March 10th, 2010
Celtics notes: Finley now playing for his childhood hero
No Comments, nowplaying, by .By A. Sherrod BlakelyCSNNE.com
BOSTON as a kid, Michael Finley literally grew up looking up to Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers, who, at the time, was a star basketball player at Proviso East High School just outside Chicago.
Like Rivers, Finley would later star at Proviso East. And like Rivers, Finley went on to a standout college career and from there, the NBA.
“I remember literally the day he was born,” Rivers said. “Sandra [Finley's sister] was the captain of our cheerleading team for three years. she had to babysit him all the time. I remember everything about him; watched him in grade school, high school and college at Wisconsin.”
Rivers added, “one of the things that I’ve always admired from afar is how he has carried himself. he was a fantastic student at Proviso East and in college, and he has carried himself in a great way in the NBA. Every coach that coached him, loves him, loves his character. everyone says how good he is in the locker room. When you can add that, you go ahead and grab it.”
And while there were several reasons Finley wanted to play for the Celtics, having a chance to be around Rivers ranked high on his list.
“I’ve watched his career as a basketball player and as a coach,” Finley said. “And it’s definitely an honor for me to play for him.”
When the trading deadline passed and Ray Allen was still with the Celtics, no one had a sense if that was necessarily a good thing.
Well, Danny Ainge’s faith in Allen has paid off handsomely for the C’s.
Since the deadline, Allen has been the Celtics’ top scorer with an 18.7 points per game average. on Sunday, he led the way once again with a game-high 25 points that included the game-winning shot with 17 seconds to play.
Allen, like most of the Celtics, has been dealing with an assortment of bumps and bruises. Shortly before the All-Star break, he missed one game due to a sore back.
“You know we’re all dealing with different types of physical stuff,” said Kevin Garnett. “[Ray] is no different than that. At the same time, he had talks of business, about where he was going to be in his future and stuff. I can just tell that he is a lot more healthier. everything that he is doing is a lot more fluid.”
Allen has repeatedly dismissed his improvement as having any correlation with the trading deadline passing with him remaining a Celtic.
“I don’t attribute it to anything,” Allen said. “The team is coming to me a little bit where everybody’s moving the ball and playing the right way.”
Kendrick Perkins had 12 points on Sunday. Although he came into the game averaging 10.8 points per game, he had failed to reach double figures scoring in seven of Boston’s previous 10 games.
Tony Allen played just over two minutes in the first half, but did not play afterward. “I just went away from him,” Rivers said.
Allen returned to the Celtics lineup after missing the previous game because of a hip injury.
Although Wizards coach Flip Saunders was clearly disappointed in his team’s fourth-quarter collapse, much of his frustration seemed to be directed toward Andray Blatche for trash-talking with Kevin Garnett, a former player of Saunders’ in Minnesota. When asked about the play of point guard Randy Foye near the end of the game, Saunders said, “bad decisions, Randy and everybody bad decisions. ‘Dray had terrible decisions, ‘Dray is wolfing the whole time to Kevin Garnett. You can’t do those things. It’s a learning process.”
Boston hasn’t won four games to start a month since December when they reeled off seven straight.
“You have a veteran team that knows how to close out games. Against a young team that hasn’t been there and instead of justletting a sleeping dog lie, we just juiced up their energies.” – Washington Wizards coach Flip Saunders.
A. Sherrod Blakely can be reached at sblakely@comcastsportsnet.com. Follow Sherrod on Twitter at http://twitter.com/sherrodb
Republican file photoSeveral sources are reporting that former Red Sox star Nomar Garciaparra will sign a one-year, minor-league contract with Boston today so that he can retire as a member of the team.
