POST GAME MINNY

GAME STATS

SCORE – CELTICS -100 / MIN - 110
REBOUNDS - CELTICS 37 /MIN 31.....Offensive - CELTICS 7 /MIN 4......Defensive - CELTICS 30 /MIN 27
POINTS IN THE PAINT - CELTICS 38 /MIN 62
FAST BREAK POINTS - CELTICS 9 / MIN 23
FG - CELTICS - 42/81 (51.9 %) MIN 40/83 (48.2 % )
3PM - CELTICS - 7/16 ( 43.8 %) MIN 5/18 (27.8 %)
FTM - CELTICS - 9/14 (64.3 %) MIN 25/27 (92.6 %)
TO - CELTICS 17 / MIN 8
ASSISTS - CELTICS 25 /MIN 30
STL - CELTICS 4 / MIN 10
BLK - CELTICS 3 / MIN 4
PF - CELTICS 21 / MIN 11
BENCH POINTS - CELTICS 47 / MIN 42
TOTAL TEAM TURNOVERS (Points off turnovers) – CELTICS 17 (22) /MIN 10 (11)

NEXT GAME WEDNESDAY - HOME - DETROIT - 7:30PM - CSNE/NBA LEAGUE PASS

POST GAME RECAP

ESPNBOSTON.COM

Rapid Reaction: Wolves 110, Celtics 100

By Chris Forsberg | ESPNBoston.com

Rapid reaction after the Minnesota Timberwolves defeated the Boston Celtics 110-100 on Monday night at the Target Center:

THE NITTY GRITTY
Minnesota center Nikola Pekovic feasted on Boston's depleted frontcourt depth, posting a game-high 29 points on 9-of-15 shooting. Dante Cunningham added 19 off the bench, while Andrei Kirilenko added 17 points on 6-of-7 shooting for the Wolves. Avery Bradley came out aggressive and scored a team-high 19 points on 8-of-14 shooting, while Jason Terry and Terrence Williams had 14 points apiece off the pine for a Boston team playing without Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett.

TURNING POINT
After trailing by as much as 14 in the third quarter, the Celtics trimmed their deficit down to six before the end of the frame. But a little 5-0 burst to start the fourth quarter pushed Minnesota's lead right back to double-digits and it was rarely a game again. Derrick Williams buried a 3-pointer on Minnesota's first possession of the final quarter and Cunningham added a layup as the Wolves opened an 89-78 lead. Boston rarely got it back to single figures the rest of the way.

THE LAST TIME?
The Celtics had won 11 straight over the Timberwolves entering Monday's game, including all 10 meetings between the teams since Garnett was dealt from Minnesota. The Wolves' last win? You'd have to go back to Feb. 11, 2007. Old friend Ricky Davis scored a team-high 28 points and Garnett added 26 points and 10 rebounds for Minnesota that night, while Boston got a game-high 29 points from Pierce. Most notably, it was the Celtics' 18th consecutive loss that season, setting a franchise record.

WHAT IT MEANS
End-of-the-regular-season basketball, it's faaaaaantastic! The Celtics have now lost seven of their last nine and, coupled with Milwaukee's 130+ point outburst against Charlotte, will see the Bucks climb 1½ games back of the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference. Boston has been woeful defensively without Kevin Garnett (left ankle inflammation); take out Paul Pierce (Not With Team -- Personal Reasons) and all hell broke loose at that end of the floor (and the offense wasn't nearly as crisp, either). There's work to be done to protect that seventh spot, but the schedule remains forgiving moving forward. The Celtics return to Boston for a four-game homestand that opens on Wednesday night with a visit from the Detroit Pistons.
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CSNE

Undermanned Celtics fall to Timberwolves

A. SHERROD BLAKLEY

MINNEAPOLIS — You know there had to be at least a few hundred Celtics fans at the Target Center on Monday night who thought this was all some really cruel April Fool's joke.

No Rajon Rondo because of an injury.

No Kevin Garnett because of an injury, but not as serious as Rondo's season-ending torn right ACL.

And no Paul Pierce who was not with the team while attending to a personal matter.

No, this was no prank as the Celtics were as star-deficient as they have been all season.

And it showed most of the game as Minnesota (27-46) handed the Celtics a 110-100 defeat.

Boston (38-36) has now lost two in a row and seven of their last nine games.

For the Timberwolves, it snapped an 11-game losing streak to the C's with Boston's last loss to Minnesota coming on Feb. 11, 2007 on the Target Center floor.

After a floater in the lane by Jason Terry cut Minnesota's lead to 87-82 in the fourth, the Timberwolves scored nine straight to regain control of the game with their lead never in doubt afterward.

The first quarter got off to a nice start for Boston which opened with a 9-4 run. But the Timberwolves countered by taking advantage of the Celtics' biggest weakness these days - shoddy interior defense.

Minnesota center Nikola Pekovic was a dominate, overpowering force for the Timberwolves as he scored 21 of his game-high 29 points in the first half to lift the T-Wolves to a 57-52 lead.

Boston might have been without their best players, but those still around put up a good fight in the first half.

And it was Avery Bradley leading the charge, as he scored 15 of his 19 points in the first half. Boston also got a good but not great half from Jeff Green who had six points and six rebounds at the half. He finished with 10 points, seven rebounds and five assists.

Considering how they failed to limit Pekovic's scoring which was primarily within a few feet of the rim, the Celtics had to feel as though the five-point deficit at the half could have been worse - a lot worse.

A sluggish start by the Celtics to start the third quarter put them back in a double-digit hole, in less than a minute in.

But the Celtics as they have done most of this season, were able to get the deficit under double digits following a floater by Terry in the lane that made it a 84-78 game going into the fourth quarter after having trailed by as many as 14 in the third. Terry had 14 points off the bench for the C's.
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WEEI 93.7 FM

INSIDE JOB: NIKOLA PEKOVIC, DANTE CUNNINGHAM DOMINATE AS T’WOLVES FINALLY BEAT CELTICS 04.01.13 at 10:21 pm ET
By Mike Petraglia

Another road game. Another undermanned Celtics team. And another road loss.

The Celtics, playing without Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, were overpowered by Nikola Pekovic, Dante Cunningham and the Minnesota Timberwolves in a 110-100 loss at the Target Center Monday night. Pekovic took advantage of an undersized front court with a game-high 29 points while Cunningham added 19 points and five rebounds off the bench for Minnesota, which beat Boston for the first time in 12 meeting dating back to the pre-Garnett era in Boston.

The defenseless Celtics (38-36) fell for the second straight night and dropped their seventh in nine games. With Milwaukee beating Charlotte, the seventh-place Celtics are just 1.5 games ahead of the Bucks (one game in loss column) for eight-place. If Boston, which has eight games left, finishes eighth, they will face Miami in the first round.

What Monday’s game lacked in star power it made up for in offense from unexpected places.

The Celtics were without Garnett (left foot) and Pierce (personal reasons) while the Timberwolves were still without U.S. Olympic champion Kevin Love (broken hand).

The Timberwolves (27-46) turned to Pekovic and he responded with a huge opening quarter. The 27-year-old native of Montenegro scored 15 points as Minnesota dominated the paint and took a 27-25 lead after 12 minutes.

Since acquiring Garnett – the most accomplished player in Timberwolves history – after the 2006-07 season, the Celtics were 10-0 against Minnesota. Overall, the Celtics had won 11 straight against Minnesota dating back to Boston’s last loss, 109-107, on Feb. 11, 2007 in Minnesota.

Adding to Boston’s misery on the inside, big men Shav Randolph and Chris Wilcox each picked up three personal fouls. Courtney Lee’s three with 3:15 left in the second quarter tied the game, 45-45. But the Timberwolves came back with the next four points before Avery Bradley connected on a jumper as the game kept a quick tempo leading up to halftime. Bradley’s hit 6-of-8 in the first half and single-handedly kept Boston within range with 15 first half points. Bradley led the Celtics with 19 points on 8-of-14 shooting.

Boston was manhandled in the paint in the first half. Pekovic scored 21 points in the first half, part of an effort that had Minnesota outscoring getting outscored 34-18 and allowing Minnesota to grab a 57-52 halftime lead.

The Timberwolves went on a 10-4 run midway thought the third to open their biggest lead, 80-66, before Jason Terry responded with a long two-point jumper. Terrence Williams followed that up with a baseline three to cut Minnesota’s lead down to nine, 80-71, with just over three minutes left in the third.

Randolph picked up his fifth foul seconds later but stayed in the game to give the Celtics some size in the paint. As the Celtics were making a run late in the third quarter, Jeff Green came up limping, holding his left hip. Green, who played the entire first half and the first six minutes of the third quarter before finally coming out for a breather, took a knee from Pekovic to the left thigh/hip area. Green stayed in the game and was part of a 12-4 run that cut Minnesota’s lead to six, 84-78, heading into the fourth. Green finished with just 10 points in 38 minutes.

With the Celtics defense forcing a near turnover, Derrick Williams hit a three to open the fourth quarter and push Minnesota’s lead back to nine.

Lee came in for Green with just over 10 minutes left as Celtics trainer Ed Lacerte tended to Green’s left hip. The T-Wolves went on a 7-0 run midway through the fourth that was capped by an Alexey Shved three with 7:45 left to put Minnesota up, 96-82. The Celtics could get no closer than eight the rest of the way.

The Celtics are off Tuesday before hosting the Pistons on Wednesday night at TD Garden. For more, visit the Celtics team page at weei.com/celtics.

112288

Undermanned doesn't describe this. No KG, no Pierce, no Rondo, no Sully. We're down 3 starters and a 1st big off the bench.

1. Pekovic now knows what Gulliver must have felt in Lilliput. We had nobody who could keep him out of the paint. It was layups all night for him. Doesn't he look like Zod, from Superman I? He only had 5 rebounds but that's because we were shooting a good fg% and he didn't miss much. You know who would have helped us last night against Pekovic? Pretty much anybody. A municipal building would have at least had the bulk. Seriously? Darko. Hardly "The Savior", but he could have bodied up against Pekovic. Their moose against our municipal building. 11-11 from the line, should not be overlooked. Gotta love a big bruiser who can shoot free throws. He singlehandedly almost fouled out every big we had.

2. Avery Bradley finally had a good shooting game. Halle-freaking-lujah! The question now is "is this the end of the slump or did he just have a good game?". Either way, it was good. His defense was pretty good too, but I think he mis-played Rubio. You have to stay in front of Rubio, not try and steal the ball from him. Rubio is WAY too good a ballhandler for that.

3. I was looking forward to seeing Rubio play. I've heard so many comparisons to Pistol Pete, and I'm a big Maravich fan, I just had to see it for myself. Based upon this game alone, I'd say that Rubio has a LONG way to go before before he can claim to shoot like Maravich. Ball handling, passing and vision though, he is close. It doesn't hurt that he sorta looks like Pete too. Get rid of that scraggly "I'm in college, I can look like anything I want" beard and grow a Maravich mustache. Some very, very nice interior passing by Rubio last night. He is a bit of a magician with the ball, so you have to play his body. Unfortunately, he also plays defense like Maravich.

4. T-Will and Crawford both played well. Williams had one of his good games (as opposed to the games where he's practically invisible) and Crawford shot (which is what he does). Crawford didn't do a good job of staying in front of Rubio when he was guarding him though. Williams had 14 points on 6-10, 2-3 from 3, 6 rebounds, 5 assists and no turnovers in 22 extremely productive minutes. A real boxscore stuffer. Neither of these players have had a training camp with us, nor even half a season with us. It will be interesting what they look like when they do. The same with Randolph. He had a very tough assignment last night, helping Wilcox defend against Zod, but he still put the ball on the floor well against the moose and scored points doing it. He has some IQ, Randolph does. Maybe he could be 2nd PF off the bench next year after Sully?

5. We need a JJ Barea. Screw this "point guard by committee" bullshit. Nobody can replace Rondo, but we need someone who could go from 15-20 minutes per game running the team to 25-30 mpg should we need them to. "Point guard by committee", "Center by committee". You know what you call an animal with 6 legs and no brains? A committee. I realize that injuries have got us reeling. I realize the loss of Darko (even Darko!) early in the season threw a wrench into Danny's plan for that position, but we need some pure players. Not combo players, although having some of those (like Jeff Green) are nice to have, but some pure position players that fit that role perfectly.

6. Speaking of, Jeff Green struggled last night a bit against AK47. Kirilenko is a tough matchup, when he's on his game. A long and tenacious defender and fast on the break. Green rebounded and assisted well, but had trouble breaking away for easy points with Kirilenko on him.

7. Turnovers were a problem for us again. 17. Can't do that when we're this thin.

8. They had 30 assists on 40fgm. And those don't even take into account how many fgas weren't counted because Pekovic was fouled in the act of shooting after an excellent pass from Rubio and Barea and it didn't go in. Considering all of Pekovic's shots were from 5' and in, he would have sunk those bunnies if he hadn't been fouled.

9. DJ White came in for less than a minute in the 1st half. Then sat down after committing a foul. Whatever Doc wants to see him doing, he's not doing it.

10. Wilcox had a better game than his previous one, but he's still not earning himself a roster slot next year. Yeah, I know he's a veteran minimum player so what am I expecting, but I'm expecting more. He is just not playing up to his old ways, pre-operation. He's a 3rd string center now, starting. Too bad. I liked him. He needs to run a lot more, since he has no offense that isn't off of breaks or alley oops. In a game where we already small and we needed every big, he only played 12 minutes.

11. Our team play was very uncoordinated. It was obvious we had a lot of players that hadn't played together a lot and that hadn't played in the system long. What a shock. Of the 9 players Doc played last night, 4 of them haven't been in green for even half a season.

Mike Gorman said that Doc thinks he has 7 solid players for a playoff roster and that he wants to have 8 or 9. That means two players have shots for those slots. What does it say, though, that we're in April and Doc only feels like he has 7 players and the ones he has to choose from are marginal NBA players (that's why they were playing in China)?




bob


.

Bob,

Good analysis as usual. But here is an article that worries me. Yes it is real at ESPNBOSTON.COM

Ainge: Doing what's best for KG
Updated: March 28, 2013, 11:30 PM ET
By Greg Payne | ESPNBoston.com

Boston Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge said Thursday that Kevin Garnett is still dealing with the inflammation in his left foot that has caused him to miss the past three games, but that the original estimated two-week absence should be "more than sufficient time" for the injury to heal.

"It's much better today than it was yesterday and I think he just could use some rest," Ainge said during his weekly appearance on Boston sports radio WEEI (93.7 FM). "On top of that, KG has just little nicks, bumps and bruises that could use some healing time. He's got a sore calf muscle as well. It's just good for him to take some time off and get fresh. But the biggest concern right now is the inflammation in his foot."

The previous significant late-season injury for Garnett came during the 2008-09 season, when he injured his knee in a February loss to the Utah Jazz and had surgery after missing the entire postseason.

When asked about Garnett's situation compared to that one, Ainge stressed surgery is not unavoidable this time, as it was in 2009.

"I don't think that surgery is inevitable or we need to get through the year and he's going to go in for surgery right after the year. That's the difference between (2009) and now," he said.

Ainge said he was unsure if Garnett could play right now if he had to, emphasizing rest is the best thing at this time.

"What we're doing is we're doing what we think is best for KG's long-term health, and what's best for the team," Ainge said. "Usually it goes hand-in-hand, what's best for the player, and his future, is usually what's best for the team as well. But I don't know if KG could play tonight if tonight was a Game 7 of the NBA Finals. My guess is he probably could. But I don't know how good he would be. He does have a little bit of a limp, but it doesn't matter. Right now, it's best for him not to play on it and aggravate it."

112288

Bobh,
Thanks for the summary.

Re: Mike Gorman's comment about 7 known playoffs players. I wonder who're the 2 Doc is looking for. My guess, CW is one of them by default - Celtics don't have that many backup centers. I'd select Shavlik as the other one due to his desire and ability to fight in the paint on both ends.

AK

112288 wrote:Bob,

Good analysis as usual. But here is an article that worries me. Yes it is real at ESPNBOSTON.COM

Ainge: Doing what's best for KG
Updated: March 28, 2013, 11:30 PM ET
By Greg Payne | ESPNBoston.com

Boston Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge said Thursday that Kevin Garnett is still dealing with the inflammation in his left foot that has caused him to miss the past three games, but that the original estimated two-week absence should be "more than sufficient time" for the injury to heal.

"It's much better today than it was yesterday and I think he just could use some rest," Ainge said during his weekly appearance on Boston sports radio WEEI (93.7 FM). "On top of that, KG has just little nicks, bumps and bruises that could use some healing time. He's got a sore calf muscle as well. It's just good for him to take some time off and get fresh. But the biggest concern right now is the inflammation in his foot."

The previous significant late-season injury for Garnett came during the 2008-09 season, when he injured his knee in a February loss to the Utah Jazz and had surgery after missing the entire postseason.

When asked about Garnett's situation compared to that one, Ainge stressed surgery is not unavoidable this time, as it was in 2009.

"I don't think that surgery is inevitable or we need to get through the year and he's going to go in for surgery right after the year. That's the difference between (2009) and now," he said.

Ainge said he was unsure if Garnett could play right now if he had to, emphasizing rest is the best thing at this time.

"What we're doing is we're doing what we think is best for KG's long-term health, and what's best for the team," Ainge said. "Usually it goes hand-in-hand, what's best for the player, and his future, is usually what's best for the team as well. But I don't know if KG could play tonight if tonight was a Game 7 of the NBA Finals. My guess is he probably could. But I don't know how good he would be. He does have a little bit of a limp, but it doesn't matter. Right now, it's best for him not to play on it and aggravate it."

112288

112288,

If Danny doesn't think KG could play in a Finals Game 7, then it's bad. REAL bad. Hell, you practically have to shackle him to keep him out of any game.

Bottom line: We go nowhere without Pierce and KG. As long as they're healthy, we have a shot. Maybe not a great one, but a shot. If that means tanking the rest of the season and sneaking into the 8th and final playoff slot, I'm ok with that as long as they are good to go when the second season bell goes off.

bob

.

sinus007 wrote:Bobh,
Thanks for the summary.

Re: Mike Gorman's comment about 7 known playoffs players. I wonder who're the 2 Doc is looking for. My guess, CW is one of them by default - Celtics don't have that many backup centers. I'd select Shavlik as the other one due to his desire and ability to fight in the paint on both ends.

AK

sinus,

Based upon how Wilcox is playing, I'm not sure we have any backup centers.

My playoff roster, as of today, is:

KG
Pierce
Bass
Green
AB
Lee
JET


There's 7. Add to that;

Crawford
Wilcox

I don't think Williams gets the call except for specific matchups. Not because he's bad, but because Doc wants to keep the roster short and he needs Crawford's wild card offense more than he needs Williams' versatility. Randolph could edge Wilcox out, we know Doc's not particularly happy with Wilcox right now, but Wilcox knows Doc's system better than Randolph and is stronger than Randolph. So, he's more of a backup center and we desperately need one. Anyone.


bob


.

Here's a column by a Minny blogger about Jordan Crawford's game.

http://www.awolfamongwolves.com/2013/04/timberwolves-110-celtics-100-professional-human-beings/#more-1753


Timberwolves 110, Celtics 100: Professional Human Beings
Steve McPherson — April 2, 2013


A game the Wolves should have won and did. Against a thoroughly depleted Celtics squad whose frontcourt rotation consisted of Brandon Bass, Chris Wilcox, Shavlik Randolph (who is apparently the first person named Shavlik in the history of the world based on my research) and even 3 minutes and 50 seconds of D.J. White, the Wolves found themselves with an advantage in the post thanks to the return of Nikola Pekovic from a brief ankle injury. And Pek put in work on the offensive side of things, dumping in 29 points (2 short of his career high) even though he only collected 5 rebounds.

The Wolves shot badly from 3-point range (naturally), managing only .278 on 3-pointers, but they didn’t need to space the floor with Boston’s centers so badly overmatched physically by Pekovic. The aforementioned ankle injury didn’t seem to bother Pek, and Adelman said that he didn’t go the last game because he just couldn’t get it loose before the game.

Kirilenko looked Kirilenkish with 17 pts, 9 rebs, 5 asts and 2 stls. Honestly, the only reason this was even a somewhat close game was that the Wolves’ defensive effort just wasn’t there in the first half. Their offense clicked immediately, but they couldn’t seem to transfer that energy into their defense, which lagged until they tightened up in the second half, pushing the lead out to as much as 14 and holding it mostly steady around double digits.

We cool with all that? Because now I want to talk about Jordan Crawford.

I just couldn’t take my eyes off him when he was on the court. I’d heard about the horror show that is Crawford’s game, but I’d never really paid attention to before. Man, is it grotesque. Every single thing about his body language on the court says, “I’m taking this thing over and I don’t even have to try.” And yet: I don’t think he could take over a game of hopscotch.

Let’s watch this clip together.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_0uPuEO2Ub8


In the first bit, he catches the ball on the wing with space to shoot (we’ll see his proclivity for shooting he has no room in a moment, so I don’t understand his hesitation here) or drive, and yet he does that thing where he smacks the ball against his hand hard, which seems like a pickup basketball kind of thing to me. With Rubio downing him, he takes the bait, dives into double coverage—furiously twirling the right stick, it seems—and throws up a kind of fadeaway push shot that misses everything.

In the next bit, Crawford uses a pick to get Shved off his back, but when he runs into Cunningham, he throws a pass back out that gets tapped by Shved. He gathers it and pump fakes from a good six feet behind the line. Go ahead. No, really. After a quick exchange with Jeff Green, he ends up taking a 3 from only three feet behind the line and misses badly.

Then, we see him charge to the rim and make a layup while yelling about getting fouled. You can’t see it from this angle, but after he started shouting, Barea made an incredulous face. When J.J. Barea can’t believe your antics, you’re in trouble.

Since it worked so well before, he drives to the rim again, flailing wildly, and doesn’t make it or get the call.

He then takes a hideously well-defended 3 from the corner. Rubio’s closeout is solid and seems like that might be a good time to go for that pump fake, but he just calmly rises up and drains it. The beautiful thing here is how he sort of desultorily swing his arms and starts moseying up the court. You can practically hear him saying, “See? You see? I KNEW I was going to make it. That’s why I took it. Yeah. See?”

But he’s got one last wildly flailing layup to attempt. He misses it badly enough that he gets his own rebound and puts it back up and in.

Watching all this, I couldn’t help but laugh. I got excited every time he had the ball in his hands because I had no idea what was going to happen. And listen: I’m one of the first guys to man the battlements when people talk about how “so-and-so is a bum” or “this guy isn’t a real basketball player.” No matter how lame the competition, watching Brian Scalabrine definitively destroy some average joes should put to rest the notion that any player playing at the NBA level could be anything other than completely dominant at most other levels of basketball. I’m sure Jordan Crawford would do very well at your weekend pickup game, thank you very much. In many very important ways, he’s a skilled basketball player. But he doesn’t seem like a professional human being.

What Crawford really did last night was make me appreciate J.J. Barea. I bag on J.J. nearly as much as anyone, but I also believe he’s a professional. As one of the smallest guys in the league, he has a very specific skillset that he maximizes. It’s interesting to hear him talk after games because you will often hear him say how he was glad that Adelman took him out because he was going to take a bad shot. I’m almost positive he knows what he is and how he plays. He’s not a reactive, assessing player like Kirilenko, a smartbomb. He’s a dumbfire rocket. You point him at your target and let him go. When he blows everything up, a surprising amount of that will be the stuff you want blown up. Sure, there’s collateral damage sometimes, but everything’s a trade-off.

With Crawford, I just don’t see the upside. I didn’t see him disrupt the Timberwolves defense the way Barea can with opposing defenses. And his attitude just seemed—for lack of a better word—toxic. I understand the Celtics are very short-handed in their guard rotation with Rondo and Barbosa lost for the year, but I’m going to be very surprised if Crawford sticks in Boston.



bob


.

After KG has there ever been a team with a lamer weaker set of bigs than us? Wilcox, Randolph and Bass is painful to watch. If Sams theory of once done can be done and duplicated again, we might have some glimmer/hope with Randolph. I know Bass hustles, but as a 4 hes outmatched physically pretty much every night. Last night I caught the last quarter of the Pacer-Clips game, Pacers had a 24 point lead, then Clippers came back to make it a 2 point game before losing, you know who was on the floor the whole 4th as the 5? Ryan Hollins, he was okay as Clips made a comeback, until Randolph shows he can keep doing it, hes light years better than any big we have after KG.

Wilcox, Bass, Crawford and Lee have to be gone, if all 4 are on the roster we are in for a long bad year. I want to see T Will develop into a valuable rotation player coming off the bench that can play equally as a big guard with Rondo or a point with AB. We need some space eating bigs, hopefully Sully can take the next step forward, but badly need an interior presence with length.

bobheckler wrote:Here's a column by a Minny blogger about Jordan Crawford's game.

http://www.awolfamongwolves.com/2013/04/timberwolves-110-celtics-100-professional-human-beings/#more-1753


Timberwolves 110, Celtics 100: Professional Human Beings
Steve McPherson — April 2, 2013


A game the Wolves should have won and did. Against a thoroughly depleted Celtics squad whose frontcourt rotation consisted of Brandon Bass, Chris Wilcox, Shavlik Randolph (who is apparently the first person named Shavlik in the history of the world based on my research) and even 3 minutes and 50 seconds of D.J. White, the Wolves found themselves with an advantage in the post thanks to the return of Nikola Pekovic from a brief ankle injury. And Pek put in work on the offensive side of things, dumping in 29 points (2 short of his career high) even though he only collected 5 rebounds.

The Wolves shot badly from 3-point range (naturally), managing only .278 on 3-pointers, but they didn’t need to space the floor with Boston’s centers so badly overmatched physically by Pekovic. The aforementioned ankle injury didn’t seem to bother Pek, and Adelman said that he didn’t go the last game because he just couldn’t get it loose before the game.

Kirilenko looked Kirilenkish with 17 pts, 9 rebs, 5 asts and 2 stls. Honestly, the only reason this was even a somewhat close game was that the Wolves’ defensive effort just wasn’t there in the first half. Their offense clicked immediately, but they couldn’t seem to transfer that energy into their defense, which lagged until they tightened up in the second half, pushing the lead out to as much as 14 and holding it mostly steady around double digits.

We cool with all that? Because now I want to talk about Jordan Crawford.

I just couldn’t take my eyes off him when he was on the court. I’d heard about the horror show that is Crawford’s game, but I’d never really paid attention to before. Man, is it grotesque. Every single thing about his body language on the court says, “I’m taking this thing over and I don’t even have to try.” And yet: I don’t think he could take over a game of hopscotch.

Let’s watch this clip together.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_0uPuEO2Ub8


In the first bit, he catches the ball on the wing with space to shoot (we’ll see his proclivity for shooting he has no room in a moment, so I don’t understand his hesitation here) or drive, and yet he does that thing where he smacks the ball against his hand hard, which seems like a pickup basketball kind of thing to me. With Rubio downing him, he takes the bait, dives into double coverage—furiously twirling the right stick, it seems—and throws up a kind of fadeaway push shot that misses everything.

In the next bit, Crawford uses a pick to get Shved off his back, but when he runs into Cunningham, he throws a pass back out that gets tapped by Shved. He gathers it and pump fakes from a good six feet behind the line. Go ahead. No, really. After a quick exchange with Jeff Green, he ends up taking a 3 from only three feet behind the line and misses badly.

Then, we see him charge to the rim and make a layup while yelling about getting fouled. You can’t see it from this angle, but after he started shouting, Barea made an incredulous face. When J.J. Barea can’t believe your antics, you’re in trouble.

Since it worked so well before, he drives to the rim again, flailing wildly, and doesn’t make it or get the call.

He then takes a hideously well-defended 3 from the corner. Rubio’s closeout is solid and seems like that might be a good time to go for that pump fake, but he just calmly rises up and drains it. The beautiful thing here is how he sort of desultorily swing his arms and starts moseying up the court. You can practically hear him saying, “See? You see? I KNEW I was going to make it. That’s why I took it. Yeah. See?”

But he’s got one last wildly flailing layup to attempt. He misses it badly enough that he gets his own rebound and puts it back up and in.

Watching all this, I couldn’t help but laugh. I got excited every time he had the ball in his hands because I had no idea what was going to happen. And listen: I’m one of the first guys to man the battlements when people talk about how “so-and-so is a bum” or “this guy isn’t a real basketball player.” No matter how lame the competition, watching Brian Scalabrine definitively destroy some average joes should put to rest the notion that any player playing at the NBA level could be anything other than completely dominant at most other levels of basketball. I’m sure Jordan Crawford would do very well at your weekend pickup game, thank you very much. In many very important ways, he’s a skilled basketball player. But he doesn’t seem like a professional human being.

What Crawford really did last night was make me appreciate J.J. Barea. I bag on J.J. nearly as much as anyone, but I also believe he’s a professional. As one of the smallest guys in the league, he has a very specific skillset that he maximizes. It’s interesting to hear him talk after games because you will often hear him say how he was glad that Adelman took him out because he was going to take a bad shot. I’m almost positive he knows what he is and how he plays. He’s not a reactive, assessing player like Kirilenko, a smartbomb. He’s a dumbfire rocket. You point him at your target and let him go. When he blows everything up, a surprising amount of that will be the stuff you want blown up. Sure, there’s collateral damage sometimes, but everything’s a trade-off.

With Crawford, I just don’t see the upside. I didn’t see him disrupt the Timberwolves defense the way Barea can with opposing defenses. And his attitude just seemed—for lack of a better word—toxic. I understand the Celtics are very short-handed in their guard rotation with Rondo and Barbosa lost for the year, but I’m going to be very surprised if Crawford sticks in Boston.



bob


.

I would take Barea over Crawford anyday. Barea has alot of toughness, he's fearless and always makes the right play, he was huge when the Mavs won the title in 11. Way too much ghetto trash in Crawfords game.

cowens/oldschool wrote:Wilcox, Bass, Crawford and Lee have to be gone, if all 4 are on the roster we are in for a long bad year. I want to see T Will develop into a valuable rotation player coming off the bench that can play equally as a big guard with Rondo or a point with AB. We need some space eating bigs, hopefully Sully can take the next step forward, but badly need an interior presence with length.

cow,

Wilcox, Bass and Crawford I can understand. Why do you think Lee should be gone as well?

gyso

gyso

Lee is very inconsistent, he drives hard, but usually doesn't finish, his defense looks good, but then he gets abused by guys like JR Smith....bottomline if we didn't have T Will I'm sure I'd want to keep him, but T Will can do everything Lee does better in my book, has a higher upside.

cow

cowens/oldschool wrote:gyso

Lee is very inconsistent, he drives hard, but usually doesn't finish, his defense looks good, but then he gets abused by guys like JR Smith....bottomline if we didn't have T Will I'm sure I'd want to keep him, but T Will can do everything Lee does better in my book, has a higher upside.

cow

Lee does try hard and works on defense but he sure seems to get scored on a lot. I love his mid range jumper though. He should look for it instead of camping outside the 3 pt line. I would love to know how many times this year he is in the corner and we throw him the ball and we get called for his foot out of bounds. I bet it is at least 20 times. I would like to see TWill with some good players around him instead of being surrounded with Randolph, Crawford, Bass, etc. Have the feeling he could fit in nicely with the starters.