Post by FLCeltsFan on Jan 14, 2009 7:41:49 GMT -5
www.bostonherald.com/sports/basketball/celtics/view.bg?articleid=1145196&format=text
Brian Scalabrine gets his shot
Backup finds life as a starter rewarding
By Mark Murphy | Wednesday, January 14, 2009 | www.bostonherald.com | Boston Celtics
Photo by Matthew West
Brian Scalabrine fouled out Sunday in Toronto, and for a player making only his second start of the season, the big DQ was not a badge of honor.
So the Celtics [team stats] forward, who has engaged with Sam Cassell in an ongoing joust of one-on-one before each game, went back to the workshop Monday.
“This time I played no touch against him, and he whipped my (butt) 7-6 and 5-3,” Scalabrine said.
Two points about that no-touch rule - based on Cassell’s non-stop chatter during these duels, the Celtics guard probably screamed for the foul each time he drove on hands-off Scalabrine, anyway. Scalabrine also couldn’t have found a better way to prepare for his third start of the year, which resulted in a season-high 11-point, two-trey performance in 28 minutes.
He had only three fouls, and right now the ability to stay on the floor is going to be one of Scalabrine’s greatest virtues.
Kendrick Perkins [stats], still suffering from a strained left shoulder, will not play until sometime next week. Scalabrine may or may not start tonight against his old team, the Nets. Rookie center Brook Lopez is a more rugged, power-oriented opponent than anyone the Raptors put on the floor during the last two games.
But with Perkins out, Scalabrine plays a huge role in coach Doc Rivers’ attempt to spread those Perk minutes elsewhere.
As usual with Scalabrine, it’s the little things like defense, more than the scoring and shooting, that count right now. The fact that he’s chasing Cassell around the floor during warmups each night is starting to pay a big dividend.
“I wouldn’t be in the position I am right now,” said Scalabrine, who in the wake of Monday’s game is now 10-2 as a Celtics starter over the last two seasons.
Consider what happened Monday night when Scalabrine rotated onto Andrea Bargnani, Toronto’s perimeter-clinging 7-footer. On at least three occasions the Italian big man fruitlessly attempted to free up for a deep jumper with an up-fake. Each time Scalabrine, holding his ground, forced Bargnani to pass out of a situation where he normally shoots.
“Who in the world up-fakes more than Sam Cassell?” Scalabrine said. “He is the up-fake king.”
The good news for Scalabrine is that even if he starts tonight against Lopez, he knows that he simply will be asked to do the same things.
“I don’t go into a game with a different mindset at all,” he said. “If I go in trying to replace Kendrick Perkins, and what he does, then I’m not going to be successful. I have to approach everything the same. That’s exactly what Doc tells me to do, to be the same.”
As a result, the benefits flow like honey.
Scalabrine, as evidenced by the three jumpers he buried Monday night, is in a groove. Though his two 3-pointers were deadly, his best looking shot was an 18-footer, a shot he swished after first faking a bounce pass out to Paul Pierce [stats] at the top of the circle.
“I’m just taking advantage of playing with the ‘A’ group right now,” he said. “It’s just so easy to play basketball with these great players around me.”
