No-go once again for Posey…

The Celtics have listed James Posey as “doubtful” for tonight’s game and, unlike Phillip Rivers, “doubtful” means he probably won’t be taking the court tonight. Posey sat out on Monday’s won over the Knicks with an injured index finger on his right hand. He says it’s been hurt since December and he’s been playing through the pain, but now Doc Rivers wants to take him out of the line-up for a couple of games and get him healthy sooner rather than later.

Doc has said he is more concerned about Posey’s absence over the next couple of games than he was against New York for those teams’ tendencies to play “small,” meaning they have a heavy reliance on guard play relative to the Knicks, who lean on their bigs quite a bit. This is probably most true for tonight’s opponent in the Raptors. Toronto, who comes in 12 games behind the Celtics, relies heavily on Jose Calderon and Anthony Parker. You have to figure Chris Bosh is going to get his points, so containing the smaller, perimeter players could be the difference in this one defensively for the Celtics and not having Posey out there will be a bit of a setback, though far from one that can’t be overcome.

A statistic of note, the Celtics defend their perfect record against the Atlantic Division this evening, having moved to 10-0 against division foes with the win over the Knicks on Monday.