Celtics saving their legs for games
On Sunday night, the Boston Celtics played their 17th game of this postseason. That would leave the ratio of games played to full practices held at 17-to-1.
"I think we've had one practice maybe since the Atlanta series -- or during the Atlanta series," said
Doc Rivers. "I don't know if we've had one. It's not by choice. I mean, it's by need. It's what we have, so
we have no choice in the matter."
It's hard to argue with the results after the Celtics evened up the Eastern Conference finals against
the Heat with a 93-91 overtime victory Sunday night. They will now move back to Miami for Tuesday's Game 5.
And the Celts will not practice on Monday.
"We're just too old," said Rivers. "We're tired and old and banged up. I just look at it that if I have
a choice between the legs and the brains, I'm going to take the legs every single time. We need those.
"I don't know what I could accomplish honestly by bringing them in here today," the coach added of a
Saturday gathering at the team's practice facility that was set up to accommodate the media covering the
conference finals. "If it weren't for you guys, they wouldn't be here at all. ... Most of them would come
in here anyway, because half of them are in the training room with treatment, so they would be here."
The players have gotten used to tending to their own basketball needs.
"Guys tend to stay sharp on their own," said Paul Pierce. "You come in here in the gym. Pretty much
everybody is going to come in here and get some shots in, work out, probably get on the treadmill and stay
fresh. That's been the key for us.
"With this schedule every other day, it's not like any other season we've had. And we're a veteran team.
We've been together. Our core has been together for a few years now. So we kind of had the jump coming into
training camp than a lot of teams that made a lot of moves."
The Celtics do their game planning in game-day walkthroughs.
"When you're playing so many games for so many nights, you don't have a chance to have a two- or three
hour practice with this type of schedule we have this year," said Pierce. "We tend to use the shootaround
game days for that type of practice."
The players appreciate the breaks.
"I've been with plenty of coaches who never gave you any days off," said Ray Allen. "The coach always
felt that you had to be in the gym, and sometimes it was at the detriment of the players' bodies to the
point where you break down. With a veteran team, guys know how to get the work in they need."
