Post-game Thread: Bulls @ Celtics, 11/05/2010

[Sam]

I think I hear dboss winding up with one of his great analyses. I'll just mention one thing that I think turned the tide. At one point in the game (I believe end or third or early in fourth), the Celtics were way behind the Bulls in points in the paint. The Celts were settling for jumpers, while the Bulls were driving to the hoop. At the end of the game, each team had 48 points in the paint. Story of the game, in my estimation. The Celts ran their stuff in overtime, and it worked.

Sam

[steve3344]

Hard to believe Boston won this game with no Shaq and without a single rebound from Jermaine O'Neal in just under 20 minutes.

[Sam]

Nice to see you posting, Steve. And thanks for the off-board message, which was extremely welcome.

Sam

[Sam]

112288,

I hope it's okay with you that I've moved your post-game comments to the official post-game thread. If you'd like to be responsible for starting each post-game thread, let me know and the job is yours. (Pay scale pending.)

From 112288:

I guess the Celtics wanted to give the fans their money's worth! Great win. My mind I have to give the game star to Daniels. I love his slashes to the basket scoring and his pop from the outside!

One bone to pick, I believe Doc reacts too slow to periods of poor play. He needs to call time outs earlier or pull guys out sooner. It's a long season and I hate to see the Celtics waste valuable energy on games that should be put away earlier. Those overtime minutes do mount up in April.

With West coming back in about a week and a half this team can become a monster.

Special hat's off to New Orleans!!!! Bye, Bye Miami Conceits !!!!!

Go Celtics...on to Oklahoma Sunday night...NBA channel & Comcast NE

112288

[cowens/oldschool]

Enjoyable game,I can't help rooting for Noah,he reminds me of KG defensively and if he ever gets his offense consistant like he flashed tonite,look out.I was imagining how great we'd be if we still traded for KG and kept the 5th pick for Noah.No Ray Allen,but imagine a rotation of Perk,KG and KGjunior,Noah,oh yeah and Baby.

Biggest play of the game was KG running after Noah for the steal,KG seems so much more like the fearless athlete we have seen.Most exciting play was Pierce threading needle to Ray for the slam,happened so fast.Our D really stepped up at crunch time as Rose couldn't get a shot for anyone or create anything on his own.

I want to see us healthy,we need Shaq and Delonte and I got a feeling AB is gonna be a player that impacts with his D and speed.I'll gladly take the win in thrilling game,but we need all our pieces,don't want to see 40+ for Big 3 and even Rondo for that matter.Boy can the Heat be exposed at center and point guard,now more teams will exploit this.....its really a Big 2.Bosh is getting more Raef like every game.

[NYCelt]

Cow,

Wouldn't that be ironic if Bosh did a Raef? I don't think I could even wish that on Miami!

[Matty]

Cow,

Wouldn't that be ironic if Bosh did a Raef? I don't think I could even wish that on Miami!

better yet, a mark blunt... (yeah i know how its supposed to be spelled, but he dont deserve it)

[cowens/oldschool]

Miami goofed giving Bosh his contract,now their tied to him for years and I'm surprised hes playing so badly already,with all the open lanes he can't do more damage.....he got 1 rebound,is he that afraid of contact or Emeka Okafor?

[dboss]

Last night's game against the Bulls has solidified my opinion about Boston. The Celtics still have the mental toughness to challenge for the trophy.

These last few games have been characterized by unselfish plays being made by unselfish players.

The numbers

The Celtics won this game despite being outrebounded by the Bulls 43-31. Boston had 27 remarkable assists and only 14 to's.

The Celtics needed to contain D Rose and that is exactly what they did holding him well below his season average and forcing him into 6 turnovers. As expected Noah (same guy Sam and I were real high on before the draft) continues to bang the glass and score points even though he can't shoot. lol Noah finished with 26 points and 12 rebounds.

JON played sparingly (19 minutes) but his offense is starting to pick up shooting 5 of 6 for 12 points however his o rebounding stat was surprising.

The Celtics are not yet playing with a full deck. They definitely miss the inside presence of Shaq and Perkins as well as the stability of D West off the bench. They have been able to win games because they are a very good team and guys like Glen Davis (15 points and 3 rebounds) Marquis Daniels 5 of 6 for 15 points, 2 rebounds and 3 assists) have stepped up to get the job done. Once Shaq and West are back I think this team will take off.

Taj Gibson is a damn good player and was the main reason why the Bulls climbed back into this thing. There was a stretch where Taj seemed to score everytime he touched the ball. He scored 18 points and grabbed 7 boards. When the always injured Carlos Boozer returns, the Bulls will have a stronger front line rotation.

Deng played his usual A game against PP scoring 20 points including 2 deep threes. The captain PP played well despite going 4-14. he scored 10 but also grabbed 7 rebounds and dished out 5 assists. None bigger than the beautiful no look feed to the cutting Ray Allen for a dunk in OT.

Paul Pierce has developed into a great basketball player that is using all of his skills to help the team win.

Our pre game post mentioned that Ray Allen needed to break out of his fonk (funk) and he did just that leading the Celtics in scoring with 25 points on 9-12 shooting including 3-5 from behind the arc. He also chipped in with 3 rebounds and 3 assists and 2 steals. It is really great to see the team go to Ray and work the offense to get him good shots. When he shoots the ball well the Celtics are pretty much unbeatable.

Rondo had his hands full at both ends with the matchup with Rose. I thought the Celtics did a great job limiting Rose and keeping him from driving the lane. KG in particular consistently stepped out to cut Rose off when Rondo was picked off of the play. Rajon put up another double double with 10 points and 11 assists. His defense was also a bright spot coming away with 4 steals.

It was nice to see Semi get in there and contribute. I think the more he plays the more he will be able to help this ball club.

Nat continues to struggle but he finally hit a deep three from the corner to loosen things up a bit. Once his running mate Delonte returns I think Nat will find it a lot easier to score.

dboss

[worcester]

Dboss - How ironic that you would say: "The Celtics are not yet playing with a full deck." If there's one player not playing with a full deck it's Delonte, and to wish for the stability D West will bring - though true - is really, really ironic. Stability and D West in the same sentence, who'd a thunk it?

Count me in as one who wanted the Celts to draft Noah. I had the good fortune of watching him here in Florida for years.

You're right on the mark with all your other points. Paul is playing some of the best basketball of his glorious career. KG is all the way back to his All Star form, and that critical steal on Noah was an iconic KG moment. Ray played a helluva game last night. Big Baby's performance made me wonder how amazingly Oklahoma would now be faring if we didn't get him in the Ray Allen trade. What a bargain that was! Marquis really stepped up a notch with his offense, as did JO, and Erden was decent enough to make me wonder whether the Garden sound crew will start playing Blue Rondo a la Turk when he makes baskets after feeds from Rajon, the fifth absolute lock for a future Hall of Famer on this squad - Paul, Ray, KG, and Shaq being the obvious others.

Another satisfying Celtics win from a team that is mentally tough enough to win #18. Hoo Ahh!

[mulcogiseng]

Not much left to say with all the astute observations! You pholks are great. lol
Anyway, it was nice to see all the attention payed to the other three despite losing their second game of the season. Poor NO, they won but it was the lukewarm getting all the publicity. Oh well...now on to basketball.
The Celtics are clearly better than any other team in the league when they give Rondo the ball and let him push it. They slow the ball down and they slow down and their game falls apart. But when they decide to lock down and play Celtics basketball on both sides of the ball, they can't be stopped. Yes, they are that good and have a long way to go before they reach their peak. I am waiting for the explanation from all of you so called experts as to why KG is playing so much better this year, even though he is yet another year older. Could it be as I repeatedly mentioned last year that he was injured? lol It's great to see him playing with his old (sic) intensity. Oh, just in case you forgot, I still say I wouldn't trade Rondo straight up for any other pg in the league. Defense doesn't seem to be that different this year. Is L doing that great a job? Was Thibs overrated? whatchall think?

[babyskyhook]

With both games being on ESPN, I happened to catch the end of regulation and all of OT for both the Cs-Bucks and the Cs-Bulls games.

Although I was at a restaurant/bar both times, so my impressions may have been somewhat impaired, one thing really jumped out at me as the key factor in both games down the stretch.

Veterans who know how to execute vs young teams trying to figure it out, which is even tougher on the road.

When push came to shove in both games, the Cs were able to get key buckets (some of them very easily) via their offensive sets, while the Bucks and Bulls both seemed to melt down a bit with either poor shot selection or turnovers on offense, and getting confused/scrambled on D.


Good wins against quality teams for the Cs, especially w/o Shaq.

[sinus007]

Hi,
It was nice to see how much respect coach Tibs gets from the Celtics.
Also, I'd like to mention a very tight coverage Celtics put on Bulls during in-bounding. They even lost possession a couple of times. Speaking of coverage: interesting how KG helped RR to provided double cover of Rose.
In general, this game looked like the previous one. Can Celtics just keep pounding their opponent without looking at the clock. OT is fun and additional excitement but it may cost them dearly come April.

AK

[rickdavisakaspike]

This is an exciting matchup. It's hard to forget that playoff series a couple of years back when these two teams proved how tremendously thrilling basketball can be. It seems quite a few of those games went to overtime, too.

Now, with Thibs in the mix, and injuries notwithstanding, these teams may be on a collision course for another memorable spring meeting. It's rivalries like this that make the regular season compelling. When you think back on some of the intradivision rivals of the past, the Knicks of the late Sixties/early Seventies, the Unseld Bullets, the Dr. J Sixers, the Bad Boy Pistons, the current one with the Bulls may take its place alongside those.

And just like those teams, the Bulls are going to learn how to win by making mistakes against the Celtics: Noah dribbling up the court with less than a minute left in OT? Won't happen again.

[dboss]

Worcester

I am so glad to see a post from you.

I agree that it is ironic to equate Delonte West with stabilty for the Celtics.

During the preseason I was very impressed with the Delonte/Nat Robinson combination. I think they compliment one another and when Ray takes a breather D West can step in at the 2 and play some one along side Rajon. Who would've that that?

D West and Rajon competed for the starting PG spot in 07. Now here they are playing together. The second unit is really missing a solid perimeter shooter especially when Nat has a cold hand. I think once West returns and a heathly Shaq, the second unit is going to score a lot of points.

Both Davis and baby have been playing well every game but not having West does limit what they can do.

I want to make one more comment about last night's game. The execution in the OT period was close to being flawless. Everybody contributed. It was one of the most gratifying stretches of basketball that I have seen in a long time. The Celtics did not simply ride the hot hand. The passing was near perfect and Boston executed play after play to perfection.

This is shaping up to be a memorable year for Boston Celtics fans.

dboss

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