POST GAME JAZZ

Great game.............enough said...............next Washington!


Go Celtics!!!!!!!

112288

know the jazz are in a funk but the boston CELTICS are really handling the action agin the nba's best teams.

And winning tight games, very un-last year.

HELL YA!

And this time John Wall is playing. I'm looking forward to watching him vs Rondo.

I'm concerned about Rondo,he limped a couple of times last nite,hes really becoming a student of the game,hes got to pick his spots now.

cow

he's young enough that he can play his way through it and deadly enough to control a game with his passing and as tough or tougher than any Celtic on this team.

jeb

I know,hes obviously having a career year despite playing through injuries,my point is he doesn't have to put his body at risk and I'm sure he knows this because hes too valuable on the floor....remember him driving and getting spilled by Shaq in last years playoffs,thats what were all afraid of.Like Clint Eastwood once said 'every man has to know his limitations'.

cow

Two more glimmers,the breakout game of Semih and continued stellar play from Big Baby.Baby has added a great reverse finish as he beats big men off the dribble.Semih has nice left hand spin move,together they sparked us and its not like Al Jefferson or Paul Milsap are slouches.

Hi,
Dear Celtics,
Thank you very much for playing defence from the first minute of the game till the last. Much appreciated. Please continue this trend as often as you can.
Your faithful fan.
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Nice game yesterday. I think it was done some time through the 3rd quarter
but I was pretty sure of the outcome at about mid-point of the first. The focus and intencity were at such high level that ejection of 3-4 key players or something similar could've change the outcome.
Kudos to SE. He's like a crutch: team starts to limp, they take it and continue their march.

I'm concerned about KG. He's still cautious about doing dunks and alley-oops. Hopefully, it's just a few games after the return.

AK

Sinus

After we got up 15 or so quite early and the subs began to enter Utah went on an 8 point run and the lead was down to 7ish, At that time we again pushed the lead back up to 13 within the next 3-4 possessions. Not exactly sure of the time frame for this but had to be early second.

To me we never took our hands off their throat the rest of the way, might not have squeezed hard but we never let go either.

beat

I thought Doc was smart to use Quis on Deron, His length really bothered him.

I would never have thought the Celtics, or any team, would have handled a Jerry Sloan team as easily as this after they had just lost a game to a bad team like NJ. I don't know if that's because Jerry's losing it or because we're just that good, but it blindsided me. In a good way, of course.

1. Rondo did a good job of putting Deron down in the first half by playing good defense on him and picking up some quick fouls on him. Q did a good job of keeping Deron down in the second half. Deron got completely punked last night. I agree with Jeb, good matching up by Doc and, as I have said, I like the way the offense flows better when Q is running it than when Nate is.

2. Where are we at now? 445 hours to go before West comes back? Sure, Nate was 3-6 for the night and had 2 steals but he also had 0 assists and 2 turnovers and his decision making after making at least one of those steals had Doc off the bench with his mouth wide-open. Tiny, diminutive Nate is NOT a point guard (I wish he was Tiny. I'd let Archibald run the offense, even at his age, rather than Nate right now). He's a 2 in a 1/2 body. His decision making, which wasn't bad earlier in the season, is excrement now. To be honest, I don't see him even trying to run an offense now. He gave us good energy and hustle and produced 2 steals, I'll give him that, but I cringe when he has the ball now. I suppose I should be happy when he thinks "shoot, shoot, shoot and pass if you have to", since that's what he does, but that leaves us without a backup point guard. Rondo had to come off the bench and finish the last 35 seconds because Nate fouled out after just 16 1/2 minutes of floor time. Nate's counterpart on Utah, backup point guard Earl Watson, took 8 of Utah's 34 fta.

3. Erden gave us an inside presence that we went completely empty on when Shaq went out. 5-5 from the field, 4-5 from the line, 7 rebounds and 3 steals in 30 minutes is good production from a player who is usually picking splinters out of his ass until someone goes down in front of him. No Shaq for a few weeks, no JON for longer than that and Perk isn't even scheduled to be back for almost 2 more weeks. This will be Erden's baptism by fire. I look forward to seeing what he can do. He is, unfortunately, still foul-prone. I expect to see Davis playing a lot of center and the Celtics playing a lot of small (or at least smaller) ball.

4. Davis is turning into an excellent all-round player. We all know that he's added a very reliable jumpshot and he leads the league in taking charges, but that pass by him on the fast break to Erden for the stuff was beautiful. The younger version of Big Baby would have tried to take it in himself, even though he was off-balance on the catch and had a defender on him, but last night he made a good opencourt decision. It's too bad he won't sign a longterm contract. You'd have thought his experience the last time he was a free agent and didn't get as much as he thought he was worth should have taught him a lesson, but I guess not. Still the leading candidate for NBA 6th Man.

5. Another good game by Von Wafer. His shooting wasn't great (3-8, 1-4 from 3) but he made good decisions, didn't try to force anything, his shots all came out of the offense and were shots he should have taken, and he had 2 assists and 0 turnovers. That's 2 assists more and 2 turnovers less than Nate.

6. The Jazz rookie, Gordon Hayward out of Butler, looked real good out there. 6'9", can shoot, rebound and doesn't make dumb rookie mistakes. Rght now, I think he's looking like a good pick at #9. I would have loved to see our rookie match up with him. Considering this was a blow out from early in the 3rd quarter, Shaq is down so our frontline will have to play more minutes and we have a game tonight against Washington, I'm surprised Doc didn't play Luke more.

7. When we traded for KG, there were a lot of people at BDC bemoaning the loss of the now, much-traveled Al Jefferson ("Danny traded away our future, Danny traded away our future!"). Aside from #17 and 2 trips to the Finals in 4 years and just looking at last night's game, it still looks like divine inspiration by Danny now. Poor Al, only 1-11 himself and not capable of handling either Shaq nor KG, looked like a fish out of water last night. I am surprised he's starting ahead of Okur. If Okur can play, I don't understand why he only played 6 1/2 minutes. Does anybody know what's up with that?

8. We had 31 assists last night with a SamStat of 84%! That's beautiful. What makes it even sweeter is that Rondo only accounts for 39% of those assists. When we play offense like that and hold our opponents to 40% shooting we are damn near unbeatable. The only Celtic players without an assist was Pierce, Erden and Nate. The entire Jazz starting unit barely edged out Rondo, 13-12. Hell, Marquis Daniels had as many assists as Deron, 6!

Very few 2nd half/4th quarter swoons for us this year, so far, and a combination of wild-eyed ferocity and almost machine-like execution in the close games, including the ones against some very good teams like San Antonio. Our revolving door injury list is of concern to me, for chemistry as well as what could happen to us in the playoffs, but other than that I am truly inspired by our play this year.

Now, on to storm the Nation's Capital and after that to bury the Mistake on the Lake. We need some easier opponents now, because the next few weeks are going to be touch-and-go.

bob


.

Bob, it seems to me that Glen Davis is staying right in character by signing for only one year. The guy is putting the burden on himself to keep improving and to become ever-more attractive to teams. And that's exactly the way he plays the game. He is constantly adding new skills and moves to his repertoire, and he's gradually "feeling" the mental part of the game better. Frankly, although he has been praised considerably on this board, I don't believe his ability to play bigger guys to at least a standstill receives the credit he should be getting.

One of the factors that's most influential in the Celtics' success this season is points in the paint. Glen is the poster boy for points in the paint, and this year he has added new wrinkles (keeping his body between the ball and the defensive man, the reverse layup, etc.) to keep from being blocked so often.

His offensive rebounding actually seems to have tailed off a bit, as I believe he's concentrating more on getting back on defense quickly, especially when he's playing center. But his OR is still a weapon in an area of need.

I believe he's a legitimate contender for 6th man of the year league-wide; and I so stated very, very early in the season. But, strictly regarding his role with the Celtics, I could state a very good case that he's not very far down the list of candidates for MVP of the team (largely because of what his versatility means to this team).

Sam

Sam wrote:Bob, it seems to me that Glen Davis is staying right in character by signing for only one year. The guy is putting the burden on himself to keep improving and to become ever-more attractive to teams. And that's exactly the way he plays the game. He is constantly adding new skills and moves to his repertoire, and he's gradually "feeling" the mental part of the game better. Frankly, although he has been praised considerably on this board, I don't believe his ability to play bigger guys to at least a standstill receives the credit he should be getting.

One of the factors that's most influential in the Celtics' success this season is points in the paint. Glen is the poster boy for points in the paint, and this year he has added new wrinkles (keeping his body between the ball and the defensive man, the reverse layup, etc.) to keep from being blocked so often.

His offensive rebounding actually seems to have tailed off a bit, as I believe he's concentrating more on getting back on defense quickly, especially when he's playing center. But his OR is still a weapon in an area of need.

I believe he's a legitimate contender for 6th man of the year league-wide; and I so stated very, very early in the season. But, strictly regarding his role with the Celtics, I could state a very good case that he's not very far down the list of candidates for MVP of the team (largely because of what his versatility means to this team).

Sam

sam,

I concur whole-heartedly. One of Davis' glaring weaknesses when he first came into the league was his inability to finish around the rim. He has become quite adept at using the rim and his body to protect the ball and his shot from defenders, including shot blockers. A large part of our success against Orlando comes from our ability to play Howard "straight up". That meant Perk, when he was playing, and Davis when he wasn't. With Perk rehabbing, it's all Davis.

Davis for Celtics MVP? Hmmm. I might have to think about that one a bit, especially after watching our offense disintegrate into ME-ball bedlam in the weeks Rondo was out. There's no doubting, however, that Davis is a very key cog in the Big Green Machine.

bob

.

Bob,

Note carefully my wording. I said Glen is not far down the list of candidates for Celtics MVP.

Sam

Bob/Sam

Please remind me what a "Samstat" is.

Thanks!

I was surprised by this game...I thought it would be quite tight but my crystal ball must need batteries again.
I've noticed that Big Baby has become more serious this last year, maybe I'll have to start calling him Big Adult soon, he really seems to be more focused on the job at hand. Maybe he's focused on a big payout next contract...Anyway, keep it up BB

Bobc,

I believe BobH is referring to my affection for the stat measuring the percentage of field goals that are assisted.

Sam