POST GAME PORTLAND

Well it was not pretty......................It was beautiful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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WILCOX, PIETRUS OUT FOR CELTICS
By: Paul Flannery

Mickael Pietrus (knee) and Chris Wilcox (personal reasons) are both out of the Celtics' lineup for their game against Portland on Friday. Celtics' coach Doc Rivers said he was hopeful both players would be back for the start of their eight-game road trip on Sunday against the Lakers. Pietrus has made just 3-of-17 3-pointers since the All-Star break. Rivers thinks that his struggles are all related to his health.

"I don’t think it’s any deeper than that," Rivers said. "We’re just going to sit [Pietrus] out tonight and hope he plays Sunday. It just keeps flaring up, so who knows?"

Pietrus' knee bothered him before the Philadelphia game on Wednesday, but he decided to play through it. The Celtics lost by 32 and Pietrus attempted just one shot in 13 minutes.

"If we could get the game back, especially the way it turned out, it would have been nice to not have played him," Rivers said. "He’s one of those guys you have to watch because he’ll play regardless."



Next game Sunday 3:30pm LA Lakers - ABC

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POST GAME RECAP WEEI 850AM

FAST BREAK: CELTICS SEND BLAZERS TO R.I.P CITY 03.09.12 at 9:48 pm ET
By Paul Flannery | No Comments

After getting blown out by Philadelphia on Wednesday, the Celtics needed some momentum heading into their eight-game road trip. Fortunately, the Trail Blazers were in town and they brought their considerable baggage to the floor with them.

It was uncomfortable watching a team so completely unravel, but the Celtics weren’t complaining after taking a 35-point halftime lead in a 104-86. Portland had 16 turnovers in the first half, forced only two and watched time and again as various Celtics flew down the lane for layups and dunks.

At one point it was 10-10. At another it was 81-38. Paul Pierce and Ray Allen each scored 22 points and the starters shot 28-for-49.

The Celtics will start an eight-game road trip in Los Angeles against the Lakers on Sunday.

WHAT WENT RIGHT

Not settling: It wasn’t clear immediately that the Blazers were in full ship be sinking mode, but the Celtics didn’t waste any time finding out. Rajon Rondo and Pierce attacked the rim right from the start and once they realized Portland wasn’t going to put up a fight, it was open season on the basket.

Sasha Pavlovic has the cure for the second quarter blues: The veteran swingman hit a 3 on the team’s first possession and then got fouled on a breakaway layup. Pavlovic scored eight points in the quarter and the Celtics scored 18 of the first 20 points. It was 45-19 after six minutes and 38-13 for the quarter.

Save those legs: Kevin Garnett made all five of his shots and played just 20 minutes. Allen, Pierce and Rondo clocked in with just 26 apiece. They needed that.

Bench production: Avery Bradley scored 10 points and had five assists. Greg Stiemsma missed all nine shots he took, but he had seven rebounds, three steals and two blocks. Pavlovic added 10 points and it was the bench’s best performance in weeks, even without Mickael Pietrus (knee) and Chris Wilcox (personal reasons).

WHAT WENT WRONG

Injuries, again: Pietrus has struggled with his shot lately, but coach Doc Rivers revealed before the game that his problems are related to a knee injury. Pietrus tried to play through it on Wednesday against Philly and Rivers acknowledged before Friday’s game that he would have liked to have had that back. The hope is that Pietrus will be available for Sunday’s game against the Lakers, but that’s far from given.

Celts caught a major break tonight and in the process moved to within 1 1/2 games of the much desired 6th spot (or higher if they can get there) in the playoff race behind Atlanta. The Hawks inexplicably lost a game by one point (one reason was Josh Smith missing 4 of his 8 free throw attempts) against Detroit. Pistons had 20 turnovers to just eight for Atlanta, Detroit only made one three-pointer (1 for 8 overall on threes) compared to the Hawks hitting EIGHT threes (8 for 19 overall) and yet Atlanta still lost the game. Incredible.

Hawks were plus 12 in turnovers and plus 21 points on threes vs. Detroit and still came up a one point loser in the game. And they let the Celts creep a little closer to the 6th spot in playoff position. Boy do they miss Al Horford who's probably out for one more month with a torn left pectoral muscle.

Nice game by the C's tonight even though they allowed Portland a 36-11 run against us in the third and fourth quarters cutting a 43 point lead to 18 to make the outcome look a little less than the total domination it actually was.

Steve,

The 36-11 run means absolutely nothing. When any team has a lead of 43, it's inevitable that the final score will be a lot closer. In fact, when the Celts were still up by about 38, I mentioned on the Game-on Thread that I wouldn't be surprised if they won by only 20 or even less. Relaxing in that situation is human nature, as is fooling around with a lot of low-percentage shots, and not wanting to show up the other team so as to motivate them in the future all compounded the fact that the last five players in the pecking order were on the floor for the Celts.

The important thing is that this year's edition of the Celts got their first whiff of how dominant they can be when they play the right way. No, it wasn't against a top team, but nonetheless it shows what they're capable of. Getting off to an energized start; moving the ball; moving without the ball (even running the old weave on occasion); making short, sure passes; avoiding the home run tries; taking care of the ball; playing great deny defense; not settling for low-percentage shots; all of those and other factors contributed to exactly they type of performance they needed to gain some reassurance and momentum. Let's hope they can maintain it.

When the Celtics play at that level, they can even spot the other team a bunch of rebounds and still prevail. In fact, one reason for the rebound differential was because the Blazers left themselves so many offensive rebound opportunities and; and another reason was that a lot of the rebound plurality came toward the end when Celtics reserves were taking foolish, low-percentage shots.

Sam

Hey Sam, Are you getting snow on the Cape?

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112288,

Yup, but nothing major. It's melted on pavement, and there's maybe an inch on the golf course beside us.

Sam

Nice, But Spring will be here soon. St. Patrick's day ia next Saturday!!!!!
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I think I'm developing a case of the bends, from going from such a deep depth up to such an exalted height so quickly. The final score was Boston 104, LaMarcus Aldridge 22, but the game wasn't as close as that score suggests.

A 27 points Celtic 1st quarter was followed by a 38 point 2nd quarter. Can you believe that? 65 points in a half? By us?

Portland had 17 TOs in the 1st half. We had 3.

1. Not only was Aldridge tied for the high scorer of the game (Pierce and Allen also had 22 each) he was also the only Trailblazer starter in double figures. That pretty much sums up their offense. Oh yeah, that and the 28 turnovers. Boston had 30 points off those turnovers. So, looking at it in a weird mutant coach's way, Portland's turnovers outscored Aldridge (the "coach's way" comes from my thought that McMillan will use the TO stat and our points off them to make a point about the importance of taking care of the ball. For all the good Aldridge did the team, the team more than offset it with TOs). Aldridge is the franchise player for them now. Unfortunately, the only way we could get him is by prying him out of Portland interim-GM Chad Buchanan's cold dead hands (especially if he wants to turn the "interim" into "permanent").

2. We ran. We attacked. It's amazing, given the age of our team, how much better we are when we run. We shot 60% on 48fga in the first half and a lot of that was because we hustled downcourt on offense.

3. In fact, we hustled downcourt on defense too. At one point in the 3rd, we had 15 fastbreak points and Portland had 0. Attack the rim before the other guys can set their defense and fall back and set your defense before they can take advantage of you. Hmmm, sounds like a good plan. Maybe we should do this more often. Ya think?

4. My game ball goes to Steamer. He did almost everything right (except for his last foul, which was unnecessary and a missed, two-handed, wide-open dunk. I'm sure he had a few knuckles playfully jabbed into his ribs in the locker room afterwards about that). In one telling sequence, he saw that Bass was was being backed down by Aldridge and being set up for a spin move baseline and, before the Blazer could spin, he came across the lane and doubled the Blazer on the baseline so he couldn't do it and had to pass out. They rotated the ball to the other wing and Steamer was there to jump out on the attempted penetration and steal the ball. It was beautiful. The videotape dept. should put that into a perpetual loop, set it to soothing music and just make Steamer watch it for hours on end. Shooting, he was 0-9, but I don't care. One of those was the missed dunk and at least one or two were buzzerbeaters. I don't know why the ball keeps ending up in his hands as time is running out, but this seems to be happening more frequently. One thing I've noticed is that he seems to be cognizant of the shot clock. He doesn't get caught watching the paint dry as the buzzer goes off, he throws up a shot. He's also turning into quite the nifty passer out of the high post. Pierce was the recipient of a backdoor cut layup, courtesy of a Walton-esque pass from 16' out by Steamer. He had another great entry pass from high which was deflected by a defender and another beauty to Sasha from the baseline (Sasha was fouled and the ball didn't go in, so no assist, but a beeeeuuuuutiful pass). Steamer was already in his shooting motion when he saw Sasha cut to the hoop and hit him in stride. His 7 rebounds, total 3 assists with 2 TOs and his 3 steals and 2 blocks are also quite nice. Stats aren't everything, we all know that, and Steamer did many of the little things that don't make the stat sheet last night but help you win the game. Consistency, as we know, is the bane of rookies and Steamer is not immune, but when he has a good game, he's a keeper and this was a very good game.

5. Speaking of Sasha, he has definitely moved ahead of Daniels on the depth chart and, based upon this game, deserves to be. Good game by Sasha. His usual solid D, including a steal and fullcourt dunk off it. He twice cut to the hoop without the ball and was almost rewarded with layups (he was also the player who had the entry pass from Steamer deflected, that I mentioned before, as well as the pass where he got fouled). He wants minutes, to gain consistency (who doesn't?) but I haven't heard a word of complaint from him (nor anybody else) when he doesn't. He's looking like another good find by Danny, thrown away by other teams, for a song.

6. I liked Bradley's game too. He attacked the rim with the ball all game. My complaint with Bradley's offense is much the same as everybody else's. He runs the ball over halfcourt quickly, that's good, but then he pulls up and hands the ball off. When he shoots from outside, you find you're holding your breath. Let's hope last night was a real awakening for him. He turned the corner off of picks and went at the rim. He took, and hit, his jumpers. He was 5-7 on a variety of jumpshots and layups. He had 5 assists and only 1 TO, which is a big step forward in his development as a backup floor general. It's really a joy for me to watch this kid find his game as the season has progressed. He's like a child that suddenly shows he can grasp a concept that you know he couldn't understand a month or two ago, but just now grew into it. He played 22 minutes. Dooling played 15. I wouldn't be upset if they went even more lopsided in Bradley's favor. He's earning minutes, Dooling is earning my boot up his ass.

7. Poor Marquis Daniels. A 40+ point blowout and he still only gets 5 minutes and is the only Celtic to not score. He did get 2 assists. He knows how to run a coherent offense. Why isn't he getting Dooling's minutes? I don't know why. Bradley can handle Dooling's tough defensive assignments, Q can handle his offensive ones. I mean, do we really prefer Dooling hoisting up 3s (and that's it)?

8. If there was a seamy underbelly to this game it was the deep bench who played the entire 4th quarter. They got outscored 32-16 by the Portland deep bench. Who cares, right? That's why it's called "garbage time". Probably a good point, but for those of you who think we need to play our 11th and 12 player more, this is a reminder why not.

9. Luke Babbitt is the King of Garbage Time. 6 rebounds and 10 points in 12 minutes but that's not what impressed me. He is the spitting image of a young Bruce Jenner.

10. Despite owning the Blazers from the opening tip through, conservatively, the end of the 3rd quarter, we still were severely outrebounded for the game 53-32. 53 is a lot of rebounds, especially off a team that shot almost 48% for the game (although we did have a very healthy 88fga) and 32 rebounds is pathetically low, especially off a team that only shot 43%. I guess you can't get a rebound if they just hand the ball over to you on a turnover. Ok, I guess I'm ok with this. Sorta. Kinda. We need to board better, but that's nothing new.

I hope Wilcox and Pietrus are back for the Laker game. We're already short, physically and roster-wise, I really don't want to have to go up against Gasol and Bynum with just KG and Steamer. The day after that, we play the best team in LA, the Clippers. The good news is that our guys won't even have to change hotel rooms, maybe even squeeze in a practice day. The bad news is that I don't know anybody on our team that will contain Griffin. Not Bass, not JJJ, not Wilcox and if KG takes him, then who will prevent the dunk-a-thon by DeAndre Jordan. Have you looked at the current Clipper's roster? It is stacked, I mean really stacked, and I don't usually use that term unless I'm talking about Angelina Jolie or Halle Berry. Kenyon Martin backing up Griffin? Mo Williams and Eric Bledsoe backing up CP3? Ryan Gomes backing up Caron Butler? Thank God they don't have anybody backing up Jordan, that'd be over-the-top deep. Did Don Sterling die and I didn't hear about it? This doesn't sound like one of his teams.

5 more days until the trade deadline. Think the next 3 games will play a role in what happens?

Go Celtics.

bob

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bob

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Out in Boston last night, bar hopping - and everytime I walked into a new place the news got better. Everyone was in a good mood....smiling having fun....and I mean the players, not just all the locals basking in the blowout.

VERY tough week coming.....nice to head into it with an easy win.

BobH,

You may have missed my favorite play when you were between links. Steamer got a rebound, the rest of the team immediately started breaking, and he threaded a great bounce pass ahead of the pack to Pavlovic for a beautiful basket. Sasha even got fouled, although he missed the shot. I heartily endorse giving Greg the game ball.

Sam