So much for the Hawks.
[recap] [box score]
After a young Atlanta took the eventual world champs to seven games in the first round of last year's playoffs, the Hawks were lauded as up-and-comers in the East. And while they still have a pretty good hold on the fourth seed and thus a first-round playoff series at home, they hardly seem like a team that can challenge any of the Eastern conference's best three teams when the playoffs begin in a couple weeks.
Friday night's win over the brooding Hawks marked a season sweep for the Celtics, and came (again) without the services of Kevin Garnett and Leon Powe. The final margin was only 12 points, but it got to 20 in the fourth quarter, and it was the kind of game where the outcome never seemed in doubt in the second half.
Major credit goes to our undermanned frontcourt. Our three frontcourt players had great games: 12 points, 10 rebounds, and 7 blocks for Kendrick Perkins; 19 points for Glen Davis; 9 points and 6 boards off the bench for Mikki Moore. These guys played Al Horford and Josh Smith to a stalemate, and Perk anchored a defense that held Atlanta to 35.6 percent shooting. Defensively, let's also give some credit to Ray Allen, who did a great job of checking Joe Johnson. Johnson, you may recall, gave the Celtics all sorts of problems in last year's postseason.
Four days off now until our next game on Wednesday against New Jersey. The peculiarities of the NBA schedule give us a very light slate the rest of the way. So while the other teams are beating each other up, we can rest a little bit and try to get everyone healthy.
Speaking of "beating each other up," third-place Orlando clobbered first-place Cleveland on national TV last night, the kind of loss that made the Cavs, now losers of two straight after a franchise-best 13 consectuive wins, seem mortal in a way they hadn't before. The Cavs still have a vise grip on the Eastern Conference's top seed, so Boston would actually like to see Orlando losing more down the stretch than Cleveland.
Speaking of the playoffs, I've been thinking for a while now that with Detroit's struggles this season, the Celtics might have to go through Detroit, Orlando, and Cleveland to reach the Finals, quite a gauntlet. This group of Pistons have a championship ring, have gone to six consecutive Eastern Conference finals, and now have Allen Iverson, the kind of player you never want to go against in a playoff series.
Or, I should say, had Allen Iverson. The Pistons announced yesterday that Iverson would miss the rest of the season with his back injury, though there's plenty of speculation that The Answer's discontent at coming off of the bench played a role in this decision. Whatever the reason, Detroit now induces less fear, and Boston may not even have to worry about them; Saturday's loss to Philadelphia (in which the Sixers clinched a playoff spot) put the Pistons in eighth place in the East, half a game back of Chicago and two ahead of Charlotte.
Showing posts with label Allen Iverson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Allen Iverson. Show all posts
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Celtics Take On The Pistons
The Detroit Pistons made headlines this season by trading franchise mainstay Chauncey Billups and power forward Antonio McDyess to Denver for Allen Iverson. So far, the results haven't been great, as the Pistons lost Iverson's debut Friday night, a 103-96 decision at New Jersey. Detroit is finally watchable again: Iverson is just one of those guys you simply have to see play to fully appreciate.
It's difficult to assess how the Pistons are going to play with Iverson, since Friday's game seemed to be an off-night for the team. After a typically stingy first quarter in which they gave up just 14 points, they allowed the Nets to score 25 in the second and then 64 after halftime. New Jersey point guard Devin Harris ran absolutely roughshod over them in the second, scoring a career-high 38 points and shooting an incredible 24 free throws. Detroit just wasn't sharp defensively. Of course, Rajon Rondo is not going to present the offensive threat that Harris did in single-handedly winning that game for New Jersey.
Offensively, Iverson looked extremely comfortable assimilating into the Piston offense. He seemed to defer a bit to his teammates, at least until the fourth quarter. In that last period, he started looking for his shot more, but it's worth noting that Rip Hamilton was not on the court during that time.
Rip actually was the one who looked least comfortable with Iverson, or perhaps more accurately, without Billups. He took 20 shots and appeared to force a few more than he typically does.
The big problem seemed to be initiating the offense. New Jersey played a lot of zone -- a look that Boston probably won't give -- and the Pistons spent most of the time just tossing the ball around the perimeter, occasionally shooting at the basket. Iverson has taken Billups' spot in the starting lineup, but he's not a true point. Neither is Rodney Stuckey, frankly, and the three-guard lineup they went to (with Hamilton sliding over to small forward) didn't really work yet. Detroit justified trading Billups by insisting that Stuckey was ready for major minutes, and while he certainly showed his mettle against Boston in the playoffs last year and he has been fine this year, he's not -- at least not yet -- the kind of player you can give the ball to and count on him to distribute to Iverson and Hamilton, and when he's on the court with AI and Rip, there's just not enough orange to go around.
That said, Detroit is still a major player in the East and I expect this game to be a tough one, particularly since it's at the Palace at Auburn Hills.
It's difficult to assess how the Pistons are going to play with Iverson, since Friday's game seemed to be an off-night for the team. After a typically stingy first quarter in which they gave up just 14 points, they allowed the Nets to score 25 in the second and then 64 after halftime. New Jersey point guard Devin Harris ran absolutely roughshod over them in the second, scoring a career-high 38 points and shooting an incredible 24 free throws. Detroit just wasn't sharp defensively. Of course, Rajon Rondo is not going to present the offensive threat that Harris did in single-handedly winning that game for New Jersey.
Offensively, Iverson looked extremely comfortable assimilating into the Piston offense. He seemed to defer a bit to his teammates, at least until the fourth quarter. In that last period, he started looking for his shot more, but it's worth noting that Rip Hamilton was not on the court during that time.
Rip actually was the one who looked least comfortable with Iverson, or perhaps more accurately, without Billups. He took 20 shots and appeared to force a few more than he typically does.
The big problem seemed to be initiating the offense. New Jersey played a lot of zone -- a look that Boston probably won't give -- and the Pistons spent most of the time just tossing the ball around the perimeter, occasionally shooting at the basket. Iverson has taken Billups' spot in the starting lineup, but he's not a true point. Neither is Rodney Stuckey, frankly, and the three-guard lineup they went to (with Hamilton sliding over to small forward) didn't really work yet. Detroit justified trading Billups by insisting that Stuckey was ready for major minutes, and while he certainly showed his mettle against Boston in the playoffs last year and he has been fine this year, he's not -- at least not yet -- the kind of player you can give the ball to and count on him to distribute to Iverson and Hamilton, and when he's on the court with AI and Rip, there's just not enough orange to go around.
That said, Detroit is still a major player in the East and I expect this game to be a tough one, particularly since it's at the Palace at Auburn Hills.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Iverson for Billups
Of course, the big news from yesterday is that Detroit sent Chauncey Billups and Antonio McDyess to Denver for Allen Iverson. Everyone's got an opinion on this one, but the consensus seems to be -- and I'm sorry to give only ESPN links here, but I'm lazy these days -- that it's win-win: Denver gets better; Detroit clears cap space to make a run at the big-name free agents this summer and next.
Since this blog is Celtics-themed, a quick word on how this affects the Celtics. As word of the trade spread, I talked briefly to a lot of friends and read a lot of blog posts and comments, and the prevailing wisdom seemed to be that this trade helped the Celtics, since Billups was such a matchup problem for Rondo.
I'll give you a second to digest that, because it took me a second to digest it myself.
I know, right?
People are actually saying that Rondo will have an easier time guarding the Pistons now that he "gets" to check Allen Iverson instead of Chauncey Billups.
Allen Iverson. Allen fucking Iverson. AI. The Answer. The nine-time All-Star. The 2000-2001 NBA MVP. He of the 27.7 ppg scoring average. ALLEN IVERSON!
Okay, so Iverson won't have the size mismatch that Billups had on Rondo. And okay, maybe Rondo's quick enough and Iverson's old enough that Iverson doesn't have the edge in quickness the way he might have a few years ago. But there's one mismatch he does have: He's Allen Iverson, and Rajon Rondo isn't.
As tough as Billups was for Rondo to check, he wasn't the kind of guy you were terrified of, at least not these last couple of years. Iverson still is that guy. He's one of the most hard-nosed and competitive players the league has seen in years, and one of its more remarkable athletes and talents, too.
We played Denver, Iverson's old team, twice last year. In the two games (both Celtics victories), Iverson shot 31 free throws. 31! That's a Dwyane-Wade-in-the-Finals kind of statistic. Iverson's not going to abuse Rondo in the post the way Billups did, but the idea that Rondo will be more effective defensively on Iverson than he was on Billups just seems wrong.
***
As a basketball fan, I'm really excited to see how Iverson works out in Detroit. Iverson has never played on a team like these Pistons. It's been said that you can't play Iverson alongside another star, because of the way he clashed with Jerry Stackhouse early in his career in Philadelphia and never found the right rhythm with Carmelo Anthony in Denver.
At the same time, when Iverson's teams have had success, it's been almost solely by virtue of his effort. Quiz time: The second-best player on the Philly team that went to the Finals and took Game 1 from the Lakers in 2001 was ...
I'm waiting...
Aaron McKie -- who, get this, won the Sixth Man of the Year award that season.
The present-day Pistons are different, a team of veterans that doesn't care who does the scoring, as long as somebody is. Rip Hamilton led the team with 17.3 points per game last year; Billups, Tayshaun Prince, and Rasheed Wallace were all in double figures. All told, ten Pistons averaged at least 6.5 per last year. Shots were almost evenly distributed among the starters; Rip got 14 a game, but Billups, Prince, and Wallace each hoisted 11 times per contest. There's no current Piston whose style Iverson will cramp.
And yet, these guys are hardly a team of role players. They are Eastern Conference finalists from last year, the only team to beat the Celtics in Boston during the playoffs. They aren't Aaron McKie and Eric Snow and George Lynch and Matt Geiger. (Betcha hadn't thought about Matt Geiger in a while!) Wallace is a four-time All-Star. Hamilton's been named to the All-Star team three times. Both he and Prince have championship rings. Iverson's got plenty of help in his new city.
The composition of the league's elite has changed even since the Pistons won their championship in 2003-2004, and certainly since Iverson took his Sixers to the Finals in 2000-2001. You probably need more than one star (or, alternatively, one star whose name is LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, or maybe Chris Paul) to be a serious contender for the chip these days, and Iverson is far enough past his prime that he won't be able to lift his team the way LeBron or Kobe can. We'll probably never know, but maybe Joe Dumars has found, too late, the right formula for success with Iverson, and these Pistons are built the way those Sixers should have been.
Since this blog is Celtics-themed, a quick word on how this affects the Celtics. As word of the trade spread, I talked briefly to a lot of friends and read a lot of blog posts and comments, and the prevailing wisdom seemed to be that this trade helped the Celtics, since Billups was such a matchup problem for Rondo.
I'll give you a second to digest that, because it took me a second to digest it myself.
I know, right?
People are actually saying that Rondo will have an easier time guarding the Pistons now that he "gets" to check Allen Iverson instead of Chauncey Billups.
Allen Iverson. Allen fucking Iverson. AI. The Answer. The nine-time All-Star. The 2000-2001 NBA MVP. He of the 27.7 ppg scoring average. ALLEN IVERSON!
Okay, so Iverson won't have the size mismatch that Billups had on Rondo. And okay, maybe Rondo's quick enough and Iverson's old enough that Iverson doesn't have the edge in quickness the way he might have a few years ago. But there's one mismatch he does have: He's Allen Iverson, and Rajon Rondo isn't.
As tough as Billups was for Rondo to check, he wasn't the kind of guy you were terrified of, at least not these last couple of years. Iverson still is that guy. He's one of the most hard-nosed and competitive players the league has seen in years, and one of its more remarkable athletes and talents, too.
We played Denver, Iverson's old team, twice last year. In the two games (both Celtics victories), Iverson shot 31 free throws. 31! That's a Dwyane-Wade-in-the-Finals kind of statistic. Iverson's not going to abuse Rondo in the post the way Billups did, but the idea that Rondo will be more effective defensively on Iverson than he was on Billups just seems wrong.
***
As a basketball fan, I'm really excited to see how Iverson works out in Detroit. Iverson has never played on a team like these Pistons. It's been said that you can't play Iverson alongside another star, because of the way he clashed with Jerry Stackhouse early in his career in Philadelphia and never found the right rhythm with Carmelo Anthony in Denver.
At the same time, when Iverson's teams have had success, it's been almost solely by virtue of his effort. Quiz time: The second-best player on the Philly team that went to the Finals and took Game 1 from the Lakers in 2001 was ...
I'm waiting...
Aaron McKie -- who, get this, won the Sixth Man of the Year award that season.
The present-day Pistons are different, a team of veterans that doesn't care who does the scoring, as long as somebody is. Rip Hamilton led the team with 17.3 points per game last year; Billups, Tayshaun Prince, and Rasheed Wallace were all in double figures. All told, ten Pistons averaged at least 6.5 per last year. Shots were almost evenly distributed among the starters; Rip got 14 a game, but Billups, Prince, and Wallace each hoisted 11 times per contest. There's no current Piston whose style Iverson will cramp.
And yet, these guys are hardly a team of role players. They are Eastern Conference finalists from last year, the only team to beat the Celtics in Boston during the playoffs. They aren't Aaron McKie and Eric Snow and George Lynch and Matt Geiger. (Betcha hadn't thought about Matt Geiger in a while!) Wallace is a four-time All-Star. Hamilton's been named to the All-Star team three times. Both he and Prince have championship rings. Iverson's got plenty of help in his new city.
The composition of the league's elite has changed even since the Pistons won their championship in 2003-2004, and certainly since Iverson took his Sixers to the Finals in 2000-2001. You probably need more than one star (or, alternatively, one star whose name is LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, or maybe Chris Paul) to be a serious contender for the chip these days, and Iverson is far enough past his prime that he won't be able to lift his team the way LeBron or Kobe can. We'll probably never know, but maybe Joe Dumars has found, too late, the right formula for success with Iverson, and these Pistons are built the way those Sixers should have been.
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