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| English: Kevin Garnett playing with the Minnesota Timberwolves (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
As Doc Rivers motioned for him to sub out, Kevin Garnett desperately wanted to stay in, begging his Boston Celtics coach that he had enough left in the tank. Perhaps Rivers would have caved to Garnett’s plead in past years, but not this Saturday night and, most of all, not this season.
“That’s never going to happen,” Rivers adamantly told Garnett on the sideline as he walked over to try to state his case with just over seven minutes left in the fourth quarter and the Milwaukee Bucks leading 71-68.
Indeed, Garnett didn’t get his wish. He has played 17 rugged NBA seasons, but there’s been no fluctuation with his drive. Over and over, Garnett has declared this season that there would have been no point in returning on a three-year contract extension if he took each game lightly. And he’ll privately make clear he’s refreshed, stable in the mind to take a beating inside night in and out.
The Celtics’ new plan for Garnett this season, however, goes against all the principles that have kept this proud, mighty veteran going strong at age of 36. They’ve installed a 30-minutes-per-night regimen, with a desire to keep it even lower. Yes, Garnett played 35 minutes on Wednesday against Washington, but that came after four days off and with two days before the next game.
Had Rivers stuck with Garnett at that seven-minute, 13-second mark on the second night of a back-to-back Saturday, Garnett would have eclipsed 32 minutes for the game. Instead, Garnett went to the bench and returned over two minutes later, with 5:05 left in a tie game.
Rivers was still seething in a hallway outside the Celtics’ locker room after a 96-92 win over the Bucks, shaking his head toward the topic of Garnett’s minutes. As difficult as it has been for Garnett to accept the team’s new plan, Rivers is finding it equally as challenging to assure his minutes hover around – or under – 30 minutes in an effort to sustain his energy over a full season. It is testing his discipline, and when he took a glance at the box score and saw Garnett had surpassed the 30-minute mark by 46 seconds on Saturday, Rivers let out a sigh and simply revealed:
“It’s hard to [manage]; you have no idea how hard that is to know you have 30 minutes to play with. It’s hard. And honestly we want to get it under that. Our goal this year is 27 [minutes per game].”
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