Your Morning Dump... Where David Lee finally showed up for a game in Boston.

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 wasn’t from a lack of effort or disrespecting Boston or anything like that,” Lee said. “It just worked out the way that it did. If I could go out and do it again, I would have probably tried to come in in better shape. There’s nothing I can do about it now than try not to make that same mistake in the future.”

Lee then credited himself with being a “good leadership guy” in the Celtics locker room and not causing any type of discord when he was out of the team’s plans.

To that, the Celtics probably would say, “Stank you, David.” They could have used an energetic and engaged player on the boards last season. Instead, they got a player who used the team’s strength and conditioning staff to lose 15 pounds and prep himself for the next stop.

Boston Globe

Let’s break down what David Lee said elsewhere, along with the slug above:

“I’ve been very open in saying I should have been in better shape”

“I just didn’t do what I needed to do”

You can look at that and say, ‘well, at least he’s taking responsibility for things!!’

But on second glance it’s not nearly as satisfying. It’s just a lot of talk in which he barely acknowledges that just possibly, maybe, conceivably, he, and he alone, screwed up his chances here. And yeah, it’s tough to admit that. It’s tough to admit that you took $15M and did as little as possible to earn it. But it’s disingenuous to do anything else.

‘I didn’t do what I needed to do’ is the closest he’s ever come to saying ‘I screwed up’–but the rest of his comments are full of passive voice phrasing, suggesting that mysterious forces beyond his control conspired to make him phone it in.

“It just worked out the way it did.”

Yeah David, what are we describing here? You not taking your job seriously, or last night’s Powerball drawing?

Or saying that you’d ‘probably try’ to do better? Really? What, exactly, prevented you from doing that last time around? Magic flying elves steal your car keys and keep you from getting to the gym?

Well, at least Lee managed to land a vets’ minimum gig in San Antonio where, apparently, he’s willing to put in the effort, because there’s no way Pop’d put up with the kind of crap he tried to pull in Boston.

More coverage of David Lee talking about his vacation in Boston:

MassLive: David Lee understands if Boston Celtics fans felt frustated after seeing him play so well for San Antonio Spurs

Providence Journal: Spurs’ David Lee burns his former team for 15 points, 12 rebounds

Page 2: Where Crowder’s still on a minutes restriction

Jae Crowder played 27 minutes, 33 seconds of Friday’s afternoon showdown with the San Antonio Spurs.

If it were up to him, he would have played more. If it were up to Celtics trainer Ed Lacerte, Crowder said, he would have played at least three to eight minutes less as he makes his way back from an ankle sprain that cost him eight games.

Crowder said after the 109-103 loss that he is still on a minutes restriction with the ankle as he, the coaches and the training staff try to get him up to full speed without a repeat of Monday night in Minnesota when he had to shut it down in the fourth quarter due to tightness in the joint.

“They’re trying to keep it to 20 to 25 [minutes],” he said. “I think I went a little over tonight because I got a little frustrated with it.”

Providence Journal

So, yeah, even though Horford and Crowder are both back and have been reportedly been available ‘without restrictions’, that’s not quite the case. Tough to see how ten more minutes of healthy Crowder yesterday afternoon would’ve made the Celtics’ margin vs. the Spurs worse. Might’ve even made the difference between a win and a loss.

More coverage of Jae Crowder’s ankle:

Boston Herald: Celtics Notebook: Jae Crowder getting frustrated with minutes restriction

Boston Globe: There was no holding back with Jae Crowder

MassLive: Boston Celtics’ Jae Crowder: ‘Got a little frustrated’ with minutes restriction against San Antonio Spurs

Page 3: Kane Fitzgerald makes a liar out of Brad Stevens

Brad Stevens just told referee Kane Fitzgerald, “You can’t keep missing obvious calls.”

— Marc D’Amico (@Marc_DAmico) November 25, 2016

“Oh yeah? Just watch me.”

–Kane Fitzgerald, probably.

h/t Tom Westerholm/MassLive

(for those of you who were still in a carbohydrate-induced haze yesterday afternoon, the officiating was not one of the game’s highlights.)

Finally: We love you, Pop, but we’re getting tired of losing to you.

“It feels strange at times. He’s not on the bus. I can’t joke with him and have him coach me and tell me what I’m doing wrong every day. I miss all that. But it’s just like not having a good friend there. But he’s in the gym, he comes by the practice.”

Popovich and Duncan have been inextricably linked throughout their respective careers, so it’s certainly understandable if Popovich misses his Hall-of-Fame center. It’s also understandable that Popovich — who has an enormous amount of sway within the Spurs organization — wants Duncan to have an expanded role.

MassLive

The fact that the Spurs are in another conference, and that their best years have generally been down years for the C’s, have made it easy to root for an outfit that is as close as we’re going to see to the 60s-era Celtics in this day and age.

And if you needed a reminder that the Spurs are a sort of soft-reboot of the ’60s Celtics, well, here’s Gregg Popovich talking about how he misses having Duncan around. Doesn’t seem the least bit familiar, does it?