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Noting team success is ‘not going to happen overnight’ for Boston Celtics, Josh Richardson preaches patience, communication

justin quinn
·2 min read
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With one of their better late performances as a team, the Boston Celtics put away the Toronto Raptors in the fourth quarter even though star forward Jayson Tatum was having another rough-shooting night and teammate Jaylen Brown wasn’t exactly playing his best basketball.

Where previously they’d fallen apart in recent games, Tatum’s team-first play got results with connected offense and trust in the role players to do their part in carrying the load. While there are still plenty of issues to work out for Boston on both ends of the court, reserve shooting guard Josh Richardson preached patience to the press after the win.

“It’s not going to happen overnight, or in the first couple of weeks of the season,” explained Richardson. “It’s a tough game.”

“Don’t forget that you’re trying to play against the best players in the world while trying to figure out a whole new system and a whole new defensive scheme, and new teammates,” he added. “I’m saying it’s not easy.”

“So, for me, I’ve kind of figured out how to find my role, see the hole, see where I can be helpful. I’ve been on teams and I’ve worked with (head coach) Ime (Udoka) a little bit before, so I know things that he wants. So, that’s been a help. But for me, the biggest part is honestly just being vocal. Because if you’re doing something completely different than what you normally have been, or like today when we wanted to start top locking in the second half as opposed to guarding straight up, if you communicate, if you’re on the same page, you’ll figure it out.”

“But, as long as we’ve got that continuity going forward, I think that’ll be good for us,” observed Richardson.

With the hardest segment of their 2021-22 NBA season upon them, the team’s cohesion and resiliency are about to be tested in a major way over the month of December.

But if they can win the games they should and steal a questionable contest or two for good measure, there might well be plenty more to celebrate than usual by the time the new year rolls around.

This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook!

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