Post game thread Celtics beat the Nuggets 113-99 3/24/2010

[dboss]

The Celtics defeated the Nuggets 113-99.

At this point any doubts that I had regarding this team’s ability and desire to compete for another championship has faded.

Some interesting trends I’ve seen over the past few games are a determination to run, more attention to offensive rebounding (the Celtics collected 17 tonight) and a noticeable improvement in the integration of the starters and the rotation players.

Tonight Rajon put up a triple double and on defense he was all over the court collecting 4 steal and multiple deflections.

I’ve mention situational basketball before and tonight with Tony Allen playing a key role during the game and down the stretch, Doc made a decision to go small and it provided the right mixture of players to stop the Denver comeback and push the lead up again in the 4th quarter.

The Celtics outrebounded Denver 45-36 and also had an impressive 30 assists.

Boston has re-established their home court advantage.

Newbies Nate Robinson and Michael Finley continue to display their skills although Nate was a trick or treat player. He was the one to hit the 3 pointer pushing the Celtics lead back up tp 10 points but on the other hand he spent too much time dancing around and pounding the ball and that led to a bad pass and a layup at the other end of the court.

Finley is an amazing player. He can flat out shoot the rock and his addition to the team give the Celtics yet another option.

Overall the team is really starting to play more consistently but you can still see there is a lot of room for improvement.

If I was the opposition I would not want to play the Celtics in the playoffs.

dboss

[Sam]

Nice job, dboss,

You've always been a big proponent of uptempo ball. I couldn't watch the game, but the box score contained two indicators that they must have been pushing the ball:

• a 90-70 lead in field goal attempts

• a 19-16 lead in fast break points over one of the league's better transition teams

To sustain that pace with only 11 turnovers represents a pretty good feat.

Sam

[112288]

It was the team of old where you had 2-3 guys fighting for the same rebound. The ball movement was great and if KG was on his jump shot we would have been up by more. I liked Robinson and Finley. They provided big baskets at key points in the game when Denver started their push!

Now that's Celtic basketball. Good win.

112288

[dbrown4]

Ditto your second sentence, dboss. I was a doubter a few weeks ago. But no more. If you click on Sam's bio under hobbies, you will see the glue he provides to this site and for fans of this team. I laughed out loud when I saw it simply because it was so right on the money as Sam usually is.

I don't have to go to BDC this morning to know Greenkiller10492372261 and other trolls are already downplaying this victory since K-Mart or George Karl weren't there. While it is fact they weren't there, too bad so sad in my humble yet accurate opinion since we've had a whole season of being caught short with that crap and not having players on the floor yet somehow we are in 3rd place in the East. (BTW, it has been resolved at least on TV we would be 3rd seeded if we tie with ATL in overall record since we are division winner first. I thought I saw otherwise on this site, but I may have seen that written on BDC. Not sure) It's kind of like, say, a very unpopular health care law being rammed down your throat. It looks, smells and tastes like @$&*%^ but you're going to have to eat it, deal with it and pay for it. But I'll let BobHeckler handle my fights on BDC. I can't think on my feet like he can. But I digress. Here come the Celtics.

I thought Rondo had more than just one TD this season going into tonight's game, but I'm glad he pulled another last night just to show the rest of the league we're back in the mix.

I don't know who the guy on ESPN was last night but he did give major props to the Celtics. Saying something to the effect that this team right now is actually better than the 2008 team since Rondo has improved so greatly over two seasons. Very interesting observation. I like his thinking. He was also very positive on ORL saying they are better than last year's team. He may be just a positive talking head, but it is good to finally hear someone in the media drop the "old age" bs and get back on the main track and get to the heart of the matter with the Celtics.

Also, just a random thought. If your team, in any sport, had a 4-3 record, you would think that they were just slightly better than average just based on record, right? Yet come playoff time, that is the very worst we are asking the Celtics to do. We're not asking them to sweep, (althought that would be nice) just be slightly above average 4 times. This team, even at it's worst can do that against this league this playoff season.

I don't know if they have re-established their homecourt as a place to be feared yet, dboss. I think that will come with a convincing victory over CLE next week. But this is a very good start. I still have that once bitten twice shy I've got to go hurl feeling in my stomach come the start of every third quarter. But it did subside a little yesterday.

Nate and Finley ain't Posey and PJ but I like them in a whole different way. Finley is a great, great, ridiculous, off the charts pick-up by Danny. True professional and knows how to win a championship. Huge, huge intangible as well as a great tangible contributor. I think his voice of reason and wisdom to the bench alone is showing immediately and going a very, very long way. (And probably helping get Rasheed in line as well) I love Nate in a Tony Allen sort of way. He is doing exactly what Danny hired him to do. Be a waterbug, if you will. You have no idea where he is going or going to wind up. But you can't catch him or kill him. He may turn the ball over a few times, but he's going to score, assist, be a nuisance for the competition and not be a net negative.

I think if we can somehow go undefeated or close on this home stretch of games (but it absolutely HAS to include a sound performance and slashing of CLE. Yes I'm calling for it again!!) without being noticed, it will only further enhance the utter shock and awe that the can of whoopass we will be unleashing on ORL, CLE or ATL and finally DEN or LAL. Now we're talkin', baby!!

Go Celtics!!

[dbrown4]

Besides, do we even want home court advantage in the playoffs given our "lousy" record at home? I like this team having to win on the road myself. Homecourt isn't going to mean much this year. It would be nice, but not as important as it was in '08. Once again, just a different team with a different way to achieve that same result. More than one way to skin a cat.

[beat]

dbrown

Only point you made I'll quibble with............

We're not asking them to sweep, (althought that would be nice) just be slightly above average 4 times. This team, even at it's worst can do that against this league this playoff season.

No way at our worst we get past round one in the playoffs and should we we certainly won't round two. We just are not THAT good. IMHO

beat

[beat]

dbrown

to clarify a bit. IMO we can't be just a little above average and win against playoff caliber teams. Winning those 4 games to advance we do need to play a bit more than above average. We are showing a trend to be able to do that recently and as you say it does need to continue right to the end including playoffs for as far as we go.

beat

[swedeinestonia]

Finley has been nothing but gold so far.

I have not kept an eye on him at the defensive end (he did play good deny defense on "somebody" a couple of games back though).

I am not worried when he has the ball, he does not do stupid things and he can flat out score, even create his own shot.

[mrkleen09]

Denver + the worse refs in professional sports 99
Boston Celtics 113

David Stern is a disgrace for not addressing the superstar rules he allows his refs to follow. It it really hard to watch the Celtics get manhandled all night - as Carmello (and Deron Williams the other night) crash into people over and over and get all the calls.

[dbrown4]

Noted beat and swede. Just different sides of same coin. Yes, within each game, they will have to play off the charts. We just have to win 4 games before they do. They could all be by 1 with last second busser beaters. But I'd much rather have this team do it on the road with the strength they've shown there than at home. This next two weeks at home is all about re-establishing the fear of God into teams coming into Boston. Nail biters won't do. 48 minutes of pure hell will. Plain and simple. Are they going to throw up a Utah in the next two weeks at home? Probably. As long as it's not against CLE.

These playoffs are setting up very nicely for this year's Celtic team. It would be real nice if CLE had to tussle with CHAR in the first round though(after having lost to the Celtics next week of course). ATL still plays like it has a chip on their shoulder and that will eventually crush them. Call it a mental block if you will. They may have to play "hot" Milwaukee if they're not careful. And they won't be. ORL...well, we'll deal with them when we see them.

[Sam]

Dbrown,

Nate the Waterbug. I love it!

Sam

[Sam]

Swede,

I've been watching Finley on defense. He seems to stick with his man like a glove. I really like his acquisition. Whereas Nate can be streaky, Finley just seems to be poised and dangerous at all times.

Sam

[dbrown4]

Also, regarding momentum. I can understand it being a major positive going into the playoffs. But once you get there, isn't momentum shot all to heck? You play two games at home, two on the road, one, one, one, blah, blah, blah. There's no momentum in the actual playoffs is there? No one goes 16-0. You lose a game and regroup, make adjustiments, etc. And I'm sure history will show the Celtics total playoff record in championship seasons is maybe, and I'm just guessing, just north of 65%. That's not momentum.

I guess what I'm asking is what does the whole momentum thing do going into the playoffs for the team once it gets there? How does it help? Clearly, though, only winning (4 games) counts in the playoffs.

[swedeinestonia]

It would be better to be in a good roll of things when you enter the playoffs. It is a matter of confidence, flow of the game and all that.

Would you rather we entered the playoffs in the shape we are now or in the shape we were a month ago?

It is not going to make or break it probably for the first round but I would rather not spend the first game trying to sync up.

[beat]

db

lets look at it this way. I'd rather have momentum than NOT have it going into the playoffs!

beat

[sinus007]

Hi,
Does anybody know what RR had for lunch yesterday? If you do, don't tell anybody except Doc. Hopefully, he'd make RR had the same thing for 2 months after April 14.


AK

[dbrown4]

Agreed, beat!! Clearly everyone can tell I'm an armchair quarterback and have never coached a team, much less a team going into the playoffs. And I guess you can get some momentum from winning a 7 game series. But that seems to be the only momentum you can gain from the playoffs is from finally finishing off a team. But then you have to start all over again against a totally different team.

There is this overwhelming rush you get (and we got in '08) as a fan as your team battles through each successive round. This year will clearly be different for us as we will have to more than likely close out series on the opposing teams court or at least set them up there to close out back here. Not necessarily, but more likely especially after the first round. Actually, it may be even more exciting/unexpected like the balloon game. Closing out a Game 7 on our home court is almost a given historically. I think it's even more amazing to close out Game 7 as a visitor. And it's a thousand times more demoralizing to the home team.

We're clearly not the favorite. I was actually watching ESPN Sportscenter last night after the games to see the order of the highlights as reported. Clearly, LeBron/CLE was first. Celtics highlights/report didn't come on for another 20+ minutes. Same for the Lakers. And ESPN just televised those two teams for the night. It's still LeBron or bust!! I don't think, save the halftime analyst on ESPN, that they will see or even hear the train that is roaing towards them until its too late. That will be my biggest laugher for the year. Watching the almighty press pick the wrong horse...Again. Love our position. As long as it's at least 3rd.

[bobheckler]

Nice bounce back from the Utah game. This was a game of big runs. We ran it up to 14, they ran it down to 5 (or so), we ran it up to 20, they ran it down to 7, we ran it up to 14. We withstood their efforts well. George Karl wasn't there, but I'm not terribly impressed with him anyway. Kenyon Martin wasn't playing either and, as a result, the Nuggets' team basketball IQ skyrocketed. If he's not the dumbest player in the NBA, I don't know who is. Body by Caterpillar, brain by Mattel.

1. We ran a lot more. Very nice. Very, very nice to see.

2. Pierce showed up and stuck around for the whole game. That makes a big difference. I can't explain his inconsistency, now that he's healthy again, I'm just glad we didn't see it last night. What I thought was good was when they showed his shot chart for the first half and every made basket was a 2 and mostly from in close. He took two 3s and missed them both. Pierce inside is good. It shows aggression.

3. Nate and Finley had good games. Nate was under control (a little too much dribbling, but he was looking for guys to pass to, not to get a shot) while Finley is ice. He just comes in and gets the job done. His career might be coming to a close, but he's still got some left and we're getting it. Nate's acquisition is tougher to swallow because of the loss of House, Walker and JR (but I'd still do it again) but the Finley pick up is all good.

4. Our aggressiveness on the offensive boards was beyond refreshing. 45 total rebounds, 17 of them offensive. Denver had 8 offensive boards and we outrebounded overall by 10. This means that our rebounding edge came overwhelmingly off of the offensive boards. If we can keep doing that, we're going to be very tough.

5. 30 assists on 44fgm. That's a stat that Sam will love ESPECIALLY when you consider that some of our fgm came off of offensive rebounds, and not out of a normal offensive flow. This means that our assist-fgm ratio from "running the offense" (as opposed to grabbing a rebound and an immediate putback) is actually higher. Rondo doing his job.

6. Tony Allen is finding his spot again. His usually-problematical brain has figured his new niche out. He's slashing and using his athleticism to attack the offensive boards (both his rebounds were offensive). He initially saw Finley as someone taking minutes away from him. Now, like Davis with his energy, he's seeing that there's other things he can do that will help the team and earn him minutes. Go Tony!

7. We shot almost 81% from the line. Would have been better if Rondo hadn't shot 3-6. A MAJOR, well-documented weakness in his game. The silver lining last night is that Nene was 1-5 from the line, making Rondo look like Calvin Murphy.

8. I don't usually harp on the refs. I'll make statements like "they favored the Celts in the first half, look for Utah to get the calls in the second half" and other comments like that, but I usually don't just dump on the refs because it's a long game and things often come out even in the wash. Last night they just sucked. That foul call on Rondo where he was fighting for an offensive board was bogus. A call on Ray was bogus. The offensive charge on Pierce when it's obvious the Nugget slid into him was bogus. The defensive blocking call on Davis when he was clearly planted and outside the line and got bulldozed was bogus. All night there were really bad calls, some of which were make-ups, but many of them were just bad calls that were allowed to stand. Fine me, David Stern, because today I'm talking smack about your referrees and they deserve every bit of it. It's amazing and sad that a Dick Bavetta-called game was THAT bad and I can't be accused of just being a sore loser. We won DESPITE the refs sucking.

9. Perk only played 23 minutes (?) but the other 4 starters played between 33-36 minutes each. That's good clock management by Doc. They should be playing about that many minutes against high-quality playoff teams at this point. Enough for them to get a good playoff rhythm but not too many as to burn them out.

10. We scored 19 fastbreak points to 16 for Denver, and scored 58 points in the paint to 28 for Denver. We also scored 28 points off of Denver's 17 turnovers (taking very good advantage of their mistakes) but only gave up 4 points off our our meager total of 11 turnovers. What's not to like? We outran them, out pounded them and made them pay more when they made a mistake or we played good defense than they did to us.

Give me a minimum of 27 (11 regular season, 4-4-4-4 playoffs) more like this this, please.

bob


/

[beat]

bob

RE Tony's brain

Later in last evenings game Tony grabbed an offensive board..................

A few moments before that he went in for a shot and got stuffed

now back to the offensive board. As he grabbed it and gained control he ever so briefly turned to the hoop but then instead dribbled to the corner and kicked the ball out front to whoever. Perfect thing to do as at that time running the clock was more important than another FGA which might get blocked again or result in a miss and a quicker Denver possession.

For that moment the brain worked !!

beat

[beat]

Also liked out resolve when PP was called for a very questionable charge in 2nd half. After the initial reaction we scored the next 5 points!!

[dbrown4]

BobH, I like your last sentence in Point 8. That is very rare indeed for us. If we can keep that up, we WILL only have 27 games left!!

I do like the rejuvenated Glen "Bull in a China Store" Davis. Something is clearly going to break or hit the floor when he's been out there as of late, usually his defender or their will. He's turned it up a notch lately as well.

Very pleased.

[bobheckler]

BobH, I like your last sentence in Point 8. That is very rare indeed for us. If we can keep that up, we WILL only have 27 games left!!

I do like the rejuvenated Glen "Bull in a China Store" Davis. Something is clearly going to break or hit the floor when he's been out there as of late, usually his defender or their will. He's turned it up a notch lately as well.

Very pleased.

dbrown,

Yep, he's really throwing his weight around effectively. He's doing a good job.

bob

[Pumpsie Green]

Regarding the playoffs and our positioning: the Celtics are going to have to beat both Cleveland and either Atlanta or Orlando-and we are probably NOT going to have homecourt advantage against any of them. So IMO it doesn't really matter in which order we play them (ie Cleveland first or second), to win a ring the team has to defeat two very very good opponents before the finals. If we miraculously manage to get out of the East I think we have a good chance against whoever makes it out of the West.

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