The AP reports:
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Former Piston Rasheed Wallace, another old guy who was forced to start and play 36 minutes because of Kendrick Perkins’ knee injury, had to throw his hand up to ask out of the game when he became winded in the second half.
“He was just trying to figure out a way to stay on the floor,” said Celtics coach Doc Rivers, who called the 35-year-old Wallace a “warrior” who was considering retirement.
Rivers said Wallace was battling cramps and strains, which kept him from going inside as he did early in the game.
“We had to keep subbing him for one minute and two minutes, and I thought the reason we got up early was because of Rasheed Wallace,” Rivers said. “We got it low in the post, he started scoring, and I thought what happened was late in the game he got tired and had the injuries and we couldn’t go down anymore, and I think that had a huge impact on how we were playing. We had to go away from the post almost because of fatigue.”
