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Celtics rookie center Greg Stiemsma is still battling injuries.ATLANTA -- During Sunday's morning shootaround, Celtics coach Doc Rivers said he fully expects everyone not named Ray Allen to be available for Game 1 of an Eastern Conference quarterfinal series against the Atlanta Hawks (and Allen might be available, too, but that's still to be decided).
Though when asked if anyone else was a question mark, he did hesitate a tiny bit with rookie center Greg Stiemsma, answering, "Greg, but he’ll be alright; Everybody else is good. The way we look at it, it doesn’t matter. If you’re on the floor, then you’re healthy. That’s how our guys look at it."
Rajon Rondo, who sat out three of the final four games of the regular season, didn't seem concerned about his sore back.
"It’s fine," he said. "It shouldn’t be a problem at all. I haven’t hit the deck yet, but I’m sure I’ll get back up."
Rivers said the team would flirt with extending Kevin Garnett's minutes, but don't expect a big leap.
"We may extend him a little bit, but at the end of the day, we have to have him playing at peak speed the whole game and if we take him over a number, and then he can’t recover back... then we haven’t done him a good service. We may extend his minutes, but it’s not going to be much."
Given all the rest some of his players have enjoyed over the final two weeks of the regular season, Rivers admits his guys are just ready to play.
"I think our guys are ready. Antsy? Yeah, you could tell that in practice [on Saturday]," he said. "I’ve always thought the worst practice is the day before the playoffs, because no one wants to get hurt, so they stay out of each other's way. That’s just the way it is. I’m sure both teams are ready to play. [Celtics players] are sick of me. And I am, too."