Boston 94, Sacramento 86

[recap] [box score]

This was a strong performance for about 30 minutes, before the bench came in and let the lead slowly slip away. By the time the starters returned, they were a little out of synch. The team never really seemed in danger of losing this game, but a more consistent effort would have been nice.

Return of the bullets:

• Kendrick Perkins missed this game with tendinitis in his left knee. (Why is tendinitis spelled that way and not "tendonitis"? It is, after all, itis of the tendon.) We don't know exactly how long Perk's going to be out, but word is that he'll miss the San Antonio game.
• Rasheed Wallace, starting in Perkins' place, played the most energetic game we've seen from him in a while. At one point, he jumped on the floor to tie up Carl Landry, earning a Tommy Point in the process -- the first one I can remember him receiving this year. (To be fair, Heinsohn hasn't given as many of these rewards for hustle plays this season.)
• Rajon Rondo was at his apothecarial best on Friday, dishing out a regular season career-high 18 assists. He was masterful, particularly in the first half, whipping the ball through the narrowest openings and playing with his usual flair. Too much flair, perhaps, but a lot of fun to watch -- and effective, against the hapless Kings, at least.
• Rondo's strip of Sean May in the second quarter gave him the Celtics single-season record for thefts. His 168th steal eclipsed the mark of Rick Fox. Whatever we can do to erase Fox's name from the team record books is a positive thing, in my opinion.
• Marquis Daniels got the DNP-CD in the first half, and didn't enter the game until the third quarter, when the game seemed well in hand. I think I heard Greg Dickerson say in a sideline report that Daniels is in some ways still learning how to fit in with the team, since he missed all that time with the hand injury. Sitting him for the whole first half is a funny way to get him comfortable.
• Nate Robinson sprained his ankle in the first half and didn't return to the game. I don't have any word as to how much more time he'll miss, if any.

San Antonio is in town on Sunday (8 p.m. Eastern, ESPN). The Spurs are missing their point guard, Tony Parker, but as they seem to do when they are missing one of their big three (Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, and Parker), they have been playing well of late. They knocked off the Cavs on Friday after beating Oklahoma City earlier in the week, alternating those wins with losses to Atlanta and the Lakers. Sunday's game is the last in a five-in-eight stretch, as difficult a series of games as you'll see in the NBA. Maybe we can catch them tired, though we shouldn't need to to beat them.

Reminder: RwH on College Hoops

I'm still blogging about the tournament over one 19'9". Here are my picks and analysis for Thursday's Sweet 16 games.

Boston 113, Denver 99

[recap] [box score]

The Celtics concluded an encouraging four-game stretch with a decisive victory over the Nuggets in Boston.

Boston's 110-97 loss in Utah on Monday threatened to leave Cs fans uneasy after a couple of encouraging games. A loss to Denver at home would largely erase the positive that came out of back-to-back victories in Houston and Dallas.

The Nuggets did their part to make this an easy victory. Their defense was non-existent, and they were perhaps feeling the effects of having played the night before (a relatively stunning loss to the Knicks in New York). Then again, they've really struggled on the road this year; they're just 17-19 away from home, by far the worst mark among division leaders. It was strange to see a relatively listless game after three very intense contests.

Boston clinched a playoff spot with this win, and there is hope that the team is starting to play its best ball at the right time. Everyone is more or less healthy; despite the odd off-game from or another of them, the starters seem to have shaken off injury and are playing well; Michael Finley has been better than anyone realistically thought he could be; and Glen Davis is finally starting to do the things on the court that a man who weighs 290 pounds should do. We still need to figure out what do with Rasheed Wallace, whose refusal and/or inability to get into shape is both obnoxious and curious this late in the season. It's really having an effect on his play, particularly defensively, where he barely challenges any shots and is routinely beaten for rebounds. Whether that's due to his age and fitness or his apparent apathy is unclear, but it's at the point where I don't trust him to get any better and don't feel particularly comfortable when he's in the game.

Plenty of tests remain in the season's final few weeks, although we're really playing to keep our rhythm and go into the playoffs on a high note; we're a long shot to catch Orlando for the second seed in the East and in no real danger of giving up home-court advantage in the first round by falling to the fifth seed. I suppose we'd rather have the three than the four, just so we could avoid Cleveland in the second round, though in all likelihood we'd need to go through the Cavs anyway.

Next game is Friday at home vs. Sacramento. Next TV game is Sunday at 8 p.m. Eastern on ESPN, in Boston, against the Spurs.

Boston 102, Dallas 93

[box score] [recap]

This was just a very good basketball game and a very good win for the Celtics. After holding a lead for most of the game, the Celtics found themselves down seven points on the road in the fourth quarter. In the past two months, Boston lost a bunch of games that followed this script, with the opposition's run snowballing quickly into a double-digit lead and the game rapidly slipping away. Tonight, however, Boston dug in their heels, executed on both ends, and came away with the win.

Another encouraging sign was that for the second straight night, the team ran real offense in the final minutes, relying heavily on Rajon Rondo, who had several key buckets on his way to 20 points. Paul Pierce got off to a quick start and led the team with 29 points; Ray Allen hit four of eight three-pointers and finished with 21 points; and Kevin Garnett, despite his offensive struggles, grabbed nine rebounds and have five of the team's 11 steals.

Mission accomplished on two-thirds of the team's very tough three-game Western trip. Utah on Monday is as tough a matchup as this one was tonight. The team has already sent a message with two impressive wins on a back-to-back, but a win in Salt Lake City would put the league on notice that the Celtics are not done yet.

Boston 94, Houston 87

[recap] [box score]

This was a terrific start to the road trip. It only gets tougher from here and this was not a flawless game, but there were a lot of good things. Bulleted good things, in fact, in no particular order:

• Rajon Rondo held Aaron Brooks to 10 points on 4-for-12 shooting. Brooks can really play, and he's one of the few guys in the league that might be quicker than Rondo. But Rondo, with help, kept Brooks under control, and that's a key to beating Houston.
• Five offensive rebounds for Glen Davis. Frankly, we basically suck on the offensive glass, especially with Shelden Williams reserved to a cleanup role, so this is a welcome development. Big Baby still needs to work on converting these second-chance opportunities -- he had his shot blocked four times -- but he finally seems willing to mix it up and do Leon Powe-type things, so it's a step in the right direction.
• Continued strong play from the Big Three, which combined for 60 points on 23-for-42 from the field.
• Solid performance from the bench. Davis had seven points and seven boards, Rasheed Wallace had seven points and nine rebounds, and Nate Robinson contributed another eight points. Nothing spectacular, but if we can get 70 points from our starters on a night we play our signature good defense, this is all we need from that group.
• My favorite: Real offense in crunch time! Up five with under a minute to play, needing a bucket to seal the game, we didn't isolate Paul Pierce and let him go one-on-one after letting the shot clock run down. Instead, we ran an actual play, got the ball to KG on the wing, and curled Pierce off a screen on the opposite block. Houston botched the switch, Garnett hit Pierce with a perfect pass, and the captain laid it in to lock up the W.

All in all a good win where we just outplayed the other team, and don't have to attribute it to unusually hot shooting or bad play from the bad guys. Sure, we made ten of 23 three-pointers, but we also missed six of 16 free throws and scored 12 fewer points than the Rockets from the line (despite the fact that Houston wasn't noticeably more aggressive than we were throughout the game). Let's hope we can keep it up Saturday night against Dallas.

NCAA Tournament Day One Thoughts

I don't know how many of my admittedly few readers care about college basketball or what I think about college basketball, but I just wrote 2,500 words on an incredible first day of the NCAA Tournament and I think I owe it to myself to try and get someone to read them.

Last regional breakdown over on 19-9

I've talked briefly about the West regional here, on my college basketball blog. Check there throughout the tournament for picks and recaps.

Boston 109, New York 97

[recap] [box score]

Boston continued their recent domination of the Knicks with a 12-point victory that wasn't nearly that close. This was the 11th straight home win for the Celtics on St. Patrick's Day, which sounds impressive, and they haven't lost at home on March 17 since 1968, which sounds even more impressive. It's less impressive when you consider how bad New York is, but whatever.

"Whatever" is probably the best work to describe this game, but the Celtics are about to embark on a four-game stretch that is vey much not "whatever." Next up is a road game in Houston on Friday, followed by a road game in Dallas the very next night, followed by a road game in Utah on Monday. They then come home to play Denver on Wednesday. (It only gets slightly easier after that; the next three are home dates against Sacramento, San Antonio, and Oklahoma City).

With the season winding down, this is basically the last chance for the Celtics to establish themselves as a real contender with a prolonged period of excellent play elite competition. A home date with Cleveland is on the schedule for April 4, but a single positive result wouldn't prove nearly as much as a series of strong performances over the next week. Two years ago, if memory serves, the Celtics swept a similar road trip. Another sweep certainly wouldn't guarantee a championship, but it would serve as notice that Boston is back and ready for the playoffs.

That's true in part because the team, finally, appears to be healthy and complete. Kevin Garnett's 22 points on Wednesday was his third straight game in double figures, and he's made 20 of 31 shots over that stretch. Paul Pierce led all Celtics against the Knicks with 29 points, and he's now 28-for-49 over the last four outings, which is hopefully a sign that he's recovered enough from the injuries that have plagued him this year. Nate Robinson has now played around a dozen or so games in a green and white uniform and should be acclimated enough to make a steady contribution. And despite the skepticism voiced by some commentators (ahem!), Michael Finley -- his 1-for-9 performance against New York notwithstanding -- has shown in half a dozen games that he can, at the very least, knock down a few shots (before Wednesday, he was 18-for-28 from the field as a Celtic, including 6-for-11 from behind the three-point line).

Of course, no injuries means no excuses, and so this is kind of a judgment day for the Celtics. Denver and Dallas are making a late charge at the Lakers for the top of the Western Conference, and Utah is in fourth and has been one of the league's hottest teams over the last several weeks. And Houston, while not currently a playoff team, is still very much in the hunt, five games out of the eighth spot pending results of Wednesday's games. They'll be hungry.

Still more RwH on college hoops...

South region breakdown here.

More RwH on College Hoops

My thoughts on the East regional.

Boston 119, Detroit 93

[recap] [box score]

No matter how often I see it, I'm not sure I'll ever quite get used to the unshakable confidence of professional athletes. One day after a definitive and potentially demoralizing loss to the Cavs, the Celtics came out and knocked Detroit on its ass in the first quarter, jumping out to a 31-15 lead after one and cruising from there.

ESPN's broadcast team made a couple of big picture points I'd like to briefly address. The first was that perhaps the Celtics were "back." Indeed, there were many traces of the brand of basketball we grew accustomed to in the past two seasons; intensity, stifling defense, hot shooting, sharing the ball, offensive rhythm, and swagger. To that, I caution against getting carried away. Detroit is every bit as bad as its 23-44 record. and they were down a couple of starters to injury even before Tayshaun Prince left afer seven minutes after colliding with Jason Maxiell. Boston should be blowing teams like this out.

The second thing is that at one point, someone remarked that the five Celtics on the floor were playing like "five Anderson Varejaos," referring to the Cavs' energetic backup center who has given us a lot of trouble. And it's true; Boston looked a lot more energetic Monday than they have in a while. But this, too, is concerning. Where was that energy yesterday against Cleveland?Traditionally, great teams get up for big games and sometimes fall asleep against inferior competition. In the last two days, the Celtics have done the opposite. Boston hasn't shown championship-level focus and intensity in a game against an elite team in quite a while. These types of performances against the Detroits of the league are luxuries; against the Clevelands and Orlandos and LAs, they are necessities.

Next game is Wednesday, at home against the Knicks. Then it starts to get tough; three games in four days in Houston, Dallas, and Utah, followed by a home date with Denver.

RwH on college hoops

Thanks to my parents, the Celtics were my first roundball love, but for most of my life, I've been a bigger fan of college basketball than the pro game. I've had a college basketball blog for a couple of years. It's been dormant since last year's national title game as my focus has been on the Association, but the last week has really had me jonesing or some college basketball chatter. So I've revived it for March, at least. Over the next four days, I'll be posting that chatter, region-by-region. You can find my thoughts on the Midwest region here. Check it out, if you're so inclined.

Cleveland 104, Boston 93

[recap] [box score]

I had said I was going to skip this one, but Evan Turner turned the Big11Ten championship game into a formality and so I ended up watching a good chunk of the second half, right up until the Selection Show. I basically watched until our bench played us out of it in the fourth.

Last time this happened -- when Cleveland just ran by us in the second half last month -- I wrote here that I wasn't sure that we were deep enough to beat Cleveland. To elaborate a little on that, consider the lineups at the start of the fourth quarter, with the Cavs holding an eight-point lead:

Cleveland: Delonte West, Mo Williams, Jamario Moon, Antawn Jamison, Leon Powe

Boston: Nate Robinson, Marquis Daniels, Michael Finley, Glen Davis, Rasheed Wallace

That's a complete bench unit for the Celtics, while the Cavs had two starters -- Jamison and Williams -- on the floor. One-by-one, Lebron James, Anthony Parker, and Anderson Varejao replaced Powe, West, and Moon, leaving them with effectively their starting lineup on the floor for the rest of the game.

Mike Brown can get away with this for a few reasons, including the fact that his studs are younger, so he can play them longer minutes. But his older stars, like Jamison, can go a whole fourth quarter because they can rest for a chunk of the third, more than capably replaced against the opposition's first unit by guys like Varejao and J.J. Hickson.

I may be over-emphasizing the effect of the benches on this particular game; both teams were extremely cold to start the fourth quarter, and it was only a ten-point deficit when Doc brought KG back about three minutes in. And even with the big guns in the game, Boston went the first five minutes of the period without scoring. But watching our overmatched second unit really drove home what I felt so discouraged about last time these two teams met.

I hate writing this, but it's almost as though the Cavs, and Lebron in particular, were toying with us. King James took just four shots in the first half, then exploded for 24 points in the second half, getting to the basket (and often the line) at will. We were right there at the start of the fourth, and then Cleveland just coasted away from us. Tough to watch. Something -- health, focus, attitude -- is going to have to change if we have any chance of beating these guys in a seven-game series.

At Least We Can Beat The Pacers

I've taken a break from the Celtics this week, as the college basketball season heats up. As a result, I didn't watch much of our narrow loss in Milwaukee or the blowout loss to Memphis, nor did I catch but a few minutes of Friday's easy win over Indiana.

We've got Cleveland on Sunday (3:30 p.m. Eastern on ABC). In previous years, matchups with the Cavs were must-see events. This year feels different. For starters, we're not realistically challenging them for the best regular season record in the East (and the home court advantage that comes with it). Second, we played these guys up in Boston a couple of weeks ago and they just ran past us in the second half. At their best, they are better than anything we've shown in a long time. Third, Cleveland definitely won't have Shaquille O'Neal, might not have Antawn Jamison, and haven't yet re-claimed Zydrunas Ilgauskas.

All this means that I might not feel too bad about watching Ohio St. and Minnesota in the Big Ten final and catching this one on DVR, sometime after the Selection Show. Hey, if the team can take a few games off -- and it definitely has this year -- so can I.

Wacky formatting?

Not sure what happened, but my last post seems all messed up, font-wise (there's text below the last tweet). If you get RwH in your RSS feed, hopefully it reads okay. If you don't, try highlighting the text of the entry on your screen. It should be readable then. Sorry for the inconvenience. I'm guessing this has to do with the copy-paste of Twitter entries, but I'm not savvy enough to make necessary adjustments.

Boston 86, Washington 83

[recap] [box score]

As some brave followers know, I took advantage of my new Twitter account to live-tweet last night's game. I thought it might be fun to re-post some of that commentary, with annotations. I realize this disincentivizes people from following these sessions, but what, as they say, ever.

So, here we go. Tweets in regular font, annotations in italics.

RhymesWithHondo

Welcome to the RwH livetweet of Cs-Wiz. No Oscar tie-ins, because I'm not clever enough. If you're following, say what's up.

And welcome to the RwH post-livetweet blog entry of Cs-Wiz! Still not clever enough for Oscar tie-ins.

RhymesWithHondo

Early, college-style TO from Flip just over a minute in. Are they ever effective in the NBA?

This after Boston went up 4-0 1:07 in. This would represent the largest lead the Celtics held all evening -- or, as we say on the West Coast, all afternoon.

RhymesWithHondo

Attn those with League Pass: Rockets-Piston tied in the final 20 seconds.

League Pass is awesome. Get it next year. Also, Detroit won.

RhymesWithHondo

25-19 bad guys after one. Andray Blatche killing us, but he has two fouls. KG 0-4. Need to get Ray and Rondo going offensively.

Blatche is a unique talent who has absolutely exploded since the trade-deadline departures of Antawn Jamison and Caron Butler. He displayed his soft touch on the midrange J, and he can put it on the floor. Think Lamar Odom, without the court vision. But a guy to build around in Washington, given the mess they've got there.

Garnett, by the way, finished 0-for-7 from the field, the first time he was held without a field goal since his rookie year -- January 27, 1996, to be exact.

Also, not to pat myself on the back too much, but the final sentence fragment of the above tweet would prove prescient. Stay tuned!

RhymesWithHondo

Robinson checking Boykins is both exactly the same and exactly the opposite as Scalabrine guarding SA's Matt Bonner.

I amuse myself greatly. ESPN's Dan Shulman was the first to point out that the listed 5-9 Nate Robinson would be matched up with the 5-5 Earl Boykins, but I took it to the next level by making the brilliant Scalabrine-Bonner analogy-slant-distinction. That's why you read me, folks.

RhymesWithHondo

This is the most we've seen from Perk offensively in a while. Should we credit Blatche's "defense"?

At the start of the year, Perkins looked greatly improved offensively, so much so that I didn't mind us feeding him the ball every now and then. He'd regressed the last several games, yet we were still going to him, which bugged me. But his ten points in the first half kept us in it yesterday.

RhymesWithHondo

JaVale McGee stuffs KG and the Captain in a span of like three possessions. One of my favorite underrated guys from the 2008 draft.

I love McGee, and have for a while (see the second item). I'm really excited to see what he can do now that Haywood is gone and he's the starting center by default in the nation's capital.

RhymesWithHondo

Folding laundry during halftime. Being an obscure Internet personality isn't as glamorous as it sounds. Back after halftime.

I'm not entirely sure what I did during halftime, because when I left my apartment this morning, half of my laundry was still in the basket. The other half is on my bed, having been poured there as I searched for a a pair of socks.

RhymesWithHondo

2 pts from Rondo at half. Need another 14-pt third quarter like the one he had after going scoreless in the 1st half against Philly on Fri.

Oh, yeah. I forgot to tell you. We beat the Sixers in Philadelphia on Friday.

RhymesWithHondo

Ten str8 pts from Ray followed by 7 str8 from Rondo. Nice to see guys stepping up after PP went to bench. Wizards by 4 after three.

The first signs of life from Boston on this night, erased by a terrible start to the fourth quarter, thanks to a bench that shot 3-for-21 for the game. But wait! There's more!

RhymesWithHondo

Glen Davis has GOT to stop trying to score in the post against taller guys who are good shotblockers. This has been a trend.

This isn't really fair of me, because I'm always criticizing Baby for wanting to play outside. But he really lacks the knack for scoring that shorter post players need to be effective (see San Antonio's DaJuan Blair, for the most recent example). Davis needs to either learn to score among the trees, or to kick the ball out more.

RhymesWithHondo

With that said, he's doing great work on the offensive glass. And he was definitely fouled on that last possession.

If I'm going to criticize the guy, I have to praise him when he deserves it, too. Davis was very active yesterday. But an offensive rebound goes only so far if the putback gets swatted.

RhymesWithHondo

79-66 Washington, 6:10 remaining. Put up or shut up time, but there's not a whole lot to be hopeful about.

Whoops. Who needs hope when you have Ray Allen? /foreshadowing

RhymesWithHondo

SEND IT IN, RAY!

An Allen jam on the fast break makes it 79-72 with 4:39 left. This also led to a brief discussion about the origins of "Send it in!" which led me to Youtube, where I spent half an hour after the game watching college basketball highlight videos. I love March.

RhymesWithHondo

And one! This game is there for the taking, even though we don't deserve it.

A Rondo drive makes it 81-79. Thirteen second-half points for Rondo, by the way.

RhymesWithHondo

A lot of stuff just happened, incl us taking our 1st lead since the 1st Q, but bottom line is that we've got the ball, down 1, 27 secs left.

"A lot of stuff" included Rondo missing the free throw, a scramble on the rebound, Perk grabbing the loose ball, Ray draining a three as the building went crazy, and then Randy Foye answering on the other end with an icy-cold jumper.

RhymesWithHondo

I'd bet a lot of money on this being an iso for Pierce. If it's not, it'll be a three for Ray.

Not that this took a lot expertise. We're sooooooooo predicatble in these spots. I don't know why Doc likes getting Ray open for a three when we're only down one, but he does.

RhymesWithHondo

1/3 screen-roll with Ray curling off a screen on the weak side. His three ball is wet. Boston by 2. One more stop and we've stolen one.

Told ya.

The final tweets just narrate the final few plays:

RhymesWithHondo

Blatche short on a fadeaway. Pretty good look. Rebound OOB off Washington. 6.3 seconds left, Boston ball.

RhymesWithHondo

Rondo had Robinson wide open in the backcourt, but was too focused on Pierce. Would've killed some time. KG at the line to seal it.

RhymesWithHondo

KG misses the first. Hits the second. I say foul here, up 3. No timeouts for Washignton [sic].

RhymesWithHondo

Boston doesn't foul, Al Thornton leaves a decent look at a triple short. Six minutes of defense is enough to beat the Wizards, apparently.

***

So that's that. It was actually a lot of fun, and I plan on doing it again sometime. Any opportunity I have to be self-indulgent, I take. And I'll probably use my Twitter account for basketball-related thoughts (college and professional) in the future, so follow me if you're into that sort of thing.

Boston's got kind of a tough week. It starts at Milwaukee tomorrow. The Bucks are 9-2 after the All-Star break, including a win on Saturday against LeBron-less Cleveland. We beat them by nine in December, but we were 17-4 at the time and they were 9-11. A lot has changed since then, and the 33-29 Bucks seem firmly ensconced as a playoff team.

We then return home to face Memphis on Wednesday. We won a close game in the first matchup in December, a game I didn't get a chance to watch because it was during final exams. Memphis us an up-and-down team, but they have a lot of talent, a few wins over top teams, and a number of tight losses to the league's elite.

Friday we host Indiana, and then we have a showdown in Cleveland with the Cavs on Sunday (3:30 p.m. Eastern on ABC).