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PHOENIX – The Boston Celtics will do something tonight that they haven’t done in 27 years.
That is, they’ll take the court for a regular-season game on the West Coast on March 26 or later.
That’s right, the C’s haven’t played a game on the West Coast this late in the regular season since their 1988-89 campaign, when they played three West Coast games from April 4-7.
Every year since that season, the schedule makers have sent Boston out west either in mid-late February (most often) or in early March (quite rarely). Over the past decade-plus, the C’s have grown accustomed to being on the West Coast immediately following the All-Star break.
Not this season. This time around, the NBA has sent Boston out west for a five-game stint that will run from tonight, when the C’s take on the Suns at 10 p.m. in Phoenix, until April 3, when the C’s will take on Kobe Bryant in Los Angeles for the final time.
One might think that the Celtics are upset about being sent to the opposite coast so close to the Playoffs, seeing as the postseason begins in less than three weeks. However, they are actually embracing the schedule shake-up.
“I love it. I love it,” Jared Sullinger said at Saturday morning’s shootaround, “especially this late in the season with the way the Eastern Conference standings are going for us, because we get to gel together.”
Boston has been one of the most cohesive teams in the league all season long, yet Brad Stevens, too, believes that his players will benefit from being around each other – and only each other – for 11 straight days.
“I like the idea of spending [11 days] on the road together,” the coach said. “I think that there is some benefit in that. I think we’ve got a balance here of schedule where we don’t have a lot of practice time, but it’s a lot of games together, there’s a lot of time to meet together, spend time together, and then hopefully continue to build and grow in our play.”
There may be even more positives that the C’s can take out of this West Coast swing. Isaiah Thomas isn’t necessarily a fan of playing across the country this late in the season, but he is a fan of playing against elite teams like the Warriors and Clippers, and another likely playoff team like the Trail Blazers.
“As a competitor you want to play the best teams,” said Thomas, who enters tonight’s game averaging 26.2 points per game this month. “You want to play against the best players. That brings the best out of you. So it will definitely help us.”
Sullinger agrees, and he actually thinks this trip could prep the team for what’s to come exactly three weeks from today: the postseason.
“It could definitely carry over (to the playoffs) because we’re going to be playing some good playoff teams,” he said. “Golden State at home,, the Clippers at their place, we have Portland at their place. Those are all playoff teams that we have to play well against.”
The Suns are far from a playoff team. In fact, they have the third-worst record in the league. However, this is where Boston’s West Coast journey begins; a journey the Celtics haven’t taken in some 27 years.