Your Late Morning Dump... Where we're having a Lombardi moment

Every morning, we compile the links of the day and dump them here… highlighting the big story line. Because there’s nothing quite as satisfying as a good morning dump.

“It’s crazy in practice,” said Marcus Smart. “We got it. We’re competing with each other. It’s just when we get out on the court and go against different teams, we’re not competing. We don’t have that swagger. (Last year) every loose ball, we were on it. We had a lot of grit. We were a team that fought, and teams knew that and teams knew it was going to be battle when they came to play us. This year, they don’t feel that.

“Guys are comfortable. Guys feel like they can just come and punk us. We’re holding our heads while they’re going to the glass and being more physical.”

Boston Herald

Yeah, so the Celtics’ season hasn’t started off the way any of us thought it would, has it? Horford’s out which means that the C’s really miss Sully because they basically exchanged Sully for Horford.

And then there’s the injuries–Celtics haven’t had depth at the wing since, oh, I don’t know? That one year they had Pierce and a healthy Jeff Green? You’re starting a rookie at the wing, and he’s being backed up by a pair of stretch twos (Smart and Rozier). Without Turner, the Celtics really needed Crowder to stay healthy.

But that doesn’t explain the way this team has just rolled over for the Nuggets and Wizards–and let’s be honest, that’s not because these guys are missing Crowder, Turner and Sully, because with Crowder, Turner and Sully they put together a truly atrocious run of basketball last winter. Remember those losses to the Nets? Losing to the Lakers in Boston? Yeah. This team has a tendency to get into funks–and I’m danged if I can explain why.

Page 2: Where at least Horford’s making progress

Stevens said Thursday that Horford participated in some non-contact drills at practice. Appearing in that way indicates he has passed the other steps of the return-to-participation protocol: riding a stationary bike, jogging and going through agility work. If he shows symptoms after his light practice appearance, he will need to return to the last step he passed without any symptoms.

“He did some light stuff with us, so he was cleared to go through some of it,” Stevens said. “We didn’t do anything contact, physical, competitive, so I don’t know where that puts him in the protocol. I haven’t gotten the update of what’s next. But he is progressing, He’s feeling a lot better.”

MassLive

Concussions are nasty things, folks. In case you’re not entirely aware of what a concussion is, it’s when your brain–which is suspended in fluid for shock absorbing purposes–hits the inside of your skull with enough force to cause temporary (usually) brain damage (read Wikipedia on the pathophysiology of it–yikes). I’m not the only one who thought that this would be a relatively minor injury for Horford, but even though there aren’t a lot of direct impacts to the head in basketball, your brain gets jostled around quite a bit when running, jumping, establishing position, etc. It’s been an educational experience for me.