North Station Sports

The Celtics are in the midst of a disturbing trend.  It seems like whenever they get injured guys healthy, another goes down with some weak ass problem.  Up until the recent West coast road debacle the C’s were cruising with only a few hiccups here and there.  How they have maintained some semblance of cohesiveness is somewhat of a mystery.  Take Saturday’s win against the healthy Raptors for instance.  Sure, the Raps shouldn’t be as bad are but they had all their starters.  The Celtics started JR Giddens for crying out loud.  Don’t get me wrong, I like the kid but Doc barely plays him in garbage time.  So how are they getting by?

For one, I will give Doc credit (begrudgingly) with the rotations and usually keeping one or two starters playing with the second unit for the most part, with the exception being Kendrick Perkins who rarely plays with three subs or more on the floor.  Doing that, the guys can get familiar with everyone’s tendencies to try and reduce the amount of miscommunications (PC term for throwing the ball four rows into the stands when Paul zigs instead of zags) and figure out who is going to get the majority of plays run for a rotation.

Secondly, I believe that the unselfish nature of everyone on the court is a benefit rather than a detriment to scoring.  Although I feel like Boston leads the league in 24 second violations, they do average 24.12 APG which is second in the NBA behind the Utah Jazz.  Leading in assists obviously means that you are moving the ball and getting/taking good shots.  Even though an errant bounce pass may end up in some kid’s grill piece just remember that it is usually extra pass that finds its way to the bottom of the net.  At least that’s what I tell myself when I’m staring 15 turnovers a game.

As much as I hate to admit, having Rasheed Wallace coming off the bench is also a huge boost since he could still be a starter on other teams.  If he would use his size inside to score and stop bombing threes like he’s flying the Enola Gay that would be fantastic but at least he is a threat out there.  To who or what remains to be seen but there is no doubt that he is the go to scorer off the bench, supplanting Eddie House’s pop a shot offense.

Injuries are a bitch, to be sure, but if you can find the silver lining they could be good in the long run.  Assuming everyone is healthy for the playoffs, Boston will have established bench players to spell the starters and not have to worry about letting a game get away.  I’m not saying that someone will have a coming out party and hit a buzzer beater like Big Baby and truck fat kid in glee but at the very least they won’t be hesitant to take the shot if called upon.  Maybe all these freaky trips to the IR will help the C’s be stronger in the season that counts.

Hey, I have to be hopeful for something with guys dropping like flys.

HackingEthics

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