According to league sources, Kevin Garnett will not be penalized for spreading some Christmas cheer at the end of the Celtics 106-104 loss to the Knicks Christmas day. As the game ended, KG and former Celtic/teammate Bill Walker became entangled and had to be separated by a host of players and coaches.

Garnett missed what would have been the game winner at the buzzer and appeared to be enraged over what Walker said to him following the failed shot attempt.

When asked about what he said, Walker said “”I can’t get into that. We were in the heat of the game. It was a tough game throughout, it was a dog fight. Nobody wanted to lose. It just came to a head right there and it’s over.”

On one hand, it is good to see KG play with passion, however, KG has to be smarter than this. Is Bill Walker really worth getting suspended over? Missing any portion of the season can be a crushing blow to the Celtics. The C’s are razor thin when it comes to bench depth and they cannot afford to miss another one of their starters for any period of time. In a 66-game schedule, the season is more of a sprint than a marathon.

The Celtics will look to bounce back tonight when they face the Heat in Miami.

Kevin Garnett earned at least 5 Tommy points with his hustle in game 2.

The Knicks went to Jared to end the game.

Rajon Rondo just scored another 15 points on Toney Douglas in the time it took to write this post.

Bill Walker also missed another 11 shots in that same time period.

Bill Walker ended as a +14 despite his 0-for-11 night.

Ray Allen was 4-for-4 from behind the arc.

The Celtics bench chipped in with 14 points, the Knicks bench had 23.

Rondo’s 30 points were a post season career high.

The Celtics were out rebounded 53-37 by the Knicks in game 2 after out rebounding the Knicks by 10 in game 1.

The Knicks also out rebounded the Celtics 20-9 on the offensive glass in game 2.

Spike Lee looks old.

Jermaine O’Neal exited in the first half with a wrist sprain, but later returned.

Said Carmelo Anthony speaking about the in bounds pass to Delonte West with 4 seconds remaining in the game: “I couldn’t get to him. Doc Rivers drew up a hell of a play.”

At the end of the third quarter, Carmelo Anthony was 10-of-22 shooting, the rest of the team as 12-of-47.

Paul Pierce finished with 20 points after missing his first five shots.

 With the 58th pick in the 2009 NBA draft, the Boston Celtics select Lester Hudson from the University of Tennessee-Martin. These were the words said when the Boston Celtics turn came up during the 2009 NBA draft. The Boston Celtics used their only pick in the draft to pick up Lester Hudson, a young guard who made history in college by recording the NCAA’s first ever quadruple-double.

Since being drafted that day Hudson has signed a contract with the Boston Celtics and wears the green uniform proudly. The sad thing is that he is usually wearing it proudly on the bench while watching his teammates win basketball games.

It is very hard for a unproven young play like Lester to get quality minutes on a team as deep as the Celtics. I do think however that there is room on the team for Lester to get more minutes. The recent injury to Marquis Daniels (hand) really got my hopes up for seeing this young gun play some quality minutes. So far Doc has not chosen to go with Lester off the bench except for in garbage time, like in last night’s blowout win over Chicago.

Instead of bringing the rookie into the game when it matters, Doc has chosen to go with the recently activated Tony Allen and knock-down shooter Eddie House. The problem I have with this is that neither one of these guys are true point guards, and to take it to another level, Marquis Daniels isn’t a true point guard.

If Doc could start working Lester into the rotation with the guards it would allow both Eddie House and Marquis Daniels to play their true positions. Eddie at the shooting guard getting open for shots off the pass, and Marquis Daniels at small forward helping to limit Paul Pierce’s minutes.

It all seems like a perfect scenario but I still think Doc questions whether Lester could handle the quality minutes at guard, being a rookie and all. The problem that I have with all this is that Lester is just sitting on the bench, and for lack of better words, rusting away. This kid is young, he needs to play, he needs to build his confidence, and he needs to get accustomed to the flow of NBA games. The way Doc is using him right now is doing no good for this kid’s future.

My plan: Send him to Portland. For those of you not familiar the Celtics now have a D-League team, the Maine Red Claws, which is located in Portland, Maine. Celtics forward Bill Walker is currently averaging 29.4 minutes a game,  19 points and 7.6 rebounds a game for the Red Claws. Walker is getting quality playing time and reminding himself that he still has it when it comes to the game of basketball.

So why not let young Lester Hudson go there and get those kind of minutes every game? To me it only makes sense, considering he hasn’t played more than ten minutes in a game since his college days. Let him go up to Portland and get back into game shape, then bring him back to Boston when he’s needed. If Doc is going to play him that is one thing, but it’s another if he’s just going to sit there and warm the bench.

Photos via Dave Eggen/NBAE/Getty Images and nba.com