Payton faces painful dilemma: play or rest
WALTHAM -- Point guard Gary Payton underwent an MRI yesterday that revealed "no acute change" since the beginning of the season, according to a team spokesman.
Payton, who lasted just 20 minutes of the nearly two-hour practice earlier in the day at HealthPoint, has been experiencing sciatic nerve pain. He will continue physical therapy with the medical staff and undergo a chiropractic evaluation.
Despite the ongoing pain, Payton logged 38 minutes last Saturday night in a 105-99 overtime loss at Detroit, the Celtics' third consecutive loss after seven straight wins. Coach Doc Rivers said prior to Payton's exam that he's "leaning more and more each day on shutting him down, but I'll let the doctors tell me first. It's a concern. A big concern. Once the pain gets below your kneecap, when the back's involved, that's running a course you don't want to run. How is he playing? Because he's Gary Payton."
Rivers said 90 percent of the players in the NBA probably would't be suiting up in a similar situation, but player and coach are in a Catch-22 situation. The more Payton sits, said Rivers, the worse he feels. But with more playing time, Rivers worries about the age and fatigue factor.
"It's not a great situation right now," said Rivers, whose team will face the Dallas Mavericks tomorrow night at the FleetCenter. "We met as a [coaching] staff today, and all we talked about was Gary's situation. As a coach, I have to prepare for that."
Rivers dismissed any thoughts of the team getting reacquainted with another veteran point guard, Kenny Anderson, who was released Friday for the second time this season, this time by the Clippers.
"I would rather play my young guys than go out and get a guy who's been sitting out, not ready, not good enough, or doesn't fit," said Rivers. "The worst-case scenario is if our young guys [Delonte West and Marcus Banks] don't perform well, they still get great experience. I would rather let them go through that than go through a short-term fix."
Rivers said that if the 36-year-old Payton, who is averaging 32.9 minutes per game, needs time off, West would most likely start. Banks would come off the bench to add speed to the second unit.
Antoine Walker said he spoke to Payton at yesterday's practice and suggested that rest and treatment, for the short term, could help the Celtics in the long term.
"If I were in his position," said Walker, "I'd want to play. But we need him for the playoffs. You can tell he can't be as aggressive as he wants to be on the court."
Improvement seen
Now 11-4 since the trade with Altanta for Walker, the Celtics at least showed signs of playing better as a team in the loss to the Pistons. "We played a good game Saturday night," said Walker, "and we had ample opportunities to win. Now we need to win because the race is so tight. We've let Philly back in because we're not executing as well as we need to and we're playing from behind too much." Walker said the Celtics "got killed" in their 107-82 loss in New York last week and that "the Bulls took it to us" in Friday's 94-86 defeat at the FleetCenter. "But against Detroit, we played well enough to win and came up short." Walker said that while he hasn't shot well the last couple of games, "that happens in the course of the season. When you win, you kind of overlook a lot of things, but when you lose, you tend to pinpoint every little thing. But we haven't scored the way we're capable of scoring. We haven't had a lot of baskets in transition and we have to get back to running." Walker, a former Maverick, said his old team spaces the floor well, is improved defensively, and has one of the league's top five players in Dirk Nowitzki, who had 29 points and 11 rebounds in a 113-94 rout of the visiting Celtics Dec. 28.
Pick your spots
Rivers was worried about his team's shot selection well before the recent skid. "It's been happening the last 2-2 1/2 weeks," he said. "I complained about it before the Houston game [March 18], except up to that point, the ball was going in the basket. You can win a game by making the game-winning play and not necessarily the game-winning shot." . . . Rivers called the Mavericks "as good a team offensively as you're going to see. They're not trying to disguise anything. They try to run a pick-and-roll with Nowitzki. If you trap, he pops and gets a three. If you switch off, he has a size advantage. We know exactly what they want to do. They know you know and they feel you can't stop him. So we have to find a way to slow him down."
