NEWPORT, R.I. -- Several hundred Celtics fans who filed into the Rodgers Recreation Center Saturday night quickly were treated to something they hadn't seen since March: Kevin Garnett setting a screen for Paul Pierce, popping out to his favorite spot, and draining an 18-foot jumper.
This was during a 30-minute public scrimmage that capped off training camp in this bucolic setting on the Salve Regina University campus, an appropriate backdrop for the job of putting the Celtics back together again. Before it was over, Garnett found Rajon Rondo with a behind-the-back, wrap-around pass for a layup that elicited a sound that was part relief and part delight -- a few hundred speaking for all of New England.
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| 'I don't have any knee problems,' Kevin Garnett says after a 30-minute public scrimmage. (Getty Images) |
"I'm a little injured, or I'm coming off an injury," Garnett said. "I'm not dead. I'm not brain dead. I can still make plays and I can still play defense and I still know how to play. I'm still me, now. I ain't in my grave yet, dog. They ain't shot Ol' Yeller yet. ... Yeah, I can still make a couple plays here and there. I know you guys haven't seen me in a while, but damn. I ain't got that much dust on me."
Neither, Garnett said, was there reason for alarm over a slight limp that was visibly evident to astute observers present in this quaint, band-box gym. Coach Doc Rivers insisted that Garnett was favoring his right leg due to soreness in his calf and shin -- not because of any problem with the surgically repaired knee by which the Celtics' hopes of securing an 18th championship banner will be propelled. My bullshin meter started rattling like a jackhammer when Rivers said this. But fear not, Celtics fans. Garnett himself said it was no B.S.
"I won't [B.S.] you guys or none of that," said Garnett, sitting on the top step leading up from the locker-room bowels of the arena. "If I was hurt, I would tell you. I'm pretty straight up with everything that's going on with me, and I feel good. ... I don't have any knee problems."
He repeated that phrase two more times, either to emphasize it to the four reporters gathered around or for his own peace of mind. And so onward and upward went the Celtics, under a moonlit New England sky. "We're going home!" Rivers shouted to the masses, and the Celtics boarded the team bus bound for Massachusetts. They are fully aware of their own strengths and flaws, not to mention the improvements made by their chief competition.
The Cavaliers got championship pedigree by adding Shaquille O'Neal. The Magic got more dangerous and versatile by adding Vince Carter, Brandon Bass and Matt Barnes. The Celtics did a few things of their own: adding Rasheed Wallace to strengthen a front line that was exposed last season without Garnett, and signing a backup point guard, Marquis Daniels, to spell Rondo without rendering the offense rudderless.
The biggest change, though, is the return of Garnett. Everything, including the road to the 2010 NBA title, goes through him.
"It definitely helps the guys," Rivers said. "It's not like they didn't know, but not having him last year showed them how important he was."
That was only reinforced during one of the practice sessions this week, when Garnett came up limping after taking a knee in his thigh. It was his left thigh, but that didn't stop the terror-filled gazes directed at Rivers by the other two members of the Big Three, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce.
"You could see Paul and Ray thought it was his [right] knee and were looking at me like, ‘Get him out,'" Rivers said. "Because they know how important he is."
Aside from Garnett's barely perceptible limp and the cloud of concern that hangs over him, the Celtics are whole again. If Garnett makes it to June, I'd argue that they're better than the team that beat the Lakers in the Finals two year ago. In the first half of the scrimmage, a starting five of Garnett, Kendrick Perkins, Pierce, Allen, and Rondo had team president Danny Ainge and co-owner Steve Pagliuca practically canoodling on the bench.
In the second half, Wallace replaced Perkins and rendered the first unit just as impenetrable defensively and more unguardable at the other end. Wallace, making his usual fashion statement with cut-off sweats with the pockets turned inside-out, was 6 for 7 from the field in the two sessions.
"He fits us perfect," Rivers said. "We run a lot of pick-and-rolls where one big is rolling at the same time the other one is popping. We force you to make a choice which one you want to guard. When Rasheed's shooting like that, it puts a lot of stress on your defense. We're a hell of a defensive team and we can't guard it. It actually helps us, because when we play those teams like Orlando and Phoenix that stretch the floor, we're getting better every day because we've got to deal with that guy."
The Cavs, Magic and anyone else who chooses to step into the fray also have to deal with a Celtics team that features a presumably healthy Garnett.
"To be honest with everybody here, I'm not even thinking about the injury when I'm playing," Garnett said. "I do all my stuff. I don't play around with my workouts. Even when I'm in my room, I do my calisthenics that I'm supposed to do. I get my treatments. You see me with tape and all this other [stuff] on me, but it's all prevention. Things I couldn't do four or five days ago, I could do today."
That included pushing off his right leg to make a cut or step back for a pick-and-pop jumper. It also included sprinting from end to end and attacking the offensive glass. Trainer Ed Lacerte told Garnett after the scrimmage that it was the best he's looked on the court since the injury.
"Just his presence alone, just out there getting up and down and hearing him yell and talk -– just being Kevin," Pierce said. "That's all you ever want. It's rough when you don't hear his voice in the locker room, when you don't see him pointing, telling and talking on defense. You see such a difference when he's out there, because you know when he's in tune, the defense is in tune. He's our defensive captain. As he goes, we go on the defensive end." Rivers is well aware of the improvements achieved by Cleveland and Orlando this summer, but is emboldened by how the Celtics got better without "upsetting our culture." But there are questions.
Will Wallace embrace a reserve role after spending nearly his entire 14-year career as a starter? "We'll find that out," Rivers said.
Will age and mileage sabotage Boston's plans to raise another banner? Pierce will turn 32 before the regular season tips off, while Garnett is 33 and Allen 34. Gray stubble is another reason Wallace fits in so well; he's 35. But Rondo, 23, came to camp carrying a chiseled 185 pounds, while Pierce said he weighs 233 -- down 12 pounds from his best statistical year, 2005-06, when he averaged 26.8 points and shot 47 percent from the field.
Then there is the biggest question, the one about whether the strength and resilience of Garnett's knee will match the gusto emanating from his mouth. It is a question not even Garnett knows how to answer.
"I don't have a crystal ball," Garnett said. "If I did, I would sit here and do it in front of you. But for the most part, I'm just going to continue to do the things I've been doing to get me up until this point and hope that it takes me over the top."
The rest of the Celtics, a few hundred fans in a cozy practice gym, and all of New England hope for the same.
jbfenway 
