Starters Must Not Play Atlanta: Sleep Deprivation => Serious Injury (:studies)

This Friday, the Celtics must play Atlanta in the 2nd of a back-to-back. As was the case in Phoenix, the Cs will likely get NO SLEEP the night before the game: they'll be flying out of San Antonio at approximately 1:30am (which = 3:30am Eastern Time), and will not arrive at their hotel rooms until about 7:00am that morning -- right around the time their bodies want to wake up.

A study done by the US Army concluded that short-term sleep deprivation can cause (in part):
- Decreased alertness. Just 1.5 lost hours of sleep can result in a 32% reduction of daytime alertness.
- Impaired ability to think clearly (sound familiar?)
- More than double the risk of sustaining an occupational injury  -  !!HELLO!!

That last one MUST be shown to Doc and Danny. Come on, guys. If you let our vets play when they haven't slept a wink, you are seriously increasing their risk of injury.  (To read more about this, see here and here.... and hundreds of other references online. Note: If you get a login page when clicking the 2nd link here, just Google the following phrase and click the first non-paid link you see =>> 'medscape sleep deprivation injury risk')

And what would be the point of playing them on Friday? You're almost certainly NOT going to win that game anyway. It's a "schedule loss"... the NBA hands them out like candy. The Cs have had two scheduled this season (Phoenix, and now Atlanta).

Please listen, Doc/Danny......

(a) These guys are CLEARLY EXHAUSTED ANYWAY. They need a break now anyway.

(b) If you play them on Friday on no sleep, THEY'LL BE BEAT FOR AT LEAST ANOTHER 3-4 DAYS. Why do that to our vets? AND they'd be running a significantly increased risk of injury at the same time!! That makes no sense, no sense at all. This game is the perfect time to give them a night off.

(c) There's precedence for this kind of thing. Witness Coach Popovich and his Spurs, who has been doing it for years.

Best suggestion: Let the starters (not including Krstic) STAY IN SAN ANTONIO after the Spurs game. Let them go to sleep at their normal time. They can fly into Atlanta in the morning, and should be able to make it to courtside in time to cheer their comrades on.

Just do it.