Delonte West: A case study in what it means to be tough.

Last night Delonte West played a season high 30 minutes. In that time, he logged 8 points, 5 assists, 3 rebounds and 2 steals. But it's not about the numbers. It's about the fact that he made it on to the court at all. Doc Rivers sat him out at the end of Fridays game against Charlotte because his sprained right ankle flared up again, and he sat out of practice yesterday because of the injury. But with Rondo sidelined by a sprained right pinky, Doc Rivers turned to Delonte to fill in as the starting point guard. Mr. West came through with intense focus, and provided a stabilizing presence so desperately needed by the recently waning men in green. Chris Forseberg eloquently summarizes one of Delonte's notable plays last night:

"...maybe nowhere was that more evident than with 28.9 seconds remaining. With Boston clinging to a three-point lead -- this after the Timberwolves rallied from a 25-point deficit and actually pulled ahead in the fourth quarter -- Kevin Garnett misfired on a 13-foot turnaround. West sneaked into a circle of white jerseys and snared an offensive rebound that prevented Minnesota from having a chance to tie. The Timberwolves ultimately fouled and Paul Pierce sank two freebies to ensure the Boston victory."

The player of the night was probably Paul Pierce (he scored 12 of Boston's 21 4th quarter points), but Delonte deserves immense praise for being so effing tough and playing a heck of a game despite all of the odds stacked against him... Come to think of it, playing and impressing the nay sayers is kind of the story of his whole career. We should add resiliance to the ever growing list of positive things about Delonte West. As many times as he gets knocked down (both literally and figuratively), he always gets back up.  I hope that Doc Rivers is right, and that Delonte will be able to continue playing through all of the injuries plaguing him. I think he's a really important factor for this team, especially come playoff time. 

P.S.- Did you ever hear the one about Delonte West and Vivica Fox? Me either. But when I was looking for a picture of him for this post, I stumbled on the story. Check it out here if you want. If they ever were together it obviously didn't last. If you were curious, she's engaged to someone that is not Delonte West... And Delonte West is married (and now divorced? I'm not sure) to someone that is definitely not Vivica Fox. 

The Celtics have the worst luck.... Ever. Another setback for Delonte West.

WHY?!

No commentary. I just can't.

Some good news on the injury front!

ESPN Boston finally has some good news to report:

- The MRI on Paul's foot came back clean, and the injuries to his foot and his hand have been deemed minor. He will play Wednesday against New Jersey. As a precautionary measure, he did not practice today, and will also sit out practice tomorrow.

The Celtics don't fool me! Paul Pierce is the most stubborn man alive. I wish he wasn't going to play Wednesday, and call me a party pooper, but I also wish he'd sit out the All Star festivities. The Captain dealt with nagging injuries last year, and they especially plagued him in the second half of the season. I'd like to avoid that at all costs. In any case, I'm glad these current injuries are nothing serious, and I'm sure that even though he'll be playing in the game and participating in the 3 point contest, the break will serve him well.

-Delonte West participated in practice today, and barring any soreness popping up over night, he will play tomorrow against New Jersey. Wooohooo!!! It will be GREAT to see Delonte back out there, and even though he doesn't have the size to play back up to Paul, the Celtics can work with it in the mean time, while the Marquis situation gets figured out.

-Semih will be ready to return after All Star break, and will resume action with the team on their West Coast road trip. Any big body in a Celtics uniform who's ready to play is a welcome sight right now.

I'm not sure whether or not this counts as good news, but...

-Shaq is also expected to play during the West Coast road trip. Greg Payne of ESPN Boston reports that Doc was quoted to have said, "When he first injured it we all thought it was a one- or two-game thing, and now it's been longer, and now it's getting to the point where we're not sure if he'll play on the west coast trip or not. We're hoping he will. Right now we think he will, maybe not every game, maybe we play him every other game, but if we had to play today, I don't know if Shaq could play today." Well hey. It will be great to have Semih back, and if Shaq can come back, even in a limited capacity, that would be great as well. I'd rather be REALLY safe than sorry with Shaq-tus.

If you were thinking about going to the game tomorrow and taunting Lebron about Delonte allegedly sleeping with his mother....

Think twice before you do it.

Not only is it trashy and unnecessary, but I really doubt any fan is ready for Lebron to punch them in the face. I know I'm not built for beef.

The Marquis Daniels conundrum

To say that the Celtics were shorthanded going in to Thursdays showdown with the Lakers would be an understatement. For bigs, only Kendrick Perkins and Glen Davis were available, as Shaq, JO and Semih were unavailable to go. They were down a swingman, with no Marquis Daniels, and thin at the 2, with no Delonte West. As if injuries weren't already plaguing the Celtics enough, Nate Robinson limped off the court in the first half with a bruised knee not to return, and Paul Pierce played through a nice case of the flu. The Celtics will face Miami tomorrow with a similarly depleted roster...

But here's the upside to all of this: Shaq and Semih are projected to return soon, JO is on the mend rehabbing his knee (I'm keeping the faith and being optimistic), Delonte West could come back as early as tomorrow (but more likely, Wednesday), Nate Robinson's injury doesn't appear to be too serious, and Paul Pierce will be okay. The question mark here is Marquis Daniels. How long will he be out? Even if he is able to return, how effective will he be? There has been no word from the Celtics on any of this, probably partly because they don't know and partly because they're an organization that plays their hand close to their chest. 

The best case scenario is that Marquis is able to return within one to two months, in time to get back in to the swing of things for the play offs. While not ideal, the Celtics could make due with a lack of depth at the three by divvying those minutes out between Von Wafer and Delonte West.

But what if he can't come back? The Celtics might consider buying his contract out and letting him go. Pardon me for being such a girl here, but that would be SO sad. The Globe compiled a list of potential replacements should worst come to worst. Notables on this list include Anthony Parker, Carl Landry and Josh Howard.

No offense to Mr. Howard, but I'd rather wait for Marquis to come back, if it's at all a possibility.

In solidarity!

The Lakers come to town tomorrow...

(photo source)



And the Celtics only had 10 bodies available at practice today. Marquis and Jermaine O'Neal were obviously absent, along with Shaq and Paul Pierce. The Captain has apparently come down with a cold, but he will be suited up tomorrow night.  

In happier news, today marked the return of Delonte West to full contact practice. He pleaded with Doc to allow him to return Thursday, instead of after the All Star break. The coaching staff apparently shot this idea down... But they were also opposed to letting Perk return early... Up until the day that he did. As we've seen, anything can happen, but I doubt Delonte plays tomorrow. One full contact practice is cutting it a little short, even considering the shortage of available players the Celtics are dealing with now. 

Updates from Celtics practice

I hope you like Semih Erden and Von Wafer

Shaq is likely to miss the next two games (Portland and Phoenix). Doc had this to say regarding Shaq's grumpy hip: "It's his hip. It's locked. I don't know what the hell that means. I don't know if there's  a key you go get or something." Chris Forsberg is a genius and he hypothesizes that the Big Shamrock will join the team in Phoenix, and make the trip to LA for the big showdown on January 30.

Marquis might not play against Cleveland tomorrow. He's not hurt, but he has a family issue, so he may not be available to go. With no Shaq/JO and no Marquis, Semih will probably get the start and Von will make his way off the bench sooner than usual.

Good news about Perk and Delonte after the jump

Two good Celtics tidbits after a crappy loss

1) Delonte West travelled with the team and has had the cast on his right wrist removed. You'll recall that he's a left handed shooter, so this injury wasn't going to really affect his shooting ability, but he has now been cleared to catch and dribble with his right hand. He's projected to come back sometime after all star break. He traveled with the team to Washington, another indicator of just how good he's feeling and how close he is to returning to action.

2) Perk maintains that he's going to make his return on February 4th, in Boston, against Dallas. Yay!! My friends at www.celticslife.com (Okay, so I don't actually know these people. But I love their blog!) posted this video originally from CSNNE of Perk blazing the comeback trail. What a site for sore eyes :)

Girls talk sports: looking ahead to Celtics-Kings

Not that it matters, but the Kings are 8-27 overall this year. The Celtics need to show up to play like they're 27-8, because they have a tendency to play down to teams with lowly records and the Green will want to avoid losing 3 straight. While the Kings are capable of scoring the ball (they scored 133 points last night against the Wizards), they don't really like to play defense (the Wizards scored 136 in an overtime win). On average, the Kings allow their opponents to score 116 points/game, while shooting an average of 52 percent. These are numbers I can get down with. This means that on offense, the Celtics need to move the ball around and be patient, because the Kings won't want anything to do with trying to play 24 seconds of tough defense. Defensively, the Celtics need to communicate much more than they have been as of late, and show some energy. The Kings are a team that want to run up and down and try to win the game by shooting the lights out. The Celtics need to set and control the pace.

Last years Rookie of the Year and the Kings leading scorer, Tyreke Evans, is a maybe for tonight. He's missed the last couple of games with a sprained ankle. If he does play, Evans is a tough match. He's big and strong, and a dynamic scorer. Demarcus Cousins is another potentially difficult match up, but he's an interesting case. I'd say that he's likely to become more of a problem in a couple of years, because he's really young and pretty immature right now. Faults aside, he's very talented and at 6'11 and 270, Baby will have his hands full trying to match him. KG is probably still a no go for tonight, but we can all agree he shouldn't rush back.

In happier news, here's a video of Delonte West back on the basketball court, putting up shots!

Résumer: Celtics Vs. T'Wolves, game 33

The bottom line: This one was ugly, but a win is a win. The Celtics played from behind for 46 minutes and I sat around waiting for them to wake up, before showing up in the final 2 minutes, just in time to keep everyone on edge and win the game. You know. The usual.


Player of the game: Preface: It might become apparent as I keep blogging that I don't like Von Wafer. This is due to the fact that he has the tendency to only talk to naked women on twitter in an apparent effort to.... err.. connect... with them. However, I'm a grown up, so I should at least make the effort to make the distinction between what he does in his personal life and what he does on the court. That being said, the player of the game for last nights less than beautiful effort goes to both Von Wafer (for reaching double figures ((10 points)) for the first time in a Celtic uniform, forcing a rare 5 second violation in the beginning of the 4th frame and finishing with a team high +15... meaning that everyone else in Green played well while we was on the floor), and Paul Pierce (for having a monster second half and giving the team energy: 18 of his 23 points and 5 of his 6 rebounds came after the intermission. It never gets old!).

Tommy quote of the night: "IT WASN'T PRETTY BUT WHO NEEDS AN OIL PAINTING AT THIS POINT?" This came after Rondo squeezed the ball to Shaq at the end of the 4th, and Shaq managed to find the sunlight and lay the ball in.

Other goodies: Delonte West got his cast off. I can't wait to get this guy back. It will help everyone out, and we have some weary bodies hanging around. He also shared that since the cast was removed, he was able to wash his hand and get rid of the smell of Cheetos. Yum. Thanks.