POST GAME GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS

The Celtics threw out their defensive uniforms, put on their running shoes and it was end to end action. The play reminded me of an All Star game. So we push our record on the trip to 2-1 and hope Danny can reel in a BIG by tomorrow.

NEXT GAME FRIDAY 10:00PM CSNE AT SACRAMENTO KINGS

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TRADE TALK 1:00AM

TRADE RUMOR: CELTICS OFFERED PAUL PIERCE TO BLAZERS 03.14.12 at 11:01 pm ET
By Ben Rohrbach

The Celtics offered captain Paul Pierce to the Blazers, according to a report by ESPN.com’s Chris Broussard. Repeat: According to a report by ESPN.com’s Chris Broussard.

What exactly team president Danny Ainge wanted in return for Pierce and the $32 million remaining on his contract is unclear, as LaMarcus Aldridge ($12.9 million) is essentially untouchable, Marcus Camby ($11.2 million) is a week from his 38th birthday and Raymond Felton ($7.6 million) would be an expensive backup.

That would leave some combination of Gerald Wallace ($9.5 million), Wesley Matthews ($6.1 million), Jamal Crawford ($5 million) and Nicolas Batum ($2.2 million). Of that group, Crawford is the only one rumored on the market, and regardless Portland shot down Ainge’s offer, if the report is more than rumor.

According to Yahoo Sports’ Marc Spears, Ainge & Co. also reportedly joined the Lakers, Spurs and Knicks in expressing interest in Josh Howard as a boost to their wing depth, but the Jazz aren’t willing to part with 31-year-old ($3 million) with a history of issues, on and off the court.

Finally, Fox Sports writer Sam Amico tweeted that the Celtics have engaged the Kings in discussions about acquiring J.J. Hickson, a 23-year-old big making just $2.4 million. After averaging 13.8 points and 8.7 rebounds for the Cavaliers a season ago, Hickson is struggling mightily in Sacramento. Then again, who isn’t struggling mightily in Sacramento?

Whether or not any of these rumors come to fruition, one thing is clear: Ainge is ringing up quite the phone bill.
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TRADE DEADLINE: MAKING THE CHRIS KAMAN CAP MATH WORK 03.14.12 at 5:18 pm ET
By Paul Flannery

The Celtics need a big man. The Hornets have no real use for Chris Kaman. They made him available earlier in the season and even kept him away from the team while they explored trade possibilities.

The problem is that Kaman makes $14 million and fitting that contract under the cap is difficult, especially for a team like the Celtics who are not only over the cap, they’re also over the luxury tax line. Recent reports indicate that New Orleans is willing to accept second round picks for Kaman, but not willing to take on any more salary.

With a number of players in the final years of their contracts, there are a handful of scenarios where the Celtics could satisfy that demand, starting with the expiring deals for Jermaine O’Neal and Chris Wilcox. Adding Keyon Dooling’s expiring deal would make the math work, but adding a young player like JaJuan Johnson would make it more difficult.

Further complicating matters is the fact that the Hornets are owned by the NBA. Would the league be willing to sign-off on a deal that yielded only second round picks and expiring deals? Celtics team president Danny Ainge has said that he wasn’t going to trade future assets to help this year’s team and it’s not likely he’d be willing to part with one of his two first round picks for a short-term rental.

If the price for Kaman goes beyond those bare-bones parameters, the Celtics could wait and see if the Hornets buy him out. They’d have to make room on the roster, which is at the 15-player limit.
Next Game Friday at Sacramento Kings 10pm CSNE

GAME RECAP WEEI 850

FAST BREAK: KEVIN GARNETT’S HEROICS SLAY WARRIORS at 1:04 am ET
By Ben Rohrbach

Unable to get a defensive stop down the stretch, tied 93-93 with the Warriors after old friend Nate Robinson tied the game on yet another drive to an open basket, the Celtics turned to Kevin Garnett, who sunk a 20-footer with 5.1 seconds remaining to help the C’s survive 105-103 and improve to 2-1 on the West Coast road trip.

Garnett finished with 24 points (12 in the fourth quarter), seven rebounds and five assists, as the Celtics (23-19) moved within 1.5 games of the 76ers in the Atlantic Division. Brandon Bass added 22 points and nine rebounds, Mickael Pietrus scored 15 points off the bench and Rajon Rondo dished out 14 assists.

Robinson totaled 20 points and 11 assists, Klay Thompson scored a career-high 26 points and David Lee had 22 points and eight rebounds for the Warriors in the losing effort.

WHAT WENT RIGHT

Hanging tough: Playing their third game in four nights, 3,000 miles from home, the Celtics started slow (shooting just 8-of-21 from the floor in the first quarter), and watching Robinson get to the rim with regularity didn’t help matters. Still, the Celtics managed to stay within 25-21 after the first quarter — setting the tone for a tight game the remainder of the night.

The French quota: Just 3-of-18 from long distance in the month of March, Pietrus connected on his first four 3-pointers of the night and finished 5-of-6 from downtown, giving the Celtics some much needed offense (and minutes) off the bench. Whispers suggested his knee may be the reason for the recent struggles, but it didn’t seem to bother him in Oakland.

Full Stiem ahead: Without a trade deadline deal, the Celtics will rely more and more on Greg Stiemsma, and the former D-League Defensive Player of the Year responded with eight points and eight rebounds. He’s still got plenty of work to do, especially on the defensive end, but he’s already given the C’s more than they could’ve expected when they invited him to training camp in December.

Sharing is caring: Facing the younger, more athletic Warriors, the Celtics had to rely on ball movement and execution to keep up with them. Check and check. The C’s assisted on 32 of their 40 field goals, making the extra pass time and time again to get buckets down the stretch — with the exception of a possession that resulted in the classic Paul Pierce fadeaway elbow jumper with 36.7 seconds left.

WHAT WENT WRONG

Paint pain: The news that Chris Wilcox will undergo season-ending heart surgery left a huge void in the C’s frontcourt depth. With Stiemsma the first and lone big man off the bench, expect even more nights when opposing teams have their way in the paint, and Wednesday was another one of them. Lee basically ran the Miken drill against a pair of Celtics “defenders” at one point.

No defense: With little lift in their legs, the aging Celtics allowed 60 points in the first half. Even worse, they let a team that started Nate Robinson to shoot 56.1 percent from the floor in the opening 24 minutes. Naturally, they trailed 60-55 at the break.

Winged Warriors: Along the same lines, youthful Golden State wings Dorell Wright (26 years old) and Klay Thompson (22) combined for 32 first-half points while Pierce and Ray Allen totaled 13 between them in the first two quarters. If the Celtics want to win games with any regularity, those two Hall of Famers can’t be outplayed by a couple upstarts like that.[u]

The depleted (no Wilcox, no JON) Boston Celtics, now winners of 8 of their last 10, squeaked out a victory over the even more depleted (no Curry, no replacements from the Ellis/Udoh trade) Golden State Warriors. The good news is we won and are now 2-1 on a long brutal road trip (should be 3-0, except for the freeze up against the Lakers late). The bad news is this should NOT have come down to a 3pt miss at the buzzer by Nate. GSW is a sub-500 team with a couple of pieces gone (reminds of the song by Jim Croce, "Bad, bad Leroy Brown") and yet they hung tough. Let's face it, for the most part we beat a JV team playing without their entire starting backcourt and a starting frontcourt player of just a few days ago. Whoopadeedoo. A less-than-impressive win, but I'm pretty happy today. My #1 team won and my #2 team showed ganas. Both, I feel, are on their way up. Boston in the short-term, Golden State in the long-term.

One of my friends said something that I thought was really interesting. He said that "Run-TMC was the worst thing that ever happened to the GSW". Run-TMC was the nickname of the GSW team that had (T)im Hardaway, (M)itch Richmond and (C)hris Mullin. It was up-and-down smallball with deadly shooters. It was fun. It was entertaining. It also didn't win, and that was my friend's point. The popularity of Run-TMC made "entertaining basketball" an acceptable goal here in the bay area when the only acceptable goal should be winning.

20 of GSW's 25 first quarter points were in the paint. That's freaking ridiculous. They got 60 of their 103 points in the paint. Considering their starting center, Andris Biedrins, scored 0 points, that suggests to me that our defensive switches were being taken advantage of by GSW (and they were. A lot of open dunks from drop-down passes) and porous perimeter defense (Nate and Thompson repeatedly taking it down the middle). We shot 51% but GSW shot 53%. A fantastic 34 point 2nd quarter by the Celtics was diminished by an even better 35 point 2nd quarter by the Warriors. All's well that ends well, as I said above, but this can't have made Doc happy.

1. We saw the Good Nate and the Bad Nate last night. Filling in for the injured Stephen Curry (what a shame his ankles are starting to look like a chronic problem), Nate provided energy and production at the starting point guard spot. 20 points on 10-19, 11 assists with only 2 turnovers, 4 steals. Good Nate even had 5 rebounds. The Bad Nate was 0-5 from 3. On the defensive end, he was disruptive, making steals and making it dangerous to put the ball on the floor anywhere near him. Offensively, he attacked the basket, repeatedly turning the corner on Rondo. Overall, however, I have to give it to the little guy, he played BIG. I'm happy for Nate. I'm happy for the GSW. I'm also happy he's not in green anymore. A win-win-win there, as far as I'm concerned. This game, he was a significant difference-maker. Tomorrow...?

2. I watched this game in a bar with a bunch of friends who are life-long GSW fans. We oohed and ahhed together at Rondo's passing. He didn't shoot and score much, but 14 assists and 2 turnovers with some mindblowing passing and floor generalship. He still chases his man around the court, hoping for the high-risk high-reward poke from behind. That didn't work with a little waterbug like Nate, who took it to the iron a lot more than the bigger, stronger Rondo did. Still, the Celtics shot 51% for the game, in part due to the notoriously poor Warrior defense but also due to Rondo's play. The Celtics had 32 assists on 40 fgm for an 80% ratio. That's phenomenal and that was Rondo stirring the drink. I just wish he'd slide his biscuits faster on defense. He funnels his man into the middle, where the help defense is, but that puts a lot of strain on our bigs to stop the penetration without picking up fouls and we are short on bigs. Rondo was -7 despite his floor generalship because he did his thing but he didn't stop Nate from doing his.

3. Former Laker Mychal Thompson's son, Klay Thompson, really is coming into his own. His play has consistently improved and last night he showed he can shoot and drive from just about anywhere. With and without the ball, he made it happen. A career-high 26 points. Ellis was a PITA, as a poster on another thread pointed out, but I don't think they would have traded him if they didn't see Klay's potential coming into bloom. 22 years old, 6'7" guard, he's only going to get better. I'm excited about this kid.

4. At one point, some time back, the possibility of trading for Andris Biedrins came up on a thread. Now you see why that would have been a very bad idea. Undermanned as they were, short on bigs, he still only played 18 minutes. He makes Rondo look like Rick Barry at the free throw line. I'd trade him for bag of donuts in a hummingbird's heartbeat. The problem is finding a hummingbird stupid enough to make that trade.

5. "How does he do that and not get stuffed?" That's the story of David Lee. We struggled with him in NY and we struggled with him last night.`Somehow, he just gets it in the hole in a variety of ways. The second best player below the rim in the NBA (Luis Scola is #1). Not gifted with particularly long arms, he is a liability on defense, but offensively he's another PITA. Just not the same type of PITA as Ellis was. Lee is a PITA to the Celtics and opposing forwards, Ellis was a PITA to his coaching staff.

6. 3ptrs are neither created nor destroyed but transferred from one player to another. That's my jumpshooting take on the Law of Conservation of Energy. As cold as Nate was from 3 last night, that's how hot Pietrus was. He was 3-for-his-last 21 from 3 coming into last night's game but hit 5-6 last night. He does know it's legal to take shots other than 3s, right? A good game by Pietrus. Considering his last few weeks, it's about time. The more I see him play, the more I lust for James Harden. Or Jason Terry. Or Taj Gibson. Or Thaddeus Young. Or Lamar Odom. Or Jamal Crawford. Or JJ Redick. Or OJ Mayo. Or JR Smith. Ok, I'll stop now. I think I've made my point.

7. Another solid game for Brandon Bass. Mr. Reliable. He'll never be an all-star, but he's going to be in this league for as long as his legs/knees hold up. Coaches like to know what they're going to get when they put a player in the game. Doc knows he can count on Bass to rebound, hit his jumpshots and attack the hoop when he can. Almost every game he plays makes it clear what a coup, by Danny, trading a Big Baby and Von Wafer (who was a free-agent and therefore not really someone we had control over) for this guy was.

8. Another solid outing by Steamer. His defensive rotations are becoming more fluid, more unconscious. Offensively, he knows his limits and plays within them. 8 pts on 2-2 shooting and 4-4 from the line, 8 rebounds and a block by Steamer in just 17 minutes. Right now, he's benefiting from me having low expectations of this 26-year old rookie, and he's beating those expectations. I just try to imagine just how totally screwed we'd be right now if we had Mikki Moore plugging this hole in our frontcourt instead of Steamer and that makes me smile upon Steamer like he was my only son going to Medical school (My son! The doctor!). Better than Mikki Moore? Like I said, low expectations. Just like with Klay Thompson, Steamer will get better as he learns the NBA game and doesn't have to think twice about Doc's playbook. He's doing fine so far though. Just fine.

9. Not a good game by Pierce. 5-17 and 6 turnovers he really struggled against the athletic Dorell Wright, who can just flat out shoot from 3. Wright is underrated, IMO, but still this should have been a laugher for Pierce.

10. Great game by KG. He knew nobody on GSW could play him and he took it to them every chance he could. 24 points on a very efficient 11-15 and 5 assists. He is really, really getting up for the 2nd half of this season. He has consistently brought it every post-allstar game. What a money player.

Sacramento is only 1 1/2 hours from Oakland by bus. We have a day off too. We should be ready for Tyreke the Freak. Assuming we don't play down to our competition like we did last night.

GSW got caught in the switches last night, due to the trade, and were shorthanded. Last year, we were the ones that happened to, in Denver, after Perk got traded and his replacements (Green and Krstic) hadn't passed their physicals and showed up yet. The trading deadline is today. It could still happen to us today and be short-handed tomorrow. Only a few more hours to go before we find what shoes, if any, will drop.

So far so good on this road trip.

bob

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Courtesy redsarmy.com





















bob


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