POST GAME CLEVELAND

The Celtics just don't make it easy on themselves. Another heart throbber!

Nice game by: Bass 12 pts 7 rebs +1/ Ray Allen with 22 pts +8/ Pietrus 9 pts 3 rebs +14/ Garnett 18 pts 8 rebs -3
Stickers: Paul Pierce 12 pts 6 assists 6 to -11/ Rondo 0 pts 11 assists 5 to + 7

Next Game Tomorrow at home Milwaukee Bucks - 7:30 pm CSNE

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POST GAME RECAP WEEI 850

NOTHING CAVALIER ABOUT CELTICS VICTORY
By Ben Rohrbach


In a battle between two teams vying for the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference (yup, you read that right), the Celtics blew a 16-point lead but salvaged the night when Ray Allen sandwiched a fast break layup and a pair of free throws around a big Kevin Garnett offensive rebound and two foul shots in the final minute to secure an 86-83 win over the Cavaliers.

Allen (22 points) and Garnett (18 points) combined for 40 points to help the Celtics (16-17) avoid the first six-game losing streak of the new Big Three era and stretch their lead over the Cavs (13-19) to 2.5 games for the eighth seed.

WHAT WENT RIGHT

Welcome back Bass: The Celtics finished 1-5 in Bass’ recent six-game absence, and it didn’t take long for the consistent big man to demonstrate his value on the court, scoring 10 points on six shots by halftime. Bass brings a combination of scoring and toughness that the C’s simply don’t have outside of Garnett. If the Celtics have any hope for success in the second half of the season, they need a healthy Bass contributing like he did against the Cavaliers.

Nothing but Garnett: Garnett reportedly called a team meeting prior to the All-Star break, and even if the entire team didn’t respond in their first game since, at least KG came to play. Wincing at times, possibly still battling the hip injury that kept him out of a game before the break, Garnett totaled 18 points and eight boards while playing his usual staunch defense. In the final seconds with the C’s leading by one, Garnett willed an offensive rebound off his own miss, got fouled and made both foul shots.

Jumping the run: Perhaps the result of an aging team benefiting from the five-day NBA All-Star break, the Celtics rattled off runs of 9-0 and 13-0 in the first quarter to establish a rare double-digit lead early (28-15 after one). Rondo recorded six assists in the first 12 minutes, including another fast break with his new running mate Chris Wilcox. The have only led after the first quarter in 16 of their 33 games, accumulating a 12-4 record.

WHAT WENT WRONG

Sloppy second quarter: After committing just two turnovers and building a 13-point lead in the first quarter, the C’s turned the ball over 10 times in the second quarter as the Cavs closed the gap to five by halftime. Rajon Rondo (0 points, 11 assists, 5 turnovers) and Paul Pierce (12 points, 6 assists, 6 turnovers) combined for eight first-half turnovers in a poorly played stretch that was a stark reminder of the team’s struggles all season.

Turd quarter: It must not have been much of a halftime speech, as the Cavaliers picked up where they left off out of the break — wiping the glass with the Celtics. Led by rookie sensation Kyrie Irving (24 points), the Cavs took their first lead since 4-2 at 53-51 early in the third quarter and maintained control with a 66-64 lead after three. Despite outshooting Cleveland percentage-wise 45%-40%, the C’s turnovers and defensive rebounding gave the Cavs far too many opportunities.

Semih conductor: Semih Erden started for the Cavaliers against the Celtics. Let that sink in for a little bit. Sure, he didn’t make a huge impact, but he did contribute four points, six rebounds and two assists in 20 minutes. Considering the C’s size woes and the fact they essentially gave Erden away for nothing (a late second-round pick), think Danny Ainge might want that one back?

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ESPN BOSTON RECAP
Rapid Reaction: Celtics 86, Cavaliers 83
February, 28, 2012

By Chris Forsberg

Rajon Rondo drives hard to the basket Tuesday night vs. the Cavaliers.
Rapid reaction after the Boston Celtics defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers 86-83 Tuesday night at Quicken Loans Arena:

HOW THE GAME WAS WON
After a dominant first quarter, the Celtics flirted with disaster by not valuing the ball and fumbled away a 16-point cushion before pulling out the win behind gritty fourth-quarter defense. Ray Allen scored a team-high 22 points on 8-of-13 shooting (4 of 8 beyond the arc), while Kevin Garnett added 18 points and eight rebounds. Rajon Rondo was scoreless, but handed out 11 assists, while Paul Pierce (12 points, 6 assists) provided some big buckets in the final frame. Rookie Kyrie Irving scored a game-high 24 points for Cleveland despite a minor injury scare absorbing a Pierce charge in the first half.

TURNING POINT
With the Celtics down one and under a minute to play, Garnett forced a turnover with his aggressive defense denying the Cavaliers from getting into the pick-and-roll and Irving ultimately threw the ball away. After grabbing the steal, Garnett delivered an outlet pass to Allen for an uncontested dunk and an 82-81 lead with 48.6 seconds to go. Pierce then provided some stout defense, forcing Irving to take an odd-angle shot on a drive to the basket. Garnett got the rebound, eventually made two free throws at the other end, and Boston hung on from there.

BOLD PLAY OF THE GAME
Pierce, who has struggled with his shot all season, couldn't get much of anything to fall for the first 44 minutes of the game, but came up with some huge buckets down the stretch. That included a deep 3-pointer from the right wing that put Boston out front 78-76 with 3:19 to go and a vintage step-back jumper a short time later to again push the Celtics out front as the lead changed seven times in the final frame. Pierce finished 4-of-11 shooting (2 of 7 beyond the arc), but committed six turnovers and was a minus-11 in plus/minus over 34:31.

BIG MINUTES FOR BRADLEY
Second-year guard Avery Bradley continues to emerge as a key rotation player, chipping in six points on 3-of-5 shooting with three assists over 15 minutes. Bradley is slowly improving at running the offense and is creating his own scoring opportunities off cuts and strong drives to the basket. It also allowed Rondo to play a manageable 32:29.

IT'S ALL ABOUT 18: KG PASSES CHUCK
Garnett leapfrogged Charles Barkley (23,757) for 18th place on the NBA's all-time scoring list on a fourth-quarter bucket. Garnett entered Tuesday's game 15 points behind Barkley and now has 23,760 career points. Next in KG's sights: Allen Iverson who, barring an NBA comeback, has 24,368 career points.

WHAT IT MEANS
After an ultra-encouraging first quarter, the Celtics were plagued by turnovers (18 leading to 20 points on the night; 10 turnovers lead to 12 points in the second quarter alone) and let the Cavaliers back into the game. As we've said all season, beggars can't be choosers. The win snaps a Big Three-era worst five-game losing streak and gives Boston some much-needed momentum to start the second half of the year, particularly with a back-to-back looming Wednesday in Boston against the Bucks. Bass' return was huge for the Celtics (though the Cavaliers not having Anderson Varejao helped immensely, too). Boston still has kinks to work out, but the late-game execution was encouraging and -- hey -- nobody appeared to get hurt.

We need every win...take this one and move on...tough stretch ahead...will Da stay the course or bust it up now.

Brutal schedule ahead

Dboss

The good news is that we squeaked out a win against Cleveland. The bad news is that Cleveland is not a playoff team, despite being in a generally weak conference, and were playing without Anderson Varajao. Technically a win, and I agree with dboss that we need every one, but not much of a moral victory here. Without Varajao, and with Bass and Rondo back, we should have destroyed these guys.

A great 1st quarter, followed by lousy 2nd and 3rd quarters (36 total points by the Celtics in those 2 quarters), rallying and hanging on for a 3 point win. NOT pretty.

1. As the team was going in different directions at the all-star break, KG had a "come to Jesus (NOT Shuttlesworth)" players-only meeting. He said "if you're not coming to play in the 2nd half of this season, the Celtics don't want you here". Well, KG sure as hell backed up his talk with action. Defensively, he was KG. He prowled the paint like a tiger hoping someone stupid would enter his cage. He contained the dangerous tweener, Antawn Jamison, who only had 8 points on 4-15 shooting. Offensively, he came out of the locker room and attacked the basket in the 1st quarter, setting the tone for that very good 1st quarter. His last points, though, were HUGE. He took a mid-range jumpshot, on the move from the left side of the lane, and missed. He then scooted over 8-10' to the middle of the lane and grab his own offensive rebound and got fouled. He sank both free throws. KG, leading by example.

2. Ray Allen also came out and played his ass off, leading all Celtics with 22 points. His clutch free throws, along with KG's, saved this game.

3. Welcome back, Brandon Bass. We missed you terribly. Good, solid game by Bass. I like him better coming off the bench, for the dependable offense he brings, but he's an acceptable starter too.

3. Paul Pierce had a very UNsatisfying game. 12 points on 4-11 shooting, including going 2-7 from 3, he just couldn't seem to get any real rhythm. He had 6 assists, but he also had 6 turnovers. His game was almost a wash with his counterpart, Israeli Omri Casspi. Casspi's a decent player with a good IQ, but nothing great. That's how bad PP's game was. He was a push against a mediocre player.

4. So, which players fit KG's description of "go away" in his "come to play or go away" speech? Rajon Rondo, for one. Zero points on 0-6 shooting, 11 assists but 5 turnovers. With 1:27 left in the game and the Celtics clinging to a 1 point 80-79 lead, Rondo takes a running mid-range bankshot that requires a fair amount of shooting skill (which he does not have) to make. That is an example of the type of poor decision making we saw all night from Rondo. Fortunately, KG and Ray cleaned up his mess for him and saved the game with free throws and clutch rebounds. Kyrie Irving made him look bad, and not just a little bad either. He made the coach's selection of Rondo to the all-star game look like a bunch of idiots. Irving completely outplayed him on both ends of the court. Rondo's gambling defense repeatedly provided opportunities to Irving and the Cavs to score. The rumors of Rondo being traded have been raging since before the start of the season. Last night's game probably had Danny spraining his finger from dialing his phone to talk to other GMs. Our two all-stars, Rondo and Pierce, were the worst players on the floor for us. Perk's trade bothered him, Obama insulted him, blah, blah, blah. He needs to grow up and screw his head on tighter or start looking like another Tony Allen, another player who's biggest problem was his head and not his talent.

5. As far as the bench goes, we ended up better than them. Is that something we should feel proud of, that our bench played better than the #9 team in the east? 10-21 shooting for 22 points by the Celtic bench is greatly appreciated as are the 18 rebounds (out of a team total 39) and only 2 turnovers (out of a team total 17). Wilcox was a stand-out with his 11 rebounds in 23 minutes. Cleveland's bench was led by Ramon Sessions (or, as the Cavalier play-by-play announcer called him "Ra-mon", not "Ra-moan"). No wonder the Lakers were trying to pry him away from Cleveland earlier this season. He has looked very good everytime I've seen him. Their bench's 14-36 shooting (23 points) and 6 turnovers was ok but not real ok. Yes, I know I'm being a bit harsh, but I'm trying to picture us as a legitimate playoff contender and we need more than this from everybody.

6. Bradley had a pretty good game. He hit his jumpers, no doubt gaining more confidence in them, but he didn't stop Irving either. 3 assists and no turnovers in 16 minutes of play are solid numbers. He's being more aggressive on offense and that's good. The offense still doesn't look smooth when he's running it, but he's never really been a point guard and that position has the longest learning curve of any. At least he didn't make the bad decisions Rondo did. Rondo must still be thinking about sunshine and skills contests and horsing around with Dwight Howard...

7. I miss Semih Erden. He's still a limited player, but he's rugged and unafraid to mix it up. We could sure use him now. Luke is only averaging less than 8 mpg and didn't play last night. Too bad, I liked him too.

There's no doubt in my mind we would have lost this game, probably big, if Varajao had played. We're in the 2nd half of a short season. We need to crank it up now, or make the changes we need to draw top talent next year, IMO.

bob


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I don't know how many here catch the game on the NBA ticket. They had the Cleveland broadcast and announcers last night and we did our best to make them sound like they knew their stuff. Well, they did actually.

From about 5 minutes into the 1st quarter they started with "the book on beating Boston now is to wear them down for 3 quarters and finish them off in the 4th." I'm sitting there thinking; 'Really? Wow. Tell us something we don't all know.' They repeated it over and over well into the second quarter; it was like their mantra.

But then we go out and start the fade in the 2nd. At least we played the 4th just close enough to shut them up for a bit. I hope those that can always get Mike and Tommy appreciate how good they've got it.

Irving is looking like he's going to be as good as everyone knew he would. Maybe the player that helps Cavs fans forget that guy that took his 3 quarters worth of talents to South Beach.

NYCelt,
Those announcers are just clowns, especially Austin Carr (sp?). They mostly have no clue what they're talking about. They have a dozen or two rehearsed phrases that they use 90% of the time. Classical example: Cavs have to score more than .....(fill the blank) in order to win. Believe me, I heard it quite a few times.
As for comparison, I listened to a number of local announcers watching games on the web - these two are the worst.
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In regards to the game - I felt better after the losses to Mavs and OKC than about yesterday's win.

AK

Sinus NYCelt

Not hoops but Ken "Hawk" Harelson has to be the absolutely, worst announcer to listen to. White Sox games when he's on the air are viewed in silence in our house.

Of course if a Sox hits a homer I will bust out with a "put it on the board, YES" and then annoy myself. Especially if he wasn't my "pic-to-click"

beat

PS

Austin Carr is annoying I totally agree, couple years ago listening to a game on the radio 1100 AM out of Cleveland when King 3/4's was dunking............ Carr would carry on for a minute "THE KING PUT THE HAMMER DOWN!!!"

Too bad cause when I was in college I loved Joe Tate the Cleveland play by play (radio) announcer. When I went to Buffalo Cleveland games he was just a nice guy to talk to.

Carr must have said "put the hammer down" a dozen times last night.

Another saying of his was "cinderblock" for when a shot was really bad, as in "that shot was a cinderblock". I guess he had to put the hammer down on "shooting a brick".

bob

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I didn't see the game, being in a Florida hotel and preferring to follow Yahoo game reports rather than to hassle locating a streaming video feed. So I'm not really qualified to comment on how the Celtics looked.

But I believe I'm highly qualified to conjecture on what to expect with key players are re-integrated to a squad after being out with injuries. Re-integration represents a form of discontinuity just as much as player absence does. And discontinuity can affect players who have been with the team fairly consistently just as much as players who haven't been missing action. Reaccliation is required in either case. Moreover, it's not surprising to me that a returnee like Bass would start out like a house afire and then run out of gas later in the game.

It's great to be able to read and hear reports on every game. But, in terms of determining what this team is really made of, contact me after they've played a half dozen consecutive games with pretty much the same roster.

I'm reading about Rondo's lousy game, and perhaps it was. But, personally, I'm happy that he appeared more eager to set up his teammates than to bit off a big chunk of the scoring load for himself.

I'm reading that it's a huge mystery why the Celtics didn't win more easily with Varejao out. I've already addressed the discontinuity factor. If there's one area in which I'd expect the Celts to fare better without facing Varejao, it would be rebounding. The box score tells me that they were in a virtual tie with Cleveland in the rebounding department, and I'd never expect that when facing Varejao.

In short, nothing about the result of this game really shocked me. Except perhaps the very ending, which might easily have gone in the other direction as recently as two weeks ago.

Sam