Your Morning Dump… Where Jared Sullinger bullied the Rockets

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

“He’s an old school kind of guy,” said Houston coach Kevin McHale (No. 32 peering down from the rafters) of Sullinger. “He doesn’t jump much, just pushes you under. Shocking as it is, it surprises people. No one boxes out anymore, so he’ll be in good shape.

“He played well. I mean, Sullinger came in and kind of bullied us in the first half. I think just his willingness to push and shove around the basket got everybody under. He rebounded the ball well for them and made a couple of tough shots.”

Sullinger entered the game with 6:17 left in the first quarter and the Celtics down by three points. He didn’t come out the rest of the half as his club went ahead by as many as 13 and took a 53-45 lead into the break.

Herald – KG, Sullinger dominate in paint

I can’t remember the last time I watched a Celtics player dominate the paint the way Jared Sullinger did in the first half last night.

I swear he lathered his hands in stick’em. The offensive rebounding was ridiculous. And he was scoring from absurd angles.

I’ll pass along the words of my father who said, “I might have to get me a #7 (jersey).” That reminds me, we’re gonna need a Sullinger t-shirt in the Red’s Army store. Any suggestions on a design?

Related links:  ESPN Boston – Sullinger happy to hack | CSNNE – Sullinger defies rookie label

Kevin Garnett did a post game interview with NBA TV. He spoke on the bench play, Avery Bradley’s impact on the team, his mentoring of Jared Sulling, and the Carmelo Anthony incident:

“It’s unfortunate Melo got a game, I thought he was obviously… the crowd got the thing out of whack… but I would never disrespect anyone’s wife or anyone’s family. I’m a better person than that. I got family…. I think whenever you get two gladiators, two guys that really want to win, things happen. But I should have never gotten to that, it’s unfortunate, but we’ve moved on.”

Here’s the whole interview:

The rest of the links:

ESPN Boston – Soaring C’s ground Rockets | Globe – Garnett, McHale mend relationship | Celtics win 5th straight | Herald – Kevins full of mutual respect | C’s finding answers | CSNNE – Rivers: Our bench was huge | Pierce: Bench taking pressure off starters |