Mar 22, 2013; Dallas, TX, USA; Boston Celtics center Kevin Garnett (5) drives the ball past Dallas Mavericks center Brandan Wright (34) during the second half at the American Airlines Center. The Mavericks defeated the Celtics 104-94. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

The Boston Celtics have had a very tumultuous season when its come to injuries. They’ve lost Rajon Rondo, Jared Sullinger, and Leandro Barbosa  all to season ending injuries. All of those players were very important pieces to this team’s puzzle. Now, facing a rough stretch in the final week of march and the rest of April, the Celtics are also facing injuries to Kevin Garnett who is probably the team’s most important piece.

Along with Garnett, Boston has had to battle through injuries to Paul Pierce and Courtney Lee. This team just can’t seem to stay healthy all at one time. With that being said, would it be wise for Rivers to sit some of his most important players for the rest of the season?

The Celtics are almost assured a playoff spot now–they just don’t know where. Right now, they’re the 7th seed in the East and they’re two full games ahead of the Bucks for that spot. The 76ers are the 9th seed right now, but they’re seven games behind the Bucks for that 8th spot. They’d need to go on a remarkable winning streak in the next 13 games to get the final playoff spot.

If the the  Celtics do end up resting their players, they could possibly face the scorching hot Miami Heat in the first round of the playoffs. It took a 43 point effort from Jeff Green in their last contest for the Celtics to even have a shot at taking down LeBron James and company. Green isn’t going to average over 30 throughout a whole seven game series.

Resting their players does have some merit to it as well. There’s a chance that they do stay in the 7th spot and end up facing the New York Knicks, which Boston wants to do. They’ll chance playing the Pacers there also, but the Celtics have a better shot at the Pacers than they do the Heat. Also, Boston wants to do their best to stay healthy. They won’t have a shot at beating anyone in this series if they can’t bring all players possible to the table.

Doc Rivers has some very tough decisions to make right now. Does he start his players or sit them?

March 28, 2012; Boston, MA, USA; Boston Celtics small forward Paul Pierce (34) rubs his knee after a hard fall during the third quarter against the Utah Jazz at TD Banknorth Garden. Mandatory Credit: Greg M. Cooper-US PRESSWIRE

The Captain may be more ill than initially televised. In Boston’s last game versus the Philadelphia 76ers, it seemed like no one could hit the rim with any consistency, let alone score points. However, the fact that Paul Pierce had a poor shooting game from the field only makes us speculate his inconsistency.

Pierce is the best scorer on the Boston Celtics and arguably their best player. When the game is on the line, they go to Paul Pierce first more often than not because he can develop his own shot on a more consistent basis than the rest of the roster can. In game two of the Philadelphia series, Pierce looked slower than he usually does though. He wasn’t able to establish a rhythm and get the ball into the exact spots that he wanted it to be in. His lift was gone and his ability to explode through contact went with it.

In the Atlanta series, in game 5 to be exact, Pierce had sprained his MCL. Ever since he’s been day to day on the injury report but has played through the pain that he most certainly is going through right now. Pierce will be the first one to tell you that there is nothing wrong with
his knee, but you can tell from his play that he most certainly is aggravating it on the floor. At certain moments you can see him walking with a limp on the floor.

Your medial collateral ligament(MCL) is located on the inner part of your knee joint. There are three grades of a sprained MCL. Grade one is when you damage a few ligament fibers, grade two is when there is more extensive damage done to you knee fibers, and grade three is when you completely rupture your MCL. That can also lead to other ligaments in your knees tearing as well because of the force that it takes to tear one(See Adrian Peterson).

Pierce’s degree hasn’t been released to the public, but it surely isn’t a grade three. It has the potential to get worse, which hopefully it doesn’t, but Pierce must be careful on this knee.

Boston has lost home-court advantage in the series to Philadelphia. To get it back, Pierce must remain a key cog and be consistent with his offense. When he doesn’t score the Boston Celtics struggle to score as well. We saw examples of this in the series with the Atlanta Hawks as well. Boston managed to squeak by in that game, but they won’t be able to do that on a consistent basis.

These playoffs have been brutal on the players after such a rigorous regular season. We’ve seen three torn ACL’s in these playoffs alone, we’ve seen Chris Bosh strain his abdominal muscles, we’ve seen Pierce injure his knees just as Blake Griffin has also. Chris Paul even has a strained groin. The lockout season effects are now impacting the players more than they ever have. Hopefully this won’t dilute any of the playoff basketball we have left.

On the march to 16 wins, Boston has five. Without Pierce at full strength, I don’t think the C’s will be able to make it the rest of the way. Game three is in Philadelphia tonight at seven P.M EST.