POST GAME WASHINGTON - HOME

What can you say about the Stiemer! Wow this kid can develop into something special, and it cost us nothing. What a great game by RA, 27 points! The team is starting to gel. As far as JON, if he is health consider it a gift, with his legs its time for Danny to get someone for insurance. Love the play at the end with Bass giving a hard foul to Wall who is a very chippy player!

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RECAP BY WEEI 850

FAST BREAK: CELTICS STIEMROLL THE WIZARDS
By Paul Flannery WEEI 850

You only get one chance to make a first impression and while Greg Stiemsma‘s first start may have been a revelation to Celtics’ fans, he had already impressed coach Doc Rivers. “That’s somebody we didn’t know we would have,” Rivers said. “After the second or third day of camp you’re thinking wow, this guys pretty’s good.”

Stiemsma was better than his good on Monday night against the Wizards starting in place of Jermaine O’Neal (left hamstring). He wasted little time asserting himself as he blocked Washington’s Rashard Lewis. The play angered Wizards’ coach Flip Saunders who got two quick technical and was ejected 106 seconds into the game.

Stiemsma’s shot blocking is already an established part of his game — he came in averaging 7.3 blocks per 36 minutes — but he also showed a nice touch from the outside and wasn’t afraid to mix it up with the more athletic Wizards. Stiemsma finished with 13 points and seven rebounds in 21 minutes.

The Celtics went with a smaller lineup in the fourth quarter as Stiemsma gave way to Brandon Bass and the Celtics were able to hold on for a 100-92 victory, their third straight. They have a chance to get over .500 on Wednesday when they host the Nets.

WHAT WENT RIGHT

– Ray Allen was the only viable offensive threat for the Celtics in the first half, scoring 16 points on 5-for-11 shooting that included three 3-pointers in four attempts. Allen finished with 27 points and made a couple of momentum-turning 3-pointers in the fourth quarter.

– As good as Allen was in the first half, that’s how good Paul Pierce was in the third quarter when he scored eight of his 21 points. The problem was that Pierce had already logged 30 minutes so Rivers used Marquis Daniels extensively in the fourth quarter and Daniels responded with a strong performance.

– Bass had a productive night off the bench after a shaky first quarter. He was once again the only scoring threat off the bench and grabbed six rebounds in addition to his 14 points. Bass was also a willing passer, despite only getting one assist.

– Avery Bradley had a dominant stretch of defense in the first half when he hounded Wizards guard Jordan Crawford and essentially stopped the Washington offense from functioning.

WHAT WENT WRONG

– You knew it was going to happen on the second night of a back-to-back, but the Wizards loaded up on categories like second-chance points (17-9) and in transition where they outscored the Celtics 17-9. On nights like that the Celtics have to rely on their shooting to carry them and they were stuck in the low 40′s.

– Outside of Bass and a decent night from Daniels, the Celtics bench could not generate any offense. Keyon Dooling doesn’t appear comfortable running the offense yet and Chris Wilcox needs to find a rhythm after missing almost three games with a shoulder injury. The Celtics lack of bench scoring could be a major problem this season.

I just finished watching the recording after I watched them get the Rose Bowl score wrong. Damn Ducks.

My one quick takeaway is that Avery Bradley is part Tony Allen. He shuts down his guy completely for a while; just dominates him like he did with Crawford in the early-going tonight. Then, just when you think he's got it, it's like a light goes off and he gets faked out of his jock, ends up out of position and/or getting scored on. It's like the air goes out of the balloon slowly from there.

We also need serious work on the glass. Then again we've needed that since around '03 and it hasn't been all bad.

Doc talked about improving offensive rebounding about 3 weeks back. I have seen no signs of that at all. I do not know if Doc says things to try to do head fakes with the rest of the league's coaches. Last year we were last or next to last in that category and in the lower half of the league since 2003.

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Definitely an area that needs improvement.

Dboss

It is a thin line of holding back and fighting for offensive rebounds and trying to get back to prevent younger teams from running on us but there has to be a happy medium, I just hope Doc finds it. I believe we can up our scoring by hitting the offensive boards better and I believe the positives out weigh the negatives by deploring this strategy.

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Last season, the Celtics gathered 7.8 offensive rebounds per game, ranking them 30th in the league.

To date this season, the Celtics have gathered 9.2 offensive rebounds per game, ranking them 10th in the league.

This represents an 18% increase in RPG and an improvement of 20 slots in league ranking. While not an enormous change, and based on a relatively small number of games, it represents a step in the right direction. I believe Bass will help in this area, although the Celtics' strategy of falling back in transition defense will never see them challenging for the league leadership in offensive rebounds while The Three Amigos are still here.

What is more of a concern to me is that, so far, even their premature retreats toward the defensive end have been inadequate to mount a really solid transition defense. I'm hoping that greater familiarity with the system among the new players will help in this regard because many (if not most) of the teams they play this season will probably be younger and faster than the Celtics are.

Up to this early point in the season, it appears to me that the Celtics have enough firepower to overcome their defensive mediocrity against fair-to-lousy teams, but doing so against elite teams will be a severe challenge to say the least.

I'm placing a load of hope (probably more than should be the case) in that four day practice window that will soon be coming up. I bet Doc is already plotting how to use that very valuable time. I just hope they'll be at full strength to benefit from it.

Sam

Hi,
Nice - one more W.
Game ball, obviously, goes to RA with honorary mentioning of GS. It's been 100% success of his 1st start.
There were ups and downs as in almost every game. But in the last 7-8 min of the 4th quarter there was an absolute calm (my personal impression). It seemed Celtics knew exactly the outcome of the game.
Once again, I haven't been impressed by AB. He played almost 10 min. The only good thing he did was pestering Wizards' PG disrupting flow of their offense. But as soon as they started to run some offensive combinations he looked lost. No real production on the offense either - he was just running around sometimes creating confusion in Wizards defense but not taking any advantage of it.
There was a rare moment when refs did the right thing. I'm talking about that block by GS. There was a contact with RL but RL started to fall backwards on his own and pulled GS by his jersey. I don't know if the refs saw it or not, but if they saw and didn't blow the whistle thus allowing Celtics a fast break - good for them. OTOH, I don't agree with that T on Wall.

AK

Sam,

Those are interesting stats, however let's see where they are in terms of the rest of the league come game #20. That will be a good measuring to show if they are improving or gone back to past years.

Good pick up on defensive short comings.

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Doc loves these home-and-away games this year. He only has to prepare for one team.

1. Rondo, who had an unbelievable scoring game on Sunday reverted back to his truer form in this game with only 6 points. That's the bad news. The good news is that his "true form" also includes being an effective floor general. In this regard, his 13 assists were just what we expect from him. On 38 made field goals the Celtics had 28 assists for a 74% assist-to-fgm ratio. That's very good. Kevin Garnett, had 6 assists too. It is devastating when your point guard and a big man who can shoot can run the offense. Remember Bill Walton back when he was in Portland, passing out of the high post? It opens up the middle because the defense cannot drop off the big man.

2. After the first game on Sunday, I started to pay attention to Doc's management of KG's minutes. For the first 3/4, KG played 5 minutes or less before sitting down. I was thinking "ok, Doc, way to go!", And then came the 4th quarter and KG didn't sit down. Doc is a matchup coach, rather than a platoon rotation coach. So, I can see why he'd have Bass out there instead of Stiemsma. Would Stiemsma have gone out to 18' to cover Blatche and wouldn't KG be a better defender against the long McGee? Bass's mobility, also, posed a problem for Blatche on defense.

3. Ok, so now I get to the place where I talk about The Steamer, but what can I say that hasn't already been said? What a great start for the 26 year old rookie. Doc said he had a good elbow jumper, but he didn't say anything about being able to drain 22-footers. Stiemsma seems to have a problem defending his man off the dribble, that's where he gets hurt the most, but he's great on defending penetrations or popping out to help out. 7 rebounds and 2 assists to go with a 13 point, 5-7 night (and his obligatory 2 blocks). He looks totally comfortable out there. I also like that he hustles back on defense. If a ball's live (i.e. not being taken out of the bottom of the net by the Wiz or out of bounds), he never ran back on defense at less than a 3/4 gallop. He's a steal and I see a nice little career here, on a team whose centers are old and about to retire. With his NBA size, natural defensive instincts, FT% and his ability to shoot jumpers, I don't see him dropping below #2 on the depth chart for the next 5-8 years. As Sam has pointed out, he even made a mid-game adjustment last night. That's IQ.

4. Pierce was 0-5 in the first quarter. He ended up 8-18 including some very timely 3s. His return makes life easier for everybody, since they can't leave him alone.

5. The Amazing Mr. Allen does it again. 27 points and 6-7 from 3. He would have had more except for a blown bunny and the Wiz's tall timber. Never gets tired, never seems to get injured. Never seems to miss, at least not this year so far. Amazing.

6. I thought Randy Wittman did a good job coaching in Flip Saunder's absence (who knew that a side effect of Stiemsma's defense would be to get head coaches to lose their minds and get ejected 2 minutes into the game?). Their defense collapsed on all penetration effectively. If you got the ball inside you either had to shoot quickly or pass out, because if you didn't, you were going to have three redwoods surrounding you. Their interior defense, in both games, has been outstanding.

7. Bass was Bass. Solid, reliable. He even had an assist (mark this day down in history). How great to have a player who can play and effective and efficient 30+ minutes (31 last night) coming off the bench? He chased down some rebounds in the corner, showing good hustle. Another 50+% shooting night. Glen who?

8. Bradley's offense was, in a few words, Bradley's offense. I don't know if he can shoot, but he sure hasn't so far this season. What he did do, though, was play Gary Payton, aka "The Glove", defense on Crawford. He completely frustrated him. In one series, Crawford was still out near the logo at halfcourt with only 10 seconds left on the shot clock because Bradley wouldn't let him go anywhere with the ball. Would I like Bradley to put the ball in the hoop more? Sure, but his defense last night was spectacular. A couple more outings like that, and he'll have some trade value.

9. Our transition defense sucked last night. Their bigs were outrunning our bigs downcourt all night. I didn't like that. I didn't like that at all. I'll betcha Doc says something about that today, at practice.

Ok, so we're now at .500 (3-3) with a long homestand coming up. Phew!

bob

.

I didn't see the game (and have seen precious little NBA action this season, for that matter), but I still feel compelled to comment. Go figure.

1. A little math: Stiemsma's box scores + the way you guys describe him = I can't wait to see him play.

2. I am not surprised that Bass is playing well. When I watched Orlando last season, Bass would come off the bench and bring rebounds, a little mid-range/post offense, some nice D, and an overall spark to the Magic. Then I'd watch his box scores and see his playing time stagnate, and I couldn't figure it out. Was he a bad match with Howard? Seems like he'd be Dwight's best friend. Was he a locker room cancer? Tough to get that label when Gilbert Arenas and/or Vince Carter was in the room. Bass seemed to all the world to be a banger willing to do the dirty work, just the type of guy winning teams need. I'm glad he's finding a home where he's appreciated.

3. Astute observation by Bob that home-and-homes against the same team can simplify preparation by the coaching staff. If I may, I'd like to add one little twist -- that it somewhat mimics playoff series, where the team that can make adjustments between games is more likely to be successful, and teams like Boston with a successful playoff coach will have the advantage. A nice plus to help offset the disadvantage of the aged roster.

4. I would happily sign Ray to a contract after this year. The guy has the genetics, intelligence, and work ethic to make him effective for 2-3 more seasons. As we discovered in a topic a while back, perimeter guys don't age as well as big guys (speed and jumping ability deteriorate, but height doesn't), but everything about Ray makes me think he'll buck that trend. He's like Nolan Ryan -- supreme effort combined with economy of effort, which results in maximum efficiency.

Outside

Outside wrote:I didn't see the game (and have seen precious little NBA action this season, for that matter), but I still feel compelled to comment. Go figure.

1. A little math: Stiemsma's box scores + the way you guys describe him = I can't wait to see him play.

2. I am not surprised that Bass is playing well. When I watched Orlando last season, Bass would come off the bench and bring rebounds, a little mid-range/post offense, some nice D, and an overall spark to the Magic. Then I'd watch his box scores and see his playing time stagnate, and I couldn't figure it out. Was he a bad match with Howard? Seems like he'd be Dwight's best friend. Was he a locker room cancer? Tough to get that label when Gilbert Arenas and/or Vince Carter was in the room. Bass seemed to all the world to be a banger willing to do the dirty work, just the type of guy winning teams need. I'm glad he's finding a home where he's appreciated.

3. Astute observation by Bob that home-and-homes against the same team can simplify preparation by the coaching staff. If I may, I'd like to add one little twist -- that it somewhat mimics playoff series, where the team that can make adjustments between games is more likely to be successful, and teams like Boston with a successful playoff coach will have the advantage. A nice plus to help offset the disadvantage of the aged roster.

4. I would happily sign Ray to a contract after this year. The guy has the genetics, intelligence, and work ethic to make him effective for 2-3 more seasons. As we discovered in a topic a while back, perimeter guys don't age as well as big guys (speed and jumping ability deteriorate, but height doesn't), but everything about Ray makes me think he'll buck that trend. He's like Nolan Ryan -- supreme effort combined with economy of effort, which results in maximum efficiency.

Outside

As for the Nolan Ryan comment................ wonder if Robin Ventura would feel that way. Never seen Ray go at it like that! ( remember Ventura charging the mound after getting hit or almost hit. Within second Ryan had him in a headlock and was poundin the $%^& out of him.)

beat

Credit to Doc on this one...

As a fan who has wanted to see him play some youth he did just that with Stiemsma. He could have just as easily gone with Wilcox but didn't.

The one disappointment for Stiemsma from yesterday has to be one I would share with him; the Rose Bowl. Damn Ducks.