By Jordan Long
The Boston Celtics have hit the stretch run to the playoffs. They are 50-23 and are only 3.5 games behind the Toronto Raptors for 1st place in the Eastern Conference. They now need to move forward without forward Kyrie Irving who is out 3 to 6 weeks because of surgery to his left knee over the weekend. He will be out the rest of the regular season. According to bleacherreport.com, Head Coach Brad Stevens said, “He’s a competitive guy. He doesn’t want to miss a game. But at the end of the day, his health is the most important thing.” Irving will be back for the 1st-round of the playoffs.
This is a big loss for the remaining 9 games of the season. Irving is one of their top offensive players. Irving scores 24.4 points and adds 5.1 assists per game. He is the one who sets up the offense and calls out the play to run. The Celtics will miss his leadership on the offensive end. On the defensive end, Irving creates steals. Those steals are fast break opportunities to score more points. He averages 1.1 steals per game.
The Celtics will go with Terry Rozier as the starting point guard. Rozier isn’t the scorer that Irving is with 11.3 points per game. Rozier is still able to run the offense and feeds his teammates for easy buckets down low with 2.7 assists per game.
On the defensive end he is about the same player as Irving. He can steal the ball averaging 1 steal per game. Rozier is a rebounder with 3.8 rebounds per game.
The Celtics need to keep playing at a high level with Irving out of the lineup. They still have a chance to be the #1 seed in the East. If they don’t catch the Raptors at least they will have home court in the 1st-round as the #2 or #3 seed.
Irving will be back for the playoffs. The Celtics have to weather the storm without him. Once they have him back on the court, this is a more dangerous team that could make a run to the Eastern Conference Final and possibly the NBA Finals.
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