here we come-pp for real the capn dominates

The Celtics are coming on. Healthy, deep and focused. Paul Pierce had 26 clutch points tonight. If he keeps playing like he is and I see no reason why he wont we are starting to be in very good shape. We are healthy gentlemen and ladies with our full roster.

Lockdown d against the houston rockets. Rondo went book of Job on Brooks...just owned him.

something else I am noticing. Increased pace. On o and d.

jeb65 wrote:something else I am noticing. Increased pace. On o and d.

jeb,

I think Boston needs to make a real effort at picking up the pace when they can.
PP, Ray and Garnett are all excellent shooters but they don't get enough shot attempts in most games.
Boston is 4th in FG% but only 19th in points per game.

I really think Rondo is beginning to realize that he is going no where without the improvement of these three guys. He has done a great job in the past few games of setting the table for the big guys to finish off. I am really impressed with how he is handling his position. I laughed when Doc said he was tired at the 6 minute mark of the third period in last night's game! He's a kid!! Running is what he does best! Here's to a great game tonight from all concerned and maybe more focus on the part of Wallace. He really could become a weapon near the basket with his little turnaround shot and his ability to work the opposition and get his points. Why he refuses to do this consistently is beyond me. He could be a hero on this team with a little luck and alot of smarts.

tj

I know it. We all do. It drives Sam crazy.

Jeb

rosie t


I thought Sheed did Exactly what he was supposed to do last night against the rockets. 9 rebounds , seven points from inside and out and anchor the d on the bench. He can be a frustrating guy but I think he will get better when it matters.

Does it not feel great to be healthy you guys!

I have not given up the ship yet. Seems almost everyone else out there has.
Just listen to those idiot reporters on comcast. You would think that KG was dogging it all year and that Pierce was done. Forget what they say about Ray.
So....I find myself living in my own world, believing that ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE!!!

rosie t

They gave us no chance against their boy and hero Kobe in 08. None. zip. nada. Mamba was too much. Phil was too cagey and unbeatable. And as a result my fav thing (outside of the look on kobe and phil's face) was watching ALL of them eat their words. If we could do it this year and make them postpone crowning their beloved king it would be sweet beyond belief. They are in such a lather for James. Kobe is too old for them now (them=sportscenter=$ off of last second hero ball) the Lakers themselves no longer glamorous enough. It's all about James. I aint saying we will but if we could it would be wonderful beyond belief and another king hell serving of crow for the entire money train.

Jeb, what makes me crazy is not their number of shot attempts. I'd rather see fewer attempts but greater efficiency in making the shots. That's the kind of tea they are, and it nicely complements a stingy defense.

What does bug me is not shooting early enough in the shot clock. Not to get more attempts but to gain an advantage over a defense that is not yet set. Throughout the season, too many of the Celtics' halfcourt possessions have resembled their standaround end-of-quarter possessions. They seem to be getting away from that recently.

Sam

jeb65 wrote:rosie t

They gave us no chance against their boy and hero Kobe in 08. None. zip. nada. Mamba was too much. Phil was too cagey and unbeatable. And as a result my fav thing (outside of the look on kobe and phil's face) was watching ALL of them eat their words. If we could do it this year and make them postpone crowning their beloved king it would be sweet beyond belief. They are in such a lather for James. Kobe is too old for them now (them=sportscenter=$ off of last second hero ball) the Lakers themselves no longer glamorous enough. It's all about James. I aint saying we will but if we could it would be wonderful beyond belief and another king hell serving of crow for the entire money train.

I don't remember anyone not giving Boston a chance in the 07-08 Finals. I believe Boston was the favorite in that series. Boston won 9 more games then the Lakers and held their opponents to 11 less points per game.
Radmonovic starting at SF killed LA that year.

tjmakz wrote:

jeb65 wrote:rosie t

They gave us no chance against their boy and hero Kobe in 08. None. zip. nada. Mamba was too much. Phil was too cagey and unbeatable. And as a result my fav thing (outside of the look on kobe and phil's face) was watching ALL of them eat their words. If we could do it this year and make them postpone crowning their beloved king it would be sweet beyond belief. They are in such a lather for James. Kobe is too old for them now (them=sportscenter=$ off of last second hero ball) the Lakers themselves no longer glamorous enough. It's all about James. I aint saying we will but if we could it would be wonderful beyond belief and another king hell serving of crow for the entire money train.

I don't remember anyone not giving Boston a chance in the 07-08 Finals. I believe Boston was the favorite in that series. Boston won 9 more games then the Lakers and held their opponents to 11 less points per game.
Radmonovic starting at SF killed LA that year.

tj,

I never did understand why Phil started Radmon and not Odom at SF. I'm not sure Odom could have stopped Pierce that year, because Odom's not really a SF either, but it would have been closer.

bob

/

TJ

What planet were you on in 08 cause if you watched at all you would have known who was the favorite in the eyes of the media

LOOK BELOW ON THIS

ALL but one had the lakers.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/playoffs2008/series?series=lalbos

beat

tj

Yeah nobody was giving the celts the nod or very few. Mostly it was Lakers in 6.

Jeb

hey sam

Didnt mean to speak for you. I interpreted your writing as meaning you liked increased pace and hope for the c's to push the ball more. Apologies if wrong.

Jeb

Jeb,

You're absolutely right. I do like increased pace, and I love it when they push the ball. But it's not so much to get extra shots as to make the shots they do take more effective. Catching opponents before their defense is set forces favorable mismatches, gets them back on their heels, and usually reveals more open looks.

You may also be referring to comments I've made about the Russell Celtics, who played what I called "volume basketball." They'd shoot early and often in order to reap the aforementioned benefits. But there was an added benefit for them because they were really good offensive rebounders. So, they didn't have to worry about lower shooting percentages like today's Celtics do, because they converted a high proportion of their own misses into points.

Perhaps their offensive rebounding prowess was aided by the fact that, without a three-point arc, offenses tended to be compressed into a smaller space, and there were often two or three Celtics competing for offensive boards because they were nearer the basket when a shot was taken. But guys like Russell, Heinsohn, Ramsey (at 6' 3") and Loscutoff could be terrors on the offensive boards.

No need to apologize. You correctly quoted my feelings. It's just that my reasoning may have been a little different than it might have seemed. I should have been more specific.

Sam

beat wrote:TJ

What planet were you on in 08 cause if you watched at all you would have known who was the favorite in the eyes of the media

LOOK BELOW ON THIS

ALL but one had the lakers.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/playoffs2008/series?series=lalbos

beat

beat,

Good find with the attachment you posted.
Boston was clearly the better team in the regular season, struggled in the Eastern Conf. playoffs but turned it on for the Finals.

Hey TJ,

You watch the Lakers closely. To what do you attribute the malaise that occasionally seems to hit them? It seems to have characteristics attributed to the Celtics much of the season. But I've never bought the theory that the Celtics are dogging it. I feel repeatedly lousy execution caused them to become dispirited.

But what little I've seen of the Lakers doesn't seem to indicate lousy execution. I'm wondering whether there's some other dynamic operating in their case. What do you think. I'd be interested in the viewpoints of the other Lakers fans too—and civil Celtics fans too.

Sam

Sam

How long could you listen to Phil?

And care about anything anymore.

beat

Sam wrote:Hey TJ,

You watch the Lakers closely. To what do you attribute the malaise that occasionally seems to hit them? It seems to have characteristics attributed to the Celtics much of the season. But I've never bought the theory that the Celtics are dogging it. I feel repeatedly lousy execution caused them to become dispirited.

But what little I've seen of the Lakers doesn't seem to indicate lousy execution. I'm wondering whether there's some other dynamic operating in their case. What do you think. I'd be interested in the viewpoints of the other Lakers fans too—and civil Celtics fans too.

Sam

Sam,

I don't think the Lakers take the regular season very seriously. They don't have anything to prove in the regular season. Cleveland still does so they push hard almost every night.
LA also has one of the slowest and most inconsistent shooting backcourts in the league. Unfortunately, it seems like Farmar and Brown get hot on the same night and cold on the same night.
LA's lack of consistency has hurt Kobe this year too.
Going into a game he doesn't know if he will need to put up 30 shots or look to be a distributor.
Perfect example was last night. Kobe took 3 shots in the first half and had 9 assists. The next game he might have 17 shots in the first half.
Other than Odom, LA can't count on their bench. Vujacic is horrible and gets no respect from the officials so he usually has 2 fouls in 5 minutes. Brown is a tweener PG/SG and doesn't do either of them real well. Walton is a really smart player but is limited offensively and defensively...
I think they will be ok in the playoffs

Thanks, TJ

tjmakz wrote:

beat wrote:TJ

What planet were you on in 08 cause if you watched at all you would have known who was the favorite in the eyes of the media

LOOK BELOW ON THIS

ALL but one had the lakers.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/playoffs2008/series?series=lalbos

beat

beat,

Good find with the attachment you posted.
Boston was clearly the better team in the regular season, struggled in the Eastern Conf. playoffs but turned it on for the Finals.

the struggle was actually good for us,we found ourselves and were primed for Lakers,LA wasn't battletested by anyone.

jeb65 wrote:hey sam

Didnt mean to speak for you. I interpreted your writing as meaning you liked increased pace and hope for the c's to push the ball more. Apologies if wrong.

Jeb

I think we all want to see that style of balling more,its winning basketball beautifully played

Those accusing the Celtics regulars(Garnett, Pierce, Allen), of dogging it through the regular season are doing them a terrible injustice. These guys have much too much pride to allow themselves to be beaten by Cleveland, Atlanta, Orlando and even the Lakers once. Do they honestly think these guys basically threw the games. Watching Michael Holley and his other guests on Celtics Now on Comcast infuriated me. There is no way KG and Pierce want to get up after losing a game and explain to people how it happened and what went wrong. This accusation was repulsive.

Hopefully with good health they will be able to shut a few people up and move on toward a decent playoff. If James ever got hurt for Cleveland, they would be at the bottom of the league. Same if Kobe went down for any extended length of time.

Let's hope we see a consistent style of basketball in these next few weeks that will possibly shut some of these people up. Time and actions will tell.
I love it when they play running basketball. They are all such good passers, and watch a play set up is a thing of beauty!

Gents and rosie and kellyg


Paul Pierce was the best player on the court again tonight. He is finishing above the rim. He is getting calls and just deadly from all over the court. His late three broke the Mavs very strong back.

This is very god news for us.

The other thing I noticed tonight was pp taking a charge and celtics diving for loose balls. 48 minutes of hellish defense. Davis has great hands and is using them to wreak havoc on the glass. The big three are playing at an 08 level BECAUSE THEY ARE RESTED AND THE BENCH IS HANDLING THEIR BUSINESS.
We were down 4 in the 4th late and instead of wilting executed our offense got great looks and stops and steals. We just wore them down with depth, effort and balanced offense.

This is a serious turnaround. I am surprised. The effort is growing. The glow is spreading. Good damn timing.

Jeb

jeb65 wrote:Gents and rosie and kellyg


Paul Pierce was the best player on the court again tonight. He is finishing above the rim. He is getting calls and just deadly from all over the court. His late three broke the Mavs very strong back.

This is very god news for us.

The other thing I noticed tonight was pp taking a charge and celtics diving for loose balls. 48 minutes of hellish defense. Davis has great hands and is using them to wreak havoc on the glass. The big three are playing at an 08 level BECAUSE THEY ARE RESTED AND THE BENCH IS HANDLING THEIR BUSINESS.
We were down 4 in the 4th late and instead of wilting executed our offense got great looks and stops and steals. We just wore them down with depth, effort and balanced offense.

This is a serious turnaround. I am surprised. The effort is growing. The glow is spreading. Good damn timing.

Jeb

27-11 the last 8:15. Very impressive against a team that had won 14 of 15 and playing in their building. Pierce has been a man possessed the last three games. When he plays like that this is a championship team if everyone else is healthy.