Well, that was fun. In case you missed it, the Celtics ran away with this one in the third quarter. The lead had been double digits for most of the second period, but it got out of hand during a 49-second stretch during which Boston scored eight straight points. The spurt was highlighted by a Jeff Green dunk, followed by a Green block on the other hand that led to a fast break and a Paul Pierce three. I believe that put Boston up 21. They'd lead by at least 30 before coasting the rest of the way.
As comfortable a win as this turned out to be, it certainly didn't start the way. The Celtics were whistled for five fouls in the first two minutes, twenty-two seconds -- the fastest any team has found itself in the penalty since the Phoenix Suns on Halloween in 2000, according to the TNT broadcast. Two of those fouls were on Kevin Garnett, and by the end of the first quarter, his backups -- Jason Collins and Chris Wilcox, had five fouls between them.
This game affirmed for me, though, that Boston's recent hot streak is due not to some improved chemistry or ball movement in the absence of Rajon Rondo, but rather to an increased intensity and focus on the part of the entire team. Paul Pierce, in particular, came out sharper than he's been in weeks, draining a handful of pull-up jumpers in the first quarter.
However, with the exception of the third quarter -- when Boston shook off a few minutes of halftime-induced torpor to make 16 of 21 shots to blow the game open -- the Celtics didn't play well enough to enjoy such an easy evening. Indeed, this game said more about the Lakers' struggles than anything else. They couldn't take advantage of Boston's early foul trouble, they shot terribly, and their defense was nonexistent most of the night. The biggest indictment was the lack of ball movement. Steve Kerr harped on it quite a bit and so I won't rehash it here, but there was far too much one-on-one for a team quarterbacked by one of the league's all-time great point guards. The third quarter actually reminded me a bit of Game 5 of the 2010 Finals. Kobe Bryant -- who had been assisting at a career-high rate recently, which coincidentally has been L.A.'s best stretch of the season -- decided to try to take over offensively. And even as he hit a dazzling array of shots, each seemingly more difficult than the last, Boston's lead remained steady -- then blew up once Bryant's shots stopped falling.
Not that this is a novel opinion, but I think you can safely stick a fork in the Lakers this year. They don't appear to be anywhere close to figuring out how to play together, Dwight Howard is ailing, and Pau Gasol is going to be out at least 6 to 8 weeks. They aren't as far out of the playoffs as you'd think, but it's hard to imagine them turning it around any time soon.
Showing posts with label Dwight Howard. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dwight Howard. Show all posts
Thursday, February 7, 2013
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.
Monday, January 23, 2012
Boston 87, Orlando 56
[recap] [box score]
Raise your hand if you predicted a 30-point game Monday night.
:Raises hand:
Actually, that's not entirely accurate. I predicted an even larger margin of victory.
"Darn," I said to my girlfriend when we I saw all the Celtics who were inactive for the game, using a word that is a bit stronger than "darn."
"We're going to lose by 100."
I was exaggerating, of course, but not by much. A blowout seemed imminent. Rajon R-ndo, Ray Allen, Keyon Dooling, and Mickael Pietrus were all in civilian clothes with various maladies. That's our starting point guard, our starting shooting guard, and the two men who back them up, all out of commission. In addition, Chris Wilcox, one of just three big bodies on the Boston roster, was down with an injury -- with the league's most dominant center since Shaq's heyday coming into town. How could the Celtics keep it competitive, never mind win?
The answer, of course, is that I have no idea. I can't explain why Kevin Garnett looked better than he has all season, why Marquis Daniels and Jermaine O'Neal played with more energy than they have in weeks, or why Sasha Pavlovic was flying around the court, making steals and blocking shots. And I certainly have no explanation for why the now 11-5 Magic played as poorly as they did, setting a franchise record for offensive futility.
I'd like to say that the Celtics turned a corner tonight, but Orlando was so bad that this game is probably best described as an anomaly, just another funny night in an NBA season that promises to be even more full of surprising results than usual. The win is significant, sure, and could be a big confidence boost moving forward, but as fans, I would caution against reading much into the margin of victory and the dominating nature of the performance.
With that heaping spoonful of salt served, I'd be remiss to not mention that the defense, almost from the beginning, was excellent. Garnett and Pavlovic each had steals on one of Orlando's first three possessions. O'Neal blocked two shots and drew a charge in the first seven minutes. Howard had 12 points in the first quarter, but went 0-10 the rest of the way. Boston doesn't double Howard much, and O'Neal and Greg Stiemsma did a good job, as Kendrick Perkins did before them, of pushing Howard a bit farther from the basket than he likes, forcing him into a number of tough running hooks.
No one was better defensively than Avery Bradley, however. He had three steals and one block, and hounded Jameer Nelson into at least two other turnovers with the kind of hounding, full-court defense you don't often see in the NBA. His only two baskets came early in the first quarter, and his offensive limitations will probably limit his role considerably once the regulars heal, but he didn't turn it over once on Monday, a major plus after he coughed it up six times against Washington on Sunday.
Honestly, you could go down the roster tonight and say nothing but good things about everyone who suited up. Garnett had a double with 14 points and ten rebounds, adding five steals and two blocks for good measure. Paul Pierce with a 19/5/7. Brandon Bass burning his old team, tying Pierce for game-high honors with 19 points. Even JaJuan Johnson, the only one of ten Celtics in uniform who didn't play until garbage time, had a thunderous jam and a nice baseline turnaround. (His other two shot attempts were blocked, however -- so much for nothing but good things.)
A few non-game related notes:
* Glen Davis got a nice acknowledgement from the team and the crowd, in recognition of his four years of service in green. He then went out and made two of nine shots, making the Celtics fans even more appreciative of Bass than they already were. Von Wafer got no such recognition, and took out his aggression with five quick points in the final seconds.
* As they do a few times a year, Tommy Heinsohn and Mike Gorman brought Celtics CEO and co-owner Wyc Grousbeck to the broadcast table for the second quarter. I love it when they do this; I don't know if other teams do it, but they should. Grousbeck didn't sugarcoat the team's early season struggles, noting that the team wasn't ready (read: was out of shape) when they tipped off in December. He didn't speak entirely frankly about the potential of blowing up the Big Three, but he didn't talk with blind optimism about the team, either. He's less caustic than Danny -- I don't know, but listening to him talk makes me more confident that whatever decisions the front-office makes will be good ones.
* Line of the night, from Grousbeck, on Kendrick Perkins: "He's a great guy. He told us he wasn't gonna re-sign here, but he's a great guy."
Orlando will look to work out its frustation against Indiana on Tuesday night. They won't have to wait long for revenge, either; Boston travels to Florida on Thursday for the rematch. The Celtics are off until then, which hopefully will some of Boston's injured players a chance to get healthy. I've got a feeling we'll need them next time around.
Raise your hand if you predicted a 30-point game Monday night.
:Raises hand:
Actually, that's not entirely accurate. I predicted an even larger margin of victory.
"Darn," I said to my girlfriend when we I saw all the Celtics who were inactive for the game, using a word that is a bit stronger than "darn."
"We're going to lose by 100."
I was exaggerating, of course, but not by much. A blowout seemed imminent. Rajon R-ndo, Ray Allen, Keyon Dooling, and Mickael Pietrus were all in civilian clothes with various maladies. That's our starting point guard, our starting shooting guard, and the two men who back them up, all out of commission. In addition, Chris Wilcox, one of just three big bodies on the Boston roster, was down with an injury -- with the league's most dominant center since Shaq's heyday coming into town. How could the Celtics keep it competitive, never mind win?
The answer, of course, is that I have no idea. I can't explain why Kevin Garnett looked better than he has all season, why Marquis Daniels and Jermaine O'Neal played with more energy than they have in weeks, or why Sasha Pavlovic was flying around the court, making steals and blocking shots. And I certainly have no explanation for why the now 11-5 Magic played as poorly as they did, setting a franchise record for offensive futility.
I'd like to say that the Celtics turned a corner tonight, but Orlando was so bad that this game is probably best described as an anomaly, just another funny night in an NBA season that promises to be even more full of surprising results than usual. The win is significant, sure, and could be a big confidence boost moving forward, but as fans, I would caution against reading much into the margin of victory and the dominating nature of the performance.
With that heaping spoonful of salt served, I'd be remiss to not mention that the defense, almost from the beginning, was excellent. Garnett and Pavlovic each had steals on one of Orlando's first three possessions. O'Neal blocked two shots and drew a charge in the first seven minutes. Howard had 12 points in the first quarter, but went 0-10 the rest of the way. Boston doesn't double Howard much, and O'Neal and Greg Stiemsma did a good job, as Kendrick Perkins did before them, of pushing Howard a bit farther from the basket than he likes, forcing him into a number of tough running hooks.
No one was better defensively than Avery Bradley, however. He had three steals and one block, and hounded Jameer Nelson into at least two other turnovers with the kind of hounding, full-court defense you don't often see in the NBA. His only two baskets came early in the first quarter, and his offensive limitations will probably limit his role considerably once the regulars heal, but he didn't turn it over once on Monday, a major plus after he coughed it up six times against Washington on Sunday.
Honestly, you could go down the roster tonight and say nothing but good things about everyone who suited up. Garnett had a double with 14 points and ten rebounds, adding five steals and two blocks for good measure. Paul Pierce with a 19/5/7. Brandon Bass burning his old team, tying Pierce for game-high honors with 19 points. Even JaJuan Johnson, the only one of ten Celtics in uniform who didn't play until garbage time, had a thunderous jam and a nice baseline turnaround. (His other two shot attempts were blocked, however -- so much for nothing but good things.)
A few non-game related notes:
* Glen Davis got a nice acknowledgement from the team and the crowd, in recognition of his four years of service in green. He then went out and made two of nine shots, making the Celtics fans even more appreciative of Bass than they already were. Von Wafer got no such recognition, and took out his aggression with five quick points in the final seconds.
* As they do a few times a year, Tommy Heinsohn and Mike Gorman brought Celtics CEO and co-owner Wyc Grousbeck to the broadcast table for the second quarter. I love it when they do this; I don't know if other teams do it, but they should. Grousbeck didn't sugarcoat the team's early season struggles, noting that the team wasn't ready (read: was out of shape) when they tipped off in December. He didn't speak entirely frankly about the potential of blowing up the Big Three, but he didn't talk with blind optimism about the team, either. He's less caustic than Danny -- I don't know, but listening to him talk makes me more confident that whatever decisions the front-office makes will be good ones.
* Line of the night, from Grousbeck, on Kendrick Perkins: "He's a great guy. He told us he wasn't gonna re-sign here, but he's a great guy."
Orlando will look to work out its frustation against Indiana on Tuesday night. They won't have to wait long for revenge, either; Boston travels to Florida on Thursday for the rematch. The Celtics are off until then, which hopefully will some of Boston's injured players a chance to get healthy. I've got a feeling we'll need them next time around.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Boston 109, Orlando 106
Welcome back, Kevin.
Sidelined by a right calf injury since December 29, Kevin Garnett returned to the Boston starting lineup Monday night and scored 19 points, grabbed eight rebounds, and brought the Celtics alive with his trademark energy and chatter. His biggest contribution, however, was a game-sealing steal of a Jameer Nelson pass in the final seconds. After deflecting the pass and securing the ball, Garnett flung out to a streaking Ray Allen, who dribbled off some clock before getting fouled and icing the game at the free throw line.
It was, more or less, a perfect return for KG in the eyes of Celtics fans. Garnett played 31 minutes and moved well for each and every one of them. Call me paranoid if you wish, but I know I wasn't the only Boston fan waiting to see KG in action before I believed that this most recent injury wasn't serious. The memory of two seasons ago, when Garnett and/or the team hid the severity of his knee problems for weeks, is simply too fresh.
This game was about far more than Garnett's healthy return, however. Doc Rivers, as expected, had the fellas play Dwight Howard more or less straight up. No double teams, no putting him at the line at every opportunity. Just straight-up defense, following the philosophy the Cs have been successful with over the past three-plus seasons: Let their best player get his and worry about shutting down the other guys.
The other guys, in the case of the Magic, are good enough to beat you on many nights, and they almost did. Howard had 33 points and 13 rebounds, and his teammates made 11 of 27 three-point shots in support. But they cooled down just enough in the fourth quarter for the Celtics -- who shot 60 percent from the field but just 3-for-10 from behind the arc -- to avenge the Christmas Day loss.
The one issue I had with the way the Celtics handled Howard was that they didn't attack him on the offensive end. Shaquille O'Neal drew a foul on Howard within the first two minutes of the game, but only took seven shots the whole night. Indeed, Howard ended the game -- after nearly 44 minutes of court time -- with just that one foul. Howard is more than capable of playing defense, and I get that Doc is loathe to change the game plan because of just one guy. But Shaq had a couple of buckets early, and it would have been worth it to see whether he could have kept rolling and/or gotten Howard into foul trouble. During one second-quarter sequence, Howard drew Shaq's second foul on an extremely dubious call, getting to the line simply by bringing the ball into Shaq's forearm. It looked bad when the ref called it and a replay on the Jumbotron confirmed that it was a bad call. The next Celtic possession was a perfect opportunity to go to O'Neal and give the officials an opportunity for a makeup call. Instead, Boston went to Paul Pierce. It didn't cost the Celtics any points, as Pierce hit a jumper, but Shaq picked up his third on the next Orlando possession, sending him to the bench. Had Boston gone to O'Neal, it might have been Howard headed to the bench for the rest of the half, rather than Shaq.
Speaking of Howard and the officials, I yelled at my television enough during the game that I feel obligated to mention the officiating, which was horrible in my estimation. In addition to the O'Neal foul mentioned above, Howard was the beneficiary of a bad call on Garnett's third foul late in the second period. Howard was trying to seal Garnett in the post, and Garnett fought throw Howard holding him off with his left arm to steal the entry pass. Danny Crawford apparently thought that KG grabbed Howard's arm to accomplish this, when in fact it was Howard, if anyone, who committed the foul. For someone who constantly complains that he doesn't receive enough protection from the officials, Howard certainly got plenty of it Monday night.
It wasn't just Howard; the Magic shot 36 free throws to Boston's 26, despite taking 27 three-pointers to Boston's ten and despite the fact that Boston scored a ton of points in the paint. Free throw discrepancies in favor of Orlando are rather commonplace given some teams' preferred strategy for defending Howard, but as I mentioned, Boston wasn't wrapping him up every time he caught the ball in a dangerous position the way some teams do. There's just no way Orlando should shoot that many more free throws while also shooting that many more jumpers. And I haven't yet mentioned what I considered to be the most egregious call of the game, a moving screen on KG that nullified a Ray Allen three with less than two minutes to play. I get that KG moves on screens, like basically every NBA big man, but under two minutes in a tie ballgame is a wacky time to start making that call, especially when Howard had been stepping into screens on the other end all night. The inconsistency drove me crazy.
Not to ramble on and on about Howard, but this game underscored for me the reason why I'm not overly concerned with the Magic, at least not as currently constructed. By giving up center Marcin Gortat in the Vince Carter-Jason Richardson trade with Phoenix, Orlando has left itself with no viable backup for Howard. And while Howard is young and fit and fully capable of playing as many minutes as he did, he's also foul prone and if the game had gone differently, Orlando could have found itself in some trouble -- and that's with Kendrick Perkins and Jermaine O'Neal out with injuries. Even so, there were a handful of occasions that Howard didn't challenge easy shots around the basket, and he didn't block a shot in a game for the first time since Game 2 of the Boston series last May. I have to think Howard is more conscious than ever about foul trouble, which negates some of his shotblocking ability and makes Orlando's defense that much less effective.
In order to get a backup, however, Orlando would probably have to part with either Ryan Anderson or J.J. Redick, young players who, like seemingly everyone else on the team, are real threats from downtown. Anderson entered Monday's game late in the first quarter and promptly hit four threes to bring the Magic back from an early ten-point deficit, and while Redick spent much of a crucial second-half stretch being taken to school by Ray Allen, he has -- against all odds -- became a vital role player that I know Orlando doesn't want to part with. Given that Gilbert Arenas has not emerged as much of a threat since arriving from Washington in the trade for Rashard Lewis, the loss of either one of those guys would be a major hit to their depth. And yet it's hard to see the Magic getting through Boston and the Lakers in the postseason without a backup center.
There was more to this game -- Pierce patiently waiting as Boston rode Allen's hot hand until the final minute, when he calmly sank a jumper after being fouled by Richardson to put the Cs up three; Glen Davis finally refusing to settle for jump shots; Nate Robinson's continued struggle to find his role in the absence of Delonte West -- but that's enough for now. The focus shifts to Detroit -- surprise blowout winners over the reeling Mavericks on Monday afternoon -- on Wednesday, with Utah coming in on Friday and road games in Portland, Phoenix, and Los Angeles against the Lakers to finish out the month.
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Orlando 86, Boston 78
Caught the first quarter and second half of this one sandwiched around Christmas dinner.
[recap] [box score]
Saturday's game was an ugly, low-scoring affair, which was a pattern when the Magic and Celtics met last year -- during the regular season, anyway. I could say that the Cs would have won had they made a bunch of shots they usually make, but the same is true of Orlando. It was one of those games where both teams played pretty good defense, and the effort on that end was magnified from some pretty poor shooting from both sides.
From a Boston perspective, we lost this game because we didn't have Rajon Rondo, plain and simple. Nate Robinson had his worst game as Rondo's understudy, making just two of 15 shots, the majority of which were good looks. The Magic basically could leave Robinson alone on offense, the same way opponents do against Rondo -- but Rondo provides much more playmaking and doesn't use as many possessions as Nate does shooting jumpers. And while Robinson did a nice job keeping Jameer Nelson in check for most of the game, he lost him on a screen on a key possession late, as Nelson hit a three that I believe gave the Magic the lead for good.
While the Celtics probably would have won with Rondo, Robinson wasn't the only Celtic who had a bad game. Ray Allen mad just three of 13 shots, and Shaquille O'Neal had just two points and fouled out despite playing fewer than 13 minutes.
Of course, the Magic have some "we would have won easily ifs" of their own, most notably the fact that Dwight Howard scored just six points against a depleted Celtics frontline (Kendrick Perkins is of course out, and Jermaine O'Neal made his first appearance since November 8). More disturbing is the fact that Howard took just four shots. He was in a bit of foul trouble for most of the game, but his teammates weren't looking for him much even when he was on the floor.
This will be something to watch with Orlando's new look. While some of the departed Magic players -- guys like Rashard Lewis and Mickael Pietrus -- weren't exactly shy about hoisting shots, they were mostly spot up guys (or run off of screen guys). On the other hand, the new Magic players -- guys like Hedo Turkoglu and Gilbert Arenas -- tend to pound the ball a bit more and look for their own shot.
Howard is a really important offensive weapon. He's improved his arsenal this year, and because he's a poor free throw shooter, teams send him to the line a ton -- so he gets the opposition into foul trouble and helps put his team in the bonus situation fairly early in the quarter. But he's not so polished as to consistently demand the ball in the post, and the new additions may make it easier, in a sense, to forget about him on offense. That wasn't the case leading up to the Boston game (Howard had big offensive nights in those) but the Celtics have been very good over the past few seasons at taking away one part of your offense and forcing you to rely on another part (usually outside shots). It will be interesting to see if the Magic make Howard a focal point against the Celtics in future meetings (including, potentially, the playoffs). While the Celtics have generally done a decent job on Howard the past couple of seasons, I'm sure they'd rather have Brandon Bass (21 points on Sunday) try to beat them.
[recap] [box score]
Saturday's game was an ugly, low-scoring affair, which was a pattern when the Magic and Celtics met last year -- during the regular season, anyway. I could say that the Cs would have won had they made a bunch of shots they usually make, but the same is true of Orlando. It was one of those games where both teams played pretty good defense, and the effort on that end was magnified from some pretty poor shooting from both sides.
From a Boston perspective, we lost this game because we didn't have Rajon Rondo, plain and simple. Nate Robinson had his worst game as Rondo's understudy, making just two of 15 shots, the majority of which were good looks. The Magic basically could leave Robinson alone on offense, the same way opponents do against Rondo -- but Rondo provides much more playmaking and doesn't use as many possessions as Nate does shooting jumpers. And while Robinson did a nice job keeping Jameer Nelson in check for most of the game, he lost him on a screen on a key possession late, as Nelson hit a three that I believe gave the Magic the lead for good.
While the Celtics probably would have won with Rondo, Robinson wasn't the only Celtic who had a bad game. Ray Allen mad just three of 13 shots, and Shaquille O'Neal had just two points and fouled out despite playing fewer than 13 minutes.
Of course, the Magic have some "we would have won easily ifs" of their own, most notably the fact that Dwight Howard scored just six points against a depleted Celtics frontline (Kendrick Perkins is of course out, and Jermaine O'Neal made his first appearance since November 8). More disturbing is the fact that Howard took just four shots. He was in a bit of foul trouble for most of the game, but his teammates weren't looking for him much even when he was on the floor.
This will be something to watch with Orlando's new look. While some of the departed Magic players -- guys like Rashard Lewis and Mickael Pietrus -- weren't exactly shy about hoisting shots, they were mostly spot up guys (or run off of screen guys). On the other hand, the new Magic players -- guys like Hedo Turkoglu and Gilbert Arenas -- tend to pound the ball a bit more and look for their own shot.
Howard is a really important offensive weapon. He's improved his arsenal this year, and because he's a poor free throw shooter, teams send him to the line a ton -- so he gets the opposition into foul trouble and helps put his team in the bonus situation fairly early in the quarter. But he's not so polished as to consistently demand the ball in the post, and the new additions may make it easier, in a sense, to forget about him on offense. That wasn't the case leading up to the Boston game (Howard had big offensive nights in those) but the Celtics have been very good over the past few seasons at taking away one part of your offense and forcing you to rely on another part (usually outside shots). It will be interesting to see if the Magic make Howard a focal point against the Celtics in future meetings (including, potentially, the playoffs). While the Celtics have generally done a decent job on Howard the past couple of seasons, I'm sure they'd rather have Brandon Bass (21 points on Sunday) try to beat them.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
The Next Lamb: The Orlando Magic
Game 28: Boston (23-4) at Orlando (17-12)
Turkoglu was a key part of Orlando's Finals run two years ago, then bolted to Toronto for a hefty contract. He was miserable as a Raptor (both in mood and in performance), lobbied for and got a trade in the offseason, and was basically as ineffective in 25 games in Phoenix as he was in Toronto. He's moved into the starting lineup in Lewis' place in three games with the Magic, going 3-for-15 in his first two outings before bouncing back with a respectable 5-for-10 against the Spurs.
Saturday, December 25
2:30 p.m. Eastern
ABC
If you are but a casual observer of the NBA, you are probably surprised to see the 17-12 record next to the Orlando Magic. Over the past few seasons, the Magic have emerged as an Eastern Conference rival, reaching the conference finals last season and beating Boston and Cleveland on the way to an NBA Finals loss to the Lakers the season before. When this current season opened, not much had changed, and Orlando was expected to make another deep playoff run. After consecutive wins at Chicago and Detroit in the first three days of December, the Magic were 15-4, and everything seemed hunky-dory.
But Orlando lost its next four games, beat the Clippers, then lost to Denver, and the front office decided to shake things up. They sent Vince Carter, Mickael Pietrus, and Marcin Gortat to Phoenix for Jason Richardson, Hedo Turkoglu, and Earl Clark, and shipped Rashard Lewis off to Washington for Gilbert Arenas. They promptly dropped three more -- to Philly (the day of the trades, so they were shorthanded), at Atlanta, and to Dallas -- before snapping San Antonio's ten-game winning streak Thursday night.
More thoughts on this rather shocking attempt to rebuild on the fly in a moment. In terms of the Christmas Day game, it's tough to know what to expect. Sure, the Magic still have Dwight Howard, who has put up gaudy numbers the last four games and looks to have developed a little bit more of an offensive game in the offseason, and they still have Jameer Nelson, their sharpshooting point guard. But Carter and Lewis were starters, and Pietrus and Gortat were rotation players. It's going to take some time for them to jell, and so it's hard to use Saturday's matchup as any sort of measuring stick. They certainly looked impressive in putting up 123 points against San Antonio, but the Spurs were on the second night of a back-to-back and haven't been nearly as good defensively this season as we're accustomed to.
Looking toward the rest of the season and beyond, it's certainly a bold move. Frankly, it seemed to me that the front office panicked a bit: No one likes to lose five out of six, but four of those losses came on the road to possible playoff teams (Milwaukee, Portland, Utah, and Denver) and the fifth was to a solid division rival (Atlanta). Obviously, the goal in Orlando is a championship and you have to be able to beat those types of teams, even on the road, to win a title, but it seems like an over-reaction to turn over so much of the roster in response to a little slide. My hunch is that Orlando perhaps wasn't happy with its roster heading into the season and had been looking to make moves, and that this is the time that a deal to their liking materialized.
From an Xs and Os perspective, one glaring hole this leaves on the Magic roster is backup center, of which Gortat was one of the league's most effective (and highest-paid). It's especially glaring given the makeup of the various title contenders. That is, if the Magic are to win the title, then they have to plan, at least, on beating Boston and the Lakers. That means going through Kendrick Perkins, Shaquille O'Neal, and Jermaine O'Neal (who should return to action Saturday, by the way) in the former case, and Pau Gasol, Andrew Bynum, and Lamar Odom in the latter case. The loss of Gortat leaves Howard and the undersized Brandon Bass (a Glen Davis-ish player) as Orlando's only viable bigs, which you have to think isn't going to be sufficient to beat the Celtics or Lakers. The team has said that it will look to add another big via trade before the trade deadline in a couple of months, but one would be justified in wondering where that player will come from and at what price he will come.
As for the other losses and additions, Richardson should fill in reasonably well for Carter. A little more consistent, perhaps, a little less injury prone, but not as dynamic as Vince, and not as a good a passer. He can fill it up, though, and is a threat beyond the arc. Clark is a non-factor for the foreseeable future; Phoenix didn't pick up his contract option for next year and it's hard to see him breaking into the rotation this season. The key to this deal is Turkoglu and Arenas, and how well they make up for the departure of Lewis and Pietrus (plus whatever they have to give up to get a replacement for Gortat).
Turkoglu was a key part of Orlando's Finals run two years ago, then bolted to Toronto for a hefty contract. He was miserable as a Raptor (both in mood and in performance), lobbied for and got a trade in the offseason, and was basically as ineffective in 25 games in Phoenix as he was in Toronto. He's moved into the starting lineup in Lewis' place in three games with the Magic, going 3-for-15 in his first two outings before bouncing back with a respectable 5-for-10 against the Spurs.
When he's at his best, Turkoglu is a catalyst. He would take some of the ballhandling responsibilities away from Nelson the way he did in 2008-09, when Nelson shot a career-best 50.3 percent from the floor and 45.3 percent from three. (Recall, too, that Orlando made its big postseason run that year with Nelson out of the lineup due to late-season shoulder injury). I, for one, am not at all sure that Turkoglu is, or ever will be, close to his best, but it's possible that his decline in effectiveness over the past season-plus was due to unhappiness. Even if his best days are behind him, he won't be much of a downgrade over Lewis, a fairly one-dimensional three-point shooter with similar career percentage behind the arc to Turkoglu.
Arenas is a huge x-factor. With his recent injury history, it's easy enough to think of him as washed up, but he's only 28, and if he regains his form, he's instantly one of the most dangerous men in the NBA with the basketball in his hands. It appears that he's taking on a role with the second unit, and that strategy has to be right: No matter what you think of Nelson, both Turkoglu and Arenas need the ball to be effective, and they cancel each other out a little bit if they have to share it. But if he is playing well, he's a sixth man of the year candidate type player, injury/foul insurance for Richardson and Nelson, and another option late in the game. Of course, who knows how often he'll play well. I've only seen him once this year, when the Celtics pasted the Wizards, and I wrote then that Arenas did nothing but stand around shooting three-pointers all night. Gil was clearly unhappy with his situation in Washington, though, and perhaps his play will change with a change of scenery. Orlando's certainly counting on it.
As for Arenas' much-publicized off-court issues (you know, the gun in the locker room thing), most reports suggest that once the hammer came down, he put that stuff behind him. (Indeed, it may have contributed to his melancholy demeanor this season). Still, Arenas has always been a peculiar, unique character, and a guy like that -- particularly one who likes to shoot as often as he does -- is always capable of disrupting a locker room. I'm not saying that I think Arenas will try to stir things up, but if he does, I'm not sure Orlando has the personalities required to prevent it from becoming a big distraction. I think Stan Van Gundy is a good coach, but he's high-strung; Dwight Howard is an easy-going guy, but he's young and sensitive. No one in that locker room has won anything, and Arenas was brought in as part of a plan to put the team over the top. The ingredients are present for a bit of a meltdown, though I expect Arenas to behave.
I haven't even addressed defense, in part because it's always a little difficult to tell how individual defenders will fit in with specific defensive schemes. I can say with certainty that Turkoglu's a pretty bad on-ball defender and that while Arenas has been a big steals guy throughout his career, he's not a lockdown type of guy. Howard is perhaps the league's premier shotblocker and he can erase a lot of mistakes, but he's also foul-prone, a characteristic that is magnified by the fact that he doesn't have a backup, at least while the team looks for a replacement for Gortat. Pietrus was a pretty good defender, too, and there isn't anyone on the roster that immediately comes to mind as someone to fill that role.
In short, the Magic have taken a big risk here. Once the team gets acclimated with itself, they've probably done no worse than tread water offensively -- with a chance at great improvement on that end -- but they've probably gotten worse defensively, a big deal for a team coached by Van Gundy that has hung its hat on defense. In theory, they're less reliant on jumpshots -- a big criticism I've had with them -- but now they're more reliant on "outscoring" opponents, as opposed to winning games on the defensive ends. They've also taken some risks with their team makeup.
Moreover, it's unclear whether this team will come together fully this season, and, if it does, whether it's even enough to beat the league's elite. The best they can hope for is probably something akin to their 2008-09 team, and that squad needed seven games to beat the Kevin Garnett-less Celtics in the Eastern semis and never really challenged the Lakers in the Finals. With the Celtics certainly better this year and the Lakers, Spurs, and Heat hanging around as well, it's tricky to see this team getting it done -- particularly if it needs to sacrifice a player like J.J. Redick to pick up a backup pivot. While some may applaud the Magic for making this kind of bold move in the middle of the season, it says here that it won't be enough to push them over the top.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Links of the Day (October 19, 2010)
- With so much talk surrounding the Heat, Celtics, and the defending champion Lakers, Zach Lowe reminds us not to forget the Magic. They're doing their best not to let us by eviscerating opponents in the preseason: New Orleans by 54, Chicago by 38, Atlanta by 29. They're big enough to bang with LA, deep enough to match up with Boston, and both those things give them a good chance to wear out Miami. Of course, they had that talent and size and depth last season, and the season before that. For me, it's always been psychological with Orlando; Dwight Howard's still maturing, and guys like Vince Carter and Rashard Lewis don't seem to embrace the moment. We're a long way from finding out if anything's changed, but it will be an interesting thing to look for come playoff time.
- Doc Rivers doesn't have cancer. Neither do I, but I didn't have a biopsy on lesions found in my throat.
- More Celtics news: The team signed Milwaukee draftee-turned-waivee (!) Keith "Tiny" Gallon to a non-guaranteed contract. Gallon is almost certainly headed to the Developmental League, where the team will be able to keep an eye on him with the Maine Red Claws. The ironically-nicknamed Gallon (he's pushing 300 pounds) was part of a dysfunctional Oklahoma team last year in his sole college season, but he's compared by many to Glen Davis because he's skilled and not quite tall enough to be as wide as he is.
- This clip isn't likely to turn into an NBA Read to Achieve ad.
- I know very little about advanced statistics, but over at Pick and Scroll, you can now calculate them yourself.
- The NBA has banned shoes it says enhance vertical leap. The manufacturer -- who, to be fair, isn't exactly eager to dispute that claim -- is certainly taking advantage of the publicity. For any public relations students that may be reading, here is the company's press release. At least they'll save money on endorsement contracts.
- This Blake Griffin jam is why I'm excited to be living in Los Angeles this season, but why must the Clippers suffer the indignity of playing a home game, even in preseason, with the Lakers floor at Staples? Because the Lakers hosted a preseason game immediately after, that's why.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Muy Beno: Links of the Day (A new RwH production)
(Muy Beno, you'll recall, is my oh-so-clever homage to Beno Udrih when I write NBA posts that are not directly related to the Celtics.)
I read a lot on the Internet about pro basketball. A lot. I subscribe to well over 100, maybe approaching 200, blogs through RSS, and several hundred blog posts pass through my Google Reader on any given day, and while I read the full text of very few of them, I scan the headlines and read stuff that intrigues me, stuff that pertains to guys on my fantasy team, and stuff that pertains to players I like.
A lot of blogs throw together a daily links post full of essential reading. That's not my goal; if you want a comprehensive compilation of Celtics coverage, check out Celtics Blog, and if you were worried about missing a single bit of vital information from the excellent basketball blogs out there, you'd subscribe to them yourself. But I do think it'd be fun to share a few items -- maybe a handful -- that are informative, entertaining in themselves, or allow me to amuse myself with commentary and/or witticisms.
As the moniker "Links of the Day" suggests, my ultimate goal is to do this daily. Knowing me and my schedule, however, this could quite quickly turn into "Links Whenever I Feel Like It Or Have The Time." But we'll try it out.
- This video of Dwight Howard training with Hakeem Olajuwon was all over the basketball blogosphere today. The stuff at the beginning and the end is entertaining, and it's cool to catch little tips like the one around 2:30 into the clip, when Hakeem teaches Dwight to hop while catching an entry pass in order to catch the defender off-guard for a quick spin to the baseline. But the other stuff is kind of meh. Howard's athleticism has never been in question, so it's not all that surprising to watch him spin and glide and jump. But on the offensive end, Howard's instincts have always been a little off, and workouts like this one will do little to change that. This surely isn't the first time he's been shown a drop step or a spin move or an up and under. He worked with Patrick Ewing for the last couple of years, and I guarantee you that Ewing wasn't pushing him to shoot the running lefty hooks he resorts to so often. My sense is that Howard, at least at the start, will get one move in his head when he makes the catch and see it through no matter what, which is going to make for some tough possessions. Nice to see Dream playing a bit better than he did in that "Pros vs. Joes" episode.
- I link to this other Howard video only to introduce you to NBA Playbook, an excellent blog that also had this post on the Celtics today.
- Via Ball Don't Lie (and RwH reader Dave Roberts, and a ton of other blogs), a complete list of unlockable characters in the new NBA Jam video game.
- The NBA GM survey is out, and just one GM thinks Boston will win the NBA championship (well, one besides Danny, because GMs weren't allowed to vote for their own team). Considering we were a few minutes (and a Kendrick Perkins injury) away from winning the title in June, this seems low, especially given our off-season additions. I wonder if it's all because of what Miami did, or if Perk's injury caused some GMs to shy away from picking the Cs.
- Dime Magazine proposes new team names for all 30 NBA clubs. If you're strapped for time, the write-ups for the Bulls, Cavs, Lakers, and Sixers were particularly clever. The rest vary from mildly funny to pretty stupid.
- This is a not a headline a basketball fan ever wants to see about his team.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Boston 90, Orlando 80
Boston passed an important test tonight.
[recap] [box score] [highlights]
It's far too early to call this NBA season a four-horse race, but at this stage, four teams have established themselves as the cream of the crop: Boston, Cleveland, and Orlando in the East, and the Los Angeles Lakers in the West. After an opening-night win against the Cavaliers and a blowout of the Magic that was win number nine of a 19-game winning streak, the Celtics had lost their last two matchups with this crew: a tight one in LA on Christmas Day, and a 15-point debacle in Cleveland two weeks ago. The Cs had ripped off six straight wins since dropping that one to the Cavs, but there was a lot more at stake Thursday night in Orlando.
Boston came away with a relatively comfortable victory, opening up an eight-point halftime lead, and letting the Magic closer than that margin just twice, when Jameer Nelson sandwiched buckets around a Glen Davis jumper to twice cut the lead to seven with fewer than three minutes to play. But it didn't necessarily come easily, as this was one of the ugliest games of the season. Both teams looked disjointed offensively from the get-go; the building was pretty much dead, despite a reported sellout crowd; the officiating was disruptive and inconsistent.
The offense was ugly. It was a lot of Paul Pierce going one-on-one with an overmatched Hedo Turkoglu, with an unexpected contribution from Davis, whose jumper was falling tonight.
Here's how bad the offense was: The Celtics registered nine assists on 35 baskets, a rate of just over 25 percent. Compare that to team averages for the season coming into the game: 22-plus assists per game (4th best in the league); assists on nearly 61 percent of all baskets.
Nine assists is a very low number. I don't have time to check to make sure, but it has to be a season-low. Hell, Rajon Rondo is averaging eight per game, and he has 13 double-digit assist games already this year.
I'm feeling good about the team, but I'd like us to have a more solid idea of our frontcourt rotation. For whatever reason, Doc doesn't like starting Davis or Leon Powe, so when Kendrick Perkins got injured, Brian Scalabrine stepped into the starting lineup. Scal played well enough to prove that he deserves minutes as a passable rotation player, but its come at the expense of Leon Powe, who I think is the most solid of the three backup frontcourt players. When he's playing well, Davis is the more dynamic offensive player, but he's just as capable of hurting the team with a 1-for-12 performance (like he did in a recent win over Toronto) as he is of providing an unexpected spark, like he did tonight; doing a nice job on the three-million-vote man, Dwight Howard (note that Kevin Garnett will join Howard as a frontcourt starter for the East in the All-Star game - the reserves will be named shortly, and I expect Pierce, Ray Allen, and maybe even Rajon Rondo to join KG on the squad); scoring over Howard; hitting midrange jumpers with unusual accuracy. Powe hasn't developed into the versatile player I think he's capable of being, but he's not as much of a liability when he's playing poorly, as he seems more aware of his limitations than Davis is. I'm more of a Powe guy than a Davis guy, but I don't really care as long as a rotation is set and whoever is in it is playing well relatively consistently. What concerns me is that I don't know that Davis is that consistent player, and I worry about Powe's confidence, as he seems to have lost minutes despite not playing that poorly, while Davis has been given minutes without playing so well that Doc can't possibly keep him on the bench. Against Orlando, it wasn't until Perkins and Davis had each picked up three personal fouls checking Howard that Powe entered the game, with 2:22 remaining in the first half. I'm worried that Doc is ruining Leon by yanking him around like this.
Next game is Sunday vs. Dallas, on ABC at 1 p.m. Eastern.
[recap] [box score] [highlights]
It's far too early to call this NBA season a four-horse race, but at this stage, four teams have established themselves as the cream of the crop: Boston, Cleveland, and Orlando in the East, and the Los Angeles Lakers in the West. After an opening-night win against the Cavaliers and a blowout of the Magic that was win number nine of a 19-game winning streak, the Celtics had lost their last two matchups with this crew: a tight one in LA on Christmas Day, and a 15-point debacle in Cleveland two weeks ago. The Cs had ripped off six straight wins since dropping that one to the Cavs, but there was a lot more at stake Thursday night in Orlando.
Boston came away with a relatively comfortable victory, opening up an eight-point halftime lead, and letting the Magic closer than that margin just twice, when Jameer Nelson sandwiched buckets around a Glen Davis jumper to twice cut the lead to seven with fewer than three minutes to play. But it didn't necessarily come easily, as this was one of the ugliest games of the season. Both teams looked disjointed offensively from the get-go; the building was pretty much dead, despite a reported sellout crowd; the officiating was disruptive and inconsistent.
The offense was ugly. It was a lot of Paul Pierce going one-on-one with an overmatched Hedo Turkoglu, with an unexpected contribution from Davis, whose jumper was falling tonight.
Here's how bad the offense was: The Celtics registered nine assists on 35 baskets, a rate of just over 25 percent. Compare that to team averages for the season coming into the game: 22-plus assists per game (4th best in the league); assists on nearly 61 percent of all baskets.
Nine assists is a very low number. I don't have time to check to make sure, but it has to be a season-low. Hell, Rajon Rondo is averaging eight per game, and he has 13 double-digit assist games already this year.
I'm feeling good about the team, but I'd like us to have a more solid idea of our frontcourt rotation. For whatever reason, Doc doesn't like starting Davis or Leon Powe, so when Kendrick Perkins got injured, Brian Scalabrine stepped into the starting lineup. Scal played well enough to prove that he deserves minutes as a passable rotation player, but its come at the expense of Leon Powe, who I think is the most solid of the three backup frontcourt players. When he's playing well, Davis is the more dynamic offensive player, but he's just as capable of hurting the team with a 1-for-12 performance (like he did in a recent win over Toronto) as he is of providing an unexpected spark, like he did tonight; doing a nice job on the three-million-vote man, Dwight Howard (note that Kevin Garnett will join Howard as a frontcourt starter for the East in the All-Star game - the reserves will be named shortly, and I expect Pierce, Ray Allen, and maybe even Rajon Rondo to join KG on the squad); scoring over Howard; hitting midrange jumpers with unusual accuracy. Powe hasn't developed into the versatile player I think he's capable of being, but he's not as much of a liability when he's playing poorly, as he seems more aware of his limitations than Davis is. I'm more of a Powe guy than a Davis guy, but I don't really care as long as a rotation is set and whoever is in it is playing well relatively consistently. What concerns me is that I don't know that Davis is that consistent player, and I worry about Powe's confidence, as he seems to have lost minutes despite not playing that poorly, while Davis has been given minutes without playing so well that Doc can't possibly keep him on the bench. Against Orlando, it wasn't until Perkins and Davis had each picked up three personal fouls checking Howard that Powe entered the game, with 2:22 remaining in the first half. I'm worried that Doc is ruining Leon by yanking him around like this.
Next game is Sunday vs. Dallas, on ABC at 1 p.m. Eastern.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Boston 98, Miami 83
Eddie!
[recap] [box score] [highlights]
Constitutional Law is, thus far, kicking my ass this semester, so once we looked to have gained control of this one by halftime, I tuned out a bit. I remember Eddie House going for 20 points in the second quarter; I remember the Heat getting to with 11 or 12 or 13 in the fourth; and then the next time I looked up, we were leading by 22. The box score tells the story of this one: House and Ray Allen combining for 18-of-27 from the field, including 12-of-17 three-pointers. Fifteen total triples. Most of the times you shoot over 50 percent from the field, and make 60 percent of that many threes, you are going to win handily, even if you turn it over 21 times.
The defense wasn't superb tonight, at least not in the first quarter. There was a particularly sloppy stretch where Miami missed layups on like three straight possessions, including Shawn Marion clanging a dunk. (Incidentally, Marion is coming off of a groin injury and was limited to eight minutes). We still aren't playing as tight on that end this year as we did last season.
Still, nothing but good things came out of this one, which we need, heading into Thursday night's showdown (VIEWING ALERT: TNT 8 p.m.) with the Orlando Magic, suddenly a real contender not only in the East, but for the title. Perhaps the best thing was that we got Kendrick Perkins back. As well as Brian Scalabrine played in Perk's stead, and as good a job as Kevin Garnett did on Shaquille O'Neal Monday night, Perkins will be key to slowing Orlando's monster center, Dwight Howard. Howard is too strong for Scal and KG doesn't have a quickness advantage over Howard the way he does over Shaq. We need Perk's beef against Howard. Perkins only played 22 minutes tonight, in roughly six minute intervals, which was the plan coming in as he recovers from a tweak to his recurring shoulder injury. I wouldn't expect the plan to be any different against the Magic, so expect another 20 minutes or so from Scalabrine, if he can go that long without fouling out against Howard.
This one is a must-see for Boston fans, and probably for NBA fans, as well.
[recap] [box score] [highlights]
Constitutional Law is, thus far, kicking my ass this semester, so once we looked to have gained control of this one by halftime, I tuned out a bit. I remember Eddie House going for 20 points in the second quarter; I remember the Heat getting to with 11 or 12 or 13 in the fourth; and then the next time I looked up, we were leading by 22. The box score tells the story of this one: House and Ray Allen combining for 18-of-27 from the field, including 12-of-17 three-pointers. Fifteen total triples. Most of the times you shoot over 50 percent from the field, and make 60 percent of that many threes, you are going to win handily, even if you turn it over 21 times.
The defense wasn't superb tonight, at least not in the first quarter. There was a particularly sloppy stretch where Miami missed layups on like three straight possessions, including Shawn Marion clanging a dunk. (Incidentally, Marion is coming off of a groin injury and was limited to eight minutes). We still aren't playing as tight on that end this year as we did last season.
Still, nothing but good things came out of this one, which we need, heading into Thursday night's showdown (VIEWING ALERT: TNT 8 p.m.) with the Orlando Magic, suddenly a real contender not only in the East, but for the title. Perhaps the best thing was that we got Kendrick Perkins back. As well as Brian Scalabrine played in Perk's stead, and as good a job as Kevin Garnett did on Shaquille O'Neal Monday night, Perkins will be key to slowing Orlando's monster center, Dwight Howard. Howard is too strong for Scal and KG doesn't have a quickness advantage over Howard the way he does over Shaq. We need Perk's beef against Howard. Perkins only played 22 minutes tonight, in roughly six minute intervals, which was the plan coming in as he recovers from a tweak to his recurring shoulder injury. I wouldn't expect the plan to be any different against the Magic, so expect another 20 minutes or so from Scalabrine, if he can go that long without fouling out against Howard.
This one is a must-see for Boston fans, and probably for NBA fans, as well.
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