Unlike last year's matchup against the heavily favored Cleveland Cavaliers, the Celtics know what they are in for this time around when it comes to postseason play.
"I can honestly say we were semi-caught off guard because the first five minutes of Game 1 last year in Cleveland, those guys were all in our chest," Sullinger explained. "It was tough for us to score. It was kind of like a culture shock, like, this is what the playoffs are all about. Other than Avery and ET, a lot of guys didn't understand what the playoffs were about, especially playing a big role.
"We are more mellow now. We understand what we need to do and we're better prepared. We know what type of intensity level we are going to see."
This will be the ninth straight time the Hawks made the postseason, so understanding the pressure of the playoffs won't be a concern for them. However, with the looming free agency of Al Horford waiting this summer, this might be the last hurrah for a Atlanta core that their front office considered shaking up at the trade deadline. The Hawks have also failed to make it out of the first round in four of the past eight postseasons.
On the flip side, it's hard to say the Celtics are feeling any outside heat to succeed in this series. Even team president Danny Ainge is not calling his team a legitimate conference contender. Publicly, co-owner Wyc Grousbeck said the season wouldn't be a disappointment if the team falls in the first round. With a 48-win season, it's evident the Celtics are ahead of schedule in the rebuild and playing with house money this postseason.
However, a player like Sullinger hears those kinds of low expectations and uses them as motivation.
"With us being a underdog and kind of being disrespected by a lot of people," Sullinger said. "I think a lot of people fear us because of how hard we play. It showed in our last regular season game. That game was if we win, we don't know where we'll be at. If we lose, we wind up in the sixth spot, but we're still in the playoffs.
"To have the mindset of knowing that was Game 82 and it really didn't matter the outcome of the game, if we were going to be in the playoffs or not. The mindset of us just going out there and letting everyone know this is the type of team we are, by coming back and winning -- that's big time. That's who we are and what we do."
The challenge now for Boston is to use that mentality to its advantage, a quest that starts down as it tries to steal one of two games in Atlanta over the next few days.
"We've been able to embrace it and run with it, use it as motivation," Crowder added. "A lot of guys in our locker room have really embraced that and used that. I think it's all about accepting it and moving on, and we have. And we feed off it."
Brian Robb covers the Celtics for CBS Boston and contributes to NBA.com, among other media outlets. You can follow him on Twitter @CelticsHub.