Brad Stevens ‘Encouraged’ as Boston Celtics Prep for Game 2

Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports

The Boston Celtics went toe-to-toe with arguably the best team in the NBA and walked away 113-100 losers in Game 1 Sunday against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Brad Stevens is well aware his team needs to limit the mistakes if they hope to avoid slipping into a 2-0 series deficit before play shifts back to Boston Thursday.

Stevens focused much of the team’s practice Monday on film from Game 2. After breaking down all the mishaps, Boston’s coach has his squad focused on improving their effort on the glass, limiting the turnovers and operating their offensive sets in a crisper fashion.

Cleveland worked Boston over on the offensive boards in Game 1. They snagged 15 of them with 4 going to forward Tristan Thompson. The Celtics also turned the ball over 14 times. It’s an absolute must to control those two areas, especially going against an elite Cavaliers team.

“The positive is hopefully we can improve from it,” Stevens said of his club’s shortcomings.

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The Celtics ability to bounce back in the most adverse of times has been a trademark of Stevens’ resilient group all season. The ever-changing roster has forced the current cast to learn from failure and immediately overcome defeat in the bat of an eyelash. With that said, Stevens is not worried heading into Tuesday’s clash at Quicken Loans Arena.

“I’m encouraged by the guys that we have in this room. They usually respond well, they’re able to change on the fly, they’re really good guys, they play really hard. I’m encouraged,” Stevens said of his team.

One thing needs to remain the same in Game 2 for Boston and that’s the fact that Isaiah Thomas needs to remain aggressive on offense. In Game 1, Thomas netted 22 points on 6-of-14 shooting. He went 8-for-8 from the line which means there’s always the possibility to run up the foul count on Cleveland’s bigs who defend the rim.

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Avery Bradley shot a woeful 3-for-10 and finished with just 7 points. Bradley knows what it takes to turn his game around. He’s confident not only himself, but all of his teammates will showcase an improved offensive attack in Game 2.

“Everyone should expect to see a different team,” Bradley said Monday following practice. “We know how we need to execute on the offensive end,” he added.

Jae Crowder though, who will be deployed as weapon to thwart LeBron James once again, perfectly summed up what needs to be done in order to avenge their series-opening loss.

“They’re not the best defensive team. They have holes in their defense and we have to expose that,” Crowder said of the Cavs.

Boston has said all of the right things. We’ll see if they can follow through come tip-off.