Re: [Celtic_Pride] battie update

[Hironaka <j.hironaka@unesco.org>]

kevin from singapore wrote:

> today's herald. Does not seem like Battie is going to play at all next week. From
> OB's description, seemed more like another 3 weeks at least.
>
> Celtics notes
> The timetable of Tony Battie's return seemed to be on the move again yesterday.
> The Celtics center hasn't played since badly spraining his left ankle against
> Orlando on Dec. 30, and the severity of the injury has made a comeback more
> difficult than first anticipated and hoped.
> Battie didn't take full part in the club's practice yesterday, though he did spend
> some time afterward working on his shot.
> O'Brien sounded a note of caution, saying, ``I believe Tony is a long way off.
> That's what I think. I don't know when he'll be back. He was on the treadmill a
> lot the last two days and it's sore to the point he's been gone almost two months
> now.
> ``He hasn't been involved in any of our defensive schemes or any of our offensive
> schemes, and we hope he can start practicing this week. But our practices are very
> short and very intense. We don't walk up and down the court. We try to push it and
> play tough defense, and when he's capable of doing that and not really holding
> back, then we'll practice him.
> ``We want him to be back on this team as quickly as possible, but he's still not
> walking right, let alone running up and down the court or sliding side to side.''

    Fair enough, it does sound like Batgirl is still limping, but how long did it take
Antoine or Pierce to come back from a "serious ankle sprain" for the sake of the team?
He's missed 27 games to date, which sounds a bit on the high end for that sort of
injury, but I'm not any kind of expert.

    Prior to his injury Battie led or tied for the team lead in rebounds on 9
occasions in 30 games played (12-18 record). He leads the team in two key categories:
blocks at 1.9 per game and FG% at .553 (the only player shooting above .500). He is
also second on the team in rebounds (7.2), offensive rebounds (2.3) and rebounds per
minute (1 every 3.6 minutes).

    Jerome "Who let the Frog out" Moiso actually leads Boston in rebounds-per-minute
at 1 every 3.25 minutes, while Pots leads in offensive boards with 2.5 in 23 minutes.

    At center and power forward, the four principles (Walker, Pots, Battie and Blount)
have combined for 10.3 minutes above what is available per game (96 minutes), so Obie
will need to make some decisions about playing time there.

    If Obiewon sticks with an 8-man rotation down the stretch, than presumably most of
Blount's 15.7 minutes could disappear. But a lot of people assumed Palacio's PT would
also disappear once Kenny and Herren both came back, yet Palacio was the only guard
called off the bench in the Seattle sweep game.

    I think Pots, Battie and Blount will each just lose a couple of minutes of playing
time each (10.3 is not that much to spread around).  It also might not hurt Antoine's
overall effectiveness if he got back under 40 minutes per game.

     Eric Williams (20.1 mpg) has gotten occasional power forward minutes, but it
seems less likely that his playing time will be affected by Batgirl's return, since
"Erica" has been one of the three top defenders (with Stith and Brown). Moiso and
Waltah have a combined 56 DNPs to date and climbing.

Beat the Knicks!

Joe

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