The game will forever be etched in the voluminous chronicles of Celtics lore. "The Comeback" was legendary. It was one for the ages. It essentially squeezed the life out of the 2008 LA Lakers. Everyone will remember Paul Pierce leading the comeback in the second half. Nobody will forget Ray Allen blowing by a crying Sasha Vujacic for a lay-up to seal the game. There's one thing that people seem to be forgetting from that game. One thing that at the time was a potentially huge problem.
Early in the second half of Game 4, Kendrick Perkins injured his shoulder trying to defend a Lamar Odom drive (see video below):
Perkins didn't return to the game as the Celtics eventually completed the historic comeback. What many people seem to be forgetting is that Perk also missed the next game (Game 5, in LA) as well. Leon Powe started that game, but played an ineffective 5 minutes. The only other big that played alongside Kevin Garnett that night was P.J. Brown, who logged a foul-filled 25 minutes.
Granted, Andrew Bynum couldn't play that series due to injury, but he doesn't exactly sound like he's 100% for this series either. He's playing with torn cartilage and basically no fluid in his knee. I'm certainly not advocating for Perk to hammer Bynum (or anyone) to earn that one game suspension, but the Celtics have a more equipped roster of bigs this time around to cover for one game.
As long as Sheed's back is relatively good, coupled with the much improved Glen Davis, they should be ok. Now, the Celtics lost Game 5 but were very close to closing out the series in that game until KG missed a pair of late free throws followed by a Kobe Bryant steal/lay-up to seal it.
Back in Boston for the Game 6 rout, an injured Perkins suited up for a foul plagued 13 minutes, logging just over 2 of those minutes in the second half. Obviously both teams are improved and Perk's role is much bigger and important this time. The point is that it's essentially inevitable that he gets T'd up and subsequently suspended, but the Celtics are deeper on bigs to sustain a one game absence.
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