BOSTON - The Celtics revamped their roster this summer to boast one of the deepest teams in the league. With weapons at every position, their pieces easily fall into place on paper. Now, it is a matter making it click in games on the court.
After falling to 0-2 with a loss to the Milwaukee Bucks on Friday, the Celtics (new and old) shared their suggestions for developing consistency and flow when playing with teammates for the first time.
Kevin Garnett: "Practice, being around each other, knowing each other. Off the court, our chemistry is very, very, very, very good. We're very alike in some ways. I've always said teams that hang out, get to know one another off the floor simultaneously it makes it a little easier on the floor. When it comes to basketball, knowing the different things a guy likes to do, preferences and other things, that's just playing with each other, continuing to practice, we're no different from any other team just trying to get our chemistry together. Those things will come."
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Courtney Lee: "I think time. That was one of the things Doc emphasized coming in, that we were going to focus on defense and we had another lapse in that area today. The only thing I'm guessing is time and repetition.You can't put a time on that but it has to be quick. These games are coming. We've got another one tomorrow night so we've got to figure it out soon."
Leandro Barbosa: "Stay together. I think that's the main thing. Everybody knows it's the second game of the season, but everybody knows this is a defensive team. We're going to get together, we have another game tomorrow. We talked about it and hopefully everything will be ok for tomorrow.We have to stay together, work together. I think communication is the main thing for everybody. It's easy for everybody when you have the communication and today we didn't have that. It was really quiet on the court. The guys that were on the bench, you could see there was no talking at all. But it happens. I think we we know what we've got to do and get focused."
Jared Sullinger: "We've got it continuity, obviously we haven't been playing well as a whole. Things are going to get better. Rome wasn't built in one day. Like I tell everybody, it's not a sprint, it's a marathon. With all these games coming up, it's going to be really helpful.Building chemistry on the court is kind of tough because that's just when basketball takes over and you've got to be able to hoop. I think the more and more we do that, the more and more it's going to help us out.Communication matters a lot. We've got to talk more as a team. We'll see what happens in the next couple of days."
Jeff Green: "Practice. Practice, practice, practice. It's a long year and we're going to have our bumps, we're going to have our road blocks, but we've just got to keep practicing, keep at it, and just continue to play and work on what we do. Things will come."
The Celtics play their third game of the season against the Washington Wizards on the road on Saturday night.