Post Game Thread - Celtics finish off Cavs 94-85 5/13/2010

[dboss]

Great Game! Great Series!

On my way to work so fellas please fill in some details and I'll be back later today.

dboss

[beat]

We won with a poor shooting night but the D was terriffic 95% of the time.
Foul shooting shat the bricks too
Got killed on the Offensive boards
Few to many foolish turnovers
But with all that. We were clearly the better team!

beat

[cowens/oldschool]

We just locked down on Lebron,made him seem human,he played hard,but we swarmed him so much he was not effective enough to carry them,even though he put out great effort.Shaq was a bully,did his thing as much as this 38 year old version could do,but again not enough.

KG exposed Shaq early getting anything he wanted right away,love our fast start as we put them on their heels right away,we learned after game 3.Sam always says make them play catch up.

TA was just a demon all night,hounding LBJ,was honestly best defense I've ever seen on LBJ,Tonys steals directly on James led to so many breathtaking fast breaks.TA has all NBA defensive ability at 3 positions,he just doesn't get enough minutes,if this version keeps making this kind of impact,how can he not get minutes,what a great change of pace to Ray and Paul.

Pierce stepped up huge with those timely 3's,wheres Antwan Jamison?Big difference between a 2 time all star and first ballot HoFer,KG is getting stronger every game now.Perk was menacing,blocking James a few times,our defense is great because of him as the anchor,gotta love the Beast.

Cavs were a great sparring partner to get us to tune up our game,thanks Mike Brown.

[spike]

Kudos to Doc. He held the team together through a tough, injury-filled season and had them primed and ready for the playoffs. Then, somehow, somewhere, he found a fast break that disheartened and demolished the Cavs. Keep those horses running, Doc. Run that big, over-hyped superman into the ground. Destruction and destroy. Celtics over the Magic in 5.

[bobheckler]

A moment of silence, please, to commemorate the death of professional basketball in Cleveland. Even if LeBron stays, the collapses of the Cavaliers the last two years have burned a deep, indelible scar into the franchise's and fans' memory. Try to imagine living in a city that hasn't won a championship in any sport since 1964, has the best player on the planet, and still implodes in the playoffs two years in a row. Thank God we don't have to.

1. I don't know about LeBron, but if Mike Brown is still in Cleveland next year, then they really are the "Mistake on the Lake". He reeked of panic and desperation all series long. If the situation was reversed, and Doc was coaching Cleveland and we had Mike Brown, this could have ended differently. His substitutions appeared to be driven by his lack of understanding of why things weren't working and his playbook is "give it to LeBron". You don't need a coach to say "give it to the superstar", the players can figure that out for themselves. They need a coach to get everybody else in the game, and Mike Brown can't cut it.

2. LeBron almost had a "Rondo", with 27 points, 19 rebounds and 10 assists. He was 8-21 though with some pretty out-of-control "bail me out, ref" heaves. Still, he stepped up, but so did we. Our defense on him was stellar, for the most part, with Tony Allen leading the man-to-man charge.

3. Shaq needs to find himself a rocking chair somewhere and stay in it.

4. Another disappearing act for Cleveland's bench. 4-13 shooting, that's only 31%. You would have thought that moving their starting center (Z) and SG (West) to the bench this year would make their bench stronger. Well, not this series it didn't. They stunk. Our bench's shooting wasn't any better, 7-21 for 33%, but we scored 24 points. Davis and Finley, who played a total of only 19 minutes combined, dragged production down by shooting 0-5, but they didn't play enough minutes for that to hurt that much.

5. Mo Williams showed up. Finally. Sorta, kinda. Sure, he had 22 points on 8-18 shooting, but he's the point guard. He's supposed to be creating opportunities for others to score. By that measure, he only had 4 assists and 5 turnovers. That is BAD point guard work.

6. Kevin Garnett is back. He did it all last night. He scored 22 points on 11-19 shooting, he had 12 rebounds, 3 assists, zero turnovers and shut Antawn Jamison down. Again. He has outplayed everybody that has been thrown against him in the playoffs to-date.

7. Another very good game for Rasheed. Is it possible for a professional athlete to sleep walk for 85 games or so and then just wake up and play like he shoulda/coulda all along? There may be some evidence that it could.

8. Tony Allen has been the butt of a lot of comments by me and others. He's earning his money these playoffs, for sure, with his outstanding defense and solid offensive contributions. First DWade, now LeBron. Be careful what you ask for, Tony, because Vince Carter's next. I suspect Danny's going to re-sign Tony before next season. The way he's playing, unless he asks for the moon, it's a no-brainer. He's cheap for what he's bringing to the table now. Rondo has really come into his own, but Tony is probably the #2 reason why we're in the Conference Finals.

9. LeBron has no post-up game. He could have, and should have, pounded Tony and Paul into paste in the low post any time, but he never tried. I find this odd, since he's such a dominating physical player. Artest could possibly stymie him in the low post, maybe Sean Battier, but that's about it.

Eight more wins to go. Win or lose against Orlando, these old coots have done themselves proud, knocking off the best team in the league over 82 games. Now, we have to shut down Carter, stay close to Lewis and play Hack-a-Howard.

Go Celtics!!!!

bob

.

[beat]

Bob

Doom was cast 8 months ago! the OLD SI JINX



That and the cover this week which I can't find but is facial of Shaq with the title A RING FOR THE KING

Not

beat

[beat]

Here it is
Jinx Part 2



beat

[gyso]

[bobc33]

I thought it quite interesting after the game KG spoke about the injuries and chemistry issues this year. On the chemistry part he talked about the difficulty of the big three accepting Rondo asserting his leadership role, but that now everyone is on the same page.

I know there were many hints and speculation as to the Rondo chemistry situation, and I hope we hear more about it as it should be fascinating. (probably not until after the playoffs though)

[dboss]

bobc

I was looking at Rondo's number from the 08 series against the cavs compared to this year. Amazing!

Rondo has rustled control of the team away from PP yet he still has the good sense to give Pierce the ball and move out of the way. PP came up with two big three pointers but I got very nervous when Rondo was not initiating the play.

Rondo is leading the team in scoring during the playoffs at 18 per game to go along with 11 assists and 6.3 rebounds.

Fact is that the more the ball is in his hands the better the offense runs. The big three came to this conclusion becasue quite honestly, without Rondo this team cannot win.

While KG has been fantastic and Ray has also played well PP has not played well. Yet Boston still is winning mainly because of Rajon and the play of TA baby and to a lesser degree Rasheed Wallace.

dboss

[mulcogiseng]

I said last year that this had to become Rondo's team. Now the proof is becoming apparent. If I were the big 3, I would bow down, kiss Rondo's feet with all due respect, then throw him in the shower, with all due respect, of course. lol

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