Jones-ing to play: Newcomer deals with hamstring woes

["Stephen Beauregard" <sb@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Jones-ing to play: Newcomer deals with hamstring woes
By Steve Bulpett/Celtics Notebook
Wednesday, October 15, 2003

Jumaine Jones is trying to look on the bright side. He won't be on the court
tonight in Auburn Hills, Mich., when the Celtics play the Pistons in their
fourth preseason game, and he probably won't be available for another week and
a half.

     But if there is a positive spin to be put on a pair of hamstring
problems, the small forward acquired from Cleveland can do it.

     ``Better now than during the season,'' said Jones, who was one of the
hits of training camp before he started hobbling. ``It's never good to get an
injury, but if you have to have one, it's better to get it before we really
get started. I just hate that I can't be out there getting most of the stuff
down. But I'm a pretty fast learner, so I can pretty much learn a lot on the
side. But it's not as good if I'm not out there, because it's going to take
time when I get back with the conditioning and get back into shape again.

     ``The most frustrating thing for me is that I'm the kind of guy that it's
hard for me to be around basketball and not be able to play - especially when
you're seeing areas where you can help the team a lot.''

     Jones probably won't be helping for a while. After injuring his right
hamstring because he was pushing things with the left, he believes it's not
time to get right.

     ``I'm not trying to rush into it,'' he said. ``I want to make sure I'm
fully healthy before I come back. The left one was bothering me a lot, and
then I tore the right one. I was pretty much trying to drag the left one
through two-a-days and tore the right one.''

     Elsewhere on the injury beat, Walter McCarty [news] (sore right knee) sat
out yesterday's practice, but could be working out with the team this morning
in Michigan.

     Tony Delk (sore calves) probably won't play in any of the three preseason
games this week, according to coach Jim O'Brien.

     Asked if the rest was a precautionary tool, O'Brien said, ``If this was
the regular season, he wouldn't play.''

     Cleaves leaves

     The Celtics released guard Mateen Cleaves yesterday, getting their roster
down to 15. There are 14 players under contract for the coming season and
guard Rusty LaRue remaining.

     ``We're just narrowing it down,'' C's director of operations Danny Ainge
said. ``The reason we released Mateen and have kept Rusty so far is that Rusty
has been playing more (2-guard) than 1 in practice, and Tony Delk is injured
so we need a shooter in practice.

     ``Mateen is a player that we would certainly consider in the future, but
we just don't have a roster spot for him right now.''

     Starts and stops

     The Celts worked on their fast break (emphasizing quick first and second
passes), their zone offense and defense, and situations with the shot clock
winding down. Against the Pistons, O'Brien is looking for improvement on
defense overall.

     ``You want to see growth defensively,'' he said. ``The thing that
concerned me about the first three games (losses to Detroit, Chicago and
Indiana) was that we worked so much on that first and second pass on the break
and we did good at that. We worked hard on defense and didn't look that good,
so we need to see growth at the defensive end.''

     The C's play Friday night at New Jersey and meet the Pacers Saturday
night in Manchester, N.H.
Thanks,

Steve
sb@xxxxxxxxxxxx