Post-game Thread: Celtics @ Blazers, 1/27/11

[Sam]

The late word after the game is that Paul Pierce has a bruised right thigh. Touch and go for tomorrow, but almost certainly not a long-term problem. Enjoy the post-game thread.

And Perk reported no soreness in the knee after his first game back. At one point, tonight, he looked like some rubber-legged dervish on defense. I've never seen him so nimble. Never!

Enjoy the post-game thread.

Sam

[LACELTFAN]

Off to a nice start...in the City of Roses...Gotta love Perk

[tjmakz]

The late word after the game is that Paul Pierce has a bruised right thigh. Touch and go for tomorrow, but almost certainly not a long-term problem. Enjoy the post-game thread.

And Perk reported no soreness in the knee after his first game back. At one point, tonight, he looked like some rubber-legged dervish on defense. I've never seen him so nimble. Never!

Enjoy the post-game thread.

Sam

Perkins looks a little thinner then last year and seems to be running better then he ever has.
He must have done a lot of cardio in his rehab.

[cowens/oldschool]

16 points and 13 boards for Semih/Perk works,both looked good,ball movement was great,then times when way too many turnovers,Perk rushed a few outlets making bad decisions.I would to rest Pierce tonite,I'd like to see Von Wafer get some extended play tonite,he can take Vince Carter.We can win without Pierce tonite.

[dbrown4]

Good start to the road trip, I thought.

1) KG with a near 3D. Awesome. Oh what the heck, let's give it to him.

2) I haven't looked at the ESPN headlines for last night's games, but if I see "Old, decrepit, injury-riddled Celtics ruin huge lead and survive last ditch bomb scare from decimated, emaciated Portland team" coupled with "Miami loses again but remember this was without CB so it doesn't count in the loss column", I'm putting my hand and head through my computer and the subsequent wall behind it.

3) Perk with the near 2D. We'll give that to him as well.

4) KG scaring RR with most assists? Again, Awesome!

5) I like our chances better tonight of winning B2B with Shaq joining the team in PHX. Still not taking them lightly. Do not want to go into LAL 1-1.

6) RR and PP were having one of their throw everything away nights adding to a lot of TO's. They accounted for almost half between them. But thank goodness it didn't matter.

7) Von Wafer has some nice moves to the basket and isn't afraid to launch it. Needs to be a little more accurate and he could be dangerous.

Man, it's great to see the Big 5 back on the court and just kicking it into high gear. We'll see where things are come Sunday. Someone made a comment (maybe on BDC) about the 80's LAL and Celtic teams that the regular season games were harbingers for the playoff outcomes if they met. I know over time we have stated the stark differences between regular season outcomes and playoff outcomes and the "80's way" of thinking doesn't work anymore, but I still consider Sunday's game a big deal. I expect the Lakers to be way up for this one thanks to MIA's last spanking vs. LA. Don't think they are going to let another one slip like that.

I think we are in for a treat here in the short run. Let's just hope the injuries can subside so we can at least have an appetizing taste of what is to come in the playoffs.

[bobheckler]

The late word after the game is that Paul Pierce has a bruised right thigh. Touch and go for tomorrow, but almost certainly not a long-term problem. Enjoy the post-game thread.

And Perk reported no soreness in the knee after his first game back. At one point, tonight, he looked like some rubber-legged dervish on defense. I've never seen him so nimble. Never!

Enjoy the post-game thread.

Sam

Perkins looks a little thinner then last year and seems to be running better then he ever has.
He must have done a lot of cardio in his rehab.

Word is he was constantly trying to drag some of his teammates into the pool to work out with him. Swimming is excellent cardio and it doesn't compress the knee like jumping does.

[sinus007]

Hi,
It was a solid game. In the first half I thought Doc would have a heart attack with those few sluggish plays that resulted in turn-overs. But they straighten the ship, took the lead and finish the game.
I'd give POG (player of the game) to Perk. KG was above everybody stat wise. But Perk in his second game after such injury was phenomenal. Plus he was 4-4 at the FT line. We should keep our collective fingers crossed that it's not a fluke and he will continue to improve.

AK

[LACELTFAN]

This will be a tough road trip simply because of the spacing of the games in time. I think breaking even wouldn't be a bad thing if the losses are not blowouts. Would love to go 4-0, 2-2 wouldn't be unreasonable.

[bobheckler]

Feisty little bastards, weren't they? Andre Miller was running a full and halfcourt track meet all game and nobody stopped him. They scored 48 of their 78 points in the paint. 48!!! Yuck. Aldridge is a stud. 16 rebounds, 8 of them offensive. He was their inside game.

1. KG's passing was awesome. He was hitting cutters left, right and center. By far the best assist game I've seen from him in 4 years. A 6'12" Rondo. Ooooh.

2. Pierce came out hot out of the lockerroom and was moving well to his sweet spot and hitting his shots. Sometimes, when he's hot like that, he gets carried away and plays too much ME-ball, but last night he threw up a too-quick 3 and realized it right away and calmed down. When he's hot but in control, he's extremely hard to stop. The bruise came from the Portland misunderstanding of the term "physical". They thought it meant beating up on people. Unfortunately, we're playing tonight, after a flight, on the road, without the training facilities we'd have if we were still in Boston. He's going to be very stiff tonight.

3. I wish Shaq played last night. Przybilla needed to get flattened like nobody's business. That decking of KG in the first quarter and then standing over him was an All-Pro move, just the wrong league. Too bad for Przybilla this is the NBA and not the NFL. Oh well, he who laughs last, laughs best and we won. Furthermore, as was pointed out by Cowens, our centers outplayed theirs. Sure, they don't have Oden and Camby, but we don't have Shaq and JON and Perk's just 2 games back.

4. Fermandez played well last night, but he ended up 4-11. When the talk last summer was about Portland buying him out and signing him here, I wasn't a fan because I thought his shooting was too unreliable and his defense was, well, in a word, European. Last night, though, his defense was pretty good. Some nice steals coming off a combination of bad passes by us and some good positioning by him. Inside/outside he was a threat on offense even if his numbers weren't stellar. A very good game off the bench for Rudy. Just to show my conversion is complete (or at least continuing), I'd rather have Von Wafer.

5. Speaking of, he had a great game. He attacked offensively and played hard defensively. Only 6 minutes, but they were impact minutes. You knew he was out there because he was active. Making a steal, running fullcourt, rebounding. There was that scuffle between Von Wafer and West in preseason, because they were competing for the same slot on the team. I was thinking that, when West returns, that Nate would slide over to 2 and West would be the backup 1. Now, however, I'm thinking that West will be the backup 1 (since it's obvious Nate can't do it) and Von Wafer will be the backup 2 and Nate will be a situational player, coming in when we need a smaller, faster defender or explosive offense. Von Wafer is looking more steady than Nate, is no worse at running the offense (neither one is good) and isn't making one bone-head decision after another after another.

6. Our passing was incredibly sloppy last night. For the first time in my memory, Rondo had more turnovers than assists. 41 minutes for Rondo last night, after a 44 minute game against Cleveland. WTF? The announcers were talking about Doc's faith in his bench, well playing Rondo these many minutes doesn't show much faith in his bench at pg. Nate's brain is a sieve. Ok, I'll leave Nate alone, for now, but he stunk the place up again last night too. His two points came on free throws he took because he drove to the basket instead of killing the clock. There were 19 seconds left in the game, Nate. You were supposed to dribble around, kill some clock and then make them chase you down and foul you, Nate. By taking it to them, you stopped the clock prematurely and gave them another possession! Nate. Got it? Ok, now I'll really leave Nate alone. Freaking dumbass.

7. I heard Glen Davis missed the flight and will meet us in Phoenix. Ok, he wasn't quite that invisible, but he didn't have a normal Big Baby game, although his free throws in the final minutes were very clutch. We'll need him tonight, in this second game of a back-to-back.

8. Perk is looking great. His defense all alone out on the perimeter (was he against Miller?) with the clock running down was positively Garnett-esque. Still a few rust spots but considering this is only his second game back after major knee surgery he looks fantastic! He was a horrendous 1-4 from the line last game but was 4-4 this game. So, he's 5-8 in two games, which is about his average, but his fts last night fill me with tremendous hope. If we have a glaring weakness, in close playoff level games, it's that we don't want to put the ball into the hands of our starting point guard and our starting center. That was true when our starter was Perk last year and it was true when our starter was Shaq this year. If Perk has fixed that problem (and 2 games does not a season-long trend make) we have plugged a major hole.

It's a 2 1/2 flight from Portland in the Northwest down to Phoenix in the very Southwest PLUS they lose an hour due to the time zone change. Who, in the league office, came up with this schedule? We couldn't do Utah or Sacramento or GSW, we had to go about as far as we could go and still be on a west coast road trip? Thanks for nothing, Mr. Potato Head.

bob

.

[beat]

Bob

Is Nate a smaller version of a reincar"nate'd Tony Allen? (brainwise)

beat

[bobheckler]

Bob

Is Nate a smaller version of a reincar"nate'd Tony Allen? (brainwise)

beat

beat,

Could be. Hell, at least Tony could play lockdown defense when his brain wasn't telling his body bad thoughts.

I can't believe how much Nate is irking me now.

He's signed for $4.2M for this year and $4.5M next year. How about Nate and Bradley for Battier? Nate and Bradley for Barbosa? Nate straight up for Griffin (that's a joke, obviously). Nate for Posey? Nate for Ridnour (we'd have Luke Squared!)?

bob

.

[bigpygme]

nice summaries of the action and the keys in the game.

the turnover rash made me dizzy.

game was awful close when Garnett started dishing like a madman - we started to break away then. player of the game, in my book.

Nate for SOMEBODY - i'd be fine with that.

Michael

[mrkleen09]

Nate played well along side Delonte - giving up on him before he has a chance to get back into the rhythm of being the instant offense “2” that he was brought here to be makes no sense. Let him get back into the swing of things and then see what happens down the stretch.

If he continues to stink it up, you slide him down the bench and give Wafer his minutes. But for my money, I say he has some big games in April and May – and helps a few times with 15 or 20 point contributions in the playoffs.

[steve3344]

Feisty little bastards, weren't they? Andre Miller was running a full and halfcourt track meet all game and nobody stopped him. They scored 48 of their 78 points in the paint. 48!!! Yuck. Aldridge is a stud. 16 rebounds, 8 of them offensive. He was their inside game.

1. KG's passing was awesome. He was hitting cutters left, right and center. By far the best assist game I've seen from him in 4 years. A 6'12" Rondo. Ooooh.

2. Pierce came out hot out of the lockerroom and was moving well to his sweet spot and hitting his shots. Sometimes, when he's hot like that, he gets carried away and plays too much ME-ball, but last night he threw up a too-quick 3 and realized it right away and calmed down. When he's hot but in control, he's extremely hard to stop. The bruise came from the Portland misunderstanding of the term "physical". They thought it meant beating up on people. Unfortunately, we're playing tonight, after a flight, on the road, without the training facilities we'd have if we were still in Boston. He's going to be very stiff tonight.

3. I wish Shaq played last night. Przybilla needed to get flattened like nobody's business. That decking of KG in the first quarter and then standing over him was an All-Pro move, just the wrong league. Too bad for Przybilla this is the NBA and not the NFL. Oh well, he who laughs last, laughs best and we won. Furthermore, as was pointed out by Cowens, our centers outplayed theirs. Sure, they don't have Oden and Camby, but we don't have Shaq and JON and Perk's just 2 games back.

4. Fermandez played well last night, but he ended up 4-11. When the talk last summer was about Portland buying him out and signing him here, I wasn't a fan because I thought his shooting was too unreliable and his defense was, well, in a word, European. Last night, though, his defense was pretty good. Some nice steals coming off a combination of bad passes by us and some good positioning by him. Inside/outside he was a threat on offense even if his numbers weren't stellar. A very good game off the bench for Rudy. Just to show my conversion is complete (or at least continuing), I'd rather have Von Wafer.

5. Speaking of, he had a great game. He attacked offensively and played hard defensively. Only 6 minutes, but they were impact minutes. You knew he was out there because he was active. Making a steal, running fullcourt, rebounding. There was that scuffle between Von Wafer and West in preseason, because they were competing for the same slot on the team. I was thinking that, when West returns, that Nate would slide over to 2 and West would be the backup 1. Now, however, I'm thinking that West will be the backup 1 (since it's obvious Nate can't do it) and Von Wafer will be the backup 2 and Nate will be a situational player, coming in when we need a smaller, faster defender or explosive offense. Von Wafer is looking more steady than Nate, is no worse at running the offense (neither one is good) and isn't making one bone-head decision after another after another.

6. Our passing was incredibly sloppy last night. For the first time in my memory, Rondo had more turnovers than assists. 41 minutes for Rondo last night, after a 44 minute game against Cleveland. WTF? The announcers were talking about Doc's faith in his bench, well playing Rondo these many minutes doesn't show much faith in his bench at pg. Nate's brain is a sieve. Ok, I'll leave Nate alone, for now, but he stunk the place up again last night too. His two points came on free throws he took because he drove to the basket instead of killing the clock. There were 19 seconds left in the game, Nate. You were supposed to dribble around, kill some clock and then make them chase you down and foul you, Nate. By taking it to them, you stopped the clock prematurely and gave them another possession! Nate. Got it? Ok, now I'll really leave Nate alone. Freaking dumbass.

7. I heard Glen Davis missed the flight and will meet us in Phoenix. Ok, he wasn't quite that invisible, but he didn't have a normal Big Baby game, although his free throws in the final minutes were very clutch. We'll need him tonight, in this second game of a back-to-back.

8. Perk is looking great. His defense all alone out on the perimeter (was he against Miller?) with the clock running down was positively Garnett-esque. Still a few rust spots but considering this is only his second game back after major knee surgery he looks fantastic! He was a horrendous 1-4 from the line last game but was 4-4 this game. So, he's 5-8 in two games, which is about his average, but his fts last night fill me with tremendous hope. If we have a glaring weakness, in close playoff level games, it's that we don't want to put the ball into the hands of our starting point guard and our starting center. That was true when our starter was Perk last year and it was true when our starter was Shaq this year. If Perk has fixed that problem (and 2 games does not a season-long trend make) we have plugged a major hole.

It's a 2 1/2 flight from Portland in the Northwest down to Phoenix in the very Southwest PLUS they lose an hour due to the time zone change. Who, in the league office, came up with this schedule? We couldn't do Utah or Sacramento or GSW, we had to go about as far as we could go and still be on a west coast road trip? Thanks for nothing, Mr. Potato Head.

bob

.

As for this point you made about Nate:


"There were 19 seconds left in the game, Nate. You were supposed to dribble around, kill some clock and then make them chase you down and foul you, Nate. By taking it to them, you stopped the clock prematurely and gave them another possession! Nate. Got it? Ok, now I'll really leave Nate alone. Freaking dumbass."


We had a 9 point lead (87-78) with 19 seconds left in the game at that point. The game was over. Were you REALLY worried about giving the Blazers an extra possession when Nate was streaking up the court and got fouled after he rebounded a missed free throw and there was no one ahead of him? Geez, I wasn't.

[LACELTFAN]

Hell, at least Tony could play lockdown defense when his brain wasn't telling his body bad thoughts.

LOL, BobH, well put.

[sinus007]

Hi,
Re: Nate. I think Doc made a mistake. Well, he didn't a choice. He allowed Nate too much freedom when RR was out. I think, now he has to put him back into a very rigid framework and after awhile Nate will start to produce.

AK

[bobheckler]

Feisty little bastards, weren't they? Andre Miller was running a full and halfcourt track meet all game and nobody stopped him. They scored 48 of their 78 points in the paint. 48!!! Yuck. Aldridge is a stud. 16 rebounds, 8 of them offensive. He was their inside game.

1. KG's passing was awesome. He was hitting cutters left, right and center. By far the best assist game I've seen from him in 4 years. A 6'12" Rondo. Ooooh.

2. Pierce came out hot out of the lockerroom and was moving well to his sweet spot and hitting his shots. Sometimes, when he's hot like that, he gets carried away and plays too much ME-ball, but last night he threw up a too-quick 3 and realized it right away and calmed down. When he's hot but in control, he's extremely hard to stop. The bruise came from the Portland misunderstanding of the term "physical". They thought it meant beating up on people. Unfortunately, we're playing tonight, after a flight, on the road, without the training facilities we'd have if we were still in Boston. He's going to be very stiff tonight.

3. I wish Shaq played last night. Przybilla needed to get flattened like nobody's business. That decking of KG in the first quarter and then standing over him was an All-Pro move, just the wrong league. Too bad for Przybilla this is the NBA and not the NFL. Oh well, he who laughs last, laughs best and we won. Furthermore, as was pointed out by Cowens, our centers outplayed theirs. Sure, they don't have Oden and Camby, but we don't have Shaq and JON and Perk's just 2 games back.

4. Fermandez played well last night, but he ended up 4-11. When the talk last summer was about Portland buying him out and signing him here, I wasn't a fan because I thought his shooting was too unreliable and his defense was, well, in a word, European. Last night, though, his defense was pretty good. Some nice steals coming off a combination of bad passes by us and some good positioning by him. Inside/outside he was a threat on offense even if his numbers weren't stellar. A very good game off the bench for Rudy. Just to show my conversion is complete (or at least continuing), I'd rather have Von Wafer.

5. Speaking of, he had a great game. He attacked offensively and played hard defensively. Only 6 minutes, but they were impact minutes. You knew he was out there because he was active. Making a steal, running fullcourt, rebounding. There was that scuffle between Von Wafer and West in preseason, because they were competing for the same slot on the team. I was thinking that, when West returns, that Nate would slide over to 2 and West would be the backup 1. Now, however, I'm thinking that West will be the backup 1 (since it's obvious Nate can't do it) and Von Wafer will be the backup 2 and Nate will be a situational player, coming in when we need a smaller, faster defender or explosive offense. Von Wafer is looking more steady than Nate, is no worse at running the offense (neither one is good) and isn't making one bone-head decision after another after another.

6. Our passing was incredibly sloppy last night. For the first time in my memory, Rondo had more turnovers than assists. 41 minutes for Rondo last night, after a 44 minute game against Cleveland. WTF? The announcers were talking about Doc's faith in his bench, well playing Rondo these many minutes doesn't show much faith in his bench at pg. Nate's brain is a sieve. Ok, I'll leave Nate alone, for now, but he stunk the place up again last night too. His two points came on free throws he took because he drove to the basket instead of killing the clock. There were 19 seconds left in the game, Nate. You were supposed to dribble around, kill some clock and then make them chase you down and foul you, Nate. By taking it to them, you stopped the clock prematurely and gave them another possession! Nate. Got it? Ok, now I'll really leave Nate alone. Freaking dumbass.

7. I heard Glen Davis missed the flight and will meet us in Phoenix. Ok, he wasn't quite that invisible, but he didn't have a normal Big Baby game, although his free throws in the final minutes were very clutch. We'll need him tonight, in this second game of a back-to-back.

8. Perk is looking great. His defense all alone out on the perimeter (was he against Miller?) with the clock running down was positively Garnett-esque. Still a few rust spots but considering this is only his second game back after major knee surgery he looks fantastic! He was a horrendous 1-4 from the line last game but was 4-4 this game. So, he's 5-8 in two games, which is about his average, but his fts last night fill me with tremendous hope. If we have a glaring weakness, in close playoff level games, it's that we don't want to put the ball into the hands of our starting point guard and our starting center. That was true when our starter was Perk last year and it was true when our starter was Shaq this year. If Perk has fixed that problem (and 2 games does not a season-long trend make) we have plugged a major hole.

It's a 2 1/2 flight from Portland in the Northwest down to Phoenix in the very Southwest PLUS they lose an hour due to the time zone change. Who, in the league office, came up with this schedule? We couldn't do Utah or Sacramento or GSW, we had to go about as far as we could go and still be on a west coast road trip? Thanks for nothing, Mr. Potato Head.

bob

.

As for this point you made about Nate:


"There were 19 seconds left in the game, Nate. You were supposed to dribble around, kill some clock and then make them chase you down and foul you, Nate. By taking it to them, you stopped the clock prematurely and gave them another possession! Nate. Got it? Ok, now I'll really leave Nate alone. Freaking dumbass."


We had a 9 point lead (87-78) with 19 seconds left in the game at that point. The game was over. Were you REALLY worried about giving the Blazers an extra possession when Nate was streaking up the court and got fouled after he rebounded a missed free throw and there was no one ahead of him? Geez, I wasn't.

steve,

The game was not in question, I agree, my point is "that wasn't what he was supposed to do". His job was to run out the clock. Up by 8 and almost no time left, that was all of their jobs.

I suppose I'm a little touchy, when it comes to Nate, but I'm tired of the no-brain decision-making we've been seeing from him this past month.

bob

.

[jeb]

i'm prone to break with kleen, lets see him at his natural slot the two. He really is not working at the 1

[Sam]

I'm not certain it will be enough, but I definitely believe Nate must have his role simplified as a situational SG energy spark ONLY. I don't believe he's a quick enough thinker. The only reservation I have in recommending role simplification as a possible solution in the case of Gerald Green. That one didn't work out too well for me.

Sam

[bobheckler]

I'm not certain it will be enough, but I definitely believe Nate must have his role simplified as a situational SG energy spark ONLY. I don't believe he's a quick enough thinker. The only reservation I have in recommending role simplification as a possible solution in the case of Gerald Green. That one didn't work out too well for me.

Sam

sam,

Perhaps the difference between "not quick enough thinker" and "positively bovine" will keep Nate out of the Gerald Green genera.

bob

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