Brad Stevens Downplays 1st Winning Season With Celtics
BOSTON (CBS) -- The Celtics picked up their 42nd win of the season on Wednesday night, securing head coach Brad Stevens' first winning season on the Boston bench.
After guiding the team to a playoff berth in just his second NBA season, it should come as no surprise that Stevens is now at a the helm of a team that will win more games than they lose. And it should come as even less of a surprise that the low-key coach downplayed the accomplishment following Boston's 91-79 win over the Toronto Raptors.
"You don't sign up to come to the Boston Celtics to win 42 games," said Stevens. "We've got a long way to go."
The Celtics did something they hadn't done all season on Wednesday night, besting their Atlantic Division foe after dropping their first three matchups. They did so with an all-around defensive effort, holding the Raptors to just 35 percent shooting for the night, though it certainly helped that Toronto was without star point guard Kyle Lowrie.
Stevens, now 107-129 over his three-year NBA career with Boston, was encouraged by his team's effort Wednesday night and is happy that he continues to see steady improvement from his team.
"The one thing that I will say is, I've felt like -- especially in the last year, 14 months, whatever it is -- I feel like there's real progress and it's been pretty consistent progress," said Stevens. "We're certainly going to have our bad games and we're certainly going to have games that are unique throughout an 82-game season, but there's been good progress, there's been good growth and that's my biggest focus."
With the win -- Boston's third straight -- the Celtics moved into a tie for the three-seed in the Eastern Conference with the Atlanta Hawks. They now hit the road for a five-game West Coast trip, beginning Saturday night in Phoenix.
