Post-game Thread: Celtics @ Heat, 11/11/2010

[Sam]

Ray was fantastic (yeah, Rudy Fernandez would have made us forget all about him). Rondo was fantastic (ho hum). KG is becoming a double-double machine. Glen did his bailout thing at the center position. Celts won the transition game and the paint game (a deadly combination) as the Celtics added meaning to the terms"Veteran's Day."

Nate Robinson was my "hidden hero" for this one.

Enjoy the post-game thread.

Sam

[gyso]

Here's the Rondo dunk:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhHBfFSRFz8&feature=player_embedded

[112288]

The team is growing stronger each game. When West returns they are going to be dangerous. Perhaps the unsung hero in the game was Erden who contributed some valuable minutes while allowing Shaq and KG to gain a breather.

No matter what the Queen scores in the game the Miami Conceit's are no better off then Cleveland was with that big dope!

Great job "C's" .....next!

112288

[steve3344]

So much for Barkley's prediction that Miami would "absolutely crush" the Celtics tonight...

[112288]

Barkley is a joke when it comes to predicting. No wonder he is not coaching or a GM in the league. His teams would go 0-82.

112288

[bigpygme]

So much for Barkley's prediction that Miami would "absolutely crush" the Celtics tonight...

Barkley said that? sure, i know he's just sort of an entertaining idiot, but seems to me he's usually not so very worng as that.

112288, i liked what Erden contributed too. and he's not gun-shy at the FT line - he can make those. he's become a nice back up to have, especially toward the end of the game when Shaq becomes a liability.

Michael

[gyso]

Box Score:

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/boxscore;_ylt=Ak09qyFiCFG3vx8LRZDKucW8vLYF?gid=2010111114

Recap:

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/recap?gid=2010111114

Video Highlights:

http://sports.yahoo.com/video/player/nba/22990250#nba/22990250

[112288]

I agree Michael!

Guy's........What the Celtic's are doing to Miami is setting the psyc for the play-off. They are slowly getting into their heads that no matter what the Fake 3's do they cannot beat us. Wade I think is being totally thrown off his game and you can see the frustration in his play! Another win against them and the Celtics will own them come Spring.

112288

[worcester]

Actually Sir Charles said the "Heat will absolutely kill the Celtics." Kill is more emphatic then crush. So much for Barkley as a prognosticator.

What a great team win by the Celtics. I sure hope Ray hasn't sold all his children to the devil for this chance to play like a 22 year old again. What a performance by him, and by so many other Celts.

A team to be proud of. The few. The Proud. The Celtics.

[worcester]

Kudos to Dboss for his prognosticating skills. This is what he said 34 hours before gametime would be the keys to a Celtics victory:
"Keys to the game

Pound them in the paint
Neutralize their bench
Take care of the basketball
Set a brisk tempo
Keep them off the Glass
Find the open man

dboss" It certainly worked out that way!

[Sam]

Worcester, you're so right in singling dboss out for recognition. Aside from any predictions, he's on this thread game in and game out, win or lose. I know from experience how difficult it is to get "up" for writing something after a loss. And his analyses are most enlightening.

Kudos to you, dboss.

Sam

[bobheckler]

I couldn't have come up with a better "welcome home" gift. The Miami WHO?

1. Did LBJ let the ball out of his hands on even one possession? Maybe a few, but not many. He's has become the league's #1 ME-baller, replacing Kobe. People who didn't see the game will be impressed with his box score and completely miss the fact that his team stood around most of the time on offense. The HEAT shot 50% for the game and that's very good. They got 41 fta and that's very good too. They also only had 18 assists on 72 fga and that really sucks. LBJ had 9 of those assists, true, but considering how much he had the ball in his hands last night, no wonder the rest of the team didn't help much. You can't pass for an assist if you don't have the ball in your hands until the last second on the shot clock.

2. Did DWade look happy to you? Be careful what you ask and work for, Duane, you might get it. I've seen Wade shoot badly before (although 2-12 is pretty freaking bad) and not see him look so irritated. I think he's starting to get irked by the style of play the HEAT are playing (i.e. he doesn't get to touch the ball because "you know who" won't give it up).

3. This game would have been a blowout (although it was never really in doubt) if it hadn't been for Udonis Haslem. Very, very solid effort off the bench by the former HEAT starter. Minute for minute the best player on the floor last night, for the HEAT, IMO.

4. I still love and miss Eddie. What a pro. Ice water in his veins.

5. The Celts only had 10 turnovers all game. Let's bottle this and sell it. No crazy dipsy-doo stuff (or as Cousy calls it "french pastry"), no trying to cram the ball into a tight spot. The man who should have the ball in his hands, Rondo, did and he was great. 16 assists with only 3 turnovers. You're going to win a lot of games with that production from your point guard. Rondo is a throwback. A point guard in the classic mold, he thinks pass first, shoot second. We are sooooo lucky.

6. Offensively, Shaq has no lift, none at all. He did get 7 boards in 21 minutes, which is what we needed to improve from last year. That was a bogus "flagrant foul" call on him. Sure, he hit LBJ with his shoulder. It's called "a foul" and you get fts for it. He didn't try to drop him. Special handling for the league's favorite ME-baller. I didn't realize that ESPN is in charge of the refs.

7. Speaking of "special", how come LBJ was able to jaw at the refs on his blocking foul on Nate (which was clearly a foul, he slid into him) without getting Teed up? Oh, wait a sec, I remember now...

8. Davis (9 boards), Daniels and Erden all came in and did what they had to do. Nate was very productive and, with Rondo, highlighted the HEAT's lack of a good backcourt. No backcourt + no centers = no championship. Currently, we have a small second unit backcourt (Rondo and Nate were out there together, at one point). Think how much better we'll be in 2 games when 6'4" West can suit up. Bye-bye Von. Have fun in Greece (or Turkey, or Russia or wherever).

9. Our centers dominated their centers even though our centers are 38 years old and a rookie. No Jermaine, no Perk, no problem. Oooh, this is going to get better and better and better.

10. I've gone through this entire brain dump and somehow I forgot to mention Ray Allen. I'm embarrassed that I took his greatness for granted. Wow, what a performance. Absolute dead-eye shooting and very good defense on DWade. KG's back too. I last saw him play in pre-season, before I left for Nepal. He's back, all the way back, and outplayed Chris Bosh and his unimpactful 35 minutes.

bob


.

[dbrown4]

Things I liked:

1) The Ray Allen ala Jordan shoulder shrug/smile to the crowd after the 7th 3 or whichever one it was

2) The flashes to Pat Riley in the crowd trying not to look nervous taking notes. Spoelstra can say all he wants he loves having Pat look over his shoulder and immediately review all the gaffs after each game, but I can tell you from experience that relationship will never work under those circumstances.

3) Glen Davis' arching back tip in from the broken Rondo lob play off the glass. I had to replay that one several times.

4) Everyone towing the company line in Miami about "our time schedule" , etc. Until someone realizes that it's not Bosh, it's not DWade and that all that has happened is CLE has moved to Miami and that LeBron is the cancer, this is going to be the greatest 6 year implosion of a franchise we have ever seen. Get set for many LAL vs. BOS Finals.

5) Dan Gilbert's statement inches a step closer to being right with every game. It may take CLE until 2025 to win it all, but I like their chances better vs. Miami. LeBron will appropriately be working for TBS with Charles by then.

6) Once again, the Celtics are playing to win. I'm beginning to re-think this lead blowing thing. I think it's more common than we all think for all teams. These guys are all professionals. You're not going to keep any team down and out for 48 minutes, pointwise. I think it is a fantasy to think any team can do that consistently night in, night out. This includes the Celtics. As long as they win, that's what counts. The talent levels are too close.

7) LAL racking up a loss finally. Down here, when NC State wins and Carolina losses particularly in basketball on the same day or weekend, it is a rare event by highly celebrated by us State fans. Last night was a great night in the NBA for us.

Delonte sighting!! One more game. Can't wait to see the combinations there!

9) I may have to jump on the conspiracy bandwagon on LBJ. Should have been teed up. Should have fouled out. I'll have to watch it again, but it's getting ridiculous.

10) Actually saw some backcourt pressure D when Miami was bringing up the ball. Maybe I'm just noticing it more after wathcing Sam's 60's thread/videos on YouTube.

Very, very good game. Great team effort.

[beat]

Bob

Welcome home. With all the problems with various airliners thought you might have to walk and swim!

Not a lot to add to you review. I missed the first half but saw all the second. Didn't get on the game on thread as I couldnt/can't type and watch very good.

Only negative is the minutes for the trio, but with West comming back very soon perhaps the rotations will expand a bit. This game being a "message" game the minutes are a bit more acceptable.


As for the flagrant on Shaq he did give him a pretty good double fore arm shudder while in the process of raising his arms up. Funny how smaller I do mean MUCH smaller players contact Bron and he falls like water over Niagara, but when Shaq nailed him he merely bounced off to the side. Guess he wanted to prove he can take a hit and not fall down.

Yeah Wade is miffed, Bosh's face will soon be on milk cartons everywhere, and Riley will be on the bench very soon to try to put the square peg in the round hole. Some jobs are dam near impossible and this might be one of them.

I remember mixing the wrong chemicals in a chemistry lab back in high school (minor flame and some mess, all survived) Seems like the experiment in South beach is sort of like Jeb having a dog that don't hunt.

Just thinking perhaps KG should call Bron a cancer to whatever team he's on.

Perhaps Snyder might be right after all. Cleveland may very well get a title before Miami.

beat

[beat]

Dbrown

man I just posted and then saw yours...............

great minds think alike !!!

beat

[sinus007]

Hi,
I just wanted to chime about the guys who went mostly unnoticed. I'm talking about SE and MD. They didn't have much on the stat lines since they were doing mostly dirty job but they did it with flying colors.
Also, want to note a clear message that Celtics sent to LJ: you'll get easy baskets only if you're one-on-one with the hoop. I guess it was part the general game plan.
Overall it was total domination by Celtics despite the final score.
As for the opponent, Miami looked very much like Cleveland last night.

AK

P.S. My 2 highlights of the game are RR's dunk (on none other than Bosh) and RA's smile after 5th or 6th 3pt.

[cowens/oldschool]

Welcome back bob,we missed you,some great posts on the game.

Chris Bosh just doesn't fit with this team,they already have Haslem and Z to hit midrange and perimeter shots,they don't need another big to float the perimeter,they need a dirty work PF-C,they need a Noah,a Perk,an Okafor,Bosh just doesn't have the low post grunt work gene built into him.He makes you want to attack him if I'm an opposing coach and the results seem to speak for themselves.Do I make myself clear on this?

That was the best game I've seen for Nate,he let the game come to him,made the right play and his buckets were crucial to give Rondo a little breather and maintain our lead.Miami has no perimeter defender on the point either.Loved bob's point,no point + no center = no championship.

I switched his statement slightly because they do have Dwayne Wade,but hes been MIA against us.I think hes a very good on the ball defender,however when on Ray and with Shaq,Baby,KG and soon Perk setting picks off the ball......good luck and all this chasing Ray it must take away from his offense.We will never lose when Ray goes off for 7 3 pointers.

Rondo is dominating the ball more than ever a la Chris Paul,but its working and his decisions and the overall team chemistry is such a joy to watch,if he had a jumper it wouldn't be fair.Also gotta love the way KG is rebounding,Pierce was Pierce,love his slow deliberate game,he was killing Stackhouse.Were only gonna get better as Delonte will make everyone in the backcourt better and more well rested.Baby taking charges and rebounding was huge,can't wait to see the Beast back.....our defense is gonna be so hellacious.

[dbrown4]

Beat,

Brought back a college organic chemistry lab experiment for me. Major explosion, looked like fireworks. Fortunately, everyone had their heads turned and didn't see it. Needless to say, I'm not a doctor.

I just want to see the Celtics play D like they did in the 60's (or college defense ala Duke/Carolina) with constant backcourt hounding to round things out. I guess it's just not cool as a professional to pushi it on D a full 48 minutes. I know it wears you out, but the resulting TO's and subsequent easy layups would make it well worth it.

Sam, you got to love what you are seeing so far. ALso, any short falls at this point before DWest returns?

[beat]

from the cleveland forum

412467. You think Mike Brown.
by trk, 11/12/10 9:20 AM
is looking at Spoelstra and going, "yeah, i remember those days."

[beat]

db

Daughter is taking Orgo this semester. Has broke 3 beakers so far! Otherwise doing fine.
Her Major is Chem/Bio...................(didn't get her smarts from me.

Seems you and I might have mixed the same stuff. My lab partner loosing a little hair was about the worst thing......other than my grade for lab that day.

beat

[beat]

more from Cleveland forum from the C's troll there

412466. Pierce "gives it" to LeDouche
by shaqsfat, 11/12/10 8:58 AM
On his Twitter account, Pierce wrote, "It's been a pleasure to bring my talents to south beach now on to Memphis."

HAHAHAHAHA

MASTER

[dbrown4]

Also forgot to add:

11) I love Reggie Miller. He is being the most gracious giver-upper of his title/record I have ever seen. He's Ray's biggest cheerleader. I regret loathing him as much as I did when he was on the Pacers. You never see that in anyone. Very refreshing.

[mulcogiseng]

Before the game started, the soon to be second all time 3 point shot maker said that the key to the game for Miami was to run since Boston plays such a slow down, half court game. I just had to laugh. When Rondo leads the Celtics fast break, or even the push the ball up the floor offense, there is no team in the NBA that can keep up. It's when the C's slow it down that they seem to run into trouble.

I'm just waiting for the day that the NBA players association files a grievance and then a court case over the incompetent refereeing. They seem to get worse every year and this new revenue push with all the T's is getting way out of hand. It's one thing to expect the ref's to get the calls right but to have to look for any type of nuanced reaction in order to pad Stern's coffers is over the top. I'm sure the ref's hate making those kinds of calls. They get caught up in the emotion of the game too. It is becoming a real problem and something should change soon.

[tjmakz]

mulcogiseng,

David Stern's coffers aren't padded from the technical foul money.
100% of that money gets donated to charities.

I think the new Tech rule has cleaned up some of the whining/complaining/rebellion. It needs to be handed out more evenly to star/non-star players.
It is a work in progress but the end result will be better for the league.

[Sam]

Welcome back, Bob. You managed to describe an indescribable adventure beautifully, and I guarantee we were spellbound. I know one thing. I'll never again tell you to take a hike!

Sam

[Sponsored content]