After grabbing the backup center job with a strong second half of the season, Greg Stiemsma has been losing some minutes to Ryan Hollins in Doc Rivers' rotation. Hollins has played 41 minutes the last four games after not playing at all in Game 1 and saw the court for 19 minutes in Game 5 to Stiemsma's four.
"The other guy is playing better," Rivers said meaning Hollins. "It’s a competition, always, and Ryan is playing terrific for us. Ryan’s minutes on the floor with Kevin [Garnett] are unbelievable. When you put him and Kevin on the floor together that’s our best defensive team."
The numbers back up Rivers' assertion. In 16 defensive possessions with Garnett and Hollins in the frontcourt, the Celtics have given up just 11 points and scored twenty five.
Rivers also said that he thought about making a lineup shift to take Avery Bradley off Joe Johnson, but ultimately decided to keep things as they are.
"Yeah, we’ve thought about it," Rivers said. "Avery’s a young kid and even if we have to make a move early we’d rather do that then take him out of the lineup."
For more Celtics news, visit the team page at weei.com/celtics [1].
Links:
[1] http://www.weei.com/teams/celtics/home
[2] http://www.weei.com/category/boston/celtics