POST GAME MEMPHIS

Nice game by the Celtics. They started to get some nice flow to their offense. Defense was again strong part of their game it kept the blemish of 18 turnovers from being noticed.

Nice to see Rondo get a north/south game going. Do not understand the Bradley/Rondo tandem. We saw it Friday against the Knick's and then today with really no positive results. Nice game by Wilcox, 12+ minutes with 5 rebounds and 12 points. Hey JJ
another typical rookie game with 10 points, 2 blocks and 4 rebounds in 20+ minutes. He is going to be a great player and would love to see him team up with Green next year. With Rondo, that line up would fly!

Again, Moore sitting on the bench for majority of the game. What's up Doc?

Remember Tuesday 7:00PM start Bob Cats

LET'S MAKE THIS AN ALL NEW ENGLAND/BOSTON SPORTS WEEKEND.......GO PAT!!!!!!!!!!!!

112288

RECAP WEEI 850 AM

FAST BREAK: CELTICS CRUISE TO FOURTH STRAIGHT
By Ryan Hadfield

The Celtics won their fourth straight game — and eighth out of the last nine — Sunday against the Grizzlies, 98-80. There was a lot to like about the performance. The Celtics had five players score in double figures and maintained the lead throughout most of the game. Kevin Garnett had 24 points (9-of-12 shooting) and nine rebounds. Paul Pierce added 21 points (5-of-12 shooting).

WHAT WENT RIGHT

Stepping up big: With Brandon Bass out of the lineup, the Celtics needed one of their big men to contribute off the bench. Chris Wilcox came in and did just that, scoring 12 points (5-of-5 shooting). Of Wilcox’s 12 points, 10 came in the first quarter in a variety of ways. He had a few nice finishes down low, a textbook bank shot and a hustle putback on a fast break. Rookie JaJuan Johnson also contributed 10 points (5-of-8 shooting) in his first real action (i.e., not in the fourth quarter of a blowout) of the season.

Running against the wind: It seems as though earlier in the season, the Celtics weren’t taking advantage of possible fast break opportunities. Rajon Rondo would push the ball forward with no support, which would often lead to turnovers. Now that Boston is finally healthy, the Celtics are more adept at converting on odd-man rushes. On Sunday Boston outscored a younger and more athletic Grizzles team 26-10 on fast break points.

The General is back: Rondo said he was tough on himself in his return to action in Friday night’s victory. And although he only produced five points, Rondo had 14 assists. He pushed the ball effectively on the break, and was fluent in his command of the offense, which helped create easy chances for others.

WHAT WENT WRONG

Second Quarter Blues: This is a bit picky, but the Grizzles opened the second quarter on a 16-3 run in the first 6 minutes of action. Subsequently, Boston’s eight-point first quarter lead evaporated. The Celtics regained their composure en route to a blowout victory, but these frequent lulls in their offense are still concerning.

Long Distance Woes: After shooting 22-of-44 (50 percent) from 3-point land the last two games, the Celtics started the game missing their first eight attempts. Many of these shots were set plays and wide open looks that simply weren’t falling for Boston. Once Ray Allen knocked down the first 3-pointer late in the second quarter, the Celtics found their groove and ended the game 7-of-20 from downtown. Still, the uneven performance was a reminder that the shooting from behind the arc lends itself to unpredictable outcomes.

112288 wrote:Nice game by the Celtics. They started to get some nice flow to their offense. Defense was again strong part of their game it kept the blemish of 18 turnovers from being noticed.

I sure noticed. Getting a comfortable win doesn't erase the fact that this was the second straight game with ugly turnovers. The C's started the second quarter with turnovers on their first five possessions, and lo and behold, Memphis got right back into the game. In Spike's post on the Post Game New York thread, he related Bill Russell's keys to winning championships as controlling the ball (minimize turnovers) and controlling the defensive boards (minimize the opponent's offensive rebounds). The C's did not succeed on either count today, yet won easily. That means that you can get away with losing the turnover/O-board battle sometimes, but it's not a formula for success.

The Celtics have surprisingly been successful in the big three era despite deficiencies in both categories. The offensive rebound category is somewhat by design, because Doc's philosophy is to fall back on defense rather than crash the offensive boards. But there is no strategy I'm aware of that involves losing the turnover battle. Some of what we've seen the past couple of games is due to Rondo getting acclimated to playing again, but the fact remains that, for this team to be successful this year, they absolutely must take better care of the ball. Their older players can still be effective, but the margin for error is narrower than in years past. Over this middle of the season stretch, I'll be looking for them to improve in this area as much as any other.

112288 wrote:Do not understand the Bradley/Rondo tandem. We saw it Friday against the Knick's and then today with really no positive results.

Ryan Hadfield wrote:Boston outscored a younger and more athletic Grizzles team 26-10 on fast break points.

After railing away about turnovers, I'm going to contradict myself and explain a turnover I didn't mind. It was in the first half, and it might've even been during that five-turnover stretch to start the second quarter, but it involved Rondo throwing a bullet to a streaking Bradley, but Bradley had too little room to make the catch and convert. Mike called it a great pass, but Tommy made a point about it being a bad pass because it came too late for Bradley to have a realistic chance to do anything with it. Personally, I liked it. Tommy is right that the pass came too late, but one thing I've been looking for is synergy between Rondo and Bradley, and this was an example of how they're working on it. If they keep working on it, they'll get it down to the point that the points they get on fast breaks will outweigh the turnovers that inevitably occur.

The Celtics desperately need easy transition baskets, and a Rondo-Bradley combo could be very productive at that. In my mind, the biggest stat I can point to as to why the Celtics won the game easily is 26-10 on fast break points. That 16-point margin is almost the same as the difference in the final score. As I've argued in other posts, getting transition baskets is hugely beneficial for this team and takes enormous pressure off the half-court offense and the aging veterans. Getting multiple people involved in fast breaks is more infectious than Rondo's solo efforts, as evidenced by old man Pierce sneaking out for an easy bucket at one point and looking positively spry doing it.

So Tommy is right that the play was too difficult to be successful, but it's really good to see the Rondo-Bradley synergy emerging. The difference between that play being two points and a turnover is a mere split second, and my guess is that they'll make it work.

Ryan Hadfield wrote:With Brandon Bass out of the lineup, the Celtics needed one of their big men to contribute off the bench. Chris Wilcox came in and did just that, scoring 12 points (5-of-5 shooting). Of Wilcox’s 12 points, 10 came in the first quarter in a variety of ways. He had a few nice finishes down low, a textbook bank shot and a hustle putback on a fast break. Rookie JaJuan Johnson also contributed 10 points (5-of-8 shooting) in his first real action (i.e., not in the fourth quarter of a blowout) of the season.

It's heartening to see Wilcox have two good games in row, almost as much as seeing JJJ have a meaningful game. When Mike made a comment about JJJ needing to bulk up, I thought Tommy made a good point about that being overrated, that strength was more important than bulk, and that quickness was most important of all.

Outside

Outside,

All good points raised and discussed.

My point on Bradley/Rondo is you are limited yourself to just RA shooting from the outside as far as offense goes but yes the speed of Bradle/Rondo for quick layup buckets do count in the scoring.

112288

112288,

Woulldn't that limitation depend on whom Rondo and Bradley are playing with? For example, KG and Pierce are pretty good offensive players.

Sam

Yes Sam but.................the line up was Rondo/Bradley/ Allen/Wilcox/Garnett

112288

112288 wrote:My point on Bradley/Rondo is you are limited yourself to just RA shooting from the outside as far as offense goes but yes the speed of Bradle/Rondo for quick layup buckets do count in the scoring.

You're absolutely correct. Playing the two of them together has its vulnerabilities, but as I said in the Avery thread, it's not something that you'd do all the time. I think could work for a 5-7 minute stretch each half. It wouldn't always be effective, but it could be a great change of pace at both ends of the floor and a difference maker in games.

Outside

Outside,

Perhaps Doc is just experimenting to see if it could gain some traction. That would be a change of pace, the Celtics are trying to out run and gun other younger teams. I like that!

This kid JJ is going to be a sweet player. Add some mussel and playing time and you got a winner.

112288

112288, I like that word "traction." I imagine there will be continued attempts, at least for the remainder of this season, to see whether they can find a way for Avery to contribute offensively. Failing that, they'll have to determine over time whether it's worth it to take up a roster slot with someone who's primarily a temporary change-of-pace disruption specialist.

It reminds me a little of how they strung along with Tony, although Tony had more offensive skills than Avery does. And now, from what I understand, when healthy, he's a pretty regular contributor on offense (10.8 PPG, 3.7 RPG, 47% shooting threes, 81% from the foul line, about 25 MPG) as well as displaying good defensive stopper skills.

Sam

A very nice start to an otherwise crappy sports day in Beantown. All 12 eligible players in green played, everybody in green did something good. Only Stiemsma didn't score, but in the mere 4 minutes he played he still grabbed 2 rebounds, had an assist, a steal and a block. Our bench was as good as I could ask it to be yesterday, with pleasant surprises all around, but the game ball has to go to

1. Kevin Garnett. What we got yesterday was vintage KG. Hitting his jumpers, rolling inside, grabbing rebounds, anchoring the defense and jumping out on shooters. Another 3 in as many games. I've always wondered why KG would take those shots a foot inside the 3 point line, when he could just take one step back and earn 50% more points on almost the same shot. He not only outplayed Mareese Speights, he almost outplayed him and Marc Gasol combined. What I'm looking for now is for KG to play like this with some consistency. He's been disappearing too much this year.

2. The other two stars of this game were our frontcourt bench players, Wilcox and JJJ. Just like with KG, I'm looking for consistent performance from these two guys. Wilcox has been on-and-off this season although this was 2 in a row for him. A very good day for Wilcox, active on the boards and hitting his shots. I hope this is him finally getting comfortable with this team and with his teammates. I have to keep reminding myself that many of these players had little-to-no training camp or pre-season and the ones who know Doc's playbook and each other came in embarrassingly out of shape.

3. This was JJJ's coming out party. He did everything right yesterday. Unlike Wilcox, who has been around for a few years, we have no way of knowing if JJJ can maintain this performance consistently (rookies are famous for NOT doing that). Doc said that JJJ was "one injury away from playing, and that could be sooner than later". Was that prescient, or did he already know about Bass' injury? Either way, it came true and should be a HUGE boost to that young man's confidence. He still needs another 10-15 pounds, to defend against getting posted up, but he's using what he has, length and agility, well.

4. Pierce and Ray Allen didn't have particularly good outside offensive games. Yes, Pierce had 21, but 10 of those points were from the line and at least 4 of them came off of fastbreaks. Ray Allen couldn't throw the ball into Boston Harbor from the edge of the pier in the first half, he ended up 4-14. Still, he shot 3-9 from 3. Most players would be very happy to shoot 33% from 3, Ray Allen does it and we're wonder what's wrong with him. Ray Allen is such a disciplined creature of habit, maybe this early game schedule threw him off? All those games where Ray Allen was hotter than a pistol and we're screaming for him to get more fga and then yesterday he's colder than ice and he gets 14. Go figure.

5. We had 26 fast break points to their 10. Our doddering oldsters were outrunning their young colts down the court all game. Pierce, in particular, was running well but so were others. We are just sooooo much more effective when we run and, as it turns out, we're pretty good at it. This might defy logic, given the age and makeup of our team, but the mountain of evidence built up this year is clear, we are a good running team.

6. Rondo was the other starter who had a good game. Much of his rust has come off and he's looking sharp again. Outside talked about his disagreement with Tommy's opinion about Rondo's pass to Bradley being too late and too aggressive. I'm going to agree with Outside on this one. Sam always talks about how Cousy used to throw a pass way in front of visually-impaired Satch Sanders, knowing he'd have to run like hell to see and catch it and uptempo running is what Cousy was trying to make his teammates do. Well, I'm ok with Rondo sending a message to Bradley, as well as Pierce and all the rest of the Celtics, that running your ass off may pay off. Furthermore, don't think that aggressive push-it-up style wasn't noticed by the Memphis coaching staff and players. If you know you're going to be beat downcourt if you're not careful, you'll peel back on defense a little quicker, and that helps us secure defensive rebounds. Sometimes, it's plays like that, the ones that would've been spectacular if only you had run a little faster, if only you had released a little sooner, if only you had kept your head and hands up that make a strong psychological impact on the team for the better. While I'm usually loathe to disagree with HOF player and coach Tommy Heinsohn and his green-colored goggles, I think this time he was looking at that play too tactically. In general, over the game, the style evidenced by that pass produced many easy baskets for us because players were running hard and we want this team to run more.

7. Our old friend, Tony Allen didn't play yesterday. Tony Allen was voted, by the NBA GMs, as the #1 perimeter defender in the NBA (a notoriety he first was noticed for in his defenses of LeBron (@ Cleveland), Wade and Kobe in previous years' playoffs with the Celtics and continued to shine in last year's playoffs with Memphis). In this game, I don't think he would have been a difference maker (especially in an 18-point blowout) because the two players he would have been guarding, Ray Allen and perhaps Pierce, didn't have great outside games yesterday.

8. Up by 8 at the start of the 4th quarter, the Celtics lineup was Bradley, KG, Pietrus, JJJ and Sasha. Memphis started trapping all over the court and completely discombobulated our offense flow. No ballhandling. Bradley has GOT to improve his ballhandling. Remember how TA used to drive us crazy with his dribbling? I don't want our newest defensive specialist going down that path. He has to learn how to handle defensive pressure and not just be able to dish it out.

A 4 game winning streak, interrupted by a completely avoidable loss to Cleveland, and now another 4 game winning streak. The Magic are playing the Clippers in Orlando today. If the Clippers win (they are 4-4 on the road, Orlando 8-4 at home) then we will be 1 game back from Orlando in playoff seeding. We don't need homecourt all the way, but I'd rather not face Chicago or Miami in round 1 and to make that happen we have to get ahead of Orlando. Considering the disfunctionality of that team, my confidence level on this is pretty high right now.

Bobcat on the menu tomorrow. I love eating game meat. Yum! With a little help from Blake & Co., we could be just 1/2 game back by this time Wednesday.

bob

.

bobheckler wrote:A very nice start to an otherwise crappy sports day in Beantown. All 12 eligible players in green played, everybody in green did something good. Only Stiemsma didn't score, but in the mere 4 minutes he played he still grabbed 2 rebounds, had an assist, a steal and a block. Our bench was as good as I could ask it to be yesterday, with pleasant surprises all around, but the game ball has to go to

1. Kevin Garnett. What we got yesterday was vintage KG. Hitting his jumpers, rolling inside, grabbing rebounds, anchoring the defense and jumping out on shooters. Another 3 in as many games. I've always wondered why KG would take those shots a foot inside the 3 point line, when he could just take one step back and earn 50% more points on almost the same shot. He not only outplayed Mareese Speights, he almost outplayed him and Marc Gasol combined. What I'm looking for now is for KG to play like this with some consistency. He's been disappearing too much this year.

2. The other two stars of this game were our frontcourt bench players, Wilcox and JJJ. Just like with KG, I'm looking for consistent performance from these two guys. Wilcox has been on-and-off this season although this was 2 in a row for him. A very good day for Wilcox, active on the boards and hitting his shots. I hope this is him finally getting comfortable with this team and with his teammates. I have to keep reminding myself that many of these players had little-to-no training camp or pre-season and the ones who know Doc's playbook and each other came in embarrassingly out of shape.

3. This was JJJ's coming out party. He did everything right yesterday. Unlike Wilcox, who has been around for a few years, we have no way of knowing if JJJ can maintain this performance consistently (rookies are famous for NOT doing that). Doc said that JJJ was "one injury away from playing, and that could be sooner than later". Was that prescient, or did he already know about Bass' injury? Either way, it came true and should be a HUGE boost to that young man's confidence. He still needs another 10-15 pounds, to defend against getting posted up, but he's using what he has, length and agility, well.

4. Pierce and Ray Allen didn't have particularly good outside offensive games. Yes, Pierce had 21, but 10 of those points were from the line and at least 4 of them came off of fastbreaks. Ray Allen couldn't throw the ball into Boston Harbor from the edge of the pier in the first half, he ended up 4-14. Still, he shot 3-9 from 3. Most players would be very happy to shoot 33% from 3, Ray Allen does it and we're wonder what's wrong with him. Ray Allen is such a disciplined creature of habit, maybe this early game schedule threw him off? All those games where Ray Allen was hotter than a pistol and we're screaming for him to get more fga and then yesterday he's colder than ice and he gets 14. Go figure.

5. We had 26 fast break points to their 10. Our doddering oldsters were outrunning their young colts down the court all game. Pierce, in particular, was running well but so were others. We are just sooooo much more effective when we run and, as it turns out, we're pretty good at it. This might defy logic, given the age and makeup of our team, but the mountain of evidence built up this year is clear, we are a good running team.

6. Rondo was the other starter who had a good game. Much of his rust has come off and he's looking sharp again. Outside talked about his disagreement with Tommy's opinion about Rondo's pass to Bradley being too late and too aggressive. I'm going to agree with Outside on this one. Sam always talks about how Cousy used to throw a pass way in front of visually-impaired Satch Sanders, knowing he'd have to run like hell to see and catch it and uptempo running is what Cousy was trying to make his teammates do. Well, I'm ok with Rondo sending a message to Bradley, as well as Pierce and all the rest of the Celtics, that running your ass off may pay off. Furthermore, don't think that aggressive push-it-up style wasn't noticed by the Memphis coaching staff and players. If you know you're going to be beat downcourt if you're not careful, you'll peel back on defense a little quicker, and that helps us secure defensive rebounds. Sometimes, it's plays like that, the ones that would've been spectacular if only you had run a little faster, if only you had released a little sooner, if only you had kept your head and hands up that make a strong psychological impact on the team for the better. While I'm usually loathe to disagree with HOF player and coach Tommy Heinsohn and his green-colored goggles, I think this time he was looking at that play too tactically. In general, over the game, the style evidenced by that pass produced many easy baskets for us because players were running hard and we want this team to run more.

7. Our old friend, Tony Allen didn't play yesterday. Tony Allen was voted, by the NBA GMs, as the #1 perimeter defender in the NBA (a notoriety he first was noticed for in his defenses of LeBron (@ Cleveland), Wade and Kobe in previous years' playoffs with the Celtics and continued to shine in last year's playoffs with Memphis). In this game, I don't think he would have been a difference maker (especially in an 18-point blowout) because the two players he would have been guarding, Ray Allen and perhaps Pierce, didn't have great outside games yesterday.

8. Up by 8 at the start of the 4th quarter, the Celtics lineup was Bradley, KG, Pietrus, JJJ and Sasha. Memphis started trapping all over the court and completely discombobulated our offense flow. No ballhandling. Bradley has GOT to improve his ballhandling. Remember how TA used to drive us crazy with his dribbling? I don't want our newest defensive specialist going down that path. He has to learn how to handle defensive pressure and not just be able to dish it out.

A 4 game winning streak, interrupted by a completely avoidable loss to Cleveland, and now another 4 game winning streak. The Magic are playing the Clippers in Orlando today. If the Clippers win (they are 4-4 on the road, Orlando 8-4 at home) then we will be 1 game back from Orlando in playoff seeding. We don't need homecourt all the way, but I'd rather not face Chicago or Miami in round 1 and to make that happen we have to get ahead of Orlando. Considering the disfunctionality of that team, my confidence level on this is pretty high right now.

Bobcat on the menu tomorrow. I love eating game meat. Yum! With a little help from Blake & Co., we could be just 1/2 game back by this time Wednesday.

bob

.

And if Philly loses to the Lakers tonight we're two games out of first place in the loss column in our division.

steve3344 wrote:

bobheckler wrote:A very nice start to an otherwise crappy sports day in Beantown. All 12 eligible players in green played, everybody in green did something good. Only Stiemsma didn't score, but in the mere 4 minutes he played he still grabbed 2 rebounds, had an assist, a steal and a block. Our bench was as good as I could ask it to be yesterday, with pleasant surprises all around, but the game ball has to go to

1. Kevin Garnett. What we got yesterday was vintage KG. Hitting his jumpers, rolling inside, grabbing rebounds, anchoring the defense and jumping out on shooters. Another 3 in as many games. I've always wondered why KG would take those shots a foot inside the 3 point line, when he could just take one step back and earn 50% more points on almost the same shot. He not only outplayed Mareese Speights, he almost outplayed him and Marc Gasol combined. What I'm looking for now is for KG to play like this with some consistency. He's been disappearing too much this year.

2. The other two stars of this game were our frontcourt bench players, Wilcox and JJJ. Just like with KG, I'm looking for consistent performance from these two guys. Wilcox has been on-and-off this season although this was 2 in a row for him. A very good day for Wilcox, active on the boards and hitting his shots. I hope this is him finally getting comfortable with this team and with his teammates. I have to keep reminding myself that many of these players had little-to-no training camp or pre-season and the ones who know Doc's playbook and each other came in embarrassingly out of shape.

3. This was JJJ's coming out party. He did everything right yesterday. Unlike Wilcox, who has been around for a few years, we have no way of knowing if JJJ can maintain this performance consistently (rookies are famous for NOT doing that). Doc said that JJJ was "one injury away from playing, and that could be sooner than later". Was that prescient, or did he already know about Bass' injury? Either way, it came true and should be a HUGE boost to that young man's confidence. He still needs another 10-15 pounds, to defend against getting posted up, but he's using what he has, length and agility, well.

4. Pierce and Ray Allen didn't have particularly good outside offensive games. Yes, Pierce had 21, but 10 of those points were from the line and at least 4 of them came off of fastbreaks. Ray Allen couldn't throw the ball into Boston Harbor from the edge of the pier in the first half, he ended up 4-14. Still, he shot 3-9 from 3. Most players would be very happy to shoot 33% from 3, Ray Allen does it and we're wonder what's wrong with him. Ray Allen is such a disciplined creature of habit, maybe this early game schedule threw him off? All those games where Ray Allen was hotter than a pistol and we're screaming for him to get more fga and then yesterday he's colder than ice and he gets 14. Go figure.

5. We had 26 fast break points to their 10. Our doddering oldsters were outrunning their young colts down the court all game. Pierce, in particular, was running well but so were others. We are just sooooo much more effective when we run and, as it turns out, we're pretty good at it. This might defy logic, given the age and makeup of our team, but the mountain of evidence built up this year is clear, we are a good running team.

6. Rondo was the other starter who had a good game. Much of his rust has come off and he's looking sharp again. Outside talked about his disagreement with Tommy's opinion about Rondo's pass to Bradley being too late and too aggressive. I'm going to agree with Outside on this one. Sam always talks about how Cousy used to throw a pass way in front of visually-impaired Satch Sanders, knowing he'd have to run like hell to see and catch it and uptempo running is what Cousy was trying to make his teammates do. Well, I'm ok with Rondo sending a message to Bradley, as well as Pierce and all the rest of the Celtics, that running your ass off may pay off. Furthermore, don't think that aggressive push-it-up style wasn't noticed by the Memphis coaching staff and players. If you know you're going to be beat downcourt if you're not careful, you'll peel back on defense a little quicker, and that helps us secure defensive rebounds. Sometimes, it's plays like that, the ones that would've been spectacular if only you had run a little faster, if only you had released a little sooner, if only you had kept your head and hands up that make a strong psychological impact on the team for the better. While I'm usually loathe to disagree with HOF player and coach Tommy Heinsohn and his green-colored goggles, I think this time he was looking at that play too tactically. In general, over the game, the style evidenced by that pass produced many easy baskets for us because players were running hard and we want this team to run more.

7. Our old friend, Tony Allen didn't play yesterday. Tony Allen was voted, by the NBA GMs, as the #1 perimeter defender in the NBA (a notoriety he first was noticed for in his defenses of LeBron (@ Cleveland), Wade and Kobe in previous years' playoffs with the Celtics and continued to shine in last year's playoffs with Memphis). In this game, I don't think he would have been a difference maker (especially in an 18-point blowout) because the two players he would have been guarding, Ray Allen and perhaps Pierce, didn't have great outside games yesterday.

8. Up by 8 at the start of the 4th quarter, the Celtics lineup was Bradley, KG, Pietrus, JJJ and Sasha. Memphis started trapping all over the court and completely discombobulated our offense flow. No ballhandling. Bradley has GOT to improve his ballhandling. Remember how TA used to drive us crazy with his dribbling? I don't want our newest defensive specialist going down that path. He has to learn how to handle defensive pressure and not just be able to dish it out.

A 4 game winning streak, interrupted by a completely avoidable loss to Cleveland, and now another 4 game winning streak. The Magic are playing the Clippers in Orlando today. If the Clippers win (they are 4-4 on the road, Orlando 8-4 at home) then we will be 1 game back from Orlando in playoff seeding. We don't need homecourt all the way, but I'd rather not face Chicago or Miami in round 1 and to make that happen we have to get ahead of Orlando. Considering the disfunctionality of that team, my confidence level on this is pretty high right now.

Bobcat on the menu tomorrow. I love eating game meat. Yum! With a little help from Blake & Co., we could be just 1/2 game back by this time Wednesday.

bob

.

And if Philly loses to the Lakers tonight we're two games out of first place in the loss column in our division.

Steve,

Correct me if I'm wrong, but winning the division only guarantees you a playoff slot, not the #1 or #2 seed, right?

Lakers lose 95-90. They shot 6-22 in the 4th quarter. Kobe was 1-10. He took 45% of the team's fga in the 4th quarter and probably shot them out of the game, 10-26 out of a team total 81. That's 32% of the Lakers' fga taken by Kobe. They were up by most of the 4th quarter and up by 5 with 3:55 left. Shit. Thanks for nothing Lakers.

Clippers beat Magic in OT, 107-102 in Orlando. We are now tied with the slumping Orlando Magic in the loss column.

bob

.

bobheckler wrote:

steve3344 wrote:

bobheckler wrote:A very nice start to an otherwise crappy sports day in Beantown. All 12 eligible players in green played, everybody in green did something good. Only Stiemsma didn't score, but in the mere 4 minutes he played he still grabbed 2 rebounds, had an assist, a steal and a block. Our bench was as good as I could ask it to be yesterday, with pleasant surprises all around, but the game ball has to go to

1. Kevin Garnett. What we got yesterday was vintage KG. Hitting his jumpers, rolling inside, grabbing rebounds, anchoring the defense and jumping out on shooters. Another 3 in as many games. I've always wondered why KG would take those shots a foot inside the 3 point line, when he could just take one step back and earn 50% more points on almost the same shot. He not only outplayed Mareese Speights, he almost outplayed him and Marc Gasol combined. What I'm looking for now is for KG to play like this with some consistency. He's been disappearing too much this year.

2. The other two stars of this game were our frontcourt bench players, Wilcox and JJJ. Just like with KG, I'm looking for consistent performance from these two guys. Wilcox has been on-and-off this season although this was 2 in a row for him. A very good day for Wilcox, active on the boards and hitting his shots. I hope this is him finally getting comfortable with this team and with his teammates. I have to keep reminding myself that many of these players had little-to-no training camp or pre-season and the ones who know Doc's playbook and each other came in embarrassingly out of shape.

3. This was JJJ's coming out party. He did everything right yesterday. Unlike Wilcox, who has been around for a few years, we have no way of knowing if JJJ can maintain this performance consistently (rookies are famous for NOT doing that). Doc said that JJJ was "one injury away from playing, and that could be sooner than later". Was that prescient, or did he already know about Bass' injury? Either way, it came true and should be a HUGE boost to that young man's confidence. He still needs another 10-15 pounds, to defend against getting posted up, but he's using what he has, length and agility, well.

4. Pierce and Ray Allen didn't have particularly good outside offensive games. Yes, Pierce had 21, but 10 of those points were from the line and at least 4 of them came off of fastbreaks. Ray Allen couldn't throw the ball into Boston Harbor from the edge of the pier in the first half, he ended up 4-14. Still, he shot 3-9 from 3. Most players would be very happy to shoot 33% from 3, Ray Allen does it and we're wonder what's wrong with him. Ray Allen is such a disciplined creature of habit, maybe this early game schedule threw him off? All those games where Ray Allen was hotter than a pistol and we're screaming for him to get more fga and then yesterday he's colder than ice and he gets 14. Go figure.

5. We had 26 fast break points to their 10. Our doddering oldsters were outrunning their young colts down the court all game. Pierce, in particular, was running well but so were others. We are just sooooo much more effective when we run and, as it turns out, we're pretty good at it. This might defy logic, given the age and makeup of our team, but the mountain of evidence built up this year is clear, we are a good running team.

6. Rondo was the other starter who had a good game. Much of his rust has come off and he's looking sharp again. Outside talked about his disagreement with Tommy's opinion about Rondo's pass to Bradley being too late and too aggressive. I'm going to agree with Outside on this one. Sam always talks about how Cousy used to throw a pass way in front of visually-impaired Satch Sanders, knowing he'd have to run like hell to see and catch it and uptempo running is what Cousy was trying to make his teammates do. Well, I'm ok with Rondo sending a message to Bradley, as well as Pierce and all the rest of the Celtics, that running your ass off may pay off. Furthermore, don't think that aggressive push-it-up style wasn't noticed by the Memphis coaching staff and players. If you know you're going to be beat downcourt if you're not careful, you'll peel back on defense a little quicker, and that helps us secure defensive rebounds. Sometimes, it's plays like that, the ones that would've been spectacular if only you had run a little faster, if only you had released a little sooner, if only you had kept your head and hands up that make a strong psychological impact on the team for the better. While I'm usually loathe to disagree with HOF player and coach Tommy Heinsohn and his green-colored goggles, I think this time he was looking at that play too tactically. In general, over the game, the style evidenced by that pass produced many easy baskets for us because players were running hard and we want this team to run more.

7. Our old friend, Tony Allen didn't play yesterday. Tony Allen was voted, by the NBA GMs, as the #1 perimeter defender in the NBA (a notoriety he first was noticed for in his defenses of LeBron (@ Cleveland), Wade and Kobe in previous years' playoffs with the Celtics and continued to shine in last year's playoffs with Memphis). In this game, I don't think he would have been a difference maker (especially in an 18-point blowout) because the two players he would have been guarding, Ray Allen and perhaps Pierce, didn't have great outside games yesterday.

8. Up by 8 at the start of the 4th quarter, the Celtics lineup was Bradley, KG, Pietrus, JJJ and Sasha. Memphis started trapping all over the court and completely discombobulated our offense flow. No ballhandling. Bradley has GOT to improve his ballhandling. Remember how TA used to drive us crazy with his dribbling? I don't want our newest defensive specialist going down that path. He has to learn how to handle defensive pressure and not just be able to dish it out.

A 4 game winning streak, interrupted by a completely avoidable loss to Cleveland, and now another 4 game winning streak. The Magic are playing the Clippers in Orlando today. If the Clippers win (they are 4-4 on the road, Orlando 8-4 at home) then we will be 1 game back from Orlando in playoff seeding. We don't need homecourt all the way, but I'd rather not face Chicago or Miami in round 1 and to make that happen we have to get ahead of Orlando. Considering the disfunctionality of that team, my confidence level on this is pretty high right now.

Bobcat on the menu tomorrow. I love eating game meat. Yum! With a little help from Blake & Co., we could be just 1/2 game back by this time Wednesday.

bob

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And if Philly loses to the Lakers tonight we're two games out of first place in the loss column in our division.

Steve,

Correct me if I'm wrong, but winning the division only guarantees you a playoff slot, not the #1 or #2 seed, right?

Lakers lose 95-90. They shot 6-22 in the 4th quarter. Kobe was 1-10. He took 45% of the team's fga in the 4th quarter and probably shot them out of the game, 10-26 out of a team total 81. That's 32% of the Lakers' fga taken by Kobe. They were up by most of the 4th quarter and up by 5 with 3:55 left. Shit. Thanks for nothing Lakers.

Clippers beat Magic in OT, 107-102 in Orlando. We are now tied with the slumping Orlando Magic in the loss column.

bob

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Bob - Winning your division guarantees you will be no worse than the #3 seed.