Pierce Tweaks Ankle Again:Says he wouldn't play in game unless it's playoff

[Lightskinsmurf]

Key celtics players hurt around playoff time, what else is new? Nothing to see here.

[PhoSita]

Worst case scenario here for the Celtics.

They lost all of their quality depth due to injuries, including their young star.  So they leaned too much on their older stars for so long, and now both have broken down and are heading into the playoffs significantly hobbled / recovering from injuries.

Not to mention that the Cs are depending heavily on a bunch of bench guys who have been with the team just over a month and who haven't picked up the defensive schemes at all yet.

While you're right that the situation isn't good right now, I don't think its because the C's leaned to hard on KG/Pierce. Both are older players, older players are banged up by season end pretty often no matter how careful you are. You can't wrap them in bubble wrap till its playoff time.

Whether it's because they leaned on them out of necessity, or just happenstance, the bottom line is they're left without anybody else to really lean on, except I guess Jeff Green.

I imagine Jeff will be playing something like 40 minutes a game in the playoffs (a la Rondo), and guys like Bradley and Bass will be taking way more shots than they really ought to be.

You're missing my point, "leaned on" as far as health goes of guys as old as Pierce/KG means playing NBA minutes. Every NBA player is banged up by the end of the season, and it does not get easier as you age.

Sure.  But the Celtics don't have the luxury of doing what a team like, say, the Spurs can do -- they can't play their main guys 20-25 minutes, or rest them completely, and still expect to win games against good teams. 

Any time Pierce or KG get injured, the Celtics are forced to choose between bringing them back sooner than they'd like, or giving up a lot of games in the standings.

Also, "leaning on," as you point out, isn't just tied to minutes played.  KG and Pierce, for much of the season, have had very little help in terms of carrying the burden of winning games.  So even if KG plays 30 minutes or Pierce plays 32-34, they rarely get the opportunity to take plays off / let other guys be the focal point because for most of the season there hasn't been anybody else.  Point being, minutes spent on the court are not created equal for every player.

That's why, I'll bet, if you put KG or Pierce on a contender where they were the 3rd or 4th option (i.e. smaller role), they'd get injured less often and would probably have more left at the end of the game.