POST GAME WASHINGTON

BOSTON 94 WASHINGTON 95

GAME STATS

CELTICS

FGM-A 32-84 38.1%
3PM-A 2-7 28.6%
FTM-A 28-34 82.4%
OREB 13
DREB 36
REB 49
AST 20
STL 10
BLK 10
TO 18
PF 25
PTS 94


WASHINTON

FGM-A 34-85 40%
3PM-A 2-5 40%
FTM-A 25-32 78.1%
OREB 10
DREB 36
REB 46
AST 14
STL 13
BLK 11
TO 17
PF 31
PTS 95

West Departs With Ankle Sprain

Celtics guard Delonte West suffered a right ankle sprain, aggravating an existing injury, during Monday's game against the Washington Wizards, according to the team.

In the third quarter, West got steamrolled as Washington's JaVale McGee motored toward the basket in transition. West fell awkwardly as McGee fell on top of him. West grabbed at his ankle before being helped to the bench by teammates. He was briefly examined by team trainer Ed Lacerte before limping back to the locker room.

The team said he would not return.

West missed eight games after spraining the ankle during an offday practice in late March. He said previously that he's been playing with a small bone chip in the ankle, which caused it to swell earlier this month.

West drew a spot start Monday with Boston resting its starters and chipped in 11 points on 4-of-9 shooting with five rebounds and five assists over 23 minutes before the injury.

112288

All looks bleak. Doc's going to win this one along with Ainge. He's done it before with alot less injuries. This Banner is going to go right beside 1969's.

Doc v. D'antoni? Give me a break
Doc v. Doug Collins? A little more challenging, but again, give me a break.
Doc v. Spolestra? No contest there

Doc v. T2? Toughest one, probably, but if Doc knows his team better than anyone and T2 was on his team, he knows how to beat him as well

Doc v. Phil? Well the press has now played their trump card, showing it early. It's actually very well crafted. I'm quite shocked actually. Phil gets a perfect #12, a nice round, divisible number (quite unlike the ugly, prime number 11) and he beats the team he started his run with with Jordan. Perfect. Everything is rosy. Bad news is, they've left no room now for the party crashers. Going to love watching them wiggle out of this one.

Celtics own third now. Wednesday will be a replay of last night sans DWest. He best get healed/taped up or just play injured. Injuries and sitting out are officially done now. All hands on deck.

Two missed dunks....from West and Wafer and the C's win.

Wafer and Jeff Green played really well, so did JON, Big Baby and West (before his injury). I saw something last night from Arroyo that I have not seen before...he is a consummate professional and really calmed the team down when he was in the game. I hope Doc considers giving him some playoff minutes - as I think he can really help out in bringing order to the second unit.

Lets hope D West is OK - as he was really starting to play well.

Glimmers: I wish Jeff Green can play with that kind of aggressive mindset for the whole playoff run and best game both ends from JON all season, they both looked great. If they can play like this in playoffs were gonna be in great shape to do some damage.

uh oh Delonte, nuff said

"Mostly it's mental, all the time, with anybody on any team," Rivers said. "They're the best conditioned athletes in the world, so I don't believe in the whole getting-tired theory unless you're allowing yourself to get tired. They just need the rest. And the break. The whole reason is it allows us to have practice with energy, and we need that more than anything."

I didn't see the game, but from what I understand, a couple of "oops" by Von Wafer (not the end of the world) and we beat an NBA team playing just our bench. The loss means nothing. Nothing. Rest means everything. Good decision by Doc. I'd sit them out the next game too. A little mini-vacation for them.

bob

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Bob

Certainly without playing our 4 best/ most important players the others accounted quite well for themselves. Washington is nearly .500 20-21 at home so they are able to at least have a pulse in their arena.

Game was really all about runs. We dug a bit of a hole late but a 13-4 run put us up. Unfortunately a couple of iffy calls like Arroyo's foul on Wall when shooting a trey and a couple of missed freebees and we win in regulation.

What WAS nice was to se some of these guys get extended minutes.

What was NOT nice was seeing West get landed on by a Washington player in a collision near midcourt. Up to then he was one tough cookie haveing just come off a 7 point run all of his making, a trey sandwiched around 2 tough inside moves. Hopefully it is a minor sprain and he can be back soon.

Davis still settled for an 15 footer a bit too much perhaps but did make some nice inside moves and JON protected the hoop well blocking some point blank dunk attempts. He does need a litle work at the line but his D and rebounding were the best he's done all year and Washingto has a very athletic front.

Think Doc has already said the big four are being benched again tomorrow too.

Playoffs are pulling up the driveway and I for one think we will be fine.

beat

Beat and Bob, I like your optimism and share your trust in and respect for Doc's judgment.

Frankly, I'm getting a kick out of seeing the bench playing together. It's not always perfect—far from it. But the energy is constant, and guys like Green, West, Arroyo and even Murphy are demonstrating an ability to learn how to contribute.

I'm too lazy to check the game log, but I'd be willing to bet good money that Wall was pretty much stymied by Arroyo (other than that three point foul call, which I'll leave it to others to complain about). Green's obviously learning the defensive system, although he's got a way to go. Even Sasha seems capable of playing smart defense. I'm looking forward to game 82.

I hope Rondo watches tape of West's constant push of the ball. (I hope he doesn't emulate Delonte's mishap.) Those pushes of the ball resulted in catching the defense on their heels several times AND also in keeping the Wiz from gang rebounding on our offensive boards because the Celts weren't so predictably shooting deep in the shot clock.

Almost any iteration of the second unit is well-suited to up-tempo ball, and I hope they'll capitalize on it in the playoffs.

Sam

sam wrote:Frankly, I'm getting a kick out of seeing the bench playing together. I'm looking forward to game 82.

I hope Rondo watches tape of West's constant push of the ball. (I hope he doesn't emulate Delonte's mishap.) Those pushes of the ball resulted in catching the defense on their heels several times AND also in keeping the Wiz from gang rebounding on our offensive boards because the Celts weren't so predictably shooting deep in the shot clock.
Sam

Sam - couldn't agree more.

Michael

Sam

84 field goal attempts last eve................A step in the right direction there

Now to get it up to 90!

beat

mrkleen09 wrote:Two missed dunks....from West and Wafer and the C's win.

Wafer and Jeff Green played really well, so did JON, Big Baby and West (before his injury). I saw something last night from Arroyo that I have not seen before...he is a consummate professional and really calmed the team down when he was in the game. I hope Doc considers giving him some playoff minutes - as I think he can really help out in bringing order to the second unit.Lets hope D West is OK - as he was really starting to play well.

Kleen,

I didn't see last nights game. About the only one I've missed all year, but I'm glad to see this about Arroyo.

Doc's playoff rotation doesn't seem set, not that I've heard anyway. From the sounds of what you're saying though, Arroyo delivered what we hoped he might when they got him. A second unit with a savvy veteran point guard should be a real benefit for us. It would make sense that Ainge added him for that reason, we just don't seem to have seen as much of him as we might have expected.

A positive for us anyway.

Regards