POST GAME MIAMI

FXXX YOU MIAMI! NOT IN OUR HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What a terrific job of coaching by Doc and Frank. Great defense....great match-ups and management of minutes. Miami cannot say anything on this game...no excuses....we're down 5 players......1/3 of the team.........and we still kick butt. Perkins has come to another level all together this year..........much better then last year by far. What I liked best ...it left the 3 stooges speachless!!!!!!!

All you can say.......


GO CELTICS!!!!!!!!

Oh by the way the beginning word IS FOOL.....................because everyone else expected us to lose!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

112288

If you had told me, in advance, that we would beat a healthy Miami HEAT team with just 7 players (Nate and Bradley only played a combined 5 minutes, like last game) and that the 3 Amigos would shoot a combined 11-36, I'd have told you you're nuts.

1. Perk singlehandedly outplayed their entire center corp. More points, more minutes, more rebounds, the same number of fouls and, of course, much better defense. He really, really stepped up today. He was our rock. You know what I wrote about "being nuts" above? Well, if you told me about his free throw shooting today...It is strange for me to say this, but I'd rather have Perk (of all people) on the line, with the game on the line, than our starting point guard. I'm just hoping I don't have to admit I'd rather have Shaq in that position too, because then we're really in big trouble.

2. Rondo with a triple double is a big story, but not a huge story. Rondo guarding LeBron fullcourt AND in the halfcourt? That's a HUGE story. Who'da thunk that? I've pointed out how very rarely LeBron posts up his defenders despite being bigger, stronger and quicker than them, he always wants to take them off the dribble. This, however, was ridiculous! He couldn't post up a 6'2" drip of water! It honestly never occurred to me to do this. That's why Doc and Frank make the big bucks. I wouldn't want to do a 7 game series with this, but to throw a changeup at them? Fantastic. Unfortunately, Rondo's free throw shooting is still Rondo's free throw shooting. 1-5 is unprofessional and could have cost us the game.

3. Another good game for Von Wafer. A couple of brain farts, but all-in-all a very good game. He had 2 of our 6 steals. He's living down his statement, when he first made the team, about how he's "an offensive player". We needed everything he gave us today.

4. If Pierce shoots even a very pedestrian 40% today, we win this by double digits.

5. You know you're struggling offensively when KG, Allen and Pierce are on the floor and Rondo takes the big shot when we need a bucket.

6. Bosh is a wussy. I don't care how many points or rebounds he gets, he's soft as a grape. He makes Pau Gasol look like The Incredible Hulk.

7. DWade only shot 6-17. A lot of that was to stellar defense by Allen and Wafer, he just didn't get a lot of open looks.

8. When it was last shot time and I knew they'd be putting Wade, LBJ, Miller, Bosh and House out there for the 3, I was praying to myself "anybody but Eddie, anybody but Eddie". Miller had a really good look but I would rather have had him or LBJ or Wade or anybody else (practically in the entire league!) take that shot against the Celtics than Eddie House. He is an amazingly good clutch shooter. Ice water runs through his veins. We'll never know for sure, but my money is on him hitting that same shot that Miller missed.

9. The Game Ball doesn't go to Rondo or Wafer, it goes to DWade. His dumbass flagrant foul (on what was called a legit, whiplash pick by KG on Miller) gave us 2 points that we desperately needed at the end. Without those 2 points it would have been a one point game with 6 seconds, instead of 3, and LBJ would have gone thundering in like a bull in a china shop and the refs would have given him the foul and free throws. How stupid did that play turn out to be?

HUGE win today. Huge. It not only put us a game up on Miami, it also gave us 3 wins out of 4 games this season against them, which means for them to get the #1 seed in the east, they have to beat us and not just tie us. It also sent a message that we are still the team to beat.

Just imagine if we were healthy and had some games under our belt with Shaq, JON, Semih and West all playing to establish some rhythm.

bob

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Some games are bigger than others and make no doubt about it..This was a big game for Boston...Boston went into the game losers in 3 out of their last 4 games. And those loses were ugly where the celtics could not close out teams, Paul Pierce has been in a funk going into the game 20 of his last 50 from the field. He put up a bagle goiung 0 for 10 and lowering hs FGPpercentage to 33% OVER THE PAST 5.

But the Celtics still have 'that thing' about them. They are contenders and understand that taking a few lumps will not keep them from losing the fight. Other major contributors to this win wee KG with 19 and Perk scoring 15 very important points.

Von wafer is certainly making a big push for permanent status as a rotation player. This kid definitely has game. Do you remember when he seemd so dis-interested? so disconnected from the team? Not anymore. He is getting minutes and delivering at both ends.

What an interestingn matchup with Rondo checking Lebron. Rajon is a warrior and finished with another triple double. Baby's play continues to reinforce the necessity that he must be in the game down the stretch.

Just watching the Magic put the finishing touches on a big win over the Lakers.

Can't wait for D West and at least one of the Oneals to return to the fold. I just want to see this team play with a full compliment of players.

At 0-3 the Heat are still trying to beat the good teams. So far it has not happened and I doubt it will happen this year. I am absolutely convinced that a heathly Celtics team will beat any team out there.

dboss

S good to see the Lakers lose they were creeping close (in a good road trip for them) to us in the standings.

What happened between Wade and KG?

Had to work today, so great to see info on the game. Hollinger must have the miamilukewarm about 10 games ahead of the C's by now. LOL
Just had a crew in this morning from The Discovery Channel filming for a possible series on border towns. They filmed and interviewed for nearly 3 hours. And I told them that the C's were playing too. LOL

HEY.....DWADE............NOW I NOW WHAT YOU FINALLY MEAN IN YOUR CELL PHONE COMMERCIAL......................

GET ME OUT OF BOSTON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

bobheckler wrote:6. Bosh is a wussy. I don't care how many points or rebounds he gets, he's soft as a grape. He makes Pau Gasol look like The Incredible Hulk.

ouch.. but true

Pierce is going to get an MRI on his injured foot tomorrow. We cannot afford to lose him for any length of time at all; there is no backup at small forward any more. He should take the AS game OFF and REST UP! Lets hope its nothing serious.

game balls to our coaches...great move putting Rondo on Lebron...was that humiliation or what? Great move putting Glen Davis in for the last 6 minutes too...

Anyone know how serious PP foot problem is..?
Anyone heard anything...?

LACELTFAN wrote:Anyone know how serious PP foot problem is..?
Anyone heard anything...?

Just that he described it as a "minor injury" that happened about a week ago.
I hope he is right about that.

Pumpsie Green wrote:

LACELTFAN wrote:Anyone know how serious PP foot problem is..?
Anyone heard anything...?

Just that he described it as a "minor injury" that happened about a week ago.
I hope he is right about that.

There's more to Pierce's various ailments:

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=ApQJzt.vjwqUksanITrrBMm8vLYF?slug=ap-celtics-piercemri

Hi,
Just one word about the game: yyyyessss!
I think the whole (actually 1/2) crew took it really personally. Even PP who was 0-10, compensated on defense. I didn't watch the end of the 3rd and most of the 4th, so I can't judge whom to give my kudos to, but I'd say it goes to the team.
There're a few funny moments: BBD embarrass himself, ESPN showed RR with his tongue sticking out (Mmmm, yummy) against Big Z. Speaking of ESPN/ABC. That moron, JVG, is supposed to root against Miami as a main competitor to his brother's team. But I didn't hear a single positive comment about Celtics from him. Except, of course, when he talked about RA (But RA is in vogue nowdays, so it's against company policy to say anything even remotely bad about him).
After the 1st quarter I thought that even if Celtics loose it's very clear that with the full healthy crew there's no way they can loose playoff series to Mia.
I wonder who came up with the idea to put RR on LJ? Regardless of the result, it took LJ and coach Spo totally off-guard.
Once again, I didn't watch the whole game. But I had a very good excuse: my daughter was in labor and gave me my first grandson.
Thank you very much.

AK

Glen Davis's missed dunk will go viral, no doubt. Pretty funny. Pretty funny because we didn't lose by 1 or 2, otherwise really, really NOT funny.

I've never seen any player hang around the opposing team's huddle like the way Rondo did with the Heat. Have you? Now THAT was funny.

bob

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sinus007 wrote:Hi,
Just one word about the game: yyyyessss!
I think the whole (actually 1/2) crew took it really personally. Even PP who was 0-10, compensated on defense. I didn't watch the end of the 3rd and most of the 4th, so I can't judge whom to give my kudos to, but I'd say it goes to the team.
There're a few funny moments: BBD embarrass himself, ESPN showed RR with his tongue sticking out (Mmmm, yummy) against Big Z. Speaking of ESPN/ABC. That moron, JVG, is supposed to root against Miami as a main competitor to his brother's team. But I didn't hear a single positive comment about Celtics from him. Except, of course, when he talked about RA (But RA is in vogue nowdays, so it's against company policy to say anything even remotely bad about him).
After the 1st quarter I thought that even if Celtics loose it's very clear that with the full healthy crew there's no way they can loose playoff series to Mia.
I wonder who came up with the idea to put RR on LJ? Regardless of the result, it took LJ and coach Spo totally off-guard.
Once again, I didn't watch the whole game. But I had a very good excuse: my daughter was in labor and gave me my first grandson.
Thank you very much.

AK

sinus,

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Does he have a name?

bob

.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ew8rbVcpa0A

SINUS

GOD BLESS & CONGRAD'S!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

NOW THAT 'S A TOMMY POINT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

112288

Why Rondo was on James was Pierce was hurt and he normally guards him with Allen. I was a clever match-up.

112288

Sinus,

Congrats!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

sinus007 wrote:Once again, I didn't watch the whole game. But I had a very good excuse: my daughter was in labor and gave me my first grandson.
Thank you very much.

AK

Congratulations!

sinus congrats bro thats a beautiful thing!!!!

bobby h

Another great post,agree as usual with all your points.We won this game with toughness and intangibles,we overcame the Heat and the refs.I know there were bad calls later on Heat,but I felt those were make up calls for previous botched calls that those refs will hear about at their own meetings with the independent council.It shouldn't have to come down to tit for tat,but we played on and despite the make up calls,I felt we still got the worst of it first and overall.

Gotta love Rondo,that kid took on James with a vengence and demanded no help,this kid is a big game player and has his faults,but also plays with as much heart as Dave Cowens,with his freakish athletic ability,thats some combination.Perk also was ready for a war,as he was stonewalling so many drives and is always throwing his weight and force around the paint.On hooters game on thread right when it happened I wrote what a bogus call on Perks block on Lebron.I focked up,it was on Wade,refs knew they focked up cause with the new rules it was in their right to T up Perk who was running away,but screaming smack......glad the senior ref must have told one of the junior refs to let it go.....can they reverse bad calls,like in football a group can overide one individual on a certain call?On this clean block it was obviously warrented.

I have never seen a perrenial all star big man as soft as Bosh in the post and at post defense,I think Raef had more defensive presence than Bosh,that was the quietest 24-10 I ever saw,he seems to have a knack for getting rebounds that fall into his hands when nobody is near him.I've never seen him grab a board in traffic.Statistics can be so misleading,our bigs played so hard gave us life,who had a bigger impact,Perk,KG or Bosh?To me it was pretty obvious,and it was obvious that KG's 4th and 5th fouls were so embarassingly bogus that that refs wife must even be questioning her husbands calls.Those calls were an embarrassment for the league.....refs gave us the make up calls.

Kudos to Rondo,Perk and KG for playing passionately in a way that would make Cowens and Paul Silas proud,great spark from Baby,Wafer and even Pierce,hobbled,but giving everything he could to dog Lebron.

cow

My game ball goes to a guy who has been mentioned in a few of these posts, but only peripherally and sometimes in jest because of one play. Certainly this was a great team win, with many potential heroes. But I happen to believe this game was won more because of GLEN DAVIS than any other Celtic.[code] Glen was outstanding in the first half. But that wasn't what got him my game ball. The Celtics were obviously fading in the 4th quarter—taking jumpers and rather desperately trying to find someone who could find the basket. In came Glen and immediately shot a jumper—nothing but net. He then willed his way to the basket. and almost singlehandedly stopped the momentum of the Heat. He was excellent in the defensive end, including his rebounding. This legitimate two-position player injected enough energy in the Celtics so they could pull out a game that I believe would have been lost without him—no question.

I was also awestruck (BobH mentioned this) by the coaches' decision to put Rondo on Lebron for a while. It obviously surprised and confused the Heat until they figured out that Lebron should post up Rajon. I believe the Heat got two consecutive "and ones" at that juncture, and all of a sudden Pierce was back on Lebron. But at least the move had interrupted the Heat's momentum and had given Paul a respite that I'm sure was much needed.

My unsung hero of the game could easily be Wafer. However, my vote goes to the aforementioned Paul Pierce. His physical problems obviously caused him great problems in the offensive end, and no one needs to tell me he was 0-10. His jumper was off; the mechanics of his stroke at the arc were not good; and he lacked any kind of explosiveness down low. BUT , as suggested by Cow, he did an absolutely stupendous job of blanketing Lebron, who was frustrated repeatedly by Paul on the perimeter. Bron had 22 pedestrian (for him) points in 42 minutes, as Paul played 40 despite his physical limitations. Paul also contributed something like five rebounds and three assists.

I hope Paul takes the Nets game off, and I'd be happy to see him skip the All-Star game and made-for-TV long ball contest too. I'd be delighted to see all four Celtics playing representatives skip what was once a legitimate game that blended superior talent but has now degenerated into an aerial circus on petrified sawdust. (Fine with me. I haven't flossed for a while.)

Sam

Another great game by the Celtics. Just to add to the great and precise commentary so far:

1) I think I've seen enough. No, I not going to stop watching games until the playoffs, but barring anything horrific, I really don't see anything or any team stopping this team throughout the regular season or the playoffs in a 7 games series. Injuries (pending PP's MRI today, which he may have to take a page from KB's book about playing injured and keep playing through it) can't stop us, cold shooting can't stop us, lack of offensive rebounds can't stop us, blowing big leads can't stop us. It comes down to the intangibles. There isn't much separating BOS, MIA, CHI, LAL and SAS record-wise. But there was shown a ton of heart today separating BOS from everyone else. Truly awesome.

2) BTW, if I understood Doc's post-game interview, RR played LBJ on his own. I don't think Doc or Laurence told him to switch. He just did it to fire up the team and "will" them to the win as Doc put it. He just started picking up whoever was bringing the ball up court. (And this was what I was looking for in a previous thread about pressuring the ball coming up the floor) And why not do it against the league's very best player? He knew LeBron's ego was too big to pass it off to someone, especially when you are 6'8" being guarded by a 6-1. Priceless.

3) LeBron's post game comment about losing to Boston again. Compared it to his 3rd or 4th year in and CLE's inability to get past DET. At least he's being honest. Here's to Boston making his next 6 years a living hell come playoff time. He's the one who had the game ball at the free throw line for the tie and bricked it. I really do think the Celtics (and maybe some other teams) are in his head. And given his previous performances to date, I don't think he will ever get over it.

4) BTW, when does running into a pick become a foul or charge on the defender? The Celtics almost knocked themselves out a few times not calling out the ensuing screen. On the last play, Glenn did see DWade, unlike Miller and KG's pick. I thought Dwade should have been called for a foul on his pick because he raised his arms and shoulders. It's the only way Dwade wasn't blown back to the Stone Age given the differences in weight and applying one or more of Newton's 3 Laws of Motion. The reason I ask the question is if Davis knows(sees) the pick coming but can't dodge it, what's to stop him from absolutely bulldozing Dwade and taking his head clean off?(or anyone for that matter) Is a good solid pick simply a no call? Or can the defender actually be called for a foul in that situation?

5) What more can be said about Von Wafer? Confidence is building as a defender. That was by design. Nice threes as well. Must be taking lesson from the boss. Using his time very wisely.

6) RR's sideline/timeout headgame antics aside, I think he made a huge statement yesterday on the near and far future of Celtic basketball and the role he is going to play in the championships that will follow. Someone's tag line on bdc has a quote from Cedric Maxwell about getting the team on his back and having him take them to the promised land. Appropos.

7) As in another thread, the press still isn't given up on their dead horse. Even ABC got into it with their inaccurate standings. I think it was during the second game, but they had Boston at 39-14 which was correct after the victory, but did not change MIA record to reflect the loss, showing them at 38-14, should have been 38-15. I know it's minor but it's intentional. Even after they have lost and are 1-6 against the elite, comments like "well, they're still going to win the East," all indicated this blind following of the king. LeBron is beginning to prepare everyone. You can hear it in his comments. "We can't beat Boston. We haven't played together as much as they have." If these comments weren't dated from the last few weeks, I'd swear he was still in CLE.

Second verse, same as the first. Gotta love the NBA!

Congratulations, Sinus, on your first grandson. Here's hoping everyone's healthy and looking forward to a great life together.

Rondo's sidling up to the Heat's huddle was straight out of the Auerbach bag of tricks. I don't mean I recall Red specifically doing or ordering that; but it's the kind of move that seems like it should be banned but isn't...so why not give it a try?

Frankly, I can't recall whether or not it came during a timeout. If not, and the Heat were just huddling informally on the floor (something the Celtics have been doing a lot of lately), I believe Rondo has a right to be anywhere on the floor. If it WAS during a timeout but the Heat were on the floor rather than at their bench, I believe Rondo has a right to be anywhere on the floor. I believe the out of bounds space by the bench is a team's private domain.

Maybe some enterprising person wants to see whether there's a specific rule on the matter. I haven't got the time or the inclination. Meanwhile, I've got to credit Rondo with consciously deciding to be an irritant in any way he could. In my book, he showed great leadership; and, if it's true that he started guarding Lebron on his own, I'd double my praise.

One thing that I believe is really symptomatic of a championship-driven team is that, while other teams are focusing on trying to come together or overcome weaknesses, the Celtics are beyond that stage and can concentrate on nuances such as leadership indicators and little experiments on the floor. Yes, they'll have to fine tune their chemistry when the walking wounded return, but they seem way ahead in the matter of team maturation as nearly as I can see.

None of that leads to a prediction that they'll win the championship, but I'm pretty reassured that they have confidence in their approach to the game and their ability to adjust to adversity, which focuses their future pretty much on health and possibly another body.

Sam

What I loved about the "Rondo-in-the-HEAT-huddle" thing was that they knew he was there. One Heat player pushed him away, he circled around to the other side of LBJ and he elbowed him away, a coach was staring right at him (with a look of shock on his face) and still Rondo kept hanging around. He wasn't trying to sneak into the huddle, he wanted to screw with their heads, that's all.

I loved it.

On another note, our favorite pet idiot, John Hollinger, has come out with his latest team rankings, and here they are:

Spurs (understandable), HEAT (huh? They just lost to an undermanned Celtics and are 1-7 vs the top teams in the league), Lakers (apparently a victory over an undermanned Celtic team overcomes a worse record overall and are 2-6 against the top 5 teams in the league), Magic (ok, now this is truly ludicrous), Bulls (hey, why not, he's hasn't hit a bull in the ass yet) and then he gets around to the Celtics at #6.

bob

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