Boston Celtics

Doc’s pregame report

By Gary Dzen

2 minutes to read

Tony Allen and Kendrick Perkins are out tonight. But don’t expect to see Sam Cassell coming off the bench with the Celtics shorthanded. Doc Rivers was asked before tonight’s game if he was concerned at all that Cassell has yet to play a game for the Celtics this season.

“No, I’m not,” Rivers said frankly. “He plays every day in practice…He’ll have his time. P.J. Brown didn’t play until March last year, and didn’t work out. Sam at least is looking at our offense every day, knows our system every day, is actually playing almost every day.”

Is Cassell riding the pine to get Gabe Pruitt more playing time?

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“It really has nothing to do with Gabe [Pruitt],” said Rivers. “It’s more for me, trying to get Sam through the season. We’ll find out if he can help us or not. I think he can. We’ll find out more later, but right now I just don’t see the need.”

  • Kendrick Perkins is out of tonight’s game with that left shoulder injury, and he has already been ruled out of Saturday’s game in New Jersey. Perkins “hopes” to be back for Monday night’s game against the Suns.

    “Why would anybody hope to play against Shaq?” Rivers asked. “That makes me question Perk. Obviously it would hurt us if he doesn’t, but I’m not going to play him until [trainer] Eddie [Lacerte] and Dr. McKeon tells me he’s ready. That’s one, because it’s Shaq and Amare Stoudemire…it would hurt us in a big way, of all the games, not to have him.”

    Perkins did some light shooting before the game and said he will continue to work out on his own when the team practices this weekend. He asked the trainer for some ice for his shoulder after working out before tonight’s game.

  • Tonight marks the 41st game of the season for the Celtics, marking the exact halfway point of the regular season.

    “Great record,” Rivers said when asked to summarize the first half. “Our young guys are improving. Before the year if someone had said your record is where it’s at, I wouldn’t complain about it. So yeah, I’m happy.”

    Rajon Rondo echoed his coach’s sentiments, saying he was satisfied with his team’s record despite the recent skid.

    “Hopefully we won’t have another stretch like that the rest of the year,” said Rondo.

  • Rondo said he is learning Spanish during his free time on the road. He said he “doesn’t want to stop learning” and gets bored on the road. Rondo estimates he spends 1-2 hours per day on his language lessons.

    “I tried French in college but I had to focus on the NCAA tournament,” said Rondo.

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