Boston 109, Golden State 95

[recap] [box score]

Bullets!

• I don't have a good explanation for why Boston's half-court defense was so bad in the first half. One theory bouncing around in my head was that Golden State is full of good, willing shooters, and our defense is predicated on helping and forcing teams to take jumpers they don't want to take. For the Warriors, the concept of a shot that they don't want to take doesn't exist. But there were a fair number of uncontested drives to the basket can't be explained away, unless the Celtics over-adjusted and stayed too close to the shooters.
• I know that our top offensive weapons prefer to play away from the basket, but we need to start punishing teams for playing small. The Warriors, like the Pacers, were undersized, but the only player who seemed interested in feeding Kendrick Perkins in the post was Kevin Garnett. It surely feels weird to pound the ball into Perk with the other options available, but we needed to exploit that mismatch more.
• Paul Pierce still looks hampered by the knee injury he suffered late last week.
• Rajon Rondo took this game over in the third quarter, scoring something like 12 of his 18 points in the period. During one stretch, he drove for a three-point play, then found Pierce for a three-pointer on the next possession. Tommy Heinsohn: "That's Rondo being Rondo!"
• On the Warriors' very next possession, Rondo gambled on a Monta Ellis crossover, and Ellis blew by him for an easy layin. QED.
• By converting the aforementioned three-point play, Rondo broke a streak of ten consecutive missed free throws. The NBA record, in case you're wondering, is 13. The camera caught him yelling an expletive in relief. His confidence at the line has clearly been shaken recently, and I've heard and read some reports that his work with shooting coach Mark Price has him uncomfortable with his shot. If that's true, it hasn't shown in live action: He stroked a very confident looking three-pointer tonight, his first of the year. I've long felt that the problem with Rondo's shot is that he's so unwilling to take it, not that it's bad. Sure, his mechanics are messed up, but the ball goes up to the rim reasonably softly, and he hits enough jumpers that it wouldn't be an issue if a)he took more of them; and b)teams didn't magnify that reluctance to fire by playing off of him.
• As a team, Boston was just 17-of-27 from the charity stripe.
• J.R. Giddens played seven minutes tonight, and not all in garbage time: He got it in the first quarter. One point, one rebound, one assist, and one turnover. His most notable play was biting on a Corey Maggette shot fake at the end of the first half, sending Maggette to the line with a chance to tie the game heading into the break. (Maggette hit one of two, and Garnett's spinning, one-handed 70-footer after grabbing the rebound was waved off because it came after the horn.)
• Giddens was also far too late on a rotation at the end of the third period, as Ellis coasted in for an easy two.
• After Chris Douglas-Roberts' career-high 27 points last night against Indiana, I mentioned to a buddy that I wouldn't at all be surprised if Giddens' career point total never exceeded CDR's single-game best. Giddens' free throw tonight gave him seven points in 15 career games. (To be fair, that's in only about 41 minutes of court time.) Douglas-Roberts, meanwhile, set a new career mark of 31 points tonight in a loss to Milwaukee, adding 10 rebounds for his second straight double-double. I compare these two, of course, because Douglas-Roberts was the player Boston should have taken with the pick it used on Giddens. That was true the day it happened, and it's looking more and more true by the game.
• Because I wasn't blogging over the summer, I didn't get a chance to write about the draft and what I saw at Summer League. Allow me, then, a few words about Golden State rookie Stephen Curry. My concern about Curry coming out of Davidson was that he was simply too small to get his shot off consistently at this level. Those concerns were put to rest in Vegas, as I saw Curry bounce his way free for the same looks he got in college. The surprising problem, however, was that he wasn't knocking them down, hitting right around a third of his attempts. A shooting slump, perhaps, but nothing to worry about. He wasn't much better in the preason, however, and I began to get concerned. Thankfully, though he was a rather pedestrian 4-for-10 against Boston, he seems to be on track, shooting just below 49 percent from the field on the season, an outstanding percentage for a guard. His ballhandling and/or decision-making still needs a lot of work, as evidenced by the six turnovers he committed against the Cs. At least three more of his passes were deflected, too, so that total could have been much worse. He may simply not have adjusted yet to the pro game as it relates to quickness and length of defenders.
• I'll leave you with this Curry story: Friday night, the same buddy mentioned above went to MSG with a bunch of Davidson grads specifically to see the kid. After playing his prized rookie just under 30 minutes a game through the season's first seven games. Woyas coach Don Nelson sat Curry for all but 2:35 of the game against the Knicks. Curry went scoreless and shotless in his brief time on the court. On the bright side, my friend and his crew got to see Curry's first career blocked shot.

Boston 105, Philadelphia 74

I've always hated when coaches rail to the media about their team's sloppy play in a blowout victory or chew out their players on the sideline in a lopsided victory. So trust me when I say that we really didn't look all that good in this one, despite what the scoreboard says.

[recap] [box score]

Don't get me wrong; it was every bit a one-sided victory. But the third quarter was marred by seven turnovers, the exact kind of sloppy stretch we seem prone to once we build a comfortable lead. Several times, I looked at the score after another miscue and was surprised to see Boston still up 14.

These sloppy third quarters are growing a bit tiresome, even as the Celtics roll through their early season schedule. It's not something that's new this year; the team's concentration has waned with big leads each of the previous two seasons, as well. But it sure seems that these stretches are becoming more and more common -- though I don't have the data to back up or disprove it.

If I was in the habit of giving out game balls, I'd give this one to Rasheed Wallance, who scored early and often on his way to 20 points, including a cool six-for-eight from deep. 'sheed came in after Kendrick Perkins picked up a couple of early fouls against a surprisingly active Samuel Dalembert and nailed a nine-foot turnaround jumper to pick up a sluggish offense. He added a three later in the period and never really stopped.

Bullets!

• Wallace also picked up a technical in the third quarter when he didn't get to go to the line after being fouled in the act of shooting. He carried on in typical 'sheed fashion, and in such a blowout, I was a little surprised one of the refs didn't run him.
• The game highlights have a couple instances of Rajon Rondo in all his Rondo-ness. At the end of the first quarter, he hit a ridiculous 13-footer from the baseline that I thought, at first glance, went over the top of the backboard. Upon further review, however, it appears that he may have somehow shot the right over the corner. Whether it should have counted or not, it was a remarkable shot, over seven-foot Jason Smith while falling out of bounds. Later, after a Sixers turnover, he threaded a blind, left-handed behind-the-back pass to a streaking Paul Pierce. The angle on this pass was extremely tough, as Pierce was filling the lane behind him. What made this assist particularly special, however, was that Rondo had tipped the outlet pass into the frontcourt, and surveyed the court as he chased it down. Gathering the ball right around the free throw line, he knew exactly where Pierce was, and, as importantly, knew that Thaddeus Young was lurking to challenge his layup. So he dropped a picture-perfect dime into Pierce's hands, taking Young out of the play, and the result was an easy two for Boston. These two plays were an excellent display of the $55 million dollar man's court awareness.
• First five minutes of the year for Brian Scalabrine. He got in during garbage time and showed no ill effects of either his injury suffered in the preseason or his summer off to recover from concussions. Five points for the former Human Victory Cigar, including a three-pointer.
• Lester Hudson played for another extended stretch in the fourth quarter and this time showed no qualms about displaying his offensive ability. He canned two triples in seven effective minutes. I think he's a better shooter than Gabe Pruitt, but he's not ready for a regular role with the big club the way Pruitt might have been.
• J.R. Giddens was a little bit better (read: a little less useless) than he has been, but he did nothing to make the Celtics regret not picking up his option next year.
• Boston hit 14 of 20 three-pointers. We're now at 48.6 percent from behind the arc on the young season, just two-tenths of a percent behind Phoenix. Philly, having been torched from deep previously by Orlando, has allowed opponents to shoot 45.1 percent from that distance through four games, the fifth-worst mark in the league.
• Philly shot just 36.3 percent on the game, and didn't hit a three-pointer until the waning minutes. The Celtics are the league's stingiest team in terms of field goal percentage and points against. At times, it looks simply like the opposition is missing shots, but the scheme and the players have a ton to do with that.

Next game is tonight (Wednesday) at 8 p.m. Eastern, against Minnesota. No national TV, but if you can find a way to watch this one, do it: the Wolves have former Celtics Al Jefferson and Ryan Gomes, plus RwH fave Jonny Flynn, and it's always fun to see Big Al J and Gomes compete against some of their former teammates. Plus, KG back in 'sota is always a nice experience.

Boston 118, Chicago 90

Has Boston improved since the playoffs, or has Chicago regressed?

[recap] [box score]

That's a totally unfair question, and just a cute way of asking whether the Celtics are as good as the score suggests, or the Bulls are as bad as the score suggests. And the answer, as it invariably is in these situations, is: A bit of both.

A 28-point shredding of a team that had just soundly beaten San Antonio sure looks good, but there are a few things about that that are deceiving. The Bulls' victory over the Spurs wasn't as impressive as it looked, as the Spurs played poorly, no doubt tired from their opening night victory over New Orleans the night before. And Chicago came to Boston for the second leg of their own home-and-away back-to-back, the victory over the Spurs coming Thursday night. And Derrick Rose is battling an ankle injury that kept him out of the final seven preseason games and has coach Vinny Del Negro trying to limit him to around 30 minutes per game to start the year.

At the same time, boy, did the Celtics look good. After a so-so first quarter in which the Celtics found themselves in a bit of foul trouble, the bench gave us space to start the second quarter, and the starting unit hammered the coffin shut by early in the third.

When the Celtics shoot well and defend well -- and they did both against the Bulls -- they may be the most entertaining team in the league to watch, at least at home. Their momentum builds with every steal or long rebound off a missed jumper, and the team is off to the races: The ball quickly finds its way into Rajon Rondo's hands, and the big men run the floor, clearing space for Ray Allen and Paul Pierce to spot up behind the three-point line. Rondo's decision-making itsn't always impeccable, but he makes the right choice far more often than not, and tonight, that choice was to pitch it to the wing for the three. When Paul or Ray tees one up in this situation, you just know it's going in, and the crowd does too, its hum getting louder until erupting as ball meets net.

Other elite teams don't have the same combination the Celtics do. The Lakers certainly have the offensive firepower, but they don't defend as well and lack a Rondo-like distributor to push the ball up the floor; the Spurs prefer to play at a much slower pace; the Cavaliers' Lebron James adds an explosive, acrobatic element that the Cs don't have, but he doesn't have the supporting cast. Orlando comes closest, but Jameer Nelson doesn't have the same speed and knack for setting his teammates up that Rondo does.

This isn't to say that Boston is better than all these clubs, although they certainly have been the most impressive team so far in this very, very young season. And you don't win any championship rings by being the most entertaining team. But stretches like the one the Celtics went on from 11:14 to 6:50 of the third quarter are what make a long regular season worth watching night in and night out. In the course of extending a 15-point halftime lead to 27, Boston scored on eight of nine possessions, with Rondo assisting on all but one of the baskets (a three-pointer by Pierce on which he took one dribble to let a defender go by after receiving a pass from Rondo). Soon thereafter, I got a Gmail chat message from a friend who's a Lakers fan: "Your team is good."

Yes, it is. Maybe not quite as good as they look right now, but good.

Quick bullets:

• Rondo's statline: two points, eight boards, 16 assists. Nine of those dimes came in the third quarter. There's one other guy currently in the league who has influenced a game the degree that Rondo did tonight while only taking two shots, and he's third on the list of all-time assist leaders. (And his current team just smacked the Lakers at Staples).
• I get on Doc Rivers for not managing minutes, so to be equitable, I should praise him for limiting the time on the floor for Rondo (30 minutes), Ray (23), Pierce (31), Garnett (25), and Perkins (19).
• Ten points, ten boards, and two blocked shots in a second consecutive strong game from Shelden Williams. If he keeps this up, he just may command minutes even when Glen Davis returns from injury. Williams is more willing than Big Baby to do the kind of things power forwards are supposed to do.
• KG hasn't shaken all the rust off, but after missing one earlier in the game, he finally connected with Rondo for an alley-oop in the the third quarter. A welcome sight for those worried that Garnett's lost all of his explosiveness. He may never be the same he was pre-injury, but with every game, he's looking more and more agile.
• Lester Hudson made one of two free throws and hit a jumper late (which I missed, as I had flipped over to catch the end of Sacramento at New Orleans), but was stil too tentative on offense. I know he's trying to prove he can back up Rondo at point guard, but he's a scorer, and we aren't going to be able to evaluate him as one if he doesn't play like himself when he's on the court. On one typical sequence, Hudson rubbed his man off a high screen on the left wing and rather than take advantage of the open space by firing a jumper or going to the basket, he threw the ball to Marquis Daniels just a few feet away. This was a completely useless pass, as Daniels was just a few feet away and not particularly open, and he's not a dangerous outside shooter. There aren't many games for Hudson to show what he can do before he goes down to the D-League, and he needs to use these minutes more productively.
• However, Hudson looked better and more comfortable than J.R. Giddens, who still hasn't shown me that he belongs on an NBA court.

NEXT GAME: vs. New Orleans on Sunday at 6 p.m. Eastern. The game's on NBATV, which means it won't be available on any League Pass free preview.

Boston 92, Charlotte 59

Looks like the Bobcats might need some work.

[recap] [box score]

Some statistical indicators of how bad Charlotte was: Gerald Wallace led them in scoring with ten points; they had ten- and thirteen-point quarters; Rajon Rondo out-assisted the entire team 11-10 despite playing just 30 minutes (and being just one guy); Wallace, their best player, was a -33.

Something about the look on the face of Charlotte coach Larry Brown -- known as much for bouncing around as for his excellent basketball mind -- made me think he wasn't going to be the coach there by the end of the season unless things changed. He looked utterly fed up with second-year backup point guard D.J. Augustin, and disgusted by the play and attitude of new center Tyson Chandler.

More bullet points (this should be brief):

• Doc was pretty good about managing most of the starters' minutes, with one glaring exception: Ray Allen played 38 minutes despite the game being out of hand midway through the third quarter. Don't forget, Ray played 42 minutes last night against Cleveland. Paul Pierce and Marquis Daniels were in a bit of foul trouble and Tony Allen and Brian Scalabrine were out with injuries, so perhaps Doc felt he had little choice. Or perhaps Doc was using a game well in hand to experiment with different lineups. Still, I don't like the idea of running our 34-year-old shooting guard into the ground this early in the season.
• After two games of Shelden Williams, I'm comfortable in saying that he's going to be far more effective than Mikki Moore was. Twelve points and nine boards in an extended role tonight, though most of his scoring came from the free throw line, where he was eight-for-eleven. He has pretty awful hands, but he works hard and showed a decent amount of court awareness.
• Really nice game on both ends from Kendrick Perkins, though I wish he hadn't gotten caught up in jawing with Chandler, which resulted in a technical foul. He and Garnett defended the rim as though they were personally insulted that a Bobcat would dare try to score. That kind of defensive swagger is what helped us win a championship two years ago, and is what will help us win again this year.
• Mike and Tommy were on the guys for shooting too many three-pointers, but they made a bunch of them and they were almost all good looks. We have enough good deep shooters that if the shot is there, they should take it.
• J.R. Giddens was unspectacular in eight minutes, grabbing three rebounds and one steal. His most memorable sequence was airmailing a three-pointer from the corner, then over-aggressively trying to block a jumper on the other end and committing a foul.
• Lester Hudson played about nine and a half minutes and did nothing spectacular. Hudson is a scorer auditioning for minutes at point guard, and so he naturally isn't going to impress; he's trying to show that he can handle the ball, initiate the offense, and get others involved, while his strengh is putting the ball in the hole. You can tell he knows what he's doing on the court, but I'm not sure we're going to see the real Lester Hudson this year.

Preseason Game #4: Boston 91, New Jersey 88

[recap] [box score]

(I haven't had a chance to check all the Celtics blogs for reactions to the game, but we play Toronto tonight and in the interest of keeping up to date, I'm posting my thoughts, anyway. Celtics Life has some highlights.

Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen all sat this one out, and Boston still pulled out a victory. Credit some of that to the fact that the Nets' Devin Harris and Yi Jianlian missed the second half with injuries, after grabbing a 60-47 halftime lead. But give a lot of credit, also, to the Celtics, in particular Rajon Rondo and Rasheed Wallace.

Rondo fell one rebound shy of a triple double, notching 18 points and 13 assists in the process. Personally, I'm not overly interested in his preseason performance -- as I'm generally not interested in any established player before the games start to count, unless, like KG, they are coming back from injury -- but at the very least, this will keep Celtics bloggers from writing posts wondering where Rondo's aggressiveness has gone.

With the Big Three on the pine, Wallace got a start and showed just how valuable he's going to be this year, either as the leader of the second team or as another weapon playing alongside much of the first unit. Twenty points and nine boards for 'sheed, including a very healthy three-of-seven from deep. Marquis Daniels, as a slasher, is going to love playing with Wallace and Eddie House (14 points, two-of-four from three-point range on Tuesday).


Wallace did leave the game in the second half with an ankle injury that doesn't appear to be serious. And Daniels sat out after halftime after a relatively ineffective first half. Reports are that he was battling some sort of bug.


The only other notable thing in the box score is J.R. Giddens' line of seven points and 13 rebounds. While this is undoubtedly Giddens' greatest moment as a Celtic, there's reason to temper one's excitement. For starters, he played 33 minutes last night. In the NBA, minutes tends to equal production, and that's particularly true for a guy whose job is on the line and who should therefore be busting his ass out there grabbing rebounds. Second, I still think Bill Walker is the better player and would be the one given the chance to crack the rotation had he not torn cartilage in his knee earlier in cap. We probably won't ever know, but I believe that Walker was going to be given the chance to take minutes from Tony Allen and Brian Scalabrine as the tenth guy in the rotation, whereas I don't think the team is seriously considering Giddens for that role. While I think last night means that Giddens isn't in danger of losing his roster spot to Michael Sweetney, I'm not at all sure he fits into the club's long-term plans. I can't find it now, but a few weeks ago, there was a post on CelticsBlog that suggested that the team might not even pick up Giddens' option for next year, making him a free agent after the season -- and more important, an expiring contract to use in a trade.


What's ironic, actually, is that the guy who should be the answer to the question "Who is our second wing guy off the bench?" was wearing the home whites Tuesday night. Chris Douglas-Roberts is in the middle of a terrific preseason and is locked in a very tight battle with Courtney Lee for New Jersey's starting two guard spot (though with Jarvis Hayes being the only obstacle at the three, it's conceivable that Nets coach Lawrence Frank could go small and start them both alongside Devin Harris in a three-guard offense). CDR seems to have the slight edge over Lee and did nothing to change that last night with 19 points on six-for-eight shooting, though Lee also started and led the team in scoring with an efficient 21 points.


Boston could have Douglas-Roberts in the 2008 Draft, but instead chose Giddens with the last pick of the first round. The pick made little sense at the time: they play the same position, but CDR is two inches taller; Giddens was a McDonald's high school All-American, but CDR was first-team All-America in college; Giddens was essentially kicked off the team at Kansas and suspended at New Mexico, while CDR -- despite the fact that he played for John Calipari at Memphis -- does not, to my knowledge, have any character issues. We were lucky that Douglas-Roberts fell so far that we could have taken him 30th (he was eventually selected 40th by the Nets) and yet we decided to give guaranteed money to a guy who was smaller, less proven, and something of a knucklehead.


That's not entirely fair, of course, as they are different players (Giddens reportedly has more of a jumper and is a better defender) and a lot of people were wrong about Douglas-Roberts (who isn't the smoothest player around). But I, for one, have always regretted that we didn't take CDR, and I think this is the year that everyone else will, too.

Preseason: Celtics 83, Nets 66

I obviously didn't see this one, but one thing strikes me as I look through the boxscore:

Gabe Pruitt had 11 points, 12 rebounds, and seven assists.

It's only preseason. And I'm sure they are skeptics who say that Pruitt's line is proof of the NBA maxim that minutes=stats (Gabe played 44 last night). But I liked what I saw out of Pruitt when he did get in the games in garbage time in his rookie year, and I'm taking this as another sign that he can play in this league.

Pruitt's a 6'4" point guard who can play D and shoot it a little bit. I really like his midrange game, and he hit three of six three-pointers last night.

It's hard to see where Pruitt might fit into the rotation this year. Rajon Rondo will once again log the majority of the minutes at point guard, and Pruitt's behind Eddie House and Sam Cassell on the depth chart, with Tony Allen backing up Ray Allen at the 2. However, TA will likely spend time as Paul Pierce's understudy, since the only other small forward on the roster is explosive rookie Bill Walker. And Cassell was hardly a world-beater after joining the Celtics late in the season. If Cassell really is washed up, Pruitt could prove valuable this year. While he's not really strong, his height means he could play alongside Rondo against some teams. And looking forward, even though he's not a House-caliber sniper, he could be a cheap, serviceable replacement when Eddie's contract is up after the 2009-10 season.

There was some thought that he'd be the one cut before the season.* I'm glad that's not the case.

*I'll have a column about the Celtics waiving Darius Miles in the next day or so.

-Saw this article while reading about the game. Said Doc Rivers of the Nets, who project to be in the bottom quartile of NBA teams this year: "I love what they're doing, I really do."

"What they're doing," by the way, is clearing cap room to make a run at LeBron James when the King becomes a free agent in two years. They're doing it smartly, trading vets like Jason Kidd and Richard Jefferson for young guys like Devin Harris and Yi Jianlian, in the hopes that these guys will be ready to blossom if and when they land LeBron.

Anyway, the reason I bring it up is because the article mentions that Doc is impressed with Nets rookie shooting guard Chris Douglas-Roberts. CDR was one of two players I wanted with the 30th overall pick in June's draft. (Bill Walker, who Boston bought from Washington after the Wizards drafted him 47th overall, was the other.) Instead we took J.R. Giddens, and Douglas-Roberts went 40th to New Jersey.

Why the front office liked Giddens more than Douglas-Roberts is a mystery to me. Giddens was essentially kicked off the team at Kansas and was suspended for a spell after transferring to New Mexico. I didn't see him at New Mexico, but what I remember of him at Kansas is that he's an athletic, one-dimensional chucker.

Douglas-Roberts, on the other hand, is a smooth wing with a great mid-range game and the ability to create his own shot. He's also 6'7" to Giddens' 6'5". CDR isn't as athletic as Giddens, and so there may have been some concerns about his defense.

Still, when faced with two similar players, why not take the one who is two inches taller and isn't a headcase?