Jared Sullinger, the rookie power forward who had forced his way into the starting lineup with his work on the glass, had apparently successful lumbar disc surgery on Friday. He's out for the year.
I'll get to the impact on this season in a minute, but the truth is, with Rajon Rondo going down with his torn ACL this week, this season is close to a lost cause. The biggest concern raised by this news is whether this surgery is the kind of thing that had doctors advising their teams to stay away from Sullinger in last summer's NBA Draft, a big part of the reason why the Ohio State sophomore fell from being a potential top overall pick and sure lottery selection all the way to Boston at 21.
Team doctors are saying that this is good for Sullinger, the idea being, I guess, that the surgery would relieve some pain or discomfort he'd been playing with for a while. That's encouraging, though I'm not sure I'd expect the team doctors to say anything different. During last night's broadcast, I also heard someone -- I think it was Doc -- say that they knew Sullinger would need the surgery, they had just hoped that it could wait until after the year.
It's not clear to me whether they knew that when they drafted him, or if that became apparent sometime during the summer, or training camp, or the season. Either way, we knew picking Sullinger was a risk, and I endorse the pick with the full understanding that his career could be over due to injuries before he could make any meaningful contribution to the team. Hopefully, we're not at that point already.
What concerns me most is that Sullinger already has what people sometimes call "old man game." The kid can barely jump, playing completely below the rim, relying completely on strength, guile, and his ample girth to hold off opponents for rebounds and score from strange angles. This could be considered a good thing, insofar as whatever athleticism this surgery may rob from him wasn't something he relied on to be effective. But looking down the road, what happens when he starts to get older and experience the natural deterioration that all players show? If he plays like he's 30 when he's 20, will he play like he's 35 when he's 25? This was a concern before the back surgery -- whether the procedure exacerbates it remains to be seen. But it was definitely the first thing that popped into my mind when I heard the news yesterday.
As for the rest of this season, the hits just keep on coming, I guess. Without Rondo, we were, at best, slight favorites to hang on to the eighth seed in the East, depending on whether Andrew Bynum comes back healthy for Philly. I honestly am not sure how much of an effect Sullinger's absence will have on Boston's postseason chances. Brandon Bass proved he could be a starting-caliber power forward year; his dropoff this season has been one of the bigger disappointments in a season that has been full of them. Bass isn't the rebounder Sullinger is, but he's adept at stepping in and taking the charge and in theory, anyway, his jumper is more consistent than the rookie's. (Though he hasn't been hitting it this year at all.) It means one fewer big body at Doc's disposal, which in turn means more "smallball" lineups with Paul Pierce, Jeff Green, and Kevin Garnett across the frontcourt. As someone who isn't a big believer in Green, that certainly concerns me, but to be fair, it's a lineup that Doc was likely committed to using more (especially in crunch-time) once Rondo went down.
What seems apparently early on here, though, is that Boston may already be in back-against-the-wall, play-as-though-your-season-depended-on-it mode. In previous seasons, Boston has sleepwalked through portions of the regular season schedule, the apparent attitude being that they'd wait until the playoffs, when the games really count, to exert themselves fully. With the current injuries putting the playoffs in doubt, that time is now. The Celtics have now won three straight without Rondo, beginning with the double overtime victory over the Heat last Sunday. True, their two most recent triumphs, Sacramento and Orlando, are bottom of the barrel squads this year, but these are the types of games that the Celtics, maddeningly, would drop all too often in recent seasons. (Heck, the Kings blew us out in Sacramento right after Christmas, a game I witnessed in person and wish I could unsee.) The last two times out, however, Boston has taken care of business, winning comfortably. The Celtics are dialed in a bit earlier this year, which means that the product is worth watching, even if the goals for the season have changed.
Showing posts with label Doc Rivers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Doc Rivers. Show all posts
Saturday, February 2, 2013
Monday, January 28, 2013
Boston's Last Stand
Sunday afternoon, the Celtics beat the Miami Heat 100-98, hanging on at home in double overtime. In so doing, they snapped a horrific six-game losing streak that involved dropping three games to sub-.500 teams (including two blowouts), two tough-luck losses to playoff squads (the Bulls and Knicks), and, most recently, a blown 27-point lead in a double overtime loss to the Hawks. This stretch, which followed a six-game winning streak, left Boston at 20-23 heading into the game with Miami, their grip on the eighth and final playoff spot seemingly loosening every day.
Given the above, the cynic would read the title of this post and chide me for being a more than a little bit late.
As I've said before, however, I refused to write off Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Rajon Rondo, and Doc Rivers. I acknowledged that the team's chances of making any noise in the playoffs were slim, but after last season, I wasn't going to rule anything out. Even with Pierce's noticeable decline, Garnett's ever-limited minutes, Rondo's general moodiness, and the inability of the restructured supporting cast to provide any sort of consistent contribution, I thought that those four guys were capable of pulling it all together again and making a run.
The Big Three, of course, had morphed into the Big Four by the time Ray Allen left, and none of those guys is Bigger, in terms of Boston's success, than Rondo. So when news broke around halftime of the Miami game that the hyperextended knee keeping him on the sideline was actually a torn ACL, ending his season and probably ensuring that he wouldn't be ready for the start of the next one, whatever hope I had of something like last year repeating itself disappeared. Doc said after the game that he's not writing the obituary yet, but everyone outside that locker room is.
It's going to be an interesting, rumor-filled couple of weeks around the Celtics. With Rondo out, Boston probably isn't a favorite to even make the playoffs. And because of that, Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce become expendable. Garnett has been terrific this year, but on even more limited minutes than last year, and Pierce has declined noticeably. (Even as Pierce, who has been mired in a terrible slump, nailed the game's biggest shot in double OT, he almost cost us the game with a late turnover and an inexplicably late contest on Lebron James' game-tying three at the end of regulation.) The revamped supporting cast, saddled with Jeff Green's albatross of a contract, has disappointed, and the lone bright spot among the new faces, Jared Sullinger, has been balanced out by the mysterious dropoff of Brandon Bass. Keeping Garnett and Pierce around makes very little basketball sense.
Whether Danny Ainge can get anything for either is an open question. Garnett apparently has a no-trade clause, and it wouldn't surprise me if he refused to be moved. (Maybe I'm being naive.) And Pierce shouldn't bring that much in a trade at his salary and level of performance, although I have been surprised at the trade ideas I have read from people I respect (perhaps I'm underestimating his value). Danny has to kick the tires on those guys, though.
Oddly, all of this made Sunday's win all the more satisfying. I've been fortunate to have learned about sports and life from a number of people who taught me to appreciate the fight as much as the success. That's why I'm as proud of Game 7 of the 2010 Finals and the whole Miami series last year as I am of the championship run in 2008. Watching those guys -- who apparently didn't know of the severity of Rondo's injury until after the game -- fight to pull out the win against a better team was made that much more important by the fact that it may be the last time we see them do exactly that.
There's a part of me -- and it's not the rational part of me -- that doesn't want to see Danny do what undoubtedly should be done. There's a part of me that wants to see Pierce and KG retire as Celtics even though it'll likely set any rebuilding we try to do back a bit.
The reality is that only a few teams each season legitimately playing for a championship. For the first time in a while, we're not one of them -- and it's likely to be a while before we are again. The stakes, undoubtedly, have changed. But it's the same game. And so if Doc and Danny and Paul and Kevin decide they want to put up the same fight, I won't be too mad.
Given the above, the cynic would read the title of this post and chide me for being a more than a little bit late.
As I've said before, however, I refused to write off Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Rajon Rondo, and Doc Rivers. I acknowledged that the team's chances of making any noise in the playoffs were slim, but after last season, I wasn't going to rule anything out. Even with Pierce's noticeable decline, Garnett's ever-limited minutes, Rondo's general moodiness, and the inability of the restructured supporting cast to provide any sort of consistent contribution, I thought that those four guys were capable of pulling it all together again and making a run.
The Big Three, of course, had morphed into the Big Four by the time Ray Allen left, and none of those guys is Bigger, in terms of Boston's success, than Rondo. So when news broke around halftime of the Miami game that the hyperextended knee keeping him on the sideline was actually a torn ACL, ending his season and probably ensuring that he wouldn't be ready for the start of the next one, whatever hope I had of something like last year repeating itself disappeared. Doc said after the game that he's not writing the obituary yet, but everyone outside that locker room is.
It's going to be an interesting, rumor-filled couple of weeks around the Celtics. With Rondo out, Boston probably isn't a favorite to even make the playoffs. And because of that, Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce become expendable. Garnett has been terrific this year, but on even more limited minutes than last year, and Pierce has declined noticeably. (Even as Pierce, who has been mired in a terrible slump, nailed the game's biggest shot in double OT, he almost cost us the game with a late turnover and an inexplicably late contest on Lebron James' game-tying three at the end of regulation.) The revamped supporting cast, saddled with Jeff Green's albatross of a contract, has disappointed, and the lone bright spot among the new faces, Jared Sullinger, has been balanced out by the mysterious dropoff of Brandon Bass. Keeping Garnett and Pierce around makes very little basketball sense.
Whether Danny Ainge can get anything for either is an open question. Garnett apparently has a no-trade clause, and it wouldn't surprise me if he refused to be moved. (Maybe I'm being naive.) And Pierce shouldn't bring that much in a trade at his salary and level of performance, although I have been surprised at the trade ideas I have read from people I respect (perhaps I'm underestimating his value). Danny has to kick the tires on those guys, though.
Oddly, all of this made Sunday's win all the more satisfying. I've been fortunate to have learned about sports and life from a number of people who taught me to appreciate the fight as much as the success. That's why I'm as proud of Game 7 of the 2010 Finals and the whole Miami series last year as I am of the championship run in 2008. Watching those guys -- who apparently didn't know of the severity of Rondo's injury until after the game -- fight to pull out the win against a better team was made that much more important by the fact that it may be the last time we see them do exactly that.
There's a part of me -- and it's not the rational part of me -- that doesn't want to see Danny do what undoubtedly should be done. There's a part of me that wants to see Pierce and KG retire as Celtics even though it'll likely set any rebuilding we try to do back a bit.
The reality is that only a few teams each season legitimately playing for a championship. For the first time in a while, we're not one of them -- and it's likely to be a while before we are again. The stakes, undoubtedly, have changed. But it's the same game. And so if Doc and Danny and Paul and Kevin decide they want to put up the same fight, I won't be too mad.
Monday, June 4, 2012
Boston 93, Miami 91 (Overtime)
[recap] [box score]
This team really is unlike any other I've ever seen.
When it's clicking, Boston's offense is as pretty as anybody's in the NBA, unselfish, the ball flowing from the hands of a young point guard whose creativity and court vision is unmatched, to one of history's best passing big men, to the franchise's second-leading scorer, to the greatest outside shooter in the history of the game, ending in a jumper so pure you can feel the snap of the net even as you're sitting in your chair. In the same game -- hell, in the same quarter -- that same offense can deteriorate into what ESPN's Bill Simmons calls a clogged toilet, a series of forced isolations that are now in their fifth straight year of accomplishing nothing but letting the opponent back in the game. They've played more playoff games than any other team over the last five years -- more often than not getting the job done -- and yet they have inexplicable trouble closing out a game, or a playoff series. They do nothing easily, and watching them barely scrape by or hang on, you get the feeling that it's going to come back to bite them in the collective ass.
Watching this team, in essence, is an exercise in waiting for the other shoe to drop.
You'll forgive me, then, for thinking that Dwyane Wade -- standing alone, 24 feet from the home goal at the Garden, with Boston up two and the final seconds of overtime ticking away -- was that proverbial other shoe. You'll forgive me for thinking that his three-pointer was going in.
But it didn't. It was short -- just barely, maybe an inch (probably less) -- but short. And so Boston, which had given up all of an 18-point first half lead, was let off the hook. Doc Rivers was let off the hook for mismanaging the end game in regulation (more on this later). Paul Pierce was let off the hook for fouling out for the third time in five games. Kevin Garnett was let off the hook for the late offensive foul that gave Miami a chance to win it in regulation. Mickael Pietrus was leaving LeBron James wide open -- and I mean [i]wide open[/i] for the game-tying three with 37 seconds left. Rajon Rondo was let off the hook for his petulant kick at Shane Battier (and ensuing technical) late in the first half. Marquis Daniels was let off the hook for letting Wade shake him with a pump fake for that final look. I could go on, but I won't.
If you read the above, you're probably under the impression that the Celtics were lucky to win this game and go back to Miami tied 2-2 instead of in a 3-1 hole. And it's true: Boston was fortunate to win, as any team must be when it continually lives so close to the edge. But it's also true that you make your own luck, and for everyone in the above list (and everyone else who played, for that matter), I could point to something they did that was absolutely instrumental in this win, whether it was helping build the big first-half lead or recovering after Miami surged ahead. It was yet another mix of brilliance, horror, and resilience -- and everybody played a part in all of it.
A few scattered thoughts:
1. I mentioned earlier that I thought Doc blew the endgame in regulation. Specifically, when James hit that three to tie it up with 37 seconds left, Boston had two timeouts remaining. This was a perfect two-for-one opportunity; Doc could've called timeout to advance the ball, then drawn up one of his signature out-of-bounds plays for a quick shot, leaving enough time on the clock that they'd get the ball back after a Miami possession (after which they'd once again be able to advance the ball with a timeout). It's basic NBA strategy -- you get two possessions to your opponent's one -- and while I think it can be overused and teams often end up getting two bad shots, there was enough time to get something good on the first possession and still leave enough time for a good look on the second possession. And it would have been particularly appropriate in Sunday's game, when Boston had basically gotten nothing in the flow of the offense in the second half. But, to my shock, Doc let them go, and Garnett was called for a foul for trapping James' arm as a way of preventing him from challenging Rondo's drive. Boston was able to survive Miami's potential game-winning possession due to some strong defense and a really poor play on the part of the Heat and coach Erik Spoelstra, but had they been able to score and win the game there, Doc's error in the fourth would have the lead of this post.
2. Rondo turned in what is becoming a typical Rondo performance: brilliant first half, some dicey moments in the second half, big buckets when the team needed them down the stretch, and the frustrating, if momentary, loss of his cool (the Battier kick). He added something new: unprecedented candor during the halftime interview. After a 61-point outburst over the opening 24 minutes, Doris Burke asked him what holes the Celtics were exploiting. His response: "Them complaining and crying to the referees in transition."
I'm curious what the reaction will be. What he said was true: In what is becoming an annoyingly common occurrence in the NBA, the Heat actually were giving up buckets in transition because they were barking at the officials instead of getting back on D. The Heat players might try to use it as some sort of motivation, though I imagine Spoelstra wouldn't mind someone else pointing out to his guys that all the bitching actually hurts them. I also wonder if it was a calculated move on Rondo's part, or just him being honest. There certainly shouldn't be any fallout with the league -- he wasn't criticizing the officials.
3. I'm beginning to wonder if Boston's habit of slowing the pace down in the second half is an energy-conserving tactic. The Heat have been going to increasingly small lineups, which has shortened Doc's big man rotation (Greg Stiemsma played all of 32 seconds in Game 4 and Ryan Hollins didn't get off the bench). Garnett is playing too many minutes (43 on Sunday) and Pierce and Allen are battling injuries. I don't think we'll find out if that's the case -- it's not the kind of thing you admit during a series. But it's hard to find another rational explanation for why Boston goes to an offensive strategy that almost never works, then goes back to running their normal offense when they absolutely have to.
4. The officiating in the fourth quarter and in overtime was just bizarre. James flopped trying to deny a Garnett post-up, and the official -- Billy Kennedy, I think -- whistled a double foul. Pierce's sixth foul, a late call by Kennedy early in overtime, came on a minor bit of contact between him and Shane Battier, who flopped to the ground on the play. And James was disqualified with his sixth foul later in overtime by Joey Crawford for muscling Pietrus to the floor. I think that it was inconsistent enough that both teams had gripes and that you really couldn't say one team had the advantage over the other, but there were a bunch of weird calls, particularly late, that had me scratching my head once again.
5. Ray Allen looked more like himself on Sunday than he has since he came back. That's a great sign. I've got no doubt he's still hurting, but it's not affecting his shot as much as it was.
I think we should be feeling good heading back to Miami. Boston had some trouble closing out these last two games, but they outplayed Miami for big chunks of Games 2, 3, and 4. The Celtics seem to have figured out how to keep James and Wade out of the lane as much as possible, which is crucial to beating the Heat. Miami has been making big adjustments on what seems to be an almost constant basis -- playing different people at center, going small, trapping the pick-and-roll, switching the pick-and-roll, putting James on Rondo, etc. That makes them a little bit hard to game plan for, but it also suggests to me that we're a bit more comfortable than they are. There's also been some rumbling that Chris Bosh might return for some part of this series, which would be interesting -- I'm honestly not sure whether that'd be bad or good for Boston.
Game 5 is Tuesday night in Miami, at 8:30 Eastern on ESPN. We've got the momentum, but it's crucial to remember something that I keep reminding my girlfriend (an avid Spurs fan): Nothing's happened in this series yet. Both teams have held serve at home, and Miami has the advantage of being able to win the series without winning on the road. Boston, on the other hand, has to win at least once on South Beach. No better time than Tuesday -- if that's not too easy.
This team really is unlike any other I've ever seen.
When it's clicking, Boston's offense is as pretty as anybody's in the NBA, unselfish, the ball flowing from the hands of a young point guard whose creativity and court vision is unmatched, to one of history's best passing big men, to the franchise's second-leading scorer, to the greatest outside shooter in the history of the game, ending in a jumper so pure you can feel the snap of the net even as you're sitting in your chair. In the same game -- hell, in the same quarter -- that same offense can deteriorate into what ESPN's Bill Simmons calls a clogged toilet, a series of forced isolations that are now in their fifth straight year of accomplishing nothing but letting the opponent back in the game. They've played more playoff games than any other team over the last five years -- more often than not getting the job done -- and yet they have inexplicable trouble closing out a game, or a playoff series. They do nothing easily, and watching them barely scrape by or hang on, you get the feeling that it's going to come back to bite them in the collective ass.
Watching this team, in essence, is an exercise in waiting for the other shoe to drop.
You'll forgive me, then, for thinking that Dwyane Wade -- standing alone, 24 feet from the home goal at the Garden, with Boston up two and the final seconds of overtime ticking away -- was that proverbial other shoe. You'll forgive me for thinking that his three-pointer was going in.
But it didn't. It was short -- just barely, maybe an inch (probably less) -- but short. And so Boston, which had given up all of an 18-point first half lead, was let off the hook. Doc Rivers was let off the hook for mismanaging the end game in regulation (more on this later). Paul Pierce was let off the hook for fouling out for the third time in five games. Kevin Garnett was let off the hook for the late offensive foul that gave Miami a chance to win it in regulation. Mickael Pietrus was leaving LeBron James wide open -- and I mean [i]wide open[/i] for the game-tying three with 37 seconds left. Rajon Rondo was let off the hook for his petulant kick at Shane Battier (and ensuing technical) late in the first half. Marquis Daniels was let off the hook for letting Wade shake him with a pump fake for that final look. I could go on, but I won't.
If you read the above, you're probably under the impression that the Celtics were lucky to win this game and go back to Miami tied 2-2 instead of in a 3-1 hole. And it's true: Boston was fortunate to win, as any team must be when it continually lives so close to the edge. But it's also true that you make your own luck, and for everyone in the above list (and everyone else who played, for that matter), I could point to something they did that was absolutely instrumental in this win, whether it was helping build the big first-half lead or recovering after Miami surged ahead. It was yet another mix of brilliance, horror, and resilience -- and everybody played a part in all of it.
A few scattered thoughts:
1. I mentioned earlier that I thought Doc blew the endgame in regulation. Specifically, when James hit that three to tie it up with 37 seconds left, Boston had two timeouts remaining. This was a perfect two-for-one opportunity; Doc could've called timeout to advance the ball, then drawn up one of his signature out-of-bounds plays for a quick shot, leaving enough time on the clock that they'd get the ball back after a Miami possession (after which they'd once again be able to advance the ball with a timeout). It's basic NBA strategy -- you get two possessions to your opponent's one -- and while I think it can be overused and teams often end up getting two bad shots, there was enough time to get something good on the first possession and still leave enough time for a good look on the second possession. And it would have been particularly appropriate in Sunday's game, when Boston had basically gotten nothing in the flow of the offense in the second half. But, to my shock, Doc let them go, and Garnett was called for a foul for trapping James' arm as a way of preventing him from challenging Rondo's drive. Boston was able to survive Miami's potential game-winning possession due to some strong defense and a really poor play on the part of the Heat and coach Erik Spoelstra, but had they been able to score and win the game there, Doc's error in the fourth would have the lead of this post.
2. Rondo turned in what is becoming a typical Rondo performance: brilliant first half, some dicey moments in the second half, big buckets when the team needed them down the stretch, and the frustrating, if momentary, loss of his cool (the Battier kick). He added something new: unprecedented candor during the halftime interview. After a 61-point outburst over the opening 24 minutes, Doris Burke asked him what holes the Celtics were exploiting. His response: "Them complaining and crying to the referees in transition."
I'm curious what the reaction will be. What he said was true: In what is becoming an annoyingly common occurrence in the NBA, the Heat actually were giving up buckets in transition because they were barking at the officials instead of getting back on D. The Heat players might try to use it as some sort of motivation, though I imagine Spoelstra wouldn't mind someone else pointing out to his guys that all the bitching actually hurts them. I also wonder if it was a calculated move on Rondo's part, or just him being honest. There certainly shouldn't be any fallout with the league -- he wasn't criticizing the officials.
3. I'm beginning to wonder if Boston's habit of slowing the pace down in the second half is an energy-conserving tactic. The Heat have been going to increasingly small lineups, which has shortened Doc's big man rotation (Greg Stiemsma played all of 32 seconds in Game 4 and Ryan Hollins didn't get off the bench). Garnett is playing too many minutes (43 on Sunday) and Pierce and Allen are battling injuries. I don't think we'll find out if that's the case -- it's not the kind of thing you admit during a series. But it's hard to find another rational explanation for why Boston goes to an offensive strategy that almost never works, then goes back to running their normal offense when they absolutely have to.
4. The officiating in the fourth quarter and in overtime was just bizarre. James flopped trying to deny a Garnett post-up, and the official -- Billy Kennedy, I think -- whistled a double foul. Pierce's sixth foul, a late call by Kennedy early in overtime, came on a minor bit of contact between him and Shane Battier, who flopped to the ground on the play. And James was disqualified with his sixth foul later in overtime by Joey Crawford for muscling Pietrus to the floor. I think that it was inconsistent enough that both teams had gripes and that you really couldn't say one team had the advantage over the other, but there were a bunch of weird calls, particularly late, that had me scratching my head once again.
5. Ray Allen looked more like himself on Sunday than he has since he came back. That's a great sign. I've got no doubt he's still hurting, but it's not affecting his shot as much as it was.
I think we should be feeling good heading back to Miami. Boston had some trouble closing out these last two games, but they outplayed Miami for big chunks of Games 2, 3, and 4. The Celtics seem to have figured out how to keep James and Wade out of the lane as much as possible, which is crucial to beating the Heat. Miami has been making big adjustments on what seems to be an almost constant basis -- playing different people at center, going small, trapping the pick-and-roll, switching the pick-and-roll, putting James on Rondo, etc. That makes them a little bit hard to game plan for, but it also suggests to me that we're a bit more comfortable than they are. There's also been some rumbling that Chris Bosh might return for some part of this series, which would be interesting -- I'm honestly not sure whether that'd be bad or good for Boston.
Game 5 is Tuesday night in Miami, at 8:30 Eastern on ESPN. We've got the momentum, but it's crucial to remember something that I keep reminding my girlfriend (an avid Spurs fan): Nothing's happened in this series yet. Both teams have held serve at home, and Miami has the advantage of being able to win the series without winning on the road. Boston, on the other hand, has to win at least once on South Beach. No better time than Tuesday -- if that's not too easy.
Sunday, May 6, 2012
Boston 101, Atlanta 79
[recap] [box score]
This was it. This was the performance I was hoping for in Game 3.
The Celtics just blitzed the Hawks on Sunday night. Came out strong, hit 'em in the mouth, knocked 'em down, and never let 'em back up. Boston came out with a purpose offensively, with Paul Pierce creating his own shot and Rajon R-ndo getting shots for others with sometimes spectacular assists. Pierce was on fire; he had 24 points in just 16:37 of court time, including several heat-check three-pointers. R-ndo had at least a dozen assists in the first half alone, and finished with 20 points to go along with 16 helpers and just 1 credited turnover -- though I remember two more turnovers in the second half that they didn't give to him.
The one piece of bad news is that Pierce tweaked his knee a bit in the second quarter. I heard him say after the game that he had actually initially hurt it during shootaround before the game, and then he got tangled up with Josh Smith on a screen and tweaked it a bit more. He came out of the game, but did return to start the third quarter. He drilled a couple of threes before Doc took him out, content with the big lead and seeing no reason to push the captain. I don't expect that the knee will cause any real problems -- Pierce plays through injuries like this in the playoffs all the time without ill effects.
Atlanta barely showed any fight. Perhaps their most courageous moment of the game actually came before tip, when Josh Smith decided to play through a sprained knee and Al Horford suddenly reversed course and suited up for the first time since tearing a pectoral muscle in January. The Horford decision seemed particularly odd, given that a week ago he had ruled himself out of the series. It doesn't seem like he could have healed that much in a week, and having been out of action for so long, it was going to be hard for him to have any sort of positive impact. Indeed, Horford was completely overmatched on an early Kevin Garnett post-up, and didn't improve much from there. He's unlikely to be a factor in this series, even if he does continue to play.
The only other time Atlanta showed signs of life was late in the third quarter, when they cut a 37-point lead to 22, with Pierce and Garnett out of the game and presumably done for the night, circumstances permitting. But R-ndo and Ray Allen hit back-to-back three-pointers to stop the rally, and Larry Drew didn't even bother playing his starters in the fourth quarter.
As well as the players played, give Doc some credit for this win, too. Recognizing how tired the team was after Game 3, he gave them Saturday off, and they responded with a performance that was infinitely more energetic and purposeful than the previous one. As much as I think some of Doc's in-game decisions are still questionable, he's one of the best in the biz at managing his players.
We shot extremely well in this game and played extraordinarily well overall, whereas Atlanta played pretty horifically. I wouldn't expect either team to repeat its performance in Game 5, which is back in Atlanta on Tuesday night. (I'm surprised at the lack of a travel day.) Philips Arena is a tough place to play and the Hawks will come out fighting. It's a winnable game, though, and it'd be nice to finish the series early so we can get some rest.
This was it. This was the performance I was hoping for in Game 3.
The Celtics just blitzed the Hawks on Sunday night. Came out strong, hit 'em in the mouth, knocked 'em down, and never let 'em back up. Boston came out with a purpose offensively, with Paul Pierce creating his own shot and Rajon R-ndo getting shots for others with sometimes spectacular assists. Pierce was on fire; he had 24 points in just 16:37 of court time, including several heat-check three-pointers. R-ndo had at least a dozen assists in the first half alone, and finished with 20 points to go along with 16 helpers and just 1 credited turnover -- though I remember two more turnovers in the second half that they didn't give to him.
The one piece of bad news is that Pierce tweaked his knee a bit in the second quarter. I heard him say after the game that he had actually initially hurt it during shootaround before the game, and then he got tangled up with Josh Smith on a screen and tweaked it a bit more. He came out of the game, but did return to start the third quarter. He drilled a couple of threes before Doc took him out, content with the big lead and seeing no reason to push the captain. I don't expect that the knee will cause any real problems -- Pierce plays through injuries like this in the playoffs all the time without ill effects.
Atlanta barely showed any fight. Perhaps their most courageous moment of the game actually came before tip, when Josh Smith decided to play through a sprained knee and Al Horford suddenly reversed course and suited up for the first time since tearing a pectoral muscle in January. The Horford decision seemed particularly odd, given that a week ago he had ruled himself out of the series. It doesn't seem like he could have healed that much in a week, and having been out of action for so long, it was going to be hard for him to have any sort of positive impact. Indeed, Horford was completely overmatched on an early Kevin Garnett post-up, and didn't improve much from there. He's unlikely to be a factor in this series, even if he does continue to play.
The only other time Atlanta showed signs of life was late in the third quarter, when they cut a 37-point lead to 22, with Pierce and Garnett out of the game and presumably done for the night, circumstances permitting. But R-ndo and Ray Allen hit back-to-back three-pointers to stop the rally, and Larry Drew didn't even bother playing his starters in the fourth quarter.
As well as the players played, give Doc some credit for this win, too. Recognizing how tired the team was after Game 3, he gave them Saturday off, and they responded with a performance that was infinitely more energetic and purposeful than the previous one. As much as I think some of Doc's in-game decisions are still questionable, he's one of the best in the biz at managing his players.
We shot extremely well in this game and played extraordinarily well overall, whereas Atlanta played pretty horifically. I wouldn't expect either team to repeat its performance in Game 5, which is back in Atlanta on Tuesday night. (I'm surprised at the lack of a travel day.) Philips Arena is a tough place to play and the Hawks will come out fighting. It's a winnable game, though, and it'd be nice to finish the series early so we can get some rest.
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Toronto 86, Boston 74
[recap] [box score]
It would be shocking if it wasn't so easy to see coming: Grueling game the night before; a disappointing overtime loss to a hated rival; didn't get to the hotel 'til 3 a.m.; embarrassed the opponent by 36 last time they played. Throw in the usual spate of injuries -- no Jermaine O'Neal, Keyon Dooling, or Sasha Pavlovic, and a very limited Avery Bradley -- and it doesn't seem all that hard to explain.
The Celtics were just awful on Friday. Awful. A 12-point deficit doesn't look like much, but trust me, that's just an indication of how much Toronto struggles without Andrea Bargnani. The Celtics lost to the Lakers on Thursday because of stagnant, uninspired offense and poor defensive rebounding, and then went out and did the exact same thing against Toronto. At one point in the first quarter, Doc Rivers was so frustrated with the team's inability to run a play that he called a timeout while storming onto the floor cursing a blue streak -- six seconds after calling a timeout to set up a play. I have never, ever, seen an NBA coach do that to send a message to his team.
It was a college move. Indeed, if it had been a college game, it would have been one of those times where the coach grabs the walk-ons by the jersey and rushes them to scorers' table, lets the starters sit on their asses at the end of the bench for a few minutes, then puts them back in. The way that story usually ends is with the crowd and coaching staff reacting to the walk-ons coming off the floor as though they'd just sewn up a national championship, and the invigorated/scared starters blowing the other team off the court.
This isn't college, though. There are no walk-ons, and while Doc did put in Bradley in the hopes of getting a little defensive spark, it ultimately wasn't worth risking further injury to him. Boston finally woke up in the second half and had the lead down to seven or so, but couldn't get a couple key calls and stayed in a 2-3 zone just long enough to let Linas Kleiza lock up this game for the Raps from outside.
Word is that the players had a meeting after the game, not a finger-pointing session, but just a meeting to work stuff out. That's good, that's the way a veteran team like the Celtics should handle it.
Let's hope it translates to the court on Sunday when Derrick Rose and the big, bad
Chicago Bulls come to town. Chicago has been steamrolling people; they have the best record in the league. What's frightening about the Bull is that even without Rose, last year's MVP, they're nasty; he's missed all or parts of eight games with injuries this year, and they are 7-1 in those games. Not only are they 7-1, but it's a convincing 7-1: 95-84 at Charlotte; 90-67 at New Orleans; 108-87 at New Jersey; 114-75 at Cleveland; 95-89 vs. Charlotte; 118-97 vs. Phoenix; 78-64 vs. Washington. That's an average margin of victory of nearly 20 points in seven wins largely without their point guard and leader and the league's MVP. Ridiculous. Rose is having some back problems that have limited him or kept him out of the last three games, but knowing the guy, I expect him to play in Boston.
He was on the floor in mid-January in Boston when the Bulls beat the Celtics, jumping out to a 20-point lead before Boston battled back and nearly won it. Tune in to see if Boston will get its revenge Sunday at 3:30 Eastern on ABC.
It would be shocking if it wasn't so easy to see coming: Grueling game the night before; a disappointing overtime loss to a hated rival; didn't get to the hotel 'til 3 a.m.; embarrassed the opponent by 36 last time they played. Throw in the usual spate of injuries -- no Jermaine O'Neal, Keyon Dooling, or Sasha Pavlovic, and a very limited Avery Bradley -- and it doesn't seem all that hard to explain.
The Celtics were just awful on Friday. Awful. A 12-point deficit doesn't look like much, but trust me, that's just an indication of how much Toronto struggles without Andrea Bargnani. The Celtics lost to the Lakers on Thursday because of stagnant, uninspired offense and poor defensive rebounding, and then went out and did the exact same thing against Toronto. At one point in the first quarter, Doc Rivers was so frustrated with the team's inability to run a play that he called a timeout while storming onto the floor cursing a blue streak -- six seconds after calling a timeout to set up a play. I have never, ever, seen an NBA coach do that to send a message to his team.
It was a college move. Indeed, if it had been a college game, it would have been one of those times where the coach grabs the walk-ons by the jersey and rushes them to scorers' table, lets the starters sit on their asses at the end of the bench for a few minutes, then puts them back in. The way that story usually ends is with the crowd and coaching staff reacting to the walk-ons coming off the floor as though they'd just sewn up a national championship, and the invigorated/scared starters blowing the other team off the court.
This isn't college, though. There are no walk-ons, and while Doc did put in Bradley in the hopes of getting a little defensive spark, it ultimately wasn't worth risking further injury to him. Boston finally woke up in the second half and had the lead down to seven or so, but couldn't get a couple key calls and stayed in a 2-3 zone just long enough to let Linas Kleiza lock up this game for the Raps from outside.
Word is that the players had a meeting after the game, not a finger-pointing session, but just a meeting to work stuff out. That's good, that's the way a veteran team like the Celtics should handle it.
Let's hope it translates to the court on Sunday when Derrick Rose and the big, bad
Chicago Bulls come to town. Chicago has been steamrolling people; they have the best record in the league. What's frightening about the Bull is that even without Rose, last year's MVP, they're nasty; he's missed all or parts of eight games with injuries this year, and they are 7-1 in those games. Not only are they 7-1, but it's a convincing 7-1: 95-84 at Charlotte; 90-67 at New Orleans; 108-87 at New Jersey; 114-75 at Cleveland; 95-89 vs. Charlotte; 118-97 vs. Phoenix; 78-64 vs. Washington. That's an average margin of victory of nearly 20 points in seven wins largely without their point guard and leader and the league's MVP. Ridiculous. Rose is having some back problems that have limited him or kept him out of the last three games, but knowing the guy, I expect him to play in Boston.
He was on the floor in mid-January in Boston when the Bulls beat the Celtics, jumping out to a 20-point lead before Boston battled back and nearly won it. Tune in to see if Boston will get its revenge Sunday at 3:30 Eastern on ABC.
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Boston 94, Indiana 87
[recap] [box score]
As many of you know, when Paul Pierce is introduced to the home crowd, the announcer refers to him as "The Captain, and the The Truth." The former is, of course, a nod to the fact that he is the long-time captain of the Celtics, and the latter is the nickname bestowed on Pierce early in his career by a very impressed Shaquille O'Neal.
It doesn't get much more Captain-y, or much Truthier, than the way Pierce has played over the last couple of games.
The night after Pierce's 24 points, six rebounds, and ten assists led his team to an improbable comeback victory over the Magic, Pierce's 28/10/8 helped his team avenge avenge two earlier losses to the youthful Pacers. Playing a dual role as main ballhandler and primary scoring option, there's hardly been a Celtics possession lately with #34 on the floor that hasn't gone through him. Pierce is averaging more than eight assists per game in the five that Rajon R-ndo has missed with a wrist injury, all while raising his season scoring average from 14.9 to 17.7. On Friday night, after a relatively quiet first half, he went off for 17 points in the third quarter, picking apart Danny Granger and the Pacers in the second half with a series of crafty left-handed drives and long-range jumpers.
There's no question that Pierce is being asked to do too much. The 34 minutes he was asked to play against the Pacers are one or two too many; the 44 he played on Thursday against Orlando are absolutely horrifying. Doc hasn't had much choice but to play Pierce a ton of minutes, given all the injuries, and in some ways, perhaps it's good -- maybe it has gotten Pierce into shape. But as fun as it's been to watch Pierce put this team -- his team -- on his back, it'll be good to get some of the cavalry back.
Not that Pierce has been alone. Kevin Garnett has really elevated his play in the last two games, especially on the defensive end. With Jermaine O'Neal out with sore knees, Garnett has had to slide over to the starting five spot, and he has kept two of the game's best young centers, Dwight Howard and Roy Hibbert, well under control on consecutive nights.
And in each of the last three wins, Pierce and Garnett have gotten help from an unheralded teammate. In the first Orlando win, the home blowout on Monday, it was Avery Bradley and his fantastic pressure defense; in the Orlando comeback, it was rookie E'Twaun Moore clutch sharpshooting. On Friday, it was backup center Chris Wilcox, who, after scoring 15 points all season, erupted for 14 against the Pacers.
All these guys helped Boston to what was a pretty comfortable win, despite the fact that Indiana shot 31 free throws (making 30) to the Celtics' 14 (we hit 12).
Doc, by the way, is coaching his ass off. He's been working the sideline with more energy than I've seen him before, keeping his team fighting through injuries and an awful start to the season. And on Friday, he used his timeouts brilliantly to stem any momentum shifts in Indiana's favor. Three times during the game he used a timeout after Indiana went on a five- or six-point run; after two of those, Boston scored on the ensuing possession, and in all three situations, the Celtics regained control soon thereafter. He also drew up a great little high pinch post variation coming out of the under 3 timeout that led to a Mickael Pietrus dunk and a 90-80 lead.
The opponents on the schedule get a little easier this week, but Boston has now started a stretch in which they play at least as frequently as every other night for more than two weeks. They've got the Cavs at home on Sunday, the return date in Ohio on Tuesday, and the Raptors at home on Wednesday, three winnable games before the Knicks and Grizzlies visit over the weekend.
As many of you know, when Paul Pierce is introduced to the home crowd, the announcer refers to him as "The Captain, and the The Truth." The former is, of course, a nod to the fact that he is the long-time captain of the Celtics, and the latter is the nickname bestowed on Pierce early in his career by a very impressed Shaquille O'Neal.
It doesn't get much more Captain-y, or much Truthier, than the way Pierce has played over the last couple of games.
The night after Pierce's 24 points, six rebounds, and ten assists led his team to an improbable comeback victory over the Magic, Pierce's 28/10/8 helped his team avenge avenge two earlier losses to the youthful Pacers. Playing a dual role as main ballhandler and primary scoring option, there's hardly been a Celtics possession lately with #34 on the floor that hasn't gone through him. Pierce is averaging more than eight assists per game in the five that Rajon R-ndo has missed with a wrist injury, all while raising his season scoring average from 14.9 to 17.7. On Friday night, after a relatively quiet first half, he went off for 17 points in the third quarter, picking apart Danny Granger and the Pacers in the second half with a series of crafty left-handed drives and long-range jumpers.
There's no question that Pierce is being asked to do too much. The 34 minutes he was asked to play against the Pacers are one or two too many; the 44 he played on Thursday against Orlando are absolutely horrifying. Doc hasn't had much choice but to play Pierce a ton of minutes, given all the injuries, and in some ways, perhaps it's good -- maybe it has gotten Pierce into shape. But as fun as it's been to watch Pierce put this team -- his team -- on his back, it'll be good to get some of the cavalry back.
Not that Pierce has been alone. Kevin Garnett has really elevated his play in the last two games, especially on the defensive end. With Jermaine O'Neal out with sore knees, Garnett has had to slide over to the starting five spot, and he has kept two of the game's best young centers, Dwight Howard and Roy Hibbert, well under control on consecutive nights.
And in each of the last three wins, Pierce and Garnett have gotten help from an unheralded teammate. In the first Orlando win, the home blowout on Monday, it was Avery Bradley and his fantastic pressure defense; in the Orlando comeback, it was rookie E'Twaun Moore clutch sharpshooting. On Friday, it was backup center Chris Wilcox, who, after scoring 15 points all season, erupted for 14 against the Pacers.
All these guys helped Boston to what was a pretty comfortable win, despite the fact that Indiana shot 31 free throws (making 30) to the Celtics' 14 (we hit 12).
Doc, by the way, is coaching his ass off. He's been working the sideline with more energy than I've seen him before, keeping his team fighting through injuries and an awful start to the season. And on Friday, he used his timeouts brilliantly to stem any momentum shifts in Indiana's favor. Three times during the game he used a timeout after Indiana went on a five- or six-point run; after two of those, Boston scored on the ensuing possession, and in all three situations, the Celtics regained control soon thereafter. He also drew up a great little high pinch post variation coming out of the under 3 timeout that led to a Mickael Pietrus dunk and a 90-80 lead.
The opponents on the schedule get a little easier this week, but Boston has now started a stretch in which they play at least as frequently as every other night for more than two weeks. They've got the Cavs at home on Sunday, the return date in Ohio on Tuesday, and the Raptors at home on Wednesday, three winnable games before the Knicks and Grizzlies visit over the weekend.
Friday, January 27, 2012
Boston 91, Orlando 83
[recap] [box score]
What's worse? Losing by 31 on the road to a team missing its starting backcourt, or blowing a 27-point at home to that same team missing that same starting backcourt?
I'm guessing it's the latter, but only the Orlando Magic know for sure.
Orlando, which bounced back from that embarrassing loss in Boston on Monday by winning in Indiana on Tuesday, got off to a rough start Thursday as well. Dwight Howard picked up two fouls in the first three minutes, Boston led 8-2 and everyone was wondering if Monday actually was a fluke after all.
But after a Stan Van Gundy timeout, the Magic spent the next 20 minutes of game time threatening to run the Celtics out of the building. The went on a 30-8 run to close the quarter, taking a 32-16 lead behind 12 points from Ryan Anderson. The second quarter brought more of the same, the lead ballooning to 27 before settling in at a still-comfortable 21.
If you turned it off at that point, I don't blame you. The Celtics were listless in the first half. Paul Pierce, the only guy in uniform capable of creating any sort of offense for himself or others, had done almost nothing. Avery Bradley had done less than nothing, suffering through one of his nights where he can't seem to hang onto the ball, a Tony Allen-esque performance. Brandon Bass was hesitating on his jumper, the first time all season I've seen him look reluctant to shoot. Only Mickael Pietrus, who hit a few early jumpers, and Kevin Garnett, who slid over to the five with Jermaine O'Neal sidelined by sore knees and defended Howard very well, played even decently in the first half.
Towards the end of the second quarter, coming back from a timeout, TNT played a clip of one of Doc Rivers' huddles. They were down 25 at the time, and he told his team they were still in it, pleading with the players to cut into the lead, just a little bit. "At least Doc's trying," I said to myself. I remember being impressed at how convincing Doc forced himself to sound.
I did not necessarily expect the players to listen.
Look, I've watched enough of the NBA to know that no halftime lead is safe. And I know the kind of heart that beats deep in the chests of Pierce, Garnett, and Rivers. But the NBA season is a long, exhausting slog -- made even longer and more exhausting this year by the condensed schedule -- and there are nights when you just don't have it. Indeed, there are nights when saving your strength for the next night is probably the smart thing to do.
Thursday night could have been one of those nights. Down three starters and 21 points, in the first of three games in four nights (and 11 in 17 -- the Celtics don't have two consecutive off-days until February 17 and 18), no one would have been been surprised or complained if the Cs folded the tent early.
But they didn't. Even when the comeback seemed to die in its early stages as Boston squandered three possessions in the first half of the third quarter that would have cut the lead to 13 or 12, they persisted. Indeed, Orlando still led by 18 with about two minutes left in the third. But Boston finished the period on a 10-3 run, and Doc all but sprinted off the bench to encourage the guys as they came off the floor.
The fourth was stunning in the swiftness with which Boston took over the game. They ratcheted up the defense and started making shots on offense, and it took them just four-and-a-half minutes to complete a 15-1 run, taking the lead on an E'Twaun Moore three-pointer.
From there, the offense more or less stalled, but the defense never let up. Howard finally made his team's first field goal of the quarter with 5:56 remaining, cutting the lead to one, but the Magic wouldn't make another shot until Hedo Turkoglu buried a three-pointer with 39 seconds left to cut the Boston lead to 87-83. Orlando, which had scored 58 points in the first half -- one more than it got in the entire game on Monday -- managed just 25 in the second, including a mere seven in the final quarter. The Magic players let their frustrations boil over, forcing bad shots and earning two late technical fouls arguing a couple admittedly tough calls that didn't go their way.
As badly as Orlando imploded, however, Boston's defense was absolutely tenacious in the second half. With Bradley having such a nightmare evening offensively (and with Keyon Dooling lasting just a half before getting hurt in his return after seven missed games due to injury), Doc turned to the rookie Moore, who responded in a big way. He harassed Chris Duhon and a hobbled Jameer Nelson all over the court, forcing Orlando to get into its offense late. Garnett played Howard largely without the benefit of a double team and held him to 50 percent shooting and eight trips to the free throw line. Even Bass, who doesn't have much of a defensive reputation, got into the act, making a late steal and staying in front of Turkoglu on the perimeter as Hedo pounded the ball, looking for a driving lane.
Offensively, Pierce was the catalyst, getting hot early in the fourth against long-time antagonist Quentin Richardson before finding Bass for a couple 20-footers on the pick-and-pop when Orlando started running two defenders at him. But the revelation was Moore, without whom we simply would not have won the game. Moore had 16 points, including a perfect four-for-four on three-pointers. Three of his triples came at the end of the third and the first half of the fourth -- he accounted for points 3 through 5, 11 through 13, and 23 through 25 of the 25-4 run that saw Boston go from down 18 points to up three. His lone two-point field goal was just as crucial; Howard cut the Boston lead to one, Moore caught a hit-ahead pass and attacked the rim despite not having numbers. His soft floater over Jason Richardson and Jameer Nelson bounced all over the rim before dropping through, preserving the Celtic lead.
After the game, Boston celebrated about as much as you'll ever see from an NBA team during the regular season, at least in the absence of a buzzer-beating game-winner. Watching Doc and the guys hug and pound each other on the back as though they had just won a playoff series, I couldn't help but get a few goosebumps. For the last four years, we've been chasing championships, and when you have realistic expectations of winning the last game you play in June, nights like this one tend to be forgotten.
The NBA is a business, but at bottom, it's still basketball. And I fell in love with basketball long before I truly understood the NBA. So I don't feel at all bad for enjoying this win without worrying about whether Boston can turn around, or is turning around, its season. Of course I'm going to swell with pride watching a couple of veterans play their asses off to pick up their fallen teammates while their coach exhorts them from the sideline; I wouldn't be a fan if I didn't.
Maybe this season will be worth watching after all.
What's worse? Losing by 31 on the road to a team missing its starting backcourt, or blowing a 27-point at home to that same team missing that same starting backcourt?
I'm guessing it's the latter, but only the Orlando Magic know for sure.
Orlando, which bounced back from that embarrassing loss in Boston on Monday by winning in Indiana on Tuesday, got off to a rough start Thursday as well. Dwight Howard picked up two fouls in the first three minutes, Boston led 8-2 and everyone was wondering if Monday actually was a fluke after all.
But after a Stan Van Gundy timeout, the Magic spent the next 20 minutes of game time threatening to run the Celtics out of the building. The went on a 30-8 run to close the quarter, taking a 32-16 lead behind 12 points from Ryan Anderson. The second quarter brought more of the same, the lead ballooning to 27 before settling in at a still-comfortable 21.
If you turned it off at that point, I don't blame you. The Celtics were listless in the first half. Paul Pierce, the only guy in uniform capable of creating any sort of offense for himself or others, had done almost nothing. Avery Bradley had done less than nothing, suffering through one of his nights where he can't seem to hang onto the ball, a Tony Allen-esque performance. Brandon Bass was hesitating on his jumper, the first time all season I've seen him look reluctant to shoot. Only Mickael Pietrus, who hit a few early jumpers, and Kevin Garnett, who slid over to the five with Jermaine O'Neal sidelined by sore knees and defended Howard very well, played even decently in the first half.
Towards the end of the second quarter, coming back from a timeout, TNT played a clip of one of Doc Rivers' huddles. They were down 25 at the time, and he told his team they were still in it, pleading with the players to cut into the lead, just a little bit. "At least Doc's trying," I said to myself. I remember being impressed at how convincing Doc forced himself to sound.
I did not necessarily expect the players to listen.
Look, I've watched enough of the NBA to know that no halftime lead is safe. And I know the kind of heart that beats deep in the chests of Pierce, Garnett, and Rivers. But the NBA season is a long, exhausting slog -- made even longer and more exhausting this year by the condensed schedule -- and there are nights when you just don't have it. Indeed, there are nights when saving your strength for the next night is probably the smart thing to do.
Thursday night could have been one of those nights. Down three starters and 21 points, in the first of three games in four nights (and 11 in 17 -- the Celtics don't have two consecutive off-days until February 17 and 18), no one would have been been surprised or complained if the Cs folded the tent early.
But they didn't. Even when the comeback seemed to die in its early stages as Boston squandered three possessions in the first half of the third quarter that would have cut the lead to 13 or 12, they persisted. Indeed, Orlando still led by 18 with about two minutes left in the third. But Boston finished the period on a 10-3 run, and Doc all but sprinted off the bench to encourage the guys as they came off the floor.
The fourth was stunning in the swiftness with which Boston took over the game. They ratcheted up the defense and started making shots on offense, and it took them just four-and-a-half minutes to complete a 15-1 run, taking the lead on an E'Twaun Moore three-pointer.
From there, the offense more or less stalled, but the defense never let up. Howard finally made his team's first field goal of the quarter with 5:56 remaining, cutting the lead to one, but the Magic wouldn't make another shot until Hedo Turkoglu buried a three-pointer with 39 seconds left to cut the Boston lead to 87-83. Orlando, which had scored 58 points in the first half -- one more than it got in the entire game on Monday -- managed just 25 in the second, including a mere seven in the final quarter. The Magic players let their frustrations boil over, forcing bad shots and earning two late technical fouls arguing a couple admittedly tough calls that didn't go their way.
As badly as Orlando imploded, however, Boston's defense was absolutely tenacious in the second half. With Bradley having such a nightmare evening offensively (and with Keyon Dooling lasting just a half before getting hurt in his return after seven missed games due to injury), Doc turned to the rookie Moore, who responded in a big way. He harassed Chris Duhon and a hobbled Jameer Nelson all over the court, forcing Orlando to get into its offense late. Garnett played Howard largely without the benefit of a double team and held him to 50 percent shooting and eight trips to the free throw line. Even Bass, who doesn't have much of a defensive reputation, got into the act, making a late steal and staying in front of Turkoglu on the perimeter as Hedo pounded the ball, looking for a driving lane.
Offensively, Pierce was the catalyst, getting hot early in the fourth against long-time antagonist Quentin Richardson before finding Bass for a couple 20-footers on the pick-and-pop when Orlando started running two defenders at him. But the revelation was Moore, without whom we simply would not have won the game. Moore had 16 points, including a perfect four-for-four on three-pointers. Three of his triples came at the end of the third and the first half of the fourth -- he accounted for points 3 through 5, 11 through 13, and 23 through 25 of the 25-4 run that saw Boston go from down 18 points to up three. His lone two-point field goal was just as crucial; Howard cut the Boston lead to one, Moore caught a hit-ahead pass and attacked the rim despite not having numbers. His soft floater over Jason Richardson and Jameer Nelson bounced all over the rim before dropping through, preserving the Celtic lead.
After the game, Boston celebrated about as much as you'll ever see from an NBA team during the regular season, at least in the absence of a buzzer-beating game-winner. Watching Doc and the guys hug and pound each other on the back as though they had just won a playoff series, I couldn't help but get a few goosebumps. For the last four years, we've been chasing championships, and when you have realistic expectations of winning the last game you play in June, nights like this one tend to be forgotten.
The NBA is a business, but at bottom, it's still basketball. And I fell in love with basketball long before I truly understood the NBA. So I don't feel at all bad for enjoying this win without worrying about whether Boston can turn around, or is turning around, its season. Of course I'm going to swell with pride watching a couple of veterans play their asses off to pick up their fallen teammates while their coach exhorts them from the sideline; I wouldn't be a fan if I didn't.
Maybe this season will be worth watching after all.
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Celtics Drop Two to Start Season
I've been in DC since last week, spending time with friends and family over the holidays. I've been too busy to blog, but I haven't been too busy to catch Boston in their season-opening games -- a 106-104 loss in New York on Christmas Day, and a 115-107 defeat in Miami Tuesday night.
In both games, Boston started out very slowly, digging a double-digit hole for themselves in the first half. In both games they clawed back to have a realistic shot at winning, taking the lead into the fourth quarter against the Knicks and getting to within three of the Heat late in the fourth.
It's a disappointing start to the season, and yet we should take it with a grain of salt -- the same grain of salt, I should point out, that would accompany our gloating over a 2-0 start, had the ball bounced that way.
The first way to put these losses in perspective is to remember that Paul Pierce hasn't seen the floor yet due to a sore heel. Boston badly missed his offense in a stagnant fourth quarter against the Knicks, and his presence on the defensive end of the floor could have meant a Boston win in either game (or perhaps in both).
The second is to remember that we just played the Knicks and the Heat, two of the better teams in the league. Miami is the odds-on favorite to win the title this year and are in great form (they absolutely took apart Dallas in a Finals rematch on Christmas Day) and New York just might be the third-best team in the East. Even if the Knicks aren't quite as good as some think they are, it's indisputable that Boston's first two opponents are two of the tougher teams in the league to guard. So the fact that we've surrendered 110.5 points per game -- normally a very alarming number -- is tempered by the fact that we've done so against two of the league's best offensive outfits (teams that play at a fast pace, to boot). If New Orleans lights us up Wednesday night, then I'll start to worry about the D.
Honestly, we're not that far from 2-0. We didn't deserve to win either game, really, not with the way we played in the first half, but we hung around, like we always seem to. Carmelo Anthony got hot in the fourth quarter in New York and a rookie named Norris Cole beat our zone (!) in the fourth quarter in Miami -- if not for those guys, we really could have opened with two wins. Two road wins, without the Captain.
That's probably stretching it. My point is, I'm not too concerned. The season ahead is lockout-shortened, but it's still long. Losing on the road to the Knicks and Heat was likely to happen.
Here's what I do hate: Ray Allen has played 38 and 40 minutes, respectively, in the first two games. Allen is, as always, in outstanding physical condition, but that's just too many minutes. Way too many. I'm going to give Doc a little bit of a pass because of the bodies he's missing (Pierce and the newly-signed Mickael Pietrus play the wing), but given Doc's tendencies, I'm expecting that I'll be complaining about the minutes situation all year. Doc did do a nice job limiting Kevin Garnett to 33 minutes Tuesday after KG played 37 in the opener, and this despite the fact that Chris Wilcox sat the whole second half with some sort of (hopefully minor) injury. But Rajon R-ndo can't play 40-plus minutes a game, either, if we're going to make a deep playoff run after what will be a very grueling season.
Save for one absolutely critical turnover in the waning moments against Miami, by the way, R-ndo has been almost flawless. He followed up a 31/5/13 performance against New York with a 22/8/12. Even better: He hit nine of 12 free throws against New York and seven of 11 against Miami. Seventy percent from the line from your point guard isn't normally something to get excited about, but normally your point guard didn't shoot under 60 percent from the stripe last season. What's more, I think this improvement could be permanent; he's slowed his pace at the line way down and everything about the shot looks smoother. A somewhat reliable free throw stroke should give him the confidence to go to the bucket more this year, which we're going to need.
Another bright spot, offensively, has been the bench. Brandon Bass had 20 points and 11 rebounds against the Knicks, while Keyon Dooling did the heavy lifting with 18 off the bench against the Heat. I'm more confident in Bass' ability to contribute regularly than Dooling's; Dooling will rarely shoot as well as he did Tuesday night, and the confidence these strong evenings brings may end up doing more harm than good if it convinces him to play outside his rather modest offensive abilities. Put another way, I'm going to need to see several more games of solid shooting from Dooling before I get comfortable watching him cock the ball way back -- behind his shoulder, to the side of his head -- truly one of the more bizarre shooting strokes in the NBA.
A lot to improve on, but no need to panic just yet.
In both games, Boston started out very slowly, digging a double-digit hole for themselves in the first half. In both games they clawed back to have a realistic shot at winning, taking the lead into the fourth quarter against the Knicks and getting to within three of the Heat late in the fourth.
It's a disappointing start to the season, and yet we should take it with a grain of salt -- the same grain of salt, I should point out, that would accompany our gloating over a 2-0 start, had the ball bounced that way.
The first way to put these losses in perspective is to remember that Paul Pierce hasn't seen the floor yet due to a sore heel. Boston badly missed his offense in a stagnant fourth quarter against the Knicks, and his presence on the defensive end of the floor could have meant a Boston win in either game (or perhaps in both).
The second is to remember that we just played the Knicks and the Heat, two of the better teams in the league. Miami is the odds-on favorite to win the title this year and are in great form (they absolutely took apart Dallas in a Finals rematch on Christmas Day) and New York just might be the third-best team in the East. Even if the Knicks aren't quite as good as some think they are, it's indisputable that Boston's first two opponents are two of the tougher teams in the league to guard. So the fact that we've surrendered 110.5 points per game -- normally a very alarming number -- is tempered by the fact that we've done so against two of the league's best offensive outfits (teams that play at a fast pace, to boot). If New Orleans lights us up Wednesday night, then I'll start to worry about the D.
Honestly, we're not that far from 2-0. We didn't deserve to win either game, really, not with the way we played in the first half, but we hung around, like we always seem to. Carmelo Anthony got hot in the fourth quarter in New York and a rookie named Norris Cole beat our zone (!) in the fourth quarter in Miami -- if not for those guys, we really could have opened with two wins. Two road wins, without the Captain.
That's probably stretching it. My point is, I'm not too concerned. The season ahead is lockout-shortened, but it's still long. Losing on the road to the Knicks and Heat was likely to happen.
Here's what I do hate: Ray Allen has played 38 and 40 minutes, respectively, in the first two games. Allen is, as always, in outstanding physical condition, but that's just too many minutes. Way too many. I'm going to give Doc a little bit of a pass because of the bodies he's missing (Pierce and the newly-signed Mickael Pietrus play the wing), but given Doc's tendencies, I'm expecting that I'll be complaining about the minutes situation all year. Doc did do a nice job limiting Kevin Garnett to 33 minutes Tuesday after KG played 37 in the opener, and this despite the fact that Chris Wilcox sat the whole second half with some sort of (hopefully minor) injury. But Rajon R-ndo can't play 40-plus minutes a game, either, if we're going to make a deep playoff run after what will be a very grueling season.
Save for one absolutely critical turnover in the waning moments against Miami, by the way, R-ndo has been almost flawless. He followed up a 31/5/13 performance against New York with a 22/8/12. Even better: He hit nine of 12 free throws against New York and seven of 11 against Miami. Seventy percent from the line from your point guard isn't normally something to get excited about, but normally your point guard didn't shoot under 60 percent from the stripe last season. What's more, I think this improvement could be permanent; he's slowed his pace at the line way down and everything about the shot looks smoother. A somewhat reliable free throw stroke should give him the confidence to go to the bucket more this year, which we're going to need.
Another bright spot, offensively, has been the bench. Brandon Bass had 20 points and 11 rebounds against the Knicks, while Keyon Dooling did the heavy lifting with 18 off the bench against the Heat. I'm more confident in Bass' ability to contribute regularly than Dooling's; Dooling will rarely shoot as well as he did Tuesday night, and the confidence these strong evenings brings may end up doing more harm than good if it convinces him to play outside his rather modest offensive abilities. Put another way, I'm going to need to see several more games of solid shooting from Dooling before I get comfortable watching him cock the ball way back -- behind his shoulder, to the side of his head -- truly one of the more bizarre shooting strokes in the NBA.
A lot to improve on, but no need to panic just yet.
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
A Few Thoughts on the Schedule
The lockout-shortened NBA schedule was announced yesterday, with the league trying to cram 66 games for each team into a time period stretching from Christmas Day to April 26. The result of the labor dispute from a scheduling standpoint is a lot of stuff we're not used to seeing, from back-to-back-to-backs (each team has at least one) and ridiculous stretches like the Hawks playing nine games in the season's first 12 nights.
My first thought when I heard about all of this is that there's going to be some bad basketball played this year in the NBA. While I wasn't a night-to-night fan of the whole league in 1999, the last time a labor dispute shortened the season, I can't imagine that the product that season was up to our usual NBA standard.
I'm not going to spend much energy talking about the Celtics' schedule as compared to the rest of the league's, save a point I heard Jackie MacMullan make on "Around the Horn" this afternoon, which is that, because of TV, the marquee teams (like the Celtics) end up with tougher relative schedules than normal due to the league not wanting to lose premier matchups. Thus, while each team plays only 18 non-conference games (and therefore twice against only three non-conference opponents, Boston's home-and-home Western Conference foes are Dallas, Oklahoma City, and, of course, the Lakers.
Other than that, I'm not going to spend time arguing the league screwed Boston by giving them their back-to-back-to-back on the road in the middle of April during the season's stretch run, or analyzing whether we have more tough Western opponents on the road or at home. I abhor this phrase, but the schedule "is what it is," it sucks for everybody, and nothing can be done about it.
I'm also not going to go through the schedule and highlight the key games and stretches -- you can do that yourself by looking here. But there are a few things the schedule affects that I do want to discuss. (Good thing I have a blog, then!)
I have very low expectations for the regular season. Another point I heard MacMullan make today is that the shortened schedule favors veteran teams -- I have no way of verifying this, but she asserted that the top four teams in 1999 were also the four oldest. Boston certainly qualifies as one of the oldest. In some ways, this makes sense -- the lockout means a very abbreviated training camp and preseason schedule, which benefits veteran teams that have a lot of experience playing with each other. And, as MacMullan pointed out, older players tend to take better care of themselves in the offseason (out of necessity).
On the other hand, it's hard to imagine that playing 17 games a month for four month's is going to be easy on the Boston veterans' legs, well-conditioned though they may be. So as long as we're safely in the playoffs, I'm not going to start freaking out if we don't show up on random nights throughout the season.
Doc's most important job is managing minutes. There's a caveat to my above promise, and that is if that we lose games in March and April while Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, and Kevin Garnett are playing 38 minutes per. Most of the things I criticized Doc for in past years have gotten a lot better, but he still rides the horses too hard. Allen is 36 and played 36 minutes per game last year (just one off his career average); Pierce is 34 and played 34 per last season; KG is 35 and played 31. I don't have a number in mind for each of these guys; I just know it needs to be lower. Playing 66 games instead of 82 theoretically means fresher legs in the postseason, a good thing for an older team like ours, but Boston's legs won't be fresh if the studs are playing huge minutes night after night after night, with fewer days off in between.
The rookies better be ready. To that end, there's some opportunity here for Boston's two draft picks, JaJuan Johnson and E'Twaun Moore. It depends on what Boston does in free agency, but it's quite possible that the former Purdue teammates will be asked to play significant minutes during the regular season. (The same goes for second-year point guard Avery Bradley.) I'm excited by this prospect -- Doc hasn't done a great job breaking in rookies over the last four years, and so this is a good opportunity to get them some playing time in advance of the rebuilding period that will follow the Big Three era in Boston. The abbreviated preseason makes it harder on these guys because they won't have as much time to prepare, but Johnson and Moore are probably better-prepared to handle it then some other members of their draft class, because they -- unlike their peers -- have four years of college playing experience.
My first thought when I heard about all of this is that there's going to be some bad basketball played this year in the NBA. While I wasn't a night-to-night fan of the whole league in 1999, the last time a labor dispute shortened the season, I can't imagine that the product that season was up to our usual NBA standard.
I'm not going to spend much energy talking about the Celtics' schedule as compared to the rest of the league's, save a point I heard Jackie MacMullan make on "Around the Horn" this afternoon, which is that, because of TV, the marquee teams (like the Celtics) end up with tougher relative schedules than normal due to the league not wanting to lose premier matchups. Thus, while each team plays only 18 non-conference games (and therefore twice against only three non-conference opponents, Boston's home-and-home Western Conference foes are Dallas, Oklahoma City, and, of course, the Lakers.
Other than that, I'm not going to spend time arguing the league screwed Boston by giving them their back-to-back-to-back on the road in the middle of April during the season's stretch run, or analyzing whether we have more tough Western opponents on the road or at home. I abhor this phrase, but the schedule "is what it is," it sucks for everybody, and nothing can be done about it.
I'm also not going to go through the schedule and highlight the key games and stretches -- you can do that yourself by looking here. But there are a few things the schedule affects that I do want to discuss. (Good thing I have a blog, then!)
I have very low expectations for the regular season. Another point I heard MacMullan make today is that the shortened schedule favors veteran teams -- I have no way of verifying this, but she asserted that the top four teams in 1999 were also the four oldest. Boston certainly qualifies as one of the oldest. In some ways, this makes sense -- the lockout means a very abbreviated training camp and preseason schedule, which benefits veteran teams that have a lot of experience playing with each other. And, as MacMullan pointed out, older players tend to take better care of themselves in the offseason (out of necessity).
On the other hand, it's hard to imagine that playing 17 games a month for four month's is going to be easy on the Boston veterans' legs, well-conditioned though they may be. So as long as we're safely in the playoffs, I'm not going to start freaking out if we don't show up on random nights throughout the season.
Doc's most important job is managing minutes. There's a caveat to my above promise, and that is if that we lose games in March and April while Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, and Kevin Garnett are playing 38 minutes per. Most of the things I criticized Doc for in past years have gotten a lot better, but he still rides the horses too hard. Allen is 36 and played 36 minutes per game last year (just one off his career average); Pierce is 34 and played 34 per last season; KG is 35 and played 31. I don't have a number in mind for each of these guys; I just know it needs to be lower. Playing 66 games instead of 82 theoretically means fresher legs in the postseason, a good thing for an older team like ours, but Boston's legs won't be fresh if the studs are playing huge minutes night after night after night, with fewer days off in between.
The rookies better be ready. To that end, there's some opportunity here for Boston's two draft picks, JaJuan Johnson and E'Twaun Moore. It depends on what Boston does in free agency, but it's quite possible that the former Purdue teammates will be asked to play significant minutes during the regular season. (The same goes for second-year point guard Avery Bradley.) I'm excited by this prospect -- Doc hasn't done a great job breaking in rookies over the last four years, and so this is a good opportunity to get them some playing time in advance of the rebuilding period that will follow the Big Three era in Boston. The abbreviated preseason makes it harder on these guys because they won't have as much time to prepare, but Johnson and Moore are probably better-prepared to handle it then some other members of their draft class, because they -- unlike their peers -- have four years of college playing experience.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Boston 115, Phoenix 103
Strange, strange night at the Garden.
The Celtics were killing the visiting Suns, up 28 in the third quarter, looking ready to run the visitors out of the gym and threatening to turn the fourth period into a formality. But a funny thing happened on the way to the locker room...
To its credit, Phoenix's bench was excellent, going on an improbable 18-0 run that made the final few minutes interesting. I thought Jared Dudley was the catalyst, making a couple steals and hitting a couple of threes, never giving up despite the fact that his team seemed hopeless out of it. Newly-acquired point guard Aaron Brooks took it from there, putting on a dazzling scoring display that reminded viewers -- particularly those that picked him in the third round of their fantasy league -- of the offensive force he seemed poised to become in Houston, before an ankle injury early in the season set him back.
To their discredit, the Celtics -- mostly the bench, but also the starters for a stretch when they came back in -- really let the Suns back into it. I thought the second unit really suffered from the absence of Delonte West, who missed his second straight game with an ankle injury. Rookie Avery Bradley is running the point in his stead, and he lacks the experience to organize the offense. He's also recently developed a habit of having a little bit of a quick trigger, which is problematic for a guy whose jumper is, by all accounts, a major question mark.
Standard NBA comeback, you say? Everybody makes a run, right? Perhaps. But things started to get a little strange around the 2:16 mark, with Boston by nine and the ball. Phoenix chose to lengthen the game by intentionally fouling. They put Paul Pierce on the line, who made the first and missed the second; Glen Davis got the rebound. They quickly then put Rajon Rondo on the line, who made the first and missed the second; Kevin Garnett got the rebound. Davis went to the line after that, missing the first and making the second, breaking the pattern of offensive rebounds but also sealing the game for all intents and purposes.
But Phoenix kept fouling, which is fine, I guess, even though they weren't scoring enough to make any real progress. A minute later, with Boston up 11, Pierce broke a double team near midcourt, found Rondo on the wing, and Rondo slipped his 15th assist to Davis cutting baseline for a dunk. Davis, however, either went up wrong or came down wrong, and hobbled off with what the team called a strained patella tendon; he'll have an MRI on Thurday.
After a Suns timeout, Mickael Pietrus missed a three, Boston got the rebound and dribbled out the next shot clock. Garnett then picked up a technical, apparently for verbally jousting with Phoenix coach Alvin Gentry, whose role in the incident didn't seem to sit well with Doc Rivers. Phoenix made the ensuing free throw and another bucket, and that should have been that.
But Rondo, for whatever reason Rondo has for doing these sorts of things, decided that playfully dribbling out the clock a foot in front of the Phoenix bench wasn't enough. He launched a three-pointer as the clock expired, and Dudley, challenging the shot, put him on his ass for this breach of etiquette. The play triggered an official review to determine that there were four-tenths of a second left. Rondo hit two of the three free throws an the game was finally over.
Boston-Phoenix is one of the more unlikely chippy rivalries, taken up a notch by the incident between Garnett and Channing Frye earlier in the season. After the game, Doc made a comment about a lot of talk coming from the Phoenix bench, which may have led to the Garnett tech (and, for all I know, could be what baited Rondo into shooting that three at the end of the game). Doc had less-than-positive words to say about Gentry after the first matchup. I can't help but wonder if it goes deeper, because my impression is that Doc isn't that kind of guy an Gentry seems so mild-mannered.
Speaking of Garnett-Frye, KG destroyed him tonight, getting off to a hot start on his way to 28 points on 12-for-14 shooting. He didn't score in the fourth quarter, and when he got to 28 in the third, I started to wonder what his high as a Celtic was. The answer is 33 in Game 5 of the Eastern finals against the Pistons, one of four 30-point games he had in his first season in green. He hasn't had any since. I'm not sure why I find this interesting, but I do.
It was the home debut for the new guys, by the way. Brief evaluations:
- Nenad Krstic again looked great; active on offense with good range and a nice scoring touch inside. He's really going to benefit playing with Rondo, too; it appeared to me on a couple of occasions tonight that Krstic was slow going up for a shot because he was so surprised at how the ball had arrived at the perfect time in the perfect spot.
- Jeff Green had some nice moments in the first half, draining a couple of mid-range jumpers an gliding end-to-end for a layup after a steal. Still, he uncorked a horrific looking three-pointer from the left corner and missed at least one other jumper pretty badly. His shooting in his first three games has been very erratic, which suggests to me that he really doesn't have a consistent shooting stroke. It's hard to tell from watching on TV, but his release looks a little funky to me, like he's got a little bit too much of his left hand on the ball.
- Based on the amount of playing time he got in New Jersey this season, I wouldn't have been too surprise if Troy Murphy showed up in Boston with only one leg. He didn't have any obvious physical problems, but he wasn't much better than he would be if he were missing a limb. He barely got off the ground on a couple of second-half layups that were blocked by Marcin Gortat. His one three-point attempt -- his first shot of the game -- did rattle in and out, so he was just an inch or so away from bringing the house down. The good news is that he didn't appear to be grossly out of shape the way Rasheed Wallace was last year, so hopefully he'll get his legs back under him soon enough. After all, he hadn't played in a game since November 9th.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Boston 118, New York 116
My thoughts are all over the place, so here's a bunch of bullets:
- When Paul Pierce hit what proved to be the game-winning shot with four tenths of a second left on the clock, I joked that he had gone a tenth of a second too early. I was referring, of course, to the rule that you can't catch and shoot with three tenths of a second left, while four tenths gave the Knicks the chance to tie or win. The way Amar'e Stoudemire and Danilo Gallinari were going, New York really did seem dangerous, even with the clock as low as it was. Even though I had been up and out of my chair for most of the final few minutes, I have to say that I didn't react at all when Stoudemire's three-pointer snapped cleanly through the net and Madison Square Garden erupted. It just wasn't that surprising. That's how well the Knicks were going offensively.
- Of course, the officials went to the monitor and determined that Stoudemire had not gotten the shot off in time. The clock was just a formality; I don't need a stopwatch to know that Amar'e Stoudemire can't catch and shoot in four-tenths. If the guys with the fastest releases can't do it in three-tenths, then Amar'e can't do it in four.
- While I normally don't really like the Pierce isolation at the end of games, I liked it tonight. Pierce was sharp from the beginning, alerting swiping the opening tap and laying the ball in for the game's first points. He had scored 30 points by the time Doc drew that final shot up for him, and the Knicks don't have a guy who can guard him. He had earned the right to show the Madison Square Garden crowd what he had told the world hours earlier: that Celtics-Knicks isn't a rivalry -- not currently, anyway.
- Rajon Rondo and Kevin Garnett got into it a little bit in the third quarter, though everything appeared fine by the fourth. More troubling is the left ankle sprain that Rondo suffered on the first possession of the fourth quarter. He returned to the floor but was hobbled and it appeared as though he had to talk Doc into letting him stay on the court. If he doesn't go Thursday night against Atlanta, I won't be surprised.
- There's probably some concern about the defense and how we match up with the Knicks moving forward. Before anybody panics too much, let's remember that our top three centers were out with injuries. We didn't even have a third-string center last season; this season, our fourth-string guy -- a Turkish rookie, no less -- is trying to check Amare Stoudemire.
- That doesn't explain the trouble we had with the screen and roll in the fourth quarter, when Erden was safely on the bench. I can't explain it for sure, but I will offer one possibility: Glen Davis, who is supposed to help on the roll, was preoccupied with whoever he was guarding at the three-point line. Davis doesn't have to deal with good long-distance shooters very often, but the Knicks surrounded Stoudemire with four three-point marksmen. Davis seemed hesitant to leave his man, which left the lane wide-open for Stoudemire and Raymond Felton.
- Give Doc credit for making the right personnel adjustments most of the night. Generally speaking, you want to dictate the matchups rather than have the matchups dictate you, but the Knicks weren't going to worry about Erden and the depleted Celtics just don't have anyone that would compel D'Antoni to go big. He played Rondo-Marquis Daniels-Ray Allen-Pierce-Garnett during the second quarter and used Nate Robinson well.
No time tonight for a "Next Lamb" post, but Boston puts its 11-game winning streak on the line Thursday night against Atlanta on TNT. Tip's at 8 p.m.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Preseason: Boston 104, New York 101
Paul Pierce, for the win. On his birthday. And Jermaine O'Neal's birthday. And Doc Rivers'. (Weirdish, right?)
Actually, as Red's Army points out, it was Pierce for the lead, and Rondo for the win. But Rondo was apparently the only Celtic not celebrating a birthday yesterday, so the lede goes to the Captain and the Truth.
Looking at the box score, one thing jumps out: 40 minutes for Rondo? 39-plus for Ray? 36 for Pierce?
Apparently, Pierce convinced Doc to play the starters the whole way. And since I pointed out the other night that our bench hung with Philly, I should point out that the Knicks bench hung with our first unit, or at least part of it. (30 points from Amare Stoudemire certainly helped).
I don't mind too much, just because these guys will need to be able to play those type of minutes at some point this year, and because they had all sat the night before, and because KG only got 11 minutes before getting ejected.
Only other thing worth noting from the box score is 16 and 12 from Luke Harangody.
Glen Davis, Shaquille O'Neal, and Delonte West sat out with nagging injuries.
Let's get to the regular season already.
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Links of the Day (I'm Guessing It Was Pepperoni Edition)
- Tommy Heinsohn breaks down Boston's transition game against Philadelphia while eating a slice of pizza.
- Considering sports non-fiction is basically the only genre I read for pleasure these days and my family is always hassling me about a Christmas list, I figured I'd share this list of basketball books being released this year, courtesy of The Painted Area. The Free Darko book is particularly intriguing; The Macrophenomenal Pro Basketball Almanac was really great and I expect this one to be equally good. I've generally resisted the advanced stats movement, but it's part of the dialog about the game now, so I may just pick up the Basketball Prospectus, as well. And the Whelliston book is right in the wheelhouse of stuff I like.
- Adrian Wojnarowski reports that Doc may stick around after this year. It doesn't seem like something worth talking about at the moment, but it's bound to get mentioned here and there.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Doc's Coming Back
[Boston.com story]
You'd be hard-pressed to find someone who has been more critical of Doc Rivers than I have during his tenure as head coach of the Boston Celtics. I've ripped him for his rotations, his choice of players, his handling of players, his tactics, pretty much everything to do with basketball. Over the past few seasons, he's grown on me. There are still a lot of things I disagree with. I think he buries players too quickly or for no good reason (Leon Powe, Marquis Daniels). I didn't think he did a very good job of integrating Nate Robinson this year. I blame him for how bad our offense at the end of quarters is, and for all the games we lost because we went to the Paul Pierce isolation play too early in the fourth quarter. (He says it's the players who have control of this, but as head coach, it's his job to take that control away, if necessary). And while I think he by and large outcoached Phil Jackson in this year's Finals, we still needed to try something else in the third quarter of Game 7, when everyone was tired.
But I'm glad he's coming back. Doc has been a great leader during these championship runs, somehow getting superstar egos and other difficult personalities to mesh. It wouldn't be the same to make a championship run without him.
Next year is going to be tough. It has the potential, in fact, to be tough to watch. Rasheed Wallace is retiring. Kendrick Perkins is going to be out until at least December after knee surgery scheduled for July 7. Defensive guru Tom Thibodeau has left to steer the Chicago Bulls. Kevin Garnett's going to be a year older. So, too, wil Paul Pierce and Ray Allen, assuming they come back. Even if they do, Boston will have seven guys under contract (eight if they sign second-round pick Luke Harangody) and not a whole lot of money to go out and fill up their roster. And it looks very likely that there's going to be at least one two-max player team to contend with in the Eastern Conference next year.
Frankly, I would have liked us to have guaranteed Thibodeau the job either this season (if Doc chose to leave, as he announced he was thinking of doing) or next (once Doc's contract was up), rather than refusing to do so and letting him go to Chicago. I think he's that valuable to the team. But I do think that Doc's the right guy to steer this ship.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Orlando 96, Boston 89
Another mystifying second-half collapse gave Orlando its third win over Boston in four games this season.
Up 11 points at the half in front of the home crowd on Super Bowl Sunday, Boston was outscored 36-11 in a decisive third period. Should the teams finish the regular season with identical records, the Magic would have the tiebreaker for home court advantage.
There are, of course, more important considerations. Namely, what the hell is going on with the Celtics? Sunday's game followed a familiar pattern: The good guys getting out to a comfortable lead, then giving it away with disturbing alacrity, as though it were their intention to do so. This recent trend is getting old, it's getting frustrating, and it's getting worrisome.
Here's something I do like, though: Doc Rivers' post-game acknowledgement that "we played like crap" and that Boston is not, at least now, better than Orlando -- or Atlanta or Los Angeles, for that matter. In both this season and last, the team has experienced serious post-Christmas struggles, and has -- Rivers included -- been very slow -- very slow -- to admit same. And while the cocksuredness that came with rolling to the 2008 championship has its benefits, it may also explain some of the terrible second-half performances we've seen recently. I don't know that "complacency" is the right word, but something approaching it is really the only logical explanation for why this team so often goes from Jekyll to Hyde in the same game. Acknowledging this shortcoming rather than sweeping it under the rug and saying "everything will be fine" is the first step towards rectifying it.
On the bright side, Marquis Daniels returned to action after a lengthly layoff and looked like he hadn't missed a beat, scoring at will in the second quarter against the over-matched J.J. Redick. His return should help solidify the bench, which got good performances Sunday from Glen Davis and Eddie House, and a very bad one from Rasheed Wallace.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Atlanta 102, Boston 96
I try not to get too worked up about specific regular season games, but goddamn, did I want to win this one.
[recap] [box score]
After Sunday's 114-107 win over the Raptors in Toronto, the Celtics returned home on Monday for a rematch with the the Hawks. Atlanta had Sunday off, but on Saturday had buoyed my theory that they save something extra for the Cs; fresh off the win over Boston on Friday, they went down to Orlando and got clobbered by the Vince Carter-less Magic. Despite the back-to-back and despite being without Kevin Garnett and his backup, Rasheed Wallace -- who apparently hurt his foot on his way to a season-high 29 points against the Raps -- everything was going smoothly for the Celtics in the middle of the third quarter. Rajon Rondo was attacking, Atlanta's post players were struggling, and Boston had put the clamps on Friday's foil, Jamal Crawford. The Cs were up 67-57 and shooting an ungodly percentage.
And then, with one questionable -- but not unprecedently bad -- flagrant foul call, everyone with leadership responsibilities lost their cool to varying degrees, and the tenor of the game changed.
The call in question came on a Marvin Williams breakaway. Glen Davis chased Williams down. I'm pretty sure all the contact came from Davis' body, but he did get his left arm up in Williams' neck/head area, although, like I said, I'm pretty sure it merely appeared as though Davis collared Williams. Two officials whistled a foul, huddled for a few seconds, then called Big Baby for a Flagrant 1.
Doc Rivers blew his top and was almost instantly hit with two technical fouls and an ejection. (It seemed like a quick trigger on the part of the official, but then again, I don't know what Doc said.) As Doc was leaving the floor, assistant coach Armond Hill was also given a tech. Crawford and Williams combined to make four of five free throws, and it was a brand new ballgame.
It may be that I'm overstating the effect of the call (no doubt because Tommy Heinsohn kept mentioning it). Boston didn't crumble immediately; in fact, it looked like they may have been sparked by the turn of events. Atlanta got the ball back after all the free throws, but Kendrick Perkins swatted Crawford's layup attempt off the backboard, sparking a Rondo drive that resulted in his 21st and 22nd points of the game. The Hawks went on a 14-6 run to tie the score, but the Celtics scored nine of the next 11 points to regain a seven-point advantage early in the fourth quarter.
So the call and the technicals and the ejection didn't cost us the game in the sense that they changed the momentum or anything like that. But -- ironically, since I'm always giving him a hard time -- losing Doc Rivers very well might have.
With Doc in the locker room, head coaching duties for the evening fell to Tom Thibodeau. The defensive guru has been an invaluable asset during the last two-plus seasons for Boston, and he's high on the list of NBA assistants who will be getting offers for head positions in short order. But if Monday night was an audition, Thibodeau bombed.
Doc was tossed right around the midway point of the third quarter. From that point forward, for the final 18 minutes, 16 seconds of the game, Thibodeau did not make a single substitution. Never mind that it was the second night of a back-to-back; that Rondo and Ray Allen had played 44 and 42 minutes, respectively, the previous day; that Glen Davis is still getting into playing "shape," if you can call it that; that Pierce was playing in his fourth game after missing five with an injury; that (gasp!) Tony Allen played fairly well in Pierce's absence; or that Brian Scalabrine -- starting in place of Garnett and Wallace -- nailed three triples in the first half while basically shutting down Josh Smith. Rondo, Ray, Pierce, Davis, and Kendrick Perkins were the five on the floor when Thibodeau took over, and they never left. We were gassed.
Thibodeau doesn't deserve all the blame. Rondo made a couple of poor decisions trying to force things, then basically stopped being aggressive after having so much success going to the bucket in the first two-and-a-half quarters. Davis provided some big baskets offensively, but his defense predictably left a lot to be desired. Late in the game, the team seemed preoccupied with dumping the ball into Kendrick Perkins in the post -- a curious decision, especially given all the mismatches on the court. Perk's been traveling a lot these days, it seems, and Monday was no exception. Additionally, Atlanta was doubling Perk a lot, and the big fella sprinkled in a number of bad passes due to holding on to the ball too long.
We get one more shot at the Hawks in the regular season, on the 29th in Atlanta, one night after a battle in Orlando with the Magic.
[recap] [box score]
After Sunday's 114-107 win over the Raptors in Toronto, the Celtics returned home on Monday for a rematch with the the Hawks. Atlanta had Sunday off, but on Saturday had buoyed my theory that they save something extra for the Cs; fresh off the win over Boston on Friday, they went down to Orlando and got clobbered by the Vince Carter-less Magic. Despite the back-to-back and despite being without Kevin Garnett and his backup, Rasheed Wallace -- who apparently hurt his foot on his way to a season-high 29 points against the Raps -- everything was going smoothly for the Celtics in the middle of the third quarter. Rajon Rondo was attacking, Atlanta's post players were struggling, and Boston had put the clamps on Friday's foil, Jamal Crawford. The Cs were up 67-57 and shooting an ungodly percentage.
And then, with one questionable -- but not unprecedently bad -- flagrant foul call, everyone with leadership responsibilities lost their cool to varying degrees, and the tenor of the game changed.
The call in question came on a Marvin Williams breakaway. Glen Davis chased Williams down. I'm pretty sure all the contact came from Davis' body, but he did get his left arm up in Williams' neck/head area, although, like I said, I'm pretty sure it merely appeared as though Davis collared Williams. Two officials whistled a foul, huddled for a few seconds, then called Big Baby for a Flagrant 1.
Doc Rivers blew his top and was almost instantly hit with two technical fouls and an ejection. (It seemed like a quick trigger on the part of the official, but then again, I don't know what Doc said.) As Doc was leaving the floor, assistant coach Armond Hill was also given a tech. Crawford and Williams combined to make four of five free throws, and it was a brand new ballgame.
It may be that I'm overstating the effect of the call (no doubt because Tommy Heinsohn kept mentioning it). Boston didn't crumble immediately; in fact, it looked like they may have been sparked by the turn of events. Atlanta got the ball back after all the free throws, but Kendrick Perkins swatted Crawford's layup attempt off the backboard, sparking a Rondo drive that resulted in his 21st and 22nd points of the game. The Hawks went on a 14-6 run to tie the score, but the Celtics scored nine of the next 11 points to regain a seven-point advantage early in the fourth quarter.
So the call and the technicals and the ejection didn't cost us the game in the sense that they changed the momentum or anything like that. But -- ironically, since I'm always giving him a hard time -- losing Doc Rivers very well might have.
With Doc in the locker room, head coaching duties for the evening fell to Tom Thibodeau. The defensive guru has been an invaluable asset during the last two-plus seasons for Boston, and he's high on the list of NBA assistants who will be getting offers for head positions in short order. But if Monday night was an audition, Thibodeau bombed.
Doc was tossed right around the midway point of the third quarter. From that point forward, for the final 18 minutes, 16 seconds of the game, Thibodeau did not make a single substitution. Never mind that it was the second night of a back-to-back; that Rondo and Ray Allen had played 44 and 42 minutes, respectively, the previous day; that Glen Davis is still getting into playing "shape," if you can call it that; that Pierce was playing in his fourth game after missing five with an injury; that (gasp!) Tony Allen played fairly well in Pierce's absence; or that Brian Scalabrine -- starting in place of Garnett and Wallace -- nailed three triples in the first half while basically shutting down Josh Smith. Rondo, Ray, Pierce, Davis, and Kendrick Perkins were the five on the floor when Thibodeau took over, and they never left. We were gassed.
Thibodeau doesn't deserve all the blame. Rondo made a couple of poor decisions trying to force things, then basically stopped being aggressive after having so much success going to the bucket in the first two-and-a-half quarters. Davis provided some big baskets offensively, but his defense predictably left a lot to be desired. Late in the game, the team seemed preoccupied with dumping the ball into Kendrick Perkins in the post -- a curious decision, especially given all the mismatches on the court. Perk's been traveling a lot these days, it seems, and Monday was no exception. Additionally, Atlanta was doubling Perk a lot, and the big fella sprinkled in a number of bad passes due to holding on to the ball too long.
We get one more shot at the Hawks in the regular season, on the 29th in Atlanta, one night after a battle in Orlando with the Magic.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Chicago 128, Boston 127 (Triple Overtime)
Doc Rivers would be a heckuva basketball coach if he knew anything about basketball.
[box score] [recap]
For a guy who enjoyed a moderately successful 13-season NBA career as a point guard, Rivers' basketball instincts on the sideline often lead to some very curious decisions. He's been great in some respects with these Celtics, managing three star players, turning the defense over to assistant Tom Thibodeau. And he did many things right Thursday night, keeping Boston's head in the right place after Rajon Rondo whipped Kirk Hinrich into the scorers' table, pro-wrestling style, in the first quarter, and having the "we can win this if we want it" attitude even when the team fell behind 12 points with ten minutes to play. But when the team responded, proving him right, going on an 18-0 to take a 99-91 lead with 3:38 to go, he let them down.
Chicago cut it to 99-96 in the next 90 seconds, and that's when Rivers panicked. Reacting to a couple of good Chicago possessions, he inserted Tony Allen for Glen Davis to match up against Chicago's small lineup. It was a peculiar time for the move, since the Celtics were about to go on offense -- where the Davis/Salmons matchup favored them. Boston scored on that trip down the floor, but it was the next two possessions that killed them.
A Rondo-Tony-Ray Allen-Paul Pierce-Kendrick Perkins unit allows the opposition to devote two help defenders to stopping Pierce and Ray. With the Bulls giving those two no room, Boston's next two possessions ended in a contested layup and a very difficult runner by Tony at the end of the shot clock. Both missed. Chicago hit the shots they needed, and bingo -- overtime.
The NBA is all about matchups, it's true, and Davis-Salmons, as I said in my last post, favors Chicago. But in that situation, up five points with that little time on the clock, Boston has the advantage of not needing to play matchups. They were in the driver's seat. Another bucket or two seals the game, while Chicago needed to be almost perfect on both ends of the floor. That's the time to put the hammer down and put your best five out there.
Fast-forwarding, now, past a seemingly an endless string of big shots, to the end of the third overtime. Boston had the ball down one with less than a shot clock left, the beneficiaries of a shocking missed layup by Hinrich on the other end. Other relevant details include the fact that Pierce had fouled out, and that Ray Allen had, at the time, 51 points.
The play Rivers ended up calling was an isolation for Rondo at the top of the key. Rondo drove left on Derrick Rose and faked, only Rose didn't bite. Rondo went up for a difficult fallaway, which the much larger Rose blocked rather easily.
I can at least understand the rationale. Especially with Pierce watching from the bench, the Bulls would have surely run a second defender at Ray, willing to take their chances on a jumper from Stephon Marbury, Brian Scalabrine, Rondo, or even the uncharacteristically cold Eddie House. And Rondo has been to able to get to the rim against Rose throughout this series...
...with the exception of this game. While Rondo put up another gaudy stat line in a series during which he had been averaging a triple-double -- nine rebounds and 19 assists, with no turnovers -- he had been quiet scoring, with only eight points. Rondo has nights when he isn't aggressive, and on those nights, I don't think putting the ball in his hands is the right play. And by not running anything for Ray, there was no opportunity to make the Bulls blow a defensive assignment and let somebody slip a screen and roll to the basket. And, finally, Ray was video-game hot, hitting jumpers from all over the place no matter who was in his face. When Ray is going like that, anything he throws up has a good chance to go in.
Look, Boston could have done a million little things to win this game. Perkins left Brad Miller open for a three in regulation and an easy layup off an inbounds play in overtime (the first one). Pierce had a great look at the game-winner at the end of regulation and just missed it. Both Ray and House hit jumpers in overtime with a toe on the line, which my father has been telling me since I was old enough to listen is the worst shot in basketball. Pierce's turnover at 123-123 with 40 seconds left in triple OT was bad, and committing his sixth foul on the ensuing Joakim Noah dunk was worse. But Rivers' curious use of his bench and refusal to ride Ray has been a theme for the last two seasons, a theme easily recognized by any semi-serious fan of the team.
Whatever. This incredible series -- if not the best all-time, certainly the most entertaining -- goes back to Boston for Game 7, and I'll admit that for the first time, I'm afraid of the Bulls. I wasn't worried down 11 in the fourth quarter of Game 5 or down 12 in the fourth in game 6. But this series now has had seven extra periods, and Ray played 59 minutes in Game 6, Pierce 51. Chicago had to play those minutes too, of course, but they are younger, and deeper. And Game 7 is less than 48 hours away.
And the pressure is on the defending champs, too, to close it out at home after having squandered some good opportunities to have put the Bulls away. The Celtics have doggedly defended their title, and they will need that pride to carry them through.
Game 7 tips at 8 p.m. Eastern on Saturday, on TNT.
[box score] [recap]
For a guy who enjoyed a moderately successful 13-season NBA career as a point guard, Rivers' basketball instincts on the sideline often lead to some very curious decisions. He's been great in some respects with these Celtics, managing three star players, turning the defense over to assistant Tom Thibodeau. And he did many things right Thursday night, keeping Boston's head in the right place after Rajon Rondo whipped Kirk Hinrich into the scorers' table, pro-wrestling style, in the first quarter, and having the "we can win this if we want it" attitude even when the team fell behind 12 points with ten minutes to play. But when the team responded, proving him right, going on an 18-0 to take a 99-91 lead with 3:38 to go, he let them down.
Chicago cut it to 99-96 in the next 90 seconds, and that's when Rivers panicked. Reacting to a couple of good Chicago possessions, he inserted Tony Allen for Glen Davis to match up against Chicago's small lineup. It was a peculiar time for the move, since the Celtics were about to go on offense -- where the Davis/Salmons matchup favored them. Boston scored on that trip down the floor, but it was the next two possessions that killed them.
A Rondo-Tony-Ray Allen-Paul Pierce-Kendrick Perkins unit allows the opposition to devote two help defenders to stopping Pierce and Ray. With the Bulls giving those two no room, Boston's next two possessions ended in a contested layup and a very difficult runner by Tony at the end of the shot clock. Both missed. Chicago hit the shots they needed, and bingo -- overtime.
The NBA is all about matchups, it's true, and Davis-Salmons, as I said in my last post, favors Chicago. But in that situation, up five points with that little time on the clock, Boston has the advantage of not needing to play matchups. They were in the driver's seat. Another bucket or two seals the game, while Chicago needed to be almost perfect on both ends of the floor. That's the time to put the hammer down and put your best five out there.
Fast-forwarding, now, past a seemingly an endless string of big shots, to the end of the third overtime. Boston had the ball down one with less than a shot clock left, the beneficiaries of a shocking missed layup by Hinrich on the other end. Other relevant details include the fact that Pierce had fouled out, and that Ray Allen had, at the time, 51 points.
The play Rivers ended up calling was an isolation for Rondo at the top of the key. Rondo drove left on Derrick Rose and faked, only Rose didn't bite. Rondo went up for a difficult fallaway, which the much larger Rose blocked rather easily.
I can at least understand the rationale. Especially with Pierce watching from the bench, the Bulls would have surely run a second defender at Ray, willing to take their chances on a jumper from Stephon Marbury, Brian Scalabrine, Rondo, or even the uncharacteristically cold Eddie House. And Rondo has been to able to get to the rim against Rose throughout this series...
...with the exception of this game. While Rondo put up another gaudy stat line in a series during which he had been averaging a triple-double -- nine rebounds and 19 assists, with no turnovers -- he had been quiet scoring, with only eight points. Rondo has nights when he isn't aggressive, and on those nights, I don't think putting the ball in his hands is the right play. And by not running anything for Ray, there was no opportunity to make the Bulls blow a defensive assignment and let somebody slip a screen and roll to the basket. And, finally, Ray was video-game hot, hitting jumpers from all over the place no matter who was in his face. When Ray is going like that, anything he throws up has a good chance to go in.
Look, Boston could have done a million little things to win this game. Perkins left Brad Miller open for a three in regulation and an easy layup off an inbounds play in overtime (the first one). Pierce had a great look at the game-winner at the end of regulation and just missed it. Both Ray and House hit jumpers in overtime with a toe on the line, which my father has been telling me since I was old enough to listen is the worst shot in basketball. Pierce's turnover at 123-123 with 40 seconds left in triple OT was bad, and committing his sixth foul on the ensuing Joakim Noah dunk was worse. But Rivers' curious use of his bench and refusal to ride Ray has been a theme for the last two seasons, a theme easily recognized by any semi-serious fan of the team.
Whatever. This incredible series -- if not the best all-time, certainly the most entertaining -- goes back to Boston for Game 7, and I'll admit that for the first time, I'm afraid of the Bulls. I wasn't worried down 11 in the fourth quarter of Game 5 or down 12 in the fourth in game 6. But this series now has had seven extra periods, and Ray played 59 minutes in Game 6, Pierce 51. Chicago had to play those minutes too, of course, but they are younger, and deeper. And Game 7 is less than 48 hours away.
And the pressure is on the defending champs, too, to close it out at home after having squandered some good opportunities to have put the Bulls away. The Celtics have doggedly defended their title, and they will need that pride to carry them through.
Game 7 tips at 8 p.m. Eastern on Saturday, on TNT.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Chicago 121, Boston 118 (Double Overtime)
That was a lot of fun.
[recap] [box score]
One of the nice things about having won a title last year is that the pressure is off, to a certain extent. I'm not insinuating that the Celtics are playing with less urgency than last year or that a second straight championship banner would be any less special than the first. But having that ring changes the perspective on this year. (There is, of course, another obvious reason why expectations are lower, but I pledged to be positive in these pages and not mention it.)
The upshot of this is that even in defeat, we as fans can enjoy an instant classic like Sunday's loss. Last year at this time, we were tied at 2-2 with Atlanta and so worried about the prospect of not even getting out of the first round that we couldn't appreciate the moxie with which the young Hawks were playing. This time around, it's easier to appreciate the way these Bulls haven't backed down from the defending champs.
There are similarities between the last season's Hawks and this season's Bulls: both teams are young; both have at least one player who seems to relish the role of heels (Atlanta's Zaza Pachulia and Chicago's Joakim Noah); both have crazy-athletic power forwards waiting to fulfill their potential (though Josh Smith is much further along in his development than Tyrus Thomas); and both have flammable shooting guards who are proving very difficult for Boston to check (Joe Johnson last year; Ben Gordon this year). Atlanta was much better defensively -- I can't emphasize enough how bad Chicago is on that end of the floor -- but Chicago has Derrick Rose, whose precocious play in Games 1 and 4 -- though upstaged throughout the series by the brilliance of his Boston counterpart (and RwH namesake) Rajon Rondo -- has really made this series a treat to watch.
Just because this series has been fun, however, does not prevent some things from irriating me, and here I return to a familiar theme: This team relies far too much on Paul Pierce in the fourth quarter.
Trailining 96-93 with 16 seconds left, Doc Rivers drew up a play for Ray Allen, just as he did in Game 2 with the score tied at 115. And Allen, just as he did in Game 2, calmly knocked down the crucial shot.
Allen is one of the top two or three best three-point shooters in the history of the NBA. Having spent the majority of his career as his team's number-one offensive option, he is accustomed to taking big shots. Doc clearly trusts him with the ball with the game -- and as evinced by the isolation play called for Allen in the closing moments of Game 4 of last year's Finals, the season -- on the line. Why, then, can't we call Allen's number when the situation is anything less than urgent? A basket with five minutes left counts for just as many points as a basket with five seconds left.
Instead of looking for Allen, and instead of letting Rondo penetrate and get to the rim like he did over the first three quarters, Boston, throughout the fourth quarter and the bulk of the two overtimes, instead went back to isolating Pierce at the foul line. Four things made this play particularly inadvisable in this situation:
1) As early as the first few minutes of the third quarter, Pierce looked out of gas. He did end up scoring 11 points in that period, but that probably served to tire him out even more. Pierce has logged a ton of minutes this year, and one explanation for his average -- by his standards -- play thus far in the playoffs is that he's just running fumes.
2) Pierce was cold. He finished 9-of-24. I'd call it going to the well one too many times, but the expression doesn't seem apt when you come up empty more often than not.
3) Pierce wasn't getting any calls. In a very oddly officiated game that saw the refs all but swallow the whistles for the two extra periods, the officials seemed loathe to send last year's Finals MVP to the line more than was absolutely necessary. Several Pierce drives resulted in no-calls that you'd expect a player of his caliber to get, playoffs be damned. When Pierce isn't getting to the line, he isn't as effective.
4) Kirk Hinrich really did a phenomenal job making life difficult for Pierce. The play is predicated on setting up a mismatch for Pierce, but the Bulls seemed to have no qualms about leaving the smaller Hinrich on an island against him, and Hinrich responded with some really gritty D.
This loss is frustrating, because much like Game 1, this one was squarely within Boston's reach. The Celtics could have completed the sweep already, and could be sitting at home awaiting the winner of the Philadelphia-Orlando series (which, with three last-second finishes in four games, is giving Chicago-Boston a run for its money as the most compelling series of this playoff season). At the same time, however, Boston could be down 3-1, having needed some late-game heroics to win Game 2.
It's now a best-of-three. The two teams have already treated us to everything we could possibly ask for, but let's see if they have anything left for an encore.
Game 5 is Tuesday at 7 p.m. Eastern on TNT.
[recap] [box score]
One of the nice things about having won a title last year is that the pressure is off, to a certain extent. I'm not insinuating that the Celtics are playing with less urgency than last year or that a second straight championship banner would be any less special than the first. But having that ring changes the perspective on this year. (There is, of course, another obvious reason why expectations are lower, but I pledged to be positive in these pages and not mention it.)
The upshot of this is that even in defeat, we as fans can enjoy an instant classic like Sunday's loss. Last year at this time, we were tied at 2-2 with Atlanta and so worried about the prospect of not even getting out of the first round that we couldn't appreciate the moxie with which the young Hawks were playing. This time around, it's easier to appreciate the way these Bulls haven't backed down from the defending champs.
There are similarities between the last season's Hawks and this season's Bulls: both teams are young; both have at least one player who seems to relish the role of heels (Atlanta's Zaza Pachulia and Chicago's Joakim Noah); both have crazy-athletic power forwards waiting to fulfill their potential (though Josh Smith is much further along in his development than Tyrus Thomas); and both have flammable shooting guards who are proving very difficult for Boston to check (Joe Johnson last year; Ben Gordon this year). Atlanta was much better defensively -- I can't emphasize enough how bad Chicago is on that end of the floor -- but Chicago has Derrick Rose, whose precocious play in Games 1 and 4 -- though upstaged throughout the series by the brilliance of his Boston counterpart (and RwH namesake) Rajon Rondo -- has really made this series a treat to watch.
Just because this series has been fun, however, does not prevent some things from irriating me, and here I return to a familiar theme: This team relies far too much on Paul Pierce in the fourth quarter.
Trailining 96-93 with 16 seconds left, Doc Rivers drew up a play for Ray Allen, just as he did in Game 2 with the score tied at 115. And Allen, just as he did in Game 2, calmly knocked down the crucial shot.
Allen is one of the top two or three best three-point shooters in the history of the NBA. Having spent the majority of his career as his team's number-one offensive option, he is accustomed to taking big shots. Doc clearly trusts him with the ball with the game -- and as evinced by the isolation play called for Allen in the closing moments of Game 4 of last year's Finals, the season -- on the line. Why, then, can't we call Allen's number when the situation is anything less than urgent? A basket with five minutes left counts for just as many points as a basket with five seconds left.
Instead of looking for Allen, and instead of letting Rondo penetrate and get to the rim like he did over the first three quarters, Boston, throughout the fourth quarter and the bulk of the two overtimes, instead went back to isolating Pierce at the foul line. Four things made this play particularly inadvisable in this situation:
1) As early as the first few minutes of the third quarter, Pierce looked out of gas. He did end up scoring 11 points in that period, but that probably served to tire him out even more. Pierce has logged a ton of minutes this year, and one explanation for his average -- by his standards -- play thus far in the playoffs is that he's just running fumes.
2) Pierce was cold. He finished 9-of-24. I'd call it going to the well one too many times, but the expression doesn't seem apt when you come up empty more often than not.
3) Pierce wasn't getting any calls. In a very oddly officiated game that saw the refs all but swallow the whistles for the two extra periods, the officials seemed loathe to send last year's Finals MVP to the line more than was absolutely necessary. Several Pierce drives resulted in no-calls that you'd expect a player of his caliber to get, playoffs be damned. When Pierce isn't getting to the line, he isn't as effective.
4) Kirk Hinrich really did a phenomenal job making life difficult for Pierce. The play is predicated on setting up a mismatch for Pierce, but the Bulls seemed to have no qualms about leaving the smaller Hinrich on an island against him, and Hinrich responded with some really gritty D.
This loss is frustrating, because much like Game 1, this one was squarely within Boston's reach. The Celtics could have completed the sweep already, and could be sitting at home awaiting the winner of the Philadelphia-Orlando series (which, with three last-second finishes in four games, is giving Chicago-Boston a run for its money as the most compelling series of this playoff season). At the same time, however, Boston could be down 3-1, having needed some late-game heroics to win Game 2.
It's now a best-of-three. The two teams have already treated us to everything we could possibly ask for, but let's see if they have anything left for an encore.
Game 5 is Tuesday at 7 p.m. Eastern on TNT.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Orlando 84, Boston 82
What's Doc Rivers waiting for?
[recap] [box score] [highlights]
I'm not going to blame this loss on Doc Rivers. Boston played terribly for much of the game and wouldn't have been a possession from winning if it weren't for some poor shooting by Orlando.
Nor am I prepared to say that this game mattered that much. Sure, a win would have given the Celtics a near-lock on the second seed in the East -- and with it, home-court advantage in a semifinal series with these very same Magic -- but all is not lost. Orlando has a game on Boston in the loss column, but Boston, for now, has the tiebreaker of a better conference record. And frankly, even though the Cs have now lost seven of their last eight games in Orlando, I don't think they need homecourt to beat the Magic in a seven-game series.
Still, homecourt advantage would have been a nice thing to have in the back pocket, a nice safety blanket, and Wednesday night was a real shot at locking it up. With that in mind, then, why did Kevin Garnett play only 17 minutes?
Oh, I know the given reason. He's coming off the knee injury, and Doc wants to bring him back slowly, play him eight minutes in the first quarter and then eight minutes in the third quarter, just like a preseason game, no exceptions.
I appreciate that if Boston had a choice of what they could have this postseason, homecourt versus Orlando or a fully healthy KG, they should choose the latter without hesitation. But Garnett is a professional athlete, and a highly-conditioned one at that. Moreover, he's undoubtedly going to play more minutes per game as the regular season winds down; the Boston Globe is reporting that KG will play an additional eight minutes per game starting next week.
Given that, then, would it really have hurt to play him, say, 21 or 22 minutes instead of 17 last night? Might his presence on the court, in the stead of Glen Davis, opened up the court a bit more for Paul Pierce or Ray Allen? Might he have grabbed an offensive rebound the Celtics didn't otherwise get? Might he have scored the basket needed to win the game?
I don't know the answers to those questions. But the risk of playing KG an extra three minutes this one time was minimal, and the potential rewards were great. With an effective three-game lead on Orlando, it's likely that the Celtics could have essentially mailed in the final week of the regular season, resting Garnett as well as Paul Pierce and Ray Allen for the playoff run, without fear of losing homecourt advantage. Now, it appears that Boston will have to choose one or the other.
[recap] [box score] [highlights]
I'm not going to blame this loss on Doc Rivers. Boston played terribly for much of the game and wouldn't have been a possession from winning if it weren't for some poor shooting by Orlando.
Nor am I prepared to say that this game mattered that much. Sure, a win would have given the Celtics a near-lock on the second seed in the East -- and with it, home-court advantage in a semifinal series with these very same Magic -- but all is not lost. Orlando has a game on Boston in the loss column, but Boston, for now, has the tiebreaker of a better conference record. And frankly, even though the Cs have now lost seven of their last eight games in Orlando, I don't think they need homecourt to beat the Magic in a seven-game series.
Still, homecourt advantage would have been a nice thing to have in the back pocket, a nice safety blanket, and Wednesday night was a real shot at locking it up. With that in mind, then, why did Kevin Garnett play only 17 minutes?
Oh, I know the given reason. He's coming off the knee injury, and Doc wants to bring him back slowly, play him eight minutes in the first quarter and then eight minutes in the third quarter, just like a preseason game, no exceptions.
I appreciate that if Boston had a choice of what they could have this postseason, homecourt versus Orlando or a fully healthy KG, they should choose the latter without hesitation. But Garnett is a professional athlete, and a highly-conditioned one at that. Moreover, he's undoubtedly going to play more minutes per game as the regular season winds down; the Boston Globe is reporting that KG will play an additional eight minutes per game starting next week.
Given that, then, would it really have hurt to play him, say, 21 or 22 minutes instead of 17 last night? Might his presence on the court, in the stead of Glen Davis, opened up the court a bit more for Paul Pierce or Ray Allen? Might he have grabbed an offensive rebound the Celtics didn't otherwise get? Might he have scored the basket needed to win the game?
I don't know the answers to those questions. But the risk of playing KG an extra three minutes this one time was minimal, and the potential rewards were great. With an effective three-game lead on Orlando, it's likely that the Celtics could have essentially mailed in the final week of the regular season, resting Garnett as well as Paul Pierce and Ray Allen for the playoff run, without fear of losing homecourt advantage. Now, it appears that Boston will have to choose one or the other.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Boston 102, Memphis 92
Last night was the Leon Powe show.
[recap] [box score] [highlights]
It was a career gane for the third-year man out of California. Powe, taking advantage of extended playing time due to injuries to Kevin Garnett and Glen Davis, had 30 points, 11 rebounds, and an uncharacteristic five blocked shots against the Grizzlies. RwH has always been a big Powe fan, and it's very satisfying to see him have a game like this.
RwH has also, however, always been lukewarm towards Celtics coach Doc Rivers, at least as a bench coach, and it will be interesting -- and by "interesting," I mean "potentially very frustrating" -- to see what happens when Davis comes back. Of the two somewhat undersized power forwards -- undersized in terms of height, that is -- Powe is clearly the better player, a fact that seems clear to everyone but Rivers. After declaring in the preseason that Powe would be the first forward off the bench, Rivers quickly started giving more and more playing time to Davis.
Big Baby hasn't been bad this year, and when he's hitting his jumper, as he has been the last month or so, he's an effective player. But he doesn't mix it up underneath the way Powe does, doesn't crash the boards as well, and can, when he's not hitting that J, shoot us out of some games.
Powe, on the other hand, always plays hard and gives us the rebounding we desperately need from the second team. He doesn't necessarily "need the ball" to score; he gets a lot of buckets off of offensive rebounds and by being in the right spot at the right time. And because he operates so close to the basket, he takes better shots, shooting almost 52 percent to Davis' 43 percent. He also takes the most free throws of any Celtic not named Paul Pierce, a remarkable statistic given that he plays less than 18 minutes per game.
However, Powe can get out of rhythm a little bit: There are times when he just doesn't seem to have his footwork down or his confidence up, and the result can be some ugly and embarrassing post moves. It's important for Powe to have a defined, regular role on the team. If Doc jerks him around too much, there's a real risk that we'll lose his effectiveness for several games.
[recap] [box score] [highlights]
It was a career gane for the third-year man out of California. Powe, taking advantage of extended playing time due to injuries to Kevin Garnett and Glen Davis, had 30 points, 11 rebounds, and an uncharacteristic five blocked shots against the Grizzlies. RwH has always been a big Powe fan, and it's very satisfying to see him have a game like this.
RwH has also, however, always been lukewarm towards Celtics coach Doc Rivers, at least as a bench coach, and it will be interesting -- and by "interesting," I mean "potentially very frustrating" -- to see what happens when Davis comes back. Of the two somewhat undersized power forwards -- undersized in terms of height, that is -- Powe is clearly the better player, a fact that seems clear to everyone but Rivers. After declaring in the preseason that Powe would be the first forward off the bench, Rivers quickly started giving more and more playing time to Davis.
Big Baby hasn't been bad this year, and when he's hitting his jumper, as he has been the last month or so, he's an effective player. But he doesn't mix it up underneath the way Powe does, doesn't crash the boards as well, and can, when he's not hitting that J, shoot us out of some games.
Powe, on the other hand, always plays hard and gives us the rebounding we desperately need from the second team. He doesn't necessarily "need the ball" to score; he gets a lot of buckets off of offensive rebounds and by being in the right spot at the right time. And because he operates so close to the basket, he takes better shots, shooting almost 52 percent to Davis' 43 percent. He also takes the most free throws of any Celtic not named Paul Pierce, a remarkable statistic given that he plays less than 18 minutes per game.
However, Powe can get out of rhythm a little bit: There are times when he just doesn't seem to have his footwork down or his confidence up, and the result can be some ugly and embarrassing post moves. It's important for Powe to have a defined, regular role on the team. If Doc jerks him around too much, there's a real risk that we'll lose his effectiveness for several games.
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