Celtics player power rankings: The battle for home court is on
The Celtics still have the inside track on the No. 1 seed in Eastern Conference.
The Celtics are firmly in control of their own destiny as they begin the final week of the regular season with a terrific chance of earning home court advantage throughout the Eastern Conference playoffs.
The road won’t be easy with four of Boston’s final five opponents (Cleveland, Atlanta, Charlotte, Milwaukee) still battling for playoff spots or positioning, but Brad Stevens and company appear to be finding a groove at the right time, winning eight of ten overall heading into Wednesday’s showdown with the Cavs.
The Celtics have also won 14 of their last 16 home games at the TD Garden since mid-February, making the No. 1 seed a goal worth prioritizing over additional rest in the coming days.
15. Demetrius Jackson — The rookie point guard shined in his postseason debut in the D-League Tuesday, scoring a game-high 30 points to help the second-seeded Red Claws open up a best-of-three series against the Fort Wayne Mad Ants with a 110-106 win.
14. Jordan Mickey — Life got a lot easier in the frontcourt for the 6-foot-9 forward in Maine last week once Celtics first round pick Guerschon Yabusele joined the Red Claws. With opposing defenses focused on defending the sharpshooting rookie, Mickey was freed up to average 26 points per game in the three contests they’ve played together.
13. James Young — The 21-year-old swingman is in his third season, and he’s on pace to play the fewest number of games (28) in his career, despite considerable improvements in his FG (43.9 percent) and 3-point (35.4 percent) shooting.
12. Gerald Green — If Brad Stevens is looking for an outside shooting boost in the postseason, Green should be the player he turns to. The veteran journeyman is shooting 39.5 percent from downtown at the TD Garden during the regular season, a five-point jump from his road mark.
11. Tyler Zeller — With the uncertainty of a first round opponent looming, Brad Stevens has recently prioritized giving minutes to spot players like Zeller in case Boston needs to face a traditional big (Robin Lopez, Hassan Whiteside) “With Tyler over the last couple of weeks, there is an example where you want to make sure guys who maybe didn’t play as much, like him, gets his legs underneath him as we get into this,” Stevens said last week. “Because it’s very likely he could play a big role in a few weeks.”
10. Jonas Jerebko — After playing a season-low four minutes against the Bucks on Wednesday night, the Swede has fought his way back into the rotation on the strength of his rebounding. Jerebko led the Celtics on the glass over the last two wins, grabbing 17 rebounds in just 40 minutes.
9. Terry Rozier — Marcus Smart isn’t the only guard that dealt with an ugly shooting slump in the month of March. Rozier hit a mere 29 percent of field goal attempts over the last four weeks, but broke out of the funk Friday night against the Magic. He scored 21 points in a pair of wins over the weekend, on 8-of-14 shooting, giving the Celtics bench a consistent scoring boost for the first time in weeks.
8. Kelly Olynyk — One team that might want to take a look at Olynyk this offseason is the New York Knicks, especially the way the seven-footer shoots at Madison Square Garden. In a pair of Celtics wins in the Big Apple this season, the 25-year-old hit 87.5 percent of his shot attempts (14-of-16) and 60 percent from 3-point range.
7. Jaylen Brown — A pair of starts in place of Avery Bradley at shooting guard has given Brown more space to operate offensively and it has paid off on the perimeter shooting front. He went 4-of-7 from beyond the arc over the weekend and is now shooting 40 percent from 3 as a starter this year, compared to just 30 percent from deep off the bench.
6. Marcus Smart — Consistency has been the biggest obstacle in Smart’s career and there is no better example than his performance in the last two months. He followed up the best shooting month of his NBA career in February (45 percent) with his worst shooting month in three years (27 percent). The Celtics will need him to snap out of that swoon if they want to keep pace with elite offenses in the NBA postseason.
5. Avery Bradley — One of the biggest concerns of Bradley’s career has always been availability,and that issue has surfaced against this season. After missing two more games with the stomach flu over the weekend, Bradley has missed 27 games due to injury or illness. That’s the most of any player on the roster this year.
4. Amir Johnson — The veteran is finding his stride in the second half of the season for his second straight year in Boston. Not only does he lead the team in field goal percentage (57 percent) since the All-Star Break, but he tops the team in net rating (+10.6) by a considerable margin over Isaiah Thomas (+8.1)
3. Al Horford — The Cavaliers will not only be a good test for the Celtics on Wednesday night at the Garden, but it should be an important opportunity for Horford to improve his play against the defending champions. He’s averaging just 7.5 points per game against Cleveland this season, the lowest total he’s posted against all 29 teams he’s faced this year.
2. Jae Crowder — Even though there was no structural damage to Crowder’s elbow following an MRI earlier this week, the swingman plans to be cautious with the injury down the stretch after a gimpy ankle slowed him down throughout the postseason last year. “I think it’s a day-to-day thing but I do have that in the back of my head, with the possibility of going into the playoffs as close to 100 percent as possible,” Crowder said Tuesday. “That’s how I’m going to gauge it, day-to-day. But, of course, if I feel like I need to take time before playoffs, I will do so.”
1. Isaiah Thomas — While an NBA scoring title may not be out of reach for Thomas thanks to a strong finishing kick by Russell Westbrook, the All-Star point guard is still battling James Harden for the No. 2 spot. Harden (29.2 ppg) holds just a tenth of a point edge over Isaiah, and the Celtic isn’t planning on holding back in the final week of the regular season. “I don’t like to rest,” he said Tuesday. “I don’t like to rest but if that’s the decision [Brad Stevens] makes I’ve got to follow through on that. But I like to play so hopefully I can play these last five or six games and finish strong. I’m a guy that likes to hoop so I don’t like to rest.”
