First of all, this picture has nothing to do with my post. I'm just trying to bring some levity to an extremely tense series.
The topic du jour is minutes. The aging Celtics are playing too many minutes. If I was Paul Pierce, I'd be more tired hearing about my minutes than from actually playing in the games. Let's compare minutes played in the regular season to minutes played in this series*:
Paul Pierce – 37 in reg. season, 43 in playoffs
Ray Allen – 36 to 37
Rajon Rondo – 33 to 44
Kendrick Perkins – 29 to 38
Glen Davis – 21 to 41
Wow – Ray Allen must be exhausted. He's playing an extra minute per game in this series. Perk, Rondo and Big Baby have all seen a major increase. But while the Celtics have the label of "an aging team," these guys are all under 24 years old. At that age I could stay up all night, drink a case of beer, sleep for four hours, wake up to play nine holes and then shoot hoops in the afternoon.
Shaughnessy writes about the subject and cites an old Larry Bird interview:
Bird was averaging 46.6 minutes per game: "How many times have I told
you? I can play all day. [Dennis Johnson] can play all day. Minutes
don't mean nothing."
"When there's a CBS game, it's a joke. K.C. [Jones] kept asking me if I
wanted to come out and I'm sitting in the huddle for a minute and a
half while he's asking. There are so many extra timeouts."
Today's Links: Globe – Celtics Close Minded for Game 6 | Herald – Doc's Moving Forward | Backup Plan Hits Snag | Bulls Didn't Expect Flagrant Call | Celtics Target Hinrich | NBA Clears Rondo | Simmons – Fouls, Flops, Fiascoes…but not Flagrant | WEEI – Marbury on E60 | Nuggets Finish Off Hornets | Hawks Lead Heat 3-2 |
"I took all his fouls. "They had to go
somewhere. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know whether it
was or wasn't a foul." – Ray Allen on Kendrick Perkins' 0 fouls in Game 5.
* = I stole the idea for minutes comparison from Comcast Sports Tonight
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