Celtics will ‘play the game normal’ vs. Grizzlies amidst standings chaos
"Play the game normal and then see what happens from there."
The Celtics don’t plan to change much about their approach as they take on the Grizzlies on Sunday, even as the Eastern Conference standings descend into chaos.
The only players on the injury report prior to Sunday’s game are Nik Stauskas (sprained ankle) and Robert Williams (who, of course, is still recovering from meniscus surgery).
For everybody else? Business as usual.
“Just finish out the season strong, try to build a little momentum going into the playoffs,” Payton Pritchard said before the game. “I think that’s really all we’re focused on.”
Here are the scenarios entering Sunday evening’s action:
The Bucks rested everyone and got obliterated by a motivated Cavaliers team. Their record is cemented at 51-31.
The Celtics and Sixers both play tonight. The Celtics are playing everyone who is healthy. The Grizzlies will rest Ja Morant, Jaren Jackson Jr., Tyus Jones, Dillon Brooks and Steven Adams, while Desmond Bane and Brandon Clark are both questionable. In other words, the Grizzlies — who have the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference locked up — are punting.
Meanwhile, the Sixers are resting Joel Embiid and James Harden against the Pistons, but the Pistons are resting Cade Cunningham.
How does that all break down? If the Celtics win, they are the 2-seed. If they lose and the Sixers lose, they are the 3-seed. If they lose and the Sixers win, they drop to the 4-seed.
Ime Udoka acknowledged the chatter about the standings but said the Celtics won’t tailor their game plan around it.
“Everybody’s talking about Brooklyn, but they have a play-in game to win,” he said. “Certain teams can run from certain teams and end up that team not even be in there, so we’ll do what we do and kind of let chips fall where they may.
“It’s more worried about what we’re doing. As we’ve seen in our last two games, where we had some guys missing, we played well in Toronto, took them to overtime, and lost a close one to Milwaukee. So we know how dangerous teams can be without their players and opportunity for other guys. And so can’t have a letdown as far as that.”
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