POST GAME BOB CATS

CONGRATULATIONS PAUL PIERCE ON BECOMING #2 ALL TIME CELTIC IN SCORING...AND MANY MORE YEARS AND BASKETS TO COME!

Well 9 out of 10 games and we are gaining momentum. I hate to see the Celtics play poorer teams because they seem to lose their energy and intensity and thus their rhythm. I like these figures: 46 points in the paint, 31 assists on 45 baskets, 37 rebounds and a game where Rondo had 0 turnovers!

Big game Thursday at 8pm TNT The Fakers come to town!

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GAME RECAP WEEI 850

FAST BREAK: PIERCE, CELTICS TAKE DOWN BIRD, BOBCATS
By Ben Rohrbach

BOSTON — All went according to plan for the Celtics in a 94-84 defeat of the Bobcats. Captain Paul Pierce climbed another rung on the team’s all-time scoring list, passing Larry Bird for No. 2 behind John Havlicek, and the C’s picked up their season-best fifth straight victory and ninth win in their last 10 in the process.

PIerce amassed 15 points, nine assists and eight rebounds as the Celtics (14-10) reached four games over .500 for the first time this season. The remaining Big Four and Brandon Bass (13 points) all reached double figures as well (Kevin Garnett 22, Ray Allen 17 and Rajon Rondo 10).

UConn’s Kemba Walker totaled 16 points and seven rebounds in defeat for the lowly Bobcats (3-22).

WHAT WENT RIGHT

A Bird in hand: With 10:22 remaining in the third quarter of Tuesday night’s game against the Bobcats, Pierce passed Larry Bird for No. 2 on the team’s all-time scoring list. After 13-plus seasons in a Celtics uniform, the 34-year-old Pierce entered the game needing just nine points to tie (and 10 to pass) Bird, who finished his 13-year career with 21,791 points. After scoring seven first-half points to close within two of Larry Legend, The Truth made his fourth 3-point attempt to clip Bird’s wings.

KG’s hot start: Garnett made four of his first five field goal attempts and reached double figures by halftime. He even attempted another 3-pointer, which he missed (But he can shoot 3s, Ok!). Rivers has been on KG all season to assert himself into the offense more regularly, and Garnett did just that — leading all Celtics scorers with 22 points on 10-of-15 shooting to go along with seven boards.

Rounding into form: For much of the season, somebody in the Celtics nine-man rotation (the starters plus Bass, Mickael Pietrus, Chris Wilcox and Avery Bradley) has either been sidelined or still recovering from injury. Not so against the Bobcats. All played, and all — with the possible exception of Wilcox — played admirably. Five of the nine reached double figures, Rondo recorded double-digit assists for the third consecutive night, O’Neal grabbed eight rebounds and Bradley made both of his field goals while playing his usual pesky defense and spelling Rondo for the entire fourth quarter. The C’s are hitting their stride.

WHAT WENT WRONG

Pursuing Bird: Once Pierce reached seven points in the second quarter and closed within two of Bird’s career scoring mark, the Celtics offense fell apart in their collective effort to get their captain open for a 3-pointer to eclipse Larry Legend. Pierce missed a trio of treys, Allen passed up a wide open 3 and the C’s turned the ball over trying to force the record. Bass appeared the lone member of the team still interested in playing team basketball for that stretch.

Porous defense: The Bobcats made 15 first-half field goals, and nine of them came around the basket. Too often the likes of Boris Diaw and Reggie Williams found themselves wide open underneath the hoop for easy buckets. That shouldn’t happen for the league’s second-ranked defense, especially against those guys.

Mullens center: It’s worth repeating: Thunder GM Sam Presti‘s preseason trade of 22-year-old 7-footer Byron Mullens to the Bobcats for a second-round pick was a curious one. Mullens played 26 minutes for Charlotte, registering 11 points on 5-of-11 shooting and six rebounds. A guy like that wouldn’t have looked so bad in green.

Hooray for Pierce! Ok, now that I got that out of my system let me focus on what is truly meaningful, and that's the game and the team.

The Bobcats had no right hanging in there as much as they did, but we tried to help them by turning the ball over as much as we could with 8 in the first half. Fortunately, we only had 3 in the second half.

1. KG has his groove back. He's shooting well, rebounding and he's back to being the tiger on defense. It drives me crazy when he tries to lay the ball up when he can, and should, be dunking it. He missed another layup last night. Make them stop you, KG, make them play dunk defense. Still, I was very worried about him earlier in this season and am now sleeping easier.

2. We took 23 3ptrs. That is WAY too many, way too many. If we were shooting a higher %, I could see it, but we only shot 17%. Why didn't Doc tell them to run other plays? Take it inside more?

3. Rondo had 14 assists (10, I think, in the first half?) and zero turnovers. That is impressive and rare, and not just for Rondo. The Celtics had 31 assists on 41 fgm for a ratio of 76%! I wish he'd at least trot up the court more, though. He's either going 90 miles an hour with his hair on fire or he's strolling. I can't understand why a floor general as good as him doesn't keep the value of starting his halfcourt offense 3-4 seconds sooner in mind.

4. Solid game by Bass. I guess his knee issues are in the past. Not that I would mind seeing more JJJ, but I'd like to know JJJ is in there because he's earning it and not because we're down a few forwards. Another nice, active game by Wilcox too. Not the big numbers we've seen the last few games, but he contested rebounds and was just generally a pest out there. He played one of those games that his stats don't really show.

5. Nice game by Byron Mullens and part of a break-out year. This kid averaged a little over 1 point last year, this year he's averaging almost 11. In fact, his stats are up in every category. Nice, fearless stroke from outside. Didn't see much of an inside game from him though. I'd like to have seen him in green too. With a name like Mullens, you know he should have been a Celtic.

6. Bismack Biyombo is one big Congo Gumbo. He's listed at 6'9", 229# but he looks much bigger. Must be his 7'7" wingspan. Very raw, too. Mullens probably isn't the physical presence and shotblocker Biyombo is, but Mullens is by far the more advanced player offensively and he's 7'0", 275#. Biyombo was a lottery pick, though, and I guess rank hath its privileges...

7. Derrick Brown wants to play the Celtics every night. 10-10 last night for 20 points in 28 minutes off the bench. Another Bobcat who had a good game was Reggie Williams. Williams was one of the top scoring college players at Viginia Military University whose career took a brief detour to the D-league. When the GSW were decimated by injuries they called up a bunch of D-leaguers to fill up the roster. Two of them were Reggie Williams and Anthony Tolliver (now with Minny). Reggie is a shooter par excellence. He started to go off last night and I got a little worried, because I've seen that happen before. I should also mention Kemba Walker, out of UConn. Very poised performance by the rookie point guard. This is one VERY young team. They're more like a team of 5th year college All-Americans than a real, seasoned pro team.

8. JON gives up his body regularly on charges. His offense is about as productive as Perk's was (maybe even less), but he's more reliable at the line. Defensively, he's not the glowering punisher Perk is, but he's doing a good job putting bodies on people or, at least, getting in their way to the basket. He is one of the top 3 in the NBA in taking charges this year.

9. With 2 minutes left, and the Celtics up by 15, Doc finally swapped out Pierce, Rondo, Ray, Wilcox and Bass for Sasha, JJJ, Moore, Steamer and Bradley. Why did he wait so long? If our bench can't hold a 14-18 point lead, which we had in the 4th quarter, against this team then we've got big problems. We have a big game on Thursday against the Lakers. We want to be as fresh as daisies for that. Aside from pride, the Lakers will want to get the taste of their loss in Philly out of their mouths.

Well, with this win, we are now 1 game behind Orlando (tied in the loss column). I'm going to hold my nose and root for Miami tonight against Dwight Howard and the Magic, because that would only make us 1/2 game back and 1 up in the loss column.

bob

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Doc cant win.

He plays the starters too long - people cry for the bench.

He plays the bench too long (Cleveland game) - people cry for the starters.

Celtics have won 9 of last 10. Lakers are next.

Rondo had 14 assists and no turnovers. And I believe he did it at least partly by being more selective as to when to participate in the halfcourt action. Did anyone else notice several possessions on which the ball was being passed around the perimeter and Rondo was stationed away from the action, virtually immobile, closer to halfcourt than to the three point arc? Yet there were other possessions on which he seemed his old whirling dervish self. Could this have been another instance of Rondo trying to make an adjustment in his game and occasionally going overboard in a corrective direction while he tries to find the right balance?

Sam

mrkleen09 wrote:Doc cant win.

He plays the starters too long - people cry for the bench.

He plays the bench too long (Cleveland game) - people cry for the starters.

Celtics have won 9 of last 10. Lakers are next.

mrkleen,

In a game where we had a solid lead against an inferior opponent and time running out, I thought that letting the bench play more would have been a good thing to do. If the lead had been within 6 the whole game, or even with 4 minutes left, I would not.

bob

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bobheckler wrote: mrkleen,

In a game where we had a solid lead against an inferior opponent and time running out, I thought that letting the bench play more would have been a good thing to do. If the lead had been within 6 the whole game, or even with 4 minutes left, I would not.

bob

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Bob

Last time Doc implored that very strategy (against Cleveland), the entire lead evaporated before they put the starters back in and the C's lost. I dont have a problem with playing the starters until the game is in hand. KG played only 26 min. Ray played 33. Complete non issue from where I am sitting.

Pierce (2-10), Ray (1-5) and Pie (1-5) were 4-20 in making 3-pointers. I cannot imagine that ever happening again. Many of Pierce's were misses trying to pass Bird on the scoring chart.

Pav, Rondo and KG took (and missed) 1 each.

The only thing out of whack here is Pierce's total, and that can be explained away by the circumstances.

bobheckler wrote:

mrkleen09 wrote:Doc cant win.

He plays the starters too long - people cry for the bench.

He plays the bench too long (Cleveland game) - people cry for the starters.

Celtics have won 9 of last 10. Lakers are next.

mrkleen,

In a game where we had a solid lead against an inferior opponent and time running out, I thought that letting the bench play more would have been a good thing to do. If the lead had been within 6 the whole game, or even with 4 minutes left, I would not.

bob

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Bob, I understand what you're saying, but I do think Kleen has a point.

Because of the compressed schedule, every coach has to do a balancing act between minimizing minutes to avoid fatigue and injury and leaving key players in longer to get some wins. When it comes to playing time, Doc has a particularly challenging set of conflicting factors to deal with:

• Several older guys not named Ray took it easy during the lockout and needed to play themselves into shape = play the starters more.

• An overriding goal is to minimize minutes on the creaky wheels on the Celtic roster = play the starters less.

• The team got off to a terrible start and needs to get back on track with some wins = play the starters more.

• Injuries to starters = play the injured starters less, play the non-injured starters more.

• The Celtics have a particularly grueling portion of the schedule right before the playoffs (11 games in 15 days against tough opponents, April 4-18) = play the starters more now to get some wins, play the starters less later to save them for the playoffs.

• Stuff we're not aware of = who knows.

Given all that, it seems only fair to give Doc the benefit of the doubt about playing time during any particular game, especially at this point.

Outside