BOSTONSometimes Doc Rivers can be a bit slow to make a change.
The emergence of Marquis Daniels from the end of the bench to an emerging force in Boston's Game 3 playoff win, was not a last minute, spur-of-the-moment decision.
"We talked about doing it Game 1, and more Game 2," Rivers said. "So going into Game 3 we had already made the decision, that we needed to add an extra player."
The C's will likely call upon Daniels at some point in tonight's Game 4 matchup as the Celtics look to even up the series before it returns to Miami for Game 5 on Tuesday.
Rivers said the decision to go with Daniels wasn't made because of anything Daniels did in the team's limited practices or their shoot-arounds.
"Just more for rest than anything else," Rivers said. "We had to make the choice between Marquis and Sasha (Pavlovic). We pretty much all agreed on Marquis."
Daniels, who had nine points off the C's bench in their Game 3 win, has maintained that his focus remains on preparing himself to play every game.
Boston Celtics
True to his word, Daniels made an impact both in terms of his scoring as well as his defense against LeBron James.
"I just have to stay ready, regardless," Daniels said."I stay in every day at the shootaround, come in early and keep working out, because you never know when your number is going to be called. So you have to be ready for whenever it is."