Stevens: Avery Bradley Will 'Likely' Play vs. Pacers
BOSTON (CBS) -- When the Boston Celtics play their first road game of the season, it sounds like Avery Bradley will be joining in on the fun.
Boston's starting two-guard suffered a sprained right wrist in Sunday's loss to the San Antonio Spurs, as well as a few sprained fingers, making his status for Wednesday's game against the Pacers iffy. But head coach Brad Stevens told 98.5 The Sports Hub's Zolak & Bertrand that Bradley is 'likely' to play Wednesday night in Indiana.
"Avery went through shoot-around and shot it a little bit. He's going to get some more work done this afternoon and we'll make that call as it goes," Stevens said of Bradley. "I'd say it's likely he will play."
Bradley scored a season-high 18 points on 7-for-18 shooting in Sunday's loss, and is averaging 11.7 points per game over the first three games of the season.
The Pacers picked up their first win of the season Tuesday night with a road victory over the previously-unbeaten Detroit Pistons. They've been going with a small lineup so far this season, which will likely have Stevens doing the same Wednesday night.
"[They're a] totally different [team]. They're playing C.J. Miles, who's played a lot of two in his career, at the four with George Hill, Monta Ellis and Paul Geroge, which is a dynamite 1-2-3. There's all kinds of skill, all kinds of speed that challenges and stretches you. We'll probably have to do some tweaking defensively as the game goes on. It's one of those things where if you get them on the wrong night, it can be difficult... We'll have our hands full tonight.
"We may end up [going small] tonight, no question about it," he said. "The biggest thing when talking about defending a team like Indiana, and attacking them on the other end, are you able to utilize your size advantage to win the matchup? You have to look at it from that standpoint. There will be times when we play more traditional that we may miss a shooter and we may be late to a shooter, but if we can do some things on the other end, maybe you stay that way. That's kind of a call within the game and see how it's going and go from there.
"There are going to be a lot more teams playing small than not, so we have to be able to adjust to that," the coach concluded.
Stevens also shared his thoughts on the struggles of the starting lineup:
