TELEVISION: ESPN, ESPN360
CHAT: Daily Dime Live
RADIO: Hawks Radio Network, Audio League Pass
GAME NOTES: Hawks/Celtics
ATLANTA INJURY REPORT: None.
BOSTON INJURY REPORT: Glen Davis and Tony Allen are out. Brian Scalabrine (back spasms) is listed as day-to-day.
FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY: Boston -9, 193 o/u
OTHER PERSPECTIVES: CelticsHub, CelticsBlog
PREVIOUSLY, THE BOSTON CELTICS...beat Utah 105-86 on Wednesday night. The 8-1 Celtics are seventh in the league in offensive efficiency and second in defensive efficiency. They are ranked in the top nine in the league in each of the four defensive factors.
Both The Boston Herald and The Boston Globe went with the Shelden Williams-playing-the-team-that-drafted-him angle this morning. Sure, Shelden's already done that four times in his career, but never as a BOSTON CELTIC which, naturally, makes it the first time it counts.
Key quotes from the Herald story:
Williams insists he will take no revenge motives to the floor tonight, but when asked if he believed he got a fair shot with the Hawks, he answered flatly, “Honestly I don’t think so.”Williams played in 81 games as a rookie. He started 31. He had 8 double-doubles and 6 near* double-doubles. Williams averaged 18.7 minutes per game. He played at least 20 minutes in 33 games and at least 15 minutes in 52 games. Among post players, only Josh Smith and Zaza Pachulia played more minutes or averaged more minutes per game than Williams did for the Hawks that season.
...
"I don’t think there was a lot of consistency in my minutes. When I did play consistent minutes, I either had a double-double or close to a double-double more often than not - especially my rookie year when I was given a lot of minutes toward the end of the season and I came away with Rookie of the Month. Then all of a sudden it goes from you’re playing minutes to not playing. Just like that. So I don’t think I was given a fair shot. It wasn’t a good situation that I came into, with the way things were run there. I never knew what to expect. I never knew what was going on. I would have a good game, and then the next couple of games I would barely play or not even play at all. I know rookies have to go through ups and downs, but I just thought if somebody has a good game they’d play the next game and not be held out. But I guess they saw things differently."
Shelden's had a nice nine games but he has not sustained play of anything approaching this quality over an NBA season to this point in his career. Not that it's in any way his fault that Billy Knight drafted him fifth rather than Brandon Roy.
*Defined by me, for this purpose, as at least 8 points and 8 rebounds in a game.
Consider this an open thread for all pre-game, in-game, and post-game (but pre-recap) thoughts.
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