CHANGE OF PLANS

Ray Allen (AP Photo).

Before the start of this season, the Boston Celtics plan to play a deep rotation to help the starters get additional rest. That is the original plan as the men in green do not want a repeat of what happened last season, which resulted in a heartbreaking loss in the NBA finals. However, that was the plan when everybody else was healthy during the training camp. But with the team being bugged by various injuries lately, head coach Doc Rivers have no choice but to alter his plans for the Eastern Conference leaders. Rivers says it’s impossible to go deep into their line-up right now and he has no other choice but to extend the minutes of his starters, according to ESPN.

Doc Rivers: “You come into the year with a plan, and you've got to change the plan sometimes. That's something we're doing as a staff too. The 10-man unit is not going to work right now. It just can't. We went into the year, and I told you, I believe it's really important for us to have [a deep rotation] because it allows us to get rest. But with injuries, it's unrealistic.

“We'll still try to keep minutes down, but we'll have to sub differently. Again, it's not what I wanted to do. Really, the way our starters play, I'd rather extend their minutes together. But it's not going to work out that way. So we just have to sub in one of our bench guys earlier and hope this doesn't affect the starting group. We'll find out.”