BOSTON—Stressing that it was a good opportunity for younger members of the team to get some valuable experience, Boston Celtics head coach Brad Stevens reportedly removed his starters and put in bench players during the first quarter of Wednesday night’s game against the New York Knicks. “When you’re already up by this much and only have three quarters left to play, it can’t hurt to give some of these rookies a shot,” said Stevens, adding that he hoped to avoid needlessly running up the score over the final 42 minutes of the game. “There’s no reason to have our starting five out there at this point—the game’s a foregone conclusion, and now we’re just in garbage time. They did enough over those first seven minutes of the game that we might as well have them rest and let some of these guys who haven’t played all year see some action while the pressure is off.” At press time, the Knicks managed to reduce their deficit to a more respectable 20 points after Stevens pulled all but one player off the court for the entirety of the second half.

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