Stevens: Loss To Hornets Was Celtics Worst Home Game Of Season
BOSTON (CBS) -- When a video coordinator brought Brad Stevens all the playoff scenarios for his Boston Celtics on Tuesday, the head coach kindly asked him to toss that information in the trash.
"He was doing it to be helpful, but then I started looking at the sheet, then the second sheet, and I figured it didn't make a lot of sense to figure it out," Stevens told 98.5 The Sports Hub's Zolak & Bertrand on Wednesday.
Even with the final game of the regular season on Wednesday night, with the Celtics hosting the Miami Heat, the playoff picture remains cloudy in the Eastern Conference. So again, Stevens doesn't want to get caught up on anything his team can't control.
"You'd think on the last game of the season you'd have a better idea, but there are so many things that could happen," he said.
The Celtics can finish anywhere from fourth to sixth in the Eastern Conference depending how they fare against the Heat, and how the Atlanta Hawks and Charlotte Hornets do in their final tilts of the regular season.
What Stevens can control is how his team plays against Miami, and he's confident he'll see a much better effort than they showed in Monday night's frustrating loss to the Hornets in Boston.
"Monday was probably the worst home game we played. Usually you have two or three of those in a season, but that one stood out this year," Stevens said of the 114-100 defeat that saw Charlotte go on a 31-3 run in the second quarter.
If the Celtics win Wednesday, they have a good shot at landing in the four seed in the East, and would likely host Miami.
"This is one of those situations where we're playing a good team tonight and there's a chance we could see them again as we move forward this weekend. Our goal and focus is to play well and play better than Monday," echoed Stevens.
"We played pretty well at home, really well at home, all year and especially since the calendar turned to 2016," Stevens said of the C's 27-13 record at TD Garden. "It's more about playing well between the lines. I know I sound like a broken record, but the other day it was clear Charlotte had a pep that we didn't have. We have to get that back, and at the same time we were up seven at the start of the second quarter, looking like we started to find a groove, and then we had the worst eight minutes of our season. Charlotte deserves credit for that, but we can play better than we did."
Stevens also touched on the playing time of Jared Sullinger and Isaiah Thomas in Boston's two most recent losses. Listen to the full interview below:
