Desperate times call for desperate measures.
And right now there is no desperate measure quite like Shaquille O’Neal.
Boston coach Doc Rivers told the media today that Shaq would be a go in Game 3 Saturday at the Boston Garden, tweets A. Sherrod Blakely at CSN New England. Rivers also said that the rest of the banged up Celtics — Rajon Rondo, Paul Pierce, really pretty much all of them — will play in Game 3, too.
I get your skepticism on Shaq. I do. (We remember how many times we heard KG was coming back from the Celtics in 2009.) But I tend to believe this is going to happen. The Celtics are desperate for a change and they have had three days off between games to rest him. Shaq will not start but will play.
This could be good news, but how good is in question.
The Heat have had their best success this season when they have gone small, with Chris Bosh at the four and Joel Anthony at the five. Shaq changes that — even at this age and as hobbled as he is, Shaq can post up and back down Anthony, scoring quite easily over the undersized center. He will force the Heat to adjust to Boston for the first time this series.
Problem is, how much can Shaq really play. He has played 5 minutes of game time since February, and this is a player not exactly known for his conditioning in the first place. Can he go 10 minutes?
From how the first two games of this series looked, 10 minutes of Shaq is not going to be enough without some other dynamic changes for Boston
