Game Retrospective: Celtics at Raptors Exhibition October 18, 2009

This will not go down as the most exciting game of the year. Perhaps the best thing was that the final score (Celtics 101, Raptors 82) achieved its greatest margin at the end. That means the Celtics bench once again succeeded in spelling the starters in the fourth quarter and did not give ground. That factor could be huge in helping Doc to regulate the starters’ playing time if the bench can sustain that energy during the regular season.

As Doc said, the starters appear ready. KG played 28 minutes and went for 21 points. He also looked like his old self as he slashed down the lane a couple of times to receive beautiful passes (made one, missed one). KG was my co-MVP, along with Ray Allen. They seemed to be looking for Ray more than in the first five games. He was able to square up, and his stroke was beautiful as he score a very efficient 20 points ( despite missing a foul shot). Wonder what it’s like to be such a great free throw shooter than someone writes about it when you miss one.

Rondo was satisfactory, shooting in single figures with 6 assists, but he missed his only two free throws. He played 31 minutes—more than any other starter—which means he continued to play a few minutes with the bench. That’s an interesting option with which Doc can avoid placing too much responsibility on a backup PG. Perk got his usual 7 rebounds and had one great block, but he was assessed 5 fouls in only 17 minutes. Paul once again disappeared in the scoring department (2 points) but handed out 5 assists. I’m not worried about either Paul or Ray; they’ll be there when the bell rings and the team’s not experimenting so much with what the non-Amigos can provide.

Against offensively minded teams like the Raptors, it may be that the starters will hold their own against the other team’s starters and the Celtics bench will put the game away. In this game, the scores were:

Celtics starters 57, Raptors starters 55
Celtics bench 44, Raptors bench 27

The Celts played pretty good defense, holding the Raptors to .437 shooting. Two of the important areas in which they have fared pretty well during preseason games have been rebounding and assists:

The Celts have averaged 43.0 boards compared with 39.5 for the competition.
The Celts have averaged 21.2 assists compared with 14.0 for the competition

Assists, in particular, are often down in the preseason, as many of the games take on a sort of playground iso look…so it appears the Celts may have an early offensive chemistry advantage over some teams.

The crowd was announced as 13,607. Maybe they put in a lot of bathroom time, because it was one of the most lackluster “noise” levels I’ve heard. Anyway, onward @ the Knicks on Tuesday at 7:30. Don’t forget our game-on thread and another contest with a chance to win a free year on this forum.

I think it was absolutely the coolest that the first contest was won by a native Swede who’s studying in Estonia. I’m sure the Lakers have just as much serendipity working for them too, right? NOT.

Sam

Sam

I watched the game and couldn't have w/o gyso and said swede. I couldn't believe it. Just punch the link and play ball!

A real difference maker for me.

Jeb

Sam

To me it was a tale of two halves. The C's allowed the Raptors 25 foul shot attempts in the first half. If you check the final stats the raptors ended up with 27 attempts for the game. Certainly the Celtics appeared to challenge shots much better in the second half and Toronto got few if any really good looks in the final 24 minutes in which they only scored a paltry 33 points. I wish I could see what the second half shooting % for Toronto was but it was poor.

The other stat that jumps out is 27 assists on 37 field goals and all but 2 players that played got at least 1.

Foul shooting is still a concern. The bench was perfect going 13-13 with BB getting 7 of those. Starters got there 12 times and made 7. Pierce never shot any and KG was 5x5. Not an acceptable number in getting there and certainly not an acceptable %. Of course in somewhat limited minutes the total attempts would be skewed to a lower number.

Rebounding appeared adequate. Many times multiple green shirts were going after the same board.

Would have liked to see the end of the bench a little more but Doc looks like he is getting set on his rotation pattern for the most part.

As for the "crowd" sort of an oxymoron like "jumbo shrimp."

Lot more empty seats than those with fannies in them.

beat

Beat,

Loved the "jumbo shrimp" description of an oxymoron.

I intended to mention the assist-to-field goal percentage (73%), but you "beat" me to it. They almost can't lose with that high a percentage.

Sam

Sam

found this interesting tibbit about the game...

One final funny sequence to end things from the 1st quarter. Chris Bosh gathered an offensive rebound under the C’s basket and bizarrely his teammate Sonny Weems ran into him. The officials calls a foul on Paul Pierce and KG loudly contests the call, claiming Pierce did not touch Bosh, a statement that seemed true to naked eye. A look at the replay showed the real perpetraitor was Pierce after all.
The Truth was fighting for position with Sonny Weems on the other side of the lane and Weems obstructed any path Pierce had in contesting Bosh’s putback attempt. Instead of conceding the 2, Pierce shoved Weems into Bosh forcing the power forward to put up a wild shot as the referees whistle the foul. I had never seen anything like that while watching the NBA as did play by play man Mike Gorman. Tommy Heinsohn recognized what was going on immediately and laughed about the maneuver, claiming it was an old trick to push an offensive player into his teammate during a shot attempt. Glad to see Tommy’s advice is not fooling on death ears in the C’s locker room after all these years.

beat