Terry Rozier drives to the basket past the 76ers' Ben Simmons. (Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
BOSTON (WBZ-AM) -- Take our guys, we're fine!
That seems to be the Celtics' mentality anyhow. They lost Gordon Hayward for the season Opening Night and All-Star Kyrie Irving only played 60 games. Boston still won 55.
Irving and Hayward are gone, along with reserve Daniel Theis.
But, the shorthanded C's dispatched the Bucks in seven games in Round 1, then began the conference semis by thumping a Sixers team that had won 21 of 22. And they did it without another starter in Jaylen Brown.
Terry Rozier and Smart say bring it on.
"No matter who on the court, we will coach," Rozier said. "Our coaches hold us accountable for taking care of business, and you know, we hold each other accountable, and that's the most important thing, and that's why we don't ever feed in to the negative things that go around that people say. We got each other, and no matter who out there, we gonna play hard, we gonna pay attention to details, and take care of business."
"We're down a lot of people, guys, and people think we're weak, think we're not as strong of a team because we don't have certain players," Smart said. "But we're all professionals, we all been here, and we all work--and we all got the same goal in mind, and that's to win. Regardless of who we don't have and who we have, we're gonna go out there and play."
The C's used an eight-man rotation last night and there were no weak links.
Game 2 is Thursday.
WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Adam Kaufman reports