Rebounding
It's no secret that the C's were a very bad rebounding team last season. They finished 29th out of 30 teams in total rebounds. When Perkins went down, it went from bad to worse.
Cue the free agents, sort of. Through three games, the Celtics really haven't had a healthy Shaquille O'Neal and Jermaine O'Neal yet. J.O. has been hit with nagging injuries here and there and now Shaq will most likely miss tomorrow's game with a right knee injury. Have no fear though; the guards have been stepping up.
"So far so good," Doc Rivers said. "Again, as important as our ‘bigs' are, it's really important for our guards. Paul [Pierce] had 14 [rebounds] in one game and nine in one game. We won those two games. I think he had two in one game and we lost that game. I do think it's connected in some ways."
The last time Pierce recorded 14 rebounds, Ray Allen was hoisting threes in Seattle, and Garnett was howling in Minnesota. Doc and the Celtics players sat down early Friday and discusses each player's role. You can bet that he stressed that everyone's role on the team included rebounding.
"Not all of the onus is on me at the wing, it's got to come from everybody," Paul Pierce said. "Not only the bigs, it has to come from Rondo. Rondo sets such a high standard for himself on the glass he has to be a part of that too especially with the bigs going down. As well as Ray, as well as the guys coming off the bench."
Through three games, the Celtics as a team are averaging 44.7 rebounds per game, good for 9th in the league and six more than last season. Sure it's still early, but it's good that the C's are making a concerted effort to be more active on the glass.
"We feel like with the defense we play if we can rebound the ball a lot better it will make us an even better defensive team," Pierce said. "Being that we were one of the worst rebounding teams in the league last year, you want to address your weaknesses and that was a weakness so that's what we're trying to emphasize this year."
Ticket Stub
Glen Davis has been a very bright spot coming off the Celtics bench this season. It seems that he is finally satisfied with his role on the team and has embraced it fully. It took some time, but Baby is starting to mature into the player that will enable him to be very effective for this veteran team. Perhaps a lot of that is due to the time he has spent on and off the court with Kevin Garnett.
"'Funk' (Davis) has been great man," Garnett said. "He's been a lot more patient than last year. I think he understands his role even more. I think he's probably accepted his role even more this year. He's a lot more vocal. As for him off the court he's always charismatic and social. Always keeping us laughing and keeping it light. He's stepping into a role like a young voice for the young players and I think it helps Luke [Harangody] and Avery [Bradley] and some of the other guys who are kind of in the shadows kind of play the back kind of guys. It's been great so far man, ‘Funk' is going to be a big part of if we're successful or not."
While Davis might be all pleasure off the court, it's business before pleasure on the court. He has formed quite the duo with Garnett on the court recently.
"We push each other in practice, there's no days off," Garnett continued on his relationship with Davis. "It's not no buddy-buddy. I'm trying to bust his ass and he's trying to bust mine, and that's what you want. And I know him. ‘Funk' and I have a lot of one-on-one time. We speak more than probably a lot of the guys on the team. He's accepting what he's doing and he's working extremely hard. That's all you can ask for at the end of the day from a guy."
Wait, Shaq Has a Sister?
If you haven't seen the video of Shaq dressed as a woman and you want a good laugh, do yourself a favor and search for it.
Shaq spent his Halloween dressed as "Shaqeeta", the female version of himself. While the costume may not have been intended to be scary - it was.
Asked about the Shaqeeta video, Shaq jokingly denied it was him.
"Oh, my twin sister? She came in town on me."
Shaq had originally planned to hop on Boston's public transportation system, commonly known as the "T" but decided against it when a "connection" told him it wouldn't be a good idea.
"When you're in the law enforcement world, you got the connection and the connection got you. I got a call from somebody important that said it probably wouldn't be safe for me or for anybody else to do that on the train. Because if I would have tweeted, it probably would have been a lot of people there and that's not really safe. So he said I should probably change my plan.
"I obliged, I'm a law enforcement guy so I obliged. We always want people to have fun and be safe and that's what it's all about. For those who saw it, if you laughed then that's all I wanted for you to do was laugh."