The Celtics Rotation

Tony Allen has been playing inspired minutes.

Yesterday's win over Lebron and the Cavs at the TD Garden was a promising sign--especially after the disheartening losses to the Spurs, Thunder, and Rockets. After blowing another huge lead, Ray Allen stepped up in the clutch, raining down three's at a ridiculous clip (6-9 on the night). It was a pivotal win for the Celtics as they look to increase momentum heading down the stretch and into the playoffs.

Doc Rivers recognized that something wasn't working over the last few contests and decided to switch the bench up a bit. Nate Robinson and Marquis Daniels rode the pine for the entire 48 while Tony Allen and Michael Finley played key roles off of the bench.

Tony has been playing inspired minutes and has been a true ball hawk on the defensive end. He handled the back up point guard duties fairly well, and with Rondo playing major minutes come playoff time it shouldn't be too daunting of a task. Michael Finley is a savvy veteran who has been playing solid defense and will hit the open jumper when given the opportunity.

With big men Rasheed Wallace and Glen Davis essentially locked in as the back up big men and Doc looking for a nine man rotation to keep his starters on the floor more often, it came down to Robinson and Daniels (and of course, Scal) being out of the rotation.

Marquis has struggled to establish a role since his return from injury and will have to work his way back into it. Nate, the enigmatic sparkplug, will need to continue to work on his "team basketball" skills for Doc to trust him come crunch time.

Look for Doc to continue to experiment over the final games, so the team can work on the on court chemistry for the all important playoff rotation.