Jason Terry not happy with performance of Celtics bench over the first three games – NBA News
The Boston Celtics reached the Eastern Conference Finals last season, where they lost to the Miami Heat in 7 games. All throughout the season, the Celtics were criticized for not having a deep bench and they were also struggling with injury troubles. And even though the team core of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Rajon Rondo got them through the season by playing extended minutes on a nightly basis, the lack of a deep team was one of the reasons they lost to the Heat in the conference finals.
So the Celtics went into the off season determined to make the bench stronger, and got Jason Terry, Courtney Lee and Leandro Barbosa while parting ways with Ray Allen. The new additions once again had people talking about the Celtics. But over the first three games of the season, the Celtics bench has been outscored 131-87 by the benches of their opposing teams. And for former 6th man of the year Jason Terry, that is not a statistic he is happy with.
"Oh, that's frustrating. But again, I take that squarely upon my shoulders, and this is a new week. I'm looking to go this week and hopefully we can get three consecutive games of outscoring [the opponent's] bench, and we'll see what happens,” said Terry.
The Celtics have Chris Wilcox and Jeff Green back in the team line-up after missing last season with heart conditions, and the addition of Lee and Terry has certainly given a boost to the back court. However, their performance on court has not proven that yet, and the team is still heavily relying on the team core to deliver the goods.
Celtics coach Doc Rivers knows that his bench is not where it needs to be, but knows that the players will take some time to adjust in their new roles and start contributing to the success of the team.
"They gotta become a team. I keep telling [reporters], just because you bring guys together, doesn't mean they are going to play well together. It's just going to take time. The bench is nowhere near where they need to be, or where they hopefully will be. That's not a concern, that's being realistic,” said Rivers while talking about the team bench.
The season is only three games old and the Celtics are still experimenting with their starting roster. However, in order for them to make a realistic push for the Eastern Conference championship, they need their bench to start delivering and contributing.
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