Post Game Thread Celtics put Magic on the edge 95-92 5/18/2010

[dboss]

You are who you are. If your offense is about shooting 3 pointers and that is taken away from you chances are you will not be able to win by doing something else.

The magic tried to play like the Celtics. They kept the game close but in the end that is not the way they are used to playing.

Game 2 was a huge win for the Celtics and with a few days rest they should be ready to play well again in game three.

Rajon and Paul carried the team last night.

Every game a different Celtic player or players step up. The magic have holes throughtout their entire scheme and they cannot figure out which ones to plug.

I picked them in 5 and it could be done in 4.

Great win from a team that is looking remarkably similar to the 2008 champions.

dboss

[dbrown4]

Actually much better than 2008 up to this point.

I found it amazing that winning the first two road games has never happened before to the Celtics in all their history. Still, as Doc would or will say, "We have done nothing." The percentages turn to devastating with the next victory, 100%. The next game is what we need to focus on. As I was predicting, and I was way off, I believed a 20+ point victory in Game 2 would have sent the best message. But I have to admit, these two games may be even more disheartening than a blowout. It still only counts as 1 game whether you win by 100 or win by 1. Game 2 has to hurt even more because I think ORL put their best effort out there, although it was all Howard and no raining 3's. Same result. So far it's been No Howard and No 3's or No significant 3's and all Howard. Celtics 2-0.

ORL has also keyed in on the Celtic "4th quarter collapse" as their weapon of choice.

It really has to be difficult for SVG to come up with a game plan after that. ORL can come out and do just what they did last night letting Howard go nuts inside and make 5 more free throws than his average, which is a pretty good game for him. But they couldn't complete the inside out part.

Now granted, we've had to go down to the last minute in each of the games. We're not running away with it. We've been hinting at it int he first two games and a well placed all out assault can and should be in the wings. But given our experience from the regular season, knowing we're prone to dropping the lead yet managing to win, I'll take a three point win any day of the week.

[sinus007]

Hi,
Great win - thank you very much.
Here are a few observations.
Celtics won despite the absence of RA: he was OK on D-end but nowhere to be found on O-end. I hope he'll get his groove back soon.
I felt sorry for Gortat: RR molested him all night long.
I was surprised that SVG and his boys didn't or couldn't do anything to RR-KG little combination. They played it over and over. Unfortunately for Celtics KG wasn't that hot from long distance.
Ditto on cutting Magic's bloodline, aka 3-pt shots.
Have to give "credit" to Magic's brainfarts in the last seconds of the game. On the other hand you can argue that Celtics forced them.
Officiating, as usual, left much to be desired. But yesterday its mistakes benefited Celtics more except when Howard put PP on the floor. IMHO, there clearly was intent to hit the player.
'Sheed, once again, played great. Not so much with points but with his smarts.
Interestingly enough, Doc decided to keep BBD instead of 'Sheed to the very end. I wonder why?

AK

[Sam]

Sinus, my guess is that Doc felt Davis, with two fouls in reserve, would be more aggressive defensively than Sheed, who already had five. The only times the Celtics have been at a disadvantage in this series have been when they had to be careful because of extreme foul trouble. I think Doc figured the Celtics would be better off with an aggressive shorter guy who has bulk than with a longer but more cautious guy. Moreover, Glen runs the floor better than Sheed, and the Magic were just a fast break away from pulling this one out.

Sam

[bobheckler]

Maybe I should reconsider my perspective. Maybe what I call "being pragmatic and reasonable" is really just plain pessimistic. While I certainly rooted for the Celtics last night, I honestly didn't think they would take both games in Orlando. It's an odd feeling, being happy you're wrong.

This loss, for the Magic, must hurt worse than the blowout. After the blowout, they were thinking "we didn't play well for 3 quarters and still almost came back from 20 down. Just wait until we play like we know we can". This game never got further away than 12 and the Magic even had the lead with 3 minutes left. It was a competitive game. Perkings fouled out with 7 minutes left and Pierce fouled out with 30 seconds left. So this was an eminently winnable game for the Magic but they couldn't hang tough with us for the last 3 minutes despite the Celtics being down 2 starters. You can't say "we rallied too late" or "wait until we play our game" when you had the lead with 3 minutes left, had two opponents fouled out and had the homecourt fans going crazy for you. You have to consider "maybe we're just not as good as them" and once they do that, it's over because you can't win with that attitude.

The Orlando Magic are an impressive 8-2 in the playoffs and an even more impressive 14-2 going back into the regular season. They are also just two games away from being swept. The Boston Celtics are almost David Stern's worst nightmare. First, we end his fantasy of a King vs. Mamba matchup. Now, we're threatening to end his second-place fantasy of a re-match of last year's finals and do it in an abbreviated fashion, which means less TV revenues. The only way this gets worse for him is if Kobe blows his knee out. Then nobody will watch the WC playoff series nor the finals series. We will, though, of course.

1. Pierce showed up to play offense. He only had 6 points in the second half, but his 22 first half points helped blunt the Orlando rallies, of which there were a few. I'll bet SVG's strategy wasn't to worry about Pierce as much as Rondo and Ray. He's got to rethink that now.

2. Our interior defense was outstanding. KG's defense is back. He had 2 blocks and just generally challenged everything. Even our perimeter defense was good despite a couple of excellent shooting stretches by Vince and Redick.

3. KG has outplayed everybody Spoelstra, Brown and now SVG has thrown at him. Of course, it doesn't hurt that Rashard Lewis is trying to figure out what he does for a living. WTF is up with that? He is completely lost out there. At this point, and we're only two games into this series, I'd have to say it's a contest between Lewis and Jermaine O'Neal as to who had the most disappointing playoffs. Considering how badly O'Neal stunk the place up, that's not saying good things about Lewis. If I was SVG, I'd pull Lewis and put in Brandon Bass. He lacks Lewis' shooting ability, but he's a bruiser inside and will help Howard a lot there and Lewis' shooting ability isn't helping them anyway.

4. Rondo had 25 points, 5 rebounds and 8 assists and 2 steals and we yawn. That's how good this kid has become. Bob Cousy, who all but invented the point guard position, gushes over him. Magic Johnson, who knows something about being a great point guard, gushes over him. Tim Legler, who has perhaps the highest basketball IQ of anybody at ESPN, gushed over him in the post-game analysis on ESPN. And he's ours, now and through the upcoming rebuilding years. He's only 24. He's the hub that all the spokes are going to plug into.

5. Going into this series, I feared the Magic wings, Pietrus and Barnes. I never considered them the brightest tools in the shed, after watching them both for years in GSW, but they are big and athletic and physical and I thought they would shut Pierce down. I'm actually starting to enjoy being wrong.

6. After the game, SVG said "we can't stop them. We held them to under 25 points in just one quarter". After all the scoring droughts we've seen this year, isn't it interesting that we're being described as "offensively unstoppable"? And the timing couldn't be better.

7. Perk's defense, as well as Sheed's and Davis's, are the key to this game and this series. Their ability to play Howard one-on-one is helping our perimeter defenders stay home on Lewis, Redick and Nelson. Sure, Howard scored 30, but he had very little help because we didn't leave shooters open to help out on Howard.

8. JVG said that he thinks that this team is "as good, if not better, than they were in 2008". Um, that would be the year that we went through the league like crap through a goose, right coach? The light is finally starting to dawn on these numbnuts. In this case, go towards the light.

9. Our team's ganas is awesome and a joy to behold. The way we've played the last 5 games, we're a goddamn force of nature. While the Magic, specifically Howard, is smiling and playing around dancing and making believe he's throwing chalk in the air, the Boston Celtics are watching them like a pride of hungry lions eyeing a herd of happy, playful zebras. Sure, come on over and play, zebras...

2 down, 6 more to go.

bob

.

[sinus007]

Sam,
Agree about BBD vs 'Sheed. Also, perhaps Doc was thinking about possible OT: better to have 2 bigs than 1.
In re: Perk defending D12. I think it's very sound strategy from math stand point: Perk scores about 10 points, fouls D12 5 times which corresponds to 6 points instead of 10, prevents about 3 3-pts which gives us total of 23 points. Not bad
Speaking about SVG: his response during a time-out mini interview is a symptom of state of panic. Which is exactly what Doc-tor has prescribed.

AK

[mrkleen09]

After the game, Magic Johnson said the Celtics are now "The Big One - Rondo, with the lesser 3 backing him up"

Hyperbole aside, I think he is right.

[beat]

Well

Said earlier if we won the first we'd sweep. And we are 1/2 way there.

One thing that was big was the charge call on JJ. No way thats a charge BB wsan't nearly set when JJ went up for the shot. Certaily there were other poor calls but if i'm an Orlando fan that one bothers me a lot as it was late in the game No Perk and certainly JJ would have drained his 2 foul shots.

Also heard that since the playoffs started no Celtic has led the team in scoring in 2 consecutive games so far! Nice to be able to count on so many if one or two ar eoff on the offensive end.


beat

[bobheckler]

After the game, Magic Johnson said the Celtics are now "The Big One - Rondo, with the lesser 3 backing him up"

Hyperbole aside, I think he is right.

MrKleen,

I agree. In 2008, his job was just to feed them and not get underfoot. Now, they are following his lead.

Boy, what does it say that we have 3 future HOFers, all still playing at a high level, and they're the "lesser 3"?

It's says we're looking pretty for the next 10 years if we can get some good players to plug into Rondo's game. He's the straw that will stir everybody's drink.

bob

.

[beat]

Bob

Someone said as to the last shot by Rondo

in 2008 he never would have thought of taking it
in 2009 he would have taken it..........and missed
in 2010 its all net

beat

[bobheckler]

Well

Siad erlier if we won the first we'd sweep. And we are 1/2 way there.

One thing that was big was the charge call on JJ. No way thats a charge BB wsan't nearly set when JJ went up for the shot. Certaily there were other poor calls but if i'm an Orlando fan that one bothers me a lot as it was late in the game No Perk and certainly JJ would have drained his 2 foul shots.

Also heard that since the playoffs started no Celtic has led the team in scoring in 2 consecutive games so far! Nice to be able to count on so many if one or two ar eoff on the offensive end.


beat

beat,

I think there were a couple of questionable charging calls last night. They were all the same: the defender (often Davis) would get there but the shooter was already on his way up and came down on the defender. You have to give the ball one step to get the charge (and be outside the circle, of course). Davis didn't.

bob

.

[pete]

Rumor has it that Rashard has been battling the flu, so I expect more of a game from him in Boston. If so, they will look like a different team. I am not taking anything away from KGs defense on him, I just feel game 3 is going to be a tough one.

[beat]

Pete

I need to clean my glasses or have the peepers checked. When I read your post I read it twice before I finally saw Rashard instead of Rasheed!

beat

[steve3344]

How many of us would have given the C's a chance in game 2 if beforehand we were told the following:

Perk will foul out in only 15 minutes.
Ray will shoot 1 for 6 and finish with 4 points.
KG will shoot 5 for 16.
Pierce will turn the ball over 5 times.

Now try and win the game.

And they did.

[swedeinestonia]

Howabout Sheed in the playoffs..

was he worth the money?

I think I will do a poll.

[bobheckler]

How many of us would have give the C's a chance in game 2 if beforehand we were told the following:

Perk will foul out in only 15 minutes.
Ray will shoot 1 for 6 and finish with 4 points.
KG will shoot 5 for 16.
Pierce will turn the ball over 5 times.

Now try and win the game.

And they did.

steve,

Nice, tidy little summation.

bob

.

[pete]

Pete

I need to clean my glasses or have the peepers checked. When I read your post I read it twice before I finally saw Rashard instead of Rasheed!

beat

beat,

I'm surprised I got the spelling right!

Pete

[dboss]

The Celtics have the correct attitude for what is still in front of them.

Talk of a sweep is really just talk and it also is not what they need to focus on.

Game three is all they need to focus on.

dboss

[cowens/oldschool]

How many of us would have given the C's a chance in game 2 if beforehand we were told the following:

Perk will foul out in only 15 minutes.
Ray will shoot 1 for 6 and finish with 4 points.
KG will shoot 5 for 16.
Pierce will turn the ball over 5 times.

Now try and win the game.

And they did.

wonder how were gonna look when were clicking?can't wait to see a refreshed Ray......you know what that means

[cowens/oldschool]

bob h
I'm with you,enjoy being wrong......I was hoping for a split cow

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