Baby Is Right, We Do Have The Better Bench

By now you've read his statement about the Celtics bench being stronger and deeper than the Heat's.  Say what you want about "bulletin board material" or bravado, but I don't think Glen Davis is wrong in his assessment of the bench.  Even taking Shaq out of the equation, I think he's right.  

Celtics’ reserves start to lend hand - The Boston Globe

Primarily, that comes in the form of Davis, Jeff Green, Delonte West, and Nenad Krstic. The Heat, meanwhile, have been using a bench rotation of Joel Anthony, Mario Chalmers, and James Jones, with the potential for a boost if forward Udonis Haslem can return from November foot surgery in time. If the Boston bench can continue the improvement it showed in Game 4, especially in the first half, Davis’s statement might prove to be more than bulletin-board material. If it can’t, the Celtics could have trouble slowing the Heat. Not that Davis sounded all that worried.

The Heat just didn't have a lot of cap space left to work with and have been further limited by injuries.

Miami Heat’s role players vital for title push - Linda Robertson - MiamiHerald.com

The "top-heavy" concept flows counter to the purists’ vision of a team game. Many have written off the Heat already because it has too many valets. But the team’s original plan wasn’t so trio-centric. Udonis Haslem and Mike Miller were supposed to be the Complementary 2 . They’ve been injured. Haslem practiced Tuesday, but his return is iffy. Miller has played six minutes in two games against Philadelphia and is 0 for 3 from the field.

The Celtics bench has looked downright pedestrian in the first round (until the first half of game 4) but I think they are ready to break out against the Heat.

Position by position:

• PG: I like Delonte West better than Mario Chalmers.
• Wing: Jeff Green has a more all around game than James "3 point king" Jones
• Bigs: Glen Davis might be the best player in this entire group while Joel Anthony is kind of a poor man's Jermaine O'Neal.
• Hurt Bigs: Shaq vs. Haslem, who ya got?

Of course, it isn't about man to man matchups as much as it is "how much can the reserves add value to the gameplan as a whole?"  Again, I like our chances.  Big Baby has a knack for stepping up in big game situations.  Green and Krstic were starters on a team that took the Lakers to 7 games last year and Delonte West was big for Cleveland in the last few years.

The Miami starters are obviously leaps and bounds better than what was left of the Knicks starters, so we can't exactly count on the C's starters to carry the rest of the team on their backs again.  The starters for both teams will be the largest factors deciding the games but the benches could swing a game or two between being a win and a loss.

Bottom line, I'm very comfortable with our bench headed into this series despite how they looked in the last series.