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Notes from shootaround

Print | Comments () Posted by Julian Benbow, Globe Staff December 10, 2009 01:23 PM

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WASHINGTON -- After cancelling practice yesterday because of the snow, the Celtics held a rare shootaround this morning in McDonough Arena at Georgetown University, prepping for their matchup with the Wizards tonight at Verizon Center.

A couple quick notes:

*Tony Allen isn't rushing anything.

"I'm a work in progress," he said. "Conditioning, getting my legs back under me. Just getting my explosiveness back, my first step. That's basically what I'm working at."

He isn't trying to feel any pressure because of the hole in the rotation created by Marquis Daniels wrist surgery

"Marquis ain't got nothing to do with no sense of urgency about me. The whole thing is about winning a championship. Whatever I can do and put on the table and help us win a championship I'm going to do. Marquis ain't got nothing to do with me. I'm available, and I'm going to step forward."

Doc said he'd keep Allen in a specific role and see how he'd handle it physically.

"I'm glad he did say that,"I don't know if I can even play 13 minutes. I don't know if my ankle can take 15 minutes right now at this point. But once I get that opportunity, I'm going to go for it."

*Doc Rivers touched on the similarities, differences, and difficulties in Kevin Garnett's recovery and the Wizards' frequently injured Gilbert Arenas.

"Gilbert probably moreso because it's two years and mostly the whole season," Rivers said. "Where Kevin is one year and half of that year. But I just think it takes time. You're healthy, but you don't get you legs back right away. Some days you look great and some days you don't. That's just the way it is."

*Ray Allen is 14 shy of the 20,000-point plateau, which Gary Washburn covered this morning. But Allen touched on it a little again.

"It's a summation of all of them. It's interesting how basketball's such a team sport but it's governed by so many individual statistics. I'm just grateful I've had great teammates, I've had great coaches, and I've had pretty good organizations, and that's helped me be where I am today.

*Rajon Rondo packed his Kentucky sweat suit, which looked a lot better after the Wildcats' win last night over Connecticut.

"I'm just a bandwagoner," he joked. "I just started watching them last night."

He was impressed not only with freshman John Wall but also by the style of play John Calipari's got his former team playing.

"I knew the tempo would change," Rondo said. "Being in Memphis, what he did before he got to Memphis and the caliber of players her brought in. You heard about it but you actually got to see it these past couple of games so it's fun to watch."

As for the Wizards, "disappointing" sounds like the right word. They're at the bottom of the Southeast Division. They're 7-12, and their team president Ernie Grunfeld swears he's reading that record backward, and their head coach Flip Saunders scrapped everything and went back to the basics. How basic? He's reteaching how to set screens.