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FAST BREAK: WARRIORS WALLOP PUNCHLESS CELTICS

WEEI

By Ben Rohrbach
 
 
As the Warriors’ lead ballooned to 30 by the end of the third quarter, Celtics fans grew restless at the Garden. They chanted “Let’s go Tupac” after a lookalike of the rapper appeared on the Jumbotron, and then followed with a “Scal-a-bri-ne” chorus for old time’s sake (Brian Scalabrine is now an assistant coach on Mark Jackson‘s staff).

Indeed, the season has come to this. Golden State delivered a 108-88 knockout blow that felt even worse, and the Celtics (20-41) held onto the NBA’s fourth-worst record. (Might as well plug the latest weekly NBA Draft Watch.)

Only because it’s customary, here are Wednesday’s double-digit scorers for the Celtics: Kelly Olynyk (team-high 19 points), Rajon Rondo (14 points, 7 assists), Brandon Bass (11 points, 8 assists), Jared Sullinger (11 points) and Jerryd Bayless (10 points).

WHAT WENT WRONG

Turnovers: After Andre Iguodola‘s block of Jeff Green led to a rare two-handed Stephen Curry dunk midway through the first quarter, the Celtics threw two straight passes to the Warriors that would have become three consecutive fast-breaks dunks had it not been for an even more rare Kris Humphries chase-down block. The turnovers kept on coming, reaching a dozen by halftime, when the Warriors owned a 61-40 lead.

Iggy vs. Green: Speaking of that small forward matchup, Green (4 points, 2-7 FG) struggled mightily opposite the Warriors’ defensive anchor. Meanwhile, Iguodola’s early bunnies contributed to Golden State’s 58 points in the paint. Needless to say, their plus/minus numbers soared into the twenties in opposite directions.

General apathy: One second-quarter possession pretty much summed up what turned out to be one of the most lackluster performances of this lackluster Celtics season. In the span of 16 seconds, Jerryd Bayless missed a layup, Draymond Green blocked Kelly Olynyk‘s layup and Jermaine O’Neal (yes, that guy) blocked Kris Humphries‘ layup. For those of you counting at home, that’s three straight misses at the rim. By the end of the third quarter, the Celtics had 17 field goals and 17 turnovers. And trailed 84-54. Oh, it was ugly.


WHAT WENT RIGHT

Pump up the Bass: As the trade deadline passed and he somewhat surprisingly remained in a Celtics uniform, Bass continues to go about his business. When this game was still a game — somewhere early in the first quarter — Bass had four points and four rebounds as one of the few C’s who seemed interested in playing basketball.

Technical KO: After missing two games with a toe injury, Olynyk returned for the first time since amassing 21 points, eight rebounds and four assists against the Jazz on Feb. 24. He once again led the C’s scoring effort.

Kiwi surprise: The Celtics granted 12-year-old New Zealander Louis Corbett‘s wish of seeing his favorite basketball team before he loses his sight to retinitis pigmentosa. He met Rondo and other before the game, sat next to the C’s bench and was honored at halfcourt during the first TV timeout.
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DANNY AINGE: RAJON RONDO WAS ASKED NOT TO SKIP FLIGHT BUT DID ANYHOW

By WEEI
 
 
While saying that he wanted to move past the Rajon Rondo controversy regarding the point guard skipping a team flight to Sacramento, Celtics president of Danny Ainge revealed Wednesday morning that the team knew of Rondo’s plans in advance and requested that he remain with the team.

Rondo stayed in Los Angeles to celebrate his 28th birthday with his family rather than accompany the team to a game he was not going to play in order to rest his legs.

“He let Brad [Stevens] know and he let me know that he was going to stay in L.A. an extra day, and we didn’t think that he should,” Ainge told Boston’s CBS Sports radio station. “But it was his choice and [we told him] there may be consequences if you stay. It was that simple.”

Added Ainge: “In the end, him and I had a long talk about it. He planned it before and he had reason to believe it would be OK. I understand his reason because of what he’s grown up with and what he’s witnessed. You won’t see it happen again, and we’ve just moved on from it.

“I think that now Rondo understands more clearly what we want out of him as a captain. That we want him on the road with the team, and his leadership on the bench is important whether he plays or doesn’€™t.”

Ainge insisted he had “nothing major to hide” regarding the controversy, and that it’s something that’s been ironed out.

“I talked with Rondo about why he did what he did,” Ainge said “I didn’t agree with it, but we had a good talk and we’re over it.”


Ainge said he has no regrets about Rondo being the team’s captain.

“He is definitely our captain whether anyone gave him the title or not. That’€™s his personality,” Ainge said. “He didn’€™t have the title the last five or six years, but he was still a captain. He was a coach on the floor and one of three or four captains with Paul [Pierce], Ray [Allen] and [Kevin Garnett]. They all act differently, and they all make mistakes by the way in their leadership roles, but I look at every guy on the team as a leader. You’€™re either leading guys to do better, or leading guys to do worse.

“I have no issues whatsoever with Rondo being our captain. He’€™s been acting like our captain for three or four years.”

Ainge also said Rondo’s behavior is something the team can handle.

“Rondo is an emotional, stubborn kid. He’€™s very bright, and I don’€™t mind these kinds of emotions,” Ainge said. “What I care about is he a guy I want to play with, play for, if the guys on the team back him and want him on their side night in and night out. Those are the really important issues. Rondo is never going to become Tom Brady and say all the politically correct things and do everything we want him to do, but we still love him in spite of that because his teammates back him and want him on their side. They will go to war with Rondo, anytime.

“We’€™ve had a culture that has been a little different. It has been a great culture of winning, which is very important, and these kind of things have happened. We had a head coach that lived in a different city and would take different planes to different cities. We’€™ve had KG, who I think Rondo has learned more from as a leader and a pro than any other player. KG didn’€™t sit on the bench when he didn’€™t play, and Rondo has been doing that for every game, except that Sacramento game and Milwaukee game — which we held him back.”
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Boston Celtics Report
Rapid Reaction: Warriors 108, Celts 88

By Chris Forsberg | ESPNBoston.com

BOSTON -- Rapid reaction after the Golden State Warriors defeated the Boston Celtics 108-88 on Wednesday night at TD Garden:

THE NITTY GRITTY
One day after promising they wouldn't relent over the final 22 games of the 2013-14 season, the Celtics came out lifeless after a three-day break and got absolutely throttled by a Golden State team playing the final night of a six-game road trip and the tail end of a back-to-back. Klay Thompson missed seven 3-pointers, but hit just about everything inside the arc while putting up a team-high 18 points. David Lee matched his output and added 10 rebounds. Old friend Jordan Crawford scored 13 points on 6-of-10 shooting in 7 ½ minutes off the bench for the Warriors. After missing two games with a sprained toe, rookie Kelly Olynyk returned to score a team-high 19 points for Boston. Rajon Rondo finished with 14 points, seven assists, five rebounds, and seven turnovers over 37 minutes. The Celtics turned the ball over a head-shaking 22 times leading to 24 points.

TURNING POINT
The Warriors scored 12 of the game's first 14 points, building a double-digit lead little more than five minutes in and that's about as close as it got. The Celtics were down eight going to the second frame, but Golden State scored the first seven points of the quarter. An Andre Iguodala triple sent the Warriors into intermission up 21 and the lead went as high as 31 in the second half.

TUPAC LOOKALIKE PROVIDES LEVITY  




With the Celtics down 30 in the third quarter, a Tupac Shakur lookalike who's been at the Garden in the past was shown on the JumboTron and fans started a loud, "Let's Go Tupac!" chant. When the quarter ended, he was shown again with Tupac's "California Love" blaring and the audience again roared. The fans kept themselves entertained further by starting "Scal-a-brine!" chants with former fan favorite Brian Scalabrine now an assistant coach for the Warriors.

LOOSE BALLS
The Celtics shot 39.5 percent overall (30 of 76), while the Warriors were at 46.9 percent (46 of 98). ... The Warriors owned a 58-32 advantage in points in the paint and a 25-11 edge in fastbreak points. ... The Warriors led from start to finish. ... All 11 available players saw court time for Boston. ... Chris Babb, playing on a 10-day contract, scored his first NBA points. He finished with five points and five rebounds over 23:41.

WHAT IT MEANS
The Celtics (20-41) have now lost seven of their last eight and still own the fourth worst record in basketball. Two games remain on this five-game homestand with visits from Brooklyn (Friday) and Detroit (Monday).

112288

Only a couple of things to say about this game, in which the Celtics performed so listlessly that it was basically impossible to distinguish the good things from the bad things.  Kelly continued where he left off in being more aggressively offensively.  Babb showed to good advantage with sticky defense (otherwise a foreign term for this term); and he hit a straightaway three and initiated a nice ball-movement play at the offensive end.  Babb surprisingly didn't play "run to the corner" as Johnson (one three-pointer) has been commanded to do.  And Brandon Bass was the only corpse in the morgue who showed signs of life in the early going.

The 23 turnovers give only a hint of how bad the Celtics were.  The fact that they led the Warriors in attempted free throws, 26-12, underscores two things.  (1) The Celtics were woefully deficient in getting close enough to the hoop for open shots and (2) the Warriors had nothing but open shots.  The Warriors led in attempted field goals, 98-76; and, for a jump-shooting team, their shot selection looked remarkably like a layup drill.

On offense, the Celtics had 19 assists compared with 28 for the Warriors.  The semi-good news was that Rondo had 7 whole assists; the totally bad news was that he had 7 turnovers, and the scorer was generous in skipping at least another two.  It would have been one thing if he had been challenging his mates and they just missed some passes (which they certainly did); but he was telegraphing passes, throwing lazy cross-court passes that were easily intercepted at the perimeter for G.S. gimme breakaways, and doing almost nothing as a floor general catalyst.  Seriously, Rondo looked as dispassionate as I've ever seen him; and I've always said that, as Rondo goes, so go the Celtics.  I'm only sorry that the younger guys had to be part of such a travesty—especially coming off an actual win and some days off.  Yes, GS. is a good team (and I'm happy for them); but are they much better than they were than when the Celtics took them down to the last play in their recent West Coach matchup?  No, the Celtics were that much worse.

I love the Celtics.  There can be not a hint of a suspicion to the contrary.  But I'm forced to use my most pejorative term to describe last night's game.  Sidney Wicks!

Turn it around, guys.  This is development time.  Danny's investigating swapping the team for the Buffalo Braves team.

Sam

I watched it next day on NBA league pass and had to turn it off a few minutes into the 3rd quarter. The Indiana game showed some passion and improvement, but last night - were they all high on grass or what?

I've never seen a Celtics team that just didn't bother to show up until this season and it's very discouraging.

I had the pleasure of watching the game at Steve3344's apartment with him and Cowens (at least until he had to bolt back to NJ to take care of some family obligations).  That was a blast.  Thanks Steve for your hospitality and Cow for picking me up at Professor Thoms.  Next time I'll remember my phone.  

I don't enjoy extensive typing from my tablet, I feel like I'm fingerpainting,  but I agree with everything Sam said, 100%, and isn't that sad (not that we agree but the content).

CJ is coming down off his cloud.  Missing 3s, questionable ballhandling, but still high energy.  Babb is showing more versatility but we'll see. KO working hard, Sully not. Expect another visit from Satch.

Nothing but practice since last Saturday, and then this.  Yuck.

bob


.

The way this team played last night, one wouldn't have thought that only a few nights prior, they gave the East-leading Pacers a run for their money.

I don't really feel like getting into statistics right now, but this team definitely misses Wallace and Bradley. Those are the two best defenders this team has (and Bradley's a very solid offensive player, too) so they are missing those aspects. The post situation remains unchanged, but Olynyk is in their fighting more battles. I suspect that once he bulks up, he'll win those more often.

But even with Bradley and Wallace, this team might only win a few more games than what we're seeing now. It's important for each individual player to display their worth, but when a team is stuck in the mud, morale is low and the execution won't always be there. This team has to be confident or they're just looking at blowout after blowout.



KJ

During the course of an 82-game season, bad, low-energy games happen. When you're not very good to begin with, those games look awful. The game in Denver comes to mind.

The key for me is how they respond. They came out of the Denver game and played much better. Their next games are against Brooklyn and Detroit, then they've got Indiana again after that. I'm expecting better energy and better effort in those games. In other words, no "T" word.

This was awful...I'll mention a few glimmers in a minute but this was just a terrible game by the Celtics.

Rondo had his worse game since returning from the ACL injury as evidenced by his lack of focus.  But I did see him attempt a few passes where the teammate was not ready for the pass.  And then others caught the turnover desease as we witnessed both Green and Humphries make passes that were easily intercepted and run back for a pick 6.

I will also mention one more thing about Rondo.  I want him to be able to take and make a 3 point shot but that is not what he should be doing on offense.  Making curls that frees him up for shots at the foul line or inside the circle is fine.

As a matter of fact coach Stevens support of taking 3 point shots is disturbing.  Once again we saw sully throw up 3 attempts with zero results.

CJ looks more like a one trick pony that needs to work on his one trick.

Jeff Green our leading scorer only took 7 shots.

Most disturbing aspect of the game was the defense.  While the Celtics did a pretty good job defending the 3, they were playing a 'You got it' defense.  No one would rotate, no one would step up to defend the pick and no one would get back to defend the run outs.

The cute kid from New Zealand who is going blind could not have seen a worse brand of basketball played.

In sum, The Celtics may not be tanking but last night they were definitely stanking!

Now for the Glimmers...there is only one.. Kelly Olynyk....No longer looking weak, or slow or indecisive on either end of the court.  He played a solid all around game.  good for Kelly.

dboss

Hi,
Not much to add about how bad the last night's game was.
On the positive side I'd like to note good showing (< 11min though) of PP. He was pushing all the way to the hoop or find and pass to the teammates.

AK

Sam. Did not desert you last night, I don't know what happened but I signed off with about three minutes left but it never posted, then I got your post! Read my last post on game on last night just before Steve.

Rosalie

Outside wrote:During the course of an 82-game season, bad, low-energy games happen. When you're not very good to begin with, those games look awful. The game in Denver comes to mind.

The key for me is how they respond. They came out of the Denver game and played much better. Their next games are against Brooklyn and Detroit, then they've got Indiana again after that. I'm expecting better energy and better effort in those games. In other words, no "T" word.

I'll take it a step further and use the term NO energy game. Was at a service and missed almost all the first half ( as did the Celtics) and when I saw the score..... well no need to say anymore.

Circle the wagons these last few weeks could be like root canal surgery.

beat

Rosalie,

I didn't think you deserted me, but I was terribly worried that this game might have given you a relapse.  Glad you're okay.

Sam

Take a long look at some of these guys because this team is going to be a lot different next year and the year after. There will be an overhaul starting to take place. Too bad, I really like a couple, but there is no way Danny will keep them. Hang on boys, it is going to be
A bumpy ride

hawksnestbeach wrote:Well, not to pile on, or to give the wrong impression that I wouldn't be ecstatic with Embiid, but I now believe International was prescient, not paranoid, when he used the "T" word. Last night, the Celtics would have had a hard time beating their cheerleaders with the effort expended. My theory is that management's decision to focus on the future has filtered down to our players, from the Captain on down, so that only a couple of marginal guys trying to squeeze into the league can find the motivation to hustle. I'll keep watching, because I can't not watch, but if the players caught an attitude from on high, the fans can't be far behind. Hawk

I believe that International made a lot of very valid points that are worth examining.

A GMs job is to build to contend. A coach's job is to establish a winning culture and earn the respect of each player. And the players have a duty to perform. At times, it seems that these 3 variables have not been on the same page all year. The Celtics have never had a full deck to work with this entire year, so the acumulated losses are hardly a surprise. It's hard for Brad to establish the proper culture when he doesn't have all of the necessary pieces. I think he's handled this season well and I expect to see a lot of growth from his end on his coaching by next season. It's hard for the players to keep losing games, so it would appear to be human nature to have the amount of letdowns they've had.

With that said, I agree that management's focus on the future is quite tangible to the players themselves. Many don't know where they'll end up, that is, if they are lucky enough to get picked up by another team. I had actually touched on this in a previous thread, where I thought that the focus for *this* year is somewhat nonexistent in a sense. The team wasn't built to contend obviously, and they only have 20 wins to show for all of the changes. But that is only the first phase. The trades that have been made bode very well for the future of this team.



KJ

I agree, but...if they had Bradley and Rondo on the court for a decent amount of time, the decision of whether to go all in and sign Bradley would be much easier. Could be Danny and management has already made this decision, but...it would have been nice to see. Then there are no "what if's" when the decision is made.

Having so many moving parts has to be frustrating to a young coach. Stevens has done well holding it together.

I also feel that Danny, by finally going public with this crazy Rondo story has taken the pressure off the coach, and put it squarely on Rondo, where it belongs. The only problem is that it took him too long to do it.

Just some crazy thoughts!!

Rosalie

Just hope given the season the C's aren't giving up winning for lent.......

beat

Beat....Batta Bing!

112288

112288 wrote:Beat....Batta Bing!

112288

Maybe they will give up shooting threes instead......

beat

Glad we went on Saturday and not Wednesday - YIKES.

I feel so sorry for the New Zealand kid.  He deserved much better.

sam wrote:I feel so sorry for the New Zealand kid.  He deserved much better.

He was at the Nets Game this eve so at least he saw a win and some effort

beat

That's great!

Sam