Boston Celtics Doc Rivers Has The Pieces To Make The Defense Work Without KG
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The Boston Celtics have injury issues. The lone bright spot is Doc Rivers has dealt with this so many times that this is nothing new to the Boston Celtics Head Coach. Once again he will have to make do without his best defensive player in one Kevin Garnett for a couple weeks. This is really no big deal. He has had a lot of solid success without KG manning the paint. KG missed time in 08 and the team was fine during this nine game stretch. In 09 he guided Boston to 62 wins despite not having KG for the final 23 games. Last season the team played solid defense at times without KG. The schedule is not exactly a tough stretch with only two real tough teams in San Antonio at home and a Saturday game on the second night of a back to back in Chicago. Granted without KG every game is a fight, but this is the only serious threats. The bright spot is Rivers has plenty of pieces to make do without his defensive ace. He at the very least has more options than the last couple seasons during KG’s ailments.
For starters instead of Miki Moore or a non motivated Rasheed Wallace, he has two solid defenders in the middle with Shaq and Jermaine O’Neal. Shaq has done a very nice job clogging the middle and fitting into Doc and Lawrence Frank’s defensive schemes. JO in limited time has shown he is a great low post defender and rotates almost as well as KG in the paint. No one is KG, but I am personally surprised how good JO’s instincts are. This time Doc also has a healthy Glen Davis to hit some big minutes. Davis is a solid help defender that knows how to work a man into his strengths. He is also a great transition defender and draws tons of charges.
Doc also has solid defense with great help defenders in Paul Pierce and Ray Allen. Both defend the pick and roll tremendously. Both also seem to play harder defense in the absence of KG. Ray has also developed into a great one on one defender. This is the same guy that did a great job on Kobe in the Finals and shut down Dwayne Wade twice. Paul Pierce can also get dirty defensively having had many wars with guys like LeBron James and Ron Artest.
The defense at point guard is solid. Rondo will be back soon and we know what he brings to the table as far as shutting down the opposing point guard and jumping the passing lanes. Avery Bradley has shown that he can flat out lock down a man with great energy defense. His foot work is amazing and very rarely does his man get behind him. Heck even Nate Robinson at least attempts to play defense.
The bench guys buy into the defense as well. Marquis Daniels plays hard on any man he is covering whether it be a point guard, shooting guard or power forward. His length and positioning are great weapons on defense. Von Wafer is also playing great energy defense when he gets into the game. That block in Detroit was one of the few highlights. Guys like Harangody and Erden also provide defensive effort in their limited duties. Remember Delonte West is coming back soon as well. Will he beat KG back? It is a real possibility.
The bottom line is the defensive effort was an aberration against Detroit. The team was off to begin the game and completely distracted after KG’s injury. Doc has proven in the past that his team will play defense and play it well with KG or without. This is what championship teams do Remember Go green Or Go Home!!!!!!!!!
Boston Celtics Kevin Garnett Has Muscle Injury: No Big Deal
[picappgallerysingle id="10392639"]Danny Ainge gave Boston fans some great news today on WEEI Radio. Ainge confirmed that Kevin Garnett had an MRI that confirmed a muscle strain in his calf. This backs both the x-ray and trainer Ed Lacerte’s initial call of only a minor muscle injury. The only reason the MRI was done was because KG requested it. It is no surprise that KG requested this due to his recent injury history. One cannot blame a guy for wanting to be sure after dealing with a major injury before. This is great news because the recovery time is only 2 weeks on the conservative side.
Celtics fans plan on KG returning to his dominant 2010 form upon his return. I do not see KG worrying much about this injury and changing his explosive ways due to worrying about his knee. He is too mentally tough and his desire to win too strong to not make him go at full speed. I believe KG will be pain free and leaping out of buildings in an arena shortly. Remember Go green Or GO Home!!!!!!!
Boston Celtics Rajon Rondo Has Swelling In Ankle Area: Should He Play?
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Rondo is day to day,” Rivers said. “I don’t know if you’ll see him tomorrow or not, but he’s getting close. So far each time he’s worked out there’s been some swelling and that’s a concern. We’re going to take it slow. We’re not going to push him back. We’re just going to wait until he’s ready to play.”
Doc Rivers On Rajon Rondo Courtesy Of Sports Radio WEEI
Rajon Rondo is injured. He practices, but there is swelling and pain on both sides of his ankle. This is not the news that is an issue. The news is with KG hurt, it is real easy to say that the Celtics should play their super star point guard if he deems himself ready to play. The team will be hard pressed to win any game without both KG and Rondo in the lineup. However, despite the temptation Doc Rivers is still seemingly making the right choice by not rushing Rondo back. The simple truth is Rondo should not play until he is ready regardless of who else is hurt.
Rondo is a gamer and was probably ready to try to play the next day after that horrific ankle sprain. He would view the swelling and pain as no big deal. Rondo can play above the pain no matter how great and probably play very effective. The problem is that if he plays with this slight injury, it could become a real injury. A real serious injury having the Celtics without Rondo for the regular season or playoffs would be the nail in the coffin for Banner 18. Doc needs to show restraint and reign in his superstar until the risk of serious injury is not as great. Doc appears to be doing that. SO if there is no battle between Rondo and CP3 tomorrow consider your coach a wise man instead of casting second guesses. Remember Go Green Or Go Home!!!!!!!!!!!
Boston Celtics Paul Pierce Suffers Through Miserable Loss To Pistons
[picappgallerysingle id="9594553"]I begin with there was nothing good about this game. The Celtics looked awful on the second game of a back to back. The effort was lacking and the execution was worse. The offense was terrible as the team turned the ball over more times than they had assists. Twenty one turnovers is a joke, but even less funny a joke knowing the turnovers were not forced. The ball movement was not there and the team had zero touch putting up brick after brick on a terrible Pistons defense. They looked like their legs were not under their shots.
The refs were even worse as ref Bennie Davis single handedly handed the Pistons the win with terrible bail out calls and allowing the Pistons to foul at will against the more aggressive Celtics. The Celtics should have gone to the line 36 times. Marquis Daniels and Paul Pierce were the victims all night of the no whistle. Contact is a foul in the NBA on a shot. The ref crew should be fired and forced to apologize to the entire city of Boston for their heinous acts.
All this stuff was secondary because the nightmare has happened as KG has gone down with an injury 9 minutes into the game. No KG meant terrible defense. The Celtics allowed the Pistons to get to any spot they wanted to in the paint. After the Celtics doubled down low, the Pistons shot the ball lights out from the perimeter on open shots. The Pistons shot over 55 percent and scored over 100 points. This does not happen with KG in the lineup.
The result of this was an embarrassing 104 -92 game in Detroit. There were only a few bright spots. One is Paul Pierce tried to single handedly carry this team back into the game with 33 points. He was super human, but the refs and poor shooting were too much to over come.Jermaine O’Neal scored 7 points, grabbed 6 rebounds, and played solid defense. He was the only one that rotated well in the paint on the defensive end. Von Wafer played great with tremendous energy. He recorded a sweet block on a hustle play. The bottom line is this awful game is not news. The KG injury is the story. Tune in tomorrow for more updates. Remember Go Green Or Go Home!!!!!!!!!!!
Boston Celtics Kevin Garnett Suffers Lower Leg Injury: No KG Is Bad News
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The Boston Celtics drive for Banner 18 has suffered a possible serious blow as Kevin Garnett left the game early due to injury. The man that is the engine for this Boston Celtics defense has suffered a lower leg injury (calf). KG injured himself jumping on a dunk. The only good news is KG received an x-Ray and the results were negative and that means zero breaks in the area. This means the injury is not as serious as the one he suffered in Utah in 09. I would like to give thanks to the local coverage of the game showing the 09 injury over and over to completely scare the crap out of every Celtics fan. KG will have an MRI tomorrow to confirm the x-ray. Trainer Ed Lacerte has called the injury a muscle injury. If that is the case, it is tremendous news.
The Celtics were missing both his rebounding and presence in the middle on both ends. Judging by how badly the defense looked against a terrible Pistons team, this team is in trouble without KG. They did not have KG stalking the paint and sealing off the middle. This meant double teams and poor rotations that the Celtics usually do not have. The Pistons would kill the Celtics because of those rotations. They would get into the paint whenever they wanted and would bury jump shot after jump shot from the outside off solid passing.
In the long term KG must come back 100 percent. The Celtics need the guy from this season not last season. The guy playing this season with the explosion is the guy that gives Boston their championship swagger. The team needs to have this KG back for the post season. If this means KG must sit and the team concedes the top seed to Miami, so be it. There will be more news tomorrow on the injury. Remember Go Green Or Go Home!!!!!!!!!
