Shaq sits; Delonte practices
With his team only two days away from beginning the playoffs, Shaquille O’Neal again missed practice. Doc Rivers said Shaq, who is nursing foot and calf injuries and has played only five minutes since February 1, should practice tomorrow. Though Rivers would not rule out Shaq playing in Game One, he admitted the Celtics coaching staff has two game plans; one with Shaq, and one without.
In more positive news, Delonte West participated in the team’s session. During the brief period of practice the media was allowed to see, West reportedly moved well.
One non-injury note of interest: Rivers cut the team’s playbook in half, hoping his team would execute more sharply with fewer sets to remember.
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Celtics Blog | Jay King | April 15, 2011
Starting to sound alot like KG in 09… he never did come back.. the guy can’t even practice and we think he can help us win a title? It’s over people…
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I really don’t mind that Shaq missed practice. And I hope that he only practices in earnest a few times before we gear up for the 2nd round. It is a known fact that Shaq only needs 1 or 2 practices to do what he does best. If that’s sufficient, why keep trotting him out there before his body feels that he’s ready…especially now when we don’t even need him to beat the no-center, no-defense NY Knicks. We only need Shaq truthfully for the later rounds. Let the man get healed up for now until we get to the area for which we brought him here for.
In my opinion, Doc shouldn’t even practice him tomorrow if he’s still moving gingerly on that leg (as I saw in yesterday’s practice where he couldn’t even barely move).. Let him skip this round all together and target him for May when the next rounds get under way.
If we can’t beat the NY Knicks without Shaq, we don’t deserve to be called World Champions this year anyway. Period. Maybe another year, but not this year.
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He could barely walk yesterday is my point… we are expecting a 39 year old man that can’t walk right now to be back in two weeks to help us win a title. Starting to sound like a novel, not reality. Hope I’m wrong.
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Let’s hope things will all work out in our favor.
And that Shaq will prove to be better than he seems to appear right now.
Actually he does walk o’kay as of yesterday but we wouldn’t press our luck by asking too much too fast. Maybe if given just a little more time he’ll potentially get better every day.
He did walk and move better yesterday (Thur) than on video clips of him at the game (on Wed). And there’s video already coming out today with him at the 5-on-5 practice today in which he doesn’t appear in any pain as he in there in full practice shorts and gear.
So there’s good hope that we may veritably get some pretty decent service out of him in due time.
I just hope Doc and Danny are patient with him and don’t get caught up in the media hype of our haters and fearers who say that we really need him for game#1 vs a weaker team only in hopes of seeing him get hurt early before the deeper rounds come around..of which they are terrified of seeing Shaq in the middle.
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Good signs are coming out of today’s practice concerning Shaq.
After practice, Doc says that Shaq is “only” sitting today because it was “planned” to go this way, and not as a forced measure due to adverse effects from yesterday’s walk-through in which he did participate.
Thus, therefore they feel comfortable to try him out a little more tomorrow at a higher speed.
Most encouraging is that Doc seems very very careful about this notion of pushing Shaq at a faster pace than needed right now. I’m encouraged by Doc’s very measured approach to this whole matter. And if Doc says “No Go” after tomorrow’s full practice with Shaq, I’m 100% behind him. In fact, I will applaud him for his caution.
We’ve got bigger fish to fry up the road !!!
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@ wayne
Ehh. I’d take what Doc said about the rest being “planned” with a grain of salt. Here’s a quote from yesterday: “[Friday] and [Saturday] are the big days for Shaq. He’s going to try to get through practice and see what we can do.”
So the plan apparently was for Shaq to play today, and the plan changed.
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You’re right. I can’t deny that. He did say that yesterday.
But maybe better wisdom prevailed upon further reflection and Doc just decided “why risk it at this point”…which is what I would have done also.
The slower the better.
But you are totally right in your point that Doc “did” say differently the day before.
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It is being reported that Shaq did walk through today to further get down Doc’s playbook for this series..and evidently Doc felt that this was enough for today.
If Shaq was hurt he wouldn’t even had participated in the walk-through drills again today.
Sounds like Doc is just using wisdom which is the better part of valour.
We should only be concerned that Shaq is an emergency help (if absolutely needed to advance in this first round); yet really called upon in a greater capacity when we face the more elite teams which are surely still to come.
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He could barely walk yesterday? What are you talking about Frank? We all saw video of Shaq walking and shooting fine.
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@Wayne; Yes, let’s hope that Shaq can be ready for the second round, when the C’s could really use him the most. If they can’t beat the Knicks without Shaq, they don’t deserve to make it to the second round anyway.
And besides, we have Krystic now, so why would anyone be worried about the center position?
In Ainge we trust.
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Since when does anyone believe anything any coach, especially Doc, says during the lead-up to playoff games in any sport? The only thing that matters is who is available and on the court Sunday. I still believe Shaq will be ready, but I also would have no problem with him sitting out a while longer because if the Cs can’t beat the Knicks, even with JO and Krstic both out, then they do not deserve to move on. Go Cs…
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The Knicks are horrible at defending the post, so I hope the C’s pound it inside to whoever is on the floor: Big Baby, Krystic, JO, even Green.
The Knicks would love nothing more than a shoot out from the outside, so let’s hope the C’s exploit them where they are weak.
With or without Shaq, they should be able to score down low on the the Knicks.
If they lose this series, it’s because they don’t want it bad enough, not b/c Shaq is out.
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And by the way, didn’t Shaq say he was going to “shoot up” if he had to? Has he done so? If not, why not?
Curious minds want to know.
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@ Chris H
He has gotten a cortisone shot, if I’m not mistaken.
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@BradinLA, OK maybe i exaggerated… Shaq can walk. But doesn’t it worry you to death that walking is an issue for a player that is supposed to be our starting center? A guy that we probably won’t get out of round 2 without him being effective. Nobody loves this team like I do.. i go days without sleeping when this team loses 2 in a row.. I’ve had women walk out on me because they thought I cared more about the Celtics then I did about them, and it was true. I’m not proud of it, maybe I need a life. But I refuse to lie to myself. This Shaq thing doesn’t look good.. if he could play like he did in Nov and December i think the trade is genius. But at this point with Shaqs health we looked doomed.. we need a miracle from a healer on Shaq. He couldn’t last 6 minutes after getting healthy for two months.. it looks bad right now.
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@Chris H
Very interesting comment you make (which actually made me laugh) where you said “And besides, we have Kristic now. Why would anyone be worried about the center position?”
Now that’s pure hilarious to me…to even speak about Kristic (who plays more like a power forward) as a point of confidence for us at center against “anybody”.
Yet and still, when you think about who “they” have: it will likely be Sheldon Williams or the Turiaf (6’10″) fellow. At any case Nenad will be an upgrade compared to these guys, and hopefully Doc will start JO who is definitely an upgrade over these guys.
Let’s just hope we can finish this first round without major injury, and get mentally and physically ready for the stronger teams which are to come. That’s where we’ll need an effective Big Daddy Shaq, but not before.
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Wayne: I was being sarcastic when I said we have Kyrstic now. But against the Knicks, it should suffice.
Against the Knicks, we could employ a midget at center (but since it’s the Celts, how about a little leprechan)
Go Cs
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