Will KG Play More Minutes Against Orlando?

[Bankshot]

Will KG play more minutes against Orlando?  I read in the paper that Doc plans to play KG only 18 minutes the rest of the week.  I thought the plan was to increase his minutes a bit every game. 

Hopefully Doc won't be stubborn enough not to play him more minutes.  At least give him an extra 5 minutes, preferably at the end of the 4th quarter.

I don't see the Celtics winning that game unless they get more minutes out of KG.

[housecall]

I feel what you saying here but the last i heard for now its more up to the medical staff than it is Doc with how many minutes KG plays.Maybe things have changed since i last heard any info.

[celts55]

Yes

[RAcker]

I think that if KG and the medical staff agree that he is not feeling too many ill effects after these last few games, he will see more minutes this week.  My guess is that he will still be first to the bench in the rotation, but that he will get approximately 4 minutes in both the 2nd and 4th depending on the situation.  This would put him at about 25-27 minutes per game. 

Granted, we'd all love to see him not have to play at all in the 4th periods of games, but that would mean that we are blowing out teams like Orlando and Atlanta on the road.  Here's hoping.

[coco]

If it was up to me, I would keep KG's and Rondo's mins as low as possible.   We can win without homecourt, but we can't win entering the playoffs with lingering injuries.  They tend to catch up with you in the later rounds.

[Ersatz]

I'm mildly worried about the knee. Apparently it was sore after the shoot-around Monday and the fact that his minutes haven't increased indicates to me that they will actually play him ~8 minutes each half. I just hope this doesn't mean the recovery is not going as well as they'd hoped.

[LarBrd33]

i've been concerned for a while that KG's injury is a lot more serious than they are letting on.   Maybe he needs surgery or something, but they are just going to try to get the most they can out of him until the end of the playoffs.  I have nothing to really base that on.   I just think this team likes to keep quiet on injuries.  Apparently Ray was hurt all last year.

[D Dub]

I hope not.  I'd rather see KG keep resting up for the playoffs. 

Tomorrow's game is meaningless to us.  And it will crush them mentally to lose on their home floor while we rest KG most of the game.

I would prefer to play these disjointed lineups against all our potential playoff opponents the rest of the way so they don't get to disect our real rotations with the resulting recent game film.   

[crownsy]

I hope not.  I'd rather see KG keep resting up for the playoffs. 

Tomorrow's game is meaningless to us.  And it will crush them mentally to lose on their home floor while we rest KG most of the game.

I would prefer to play these disjointed lineups against all our potential playoff opponents the rest of the way so they don't get to disect our real rotations with the resulting recent game film.   

you really think a game to get a two game lead on the three seed with 9 games to go is meanigless?

I would argue its the most meangiful game we have left.


that aside, I'd ratehr be safe than sorry with KG.

[the TRUTH]

Quick question of clarification. If two teams in the same conference end the season with identical records, my understanding is that the tie is broken as follows:

1) Head-to-head record
2) Record against Eastern Conference teams

Am I correct with that? If so, we're currently 2.5 games ahead of Orlando in terms of records against Eastern Conference teams. While a loss tomorrow night would even the season series at 2-2, we'd still have the upper hand for the tiebreaker if we end up with the same record.

[D Dub]

I hope not.  I'd rather see KG keep resting up for the playoffs. 

Tomorrow's game is meaningless to us.  And it will crush them mentally to lose on their home floor while we rest KG most of the game.

I would prefer to play these disjointed lineups against all our potential playoff opponents the rest of the way so they don't get to disect our real rotations with the resulting recent game film.   

you really think a game to get a two game lead on the three seed with 9 games to go is meanigless?

I would argue its the most meangiful game we have left.


that aside, I'd ratehr be safe than sorry with KG.

Yup, meaningless.  Does it really matter whether we get the 2 or the 3 seed? 
I don't think so, especially at the risk of agrivating KG's obviously tender injury. 

This team has to go through Cleveland and LA to win another title anyways.  And if we really need home court to beat Orl, we aren't hanging number 18 this year.  Might as well let the media get the whole 'Celts can't play on the road' story out of their system against early on... 

These last few regular season games should be all about getting our starters healthy and getting extra reps for Steph and Mikki.  Save the bravado for when it counts.

[Fafnir]

Quick question of clarification. If two teams in the same conference end the season with identical records, my understanding is that the tie is broken as follows:

1) Head-to-head record
2) Record against Eastern Conference teams

Am I correct with that? If so, we're currently 2.5 games ahead of Orlando in terms of records against Eastern Conference teams. While a loss tomorrow night would even the season series at 2-2, we'd still have the upper hand for the tiebreaker if we end up with the same record.

You are correct, we'll have the tie breaker if both teams keep winning at the current pace. Even if we lose tomorrow. We only have one games against the western conference and they have two.

A win will be very big though. Our biggest game left is in Cleveland. To win the season series and give them their second home loss of the year would be huge, even though it won't mean we'll catch them for the number one seed.

[the TRUTH]

I hope not.  I'd rather see KG keep resting up for the playoffs. 

Tomorrow's game is meaningless to us.  And it will crush them mentally to lose on their home floor while we rest KG most of the game.

I would prefer to play these disjointed lineups against all our potential playoff opponents the rest of the way so they don't get to disect our real rotations with the resulting recent game film.   

I would argue its the most meangiful game we have left.


that aside, I'd ratehr be safe than sorry with KG.

Yup, meaningless.  Does it really matter whether we get the 2 or the 3 seed? 
I don't think so, especially at the risk of agrivating KG's obviously tender injury. 

This team has to go through Cleveland and LA to win another title anyways.  And if we really need home court to beat Orl, we aren't hanging number 18 this year.  Might as well let the media get the whole 'Celts can't play on the road' story out of their system against early on... 

These last few regular season games should be all about getting our starters healthy and getting extra reps for Steph and Mikki.  Save the bravado for when it counts.

I see this line of thinking on here a lot. When healthy, I truly think we're the best team in the league, hands down. And seeing as how we probably won't have home court vs. Cleveland or LA, I agree that we are good enough to still win it all.

That being said, when you don't have home court, it isn't always as simple as just winning one game on the road. You have to do that AND win every home game. If you lose at home, you have to win twice on the road. Whereas if you have home court and lose at home, you only have to win once on the road. Look at Detroit last year. After they beat us, a lot of people wrote us off. But once we won in Detroit, they were in trouble.

Another big factor in this is the officiating. Especially against Cleveland and LA, we will get completely jobbed by the refs in every game, no matter where it's played. If you don't realize this, you've been living under a rock. Both those teams are perfectly capable of winning in Boston, especially when you consider that the refs will give them every opportunity to do so.

Point is, home court advantage isn't just about one game.

[wdleehi]

If they have worked out a schedule for KG, do not break it.