The 2009 NBA Playoffs start Saturday with the defending champion Boston Celtics facing the Chicago Bulls (12:30 pm ET, ESPN).
The Celtics had a stellar regular season but did not exactly take the league by storm in defense of their title, going 62-20 SU and finishing second in the Eastern Conference, four games back of the No. 1 Cleveland Cavaliers.
And Boston’s woes got more worrisome Thursday when head coach Doc Rivers said Kevin Garnett isn’t ready to start the playoffs, and there’s a strong possibility he will miss the entire postseason.
“He’s not going to be ready. After watching him practice, there’s no way,” Rivers said on WEEI-AM. “The way I saw him move today, I don’t know if he’ll be ready.”
Boston is an 8.5-point favorite and the over/under is 196.5 at betED.com.
Garnett is one of the Celtics’ leaders — one of the ‘Big Three’ that includes Paul Pierce and Ray Allen — and was a big part of Boston’s record 17th NBA title last season, their first championship since the 1985-86 season.
He averaged 15.8 and 8.5 rebounds per game for the defending champions this season but missed the last nine games due to a sore right knee.
Boston beat the Los Angeles Lakers in six games in last year’s NBA Finals.
The Celtics beat the Bulls 2-1 in the season series, although the Bulls won the last meeting in Chicago.
“We have our work cut out for us and I think all of us are ready for the challenge,” said Celtics guard Ray Allen. “That’s the thing we have to respect that they know how to play the game and despite how we played against them the times we beat them, the time when we lost to them, they were a better team.”
Chicago, which was pushed to the seventh seed after a home loss to Toronto Wednesday, is in the playoffs after a one-year hiatus, this time with rookie sensation Derrick Rose.
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