POST GAME - KINGS

Points in the paint - Boston 38/96 - Kings - 56/118
Rebounds - Boston 35 - Kings 45

Could be Bradley's Season debut Wednesday!


NEXT GAME - WEDNESDAY - HOME - 7:30PM - MEMPHIS - CSNE/NBA CHANNEL


POST GAME RECAP

CSNE

A. SHERROD BLAKLEY

Celtics get royal beating from Kings, 118-96

SACRAMENTO — The Boston Celtics capped off their West coast trip exactly how it began - with a loss.

And this one was arguably the worst of the bunch as the C's suffered a 118-96 defeat to the Sacramento Kings, one of the worst teams in the NBA.

And the blueprint for this defeat wasn't all that different than the previous two for a Boston (14-16) team that is now two games below .500 since opening the season with a pair of losses.

Boston got behind early. They mounted a slew of mini-comebacks, but failed to get that one big shot or make that one clutch defensive stand to swing the game's momentum in their favor.

Kings point guard Isaiah Thomas poured in a game-high 27 points. And the troubled DeMarcus Cousins, a player the Celtics are rumored to be interested in possibly making a play for, had his first career triple-double - 12 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists.

Boston was led by Paul Pierce and Jason Terry who each had 20 points.

After a relatively close first half, the Kings began to pull away in the third quarter. Following a pull-up jumper by John Salmons that gave Sacramento a 72-63 lead, Doc Rivers had seen enough and called a time-out.

He may have temporarily stopped play, but it didn't do much to stem the game's flow which was clearly in Sacramento's favor.

The Kings soon pushed their lead to double digits and took a 12-point lead into the fourth quarter that was never threatened.

Even with Rajon Rondo returning to the lineup after missing Saturday's Golden State loss with a right hip/thigh injury, it didn't matter.

This team, regardless of who is healthy and who isn't, consistently finds ways to lose.

Poor shooting was the culprit that put them in a deep hole on Sunday, as the C's missed 11 of their first 13 shots and soon found themselves down 14-7.

But these were the Kings, one of the league's worst teams despite having won five of their last six at home heading into Sunday's game.

A jumper by Brandon Bass followed by a pair of free throws by Jeff Green cut Sacramento's lead to 18-12 with 2:27 to play in the first.

Boston even went with a little full court pressure to keep the Kings from getting into their offense too quickly.

It was a good idea if the C's could have avoided fouling Thomas on a driving attempt.

The second quarter saw the Celtics do what Doc Rivers has been imploring his shooters to do all season - attack the rim.

And will you look at that?

Boston's 24-18 deficit to start the second quarter became a two-point lead with an 8-0 start fueled by drives to the basket and free throws.

The Celtics got a strong game from Green who was leading the Celtics' attacking style of play in the second quarter. Green along with a hot-shooting Jason Terry each had 14 first-half points for the C's while the Kings got strong first-half performances from Jason Thompson (13 points, five rebounds), John Salmons (11 points) and Thomas (10 points, two assists.)

The two continued to go back and fourth most of the second which ended with the Kings ahead 54-49.

But those moments of stellar play for Boston were so few and far between, reminding all of just how far the Celtics have truly fallen this season.
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ESPNBOSTON.COM

Rapid reaction: Kings 118, Celtics 96

By Chris Forsberg | ESPNBoston.com

Rapid reaction after the Sacramento Kings defeated the Boston Celtics 118-96 on Sunday night at Sleep Train Arena:

THE NITTY GRITTY
Isaiah Thomas scored a game-high 27 points on 10-of-15 shooting, most of his buckets coming near the rim when Boston offered little resistance on his drives to the basket. John Salmons (23 points on 9-of-12 shooting) and Jason Thompson (20 points on 8-of-11 shooting) were ultra efficient from the floor and big man DeMarcus Cousins quietly added a triple-double with 12 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists over 31 minutes for the Kings. Sacramento shot 53.7 percent overall and 50 percent (10 of 20) from beyond the 3-point arc. Paul Pierce and Jason Terry scored 20 points apiece for Boston, while Rajon Rondo -- back in the lineup after a one-game absence due to a hip/thigh injurys -- finished with just two points to go along with 10 assists over 36 minutes (he was a team-worst minus-25 in plus/minus).

TURNING POINT
The Celtics played from behind for the entire second half, but managed to claw within a possession a couple times in the third quarter. Any hopes of a trip-saving comeback were dashed as the Kings shot a blistering 63.2 percent in the fourth quarter, making 7 of 9 3-pointers (77.8 percent) while tearing the game open and sending Boston to their third consecutive double-digit defeat.

CELTICS DIG ANOTHER EARLY HOLE
Keeping with the recent trend, the Celtics were staring at another double-digit deficit in the first quarter on Sunday. This time around, a 12-1 run burst turned a one-point lead into an 18-8 deficit. The Kings ate Boston up inside, scoring 22 of their 24 first-quarter points inside the paint (the other two points came off free throws).

BARBOSA BACK; PIERCE TWEAKS ANKLE
After enduring 16 hours of travel going from his native Brazil to Sacramento, Leandro Barbosa got a little late-game playing time after a four-game absence. Barbosa played the final four minutes. Pierce sat the final five minutes after appearing to tweak his right ankle when he landed on Thomas' foot while fouling him during a made 3-pointer.

WHAT IT MEANS
It's getting harder to suggest patience with this team. The Celtics were downright manhandled over the final three games of a four-game road trip that started so promising with a Christmas Day victory in Brooklyn. Boston offered little resistance when the Kings went inside (56 points in the paint) and the Kings got hot from the perimeter in the fourth quarter to run away. This Celtics group can't usher in the new calendar year quick enough. Boston will take the next two days off while returning home for games against Memphis (Wednesday) and Indiana (Friday). Guard Avery Bradley, shelved since shoulder woes ended his 2011-12 season in May, is expected to make his season debut on Wednesday. The Celtics need something -- anything -- to give them a jolt and it will be interesting to see if Bradley's return is enough to get this team moving in the right direction again.

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We are not a good team. Not right now. Aside from going 0-3 on this road trip, with a season road record of 5-11, we lost all three of these games by more than 20 points. The Clippers are the best team in basketball and GSW is one of the best but the Sacramento Kings were 10-19 heading into last night's game. They were a very beatable 9-7 at home. They were playing without their starting guards (Tyreke Evans and Aaron Brooks). After only 19 minutes of play, Marcus Thornton, the bench player who was starting in Evans' place, went down with an injury and the Kings back court got even thinner. We were destroyed by a bad team playing short (VERY short on guards), on the 2nd night of a back-to-back just like we were.

1. Rondo was awful last night. No defense whatsoever. A human turnstile. His hip must be bothering him a lot because Isaiah Thomas blew past him straight down the middle of the lane to the front of the rim constantly. Thomas had 27 points on 10-15 shooting with a lot of those points coming on penetrations. Which doesn't say much for our baseline defense either, does it? At one point Jimmer Fredette was on a break away and Rondo was on his tail. Then, Rondo gave up and let Fredette finish. I understand not wanting to give him a "+1", but he gave up above the free throw line. He had 10 assists, with 2 or more on those lobs to KG we've seen so many times, but then the Kings started defending that and he still lobbed them in for turnovers. He didn't run all game. He couldn't shoot. This was one of, if not the, worst game I've seen Rondo play in a long time.

2. JET was hitting. He had a good game and played hard. He missed a dunk, but he felt it on everything else. 20 points for the guy who came in with the reputation as a deadly assassin. Finally.

3. Jeff Green had a very good first half. He was the aggressive, evil twin and not the passive, nice one. In the 2nd half he tried to be aggessive but credit has to be given to the Sacto defense. He went from a very respectable 9 points on good shooting after 2 to 16 points on a miserable 5-17 at the end. He tried, he played hard, I gotta give him that but the Kings defense on him in the 2nd half was stellar. As hard as it is to stop Jeff Green when he's attacking, they did it. If I have a problem with Green's game, and I can't blame him for this so much as Rondo and the rest of the team, it's that Green was doing way too much one-on-one. He had to, nobody else was running plays.

4. Pierce and Green were shut down in the 2nd half by the outstanding, aggressive lockdown defense of John Salmons, Thomas Robinson and James Johnson. Pierce and Green tried to drive to the hoop, create opportunities and those three guys were there to block shots, strip the ball or turn a good move into a tough shot.

5. Former Bull John Salmons had a great game on both sides of the ball. 23 points on 9-12 shooting, 2-4 from 3 and outstanding defense.

6. Cousins must have heard that Boston is interested because he posted his first career triple-double last night. His passing, in particular, was impressive. He'd drive to the hoop with surprising quickness for a man that big and then pass out to a shooter, and the Kings shooters were hitting last night (except for the beginning of the 2nd and 3rd periods). Cousins has no control over whether the shooters are hot, but he did his job which was to collapse the defense and get the ball to them. Very impressive game. Who do we have to give up to get him?

7. Sully played hard, did his rebounding thing. JET, Green and Sully were the only ones who put in effort all game long.

8. Pierce looked old. Jason Thompson outplayed him, IMO. 8-11 for 20 points and playing very good defense on Pierce.

9. Our offensive game was a lot of one-on-one. Pierce, Green, JET all one-on-one. We are making predictable passes. We have no motion. We're clearing out and letting someone take on the varsity on their own. We shot 42% for the game, and that's because we rallied towards the end. We shot 29% in the 1st quarter, crawled up to 43% at the half. Rondo was 0-5 in the 1st quarter, Pierce 1-4. Another icy start for us, going 3-14 with only a few minutes left in the 1st.

10. Our defense sucks. Period. Of the Kings 24 first period points, 22 were in the paint. Thomas penetrated at will against Rondo, Thompson overpowered Pierce, Cousins had 4 assists in the 1st quarter. With 4 minutes left in the game, and garbage time starting, we had already given up 107 points. They shot 54% last night. They had 56 points in the paint. 56! That is sooo bad. They had 20 fast break points. That is sooo bad.

A very depressing game to watch. Doc probably doesn't even know where to begin fixing things, there are just so many that need work. Pierce says they don't know who they want to be. Sure they do, they want to be a jump shooting team. Less contact, less wear-and-tear. The problem is they're not shooting like a jump shooting team. This team was put together as a running team. Players were added so Rondo would have someone to run with. They're not running because Rondo's not running anymore.

Will a little home cooking make a difference on Wednesday? Against Memphis? They are really going to have to pull their heads out of their asses to win that game, and do it soon.

It was a pleasure sharing the Game On thread with Rosalie last night. She's so knowledgeable and such a die-hard, optimistic fan. Here's part of her final post last night, "well Bob, looks like they have given up so I am too".

That says it all about this game.


bob


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2012-13 National Basketball Association Important Dates


Below is a list of 2012-13 key dates for the NBA: 2012

Jan. 10 -- All Contracts are guaranteed for remainder of the season

Feb. 21 -- 2013 NBA Trade Deadline (3 p.m. ET)

There's an old Celtic saying, "It's always darkest after the Xmastime West Coast trip." Seriously, - been there, done that. Time to move on to the figuring out of the nature of the second-half comeback.

It ain't rocket science. The players have to play harder and the coach has to coach harder. Danny suggested "they've been pacing themselves." That may not be fair to some guys who, most of the time, have been busting their asses, like KG, JET, Sullinger, Collins and Lee, and Wilcox while he was in there, but it's good to see someone in management say something about it.

One reason "they've" been pacing themselves is because "they've" been playing way too many minutes. For example: last night, Rondo should not have had to play. That mistake started with Danny: he never should have cut Dionte Christmas. Getting rid of Christmas!!! What a grinch! No wonder this team is lacking presents for its fans.

Maybe it sounds like wishful thinking (it is New Year's) but the two missing pieces the Celtics started the season without, Bradley and Wilcox, are arguably the keys to success.

First, because they both play hard every second they're on the floor. They bring an infectious spirit of team play, which certain current team leaders seem to have forsaken for the glory of individual exploits.

Second, Bradley's the key because Rondo needs someone to cover the Chris Pauls of the league while he (Rondo) pursues his quixotic goal of being recognized as "the best point guard in basketball,' and Wilcox is the other key because the team falls apart when KG rests. They won't need another center/power forward if Wilcox can get and stay healthy.

Forget Melo. So what if the fans would probably love the guy. Remember what happened to Steamer last year? He played great in limited appearances until JON came back and then sat, his happy balloon deflating while he watched the guy who took his place wallow in futility. It didn't do much for team chemistry either. Melo's better off in Maine: lobsters are cheap and plentiful this year.

http://bostonherald.com/sports/celtics_nba/boston_celtics/2012/12/celtics_lose_their_way_out_west


SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Celtics plumbed the depths of the Pacific
Division last night, drowning in the twin whirlpools of their own
dysfunction and the Sacramento Kings’ decision to play beyond their
standing.


The 118-96 loss completed three games of western woe for
the Celtics, who fell to the best team in the Pacific (the Los Angeles
Clippers), the worst (the Kings) and one in between (the Golden State
Warriors). All by double digits — an average of 23 points.


“We’ve got to play better, man. We’ve got to have some pride in ourselves,”
Kevin Garnett (16 points, 12 rebounds) said. “We gave up
100-and-something points three games in a row — that ain’t even close.
We’ve got to, at some point, take it personal, you know? It’s not all on
the coaches; it’s on players.”


Defense, once again, was not in the C’s vocabulary. The Kings shot
53.7 percent from the floor and made 9-of-14 3-pointers in the second
half as they put the hammer down on the seemingly helpless visitors from
the East.


Rajon Rondo had 10 assists but was 1-for-6 from the
floor as he played through the effects of a bruised right hip and thigh
that caused him to sit out the previous night’s loss to the Clippers.
Paul Pierce and Jason Terry had 20 points apiece, but they were
powerless against the Sacramento onslaught.


The Kings had 56 points in the paint to win that category by 18. With DeMarcus Cousins
going for a triple-double and Jason Thompson dunking all over them,
there was room once again to question the now 14-16 Celtics’ competitive
fire.


“No. No. Not al all,” coach Doc Rivers said when asked if
he thought his guys had fought hard enough. “Obviously I think everybody
shows up to compete, but I think a little bit of frustration breaks
certain guys. Not every guy, but it doesn’t take but one or two a game.
And the frustrating thing is this year it’s been different guys. You
know, a guy will get frustrated because he’s not making shots. If our
offense is not working, our defensive spirit goes down, and then we end
up losing the game.


“Guys get frustrated and they give in. We’ve got to figure out how to fix that.”


At least the Celts can be semi-confident that 2013 will be better than this, if only for the fact it would be hard to be worse.


The Celts made a move at the start of the second half, riding the crest of a
more offensively assertive Garnett as they closed to within two points.
But after failing on three possession in which they could have tied or
gone ahead, the C’s saw the game begin to slip away.


Marcus Thornton threw in a long 3-pointer from the right wing and was fouled by
Terry in the process. Thornton suffered a sprained left ankle on the
play, and the Celts chose James Johnson off the Sacramento bench to
shoot the free throw. He completed the four-point play, beginning a 15-6
run that put the Kings ahead by 11.


Jared Sullinger hit four free throws on the next two possessions but, given a glimmer of hope, the
Celtics watched 5-foot-9 Isaiah Thomas drive right through their defense
for a layup. When Thomas threw in one 3-pointer in the last minute of
the third period and another in the first minute of the fourth, the C’s
were down 14 points and ready to nod off at Sleep Train Arena.


“Every time it looked like we were going to make a run, we give up a layup or an open 3,” Rivers said.


It is clear that the way the Celtics have been backing down and away from
their former identity is getting to Garnett, who spoke out for the
second straight night.


“We built something here,” Garnett said.
“I’m not living in the past or nothing, but the reason why guys came
back and made additions to this team is because of what we built here.
We’ve been known to defend. For some reason we’ve gotten away from that,
so we’ve got to go back to our origins and figure it out. I told y’all
(Saturday) night, these are the times when you’re going to see who
really wants it, who really is willing to work to change this.


“These are dog days. This is when you really see who’s with you right now. You
know, ain’t nobody cheering. Ain’t no lights on us right now. And I
love this right here, because this is when all the plastic people melt.
So we’ve all got to look at ourselves in the mirror, including myself,
and try to figure out what I can do better to help this team.”







bob




.

rickdavisakaspike wrote:There's an old Celtic saying, "It's always darkest after the Xmastime West Coast trip." Seriously, - been there, done that. Time to move on to the figuring out of the nature of the second-half comeback.

Excellent.

WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN:

1) When Rondo quits playing on ball defense;
2) When opposing players glide or roam in the paint and score at will;
3) When players are unable to guard the pick and roll;
4) When opposing players are not challenged from the arch;
5) WHEN PLAYERS ARE JUST NOT LEARNING AND EXECUTING TIME AND TIME AGAIN..........WHAT DO YOU DO??????????

112288

What Do You Do?

If you listen to what Doc and KG are saying in the following quotes, it's obvious what to do and who needs to do it.

"“No. No. Not al all,” coach Doc Rivers said when asked if he thought his guys had fought hard enough.

“Obviously I think everybody shows up to compete, but I think a little bit of frustration breaks certain guys. Not every guy, but it doesn’t take but one or two a game. And the frustrating thing is this year it’s been different guys. You know, a guy will get frustrated because he’s not making shots. If our offense is not working, our defensive spirit goes down, and then we end up losing the game.

“Guys get frustrated and they give in. We’ve got to figure out how to fix that.”"

That was Doc admitting that there's something wrong and he doesn't know how to fix it. Notice that he also said it's not everyone, only one or two guys.

Now here's KG zeroing in on who and what it is and how to fix it.

"“We built something here,” Garnett said.

“I’m not living in the past or nothing, but the reason why guys came
back and made additions to this team is because of what we built here.
We’ve been known to defend. For some reason we’ve gotten away from that, so we’ve got to go back to our origins and figure it out. I told y’all
(Saturday) night, these are the times when you’re going to see who
really wants it, who really is willing to work to change this.

“These are dog days. This is when you really see who’s with you right now. You know, ain’t nobody cheering. Ain’t no lights on us right now. And I
love this right here, because this is when all the plastic people melt.
So we’ve all got to look at ourselves in the mirror, including myself,
and try to figure out what I can do better to help this team.”

It's fairly obvious that Doc and KG are not talking about the new guys, but about Rondo, and treating him with kid gloves. My theory is that Doc's playing Rondo too many minutes and he's breaking down. He and Doc have gone through this before. Rondo's game starts slipping when he plays more than a certain number of minutes and he's been exceeding that limit all season.

Doc's theory is that the team can't win without riding Rondo into the ground. Doc has to let go of that theory, if he can. He's asking too much of Rondo.

In Bill Russell's rookie season, he and Red had what Russ called 'negotiations' over things like minutes and Russ's role in the offense. Red gave Russ free rein to do what he wanted on defense, because Russ was revolutionizing the game.

On the question of minutes, Russ started out by trying to play the full 48. After a few games, when he found he was too tired late in the game, Red experimented by resting him for the last 2 minutes of the first quarter. That seemed to do the trick and became a standard for him for the rest of his career.

Russell could play 46 minutes per game because he was so superior, physically, mentally and emotionally, to everyone else: yes, even to Havlicek, who averaged 43, if I recall correctly.

The moral of the story is that Doc has to put himself in charge of Rondo's minutes, and, above all else, rest him in the first quarter. It's almost inconceivable that Doc can have a potential microwave on his bench in the person of Barbosa, and not want to find out early what he's got on any given night. A couple of weeks ago, during the Patriots game, an announcer said about Bill Belicick that he gets all he can get out of the talent at his disposal.

Doc's great, possibly best coach in professional sports, and definitely one of the best human beings, but he isn't perfect. He should read Red and Me; it says a lot about coaching and playing. He may find the answers he needs.