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.
The Boston Celtics announced Tuesday night that star big man Al Horford will miss Wednesday’s game against the Denver Nuggets for rest.
Horford, 31, banged his knee during Sunday’s win against the Detroit Pistons, but still played the following night against the Chicago Bulls. He has missed two previous games this season, both for a concussion.
Why rest Horford now? Well, his knee might not be fully recovered, and the team’s in the middle of a five-games-in-seven-nights spell — one of the most hectic stretches of the season.
While Horford’s absence will hurt, the Celtics could potentially benefit from Kyrie Irving’s return. The star point guard, who missed Monday’s loss to Chicago with a left quad contusion, is considered probable against the Nuggets. Veteran Marcus Morris, who could miss extended time with a left knee issue, will not play against Denver.
The Celtics have played 29 games or approximately 35% of the NBA season. The torrid start has them sitting 2.5 games above the Cavaliers and 4 games above Toronto.
It’s all good. Except there really isn’t much margin for error. They can’t rack up too many bad losses like the one we saw Monday night if the expectation is to reach the Finals. I’m a strong believer in home court advantage and the Cs will need every advantage to beat LeBron and Isaiah.
It just seems a bit early to be resting guys. Stevens has done a great job limiting minutes to this point. Horford leads the Cs with 32.7 mpg. He’s 45th in the league in that category. Kyrie Irving is next at 32 mpg – 56th in the league.
I get that we’re in a tough stretch. And resting Horford tonight means he’ll have 3 full days off before a 3 game in 4 night stretch (Fri vs Utah, Sat vs Memphis, Mon. vs Ind.). I get that he’s dinged up.
But Denver is beatable. And I don’t want to see this team concede too many wins at the expense of rest in December.
On Page 2, the Morris twins bring Christmas cheer to Wal-mart shoppers.
Celtics forward Marcus Morris and his twin brother, Markieff of the Wizards, stepped up and helped families in their hometown of Philadelphia.
The Morris brothers paid about $6,000 to cover tabs at a Walmart store in Northeast Philadelphia, according to WPVI-TV.
That took care of every layaway shopper’s bill.
“God bless them. It’s wonderful what they’re doing for the people,” one woman said.
What a good deed. $6K might be pocket change to the Morris twins, but they provided a huge boost to families likely scraping together money for Christmas.
This makes me hate Markieff just a bit less.
The rest of the links
Herald – Celtics good regular season team with much to prove | Globe –Hayward provides scouting report on teammates | NBC Boston –Hayward may ditch boot for good Wed.
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