Hollinger gave Big Baby (and Doc Rivers) a lot of praise this morning in the Daily Dime:
With Kevin Garnett again sidelined, it was Boston's "other guys" who made the difference against the defending champs.
Chief among them was backup forward Glen "Big Baby" Davis. Although the 290-pound rookie's minutes had dwindled in recent weeks, he earned 33 Sunday by playing strong on-ball defense against Tim Duncan and finished with nine points, eight boards and three steals. On a night when the Celtics were without both Garnett and starting center Kendrick Perkins (shoulder), his contribution was critical.
"What we told Glen was, 'He's taller than you; you're heavier than him,'" said Boston coach Doc Rivers. "And we said 'and you're lower than him. You're not going to grow today. He's going to be taller than you … but because you're low and you have a low center of gravity, get into his legs and try to push him of the block.'"
Indeed, Davis stymied Duncan's back-down efforts by using his heft to force San Antonio's star away from the block. Although Duncan's final numbers were hardly chopped liver -- 22 points, 14 rebounds, six assists -- Davis kept him off the line (four free-throw attempts), and two of his steals came when he used his surprisingly nimble feet to foil entry passes to Duncan.
As a result of how well he played in single coverage, the Celtics didn't need to provide double-team help -- even though they were facing one of the league's premier post players with a short-handed frontcourt.