POST GAME NYK GAME #4

GAME STATS

SCORE – CELTICS - 97 /NYK - 90
REBOUNDS - CELTICS 40 /NYK 54.....Offensive - CELTICS 3 /NYK 16 ......Defensive - CELTICS 37 /NYK 38
POINTS IN THE PAINT - CELTICS 30 /NYK 28
FAST BREAK POINTS - CELTICS 15 / NYK 8
FG - CELTICS - 34/76 ( 44.7 %) NYK 31/90 ( 34.4 % )
3PM - CELTICS - 8/22 ( 36.4 %) NYK 7/30 ( 23.3 %)
FTM - CELTICS - 21/24 ( 87.5 %) NYK 21/28 ( 75 %)
TO - CELTICS 16 / NYK 15
ASSISTS - CELTICS 22 /NYK 10
STL - CELTICS 7 / NYK 10
BLK - CELTICS 4 / NYK 3
PF - CELTICS 26 / NYK 27
BENCH POINTS - CELTICS 22 / NYK 7
TOTAL TEAM TURNOVERS (Points off turnovers) – CELTICS 16 (18) /NYK 16 (10)

NEXT GAME WEDNESDAY - AWAY - MSG - TIME (TBA) - CSNE/MSG/TNT

POST GAME RECAP

ESPNBOSTON.COM

Rapid Reaction: C's 97, Knicks 90 (Game 4)

By Chris Forsberg | ESPNBoston.com

BOSTON -- Rapid reaction after the Boston Celtics defeated the New York Knicks 97-90 in overtime during Game 4 of an Eastern Conference first-round series at TD Garden. The Knicks lead the series, 3-1:

THE NITTY GRITTY
Jason Terry, shuffled back to a reserve role, came up with a couple of big shots in overtime while scoring 18 points on 7-of-10 shooting to go along with four assists. Paul Pierce scored a team-high 29 points on 9-of-20 shooting with eight rebounds and six assists, while Kevin Garnett added 13 points and 17 rebounds. Carmelo Anthony scored a game-high 36 points on 10-of-35 shooting, while Raymond Felton willed the Knicks back from a 20-point hole with 27 points on 10-of-21 shooting.

A DOMINANT FIRST HALF ...
The Celtics held a 12-point lead when Jeff Green picked up his third foul with three minutes to play in the first half (joining Garnett on the bench with his third foul). Boston has had a propensity to stumble at the end of quarters, but actually closed out the first half on a 9-0 run that included a deep 3-pointer by Pierce after Avery Bradley swiped an inbounds pass following a Brandon Bass make. The Celtics owned a seemingly safe 54-35 lead at the intermission.

... BUT ANOTHER DREADFUL SECOND HALF
The Celtics were up 14 with 3½ minutes to play in the third quarter when Felton took over. He scored 12 of New York's final 15 points (all but an Iman Shumpert 3-pointer) and his 26-foot heave in the final second of the frame pulled the Knicks within three. Felton finished 5-of-8 shooting with 16 points in the quarter, outscoring Boston (4-of-16 shooting, 14 points).

OOOOOOVERTIME
The Knicks were down five with little more than four minutes to play, but a Shumpert 3-pointer and an Anthony layup tied things up with 3:34 to go. The Knicks squandered multiple opportunities -- including two missed freebies by Anthony -- but Felton hit an 18-foot pull-up with 78 ticks to go. Garnett responded with a 17-footer off a pass from Pierce to even things again with 67 seconds to play. Pierce missed his elbow jumper on Boston's final gasp.

TURNING POINT
Terry broke the game's final tie with a 3-pointer from the left wing in transition to put Boston out front 91-88 with 92 seconds to play. Anthony responded with a fadeaway baseline jumper, but Terry came back with a little fadeaway of his own for a 93-90 lead with 50 seconds to play. Terry then drew a loose-ball foul with 20.4 seconds to go and made his free throws to seal the victory.

OUT OF BASS
Back in the starting lineup and tasked often with defending Anthony, Bass did an excellent job until foul trouble derailed him in the second half. Picking up his fourth foul early on, he was tentative, especially in the fourth quarter when Anthony blew past him for a loud dunk. Bass fouled out with 4:27 to go. He finished with four points and four rebounds over 30:38.

WHAT IT MEANS
The Celtics -- and their veteran core of Pierce and Garnett -- live for at least one more game. Terry, after a disappointing regular season, stepped up with his team's season on the line. This series takes a two-day break before resuming with Game 5 on Wednesday in New York. The Celtics still have an uphill battle, but they showed some mental toughness by fighting back after the Knicks rallied and refused to go out with a sweep on their home turf.
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CSNE

Celtics beat the Knicks in Game 4, 97-90

A.SHERROD BLAKLEY

BOSTON — It looks like those obits on the Celtics season will have to wait at least another game. The C's pulled out a 97-90 overtime win after nearly blowing a 20-point lead in Game 4 of their best-of-seven series with the New York Knicks.

The Knicks lead the series 3-1 with a shot at closing it out in front of their fans on Wednesday.

Jason Terry, who has taken his share of criticism for talking a big game and not delivering, had nine of his 18 points off the bench in overtime to keep the C's season alive for another game.

After the Celtics took a 19-point lead into the half -- the largest by either team in this series at the half -- the Knicks went on an 8-0 run in the third quarter and closed out the quarter with a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by Raymond Felton that cut Boston's lead after three quarters to 68-65.

Part of New York's improved play in the third had to do with three of the C's key players in Game 4 -- Kevin Garnett, Jeff Green and Brandon Bass -- each being in foul trouble. Bass eventually fouled out while Garnett and Green each had five personal fouls.

With no J.R. Smith for New York due to a one-game suspension for an elbow to Jason Terry's chin, Raymond Felton more than filled that void with 16 of his 27 points coming in the third quarter.

As the stunned Celtics faithful watched Felton's last shot of the third go down, the Knicks contingent in the stands were a vocal, jubilant bunch who sensed the end of the Celtics' postseason was drawing near while their own playoff journey was just beginning.

New York continued to chip away at Boston's lead and tied the game at 74 when Iman Shumpert stripped Paul Pierce and drove in for an uncontested lay-up with about seven minutes to play. Boston scored the game's next four points to go back up by four points.

For defending Carmelo Anthony was of a bigger concern than scoring themselves. Bass, who spent much of the game defending Anthony, picked up his fifth personal foul at the 5:10 mark of the third quarter. He went to the bench and returned in the fourth, but wasn't nearly as aggressive and Anthony took advantage of that with a slew of driving lay-ups and dunks.

After a New York defensive stop, it was Felton once again delivering, this time a go-ahead 18-footer with 1:18 to play that put the Knicks in front 84-82.

The down-to-the-wire ending was striking when you compare it to how the game began. The Celtics didn't waste much time taking control of the game as they opened with a 12-5 run and took a 22-17 lead into the second quarter.

But the C's know all too well that first quarter success means nothing, especially in this series. Of the four games, Boston has led after the first in all but one of them.

The second quarter struggles the C's have experienced in the first two games, however, did not show up today. That was thanks in part to the absence of Smith and the Knicks committing an unusually high number of turnovers.

Smith's absence put a number of New York players in unfamiliar roles, and for the most part they did not deliver. Those different roles, in turn, led to a significantly high number of turnovers.

New York averaged 11.7 turnovers per game in the first three games of the series. They coughed it up 13 times by halftime, resulting in 10 points for the Celtics. For the game, the Knicks turned it over 16 times.

Boston also benefited heavily from an amazingly strong defensive effort by Bass who spent the bulk of the first half defending Anthony. Bass' ability to keep Anthony in front while being strong enough to withstand Anthony's ability to score with his back to the basket led to a frustrating first half for the league's top scorer.

Anthony found his stride in the second half, finishing with a game-high 36 points to go with seven rebounds.

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WEEI 93.7 FM

FAST BREAK: JASON TERRY SAVES CELTICS SEASON
By Ben Rohrbach

The Knicks erased a 20-point second-half deficit and took their first lead of the game with 78 seconds remaining on a Raymond Felton jumper. It took a 17-footer from Kevin Garnett and two Carmelo Anthony misses just to force overtime. But Jason Terry finally came up clutch, scoring the C’s final nine points for a 97-90 OT victory.

Meanwhile, Paul Pierce played 50 minutes, totaling 29 points, eight rebounds and six assists to help avoid a sweep and force a Game 5 on Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden. Pierce, Garnett (13 points, 17 rebounds), Terry (18 points) and Jeff Green (26 points) combined for 86 of the C’s 97 points.

WHAT WENT RIGHT

Melo out: Without J.R. Smith to share the load, Carmelo Anthony (36 points) tried to put the Knicks on his back, but Brandon Bass had other ideas. Bass gave Anthony fits, even jawing with the MVP candidate, holding him to 10-of-35 shooting and forcing him into seven turnovers. The rest of the Knicks didn’t help, shooting 34 percent from the field, but it started with a valiant effort from Bass, who fouled out in the fourth quarter.

Closing out: While the Knicks looked to close out the series, the C’s just hoped to close out a quarter. And for once they did. In the second, they finished the final two minutes on a 12-3 run. Pierce, who looked cooked in Game 3, scored eight of his 17 first-half points in 72 seconds, and then assisted on Jason Terry’s 16-foot jumper that beat the clock. The result? A 54-35 advantage that helped punch their plane ticket back to New York.

Green with emotion: Green’s recipe for success is simple: attack, attack, attack. The guy who stands around the perimeter watching his teammates take jump shots isn’t so good. In the span of 44 seconds of the second quarter, Green stampeded his way to the basket for a running five-footer and got to the line twice more on drives to the hole. In other words, he attacked, attacked, attacked, and the result was 26 points and six boards.

WHAT WENT WRONG

First mistake: The Celtics shot 50 percent from the field in the first quarter while holding the Knicks to 6-of-18 shooting and forcing six New York turnovers. And thanks to an off-balance Anthony and-1 to close out the first quarter, the C’s only led 22-17. That five-point lead should’ve been 15. Allowing the Knicks to stick around was a dangerous game, even if the Celtics ended up taking a 19-point lead into halftime.

Handle without care: Turnovers cost the Celtics Games 1 and 3. Their offense practically must execute to perfection to compete with New York’s potent attack, and coughing up opportunities before they even get off a shot compounds the problem. Yet, the Celtics committed 16 turnovers on Sunday. Dumb ones, too, like Avery Bradley throwing a pass to someone in the fourth row and Pierce’s failed feeding of Bass on a fast break.

Foul mood: Midway through the second quarter, Garnett picked up his third foul from an officiating crew that featured C’s coach Doc Rivers‘ nemesis Bill Kennedy. Minutes later, Green picked up his third, and Bass joined the club two seconds before halftime. Within five minutes of the third quarter, all three had four fouls. Of course, Anthony and Tyson Chandler had four before the fourth quarter, too. But with little faith in Chris Wilcox or Shavlik Randolph off the bench, Rivers pulled Garnett but left Green and Bass to defend the paint. Bass soon picked up his fifth, and the Knicks closed within three on an 11-1 run to end the third, setting up a nail-biting fourth quarter and overtime.

112288

FINALLY SOME CELTIC PRIDE!

NOT DEAD YET........

RED SOX CRUISING.......

A GOOD DAY IN BOSTON!

112288

OK,
112288

wasn't pretty, but thrilling

Problem with the Celtics....they play nice team ball then all of a sudden they revert to hero ball........not the same looking team when they had that win streak after Rondo's injury.


112288

Hopefully, as has been pointed out on other threads, Rondo was taking notes during the ensuing winning streak after his unceremonious exit for the rest of the season. Neither scenario, pre- or post-Rondo worked well for the long haul.

We need a point guard. We have one. The best in the league. But Sam has made a point about how predictable Rondo had become. Something that became blaring in the post-Rondo state was how evenly the assists were spread over all the players. This is only part of the answer. It was very effective in the short-term for post-Rondo but only for a few games. The reason why it didn't work in the long run and why we are down 3-1 is you still need an effective point guard. Rondo is that point guard. Right now, we don't have one. If Rondo can figure it out in that he needs to be more Cousy-like in his distribution of the assists, look out the rest of the league!

In that scenario, you can't fudge on any one player. If the ball is being passed around and everyone is equally likely to dish out an assist as anyone else, the defense is forced to play straight up. From that all hell breaks loose as you can just about pick and choose against whatever defense is thrown up at you.

A reconfigured Rondo will actually be able to skate in and out of games with high assists, low assists and average assists and completely befuddled the competition. His demise up to the injury, as Sam has noted, is his predictability. If you know what his is going to do 40-50% of the time, that is a huge advantage to the opposing team. If you can get this down to 20%-30%, or even 33% which is where Cousy's assist numbers were your chances of winning are greatly improved.

What I am amazed at is how quickly the team gravitated to what it did assist-wise during the streak. It was immediate. Interesting. The good news is Rondo's game is still evolving. We know he can dish. Now he just needs to mix it up and go from great to elite.

db

Dbrown,

Since you mentioned me a couple of times, I think it's important to reiterate that my concerns were team-based more than Rondo-based. It was the team that had fallen into a pattern of leaning too much on one person to carry the ball distribution load. That was what created the predictability, which was more a predictability of the team's offensive patterns more than the predictability of Rondo's performance.

Although I've been a Doc booster since the old "Fire Doc" days, I believe it's important that Doc learn at least as much from this Rondo-less period as Rondo learns. One way to utilize the talents of a Rondo is to challenge him to be the main catalyst for increasingly diversified offensive strategies and tactics.

For example, it seems like—year after year—I keep hearing about the fact that Celtics offensive plays are installed only very gradually, which would seem to make sense, especially when there are either wholesale turnover in personnel or widespread injuries that create discontinuity.

But sometimes I think there comes a time when a coach has to bite the bullet and take some risks by introducing change even in the face of the fact that the team may be in a state of flux. There are some strategies in basketball that can be the equivalent of adding another good player to the roster. Less predictability can be one of those strategies.

We've all discussed the Celtics' end-of-quarter and end-of-game strategies as being too predictable (although there may be a few signs that Doc is softening that stance). But that''s just scratching the surface of predictability. It has gotten to the point where I'll see a Celtic halfcourt pattern materialize, and I instinctively know what what's going to happen. The problem is that the opposing team is far more expert than I am in recognizing such repetitive behavior.

And I'm not just talking about the need for a lot of new plays. In fact, it can often be more effective to run the same plays, but with more options per play. (That was arguably what set the old Celtics apart from their competition.) A lot of teams (including the Knicks) have been doing that to the Celtics. It's very much like a baseball pitcher using the same arm slot and delivery but varying the type and velocity of the actual pitch. Those who can do that consistently are usually far more effective.

I think that people need to disabuse themselves of the tendency to equate Rondo's value so much with his ball distribution. There's so much more involved in being an effective floor general: maintaining the pace that best gives his team an advantage; varying the options on plays; being an instigator, rather than reactionary, in running the team; rewarding teammates for extra effort; being a choreographer on the floor; feeling when his scoring is needed more than his ball distribution; sensing and capitalizing on momentary letdowns or vulnerabilities on the part of the defense; and many more. Rondo has much room in which to grow in a variety of ways, and Doc's offense needs to offer him the flexibility with which to pursue broader horizons in his role.

During my entire time as a Celtics fan, I've felt that the key to getting a real "feel" for the personality of a basketball team was to focus on the roles and effectiveness of the main catalyst of the team. Usually (not always), that's the guy who plays the "1" position. (I hate the term "point guard" because I feel it leads to far greater ambiguity of responsibilities than either "playmaker" or "floor general"....which may actually be appropriate because I feel the roles and execution of the position have become more diffused over time.) After seven years of watching Rondo and Doc in collaboration, I still get confused about the role of Rondo on the team about about the dynamics defining that role.

Sam

Sam did you see the rest of the game?

We should have won more easily, Doc has got to alter some roles, why not play Randolph and KG together for a stretch? how about more T Will and I love Avery Bradley, but hes earned less minutes. Right now hes really good at stopping his own offense with bricks, hes making Tony Allen look good offensively and the refs are letting Felton bang him with his left elbow clearing space and his defense is obviously not making the usual impact.

Were way too small whenever KG goes to the bench, play Randolph and Wilcox together for a stretch. Smallball without KG has killed us this whole series and let the Knicks back in constantly. T Will can play point better than AB offensively right now, play him, he can run.

Cow,

I saw a good stretch of the game, but not all of it (and, unfortunately, not the overtime).

I think that, especially one game from elimination, Doc would rather play guys who are battle-tested and have the potential to be more impactful in the playoffs, even if it means sacrificing height.. I realize there are people who think players without such experience can be shuttled in and out and can magically develop instant cohesiveness and chemistry. But, unfortunately, that's seldom true—especially in the kind of sink-or-swim situation in which the Celtics find themselves.

Moreover, while it can certainly be claimed that the Celtics should have won more easily and, therefore, Doc should alter more roles, don't forget who forged the huge Celtic lead. Moreover, is it seriously possible that someone like Shavlik could have stemmed the tide when the Knicks came back?

Moreover, Doc's keenly aware that there are no back-to-backs, and a couple of two-day hiatuses in this series; so he doesn't have to be quite so careful in monitoring minutes.

Unrelated to this topic, but interesting nonetheless, is the fact that, yet again, the pivotal game in a playoff series turns out to be the fifth game. It happens more often than not.

In the case of this series, the fifth game will be pivotal only if the Celtics also win Games 6 and 7, although it could also be said that a Knicks win will keep them from having to revisit Boston, which I'm sure they don't want to do.

A Game 5 Celts win would also be psychologically pivotal by sewing seeds of doubt among the Knicks and their fans and by solidifying the "one game at a time" mentality.

Hopefully it will be a great game, and hopefully the Celtics will win it.

Sam

At least the Celtics did not get swept like the Lakers did. That's something to be grateful for.

MD!

Sam

Good points as always, I just think Randolph earned some minutes by the way he played earlier, just as AB has played himself into losing some. AB actually defends JR Smith fairly well, definitely better than on Felton. Did you notice the refs letting Felton constantly clearing space with his left elbow and shoulder banging on AB? whats up with that? What do you lose to give Randolph 4-5 minutes to see if he can add a spark? if he can, keep him in a little longer.

If we can pull off a miracle Wend night....well anything is possible, we certainly can play with them for a half, if a couple players step up, who knows? maybe Jeff Green goes for 35 and Crawford actually gets hot for once, maybe hes due....Pierce and KG will the team through.....

cow

Cow,

It's mainly fans who talk about a player "earning" minutes. For each game, they (1) needs and (2) who has the ability to meet those needs. The Celtics would be out of this series if the Knicks had scored just one more point in regulation. How much could Randolph have helped versus the chance that he might actually contribute to the Celtics' scoring one less point or giving up one more point? Obviously, Doc has made that kind of assessment, and he feels safer going small than going with Randolph.

You can't necessarily project a young player's regular season contributions possible playoff contributions onto the post-season. We all know how different the playoffs are, and many of his regular season contributions occurred in blowouts games in which Doc experimented by giving him some run. Typically, sporadically used kids require several minutes just to get oriented in a game, so there's an excellent chance that your 4-5 minutes would have been eaten up getting him into the flow—during which time, that one-point swing I mentioned could have easily occurred.

Your question as to what they might have lost to give Randolph 4-5 minutes to see if he can add a spark begs a two-word answer.:

The game!

Sam

okay our rebounding disadvantage and point differential when KG is resting is causing us to lose this series too.....no easy solutions, but one might be on the bench?