Why did Courtney Lee go from starting to not playing at all?

[BleedGreen1989]

Did he say something about Doc's wife? Seriously, I like Lee a lot in our rotation and him and Bradley on the floor together play great defense. I think he handles the ball better than Bradley, is bigger, and a more reliable shooter.

I'm one of the few people I think who fully support our coach, but what the hell Doc?

[LEHGOCELTICS]

Because this guy said so:

[Chief]

Did he say something about Doc's wife? Seriously, I like Lee a lot in our rotation and him and Bradley on the floor together play great defense. I think he handles the ball better than Bradley, is bigger, and a more reliable shooter.

I'm one of the few people I think who fully support our coach, but what the hell Doc?

He must of stuck up for Shav.

[CelticConcourse]

That ankle injury started a bad trend...

[NocturnalRebel]

I wonder this myself. Of all people to leave out of tha rotation why Lee? Tha Celtics are more about defense than anything and Lee plays solid defense.

Doc has allowed Smith and Felton to torch us from outside far too long. Use Lee and T-Will to limit them.

[BleedGreen1989]

Yea I'm one of the biggest Doc supporters you'll find but I think Lee is our best shot at matching up with Smith (a little late at this point)

And what about Shav? Dude was eatin up the boards and really carving out a nice role for himself

[hpantazo]

I remember both Rivers and Terry bad mouthed Lee after that ankle injury, insinuating Lee should have gotten up and tried to defend for the rest of that play, him laying on the ground cost them the game. I sense there was a long term attitude issue brewing for a while with Lee that we will hear more about after the season is over.

[SCeltic34]

Doc has this stupid idea in his head that a guy shooting .375%, .286% from 3, 0 assists, and 0.7 rebounds over 16.3 minutes per game over the first 3 games in the playoffs deserves minutes over Lee.  That guy was 1-5 for us today with 3 points and 1 rebound, all while playing horrendous defense. 

Rivers was asked Wednesday about his preference of Crawford over Lee, and he said he simply thinks Crawford is playing better than Lee right now.

"Yeah, it's not that deep," Rivers said. "I just think right now (Crawford is) is (playing better) and I think offensively he gives you a better shot at it. Courtney, defensively, is better, so it really depends on -- with us, because of the injuries we have at the guard spots, it really depends on the matchups for us, whether Jordan, in certain spots, or Courtney, will play. And that's just the way it's going to be." 

Crawford is a better offensive option?  I haven't noticed.  For every basket he makes, he'll either take a really poor shot or have a turnover.  He hasn't logged a single assist in 55 minutes of playing time against the Knicks.  Did I mention his poor shooting percentages and terrible defense?

Doc - pull your head out of your you know what and give Lee back his minutes.  I'm not a blind Doc hater, but I can't adequately express in words on how terrible a job (in my opinion, of course) he's done not only in this series, but this entire season. 

[hpantazo]

I remember both Rivers and Terry bad mouthed Lee after that ankle injury, insinuating Lee should have gotten up and tried to defend for the rest of that play, him laying on the ground cost them the game. I sense there was a long term attitude issue brewing for a while with Lee that we will hear more about after the season is over.

http://celticshub.com/2013/03/23/doc-rivers-and-jason-terry-show-little-sympathy-for-courtney-lees-sprained-ankle/

"To put it kindly, Rivers and Terry weren’t particularly pleased during the postgame press conferences about Lee’s inability to get up and finish out the defensive sequence. Let’s start with Doc’s comments:

On what Rivers saw when Lee went down: “I didn’t think it was a major injury, I can tell you that….”I was hoping he could get up because we needed him to get up. It was the [dang]edest play. You’re making a run, you’re down five and you got a guy laying on the floor. It felt like it took 40 seconds, they make a 3. We were stuck, do you foul? Down five, you don’t want to take a foul, you’re just hoping someone misses a shot and somehow we got a rebound. But it didn’t work out for us.”

On what Jason Terry thought when Lee was down:  ”Get your ass up. If your bone is sticking out of there….I don’t know….I don’t know how he’s feeling right now, but we’re trying to win a game….I mean…I don’t know.”

Rivers knows Lee well, dating back to his childhood, so it was pretty shocking for me to see him throw Lee under the bus indirectly like this. That speaks volumes to me, since when you look back at the frustration Rivers was feeling about this team and particular players earlier in the season, with the “we’re going to get some guys out of here” talk in January, you wouldn’t be wrong to wonder whether Lee was on the top of that list with this kind of talk from Rivers. Doc chooses his comments wisely most nights and I feel like he did so here."

[clover]

I remember both Rivers and Terry bad mouthed Lee after that ankle injury, insinuating Lee should have gotten up and tried to defend for the rest of that play, him laying on the ground cost them the game. I sense there was a long term attitude issue brewing for a while with Lee that we will hear more about after the season is over.

Yeah, there was definitely something additional going on there.  May take longer than this offseason for it to come out.

[clover]

Yea I'm one of the biggest Doc supporters you'll find but I think Lee is our best shot at matching up with Smith (a little late at this point)

And what about Shav? Dude was eatin up the boards and really carving out a nice role for himself

Doc seems to have dug in his heels about not playing Shav.

[CelticConcourse]

Yea I'm one of the biggest Doc supporters you'll find but I think Lee is our best shot at matching up with Smith (a little late at this point)

And what about Shav? Dude was eatin up the boards and really carving out a nice role for himself

Doc seems to have dug in his heels about not playing Shav.

One word: Stiemsma.

Steamer was way more important to our team last year and even he got sparse minutes... Ryan Hollins played way more, and Hollins was junk.

[Fafnir]

Yea I'm one of the biggest Doc supporters you'll find but I think Lee is our best shot at matching up with Smith (a little late at this point)

And what about Shav? Dude was eatin up the boards and really carving out a nice role for himself

Doc seems to have dug in his heels about not playing Shav.

No one to play him against, the Knicks never play more than 1 big man and Doc isn't comfortable putting Shav in as the only big man to protect the rim.

Doc doesn't want him or Wilcox covering a 3 point shooter that'd play right into the Knicks.

[Fafnir]

Yea I'm one of the biggest Doc supporters you'll find but I think Lee is our best shot at matching up with Smith (a little late at this point)

And what about Shav? Dude was eatin up the boards and really carving out a nice role for himself

Doc seems to have dug in his heels about not playing Shav.

One word: Stiemsma.

Steamer was way more important to our team last year and even he got sparse minutes... Ryan Hollins played way more, and Hollins was junk.

That's because Steamer was a walking foul at the end of the year. Opposing teams were putting up 120 points per 100 possessions or something crazy against him in the playoffs.

I think his foot injuries just became too much, last two weeks of last season and the playoffs his defense fell off a cliff.

[hpantazo]

Yea I'm one of the biggest Doc supporters you'll find but I think Lee is our best shot at matching up with Smith (a little late at this point)

And what about Shav? Dude was eatin up the boards and really carving out a nice role for himself

Doc seems to have dug in his heels about not playing Shav.

No one to play him against, the Knicks never play more than 1 big man and Doc isn't comfortable putting Shav in as the only big man to protect the rim.

Doc doesn't want him or Wilcox covering a 3 point shooter that'd play right into the Knicks.

That makes sense, but Doc had Jeff Green on Chandler for a stretch, when Bass and KG each had 4 fouls, and this lead to Green picking up fouls 3 and 4. There are some moments when using Shav or Wilcox makes sense, especially when we are getting killed by offensive rebounds.