Your Morning Dump... Where TGIF means nothing to KG

Every morning, we compile the links of the day and dump them here... highlighting the big storyline.  Because there's nothing quite as satisfying a good morning dump.

Informed the Celtics were 0-2 on Fridays in November, Kevin Garnett didn't seem worried about the losing trend. Particularly not as focused as the team is for this game with Orlando.

"I didn't even know what day it was to begin with," said Garnett before turning to Celtics media relations czar Jeff Twiss and asking, "Did you know that, Twiss? We're 0-2 on Fridays [in November]? Fridays feel like Mondays, Mondays feel like Saturdays, and Sundays feel like Sundays. We're just trying to be better."

ESPN Boston - Magic in the air

The Celtics did destroy the Bulls in their first Friday night game, but it's been a little frustrating to watch the C's take Fridays off.  Yeah, we can explain away the Friday funk by saying the Phoenix game was at the end of a long stretch where the C's were clearly tired... and that they didn't take Atlanta seriously enough (which is an entirely different issue).  But there are no excuses here.

This game is really a litmus test for the Celtics.  If they come out strong, play hard, and act like "The Celtics... then we know their struggles are mostly due to them putting it in cruise control.  If they still struggle, then we know the problems we've seen are legitimate and that this team is more of a work in progress than we thought.  Then you can toss us in the same group as the Magic, Cavs, Lakers and Spurs... who are all having their own issues dealing with revamped lineups.

After the jump, Page 2... where Doc zinged Sheed about his techs

Photo by Brian Babineau/NBAE via Getty Images

Rivers wasn’t stunned to hear Wallace has mentored Orlando’s Dwight Howard.

“I think Rasheed mentors a lot of guys,” Rivers said. “He mentors officials all the time.” . . .

Herald:  Celtics have new trick for Magic

Gotta hand it to Doc... he's not afraid to zing his guys with a good one-liner.  And because he's a former player... he can get away with it. 

By the way... we're still waiting for word on whether the league is rescinding any techs on Perk and Doc.

The rest of the links:

Herald:  Magic-C's scouting report  |  Thursday practice notes |  Globe:  Bird's Eye View  |  Tough for Celtics not to believe in Magic  |  Magic thumbnails  |  Souza:  C's look to pay back Magic  |  Patriot Ledger: KG finally gets to face the Magic  |  ProJo: With motivation from Pierce, Rondo turned up game against Warriors  |  CelticsBlog: Are we ready for the Magic? |  CelticsHub:  Magic getting hyped and Stan Van Gundy is whining  |  Hardwood Houdini: Friday of Horrors  |  North Station:  Perk taking tonight's matchup personally