CELTICS GREEN BLOG by and for boston celtics fans: Celtics Bench to Take on Cavs in Preseason Finale

Boston Celtics (5-2) at Cleveland Cavaliers (4-3)
Wednesday, October 21
7:00 PM ET
TV: CSN HD, LP 752
Value City Arena, Columbus, Ohio
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Doc has said that he is going to sit out his starters in this game. He doesn't want his veterans to get hurt by young players trying too hard to make a team. So, I don't have a clue who will sit and who Doc will play. He may even start his regular 5 and sit them after a few minutes. After Doc spent 2 days talking about about how he was going to start Marquis Daniels and then starting Rondo anyway, anything can happen.

So, here are your Boston Celtics and 5 will start and 11 will not. That's as close to a prediction as I can make.
Ray Allen
Tony Allen (ankle) out
Marquis Daniels
Big Baby Davis
Kevin Garnett
JR Giddens
Eddie House
Lester Hudson
Kendrick Perkins
Paul Pierce
Rajon Rondo
Brian Scalabrine
Bill Walker (knee) out
Rasheed Wallace
Shelden Williams
Mike Sweetney (flu) out

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This is the Cavaliers final game before the regular season as well. However, the Cavs are in a much different place as a team than the Celtics are. The Cavs have had flu and injuries deplete their team and so they haven't been able to see their starters play together or get any kind of regular rotation going. Mike Brown has said that he plans to start what he hopes to be his regular starters of LeBron, Varejao, Shaq, Parker, and Williams since they haven't gotten that much time as a team will all the flu and injuries. But then again, who knows.

Here's the enemy. Again, 5 will start, 13 will not
Andre Barrett (flu) day to day
Daniel Gibson (tail bone) out
Daniel Green (gluteus) out
JJ Hickson (flu) day to day
Zydrunas Ilgauskas
Darnell Jackson
LeBron James
Coby Karl
Jamario Moon
Shaquille O'Neal
Anthony Parker
Leon Powe (knee) out
Russell Robinson
Anderson Varejao (flu) day to day
Darryl Watkins
Delonte West (personal) questionable
Jawad Williams
Mo Williams

Team Connections
Leon Powe and Delonte West are former Celtics
West was drafted by the Celtics with the 24th overall pick in the 2004 Draft
Powe played for the Celtics from 2006-09
Paul Pierce and Darnell Jackson are former KansasJayhawks
Daniel Green, Jawad Williams and Rasheed Wallace are former North Carolina Tar Heels
Shaquille O’Neal and Glen Davis both attended Louisiana State. Here is a little something from the Boston Globe about the relationship between Big Baby and Shaq and about when Big Baby got to meet his idol.

Quote:

Shaq jokingly calls Davis, who followed in his footsteps at LSU, "my son."
"I was 14 or 15, and I went to his house and I was hanging with Shaq," Davis says. "He says to me, 'Let's go outside and wrestle.' We started wrestling. I pinned him down. He couldn't budge me."
The 7-1, 325-pound O'Neal confirms the story.
"He picked me up and body-slammed me," says Shaq. "That's when I knew he was for real."

Game Notes.
Doc has said that he will probably play Perk and Rondo but I imagine Pierce, KG, and Ray will sit and possibly even Sheed.

Both teams are playing in back to back games. The Celtics are coming off a 108-103 loss to the Knicks while the Cavs are coming off a 96-66 blowout win over the Mavs. In their next to the last games, the Cavs were building intensity especially on the defensive end with a blow out, the Celtics appeared lackluster, especially on the defensive end. This game could prove to be just as lopsided as Doc is planning to rest his veterans while Mike Brown plans on playing his regular rotation.

What to watch in this incredibly meaningless game.
We will see a lot of the bench in this game and so we need to watch who stands out and who seems to lag behind.

Look for chemistry and execution among the bench players and how their games are meshing. We need to see more defensive effort from the bench.

Cavaliers foolishness. When last we played this team the Cavs players were taunting and putting on a show and dancing on the sidelines. Will they continue to do more of the same or have more of a professional decorum on the bench?

Important fact
It is now just 6 days until the start of the regular season.

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