Less is more

Although their playing time will be shortened, Kevin Garnett and Paul
Pierce are still the most important players on this team.

They say Father Time catches up to everyone. Just don't tell that to Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, because for the moment, he hasn't paid those two a visit.

The 35 and 36-year-olds are two of the oldest players on the Celtics roster (Jason Terry is older than Pierce by almost a month). But don't let their age fool you: they're just as important now as they have ever been.

There's a reason they were two-thirds of the Big Three. Without them, the Celtics would be nothing and everyone knows that, which is the main reason why Doc Rivers is making a concerted effort to preserve the legs of Pierce and Garnett during the regular season.

So far this season more than any other, Rivers has put a serious emphasis on limiting minutes, and it has to do with Pierce and Garnett's advancing age and the wear and tear on their bodies -- this is the 33rd season in the NBA combined for Pierce and Garnett. The Celtics relied on their Big Four heavily last season due to a depleted bench and a rash of injuries. Garnett and Pierce in particular logged heavy minutes down the stretch and all throughout the playoffs, and many wondered when and if their improbable run would come to a close. The breaking point was the fourth quarter of the most important game of the season: game seven of the Eastern Conference finals in Miami. As Doc blatantly put it after that game, "We just ran out of gas. We had nothing left."

In order to make sure that they do have enough left in the tank when it really counts, Rivers has to be aware of their playing time. Doc implemented the 5-5-5 plan with Garnett at the start of last season and has continued it this season, and it's worked so far. However Rivers wants to get his minutes down even more. “My goal this year is like 27 (minutes)...it’s hard to do, but it’s the right thing for the long haul. When he plays more than four or five in a row, he gets tired and then he can’t finish a game, so we’re not going to do it.”

In a interview with WEEI last week, Ainge echoed this sentiment: "I think he [Rivers] realizes he has to be careful. Our motto over the last handful of years -- and Doc has done a good job of it -- is to win playoff games. Yeah, we want to win every game that we go out and play, but you can't make sacrifices because there's a game the next night and a game the next night, and they do add up."

Since Garnett's knee injury and the start of the 5-5-5 plan, Rivers has become cautious about overusing him and sticking to that plan. So far this season, Garnett is at 28.1 minutes a game through nearly an eighth of the schedule, the lowest of his career.

On the other hand, Pierce is at an all-time low in minutes per game with 33.3. ESPN's Fantasy Basketball projection for Pierce is pretty funny. It mentions how if you add up all the minutes Pierce has played during his career, he's only played 26 days. That doesn't sound all that bad. Here's the way you can spin that negatively: he's played over 1,000 games and 37,000 minutes. That doesn't sound too good.

But why? Why the need to preserve them? Well, not to sound like captain obvious, but Pierce and Garnett are future Hall-of-Famers and two of the greatest to ever play the game. Pierce is the go-to man for scoring, and KG is the heart of this team on defense, and they look like lost children without KG. Wearing them out now makes little to no sense when championships aren't won in November and December.

In order for KG and The Truth to get the necessary rest, the bench needs to do their part. Last year, the team's bench in the playoffs featured Mickael Pietrus, Ryan Hollins, and Greg Steimsma just to name a few. No disrespect to any of those players -- they were a tremendous bench and, in my opinion, were the true definition of a team -- but that bench isn't going to win you a championship, although they came pretty darn close.

Danny Ainge and Doc realized that in order to keep KG and Pierce fresh, the team needed more viable weapons off the bench. With the return of Jeff Green, Brandon Bass, and Chris Wilcox and the additions of Courtney Lee, Jason Terry, and Jared Sullinger, the Celtics are better equipped to rest the veterans and still boast a good lineup.

As we've seen to start the season, putting a bunch of talented players together does not automatically guarantee success.  Although they've gotten better collectively over the past few games, the bench still has some kinks and other issues to be ironed out. Rivers knows that he's going to have to rely on his bench this season more than any other to ensure long-term success, and if they can't hold up their end of the bargain, then things will get ugly. “If we can’t win without them on the floor, we just won’t do it," Rivers recently told the media. "I told our bench that. We’re going to play them the minutes that I’m giving them, and eventually I’m going to play them the minutes they should get. They’ve got to do something or we won’t win. It’s that simple.”

The Celtics have proven that the regular season does not carry much significance to them at this point, and that what really matters is health. Just look at last season. They sacrificed playoff positioning and homecourt advantage for health because they're a veteran squad that has proven they can win big games no matter where they play or no matter what the circumstance. They've won NBA Finals games in the Staples Center, they advanced past the Atlanta Hawks last year without homecourt advantage, and they won game five in Miami to secure their third straight win and give them a 3-2 series lead.

Rivers has never been one to rest players just for the hell of it -- Gregg Poppovich has done so, and the joke began that when he rested veterans Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, and Tony Parker that the big score would read "DNP - Old." He may have to do so a few times this year for the good of team. We saw in this recent stretch of five games in seven nights Doc really limit Pierce and KG. During that stretch, KG averaged 25.2 minutes a game and Pierce averaged 30.2.

If Doc can keep their minutes hovering around -- preferably a little bit above -- where they have been recently, the Celtics will be grateful come the spring and summer time. In the end, the less they play now, the better off they'll be. Kind of weird, no?