I feel bad for the Celtics fans who paid good money to see this glorified exhibition tonight.
I understand resting guys, and I'm fine with it, just sucks for the fans in attendance.
I actually enjoyed seeing Marquis Daniels have his only good game of the year. For those who are not Celtics junkies:
Last year, Daniels was an indispensable seventh man for the Celtics. When he had that spine injury that really looked like a career ender, the Celtics had absolutely no one to plug into his role, which was a factor in their oft criticized decision to trade Perkins for Jeff Green. That trade was only a bad trade in hindsight, as no one knew that Shaq and Jermaine had career ending injuries and that Jeff Green would have a contract-voiding disability.
Anyway, Daniels came back completely physically, but played like he was discombobulated early in the year and played his way into regular DNP status. I remember thinking that the Celtics should move him into the development league, just so he could play 30 minutes a game to get his rhythm back. Well, tonight, he got it back, and I don't mean because he outplayed the other team's subs. His court awareness was unbelievable. Even though he was playing with combinations that had never played together before, he just knew exactly where every one of his teammates was on both offense and defense. Some NBA team is going to make him into their seventh or eighth man next year.
Now the Celtics need Dallas to beat Atlanta on Thursday, but unfortunately, probably the most meaningless seeding joust every year is the one to determine who is sixth and who is seventh, because if you are seeded sixth, you are bracketed to meet 3, 2 and then 1, whereas if you are seeded seventh, you are bracketed to meet 2, 3 and then 1. Dallas wiil be better served by resting their weary and wounded players.
