My initial instinct is to take whatever Dan Shaughnessy writes nowadays and keep it handy next to the toilet.. and not for reading material.
And that was my initial reaction when I started reading his piece on the Celtics going on to beat the Cavs in round two when it was passed on to me over Twitter. But he's actually sort of right this time. Even when it comes to Sheed:
As much as it hurts to say this, the mercurial 'Sheed might be the difference against the Cavs. He's certainly rested. Wallace started the season out of shape and was content to launch threes throughout the regular season. He was the Secretary of Energy Conservation. He's been claiming he's a big-game playoff guy. We haven't seen much of 'Sheed during the Miami series, but the Heat have been so bad, it's hard to notice any Celtics' shortcomings. Maybe 'Sheed will finally shine at the Q.
I actually made a similar point on the last 2 Man Game. Sheed's more nimble than Shaq and Ilgauskas... two guys that Mike Brown will probably play a lot. I'm not saying he'll "go off"... but I'm willing to bet he gets a little more action and has a little more success than we expect. That's enough to be a difference in a series like this.
We'll get into this a little more after the Miami series is over... but for once, I think Shank is on to something.