If we finish 2 or 3 seed & play 76ers/Knicks, do we even need Shaq in 1stround?

[fanofgreen]

It looks as though we will finish either 2 or 3 in the east.
Which means we will most likely face either New York or Philly.

Looking at the match-ups do we even need Shaq in the 1st round any way?

Philly frontline is: Elton Brand, Thaddeus Young, S. Hawes,&Speights

New York frontline is: Amare, Turiaf, Jeffries, Fields


If Shaq were completely healthy, I dont know how much he would honestly play against teams like Philly and New York.

I think it would be best if Shaq not worry about coming back in time for the 1st game of playoffs, I would tell him to try and make it back by the 2nd round.

Those 1st round match-up is not desirable for a healthy Shaq,
So I am not expecting to see Shaq anytime before the 2nd round of the playoffs.

What is your take?

[Who]

No -- can beat either of those teams without Shaq.

Shaq would have been useful matchup against Spencer Hawes (Phily) and Turiaf/Shelden (Knicks). He could have given 15-20 good minutes a night against those guys. A little more if they got more playing time.

[Onslaught]

We'll probably find out.

[Kane3387]

No -- can beat either of those teams without Shaq.

Shaq would have been useful matchup against Spencer Hawes (Phily) and Turiaf/Shelden (Knicks). He could have given 15-20 good minutes a night against those guys. A little more if they got more playing time.

What?! We haven't lost to the Knicks at all and beat them twice without Shaq. Beat Philly 2 out of 3 times and all were played without Shaq. We don't need him to beat these sorry teams.

Again game planning is completely different in a series then the second game of a back to back in March. Those teams have more weaknesses then we do. They will not beat us unless one of the big 4 goes down.

[Chris]

No matter who we play in the first round, we don't NEED Shaq.  None of those teams can hang with the C's, Shaq or not, if they are playing with normal playoff focus.

With that said, having those games to get a rhythm for later rounds would be immensely valuable.  I think Shaq is a guy who can just step in there and be effective because of his size, but everyone will have a better rhythm, if they have a few games with him in the lineup before having to face Miami in round 2.

No matter what though, I hope tonight convinced them that they cannot put Shaq back out there without practicing first.  I don't want to play doctor, but I imagine the fact he went from 0-100 so quickly tonight played a role in that muscle injury.  So, no matter when they bring him back, I hope they will ease him back a little better, rather than throwing him into games (particularly playoff games, where he would be going especially hard) without building him up a bit more to it. 

[Kane3387]

We beat Chicago in a series without Kevin Garnett and a very poor bench. We also won without KG last year against Miami. If we didn't really need KG in the first round we won't need Shaq. Now we will need KG this year but not Shaq in the first round.

[Tai]

No matter who we play in the first round, we don't NEED Shaq.  None of those teams can hang with the C's, Shaq or not, if they are playing with normal playoff focus.

With that said, having those games to get a rhythm for later rounds would be immensely valuable.  I think Shaq is a guy who can just step in there and be effective because of his size, but everyone will have a better rhythm, if they have a few games with him in the lineup before having to face Miami in round 2.

No matter what though, I hope tonight convinced them that they cannot put Shaq back out there without practicing first.  I don't want to play doctor, but I imagine the fact he went from 0-100 so quickly tonight played a role in that muscle injury.  So, no matter when they bring him back, I hope they will ease him back a little better, rather than throwing him into games (particularly playoff games, where he would be going especially hard) without building him up a bit more to it. 

I guess we're not comparing private workouts to practice? I'm not sure if there's a comparison or not, but  Doc did say that based off the private workouts, Shaq was improving after basically being on Square 1 for a while. So, I'm not 100% certain if the last few weeks or so wasn't in fact "building him up" or not.

[PosImpos]

Yes.  We need to defeat our round 1 opponent in as few games as possible.  We won't manage it in fewer than 6 games without Shaq contibuting.

[Tai]

Shaq might HELP, like Posimpos said, win the series in fewer games, but I'm not sure we absolutely need him, especially assuming Murphy comes back. That's still four seven footers (KG, JO, Krstic, Murphy) to the Sixers' two and the Knicks' none. If that's not enough to beat them without Shaq, and assuming the Celtics do in fact have a switch that's not really touched until the playoffs, I can't imagine they're good enough to win this year, anyways.

[Junkyard Dawg]

NO!

If he can play he should play, but if we somehow managed to lose to either of those teams, do you really think Shaq would have been our biggest problem? 

[wahz]

No but we need motivated and good performances from JO and KG.

[JSD]

I think we'll smoke either team without Shaq in the playoffs. The rest between games and the slower pace of the playoffs will make Celtics close to unbeatable against those match-ups described in earlier posts of this thread.

It'd be nice to setup our 8-man rotation for the future, more difficult rounds though. So having Shaq would give us a better chance to win it all I think. Adjusting on the fly can be tough.

[chambers]

We can beat any team in the NBA without Shaq- we've proven that.
I think that we really only NEED him against the Bulls and more importantly- the Lakers should we get that far.
Things will get much better for us with Krstic coming in off the bench with Davis.
Hopefully the one blessing we can get from Shaqs calf strain is that Troy Murphy will get a chance to prove himself and earn a playoff spot.

[Who]

No -- can beat either of those teams without Shaq.

Shaq would have been useful matchup against Spencer Hawes (Phily) and Turiaf/Shelden (Knicks). He could have given 15-20 good minutes a night against those guys. A little more if they got more playing time.

What?! We haven't lost to the Knicks at all and beat them twice without Shaq. Beat Philly 2 out of 3 times and all were played without Shaq. We don't need him to beat these sorry teams.

Again game planning is completely different in a series then the second game of a back to back in March. Those teams have more weaknesses then we do. They will not beat us unless one of the big 4 goes down.

That is what I said -- No, Boston does not need Shaq to beat Phily or NY.

[Marcus13]

Philly's front line KILLED....KILLED us just a few weeks ago.

I mean, we should beat either of those teams in a series without Shaq, but it becomes a lot more difficult.

Hell, every game is difficult these days