Report: Shaquille O’Neal Sitting Out Against Knicks, Hawks

The Big Diesel will be a non-factor in the Big Apple on Wednesday night.

Shaquille O'Neal is sitting out the highly anticipated matchup between the Celtics and Knicks in Midtown Manhattan on Wednesday night, reports ESPN.com.

To make matters worse for the C's, Greg Dickerson of Comcast is reporting that Shaq will miss Thursday night's contest against the Hawks in Boston, as well.

Semih Erden will likely start for Shaq, who sat out Tuesday's practice and has missed the previous two games with a sore right calf.

"Whoever we start at center will guard [Amare Stoudemire]," Rivers told reporters on Tuesday. "We're a help defense team anyway. So whoever starts at center will post him. I don't think we'll do much different. Obviously, there will be times when [Glen Davis] and Kevin [Garnett] are on the floor together and that will be an effective lineup for us as well."