POST GAME CLEVELAND

PERK!!!!!! 240 days and he has not missed a scowl!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The fact is he looked lighter on his feet and if I am not imagining things, he looks quicker. Great game back and the Celtics looked more
organized fighting for rebounds in the paint. I hope the Celtics extend his contract LOOOONG TERM!!!!!!

Bench got some quality time and that will add to their strength down the road during playoff time...you never know when your number will be called.

Road trip looks pretty easy...Portland.......Suns............should be ok...............I think we take the Lakers by 10 points Sunday (3:30pm ABC)........and Kings should be a breeze.

Go Celtics!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PS Doc should be in the World Series of Poker!!!!

112288

man the cap couldve gone for 45 tonite, got to love the minutes.

Game ball to Perk and i liked Wafer's play

Yes

Wafer was skying tonight...Tommy points to him as well!!!

112288

Wafer is showing me more,this kid has alot more upside to tap into,Semih growing before our eyes,his rotations getting much quicker and better.Perk back already,if JON and Shaq and Delonte,oh my,so so much talent....I still want to see Semih and Wafer develop.Paul Pierce never in his wildest dreams thought it could get this good.

Hate to say I told you so on Wafer, but I told you so. Kid has a ton of upside - and his attitude seems to be getting better by the day.

Great game all around....Nate and Rondo having fun together, Perk banging people, Luke playing tough, and most importantly the veterans getting lots of rest.

Should be a good trip - I say they go 3-1.

Rondo played WAY too many minutes in a blowout win...

Other than that, I have no complaints. Time to get healthy, and get rolling.

This is a good example of an exciting game with minimal excitement to it. It was a blowout. It became clear that there would be no "playing down to the competition" by the middle of the second quarter and yet the return of Perk riveted me to the screen.

1. Obviously, the highlight of this game was the return of Kendrick Perkins. I thought he looked really good in his first real game in 6 months. He ran down the court well. He moved laterally on defense well. He rebounded, including offensively, well (6 rebounds, 3 of them offensive, in just 17 minutes) and 3 assists and no turnovers. If there was one area I would have thought to see an improvement, but didn't, was in his free throws. With a bad knee pretty much the only basketball you can play while rehabbing is free throws. I understood he shot 250 a day. Sure wasn't apparent last night. Oh well, I love what he did do. Someone mentioned on the game on thread that he didn't bounce the ball after getting the ball underneath. That, right there, is a serious improvement. I thought we were in deep doodoo with Shaq and JON out, but Perk's early return has put us back in the catbird seat.

2. Our rookies did well last night (I'm calling Von Wafer a rookie, since that's what he is to us). Von Wafer is looking better every game. He's not making bad decisions (a critical requirement for a bench player) and his shooting touch is back. He also played good defense last night. I still would rather have Rip, for his championship experience, but I'm not unhappy anymore with Von Wafer. Luke had a solid game too. I enjoy watching him rebound. Tommy has said that the key to rebounding is to find someone to put your body on when the ball goes up and don't worry about where the ball's going, your opponent's movements will tell you. That's what Luke's doing. As soon as the ball goes up he's looking for a body. He shot 3-6 from the floor, but 2 of those misses were from blown bunnies. Nobody blows bunnies all the time in the NBA (or they wouldn't be in the NBA), so I'm not too excited about that. He had 4 rebounds (2 of them offensive), 2 assists and a block in 22 minutes. His offensive rebound that got the bucket and a foul was textbook positioning. What Luke lacks in athleticism and stature he makes up for with energy and good fundamentals and a high IQ.

3. Rondo played 44 minutes in a blowout. Why?

4. Antawn Jamison was traded to Cleveland so that King James could have his court look the way he wanted it. Now that the King abandoned him, sticking Cleveland with 34-year old Jamison's big contract, he's trapped in basketball hell. Jamison got swept up in the carnage caused by LeBron's selfishness. LeBron said "get me Jamison so we can win the championship this year, or I'll be unhappy and leave" and then he leaves anyway. Could you see Kevin Durant saying "get me Rip Hamilton, or I leave" and then when OKC trades for 32-year old Rip with the big contract Durant leaves anyway? But I digress...

4. Other than Rondo nobody played more than 27 minutes. Beautiful. That's a nice way to start a road trip.

We obliterated a doormat. BFD. The real story (the ONLY story!) is the early return of Perk AND how good he looked.

I am stoked!!

Think Perk's looking forward to our game in LA?

bob

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Bob

thanks for the info. Missed the whole thing as Marcus had a game in Skaneateles 1+1/2 hr trip from home.........well I'd like to call it a game, getting your arses handed to you 66-24 is none to pleasant. Their Varsity is state ranked and the JV team that feeds that success shows you why.

On the way home Marcus was checking the game on his Ipod and said hey dad, did you know Perk is playing. Thank goodness the road was striaght or I might have drove off the road. Watched a few highlights later and he looks like he must have lost some tonage.

Nice to have him back.

Next to return soon is West and that can't happen soon enough. And you are right Rondo playing 44 minutes last eve was at least 10 to many.

Next few games will be interesting to see the blending back in of Perk against better teams.

beat

I was listening to satellite radio and came in in the middle and thye were talking about Perk. Took a few minutes to figure out he was actually on the floor. I was taping the game at home. I was so jacked up with this when I got home, I almost woke my middle child up to tell him Perk was back early.

He has become leaner and meaner. He was banging pretty hard in the center of the lane. None of the other Celtic big men enter the lane like that. They all come off the blocks or sides to avoid 3-second calls I guess. Perk just barrelled down the middle. Interesting. Did he always come in that way with the entry pass?

I nearly jumped out of my seat when on his 3rd basket, he held the ball above his head upon receipt and didn't go down to dribble!!

We must have raised our paltry offensive rebound stat 100% with Perks comeback. I know Perk had three, three more than we normally have in a game. That could very easily add 2-4 points per game given our shooting percentage. That may be devastating for real competition. I know, it was CLE, hence the conservative estimate.

Nate came out firing and defending. He was forcing CLE into subsequent shot clock violations/turnovers/crappy shooting by pressuring the ball in the backcourt. Novel concept. UNC and Duke do it every possession down here in NC with full court/half court traps/straight up D. Can't understand why this Celtic team doesn't go over the top with that idea and go 16-0 in the playoffs. Sorry, I'm spoiled down here with disruptive/overly annoying defenses. But last night was a good start.

This next stretch of away games is important for us. Once again on any given night...I hope we did bring a broom, though, just in case.

Bob, I wondered that myself...Why did RR play 44 minutes...did he need the work?

I don't think he needed the work,that was dumb,well Delonte will be back soon and the way Wafer's playing I could see him giving Nate a run for his minutes at SG.

Stats my friends stats.........is my first guess!!!

112288

I'm not sure if it was dumb but it was a surprise to me that Doc let him go that long.

Dbrown, how many 30+ year olds does Duke have on its teams? And how many of their point guards play 92% of the minutes? How long is the Duke season? I think there might be some clues in there about the lack of constant full-court pressure.

Even with eight hall-of-famers plus two great role players on his team, Red used the press only situationally. I know the action is slower now, and I realize how much better-conditioned today's super-duper-human pro athletes are (that's as sarcastic as I can get). But it seems to me that full court pressure in the pros is better employed as a change of pace and/or for a specific purpose (including regaining your own team's lost focus).

Sam

Sam wrote:But it seems to me that full court pressure in the pros is better employed as a change of pace and/or for a specific purpose (including regaining your own team's lost focus).

Yes! I've tried to get this point across to my oldest son, who is an assistant coach for my youngest son's JV team. Several times during the season, the team has seen a lead slip away in the second half, and I've tried to tell my oldest son they should throw in a press when that starts to happen. It's not that the press itself is necessarily effective (that's a plus), but using the press mixes up the game against an opponent who has gotten into a comfort zone and helps the team regain aggressiveness. It's a great reason to use a press, even if only for a couple of minutes.

Regarding pro teams pressing, I think coaches generally see it as relatively high risk, low reward and go with their default approach -- everybody run back and stop any transition opportunities. To me, I think teams could run it once in a while (situationally, as Sam described), although it would depend on the opponent. Against OKC, for example, a press would mostly be asking to get posterized by Westbrook, Durant, Green, and their other young legs. Also, it obviously depends on your team -- I don't think the Celtics or Lakers as a whole have the athleticism to use a full press effectively. But occasionally, opportunistically, they could, say, have Rondo and West trap the ball in the backcourt when the wrong guy has the ball or the point guard is napping, with a Ray or Garnett looking to steal any errant pass. Use it rarely, it only lasts 5-8 seconds, with Pierce and the center back to defend the basket against layups. It wouldn't hurt to do it once in a while.

Outside

That sounds exactly like how the press should be used: occasionally and opportunistically.

Russ frequently talked abour how, if you play a team evenly for 45 minutes, you only have to outplay them for 3 minutes to win.

Red would choose those 3 minutes carefully and it was often times like that when he'd use the full court press. From his first year as a professional coach, Red made sure he had a special unit that practiced the press. It wouldn't consist of the starters on the team, either; Cousy, for example, was never on one of those pressing units. It would be one or two starters and the rest bench guys.

In the Sixties, K.C. Jones was a one-man full-court press, known to put relentless pressure on the ballhandler. At USF, K.C. and Bill Russell worked out any number of moves and defensive plays to force turnovers and bad passes. You might think it was their tremendous physical abilities that made the pressure work, but it wasn't. It was practice. They practiced their footwork, timing, communication, etc., until they had it all down to a science. And they didn't stop there. Without the benefit tape or DVDs, they scouted their opponents until they knew all their best moves and what they had to do to beat them. Then they practiced some more.

There are so many lost arts of the game that deserve revitalization. The press may be number one on the list.

Spike,

Actually, Cousy and Sharman put on a pretty good press in short bursts before Russ arrived. Those Celtics teams went small a lot of the time, and the surprise element often worked in their favor.

When Russ got there, Cousy and Sharman became even more effective with the press, because it really didn't matter if the opponent broke the press with Russ backing them up. The main objective of the press (especially after 1954 when the 24-second rule came into effect) was to slow down and disorganize the opponent—not to steal the ball.

Shortly after Russ joined the team, KC and Sam showed up, Cooz and Bill were pretty much put out to pasture as far as the press was concerned. The Jones Boys may actually have used at least some form of a press the majority of their time together on the floor. No one could outrun Sam (and that would be true of Westbrook by the way), although Larry Costello came close; and practically no one could outquick KC's reflexes.

In an open court game, the Jones Boys deserve a special niche in Celtics lore as, quite probably, the most disruptive defensive backcourt duo in Celics history. In a halfcourt game, Havlicek would have to be included with an asterisk noting that he didn't always play in the backcourt.

Sam

Wow the Jones Boys and Havlicek,that is some serious hellacious defensive backcourt.Off the top of my head I can't think of any 3 man rotation better.

Cow,

One year, they had a backcourt that included Sam, KC, Havlicek, Cousy, and Frank Ramsey (who was 6' 3" but was good enough defensively to play SF too and guard Elgiin Baylor when Satch was in foul trouble). That's five future hall-of-famers in one backcourt (although two of them were swing men).

There were no message boards then. But, if there had been, I seriously doubt there would have been all that much of a clamor for Red to get backcourt backup.

Sam

Didn't mean to malign the Cooz, Sam. You couldn't play for Red if you didn't play defense and it says something that all Red's criticisms of Cousy, early in his career, involved his offense.

Cousy was a diligent defender. He didn't have Rondo's amazing quickness but his basketball instincts and court awareness were off the scale. That said, Cooz's best defensive move was to yell, "Hey, Bill!". Russell's presence freed Cousy to freelance and take chances on defense. Also, Cousy was surrounded by so many great defenders that there must have been times when he felt like a kid in a candy store.

The defensive unit of Sam and K.C. Jones, Russell, Satch and Havlicek was beyond compare. Siggy's observation that other teams couldn't get the ball across half-court, and, when they did, there was an excellent chance they would got their shots blocked, - to me that's one of the most astonishing statements about sports I've ever read.

On one of my visits to the mocro documents room at Boston Public Library, I ran across a list of the players on the 1956 full court press unit. Cousy, Sharman and Heinsohn were not on the list. That was where I found out about Red's fondness for using the press at crucial moments and for inserting bench players to go all out for a few minutes trying to turn the momentum of the game. Can't find the list right now but when I do I'll post it.

The impression I came away with after reading the article was that practice is the key. Red once said that, in his playing days, his defensive style was similar to K.C.'s: aggressive and relentless. Maybe, for him to have a unit of bench players who could come into the game when the other team's starters were sucking wind, it was like inserting a part of himself into the game.

The big question is, could the Celtics do that today? Maybe using Semih, Von and Luke?

HR and Sam

IMHO the full court press won't work in the pros now for one reason, the rules are bent to help the offensive players. Most NBA guards have a good handle on the ball but are allowed to change direction with palming or take an extra step (or 2 ) and travel both at the start and end of their dribbles.

Maybe as an element of surprise but to be as effective as at the HS or college level violations need to be called and there is no reason to believe the NBA will ever call palming or travel any different than they do now.


beat

Spike, Your mention of sucking wind reminds me that was the origin of the term "You suck." It had nothing to do with sexuality, and it was all about opponents being out of breath and sucking wind.

Regarding Cooz, one of his greatest unsung attributes was phenomenal peripheral vision. He could see so clearly to his sides when looking straight ahead you'd think he was an owl.

Beat,

Yeah, they carry the ball constantly, rolling their hands over on almost every dribble in some cases. The palming or carrying rule is a farce. Arguably the most ineptly refereed rule in the game.

Sam

Sam,

They wouldn't have to do it for the whole game. Just do it. After about 5-6 times in a row, the game would be over. Steals, shot clock expirations, general disruption, etc. would/will demoralize the competition in the short run. The lead would be insurmountable. Certainly there are enough subs to make this work over, say, a 3 minute period. The rest of the league still has/will have no response. Eventually, they would find going over the top will beat it, but no one does this with any consistency.

I'd just like to see more of it period. The Celtics play top defense as it is, no question. This would just add yet another layer.

I just seem to see more UNC and Duke-like defense from the 60's Celtics teams than I do championship teams of ours that followed, including the current team. I think there is more there for us now.

I know those were the early days of pro basketball, but they have something there. I've said this before, but when I watch the 60's Celtics, their defense reminds me of top college all-out defense.

Rick,

UNC called it the "Blue Team". Everyone not UNC hated it. Dean Smith would take out all his starters and put this 2nd unit in and they destroyed the competition consistently.

Believe me, I love the current Celtic D. I think I like the 60's Celtic and college level D better. And as you appropriately put it, can the Celtics of today put something like that together? That's the million dollar question.