POST GAME ORLANDO

GAME STATS

Rebounds - Celtics /ORL ........ Offensive - Celtics /ORL ........Defensive - Celtics / ORL
Points In The Paint - Celtics 56 /ORL 52
Fast Break Points - Celtics 10 / ORL 15
FG - Celtics - 42/84 ( 50 %) ORL 36/95 ( 37.9 %)
3PM - Celtics 4/18 (22.2 %) ORL 3/19 (15.8 %)
FTM - Celtics 9/14 (64.3 %) ORL 9/9 (100 %)
TO - Celtics 14 / ORL 14
Assists - Celtics 30 / ORL 19
STL - Celtics 9 / ORL 10
BLK - Celtics 5 / ORL 6
PF - Celtics 13 / ORL 13
Bench Points - Celtics 43 / ORL 31
Total Team Turnovers (Points off turnovers) – Boston 14 (13) /ORL 15 (20)

NEXT GAME SUNDAT - HOME - 1:00PM - LA CLIPPERS - CSNE/NBA CHANNEL


POST GAME RECAP


ESPNBOSTON.COM

Rapid Reaction: Celtics 97, Magic 84

By Chris Forsberg | ESPNBoston.com

BOSTON -- Rapid reaction after the Boston Celtics defeated the Orlando Magic 97-84 on Friday night at TD Garden:

THE NITTY GRITTY
Paul Pierce flirted with a triple-double (14 points, 11 rebounds, 7 assists), while Kevin Garnett added 14 points and 10 rebounds), but it was a bench effort that featured Jeff Green (team-high 17 points, plus-20 in plus/minus), Jason Terry (12 points, plus-23) and Leandro Barbosa (12 points, plus-21) that helped the Celtics race away in the second half. The Celtics limited Orlando to 37.6 shooting (35 of 93 overall). The Magic were paced by 15 points from J.J. Redick, while Nikola Vucevic (14 points, 14 rebounds) and Andrew Nicholson (14 points, 10 rebounds) added double-doubles for Orlando. Old friend E'Twaun Moore finished with 14 points on 6-of-14 shooting over 24:21 in his first game back in Boston.

TURNING POINT
A one-possession game with five minutes to play in the third quarter, the Celtics closed out the frame on a 15-5 burst to carry a 13-point lead into the final frame. Boston soon pushed its lead as high as 23 with 7:39 remaining. Over that span, the Celtics outscored the Magic 29-12 with Barbosa and Green chipping in eight points apiece (Green and Terry were plus-20 during the stretch). Boston was 13-of-19 shooting (68.4 percent) during the run, while the Magic were 5 of 21 (23.8 percent).

A FAB DEBUT
Celtics rookie center Fab Melo made his NBA debut with the Celtics up 92-77 with 2:38 to play. On his first trip down the floor, Melo barley missed chasing down an offensive rebound, then got beat for a bunny by Kyle O'Quinn. Fans might not have gotten to see Gino dance on the JumboTron, but they got Fab instead.

WHAT IT MEANS
Boston (23-23) has now won three in a row to move back to .500. While the Magic offered little resistance, it's still a quality win for Boston after Jared Sullinger underwent season-ending back surgery on Friday afternoon. The Celtics again got varied contributions with multiple players picking up the slack for injured Rondo and Sullinger. The Celtics wrap up a four-game homestand by hosting the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday afternoon.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

CSNE

Celtics win third in a row, 97-84

A. SHERROD BLAKLEY

BOSTON — In the third quarter, Boston Celtics guard Courtney Lee went tumbling to the floor near the C's bench, gripping his midsection only to eventually rise to his feet.

Celtics fans have every reason to hold their breath when they see a Celtic player go down these days.

Rookie Jared Sullinger (back surgery) became the second starter in less than a week to be lost for the season, joining four-time all-star Rajon Rondo (torn right ACL) in the done-for-the-year club.

But even with bodies falling on a weekly basis, the Celtics are still managing to find ways to win as they extended their winning streak to three in a row with a 97-84 victory over Orlando on Friday.

With the victory, the Celtics (23-23) are now back at .500 which is somewhat surprising when you consider they have been without their best playmaker (Rondo) and best rebounder (Sullinger) for all or most of the last three wins.

"We've had some adversity this year, no doubt," C's Courtney Lee told CSNNE.com. "But that just brings us closer, makes us fight harder for each other, for this team when we're out there."

And it is that fight that the C's have no choice but to bring to the floor every time they play which may be the one plus with them being so short-handed these days.

"Everybody has to step their game up at times like this," Boston's Jeff Green told CSNNE.com.

Few have picked it up more than Paul Pierce who seemed on pace for a second triple-double in the last three games.

He finished with 14 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists. It was Pierce's third straight game with double-digit rebounds after having totaled just 3 double-digit rebound games in Boston's previous 43 games.

After a slow start shooting by both teams, Boston broke open an 18-all tie with a 7-0 run to lead 25-18 after the first.

All seven points during the spurt were scored by the C's bench.

Indeed, Boston's second unit was instrumental in the team's ability to put away an Orlando (14-32) team that has taken the dubious honor of being among the NBA's worst team this season fueled by losses in 19 of their last 21 games.

Boston had five double-digit scorers, three of which (Jeff Green, Jason Terry and Leandro Barbosa) came off the bench. Green led all players with 17 points, the third time this season he has led the C's in scoring.

But a Celtics win wouldn't be complete if there wasn't some sort of let-up. Boston had theirs early in the second quarter after a 19-foot jumper by rookie Andrew Nicholson cut Boston's lead to 29-24.

Following a Celtics time-out, the C's went on a 12-4 run and spent the bulk of the game from there leading by double digits.

Boston's lead soon eclipsed the 20-point plateau, only for the Magic to go on a mini-run that was led by former Celtic E'Twaun Moore who had 14 points off the bench for Orlando.

Rivers had seen enough when he called a 20-second time-out with 3:23 to play and the Celtics lead having been cut to 90-75.

Boston could not push its lead back past the 20-point plateau, but the Magic never made much of a run after the time-out.

Even rookie Fab Melo got a chance to make his NBA debut, checking in with 2:38 to play and the game all but decided.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

WEEI 93.7 FM

HIGH-WIRE ACT: JEFF GREEN, CELTICS SLAM DOOR ON MAGIC
By Mike Petraglia

Jeff Green electrified the crowd with three sensational dunks as part of a 17-point night and Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett added double-doubles to lead the Celtics to a 97-84 win over the Magic Friday night at TD Garden. The Celtics played the game just hours after Jared Sullinger had season-ending back surgery, winning their third straight game to get back to .500 on the season at 23-23. The lowly Magic fell to 14-32.

Pierce fell just three assists shy of his second triple-double in three games, finishing with 14 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists while Garnett matched Pierce's 14 points while chipping in with 10 boards. Green was dominant in the second half and finished 8-of-13 from the field. Jason Terry and Leandro Barbosa each added 12 points off the rejuvenated Celtics bench.

Playing without Sullinger, it was Pierce who picked up the rebounding load in the first quarter, grabbing six boards. The Magic grabbed an early 13-7 lead before Pierce and the Celtics went on a 18-5 run to end the quarter to help the Celtics to a 25-18 lead after 12 minutes.

The Celtics continued to play good defense in the second quarter, holding the Magic to 35 percent shooting. Garnett led the way with 10 points in the quarter as the Celtics took a 46-35 lead to the locker room. The Magic were awful from long range, hitting just 1-of-13 from three-point range and making just 15-of-46 shots (32.6 percent). While the Celtics were dealing with the loss of Rajon Rondo and Jared Sullinger, the Magic were also battling a bad injury bug.

Glen Davis fractured his left foot Wednesday in New York and is likely done for the season. Starting point guard Jameer Nelson bruised his left forearm in the second quarter and did not return.

Despite their injuries, the Magic managed to cut the Boston lead to three, 57-54, on an E'Twaun Moore three-point play with 5:04 left in the third quarter. But the Celtics, thanks to a spectacular one-handed dunk from Green a minute later, closed the quarter on a 15-5 run to take a 72-59 lead into the fourth quarter.

The Celtics continued their barrage to open the fourth, as Green and Courtney Lee added one-handed slams that sent the Garden crowd into a frenzy. Boston opened the period on a 14-5 run to take an 86-64 lead and were not threatened the rest of the way.

Garnett’s 728th career double-double moved him ahead of Shaquille O’Neal (727) on the NBA's all-time list. Since 1990, only Tim Duncan (751) has more.

The Celtics have Saturday off before taking on Blake Griffin and the Clippers Sunday at 1 p.m. at TD Garden.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Heinsohn: How the Celtics will deal with loss of Sullinger

http://www.csnne.com/pages/celticsvideo?PID=uvXM2-1ve5C_4v4qqcUhJGExaDlxfWIT1_WzdR

112288

THE GREEN MACHINE! What a great night for Jeff Green....Go to the Basket Kid
You Got Game!!!!!!!!

I know the loss of Rondo and now Sully will hurt...but on a positive note ...teams will not know how to defend the Celtics. What I mean is there are 10 guys now touching the ball to make plays or pass verses 1 - Rondo. It now makes the Celtics a very dangerous team to guard against, and if they run and gun...we may all have some smiles on our face come the playoffs!

112288

Understand this. I love Rondo and truly appreciate his talent. That said, I really enjoy how these Celtics play. So much more movement on offensive, so quick up the court, and so aggressive on defense.

Now I fully comprehend why Danny got Jeff Green. Besides his ex[plosive offense which is blossoming as his self-confidence grows, he can be hellacious on D. We needed someone tio guard LeBron, and Jeff does a damn good job on him. While we're playing checkers, Danny's playing chess. Kudos danny.

Any win, every win, anytime, against anybody. Of the last 3 games, two of them have been against inferior or shorthanded talent. I ain't proud, I'll take'em because we just took two shots to the body and we need a few days to figure out new plays, new ways. Having said that, I really really really like the way this team has responded and is playing. The are running, running, running. And when they are not running they are moving and passing and moving and passing.

Nothing is so bad you can't find a silver lining and nothing is so good that one cannot find an area for improvement. In the case of this win the price I had to pay was to listen to the two idiotic Orlando announcers, Mike Steele and Matt Guokas. Dumb and Dumber. All Guokas needs is someone to punch him in the mouth and chip a tooth to complete the image. I wonder if Artest does side jobs?

1. The Truth shall set you free. Pierce has stepped up every aspect of his game the past week. He is rebounding like a fiend and generating offenses. He has not been 3pt happy. His 2nd triple double out of the past 3 games, this one in a very efficient 29 minutes. Everybody was calling him old and on his last legs 2 weeks ago. Is he younger now, or just playing more freely?

2. KG is also stepping up on the offensive and rebounding efforts. He is playing like he is the best player on the floor every night. A very efficient night for him too, 14 points on 7-12 and 10 boards in only 23 minutes. Nikola Vucevic also had a very good night with 14 points on 6-12 and 14 boards and 2 blocks. A great opportunity for the 3rd string center in Philly to anchor a team.

3. Jeff Green is turning into a complete monster. I don't know what happened, whether it was the injuries to Rondo and Sully or the change in style or what, but he really is starting to look like a poor-man's James Worthy (now, he just has to keep doing it, year after year for the rest of his career like Worthy did). I absolutely love the fact that he tries to dunk the ball at every opportunity. When he is playing like this he is a nightmare matchup. Worcester said we need someone to guard LeBron. Well, now, LeBron is going to have to guard Jeff Green. That's very good since much of Miami's defense is predicated on LBJ flying in from the weakside. He can't do that if he can't leave Green, can he? Have you noticed that Jeff Green, who has a reputation for being phlegmatic, has now become far more visually emotional and has his own version of JET's flyaway? After big dunks, he acts like he's ripping open his chest, and then pounds his heart. I don't know if he's saying that he's grateful for his new lease on life or what. Maybe I got it wrong. Maybe what he's doing is acting like he's ripping off clothing and revealing his Superman outfit underneath. Either way, he is playing like the way we saw, and were so excited about, in pre-season.

4. Jameer Nelson got a "contused forearm" and left the game. A contusion? So, he got a little blue booboo and he couldn't play? Gimme a break. KG played with a bone spur the size of a walnut under his knee. Kobe plays with broken fingers, no cartilage and beat up shoulders. Rondo dislocated his elbow, got it popped back in and played the rest of that game with one arm. Dumb and Dumber were mentioning how much trouble he was having with Bradley. Maybe there was another reason for his not coming back?

5. The PitBulls made life miserable for the Magic's girly point guard and gunner-par-excellence JJ Redick. Nelson ended his night to nurse his bruised ego, er, I mean forearm, after just 2 points on 1-6 shooting and 2 assists in 19 forgettable minutes. Redick finally heated up a bit, he always does, but he still only shot 5-15 and 2-5 from 3. On the offensive side, Bradley's mid-range game continues to struggle. Of all the players on the team, the one whose offense seems to have suffered the most in this post-Rondo season is his. His game depends so much upon moving without the ball and assisted fgs, he is not getting some of the same opportunities he was getting before. He was 3-9, but I believe 2 of those fgm were layups on backdoor cuts with assists from Pierce. In other words, Pierce played Rondo and Bradley thrived. Lee is playing great on both sides of the ball. 14 points on 6-13, 2-4 from 3, 5 assists and 5 rebounds and great defense on Redick. One of the things I saw, last night, was that the ball was passed to the weak side of the floor where Lee was in the corner and Bradley was out at the 3pt line foul line extended. The ball went to Bradley, who passed it to Lee, who passed it back to Bradley who took the shot (and missed). Nice rotation of the ball to the weak side, and very unselfish play by the Pitbulls forcing the defense to choose one of them and then giving the ball back to the other one. They are playing really, really well together.

6. E'Tuan Moore is the King of Garbage Time. Other than that, he still struggles with his ballhandling and decision making. The kid can shoot, though, just don't ask him to do much more than that. Dumber (Guokas) was oohing and ahhhing about how Moore was making the Celtics regretting letting him go. Um, he was traded with two other players who are in the D-league for starter Courtney Lee, maroon, whom you were talking up last night. Not to mention the fact that he was ineffective earlier in the game and only started to excel in garbage time. Who would you rather have?

7. Our backup back court have been set free too. JET is finally starting to look like JET. He is hitting his shots, he is moving, he is passing. Only 1-4 from 3, but he had 12 points on 4-8 shooting (meaning he was 3-4 from inside the arc), 5 assists and 1 turnover. That's more like it. The Blur earned his nickname last night. Damn! Can he go up and down fast or what? I was also watching his defense carefully last night. I thought he did pretty well, although defense has been the knock on him. If the Pitbulls clamp their jaws down on the starting back court these guys will run and score like crazy. I was glad when we signed Barbosa, but I was a bit concerned because he looked like he had lost some of his speed in Toronto and Indy. Nope. He was just being misused. He is still a blur. It is soooo nice to have someone who can singlehandedly outrun everybody down floor, with or without the ball. A nice contribution of 12 points on 6-11, 4 assists and zero turnovers in 27 minutes by The Blur. Good things come to those who wait, Leandrinho. Thanks for waiting. Together, our backup back court had 24 points on 10-19, 9 assists and just 1 turnover.

8. We were averaging 24 apg with Rondo. We had 30 assists last night. 84fga is a nice number. Not great, but nice. Shooting 50% on them is nice too. That's 42fgm on 30 assists for a 71% ratio. That is excellent. Running the floor, passing the ball, old school Celtic basketball.

9. Fab Melo is now in the history books. Basketball-reference.com has his name listed, as a player. Goose eggs across the board, of course.

10. Starting unit? 54 points on 23-50 (46%), 3 players in double digit scoring, 35 rebounds, 16 assists, 6 steals, 1 block and 8 TOs in a total of 137 player minutes. Bench? 43 points on 19-34 (56%), 3 players in double digit scoring, 13 rebounds, 14 assists, 3 steals, 4 blocks and 6 TOs in a total of 103 player minutes. The bench only got 19 minutes from centers (Wilcox, Melo, Collins) which explains the difference in rebounding totals, but otherwise we have very remarkable balance between the starters and the bench. Either our starters are playing poorly or our bench is really, really stepping up. Considering we're winning I know which way I'm inclined to lean.

The Miami game was something else, a wonderful effort by our grinders. The last two games have to be taken with a grain of salt because of the talent we were playing against. Nevertheless, our style of play has definitely taken a marked turn. We are MUCH more uptempo. We are running MUCH more. We have more people touching the ball now. Doc and Danny laugh at the suggestion that we're better off without Rondo, and I understand their points, but at least for the past few games we ARE better. The team is now, finally, playing the way the were supposed to play, based upon the players Danny brought in and the style that Doc has been exhorting them to play.

Now, it gets tougher. The Clippers are coming to town and they just got badly spanked by the Toronto Raptors.

Go Celtics! Payback is a bitch!

bob


.

Wish we could have played like this with Rondo, but we weren't, no matter who to blame, Rondo or Doc, the only reason I see why we couldn't run like this now is because with Rondo the defense was nowhere near as good. AB locks up the opposing points, with Lee locking down the other 2, with Rondos defense slipping we got attacked, not anymore. With the defense so much better, now we can get so many more fast break opportunities.

Sullys loss could hurt more than Rondos, as what team doesn't need a glass cleaner? Curious how we'll do against a playoff caliber team, but make no mistake our defense is so much better right now, for this team, everything flows from the defensive effort first and Jeff Green has suddenly morphed into a very good athletic defender. With Sully out Green should be getting 30 minutes or more a game and obviously a chance to fully expand his game. Rondo was also dominating the ball too much on offense, dribbling too much, everybody waiting to play off him, our offense was way too predictable. Now everyone creates for each other, everyone has an equal opportunity....as the offense continues to expand, defenses will not know what to expect, Docs gonna have to do alot of teaching, the first half of the season, he got too comfortable, waiting for the old system to gell.

Cowens,

It will be interesting to see whether Doc does more teaching or more tweaking. I'm hoping it will be more of the latter, as the remaining nucleus is pretty experienced and knowledgeable of what has to be accomplished. They're especially good at their respective specialties, which they're now utilizing more freely.

Based on Doc's post-game conference last night, he seems to feel that the best tactic is to these guys do their scoring mostly out of the flow of the game. It's hard to disagree with that, given how they've been performing. But I do wish he'd introduce more discipline to the offense in the form of more set plays, as I think it would pay off in situations where their instinctive play is being stuffed by good defensive teams (which often leads to settling for jumpers).

Sam

Hi,
I just wanted to mention JG. Very good outing for him. The only thing I was surprised by was his slow reaction to a completely unexpected. I hope it's an accident that won't happen often. I'm talking about when in 3rd (?) quarter he had the ball at the left side of 3-pt line and, all of a sudden, Orl players moved out giving him direct path to the hoop. He didn't take it. Even Mike Gorman had time to react with some exclamation.
On the positive side, JG did recognize it and the fact that the path had been closed. So he took a different approach.

On a different subject. I wonder if DA has changed his strategy about the roster after RR and Sully are out? For instance, there was a very solid opinion that Celtics were one big (such as Gortat) away from going into Finals. Now, I doubt that it'd do the trick.

AK

Btw, I forgot mention that we were over halfcourt and getting into our sets with between 19-20 seconds left on the shot clock an average in the first half. We slowed up some in the 2nd half but NOBODY walked it up.

Now that's uptempo!


bob


.

Bob,
Pierce didn't have his second triple double. Of course if he had played any in the 4th quarter there is a very good chance he would have. He made at least 5 passes to guys that got great shots that went in and out as well, so he very easily could have had those 3 assists without the 4th quarter.
I am glad he has slowed down on the threes. Now he is doing the right thing by pump faking and getting closer, instead of going sideways to still get the 3 ball.

Hi Cow,

I asked the question on the other board this, would you rather have one guy get 12 assists a game or have 3 guys get 4 assists? I know what I would rather have. If we play like that then Rondo has to become more of a offensive player. Not sure taking shots is in his DNA.

Tardust, that's a very interesting question. I think the answer depends very much on the team and the mix of players on the team.

I always use Cousy as the gold standard of floor generals because he was unquestionably the best floor general of all-time, combining incredible dexterity and basketball skills with what amounted to strategic genius. In the regular season of Bob's highest assist year (1959-60), he played in every game and collected 38.6% of the Celtics' assists, playing in every game of the season.

In the current season, if I exclude the 8 games in which Rondo hasn't played, Rajan has accounted for 47% of the Celtics' assists.

One reason Cousy didn't account for a higher percentage of his team's assists was that he scored 19.4 PPG himself, compared with 13.7 for Rondo. Moreover, Cousy was blessed with teammates (including his eventual successor K.C. Jones and Bill Russell) who were excellent passers. So it makes sense that Rondo would assist on a higher percentage of his team's baskets than Cousy did—but nothing close to 47%. IMO, that's excessive. It puts the team out of balance. It makes them more predictable.

Right now, the Celtics have so many offensively gifted players that they can get assists simply because opponents fear their offensive moves. I call it the "Allen Iverson Syndrome." He wasn't a great passer, but he amassed a boat load of assists simply by driving, attracting double teams, and dumping the ball off.
it seems to me that, once Rondo got into double digits regularly, he sort of fell in love with assists to the point where he went overboard in that direction. Hence all the dribbling and waiting for teammates to get free for just the right pass. The problem has been that the teammates got into the habit of standing and waiting for him to do something. The net result was a combination of a few excellent (and often flashy) collaborations and a whole lot of wasted possessions.

I don't really think that the Celtics' current situation is anything near ideal. But it seems almost as if they've escaped en masse from Alcatraz. And part of their response to shouldering greater responsibility is to be (1) more conservative than Rondo had become, resulting in fewer blown opportunities and (2) more energetic because of feeling more involved and alert to the fact that they could get a pass at any time from any direction.

They're even running the fast break better than with Rondo—perhaps because they've usually got at least two (and often three or even more) guys on the wings and the center of the court, while the ball is flying (by pass) down the court. Before, it often seemed that Rondo wound up beating them all downcourt, so it made no sense to him to push the ball.

So, in general, I think that the game of basketball should led by a floor general. But I believe that no more than 40% of ball distribution should be concentrated on that player.

The Celtics of the 80s were a great example of how a team with the right mix of players can succeed while not having a traditional point guard. In the championship season of 1985-86, the leading Celtics assist guy wasn't even a point guard. It was (duh!) Larry Bird, with only 23.3% of the team's assists.

So, as I said at the outset, the answer to your question depends on the team and the mix of players.

Sam

Sam,
I agree with most of what your saying. I do think the mix of players we have fit the style we are talking about.

It seems every time that RR is out Paul increases his assists stats. Even last year when RR missed those string of like 8 games, PP I think averages 7-8 assists. He pretty much as the percentage of assists you are talking about. I don't think that type of percentage is the type of ball that fits RR's style though. He would have to look for his shot more and I just don't think that is in his DNA.

Chris Paul is one that has the mixture we are talking about, even though he doesn't score that much more than Rondo. As a former point guard myself, I found out early on that it was much easier to get a assist when you are a threat to score yourself. I started off at a scorer but as time went on I found out that I would took more pride in getting assists.

One final thought is the more evenly the assists are spread out, the less dependent you are on someone and the less vulnerable you are to a injury killing your teams chances of winning. Luckily we have guys that can get assists off their play making ability.

Who likes to sit in the corner waiting on a pass 10 times up the court and never touches the ball. That is nearly as bad as having someone that shoots every time they touch the ball.

tardust

I think it depends on the team too, but there was a game Rondo had a wide open layup and flips it behind to Bass who muffed the pass.....Rondo regularly controlled and dominated the ball too much and he wouldn't put up enough shots, plus too many guys were standing around waiting for Rondo to do something with alot of times not getting off good shots. For this team we have 2 HoF players that can pass, shoot and score, to take away their creativity and become so predictable was not a good thing.

Rondo is very talented, no question, the big mystery is how he lost his defensive abilities? Combined with his shooting deficiencies, maybe every 4th game he might get you 18 or 20 and I can name 7-8 point guards that might be as good or better.

cow