To Rest Or Not To Rest: Ime Udoka Lays Out Celtics' Approach To Final Weeks Of Regular Season
BOSTON (CBS) -- The torrid stretch of dominance continues for the Boston Celtics, who now sit in first place in the Eastern Conference. Now the big dilemma presents itself with just seven games remaining in the regular season.
Do the Celtics keep on demoralizing the rest of the NBA, or do they give their stars the occasional rest in preparation for the postseason? It's a tightrope that head coach Ime Udoka will get to balance on for the next two weeks, though he may not have much of a decision on Monday night.
The Celtics will be without big man Robert Williams when they take on the Raptors in Toronto, after Williams left Sunday's blowout victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves with a left knee injury. He'll have an MRI on Monday to determine the severity of the ailment. The other member of Boston's frontcourt, Al Horford, is expected to miss his second straight game Monday night as well as he deals with a personal matter.
And with Monday being a back-to-back, Udoka may consider giving one of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown an evening off as well. Both have played a ridiculous amounts of minutes for Boston this season, and for good reason, considering the duo is on an absolute scoring tear for much of the last three months.
The decision, however, rests on whether the Celtics are putting a premium on securing the top seed in the East (it still feels so weird to write that after Boston sat in 11th place in the East in early January) or having a rested and healthy group heading into the playoffs. There remains a lot to be sorted in the East, with Boston, Miami, Philadelphia and Milwaukee all within a half-a-game of each other for that No. 1 seed. There is also the matter of the Brooklyn Nets hovering in the play-in tournament, as a potential No. 8 seed and first-round matchup for whichever team lands that top spot in the East.
But positioning atop the conference, and a potential first-round foe, are not at the forefront of Udoka's mind at the moment. At least that is what the coach alluded to following Sunday's blowout win, Boston's sixth straight victory by at least 20 points. With everything still up in the air in the conference, other teams may try to manipulate the standings and try to dictate who they'll face in the opening round.
But Udoka said that won't be Boston's approach over the final two weeks of the regular season. Having everyone healthy and ready to make a deep playoff run is the ultimate goal for the final stretch.
"Other teams do that; I'm not really worried about that, but teams manipulate where they want to play and we're not concerned about that. Ours is winning, health and playing the best basketball at the right time," Udoka said after Sunday's win. "There's too much closeness to try to maneuver and manipulate things to pick an opponent.
"As far as resting, that's the main thing. We've got some guys who got some nicks now and we have to be smart about it," Udoka added. "Homecourt advantage is the main thing, and wherever the chips fall they fall. Playing the best basketball at the right time and keeping guys healthy, picking a game if we can get guys one, is what we're looking at now."
Dolling out some rest is important, but so too is keeping this incredible run going. The Celtics are not only just the best defense in the NBA, but they've risen to having the best offensive efficiency as well since the end of January. Taking guys out of the lineup may throw that off, but Udoka is confident that this current run is no fluke.
It's who the Celtics have become -- and who they will continue to be when the playoffs begin.
"The main thing that we've seen is consistency over the last few months in a lot of areas we really targeted. Offensively sharing the ball and defensively coming out with that mindset and playing with a better sense of urgency and getting off to better starts. Consistency is what we've done and there is no reason to go back on that. We've seen the success that it has brought us and unselfishness is contagious. No reason to think that will fall back at all," he said.
"It's a pretty simple message: Play the same way we have to get us to where we are," added Udoka.
