BOSTON – It wasn’t that long ago that Abdel Nader was getting what he described as “garbage minutes” which for the basketball vernacularly-challenged, means playing time at the end of games when the outcome is all but decided.
Nader approached it as an opportunity to prove his worth with the goal being for his role to increase down the road.
“Every game is a new learning experience,” Nader told NBC Sports Boston. "Some games you play great, you do well and learn from them. Some you do bad and learn from them, too.”
Injuries have left the Celtics little choice but to turn to Nader and guys who have played limited roles this year, to not just play but deliver in a way akin to what the players two and three-deep ahead of him on the depth chart, were doing.
Needless to say, the results have been mixed.
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Nader has had games when he's made shots and his defense has been solid enough to where it was one of the keys to victory. And then there have been nights when he has struggled, the most notable being Boston’s loss at New Orleans on Saturday when he missed five consecutive free throws including all four during a potential four-point play.
Boston Celtics
Semi Ojeleye and Shane Larkin, both of whom have also seen a spike in their minutes, have had some good and not-so-good performances as well.
But as we saw in Boston’s dramatic 100-99 win over Oklahoma City on Tuesday, the fourth quarter was won in part by the Celtics getting good mileage from their bench guys.
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Of the eight players Boston used in the fourth quarter against the Thunder, two (Larkin and Ojeleye) of the top-3 in minutes played that quarter were reserves.
"A lot of our young guys have made big plays all year," said Celtics head coach Brad Stevens.
To see no hesitation on Boston’s part to call on its seldom-used reserves to make plays at both ends of the floor in tight games says a lot about the evolution of Boston’s bench, as players who saw little action at the start of the year are now thrust into prominent roles.
Even before the season began, it was a given that the depth of Boston’s bench was going to be tested at some point.
Little did they know the first crisis would hit only five minutes into the season-opener when Gordon Hayward suffered an ankle injury that has kept him sidelined ever since.
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From there, Boston dealt with a wave of injuries that left Brad Stevens little choice but to dig deeper into the bench than he probably anticipated needing to do.
Aware of this, players from top to bottom have to stay engaged because their chance to play could come at any moment.
“Everybody has to be at the top of their game,” Ojeleye said. “That’s what everyone has done, do what they do best on the court and collectively we can have a good chance to win. If everybody does their part, we’ll be alright.”