Celts Finish Up the Back-to-Back-to-Back the Right Way

Order restored. After the debacle in Toronto, wins in Jersey and Charlotte -- the latter with Kevin Garnett (rest) and Paul Pierce (sore foot) hanging back in New York to get ready for the Knicks on Tuesday. We're up three-and-a-half on Philly and four on New York with five to play, but Indiana has played well recently and so we're pretty much locked in to the fourth seed. With Dwight Howard resting a herniated disk over the next 10-14 days, it looks like Atlanta will beat out Orlando for the five; that means it's very likely we'll get the Hawks in the first round.

Some stats from the last two games, which I couldn't watch:

* Avery Bradley averaged 20 points in the two games, making 5-of-7 three-pointers along the way (he hit three in a row from the exact same spot against Jersey);

* Rajon R-ndo had 4 points and 15 assists on Saturday, but with KG and Pierce out, he needed to pick up more of the scoring load against the Bobcats, and he did with 20, the most points he's scored since dropping 24 on the Lakers on March 11. But he didn't let it affect his playmaking for others: he had another 16 assists on Sunday, making 22 straight games with double-digit helpers.

* Greg Stiemsma had six blocked shots against the Bobcats.

* Brandon Bass had 18 points and 11 rebounds against the Nets -- his third double-double in four games -- then matched a season-high with 22 points (to go along with nine boards) against the Bobcats.

* Charlotte has now lost 16 consecutive games -- for the second time this season.

The next four Boston games are on national TV: Tuesday at New York (8 Eastern, TNT); Wednesday vs. Orlando (8 Eastern, ESPN); Friday at Atlanta (7 Eastern, ESPN); and next Wednesday vs. Miami (8 Eastern, TNT).

Boston 92, Indiana 80

Boston's season is (hopefully) back on track, but not without a few "here we go again" moments early against the Pacers.

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Thanks to Monday's loss to the Nets, the Celtics found themselves in need of a win over the Pacers just to keep pace with the Bulls atop the Eastern Conference. And despite a fierce Paul Pierce dunk for the game's first bucket that I hoped would set the tone, Boston reverted back to the uninspired offensive ball it had played in the last several games, trailing by as many as seven points.

Enter Jeff Green and Glen Davis, who injected energy and, more importantly, offense into Boston. In his finest game in his short Celtics career, Green had 17 first-half points, keeping the home team a few points ahead of the visitors throughout much of the second quarter.

And then, the key sequence, the one that gave the Cs a comfortable lead: two Ray Allen threes sandwiched around a Paul Pierce triple, extending the Boston advantage from four points to eleven in less than a minute. The Garden crowd went crazy; timeout, Indy; but the Pacers wouldn't get closer than five the rest of the way.

Granted, the offense didn't keep rolling that way all night -- in fact, it was a fairly middling offensive performance, aside from that one minute. But that one minute is the kind of minute we'd gotten used to this season, a stretch where Boston's starters played with energy and purpose and rhythm and knocked down some shots as a result. Those are things that have been missing from Boston's offense lately, and hopefully it's back to stay.

Notable

• The Celtics organization honored Mike Gorman and Tommy Heinsohn before the game. They've been talking about "30 years of Mike & Tommy" on all the broadcasts this season, but this was the big evening, so to speak, as far as I could tell. A nice simple ceremony for a couple of guys who I think would rather not have had one at all.
• Perhaps as part of the festivities, Celtics "celebrity" fan Donnie Wahlberg joined them at the broadcast table for most of the second quarter. I was actually pretty impressed with his basketball knowledge; he seemed to understand the game, rather than just know it as a fan. One exception: He kept mentioning that he liked the Perkins trade because Andrew Bynum was the difference-maker in last year's Finals. Ignoring the fact, first of all, that Boston was ahead three games to two before Perk got hurt, it makes no sense at all to say that replacing Perkins with Shaquille O'Neal or Nenad Krstic is going to help Boston handle Bynum.
• Delonte West returned after missing eight games or so with a sprained ankle. Forced to sit the majority of the season due to a couple of injuries, West hopefully can find his rhythm before the postseason. It occurs to me, however, that his role maybe has changed somewhat. In training camp, which is really when he was able to get the majority of his work in, he was handling second-team point guard duties alongside Nate Robinson. Now, Robinson is gone, and West's likely backcourt partner is Carlos Arroyo, a true point guard who isn't suited to play the two. That means that West will probably slide over to shooting guard. On the one hand, it's his more natural position. On the other, it's another adjustment to be made in a season in which he probably hasn't yet felt comfortable.
• Troy Murphy had a two-handed reverse dunk in this basketball game. I can't find video of it, but I promise you that it happened.

I'll probably be tweeting a lot over the next few days, about the NCAA Tournament. My handle there is, of course, @HSSlamPhD.

Boston 115, Golden State 93

We'll get to the game in a minute. First, a few words about Bill Walton.

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The former Celtic filled in as color commentator alongside play-by-play man Mike Gorman for Tuesday night's broadcast. (Tommy Heinsohn doesn't often make the West Coast swings these days.)

I've done a complete 360 in my opinion of Walton, the broadcaster. (I've always appreciated Walton, the player, though I've only been able live his career through listening to others talk about him, because I was just a little too young to remember him.) Like many, I grew tired of Walton's boorish exaggerations ("John Stockton is one of the true marvels, not just of basketball, or in America, but in the history of Western Civilization!") and forced catchphrases ("Throw it down, big fella, throw it down!"). Over time, however, I came to appreciate him. He's still over the top, but he knows he's over the top. I don't want to use the term "schtick" because Walton's enthusiasm is genuine, but he certainly has a modus operandi.

One of his tendencies is to poke fun at middling NBA players, either by insulting them outright ("The only way Danny Schayes is getting into the Hall of Fame is if he pays the admission fee") or by so exaggerating their abilities that you know his tongue is planted firmly in his cheek ("If Eric Piatkowski continues playing at this level, he's going to replace Jerry West on the NBA logo.")* Tonight's target? Warriors starting center Andris Biedrins, who has fallen off a cliff -- he went from averaging 12 points and 11 rebounds two seasons ago to five and eight last year -- despite not yet turning 25. In the first quarter alone, Walton dropped the following gems:

• After Biedrins fouled Kevin Garnett: "You don't want fouls on Biedrins, if you're Boston. You want him in the game."
• A few moments later: "What does this Biedrins fellow do?"
• After Biedrins bricked a pair of free throws when Delonte West, who had missed the last 39 games with a broken wrist, entered the game for the first time: "Biedrins is the one who looks like he has a broken wrist."
• And finally, after Biedrins missed a layup: "He's playing scared. He's playing ... like his feet hurt."

No, I don't know what the last one means, either. And yes, it's probably unnecessarily mean to pick on Biedrins. But it's Walton, and we, as Celtics fans, can forgive him. His undying loyalty to the franchise probably colors my opinion of him.

Walton's playing career, of course, was abbreviated due to injury, and it appeared that his broadcasting career would similarly be cut short thanks to a debilitating back condition. Walton has taken a lot of time off from the microphone in recent years. I'm not sure if he's planning on making the rest of the trip with the Celtics or whether this was a one-shot deal because the Cs were in his native California -- and I won't be able to tell (the Celtics play on TNT on Thursday and at the Clippers on Saturday, which means I get the local broadcast here in LA instead of the Boston telecast on League Pass). But it's good to see him healthy enough to put on the headset, even if only for a few hours.

Bullets:

• Walton and the numerous Celtics fans in attendance at Oakland's Oracle arena were treated to a vintage Rajon Rondo performance. 19/6/15 with two steals, and one of those nights where it just feels like he can get wherever he wants, whenever he wants.
• Kendrick Perkins banged knees with someone in the third quarter and didn't return. It doesn't seem serious, and it's the left knee, which is not the one he ripped up in the Finals last year. Something to watch, but probably nothing to worry about long-term. The short term is a different story; Boston has to keep winning to stay ahead of Miami in the race for home-court advantage in the East, so even a brief Perkins absence -- especially with Shaq still out -- could be disproportionately costly.
• This was Boston's first win in Golden State in seven years, which is fairly remarkable considering that the Warriors have made the playoffs once in the previous six seasons and compiled a combined record of 213 wins and 279 losses over that time (they are 26-30 this year).
• One thing that makes playing the Warriors so difficult is that they have some really talented offensive players. After a poor defensive showing in a first half in which they surrendered 60 points, the Celtics held Golden State to just 33 second-half points.
• Another thing that is difficult about playing the Warriors is their style. They have no conscience whatsoever, and opposing players can get caught up in the hoist-the-first-halfway-decent-shot-you-get mentality. Nate Robinson fell victim to this a couple of times, though at this point it might be safe to just assume that Nate will always do the wrong thing.
• Fortunately, Golden State is really quite bad defensively (they are second in the league in steals, but that's due in large part to the pace of the game -- more possessions for the other team means more steals, and they do encourage more risk-taking on the part of the opposition's offense). Their deficiencies on that end allowed Boston to win handily despite a 14-point deficit at the free throw line.

Next game is at Denver on Thursday, at 10:30 p.m. Eastern on TNT. In their first game without Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups** -- and with the quartet of players from the Knicks not yet in uniform -- the Nuggets hung 120 points on Memphis Tuesday night in a comfortable win. It's still too early to say what the new-look Nuggets are going to be like, but my money's on a continued emphasis on running (Ty Lawson is better-suited to an uptempo game than Billups) and the three-point shot. Wilson Chandler, acquired from the Knicks, brings a little bit of a defensive mindset that was lacking in every key Denver player other than Arron Afflalo, so there might be some minor improvements there. But probably not enough to worry about, though I might well be underestimating the "We're out to show everyone that we don't need 'melo" factor.

*All the past Walton quotes come from this Web page, which has a great compilation of his hits.

** Thoughts on the Carmelo Anthony trade:

1) There was a time when I was pretty sick of all the trade talk, but by the time the deal was close to being done, I found the whole thing very interesting. It was really a staring contest between Anthony, the Nuggets, and the Nets, with the Knicks sort of lingering around the outside. The Nets had extended the Nuggets a Godfather offer: Very-good-but-not-great point guard Devin Harris, promising rookie big Derrick Favors, the third overall pick in last summer's draft, and an incredible four first-round picks. It was a better deal than the itself attractive package the Knicks were offering, which was breakout PG Raymond Felton, Chandler, sharpshooter Danilo Gallinari, and bruising Timofey Mozgov, plus a first and two seconds, but it came with a caveat: New Jersey wouldn't pull the trigger unless Anthony signed an extension.

Once the Knicks -- Anthony's preferred destination -- upped their offer to include Gallinari, it was good enough for the Nuggets to take, which effectively gave no teeth to New Jersey's insistence that Anthony sign an extension prior to a deal going through. Anthony could more or less insist he be shipped to New York under those circumstances by refusing to sign a contract extension, which I'm guessing he did (because I believe Denver would rather have taken Jersey's offer).

Of course, the Nets could have called Anthony's bluff. 'Melo didn't have a no-trade clause or something similar that they were trying to get him to waive; he was just using the extension as a tool to get what he wanted. New Jersey could have rolled the dice by doing the deal anyway, forcing 'Melo to decide between signing an extension with a depleted Nets squad and losing tens of millions of dollars in free agency.

Here's the thing. 'Melo signed an extension worth three years and $65 million. Because of rules that allow teams to pay their own free agents more, that's more than he would have made in the first three years of a new contract with the Knicks in free agency (my calculations have it at around $6 million more, but my understanding of this part of the CBA is severely lacking).

But that's the current CBA, which expires this summer. It's a near-certainty that the new agreement will restrict player salaries below what they currently are, and thus the difference between signing an extension and waiting for free agency could easily climb into the tens of millions of dollars. So the Nets could simply have called Anthony's bluff and agreed to the trade, banking on Anthony not wanting to give up that much money. The same holds true for the Nuggets; Anthony said he wouldn't sign an extension, but if Denver wasn't getting value for him, it might have been a good strategy to simply hang on to him and hope he'd stick around for the money. It's a lot of money to give up.

Instead, the Nets and Nuggets blinked and the Knicks and Anthony got what they wanted.

2. Or, at least, what they think they wanted. Anthony has non-basketball reasons for wanting to play in New York, and I can't criticize those. And I can't say that I think it's a bad move, necessarily, for the Knicks. But I do think it's hardly a sure thing that the Knicks will be materially better for it, both now and in the future.

For starters, I think there are serious deficiencies with a Anthony-Amare' Stoudemire core. There's no commitment to defense in either of those players, and head coach Mike D'Antoni is famously focused on offense. Even if we assume that Boston will be out of the picture after this year and that Orlando has irrevocably screwed up its team with its trades this year, the Knicks are still going to have to deal with Miami and Chicago for the next several years. Both are outstanding defensive teams that aren't slouches on the offensive end, either. You can't beat either of them in a seven-game series simply by being very good on offense, and at best, that's all the Knicks will be: very good on offense. Additionally, the pairs and trios of stars that have worked of late have worked because of complementary skill sets: The Big Three in Boston, for example, work because they fit together (Garnett on the inside, Paul Pierce as a slasher, Ray Allen as a shooter), because of Rondo, and because Garnett can affect a game so profoundly without doing much offensively; LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh have worked in Miami because of defense and James' uncanny passing ability. A couple of guys who need the ball a ton -- paired with a point guard, Billups, who isn't a traditional playmaker and might not be a great fit, at his age, for D'Antoni's offense -- don't really fit together all that well.

Secondly, if we think of these teams as engaging in some sort of arms race, the Knicks are already one star behind Miami. The new CBA might even make it all but impossible to build a core consisting of three studs the way the Heat have. But even if it doesn't -- even if, say, Chris Paul or Deron Williams makes it to New York the offseason after this one to take Billups' place -- they'll be a full two years behind in chemistry. And the way things are currently set up, with the draft and various salary cap exceptions, you can add a player or two per year to your core. That is, the Heat, having already assembled their "Big Three," can start adding role players to join Mike Miller and Udonis Haslem this offseason. The Knicks will have to make do with surprising rookie Landry Fields alongside Anthony and Stoudemire, saving their cap room until they can get another stud, and then adding free agents in the seasons following. So they'll be another player behind Miami because of that, too.

This all assumes that the model the Heat have followed is a successful one. Time will tell on that, though it certainly can be argued that competing with James/Wade/Bosh is too tall a task for Anthony/Stoudemire/whomever.

3. Again, I'm not saying it was a bad deal for the Knicks. They'd placated their fan base for two years by explaining that they were clearing cap room for a big move last year, and having missed out on James, they needed to do something. And they might not have wanted Anthony to go to the Nets, who are scheduled to move to Brooklyn in a couple of years. (I think this is overstated, though, as is the argument that Anthony will drum up interest in the team. That's a decent argument for most NBA franchises, but not the Knicks, one of the league's most popular outfits. They've got no problems selling tickets and merch at MSG.) But I don't think it gets tem any closer to contending for a title, this year or beyond.

Boston 89, New Jersey 83 - Delonte Breaks Wrist

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Sad news tonight for the Celtics despite the win, as Delonte West broke his right wrist in the second quarter trying to brace himself. As of this writing, I don't know of a timetable for his return. However, the wire story has Doc Rivers saying it's a compound fracture. I'm not a doctor, but I think that means that Delonte's bone broke through his skin. (If you're at all squeamish, do not Google "compound fracture.") Sports announcers always say they hate to speculate, but I, as a blogger, love to speculate -- it's part of why I blog -- and I'm speculating that Delonte's season could be over. Even if it isn't, it'll be a long while before we see him in uniform again.

It's difficult to say what the effect of losing Delonte for the foreseeable future will be, given that he'd only played a few games this season and hadn't had a chance to really gel yet with the second unit. I, and everyone else, hoped that he'd become our most valuable bench player, someone to come in and organize the offense, letting Nate Robinson play off the ball while our starting backcourt sat. I hoped he'd come in and be able to defend both guard positions and knock down the three when the defense left him open. Delonte West is capable of doing all of these things. Whether or not he actually was going to do them, of course, remains an open question, but it's safe to say that this is no minor loss.

Short term, things appear bleaker than they actually are, because Rajon Rondo missed his third straight game with a hamstring injury. That leaves Robinson and rookie Avery Bradley as our only healthy point guards, though Rondo's expected back soon. Even when he does return, however, West's absence will likely mean increased minutes for our starting perimeter guys as they take turns running with the second unit -- unless Doc has unreasonable confidence in Von Wafer or uncharacteristic confidence in Bradley. The other option would be to go out and get someone, but I don't know who that someone would be.

So sad. Delonte seemed on the verge of rejuvenating his career, then breaks his wrist four and a half games into his season. (Recall that he sat out the first ten games on a suspension.) There is, of course, a big elephant in the room that I feel neither comfortable nor qualified to address -- let's just say that I hope that whatever physical therapy program awaits him, it keeps him busy. Time for the Celtics family to look after one of its own.

Touching ever-so-briefly on the game itself, Shaquille O'Neal was a monster tonight, playing better than I've seen him play in years and much better than I ever thought I'd see him play in a Celtics uniform. I'm still worried a bit about his defense, but he's really throwing his weight around on offense and his teammates have been great at finding him.

The other player who merits attention for his performance Wednesday night is Marquis Daniels. Paul Pierce and Ray Allen put this game away down the stretch -- with a surprising assist from Shaq at the free throw line -- but Daniels, pressed into extra duty due to the West and Rondo injuries and the fact that Robinson was in foul trouble, had a strong game. His stat line was modest, but he did a lot of the little things on a night where Boston couldn't find a rhythm. If he can consistently play well, it will go a long way toward easing the sting from the loss of Delonte.

The Next Lamb: The New Jersey Nets

Game 15: New Jersey (5-9) at Boston (10-4)

Wednesday, November 24

7:30 pm Eastern

TV: NBA League Pass

It wasn't until writing this post that I remembered that we lost to the Nets last season. The 12-70 Nets. The freaking Nets.

I went back and looked at the RwH archives, and it turns out I didn't watch that game -- which was the last matchup between these two teams. It turns out that the game was decided at the free throw line: New Jersey shot 41 free throws to Boston's 11, holding a 22-point edge from the stripe.

In my own little universe, then, it's particularly appropriate that we face the Nets for the first time since then at a time when I think the biggest problem with our team, currently, is that it has trouble playing defense without fouling. (Unless, of course, the other team simply chooses not to show up, as Atlanta did on Monday.)

Speaking of Atlanta, the Nets beat them in overtime in New Jersey Tuesday night, a win that would ordinarily be impressive -- except that the Hawks dug themselves an early hole by playing only slightly better in the first quarter than they did the night before against the Celtics. Still, give credit to New Jersey for closing out the game in overtime. In some regards, their record is deceiving because they've played some good teams very close -- but on the other hand, Atlanta's really the only decent team they've beaten.

There are two main players for Boston to worry about: center Brook Lopez and point guard Devin Harris. The former has had a bunch of good games against Boston in the last couple of seasons, and its hard to imagine him playing materially worse against Shaquille O'Neal than he did against Kendrick Perkins. Harris, on the other hand, has traditionally struggled against Boston, putting up some ugly shooting lines (though his ability to get to the free throw line makes his point totals against the Celtics respectable). Of course, if Rajon Rondo can't go, Nate Robinson will be tasked with checking the 6-3 Harris. If it becomes an issue, I wouldn't be surprised to see Doc not hesitate to bring in Delonte West.

Joining those two guys in the starting lineup these days are Travis Outlaw, Anthony Morrow, and Kris Humphries. Outlaw is a relatively unexceptional small forward, and Morrow -- one of the top three-point shooters, percentage-wise, ever -- hasn't yet found his rhythm and doesn't seem to be being used in a way that best maximizes his lone NBA skill.

Humphries is an interesting case. Troy Murphy is supposed to be playing power forward for the Nets, but he hurt his back in the preseason and when he came back, he was ineffective -- so ineffective that coach Avery Johnson has kept him inactive -- not benched him; kept him in street clothes -- for several games now. Humphries is an early entry journeyman, a strong rebounder with something of a hard edge. His major contribution comes on the glass, a la Reggie Evans -- who had 16 rebounds against Boston on Sunday -- but he notched his fourth double-double of the season against Atlanta, so he's a little bit more of an offensive threat. Particularly if Boston has trouble containing Lopez and Harris, Humphries is exactly the kind of player who can really hurt the Celtics. Kevin Garnett loves to roam and help, and Humphries has made a modest career of punishing -- with dunks and offensive rebounds and putbacks -- teams that ignore him.

New Jersey 104, Boston 96

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This game was played on Saturday. I was watching college ball all day and had designs to catch what I figured would be an easy win against the 5-52 Nets on DVR, perhaps zooming through once the game got out of hand. But I saw the score on ESPN's college hoops telecast, and quickly decided I didn't want to watch.

I checked out the box score and couldn't really figure out what went wrong. Twenty-six for Kevin Garnett. Seventeen assists for Rajon Rondo. A 50% to 44% edge in field goal shooting. Eighteen turnovers, but we always turn it over a lot and NJ coughed it up 15 times, too. Nothing out of the ordinary. How'd we lose?

Then I saw the free throw discrepancy. New Jersey made 34 of 41 from the charity stripe. We made nine of 11.

That kind of discrepancy is basically unheard of in the NBA, and I had resolved myself to watch it, expecting to see flagrantly bad officiating. Before I did, though, I checked in with the community over at Celtics Blog to see their reaction. Hardly any of the 300+ comments bitched about the officiating, and the ones that did were swiftly rebuked by comments that Jersey deserved most of that huge advantage. The word was that we didn't show much effort at all. Good enough for me. With plenty of other things to do, I don't need to watch my favorite sports team mail it in in a humiliating loss.

A new low? I dunno. Stuff like this happens in an 82-game NBA season. The 1995-1996 Bulls, on their way to a record 72 regular season wins, stumbled against a Toronto team that finished 21-61. (Granted, these Nets stand to be historically bad, a distinction those Raptors comfortably avoided.) Frankly, had things been going better of late, we're probably shrugging this one off as opposed to being discouraged by it. Indeed, the main effect it has seemed to have is to alert the general basketball-watching public to the Celtics' struggles -- which followers of the team have been aware of for a while.

Anyway, we'll see where it goes from here. I'm sort of sick of declaring certain performances watershed moments for this team, but perhaps losing to maybe the worst team in NBA history will solve some of our mindset problems. Our attitude -- whether it's overconfidence, a locker room thing, or that we're just bored -- is only part of the problem (age, injury, and performance are to blame, too), but it clearly needs fixing.

Boston's back in action Tuesday night against Detroit. Paul Pierce should be back; Kendrick Perkins is likely to miss the game with, I think, some sort of illness.

Boston 96, New Jersey 87

[recap] [box score]

Ideally, we'd beat the Nets -- now 4-45 -- by more than nine, especially at home. But New Jersey fought hard all night, and on the bright side, we saw Boston come through with a second consecutive decisive fourth quarter.

Eddie House's ten-point fourth quarter probably saved us. Other bright spots included Ray Allen's second-half shooting and 13 points off the bench for Glen Davis, just his fourth double-digit scoring game in 20 contests this year.

VIEWING ALERT: Orlando comes to Boston tomorrow for the teams' final matchup of the regular season (ABC, 2:30 p.m. Eastern). Paul Pierce, who has missed the last two games with a foot injury suffered Monday in Washington, practiced on Saturday, which makes it seem like he's more likely to play than not. We beat Orlando on Christmas Day without Pierce, but we'd obviously rather have him in the lineup. On the other hand, though a strained foot doesn't seem like the type of injury that will get worse, it's also not the kind of thing we want bothering him the rest of the year. If he needs to rest to get healthy for the second half of the season, I don't mind being shorthanded against the Magic.

TMJF: Happy 21st birthday, Jonny Flynn! The rookie point guard celebrated an hour or two early last night, scoring 19 points in Minnesota's surprising 117-108 win in Dallas over the Mavericks. Flynn, who will return to Dallas next weekend as part of the NBA All-Star rookie-sophomore game, also handed out seven assists against just one turnover.

Viewing Alert

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

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

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

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

Boston 86, New Jersey 76

Ugh.

[recap] [box score]

• First of all, poor New Jersey. The only regular starter who played was center Brook Lopez. They started Rafer Alston (filling in for Devin Harris), Trenton Hassell (Courtney Lee), Bobby Simmons (Chris Douglas-Roberts), and Josh Boone (Yi Jianlian). They played their guts out -- just as they did in a narrow loss the night before in Philadelphia -- but you aren't going to win starting three career journeymen and Rafer Alston. The Nets are 0-7, and with a Wednesday home date against Philly followed by a weekend back-to-back in Florida, it looks very likely that they'll have to wait at least another full week before they get their first win.
• Doc Rivers again tried an all-bench lineup to start the second quarter, but House, Giddens, Wallace, Scalabrine, and Shelden Williams couldn't get anything going. Without Marquis Daniels, who missed this game while tending to personal matters, the second unit needs Pierce or Ray Allen to spark the offense. That three-minute stretch was the best indicator we've had of how good Daniels has been thus far.
• I won't be at all surprised if Giddens doesn't have a job in the NBA next year.
• The Nets committed 23 turnovers, an incredible 20 of which were Boston steals. Rajon Rondo led the way with 5 thefts, but in all, six other Celtics got at least one: Rasheed Wallace (4 steals), Kevin Garnett (3), Brian Scalabrine (3), Paul Pierce (2), Eddie House (2), and J.R. Giddens (1). Boston had active hands and jumped passing lanes all night, but New Jersey also threw quite a few balls directly to men wearing green jerseys.
• One such steal by Eddie House was basically an outlet pass, and House turned it into a two-on-one break down the right side, with Scalabrine filling the left lane. House dropped a perfect bounce pass that caught Scal in stride; for a great number of NBA players, this was a catch, two steps, and a jam. Scal being who he is, however, stopped more or less on a dime and backed the ball out. Seeing it teed up so perfectly for Scal, I was led to contemplate whether he could still dunk. I know what you're thinking: "He's 6'9", of course he can dunk." Well, I played with a guy in high school who was 6'8", and he could only throw it down if he could take one step, gather, and jump off of two feet; in other words, he could only really do it in practice. Again, I know what you're thinking: "Okay, but he was an NBA player?" No, he wasn't, but he also wasn't a 31-year-old with a bad back, an extra 20 pounds or so on his frame, and a nickname ("Veal") that isn't just a play on words. It's entirely possible that he can't. Even if you disagree with me, you wouldn't feel very comfortable betting on it, would you?
• Scal did give us the lead for good by burying a three (our first successful attempt from long distance) on the first possession of the fourth quarter. He hit a long two a couple trips later. I can't believe I'm saying it, but we may want to keep him around all year, rather than trade his expiring contract for another piece.
• Boston's lineup for the final four minutes: House, Allen, Pierce, Garnett, Kendrick Perkins. Rondo sat the entire fourth quarter and didn't look terribly amused about it while sitting on the bench.
• They mentioned on the broadcast that this was the 50th anniversary of the first meeting between Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain. Ironic for me, because I just finished the Russ v. Wilt chapter of Bill Simmons' new book, The Book of Basketball. I'm no Sports Guy fanboy, but I'm excited for the rest of this book. Simmons has bitten off a lot -- he defines his purpose as "evaluating why certain players and teams mattered more than others" -- but as an NBA fanatic first and a journalist (I use that term loosely) second, he seems up to the task. I'll have a full report once I finish the nearly 700-page treatise.

Off 'til Wednesday, when the Jazz come to town. Three days off should be a welcome break for the Cs, who have played a league-leading eight games in the season's first twelve days (a few teams have only played five games, and Golden State has played just four). This should be a chance for the team to get back in the practice gym to work out some of the kinks from the last two games, as well as to get some well-deserved rest.

Boston 106, New Jersey 104

A little slow posting this one from Wednesday night because I've been really busy this week.

[recap] [box score]

Beating the Nets is no great accomplishment, but it is an important one, as Orlando is still hot on Boston's heels for the second spot in the East as the season's final week approaches.

The good: 31/5/9 from Rajon Rondo; 15 bench points from Eddie House; nine and nine from Mikki Moore; four points and five assists from Stephon Marbury in his best all-around game as a Celtic.

The bad: A 31-point first quarter by the Nets; an inconsistent defensive effort all night; and two poor trips up-and-down in the final minute that gave the Nets a shot to win after having trailed 106-99.

Next game is Friday night, at home against Miami (no national TV).

Boston 115, New Jersey 111

It's good to pull out a win in a game we almost gave away, but we really can't be happy with the way we're playing right now.

[recap] [box score] [highlights]

Boston's defense tonight was as bad as I've seen it in last season-plus (and I've seen nearly every game during that time). The numbers don't quite show it -- New Jersey shot just under 50 percent from the field -- but trust me, it was terrible, at least until the last couple crucial possessions. In particular, there were several occasions where Nets, notably Vince Carter, encountered nary a green-jerseyed help defender on drives to the basket that originated from outside the three-point arc.

Three offensive stars for the Celtics in this game -- four if you count Ray Allen, who tied the game at 111 with a three-pointer on a well-drawn up play after Boston had squandered a 12-point fourth quarter lead:

-Paul Pierce had 31 points on 12-of-14 from the field, and contributed another cold-blooded game-winner;

-Rajon Rondo, who had 16 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter; and

-Kendrick Perkins, who had 17 points and 13 rebounds in his first really strong game since Kevin Garnett was injured on February 19 against Utah. Perk had nine points in the third quarter -- he and Rondo did most of the scoring in that period -- and recorded his lone block of the game on a Devin Harris layup attempt with 45 seconds remaining and the score tied after Allen's three-pointer.

Boston escaped in this one and will have to play worlds better when they host Cleveland on Friday (viewing alert: 8 p.m. Eastern on ESPN). The Cavs, who like the Celtics clinched a playoff berth with a win Wednesday night, lead the Eastern conference by one game. The teams have split two meetings thus far, with a fourth and final showdown (until the playoffs, and probably the Eastern finals) scheduled for April 12 in Cleveland. It's bad luck that it appears that the Celtics won't have Garnett -- not to mention Tony Allen and Brian Scalabrine -- in the home leg of those two games, as the Cavs are nearly unbeatable at Quicken Loans Arena (27-1 on the year, and the tiebreaker for home court advantage, should the teams finish the regular season with the same overall record, is head-to-head record. Since Boston, even at full strength, cannot reasonably expect to win in Cleveland on a given night, home court may be at stake on Friday night.* And given that Boston, even at full strength, cannot expect to win in Cleveland on a given night, home court advantage might very well decide who represents the East in the Finals.

So yeah, Friday's kind of a big game.

*I don't know what the next tiebreaker is if two teams end up with the same overall record and split the head-to-head series. If anyone knows, I'd appreciate hearing; it may be that it's something that Cleveland has the advantage in, anyway.

Viewing Alert

The Celtics play the Suns tonight on TNT at 8 p.m. Eastern as part of the network's Martin Luther King Jr. Day tripleheader. Phoenix beat the Raptors last night, and Shaquille O'Neal scord 16 points, which means the big fella likely won't play tonight (he's been playing only one leg of back-to-backs this season). His opposite number, Kendrick Perkins, probably won't play, either.

Two nights ago, by the way, Boston beat up on New Jersey for the second time in a row, this time by a 105-85 final. I missed this one, but if you read the recap, you'll see that we jumped out to an 18-2 lead on our way to a 68-39 halftime advantage, and that New Jersey's two best players, Vince Carter and Devin Harris, were benched for the entire second half.

Boston 118, New Jersey 86

Easy win.

[recap] [box score] [highlights]

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

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

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

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

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

Boston 115, Toronto 109 (OT)

(Don't know what's up with the formatting. Sorry, gang.)

[recap] [box score] [highlights]

We're still not right. The Raptors were again without Jermaine O'Neal, and didn't have Jose Calderon, either, and we struggled to beat them at home.

I didn't watch this game because it was on NBATV, so I can't say much about it. Paul Pierce led the way with 39 points, and let me turn your attention to the first few paragraphs of the wire story on the game. Kevin Garnett, for at least the second time this season, referred to Pierce as Superman in the post-game press conference. I'm not bringing the following up to drum up controversy (I don't have enough readers for that, anyway). It's just something I've had on my mind for a while.

Almost from the moment Pierce and Garnett joined forces with Ray Allen last year, the biggest concern I've had that it wasn't going to click rest with Allen. Garnett would see plenty of time in the spotlight, as his superstardom was unmatched by the other two; and anyway, he was, by reputation, the most selfless of the three. Pierce and Ray were in similar situations, actually, All-Stars playing on bad teams, but Pierce was the incumbent. Ray was the newcomer. I wondered how he'd deal with being the third banana.

All in all, it's been pretty good. I remember some rumblings this summer about Ray being unhappy -- and rumors of a trade to (I think) Charlotte for (I think) Gerald Wallace. Who knows how credible those rumors were, and if Ray was or is upset, he's kept remarkably quiet.

But I can't help but notice the clear hierarchy among the Big Three. KG famously insisted that Pierce, not he, be introduced last at the start of every home game, which is all well and good, except that Ray's name never really entered the conversation. These are trivial matters, and, after all, not everyone can be introduced last, but we should at least acknowledge that Ray went from a team where he was the unquestionable top dog to the third most recognizable or popular player on his team.

It continued after the championship, too. Pierce naturally got the most press, having played his whole career in Boston, having survived the stabbing and the Pitino Era and losing season after losing season. Garnett's raw emotion and on-camera candidness made him a prime target for footage after the Finals; the NBA player who most wanted a ring finally got his. If Ray were more like KG -- if he were inclined to scream at the top of his lungs on national TV "ANYTHING'S POSSIBBBLLLE!!!!" -- maybe he would have received more press. But he's not KG, personality-wise, not even close.

(You know, I always find the post-Game 6 clip of KG described above strange. A 66-win team led by three stars of their generation hardly seems to be the unlikely event that Garnett's chosen phrase seems to make it out to be.)

The point of all this is that I wonder how Ray feels about it all. KG has gone out of his way to make sure Pierce is comfortable (the aforementioned insistence that Pierce be introduced last; constant reassurances in the press that this is Pierce's team), but you don't hear the same things about Ray. It's a little striking, particularly this year, when you could make a case that Ray has been the best player on the team. Pierce's 39 earned the win tonight, but Ray's 36 saved our asses on Sunday, and he didn't get Garnett comparing him to a superhero.

Like I said, I'm not trying to stir up controversy. Just something I've been tracking a little bit, and chose to write about on a night I couldn't watch the game.

Quick notes on what I can glean from the recap and box score:

-22 points in overtime is a franchise record. It's also more points than we scored in either the first or fourth quarter.

-49 minutes for Pierce, 45 for Ray, 40 apiece for Garnett and Rajon Rondo on the second night of a back-t0-back with another game on Wednesday (vs. New Jersey at 7:30 p.m. Eastern, no national TV). Yuck. Tony Allen's ankle injury hurts us in that he's the primary backup for both Ray and Pierce.

-No Kendrick Perkins again tonight, and a buddy who was listening to the broadcast tonight said that Doc doesn't expect him back til at least after the weekend. Our next two games are both against the Nets, and Jersey's rookie center, Brook Lopez, just went for 31 and 13 Monday night. I've been pretty happy with how Brian Scalabrine has played in Perk's absence (on both ends; he actually had 11 points Monday), but I think Lopez is probably too big for him -- though I think Garnett will handle him fine. The Chairman, Yi Jianlian, didn't play Monday because of a hand injury that will sideline him for a few weeks, and the Nets started rookie Ryan Anderson at power forward. I haven't seen a ton of Anderson (actually, not sure I've seen him at all as a pro, and only fleetingly in college), but my impression is that he's a younger, slimmer, better Scal, perhaps the player Danny Ainge hoped Scalabrine would be when he threw all that money at him a few years ago. Might be fun to see the two of them square off.

Talk to you after the game on Wednesday.