This year's Celtics team could learn a thing or two from the C's squads Evan Turner was a part of.
Celtics head coach Brad Stevens admitted Wednesday that the team has been plagued by a lack of chemistry all season long. This wasn't an issue in 2014-15 or 2015-16. Turner explained how those groups had a chemistry that made up for whatever they lacked in talent.
"I guess if you want to go on paper we were nowhere close to as talented [as the 2018-19 team]," Turner said Wednesday. "It was a group of guys that played tough, was gritty, blue-collar dudes. To some extent we were all like rejects and all we had was chemistry and we just had some big balls of steel, know what I’m saying? Back in 2014-15 we made the playoffs after we traded like 29 people, bro. But one thing I always noticed was we moved as a unit. It wasn’t three here, three there."
Turner also explained how Stevens got the Celtics through low points of the season while he was with the team.
"We just stayed focused," said Turner. "One thing we always talked about and everything is we always had a bigger picture plan. That’s how we kept it going, like 'Man, we need to get to this point, we need to get over this hump.' And the biggest thing Brad always talked about that we tried to use is grit. I think if yesterday is bad we look at it and learn from it. We have to come out with the same energy and same intensity in order to try to be successful. So that’s what I remember most and that’s what I think he’s probably preaching."
As the C's — currently the No. 5 seed in the East — face adversity with only 21 games remaining on the season, Turner says the key is to be "hungry."
"You push somebody's back against the wall and it's fight or flight. That's when you see where the real dogs are. It's just as simple as that. You want something bad enough, obviously, it's our job. Our stuff is dependent on it so when people are hungry — and I'm not saying they aren't hungry — they are going to go get it. The same point, at some times when you come down to it, you have to be pushed to a certain limit. It's on them to stop that skid."
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Of course, Turner means the C's will figure out a way to stop their losing skid after Wednesday night when they take on his Trail Blazers.
"Everything I'm talking about it is after tonight," he said. "You all get prepared for that fourth loss and then it's all going to get started."
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