“This team was crazy close” said Doc Rivers, in what was the aftermath reflection of his team’s Game 7 defeat. "We had to keep subbing him for one minute and two minutes, and I thought the reason we got up early was because of Rasheed Wallace. We got in the low post, he started scoring, and I thought what happend was late in the game he got tired and had the injuries and we couldn't go down anymore, and I think that had a huge impact on how we were playing. We had to go away from the post almost because of fatigue. It's the first time all year that you can actually say, at the end of the day, we were old at the end of the game because we didn't have enough bodies. I thought it hurt us" (Doc Rivers). There is no quote that could more accurately sum up the devastating championship loss, as the Celtics just didn't have enough horses at the end.
In the Championship season of 2007/2008 the Boston Celtics were able to attain Banner 17 because they had contributions from a whole host of players on the roster. P.J. Brown, Leon Powe, Sam Cassell, Tony Allen, Glen Davis, Eddie House, and James Posey gave the Celtics a team that was twelve men deep. In this year's playoff run the bench contributions came from Nate Robinson, Glen Davis, Rasheed Wallace, and Tony Allen. Marquis Daniels and Michael Finley were capable contributors, but were never truly intregrated into the team. There is no way for me to say that they would have won Game 7 with these men playing, but this lack of depth truly hurt the Celtics.
With Rasheed coming off the bench Boston had enough depth, but this was no longer true when Kendrick Perkins went down with a season ending injury. When Sheed was forced to become a starter the depth of the team and bench suffered severely. The bench was now only three players deep with Nate, Tony, and Baby and as Doc Rivers said without Perkins available, Rasheed grew fatigued. As we all saw in 2008, to win a title you need star players, but you also need a roster that can delve down into the depth chart for contributions. That year the NBA Title went to the team that was twelve men deep, the Boston Celtics.This true team depth is needed even more so if you are trying to defeat a younger, bigger, and more talented team such as the Lakers.
In Game 7 of the 2010 NBA Finals the Celtics were only eight men deep and they were unable to win. Doc's lack of trust in Nate Robinson and Tony Allen (only giving them nine minutes combined) was evident. Also, there were no true back ups at the center or power forward positions with Perkins being hurt. His absecne and the absecne of the starting five is what lost the game. "I told our guys this, the starting lineup still hasn't lost. It was a shame we didn't have that starting lineup tonight. But I told them, you're still yet to have a true chance to defend your title because Perk wasn't there." (Doc Rivers). How do you pick up the pieces from this loss and move on? Bring back the starting lineup of the Big Four and Perkins, add some new pieces to the bench, and embark on another title quest.
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