Boston Celtics head coach Brad Stevens takes blame for play-off failure
Friday 10 May 2019 07:15, UK
Boston coach Brad Stevens refused to blame Kyrie Irving's struggles or the lack of productivity from his bench for their 4-1 series defeat to the Milwaukee Bucks.
The Celtics became the first team in NBA modern playoff history to win their first five games and then lose four in a row, with Stevens taking responsibility for their slump.
"I'll be the first to say that this, as far as any other year I've been a head coach, it's certainly been the most trying," Stevens said, who just finished his sixth season in the role.
"I think I did a bad job. At the end of the day, as a coach, if your team doesn't find its best fit together, that's on you.
"So, I'll do a lot of deep dives into how to be better."
There was not much Stevens could do in Wednesday night's 116-91 defeat, which saw the Celtics shoot 31.2 per cent, and Irving contributed a 6-for-21 performance.
For the series, he was 25-for-81, for 30.9 percent, well off his season average of 48.7 percent.
"I mean, truth be told, it's no time to be disappointed," Irving added. "I think that you take your lessons, you take your ass-whooping that they handed us, and you move on."
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Whether Irving will be moving on with the Celtics remains to be seen. He is eligible to opt out of his contract and become an unrestricted free agent - as are Al Horford, Aron Baynes and Marcus Morris - so the Celtics could look vastly different come the new season.
"I understand that we didn't meet the outside expectations, and we really rode a roller coaster a lot of the year, and it was difficult," Stevens said.
"But I do think, and I told the guys in there, I did think they showed a lot of character in a lot of different times to keep coming back and stay together.
"I've said from the get-go, this time in the locker room, when they're all together, is great. We just couldn't find it playing together as well as we had hoped."
