Celtics Central

Ray Allen was kept out of the last game in New Orleans before the All Star break. It seemed possible at the time that the timing was related to all the trade noise generated directly around his name. You know. As in a precautionary measure before a big trade to prevent any last minute injury.

Steve Bulpett of bostonherald.com reports that Ray did indeed have back problems that were addressed in the Bahamas…

He missed last Wednesday’s game in New Orleans with back spasms, but four days in the Bahamas with several trips to the hot tub had him feeling better here.

Ray has been both healthy and in great shape this season. Yet, he has numbers that haven’t been this low since his rookie year. Some attribute it to natural aging. I’m not so sure. A number of things haven’t gone as planned this season particularly for the Celtics’ offense.

In case you might wonder if the back spasms might account for some of that decline, they just started happening a week ago.

Ray says there is still tightness but it’s better than it was. Bulpett again…

“I’m better than I was four days ago,” said Allen, who first noticed the problem at practice a week ago. “I’ve still got back tightness, but whatever was going on with my back, it seemed like it went away.

Regarding Kevin Garnett’s belief that this team can win as is, the Herald article addressed that too…

(Garnett) still believes this team can win.

“Absolutely,” said KG. “Absolutely. But we can’t win anything playing the way we’re currently playing. The game is not 40 minutes. It’s not 30 minutes. It’s 48 minutes, and we’ve got to put together 48 minutes of a game.”

Garnett can be loyal to a fault. It was said that he wanted to remain a Timberwolf even through another reshuffling of the deck there until he got the word that the Timberwolves’ owner Glen Taylor wanted to go in a new direction.

This has been a close knit team that has bonded deeply over the last 2 plus years. KG with Bulpett…

I root for everybody in here. We all wear the same jerseys. Guys in here actually give two cents about each other.

But Danny has been exploring improving the club through trades and Kevin is resigned to that as well.

But if Danny feels something needs to be done, that’s what’s going to happen regardless of who likes it and who doesn’t.”

If something’s going to happen, it’s going to happen. You’ve got to be able to be a man about it and understand that this is a business first and try to perform either way.”

So, the Celtics resume play tonight against the Sacramento Kings. The specter of change will hang over everything until Thursday.

Most expect Danny will do something. If not a medium move such as trading Glen Davis for D.J. Augustine, or expiring contracts for another role player, then possibly a major move involving Ray Allen could fall into place.

One of those Ray Allen rumors involves the team they play tonight. Shooting guard (Ray’s position) Kevin Martin, an explosive offensive player, has returned from injury and is trying to fit in with rookie sensation Tyreke Evans. Some say that isn’t going to work out as well as hoped.

In 20 games total, Martin is averaging just 20 points on 40% shooting, though his rebounding is up (4.4) and turnovers (1.8) are down. Kevin is a career 45% shooter and averaged 24.6 points last season.

The rumor here is essentially Martin and forward Andres Nocioni for Ray.

After a fast and surprising start (13-14), the Kings have fallen back to earth. They are 4-18 over their last 22 games. Tyreke Evans is a rookie-of-the-year candidate and, along with power forward Jason Thompson, is expected to be a cornerstone of the Kings growth plans.

The Kings have some other nice young pieces in Omri Casspi, the first Isreali born player in the NBA, Donte Greene, who they are having some success turning into a defensive stopper at small forward, and Spencer Hawes, a talented center who has yet to achieve any high level consistency.

Sacramento is on a modest 2 game winning streak, having beaten Detroit and New York before the break.

The Celtics are 0-2 coming in and are 9-13 since beating Orlando on Christmas Day, a high spot of the season. They are 5-5 since Garnett’s return.

The Celtics have a full roster, healthy and ready to play since Marquis Daniels returned 2 games ago. I say healthy, but Paul Pierce is still nursing a knee injury and sprained ankle.

Mike Lipka of Yahoo! Sports….

(Garnett) started but played just 13 minutes in the All-Star game, totaling four points and three rebounds, and seemed miffed by questions about his health before Sunday’s game.

“I’ll speak one time about my health. It’s great,” Garnett said.

So we have to interpret ‘great’ in a relative way at this point.

The Celtics are rested. They begin the second half of the season tonight in search of the chemistry that has so mysteriously deserted them this season. The Kings are a good game to start with. It get much tougher after that with games against the Lakers on Thursday, Portland Friday and Denver on Sunday.

Let the games begin.