Pregame – KG Will Not Play Tonight Against Charlotte

Paul Pierce got the night off Tuesday night against the Bobcats. This time around, it will be Kevin Garnett.

Garnett will not play in tonight’s game and it’s for a very different reason than the one that had Pierce out of the lineup on Tuesday. Doc Rivers chose to give Pierce that game off simply for rest. Tonight, Rivers is leaving Garnett out of the lineup because he does not think KG is physically ready to play.

“Not because it’s a night off, it’s just he just wasn’t moving well yesterday in practice or today, so we’re sitting him,” Rivers explained.

With Garnett out of the lineup, Jeff Green will again get the call for his third start of the season. That means the Celtics will be going super small, with Brandon Bass playing center. This new lineup will be ultra athletic but Rivers is a bit worried about how it will work against Charlotte.

“No, actually, it’s been awful against [the Bobcats],” Rivers said while discussing this small lineup. “I mean really, they stay big against us and they’ve hurt us. But I look at it as I’m going to put my five best on the floor and see what we can do.”

The loss of Garnett also means that Rivers is likely to dip further into his bench than he typically would. Guys like D.J. White and Shavlik Randolph may hear their names called often tonight.

Of those two players, Rivers said he’s more inclined to use White during tonight’s game. White actually logged 16 minutes against the Bobcats on Tuesday and wound up scoring three points and grabbing four rebounds. Rivers was asked if he believes those minutes against Charlotte earlier this week will help White tonight.

“I don’t know. The first half was good. The second half wasn’t,” he said with a mild laugh. “So I don’t know how that helps him. It may help [the Bobcats], because they saw him.”

Let’s hope that isn’t the case and that White can give the C’s some productive time tonight. He may have to in order for Boston to overcome the absence of the Big Ticket.