The Celtics have played 18 of their first 27 games at home, meaning 24 of the final 39 games will be away from TD Garden, and a series of extended road trips begins Thursday in Chicago, so team president of basketball operations Danny Ainge is reserving his enthusiasm for now.
“The team is playing better,’’ he said yesterday. “We have a real challenge ahead of us. The schedule gets really hard. We have a lot of road games coming up but our team has been playing much, much better. Our team is playing well over the past few weeks, but we need to get better.’’
It was less than a month ago that Ainge made headlines by telling the Globe he would be open to moving any of the Big Three and perhaps Rondo. Those talks have subsided. The Celtics have played well enough over the past month, as coach Doc Rivers projected, to become a contender in the Eastern Conference.
While the Bulls and Heat are the prohibitive favorites, teams such as the 76ers, Pacers, and Magic have experienced troubles over the past few weeks, giving the Celtics a legitimate chance to jump to the third seed by season’s end.
“What I have seen league-wide is there’s been some very inconsistent play with most every team,’’ Ainge said. “And that’s certainly been the case with us. I did expect us to have some good stretches and not-so-good stretches throughout the course of this year, even before the season started, but I knew we were a better team than we were playing [like] at the beginning of the year. We still have a long way to go, there’s a lot of games in a short period of time, and we’re going to be tested.’’
The roster Ainge assembled in the offseason has allowed Rivers some unusual options. Both knew all 15 players would need to contribute during this shortened season and all 15 have had their time to shine. Journeyman Chris Wilcox and rookie JaJuan Johnson filled in for the injured Jermaine O’Neal and Brandon Bass Sunday with sparkling performances. Rookie E’Twaun Moore and second-year guard Avery Bradley flourished when Rondo missed eight games with a sprained right wrist.
And even late addition Greg Stiemsma has come off the bench for quality minutes.
