Glen Davis played well in the Friday night game against the Knicks. Last season, he was expected to extend out to space the floor and hit the open jumper when teams sag off him, as they did often.
That put him out of position to rebound and his numbers went down, especially at the offensive end. This season that may change. Rasheed Wallace is working his old jump shooting grounds now, even stepping out to three point land. Glen is heading toward the hoop on pick and rolls, instead of being the ‘pick and pop’ guy. He’s also supposed to grab those rebounds a bit more.
Glen had 8 rebounds in 16 minutes against the Knicks and shot 3-6, but those points came around the hoop as well. He had a lay up in traffic and a baby hook went down over pressure. Doc has said previously that he was clever around the hoop. He looked pretty good in this game.
How would you describe your game (against the Knicks)?
It was good for the whole team. Get a win under our belt. Kind of get in sync a little bit. You know we (are) still off a little bit. We (have) a lot of work to do.
More offensively than defensively, you guys looked a little out of sync.
Yeah. That’s just repetition and practice, watching film, things like that. You know we are a veteran team, we’re going to do it right.
It seems like there are three things that there should be improvement for you that you showed tonight. One is rebounding. It looks like you’re hitting the boards a little more
Yeah, I’m not on the perimeter as I was popping a lot, ‘cuz now we (have) Rasheed on the perimeter doing a lot of jump shots and I just got to find a new role for our team.
It looks that is going to work out well.
Yeah, as long as I stay in shape, it will be okay.
Filling in for Kevin Garnett defensively is a tough job for any NBA player. No one expected Davis to be Garnett. But he had his ups and downs defensively last season. The Celtics defense requires their bigs to be mobile and cover a lot of ground on helps and switches. Staying in front of an offensive player is fundamental, but requires solid and nimble footwork. Doc had reported that it wasn’t always there, especially at the end of the year.
I’m conscious of that. I’m trying to get better every day. Making sure that I deliver on the defensive side. It’s a process, you know. It’s a process. Making sure that I stay focused on the defensive side. Making sure that I know what I’m doing out there.
One of Glen’s jobs this season is to develop some reliable moves around the basket. Doc expects Glen to be putting together a little more offensive game around the hoop including using his body more.
I have a lot of moves. You guys haven’t seen (all of them) yet. I just have to get back to (being) used to it, because last year that was Leon Powe, and I was a shooter.
So Glen Davis, popularly known as Big Baby, will be expected to take over some new real estate on the floor and will develop the appropriate skills that go along with that territory. Glen’s low post game from LSU will get dusted off, worked on, improved and put on display a little bit this season. And while rebounding wasn’t a problem for the Celtics last season (#1 in the NBA in rebounding differential) we may see Davis ripping down few more rebounds along the way.
