Honorable mention for Posey
Celtics forward James Posey finished eighth in the Sixth Man of the Year award voting announced yesterday, receiving three second-place votes. Posey, who averaged 7.4 points and 4.4 rebounds per game in his first season in Boston, was third on 10 ballots and fourth on 19 others.
San Antonio's Manu Ginobili won the award, receiving 123 of a possible 124 first-place votes from a nationwide panel of sportswriters and broadcasters.
"I'm just doing my role the best I can," Posey said. "It's all about winning. It's not about numbers."
Other Celtics will be in the mix for postseason awards. Kevin Garnett is a candidate for Most Valuable Player, Defensive Player of the Year, and All-NBA honors, Paul Pierce also has a shot at the All-NBA team, and Rajon Rondo has a chance to be named the Most Improved Player.
Because Posey and his teammates generally don't accumulate gaudy statistics, coach Doc Rivers said he won't be surprised if his players don't do well in the individual awards.
"Pose should be higher in that voting," Rivers said. "He just doesn't do it a flashy way, he does it in a role-playing way. Unfortunately, that's probably going to hurt all our players with whatever the awards are out there. It will hurt our guys because of that. We are a role-playing basketball team.
"Everybody buys in and they do it unselfishly . . . You have to see them to appreciate them, you really do, and [many of] the voters don't [on a regular basis]."
Notable absence
Garnett was absent from yesterday's practice and has missed three of the past four to tend to personal matters. Rivers said Garnett is expected to attend today's practice . . . Hawks forward Josh Smith didn't sleep well Saturday night after suffering an allergic reaction to something he ate at the team's Cambridge hotel, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution . . . Rivers got an unexpected wakeup call at his downtown condo, courtesy of the Boston Marathon. "I got caught off-guard from the sirens going off at 8:15. It didn't matter. I had to get up anyway. It's great. It's right outside my apartment so it's cool." . . . The Hawks practiced at TD Banknorth Garden and then watched film at their hotel.
Respect for the Sixers
Rivers, on the Sixers' 90-86 win over the Pistons in Game 1 Sunday night: "They're dangerous. They beat us the same way [a 95-90 Sixers victory March 24 at the Garden]. If you let them hang around, they are going to beat you. They're athletic." . . . TNT analyst Charles Barkley sees one difference between the Celtics and Pistons, the top two seeds in the East: "We never know which Detroit team is going to show up. In the first half [Sunday] you saw good Detroit, and in the second half you saw bad Detroit. The Celtics play the same music all the time. The Pistons play hip-hop, then jazz, then hip-hop, then jazz. They are up and down all the time." . . . Although the game also aired on TNT,
Marc J. Spears can be reached at mspears@globe.com
