Boston 107, Orlando 88

I wasn't able to watch this one since it was on NBATV, but it's another convincing win over a top tier Eastern Conference opponent. Good first quarter, poor second quarter, and then it appears that Paul Pierce came out of the locker room after halftime and decided that there was no way we were losing tonight (17 points in the third after being held to five and committing three fouls in the first half). Good games from the rest of the starting five and particularly Eddie House of the bench, too.

[recap] [box score]

Since I didn't see it, I don't have any basketball to analyze, so I'll take a quick minute to talk about something that I've touched on briefly before and that is becoming an increasing concern for the Celtics: technical fouls.

We got five tonight: two on Sam Cassell, who got his from the bench; and one each on Rajon Rondo, Kendrick Perkins, and Kevin Garnett. We are far and away the most-penalized team in the league this year when it comes to technicals, but in and of itself, that's not a big deal. Technical fouls are a part of professional basketball and they aren't a big deal here and there, but we're treading on thin ice here. The NBA has rules about technicals, and those rules say that once you hit 16 technicals for the year, every subsequent technical results in a one-game suspension. It doesn't reset or anything like that for the playoffs, either (which makes sense; otherwise, you'd have guys going crazy trying to pick up technicals to get suspended before the playoffs).

Tonight's tech was Perk's ninth of the season, which means he's getting hit with one almost every other game, which, if you do the math, means that if he keeps up this pace, he's going to hit the limit before the All-Star break.

That is a problem. We can't have Perk missing playoff games left and right because of technical fouls. Sure, he's not the most valuable player on our team by a long shot, but he's the only true center we have that we can feel comfortable playing (Patrick O'Bryant isn't there yet). He's gotta keep himself under control.

Additionally, and this is something I warned Doc about re: Garnett in a previous post when KG got slapped with the one-game suspension for his altercation with Milwaukee's Andrew Bogut, Doc needs to be cognizant of the problem and limit Perk's time on the court as much as possible. I don't know what Perk did to get T'd up, but I know that at the time he got whistled, we were up 16 and there were under four minutes left. Perkins had re-entered the game a minute earlier for Glen Davis -- who was more likely than not winded at playing most of the fourth quarter, so it's not that I'm blaming Doc for this. But I hope it's something he pays attention to as the season wears on.