Celtics Will Be Going Small By Default

The Celtics finally got in a practice yesterday and one of the things that Doc mentioned was working on going with a small lineup.

Kevin Garnett out of practice - BostonHerald.com

The practice was the C’s first in 10 days. According to Rivers, a remarkable amount of ground was covered. "Today we did a lot with what we had," Rivers said. "We worked on a lot of zone, offense and defense. We worked on a lot of small lineup, which we might have no choice but to use. Then we worked on some traditional stuff. "It was only an hour and a half, but we got a lot of work in."

With no Garnett and no Brandon Bass, the Celtics will be small regardless. KG and Bass have both been filling in as occasional centers. In theory Jermaine O'Neal is supposed to be ready to go tonight (knock on wood and all that) but the next on the depth chart would have to be Wilcox. He had a good game the other day (after taking some heat from Doc) so maybe he can keep that progress up. We'll also see plenty more of JaJuan Johnson, which is a nice silver lining.

But I wonder what this small lineup is going to look like. Perhaps we'll get to see Avery and Rondo on the court together trapping full court. Maybe we'll see Peitrus and Pierce on the court together, with one of them picking up the power forward duties. Should be interesting to say the least.

In the past small lineups have worked well for Doc for short stretches but they aren't a good long term solution. Against a young team like the Pistons it could be effective. Against the better teams I'm not so hopeful.