POST GAME CLEVELAND - AWAY

All I can say is, it's a win, move on!

Just a suggestion to all players and Doc, on the flight back to Boston go sit with Tommy Heinsohn for about an hour. Their play almost cost them another game. It is just a simple observation and execution of basketball 101.

1) Your up 21 and you see the other team driving into the paint and scoring while at the other end your tossing up jump shots, Daa!
2) How to rebound by boxing out your man under the basket - RED ON ROUND BALL 101! We were out rebounded 39 - 28 with Varejao getting 20. I mean come on he's no Wilt!

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POST GAME ESPN BOSTON


HOW THE GAME WAS WON
Paul Pierce paced five Celtics players in double figures with 20 points, but it was Kevin Garnett (13 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists) and Brandon Bass (13 points, 6 rebounds off the bench) who produced the clutch late-game buckets to help the Celtics escape with a should-have-been-much-easier triumph after leading by as much as 22 with under 15 minutes to play. Anderson Varejao single-handedly kept the Cavaliers in the game, producing 20 points (on 10-of-17 shooting) and 20 rebounds (10 on each end of the court) and rookie No. 1 pick Kyrie Irving (game-high 21 points and 6 assists) gave his team a spark late, helping make it a one-possession game in the waning moments.

NO LEAD SAFE VS. CAVS
The Celtics came out strong after the intermission and turned a 12-point halftime cushion into as much as a 22-point lead after Ray Allen's 3-pointer with 2:43 to play in the third quarter. But Boston clearly didn't learn from Sunday's loss in which the Cavaliers rallied from an 11-point deficit over the final four minutes. Cleveland got some momentum and rallied all the way to within a bucket when Irving's layup made it 89-87 with 78 ticks to play. Isolated on Varejao, Garnett got a turnaround jumper to rattle home with 1:04 to play and Jermaine O'Neal swatted a Varejao layup attempt at the other end to help Boston hang on.

BENCH PROVIDES AN EARLY SPARK
Boston's bench aided its early success, with reserves Bass, E'Twaun Moore, Sasha Pavlovic and Mickael Pietrus combining for 23 first-half points. Alas, everyone but Bass -- who played starter-caliber minutes -- disappeared in the second half. Bass scored the bench's only five points after the intermission, making two big jumpers to keep Cleveland at arm's length down the stretch.

LINE OF THE NIGHT
Flummoxed for much of the night by the whistles from referee Karl Lane, Celtics TV analyst Tommy Heinsohn declared in the fourth quarter, "His name is Lane, they should show him the highway."

WHAT IT MEANS
Well, the Celtics clearly are not going for style points this year. They're also clearly not trying to make things easy for themselves. Nonetheless, unlike Sunday night, they managed to emerge with the win. Maintaining a 22-point cushion might have given the Celtics some fresher legs for when the Raptors visit Wednesday night, so it will be interesting to see how Boston responds with the quick turnaround.

The Celtics have two players who can go to the hoop consistently. One doesn't do it as well as in the past, and the other one was in street clothes for this game (and several games before it).

When the opponent knows you're not going for the penetration, it's pretty easy for them to crowd you outside. So your jumpers are all contested. When you're only 4-15 from three-point land, it makes the opponent's job even easier.

Moreover, ayan orchestra leader, especially when things start going south.

I'm glad they won this because a loss might have broken their spirit long-term. And, frankly, I don't blame the guys who played for running out of answers when the Cavs made some basic adjustments. Without their floor leader, the C's simply don't have as many answers.

We got all excited about Bradley. Fine, he really shocked the Magic. But all that opponents have to do is watch a little film and then have their SG bring the ball up the floor, and the bulk of Bradley's value is undermined. He's not really a great one-on-one defender of quick guards who penetrate or drive and dish. And, in effect, the offense is playing 4-on-5 much of the time. Doubling Paul and/or Ray becomes much easier under that scenario. Using Bradley as a change-of-pace defender could potentially be a valuable tool, but using him as the point guard in crunch time is tantamount to attaching an opponent to each of Paul Pierce's arms.

I believe the Celtics, even without adding to the team, can be very competitive. But they need their full complement of core players to do so consistently.

By the way, did anyone notice the complete absence of Daniels in this game? I might have thought he deserved some run when things were obviously going downhill around the beginning of the 4th quarter. Maybe even at PG. I believe he could have calmed things down a bit on offense, provided some firepower in the lane, and not get lost among the picks at the other end any more than Bradley did.

Anyway, I'm very glad they won and crept back to .500.

By the way, where is everybody during the games? Should we do away with the Game On Thread? Bob Heckler and I did the two-step together throughout most of this one.

Go Celtics!

Sam

Hi,
3 solid quarters, as expected, and 1 ugly quarter.
It looked like Cavs had some kind of pixi dust that they sprinkled over Celtics in the 4th quarter.
I hope they've learnt from these 2 games.

Sam, agree about AB. Good on-ball defense, as soon as Cavs started to run picks he was lost. BTW, what's "ayan orchestra leader"?

AK

sinus007 wrote:Hi,
3 solid quarters, as expected, and 1 ugly quarter.
It looked like Cavs had some kind of pixi dust that they sprinkled over Celtics in the 4th quarter.
I hope they've learnt from these 2 games.

Sam, agree about AB. Good on-ball defense, as soon as Cavs started to run picks he was lost. BTW, what's "ayan orchestra leader"?

AK

Mayan orchestra leader?
Aryan orchestra leader?

bob

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Team desperately needs Rajon back. Period.

Win is a win.

Time to go beat up Toronto and get ready to return the opening night favor to the struggling Knicks on Friday.

Mrkleen

I would agree to a point, but you cannot build a 21 point lead and let it go because you get lazy and not box your man out from rebounding. I thought Tommy was going to get a heart attack last night from seeing something so fundamental and obvious that the Celtics were not doing........go out and pick your man up and he will lead you to where the rebound is going and box out!

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I think Rondo helps not just with pushing the ball and taking it to the hoop, but his off the ball rebounding cannot be underestimated. However, I do agree....boxing out is Basketball 101 and they have showed a very poor ability to do so.

My ears are popping from the change in altitude. One week they're beating everybody on one leg and next week they don't know which way is up. Coming back from a 27 point deficit against the Orlando Magic and almost blowing a 21 point lead against the once-again Cleveland Cadavers? We were up by 21 points with :31 left in the 3rd, up 18 after 3. I said, on the Game On thread, "I hope it's enough". I was being facetious at the time. Little did I know. Sam said, as part of our lonely tete-a-tete on the Game On thread, is that sometimes a win doesn't feel like a win. This was one of those.

Byron Scott has done a marvelous job of taking a roster of mostly mediocre talent, no current all-star on the team, and turned them into true believers. After the way they played the last two games, who wouldn't be? I haven't watched enough Cavalier basketball this year to know if this is their style against everybody or if it's just how Scott thought they'd be most effective against the Celtics, but it works. If you had the ball anywhere near the 3pt line, there was a Cavalier in your jersey, again. The usual NBA defense of "wait for them at the top of the key" didn't happen. They went to wherever the ball was and forced you to put it on the floor against them or shoot right over them. Without Rondo, we couldn't. Near a sideline, baseline, halfcourt line? There'd be a doubleteam coming at you swiftly to take away your mobillity and options, so think fast and make your pass crisp or else start running in the other direction. Great job by the Cavs coaching staff on the xs-and-os but also on inspiring their troops. They'd be truly scary if they actually had a few more horses worth riding.

The french announcers I was listening to (no, I don't go looking for them, but sometimes that's the only feed I can get) were screaming into the mike, in the 4th quarter "Il n'est pas finis! No, no, no! Il n'est pas finis!" I probably don't have to translate that. They also declared Paul Pierce "Le Predateur Eminent du Celtics" when he was making clutch baskets. The Remarkable Killer. There's nothing like listening to Tommy and Mike to adjust your green-colored goggles, but there's always something amusing and/or educational listening to other announcers. Not better, just different. Let's face it, there's nothing anybody can say that will change my allegiance, so it's just amusing, and occasionally annoying. Like with fathead Matt Guokas, the Orlando color commentating fool...

1. Kyrie Irving is the Real McCoy. Clutch shooter, penetrator, passer, defender. Give this kid a few years for seasoning and he'll be a perennial all-star. He's a nice combination between a "go to" guy like Rose and a "facilitator" like Rondo. Not as good as either of them, but showed me talents in both, which will only improve with time.

2. The offense still moves a little fast for Bradley (he wasn't ready for a few passes), but he did ok last night overall, I thought. Maybe this is because I've adjusted my expectations for him downward, after the first Cavs game. A little better defense against Irving (at least he didn't give up the game-winning penetration this time), his offense all came from off-the-ball movement (except for one VERY nice inbounds play, with only 3+ seconds on the shot clock, he drove to the lane and put it in at the buzzer). I like that. If your outside shot isn't reliable, then take it inside. If Irving's game fell down anywhere it's that he repeatedly took his eyes off of Bradley along the baseline and Bradley alertly made him pay.

3. I hate Anderson Varejao. I hate him so much I'd love to see him in green. How the hell does he get 20 points on 10-17 shooting and 20 boards (10 of them offensive)? It blew my mind when he was stroking mid-range jumpers to start the game. At one point the score was Varejao 8, Celtics 6. The Brazilian Energizer Bunny was getting fingernails on every rebound on both sides of the court. Hitting the floor for loose balls. Setting solid picks and jumping out for perimeter defense. Which part of "you have to know where Varejao is all the time and put a body on him" haven't they figured out? He almost broke our hearts last night. Again. I hate that sonuvabitch.

4. Sasha had another good game. Nothing OMG!, but a solid, productive 6 minute stint with a tip-in and a short shot that he made harder than it had to be and the kind of solid defense we're starting to expect from him. Moore is not comfortable playing point. He'll bring the ball over mid-court and then look to get rid of it like it's a hot potato. One time the ball was so blazing hot he handed it off to Alonzo Gee (Literally, the pass was so short it barely left Moore's hands before it was in Gee's). He's a rookie who didn't play point in college and hasn't had the benefit of a true training camp, but he's out of position now. I know, what else can Doc do, with Rondo and Dooling out, but our deficiencies at point are glaring and Byron Scott didn't miss it.

5. Marquis Daniels got a DNP-Coaches Decision. Considering the incoherent travesty that was the Celtic offense in the 4th, I'd love to know why.

6. Wilcox had another less-than-stellar game. He didn't do any better a job against Varejao than anybody else and made a few really dumb plays. Brandon Bass had a solid game and, when the Celtics really needed some clutch hoops in the 4th quarter to stop the hemorrhaging and draw a line in the sand at a 7 point lead, he was the one who sank the Js. I'd point a finger at him for not stopping Varejao but that list would include our entire frontcourt. JON's stat line looks good, but I didn't like his game. He disappeared for most of it. One of the blocks he was given credit for was a clutch-time block on Varejao rolling down the lane with 44 seconds left, but I swear JON just stuck his hand up and Varejao shoved the ball into it. Hear that Steamer? Keep your hands up and good things happen.

7. Cleveland shot 11-18 in the 4th, 6-7 in the paint. The Celtics were 6-15 and 1-3 in the paint in the 4th. Clearly, we weren't playing with their energy or intensity levels. They took more shots (perhaps understandable given the deficit they had to come back from) but they also took it to us. This is a team that doesn't have a real center, and they shoved it down our throats in the paint. Yuck. Irving was 7-12 in the 4th, 3-3 in the paint. Great leadership by the young man and he damn near pulled it off again.

8. The latest rumor-du-jour yesterday was that the LAL are inquiring about Ramon Sessions. Session's play last night did nothing to diminish that interest. 10 assists in 28 minutes for the Cav's backup point guard. Our entire guard corp (Bradley, Allen, Moore) had a combined total of 9. He'd be a great addition to a team that has no point guards, no floor generals. Like the Lakers.

9. Cleveland was getting a lot of offensive rebounds because they were just slapping the ball out of the paint and hustling to it (mostly that damn pest). We didn't put bodies on people, we didn't seal off outside players, we just stood around and waited for someone else to get control of the rebound and pass it to us. Again.

10. We gave up 32 points in the 4th quarter. I don't care how you slice it, that stinks.

Tonight we give the equally weak Toronto Raptors a chance to feel their oats too. Nothing like giving Hope to the hopeless. Great...Let's hope charity doesn't begin at home this time.

bob

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I didn't see the game, so I can't comment on it directly, but I do agree with Kleen's points -- a win IS a win, and the C's desperately need Rondo. Yes, they've pulled together nicely for the most part without him, and they're one win over the woeful Raptors away from the 7-2 record I thought they might have over this particular stretch, but I didn't figure they'd be without Rondo for all but one of those games, and the idea was to build momentum over this relatively easy stretch to become the team they can be. Maybe this will all be a blessing in disguise, giving Bradley all this playing time and getting Pierce going as the point forward, but the downside is that they could have an adjustment period when Rondo returns. We'll see.

I haven't seen Irving play, but his stats are impressive. We've seen a ridiculous run of one-and-done point guards becoming stars in the NBA, which traditional wisdom says shouldn't happen because point guard is the most complex position to play, but most of these guys have turned traditional wisdom on its head by being shoot first, pass later players. Still, when you look past the gaudy numbers, you find that most of them have one or more areas of weakness -- low FG percentage, low assists, or high turnovers. It's still early and he may hit the rookie "wall", but Irving's numbers -- 51% FG, 41% 3PT, 4.9 assists, and 3.3 turnovers a game -- compare quite favorably to rookie seasons by Derrick Rose, John Wall, Brandon Jennings, Russell Westbrook, and Tyreke Evans. He could indeed be the real deal.

I know Orlando had the better record, but I like Cleveland's roster much better. Dwight makes up for a lot, but Cleveland has a decent number of good players. I dismissed them as lottery-bound a couple of weeks ago, but with the East so weak in the bottom half, they could conceivably be in a position to get into the playoffs. Who's to say they won't wind up better than the Knicks, Orlando, and Milwaukee? As with everyone this season, injuries will determine a lot, but Cleveland has a shot.

Rebounding will be a key for the Celtics all season. They have to show the discipline and effort needed to rebound consistently. They don't get easy buckets themselves, and they cannot afford to give them up, either on the fast break or as second-chance points. So important.

Bob's observation about Marquis Daniels not getting off the bench is puzzling. You'd think he'd be a key player with Rondo out. Curious.

You can't take anything for granted, but the Raptors are nowhere near the threat that the Cavs were. Toronto is bad enough when at full strength, but with Bargnani out, they are severely challenged offensively, and if DeRozan has a bad game, it can get ugly. In nine games without Bargnani, they've gone 1-8 with their losses by an average of almost 14 points. Clamp down on DeRozan, and it will be a good night.

Outside

Outside wrote: I haven't seen Irving play, but his stats are impressive. We've seen a ridiculous run of one-and-done point guards becoming stars in the NBA, which traditional wisdom says shouldn't happen because point guard is the most complex position to play, but most of these guys have turned traditional wisdom on its head by being shoot first, pass later players. Still, when you look past the gaudy numbers, you find that most of them have one or more areas of weakness -- low FG percentage, low assists, or high turnovers. It's still early and he may hit the rookie "wall", but Irving's numbers -- 51% FG, 41% 3PT, 4.9 assists, and 3.3 turnovers a game -- compare quite favorably to rookie seasons by Derrick Rose, John Wall, Brandon Jennings, Russell Westbrook, and Tyreke Evans. He could indeed be the real deal.

Good observation as usual Outside

Seems that Irving's weakness is defense - which would be magnified if the Cavs were to make the playoffs - where the game presumably slows down a lot. In an up and down game, or even in a very helter skelter kind of game which the Celtics defense often results in, he seemed to respond well. He has great handle and can dribble through double teams with ease. I am not sure he would be able to deal with larger guards like Rose or Evans in a prolonged series - but as an 18 year old, the kid has a ton of upside.

Hi,
In Re MD. I watched the game on FSOhio and just before the tip-off they showed MD talking to Doc. His body language was neutral. Unfortunately I can't read lips, so I don't know what MD was telling Doc but it last for 15-20 sec.
Frankly I don't know if it had any bearing on MD being DNP. Just an observation.

AK