Celts Win Two, Sign Corpse of Michael Finley

Boston swept a Tuesday-Wednesday back-to-back against two teams not currently among the top eight in the Eastern Conference. First came a shaky win in Detroit, then another comfortable victory over Charlotte in Boston. Two big stories emerged:

1) The return of Paul Pierce. The captain was quiet against Detroit (nine points on just six field goal attempts) but exploded against Charlotte, shooting 9-for-13 (including four-for-six from three-point range). Pierce finished with 27 points in 26:30 of playing time, his first 20-plus-point game since he scored 35 in a losing effort at Atlanta on January 29. Pierce has missed five games since then with injuries and has been banged up the whole time, but still, more than a month without a 20-point game isn't the Truth we know.

2) The emergence of Nate Robinson. Nate broke into double figures for the first time as a Celtic in the loss to New Jersey, but had an impact in a Boston win for the first time against Detroit. He scored 14 points and played well enough that Doc didn't bring Rajon Rondo back in the fourth until the three-minute mark of a tight game. Robinson then scored 16 points against Charlotte. Doc's comment after the Detroit game was spot on: "That's exactly what we need from Nate. We want to wind him up and let him go."

By the way, Kendrick Perkins' return Wednesday from an illness marked the first time all season that the Celtics have had a completely healthy roster. Take notice, NBA: When we're at full strength, we're 1-0 and have an average margin of victory of 24 points!

In other news, we're apparently about to sign Michael Finley. On the face of things, I don't really mind: We're not paying him much of anything, and I don't know of any players who are likely to be bought out so that we can sign them for the stretch run like we have in years past. Even with Finley, we've got an extra roster spot.

What's interesting is that most reports stated that Finley asked for his release from the Spurs do to a lack of playing time. If true, that would suggest that Finley thinks he'll get more playing time in Boston, and that I do mind. Finley can't play worth a damn anymore. I saw him when the Spurs came to L.A. to face the Clippers, and I said to my companions at the game: "Finley should just retire. He doesn't look like he belongs on an NBA court." Any burn that Finley gets that takes playing time away from Robinson and Marquis Daniels and even Tony Allen (who, I must admit, has played well this year) is bad for Boston.

Now, it's also been speculated that Finley was looking for a better shot at a title, as San Antonio has been disappointing this year. If that's the case, fine, although I'm skeptical: I think I read somewhere that the Lakers were interested in Finley, and especially with Boston's recent struggles, if Finley was just ring-hunting, it stands to reason that he would go join the defending champs.

Lastly, I want to point out that Bill Walker has back-to-back 20-plus-point games for the Knicks. Walker was part of the Robinson deal. I was disappointed to see Billy Sky go, but not terribly upset, because it was clear Doc wasn't going to give him much of an opportunity. Whether Walker's recent good stretch will continue and whether it indicates a mistake Doc made I don't know, but I personally feel vindicated that the kid has shown he can play in this league, as I have thought all along.

Boston 110, New York 106

[recap] [box score]

Last night's game against the Knicks lacked the defensive intensity that has been a Boston trademark over the last two-plus seasons, but despite the the fact that is was close throughout the second half, it was also one of those games where I felt we were never in any danger of losing. That seemed to be the team's attitude, too, after scoring 38 points in the first period. Once that happened, the Celtics seemed to believe that they could score at will. Fortunately, they were basically right -- rarely have I seen an NBA game with as many uncontested layups as this one.

Rajon Rondo led the team with 15 points and 16 assists, and Ray Allen had 24 points. He also contributed the game's key play, a blocked layup with under a minute to go that caused a shot-clock violation and preserved a three-point lead.

Boston was without Paul Pierce, who sat because of his injured thumb. There's talk that he'll miss maybe a week, which would keep him out of Thursday's showdown with Cleveland. (The Cavs, by the way, won their first game with Antawn Jamison last night, overcoming 37 points from rookie Marcus Thornton to beat New Orleans.)

The Celtics did, however, have Nate Robinson. Robinson's stat line is unimpressive and his impact on this game was minimal. However, the influence he could have on this team was apparent just from the way he flew around the court. Once he gets settled in and learns the offense and defensive schemes, he'll be a great addition, basketball-wise.

There was a nice moment when Eddie House came into the game in the first period. The Boston crowd gave him a standing ovation and several Celtics came over and clowned around with him for a second. House, of course, was the main price of Robinson. Another inclusion in that deal (along with J.R. Giddens) was Bill Walker, a RwH favorite who never really got much of a chance in Boston. Billy Sky threw down a thunderous dunk and drilled a three in about 13 minutes of playing time, his first floor time with the Knicks.

VIEWING ALERT: The Cleveland game is on TNT at 8 p.m. on Thursday.

Viewing Alert

Thursday night, 8 pm Eastern, in Boston, versus Chicago, on TNT.

After last season's epic playoff series, the two matchups between these two clubs have been blowouts in favor of the green and white. The Bulls lost three in a row last week, but have bounced back with wins over the lowly Wolves and Pistons, and are 6-3 after Christmas.

Oh, yeah, we beat New Jersey tonight. 38-22 after one; 71-35 after two. What more do you need, other than a sick Tony Allen jam on an alley-oop feed from Paul Pierce?

(Answer: A sick jam by Billy Sky, resulting in an elaborate shimmy from Brian Scalabrine on the bench. I'm working on finding it.)

Knee Injury Grounds Billy Sky

Second-year forward Bill Walker will reportedly miss six to eight weeks after tearing the meniscus in his right knee.

This isn't a terribly serious knee injury, so the fact that Walker has a history of knee problems shouldn't be too concerning. However, it does seriously hamper Walker's chances of cracking the rotation this year. Whether that was ever in Doc's plans is anybody's guess, but many fans -- myself included -- would like to see that happen. So while this is by no means a devastating loss, it is disappointing.

After rumors that he might miss the preseason, Tony Allen has been practicing some, and if he stays healthy, he stands to get minutes on the wing that don't go to Marquis Daniels and (perhaps) Brian Scalabrine. But just how many minutes that might be is very much an open question.

Media Day: KG, Tony Allen Injury Updates

Training camp for most of the teams in Association opens on Tuesday, which means that Monday was, in addition to Yom Kippur, Media Day around the league. And so while religious Jews spent the holiest of holy days at synagogue and fasting, those who worship the basketball gods first and foremost sat in front of their computers all day, eager for tidbits to break the basketball fast that is the NBA offseason.

The basketball blogosphere is atwitter -- and a-Twitter -- with coverage from Media Day around the league, but the truth is that Media Day is a little bit overrated, at least in terms of the quality of the information that comes out. To me, Media Day is exciting because it means the regular season is about a month away. But unless your point guard and presumed future of the franchise tells reporters that he can't play alongside the shooting guard you just took with the seventh pick in the draft, Media Day rarely produces more than sterile sound bytes about winning and being unselfish and being in better shape than last year.

Boston, however, was an exception, with a couple of items of interest regarding injuries. One is good, and one is bad. Sort of. (I'll explain in a moment).

First, the good. Kevin Garnett has apparently been participating in five-on-five scrimmages for the past week, and Doc Rivers said that there are no medical restrictions on Garnett as training camp opens. After a summer full of speculation regarding the extent of the knee injury that effectively ended the Celtics' title defense in February, this brings a sigh of relief to Celtics fans, albeit a conditional one; we similarly sighed last year when the team first announced that KG would only be out two or three weeks, and when he came back for four games in March, and when we were told he'd play in the last game of the season in preparation for the playoffs. And we all know how that turned out.

So Celtics fans who aren't inclined to believe a thing Doc and Danny say about KG's knee can be forgiven, although there's reason to think they're telling the truth this time. For starters, whatever incentive there was to keep everything close to the vest last year would seem to be gone at the beginning of this season, when the extent of the injury is known and the organization has had time to deal with it, basketball-wise. Secondly, and perhaps most telling, this would be a much farther-reaching level of deception, as Garnett and some of the players have confirmed his participation in the scrimmages. It would be more than just front office spin.

Now, the (kind of) bad. Tony Allen may miss training camp with an ankle injury that has bothered him for a while now. It's bad because Tony is a human being who feels pain, but basketball-wise, there's a rather substantial silver lining to this news.

First of all, even if Tony never plays again -- there's no indication that this is a risk; I'm just using the worst-case scenario for illustrative purposes -- it ideally wouldn't affect this year's team unless several other people got injured. Tony's minutes, all of them, should go to the newly-acquired Marquis Daniels.

Second, an extended absence would mean that Doc would have to give a serious look at Bill Walker. Ideally, the second-year man out of Kansas State would backup Paul Pierce at the small forward position; the only other three on the roster is Brian Scalabrine, who is more of a four defensively and is, frankly, a zero offensively. Walker's presence would create a second team of Daniels, Eddie House, Walker, Glen Davis, and Rasheed Wallace, allowing Pierce and Ray Allen more rest than they got last year (though both claim that minutes aren't really an issue). Walker spent most of his rookie season in the D-League and is headed there again unless he proves himself ready, and Tony's injury might give him that opportunity.

Boston 118, New Jersey 86

Easy win.

[recap] [box score] [highlights]

Not too much to say here -- the starters sat the entire fourth period -- so I'll explain a couple oddities from the box score.

-Glen Davis went 1-1 from three-point range. The three-pointer, his first, came at the end of the first quarter.

-Bill Walker played 12 minutes and scored six points. Walker -- a second-round pick of the Washington Wizards in last June's draft who Boston bought soon thereafter -- had been playing in the D-League, but injuries to Kendrick Perkins and Tony Allen left us with 11 active players, one shy of the maximum of 12 allowed. So Walker got the call, got in during garbage time, and acquitted himself well. He looks much more comfortable than he did at the beginning of the season (before he got sent down); it seems like he could contribute if pressed into service, and I like his prospects for future years. The end of the highlight reel has him executing a 360 in midair on a Gabe Pruitt alley-oop.

To mark the midway point of the season, Tommy and Mike had Celtics co-owner Wyc Grousbeck on the broadcast during the second quarter for a "State of the Celtics" discussion. The highlight of that came when the Nets' Vince Carter went down with an ankle injury (he later returned). After a few minutes, Grousbeck made a crack about how loud Carter was after he injured himself (mocking him a little bit for acting like the injury was more serious than it was) then threw out this gem: "We had Paul's wheelchair ready for him." That is, of course, a reference to game one of last year's Finals, when Pierce went down with a knee injury, was carried off the court, was seen sitting in a wheelchair in the tunnel, and then came back to hit two huge threes and lead Boston to victory -- something he's taken a bit of flack for since.

Next game is Saturday night in New Jersey against these very same Nets. No national TV.

Boston 101, Milwaukee 89

I missed the first six-and-a-half minutes of this one, and while Boston was down 21-10 when I joined the broadcast (the first of the season for Tommy and Mike on League Pass!) and we didn't really blow this one open until the fourth quarter, it never really seemed like we were in trouble.

[recap] [box score]

-The second unit really changed the course of this one, as a 30-23 first-quarter deficit became a 55-47 halftime lead, with a lot of the work done against Milwaukee's starters. One thing that I really like about our bench is how well they get to the line. Leon Powe and Tony Allen combined to shoot 14 free throws, and while Powe had an off-night from the stripe -- he made just four of nine attempts tonight -- getting those freebies makes up for whatever limitations the two might have offensively.

-Kendrick Perkins tonight showed what close watchers of the Celtics have insisted on for a while, to much scoffing around the league: When he applies himself, Perk can be a serious defensive force. He had a career-high seven blocked shots tonight, and there was a stretch at the end of the first quarter where he disrupted three or four consecutive Milwaukee possessions. He lacks the consistency and the ability to stay out of foul trouble to be a truly elite post defender, and he may never get there, given that this is his sixth year in the league. Then again, he's only 23, so there's hope.

-Powe plays bigger guys pretty well, but we need to give him help when he's guarding guys like Andrew Bogut. Powe can play someone like Bogut perfectly and still give up buckets because Bogut is simply too tall for him.

-Milwaukee's point guards, Luke Ridnour and Ramon Sessions, were pretty awful tonight, combining for nine turnovers, many of which were live-ball and led to open-court layups. Tony Allen, Eddie House, and Rajon Rondo did a nice job shooting the gaps when those two tried to drive and kick, but the fact is that Ridnour and Sessions simply weren't drawing the defense before giving up the rock.

-House had 11 points of five-for-seven, but four of his buckets were layups in the open floor, several off the aforementioned turnovers. He still hasn't hit two jumpers in the same game this year.

-We got our first look of the season at Billy Sky. His first two touches were pretty big failures, as he drove recklessly into traffic, getting his shot blocked the first time and getting whistled for an offensive foul on the second occasion. Still, he hit a nice 15-footer from the right baseline, displaying good form and a much quicker release than I expected.

-Minute allocation for the Big Three was pretty good tonight, although Pierce still played 38 minutes as he continued his work with the second team. But Ray Allen played 31 minutes, Kevin Garnett only 30, and all three were on the bench with four minutes to go.

Next game is Sunday night at 6 p.m. Eastern in Detroit, which kicks off a ridiculous five-games-in-seven-days stretch where we face three likely Eastern conference playoff teams -- Detroit, Toronto, and Atlanta -- by Wednesday. I had planned on doing some scouting tonight, thanks to the archives on League Pass broadband -- Allen Iverson's Piston debut and the Hawks blowing out the Raps in the dirty dirty -- but I think I'm going to see Zack and Miri Make a Porno, my first trip to the movies since I saw Thank You For Smoking in 2005. If time allows, I'll post some thoughts on these three upcoming opponents later in the weekend, then get ready for a tough week.

Preseason: Celtics 101, Knicks 90

Didn't watch the final preseason tuneup, either, but some things from the boxscore point to interesting and encouraging trends.

First, the most obvious stuff: 20 points from Eddie House against the Knicks; 19 from Leon Powe. In the eight preseason games, Eddie averaged 14.1 and Powe 10.6. I wouldn't expect that much from House during the regular season, but I do think Powe can give us something close to that, provided he doesn't split minutes with Glen Davis like he did last year. Preliminary indications are that the backup 4 spot is Powe's to lose, so he'll have the chance to prove himself.

Either way, that these two pick up their scoring is vital to the team's success this year, now that James Posey is gone. You've never had to twist House's arm to get him to try and score, but with Posey gone we need some guys on the second team to assert themselves offensively.

A finally healthy Tony Allen might also be the answer. He had two monster games in the preseason, going for 25 against the Cavaliers and hanging 32 on the nets. However, he was in double figures only two other times. I think I'd prefer a less prolific, more consistent effort from him in the regular season, but we do need him to have the year he was having in 2006-2007 before he blew out his knee.

Bill Walker and Patrick O'Bryant each had two games at the start of the preseason, then contributed little statistically the rest of the way. That's fine, particularly if House, Powe, and Allen can pick up the scoring load on the second team. Walker and O'Bryant will be useful to the team if they can steal minutes of rest for the regulars, chipping in with solid defense, rebounding, and a bucket or two. The key is that when they're out there, they don't hurt the team.

Finally, Sam Cassell as a DNP again, meaning he didn't play during the preseason. Halfway down this article from The Boston Globe there's an item about Sam. I'll quote it, to make it easy:

"Sam Cassell did not play in the preseason, contributing as an unofficial assistant coach. 'If my number is called, I'm ready,' Cassell said. 'I am keeping [the other players] sharp. I've been doing this for a while, it's not something that just started.' Cassell's advice for Pruitt? 'Play the game,' Cassell said. 'He'll be all right. They have been grooming him the whole year. He took his lumps last year and now he's ready to perform and make a statement for himself. He understands he belongs out there. This year he has a swagger and he's ready.'"

It certainly doesn't sound like Sam plans on playing much this year. I had thought that Pruitt was getting minutes just for the sake of getting him some run, but could he have Sam's spot in the rotation?

Miles the Odd Man Out

If you hadn't heard, the Celtics trimmed their roster down to the maximum of 15 players by waiving Darius Miles.

I was hoping Miles was going to step in and contribute for us this year, but everything I've seen just suggests that he didn't have it in him. So I'm not upset that he got cut. But this does put us in an interesting spot at small forward.

Cutting Miles underscores, however, how important it was that we re-sign James Posey. Paul Pierce's only backup right now is Bill Walker, an explosive rookie who I've taken to calling Billy Sky. I'm high on Walker, but he's a first-year player with a history of injures. Not the best insurance policy. Tony Allen will probably take some minutes backing up Pierce, but he's a little small to guard some NBA threes.

Frankly, I think Posey's contributons, while no doubt crucial to our success last year, were a little overrated by the offseason. It was Pierce, not Posey, who did most of the heavy lifting in effectively corralling LeBron James and Kobe Bryant in the playoffs last year.

However, Posey could play both forward spots, and our most effective crunch-time lineup last year had Kevin Garnett sliding over to the 5, with Posey playing four. If we want to do that this year, Leon Powe will have to come in to play the 4. While there probably aren't too many people who are bigger Powe fans than I am, we can all agree that Powe doesn't bring the same defensive reputation and offensive diversity that Posey did.

So while Posey objectively may not have been worth the four-year, $25 million deal he ultimately got from the New Orleans Hornets, he may have been worth that to us.

What bothers me most about why we didn't re-sign Posey is the fact that the argument wasn't about money, but years; Posey wanted four years, we were reluctant to give him more than three. While I recognize that Cs ownership is trying to ease the transition from the Pierce-Garnett-Ray Allen era to whatever era is next -- they've staggered those deals so that Allen is up in 2010, Pierce in 2011, and Garnett in 2012 -- realistically, we're only going to contend for two more years before we take a year or two to reload. By the time Posey's deal became onerous, our window would be closed. And expiring contracts of veterans are valuable trade chips in the NBA. That's why Brian Scalabrine, whose $3.4 million comes off our books next year, still has a job even though he won't contribute and probably won't have a job after his current deal is done -- his contract can be traded to a team looking to rebuild in free agency.

When we traded for KG and Ray, we traded our future for the present. We should have been consistent with that and re-signed Posey.