BOSTON – When it comes to motivational messages, Brad Stevens is a man of few words, but impactful nonetheless.
And as we witnessed the upward trajectory of Terry Rozier from a backup guard to a difference-making starter in Boston’s first round series win over the Milwaukee Bucks, Stevens’ message to Rozier was short and sweet.
“Just be you,” Stevens said was his message to Rozier.
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And it resonated loud and clear to the third-year guard who dropped a playoff career-high 26 points to help catapult Boston into the second round where they will face the Philadelphia 76ers beginning with Game 1 on Monday.
“I told him all series he’s really important to us,” Stevens said. “He’s been great ever since, he’s been great all year. But certainly since he’s been in this starting role, he’s been excellent, and we’re going to need him to continue to be.”
Rozier, whose role was elevated to starter status with injuries to both Kyrie Irving (left knee) and Marcus Smart (right thumb), has made the most of his increased opportunity to play.
Boston Celtics
In the seven playoff games against the Bucks, Rozier averaged 17.6 points per game on 39-for-94 (41.4 percent) shooting from the field and 21-for-55 (38.2 percent) from 3-point range.
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Even more impressive than his scoring, was Rozier’s playmaking which has been one of the weaker parts of his game.
In the playoff series with the Bucks, Rozier tallied 47 assists (that’s 6.7 per game) while turning the ball over just 11 times. His 4:27 assists-to-turnover ratio led all players in the postseason that averaged at least six assists and 30 minutes played per game.
While Boston’s first-round series against Milwaukee was certainly a breakout of sorts for Rozier in terms of his play, it also exposed the world to just how competitive the Youngstown, Ohio native can be this time of year.
We saw glimpses of it last year in the Celtics’ second-round series against Washington when Rozier and then-Wizards guard Brandon Jennings (now Milwaukee reserve) had multiple on-the-floor skirmishes.
There were similar dust-ups between Rozier and Bucks guard Eric Bledsoe in tis series, although most of their issues were of the verbal back-and-forth type with an occasional hard foul mixed in during games.
“Last year, I thought he played great at the start of the Washington series and Game 3, I thought Jennings came in, got under his skin a little,” Stevens said. “I thought it took him a game to get back to who he was. I thought this year, he was really consistent. That could have gotten even more talk between Bledsoe and Terry but they … both really competed. Terry maintained an even-keel all the way through and did everything he possibly could.”
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I asked Rozier about managing that matchup with Bledsoe and not allowing the increasingly chippy nature of this series, to become an issue.
“You just out there having fun,” Rozier said. “You’ve got two guys that want to win, two chippy guys. Two short point guards, just going out there and having fun. If it takes for us to jaw back and forth and battle and push each other, it’s whatever; it’s just part of the game.”