POST GAME NEW YORK

Monster game by Rondo 18 pts/ 20assists/ 17 rebounds. I guess he sealed his own fate with that performance. Danny I am sure is on the phones right now pulling the trigger on a trade..............NOT!

Paul Pierce with another strong game with 34 pts and a monster 3 pointer with seconds left to put the C's into overtime.

KG with another strong game at center with 18 points and 10 rebounds. If you read my post earlier, KG may have bought himself a few more years of basketball playing the center position verses his usual power forward position. The rational makes sense, he does not have to run as much so he is not affected by speedier power forwards, and he is a lot quicker then most centers. Could be an interesting next year. Perhaps they bring KG back as one of their centers.

Next Game Tuesday 7:30 pm Verses Houston Rockets

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POST GAME RECAP WEEI 850

FAST BREAK: CELTICS 115, KNICKS 111 (OT) 03.04.12 at 4:02 pm ET
By Ben Rohrbach




You can count the number of times Rajon Rondo and Paul Pierce both played well in the same game this season on one hand, but two of those occasions occurred this weekend. In a related story, the Celtics won their fourth straight game, 115-111 against the Knicks in overtime on Sunday afternoon.

Rondo recorded his league-leading fourth triple-double of the season — and second in three games — totaling 18 points, a season-high 20 assists and 17 rebounds, a state line never before seen in the NBA. Pierce added 34 points, seven rebounds and three assists as the Celtics improved to 19-17 and moved to 1.5 games up on the Knicks (18-19) for the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference.

Absent for much of the game, Jeremy Lin (14 points, 5 assists, 6 turnovers) led a fourth-quarter charge to help the Knicks take the lead twice in the final minutes of the fourth quarter. Pierce made a game-tying 3-pointer with 4.9 seconds to play, and Carmelo Anthony missed a jump shot at the end of regulation to force overtime.

And then Rondo put the finishing touches on the Knicks in overtime, as the Celtics made 45 field goals in the game, and Rondo had a hand in 27 of them.

WHAT WENT RIGHT

Pierce’s first quarter: Picking up where he left off after scoring 27 points against the Nets on Friday night, the Celtics captain was actively early against the Knicks, scoring 10 of the team’s 27 first-quarter points and adding five rebounds without committing a turnover. Which makes the fact Pierce only attempted one shot in the second quarter all the more strange. The Celtics got Pierce involved again in the second half, as he scored 24 of his 34 points after the break.

Avoiding Linsanity: Lin picked up three early fouls, limiting him to just 13 minutes in the first half. At halftime, he had as many turnovers (4) as he did points (2) and assists (2) combined. Meanwhile, Rondo’s nine points, eight assists and four rebounds in his first 21 minutes on the floor started the triple-double watch early. Still, nobody could have foreseen the stat line Rondo put up by game’s end.

A little help from their friends: The Knicks committed 22 turnovers. Repeat: 22 turnovers. It’s hard to beat anybody when you give the ball away that many times. Kevin Garnett (18 points, 10 rebounds) and Ray Allen each had four steals.

WHAT WENT WRONG

The entire second quarter: Neither team played well from minutes 12-24, but the Celtics looked particularly sloppy. The hosts shot just 8-of-22 from the field (36%), committed six turnovers and looked just plain awful on the fast break. Take Rondo losing the ball out of bounds uncontested and throwing a pass directly to Baron Davis as Exhibits A and B.

No defense for the first half: As if the Knicks shooting 50 percent and scoring 29 first-quarter points in the first quarter weren’t bad enough, the Celtics watched as New York shot 62 percent in the second quarter and scored 56 points by halftime. Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire both reached double figures by the break.

Battle of the benches: Iman Shumpert, Jared Jeffries, Steve Novak and Davis all scored at least six points off the bench for the Knicks, as New York’s reserves outscored the Celtics bench by a 45-15 margin. It was a particularly tough night for Mickael Pietrus, normally the C’s most reliable reserve.

Fourth-quarter collapse: The Celtics led by as many as 15 points, but Lin — absent for much of the game — and Anthony combined for 21 points in the fourth quarter and overtime to help New York snare the lead twice in the final minute of regulation.

The amazing RAJON RONDO.

Dbosd

Rondo's too surly, Paul's too slow, KG's too old, Ray's too valuable as trade bait, these Celtics have no chance of getting #18 - so it's clearly time to break up the team and trade the pieces. And if Danny doesn't pull his itchy triger finger, he's an inept GM. At least that's what I read and hear continually from the media, so it must be true.

At the very least we have to trade Rondo because in 26 games on the court this season he's only scored four triple doubles. Why would we want to keep a player like that when we could have Pau Gasol or even Steve Nash?

By the way, has anyone else noticed that the bra sizes of today's sports writers are getting bigger?

With JON just about at the end of the road, the Celtics going down the stretch are missing one thing. A 4/5 so as to take pressure off of KG and Wilcox. Kaman or Odom would be a perfect fit.

If we can get either one we can climb quickly to maybe 4 or 5 in the East.

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Well said

Great game by Rondo and Pierce....KG was a beast on D and Bass and Pietrus continue to add great value.

The Knicks have so many defensive liabilities, they are not going anywhere. at one point they had Novak, Anthony, Davis, Stoudamire and Lin on the court, not a decent defender in the entire bunch.

MRK,

What worries me is they should have beat them by 20+ but they allowed them to claw back into it and almost win. I cannot put my finger on why.

Thoughts?

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Worcester,

I think KG may have found the fountain of youth by switching positions from forward to center. He is quicker then most Centers and defensively can react better. As a forward we were beating him up by him being a step behind on defense which is true but at center that's fine because you do not need as much speed or quickness to be effective. Just look at his stats the last 4 games at center. They are all star stats!

This could give KG new life with the Celtics as backup center/power forward.
He would become a beast off the bench and shut down teams when the first unit is resting.

112288

[quote="worcester"]Rondo's too surly, Paul's too slow, KG's too old, Ray's too valuable as trade bait, these Celtics have no chance of getting #18 - so it's clearly time to break up the team and trade the pieces. And if Danny doesn't pull his itchy triger finger, he's an inept GM. At least that's what I read and hear continually from the media, so it must be true.

At the very least we have to trade Rondo because in 26 games on the court this season he's only scored four triple doubles. Why would we want to keep a player like that when we could have Pau Gasol or even Steve Nash?

By the way, has anyone else noticed that the bra sizes of today's sports writers are getting bigger?[/quote]


And there would be the silver lining...

The upcoming rd trip could knock Boston out of a,
.playoff spot...or propel them into the middle of the pack.

Would be great if they could stay above .500 but I feel they will not make it.

Dboss

According to Elias Sports Bureau, Rondo is only the third player in NBA history with at least 15 points, 20 assists and 15 rebounds in a game (Wilt Chamberlain and Oscar Robertson are the others).

112288

112288 wrote:MRK,

What worries me is they should have beat them by 20+ but they allowed them to claw back into it and almost win. I cannot put my finger on why.

Thoughts?

112288

Aside from a rare game against a mediocre opponent, the Celtics are not beating anyone by 20 points....they are either winning or losing in nail biters - I think our collective belief that they have another gear is probably incorrect.

I do think that shortening up the rotation and players falling into their roles will help a lot. But in the end, everything has to fall into place perfectly for the Celtics to beat good teams. That can happen more often, but lets not go overboard and expect they can just turn it on and beat teams by 20.

On a side note, I LOVED reading this quote from Mike D'Antoni - showing once again why he is a second rate basketball mind:

"I don’t know if that’s execution — that’s having a horseshoe up your rear," D’Antoni said. "That’s what Paul Pierce does, though."

LOL....yeah Mike. Someone scores 22,000 points by being "lucky". What a moron.

MRK

He sounds like he is not the sharpest knife in the draw. What a dope!

112288

What a game! Runs by both teams kept it close, except for a brief period (and I do mean brief) where Boston was up by 15. Great gut-check game for both teams to see who's more playoff-ready now. The surging Knicks vs the reeling Celtics. Maybe we'll start our own surge now.

1. There have been 8 triple doubles in the NBA this season and Rondo has 4 of them. Let's trade this guy for a bag of donuts. As has been pointed out, only 2 other players in NBA history have had a 20 assists/15rebound/15point game and that's HOF greats Wilt the Stilt and The Big O. I had to write that for myself just to grasp the magnitude of it. What is under-reported is that he only had 4 turnovers to go with those 20 assists. What I liked is that he didn't try to do it "fancy", he just ran the offense the way the defense gave it to us and the numbers built by themselves.

2. Slightly overshadowed, but not by much, in all this is Pierce's game. He took advantage of mismatches that were created by a well-executed Celtic offense. Great coaching by Doc, that's how Pierce got those mismatches, but Pierce still had to hit the shots and he has struggled of late doing that. He was Rondo's dagger.

3. Carmelo had a good first half, back-cutting Pierce to death, but that ended in the 2nd half. Melo ended up 8-21 and 25 points, but 9 of them came at the line. He disappeared in the 2nd half.

4. I really like the Knick 2nd unit. They completely outplayed our bench yesterday. Baron Davis, Jared Jeffries, Iman Shumpert, Steve Novak and Mr. Marco Polo, JR Smith. That's a helluva 6-10. I realize this compressed schedule makes it tough to do scouting and practice, but didn't anybody know you can't leave Novak alone at the 3pt line? This unit was 16-30 out of a team 94fga, 6-10 from 3 out of a team 8-18, 12 assists out of a team 23, 6 steals out of a team 8. We have Keyon Dooling and Avery Bradley running the team when Rondo sits, they have Baron freaking Davis. This unit went on a 7-0 run, in the last 1 1/2 minutes of the 3rd to cut a 15 point Celtic lead down to 8 and give the Knicks hope. The Celtics starters outplayed the Knicks starters yesterday, but their bench was superb.

5. Mike Bibby never took off his warmups. This game is the ultimate feel-good story.

6. Ray Allen struggled, still suffering from flu symptoms, but he had 4 steals. What a professional.

7. I suppose I have to mention Jeremy Lin here somewhere. Ok, so I just did it.

Houston is up next. They are 21-17, so they're a winning club, and are tied for 7th place with Denver in the west. So this game means a lot to them. It's the difference between playing San Antonio in the 1st round or being only 1 game ahead of Minny for the #8 spot and facing OKC in the 1st round. Houston lost in OT yesterday to the Clips (good news, they played OT too; bad news they won't want to lost 2 in a row and will show up strong).

Naps. A lot of naps today.

For us, every game is a big game from here on out.

Great win yesterday. Real championship gut-check. Now we need to show we can do it without Rondo having to turn into Superman.

bob

.

Bob,

Great summary, as usual.

bobheckler wrote:2. Slightly overshadowed, but not by much, in all this is Pierce's game. He took advantage of mismatches that were created by a well-executed Celtic offense. Great coaching by Doc, that's how Pierce got those mismatches, but Pierce still had to hit the shots and he has struggled of late doing that. He was Rondo's dagger.

Regarding the above point, I just want to add that a big factor in creating the mismatches is the Knicks' willingness to switch on screens. Most teams either fight through the screen or use the screener's man to trap or show or otherwise delay the non-screener and then switch back to avoid creating mismatches. The Knicks, however, were all too willing to just switch, and the Celtics were all too willing to take advantage of the resulting mismatch. But I haven't seen an NBA team that willing to switch in a long time.

Maybe they figure that since they're all lousy on defense that it doesn't matter who is guarding who.

Outside

Outside wrote:Bob,

Great summary, as usual.

bobheckler wrote:2. Slightly overshadowed, but not by much, in all this is Pierce's game. He took advantage of mismatches that were created by a well-executed Celtic offense. Great coaching by Doc, that's how Pierce got those mismatches, but Pierce still had to hit the shots and he has struggled of late doing that. He was Rondo's dagger.

Regarding the above point, I just want to add that a big factor in creating the mismatches is the Knicks' willingness to switch on screens. Most teams either fight through the screen or use the screener's man to trap or show or otherwise delay the non-screener and then switch back to avoid creating mismatches. The Knicks, however, were all too willing to just switch, and the Celtics were all too willing to take advantage of the resulting mismatch. But I haven't seen an NBA team that willing to switch in a long time.

Maybe they figure that since they're all lousy on defense that it doesn't matter who is guarding who.

Outside

outside,

Excellent point about the switching. Not only was Pierce getting the mismatches, but so was KG. There were times when he was taking standing shots over Lin and Shumpert. Fighting through screens takes effort away from shooting.

I'm starting to hate Mike D'Antoni. I've always thought he was over-rated. His claim to fame was that he had Amar'e and Marion in their prime and that sneaky little Canadian to help make it all make sense, but now we're seeing him sans clothing. He is defensively incompetent and his comment about "horseshoes" makes him about as classy as Henry Bibby's son.

He wanted Amar'e, he got Amar'e. He wanted Melo (giving up half the team to get him), he got Melo. He wanted Chandler, he got Chandler. They were saying all they needed was a point guard. Well, now they have one and they're still defensively incompetent.

Sooner or later the lightbulb is going to on over some people's heads and he'll be gone. If he can't win with this team, he can't win.


bob

.

Hard to believe with the start of the season we've had that we're one game out in the loss column behind Philly for the division lead. And if the Sixers lose at Milwaukee tonight we'll both have 17 losses.

Bob,
Re D'Antony - agree 100%.
Having 3 starting players of such high level plus a very decent bench and being unable to produce....
Even if you count the possibility of a friction between those 3, still good coach would've found ways to minimize it if not eliminate it.
And, of course, this classless remark about PP. Tells volumes about him, IMO.

Speaking about PP. He's got his shooting touch back in NJN game, now the second game. It looks like he's on and off this season.

AK

112288- Yes indeed, Kevin is certainly flourishing at the 5. It's the right spot for him in our lineup and boy has he responded. You're 100% right, he's a step faster than other centers in the league, and Brandon bass fills in well at the 4. Great coaching by Doc. JO going out may be a blessing for KG's career.

Meanwhile I've got to give more props to that horseshoe lucky Paul Pierce - 22,000+ lucky points! What a clutch performer he is.

And then there's Rondo. I hope he gets dropped off the All-Star team every year. Nothing like a bit of moitivation to get him going - watch out when he's got something to prove. Notice how poorly otyher PG's do when playing Rondo. Deron almost drowned on the court against the Celts but scored 57 points his next game. Lin was limp most of yesterday's game. Can't wait to see RR against Rose sometime soon.

Final word - Ray plays through illness like a real pro. What a pleasure to watch him contribute anyway he can.