Shaq will play in Game 3
Shaquille O’Neal will play for the Celtics tonight in Game 3, according to Celtics coach Doc Rivers. For real. As in, like, actual basketball.
Rivers said O’Neal will not start, and said he didn’t know how many minutes O’Neal might play.
“It’ll just be the eye test,” said Rivers. “Whatever we think he can handle, we’ll give him. … Obviously Shaq can’t do things that he can do 15 years ago. When he does that, it doesn’t go well. But when he comes in and feels the rope of this team he’s terrific for us.
“I don’t think he can hurt us. If he does, we can sub him. I don’t think people understand how much it’s taken him to get back to this point.”
Rivers said Shaq can provide more help to the Celtics on offense, but he also said his size will be useful on the other end, saying, “it’s no fun to drive on Shaq.”
— One big area the Celtics need to make improvements in tonight is making life more difficult for LeBron James and Dwyane Wade. Rivers said about half of the shots made by those two players could have and should have been made more difficult by the Celtics’ defense.
“Great players are going to make shots,” said Rivers. “Nothing you can do about some of them, it’s going to happen. It’s the other ones that we have to do something about.”
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