Celtics Split Four in Five Days

It might have to be this way moving forward -- I'm just not sure I'm going to have time to write after every game. Boston just wrapped up a stretch of four games in five nights that went thusly: a close win over Utah; a narrow loss in Brooklyn without Rajon Rondo, who sprained his ankle early in the second half of the Jazz game; a rout of Toronto; and then a blowout loss at the Palace at the hands of the woeful Pistons. I'm going to try to not let the fact that I just watched the embarrassment that was the Detroit game color what I'm going to say too much.

Rather than go game by game, I'm just going to throw out some random thoughts here. Like bullet points, only I can't figure out how to do bullet points on the "new" Blogger platform that came about a couple of years ago. Instead, I'll just use bold italics to signal my topic headings. If this technique is effective, then this explanation was completely unnecessary.

Last year, Doc Rivers put Kevin Garnett on the "5/5/5" plan, limiting KG's minutes to the first five of each of the first three quarters. The idea was to keep him fresh for the fourth quarter. Doc didn't really stick to it (Garnett averaged 31 minutes per game), probably in part because of how good Garnett was last year and in part because we didn't have much depth.

This year, it's been shortened to the 4/4/4 plan, and Doc seems to be committed to it, at least for now. With the frontcourt depth we have, he might able to get away with it, if he can keep Kevin on the bench that long. It's a little alarming to me, though, because we're talking about a goal of 25 minutes or so for a guy who, while he is in his 18th NBA season, averaged about 16 points and eight boards last year while anchoring one of the league's best defenses. Especially since Doc hasn't been shy about riding his horses (to his detriment, in my opinion) in previous seasons, it makes me worry that there's some nagging injury that we don't know about.

Jaston Terry hit six of 11 three-point attempts in the Brooklyn and Toronto games, sandwiching those performances between a terrible effort on Sunday and the Jazz game where he only took one shot. He's found his rhythm a bit, which is great. But I wish he was doing this in his customary sixth man role and not as a starter. A game like Sunday, with the first unit struggling, is the kind of game that you really need a scoring punch off the bench, a burst of energy, and Terry wasn't there to provide it. I suppose that Leandro Barbosa can be that guy, but when Barbosa comes in the game, the ball hardly goes to anyone else. Not that Terry is a great table-setter or anything like that, but Barbosa just dominates the rock. That kind of thing is bad for guys like Jeff Green, another guy we're counting on for bench scoring, and a guy whose attention seems to wander if he's not getting the pill.

Speaking of Jeff Green, I think if he were, say, Gerald Green, you'd hear a lot more people complaining about his lack of effort and basketball IQ. But we know that he's thoughtful and a great guy, and because of that, and perhaps because of the heart problem he had last year, he gets a bit of a break from a lot of Celtics fans. But right now, he's demonstrating a disturbing lack of effort and engagement that is a bigger problem than his limited offensive game and suspect defense and rebounding.

Brandon Bass is 10 for 30 over the past three games. He's gotten the same looks at jumpers that we are used to him making with regularity. At this point, some of it is psychological; he's hesitating on a lot of looks he'd normally pop right away. I assume that he'll get his mind right between now and Wednesday, when the Celts take the floor next.

Jared Sullinger keeps reinforcing my belief that we got a steal when we drafted him at 21 in this summer's draft. He had his first career double-double against the Raptors, then set a career-high in scoring with 16 against the Pistons. Most importantly, it wasn't until he took on Detroit's Jason Maxiell that he went up against someone who could push him around underneath -- and by the end of the night, he was moving Maxiell and Andre Drummond around. His strength is a huge asset for a guy his height who plays inside. Offensively, he's shown that he at least has Bass' range, and likely can step out a bit farther. He hit a couple 20-footers late against Detroit to keep Rondo's assist streak going.

Ah, the streak. With ten dimes on Sunday, Rondo now has 34 consecutive games with 10 or more assists. (He had 20 against the Raps, by the way.) That's the third-longest such streak of all time, just a few back of John Stockton's longest streak and a dozen short of Magic Johnson's all-time mark. He had to work to get it today, though, playing to the final seconds despite the game being well out of hand. Doc even called a random timeout under two minutes to set something up.

The streak is fun, and really it shouldn't have been an issue tonight (his teammates missed a bunch of open looks), but I don't love that he and Doc seem to be actively pursuing it. I mean, there's really no harm in going after it once the game is already in hand, but if it's something they're aware of deep in a blowout, how likely is it that it's not on Rondo's mind when the game is still in reach. On Sunday, we certainly could have used more scoring, something we know Rondo is capable of. Did he hold back to try and set up his teammates? It's not a huge problem -- generally, it's a good idea for a point guard to be most concerned with getting his struggling teammates going. But Rondo is already pass-happy to a fault; having the streak in the back of his mind, if he does, could turn his unselfishness into selfishness, actually, and a positive into a negative.

Boston 86, Detroit 78

It's good to get a tough win like this one on the road after a string of blowout victories.

[recap] [box score] [highlights]

The win is going to cost Boston a game without Kendrick Perkins, however. Midway through the fourth with the Celtics up 70-65, Perk was sent to the locker room after committing a flagrant-two on Jason Maxiell. I don't think the big guy's intentions were bad, but as he challenged a shot, he ended up putting Maxiell in something of a headlock and throwing him to the ground. A clear flagrant two, which carries with it an automatic one-game suspension (though I imagine the league would have made Perk sit out a game even if the suspension wasn't automatic.

Maxiell had done his best to spark a Piston comeback to that point, although looking at the play-by-play after the fact, it doesn't appear that his performance had as big an impact as I thought at the time. He had five straight Detroit points and had grabbed three offensive rebounds in the quarter, but he couldn't convert those extra opportunities. Still, at the time, I was reminded of last year's lone regular-season visit to the Palace of Auburn Hills. The Celtics won that one in large part because of a breakout-type game for Glen Davis in his rookie year (I say "breakout-type" because Davis didn't really end up breaking out). Davis had 16 of his career-high 20 points in the fourth-quarter to bring Boston back from a three-point deficit.

Maxiell is more of a known quantity than Davis was at the time, but it sure looked to me like the same kind of thing was happening. But after Ray Allen missed a technical free throw (Maxiell got rung up for pushing Perkins after the play), Maxiell missed two at the line, and Rip Hamilton made a jumper to cut the lead to four, it was Davis who answered, scoring a tough finish over Maxiell on a nice pass from Allen, then grabbing an offensive rebound on the next possession which eventually led to an Eddie House three and a nine-point lead.

(A quick note about the fight: You can't see from the video highlights on ESPN.com (linked above), but it looked to me like Maxiell swung at Rajon Rondo and struck him with an open hand. The officials looked at the replay and determined that no punch was thrown, but I'm not so sure. After Maxiell pushed Perk, Kevin Garnett shoved Maxiell from Maxiell's right side, while Rondo tried to intervene a little more peacefully by reaching out to Maxiell on the left side. Rather than shove Rondo away with his left arm, Maxiell came across his body with his right arm and hit Rondo in the chest. I wouldn't be surprised to see the league dock him a game after reviewing the tape.

Also, the whole incident would have been avoided had the officials called an obvious push in the back by Maxiell on House on the rebound).

Anyway, in the grand scheme of things, this isn't a big deal. It does raise some concerns for our next game, though, when we host Minnesota on Sunday. The Wolves are a pretty miserable 16-29, but as recently as January 26, they were an NBA-best 10-2 in 2009 (they've since dropped two in a row to the Pistons and the Lakers).

What makes the loss of Perkins difficult for this particular game is that Minnesota's main weapon is none other than former Celtic Al Jefferson, who was, you'll recall, the main piece in the trade that brought Garnett to Boston last offseason. Jefferson is a monster, averaging 22.7 points and 10.5 rebounds per game this year, and he's the main snub on this year's Western Conference All-Star team (I'll have more on the All-Star selections this weekend). At 6'10", he's too tall for either Davis or Leon Powe to guard, and he's stronger than Garnett. And, despite his mild manner, he's not afraid of Garnett, either; he's woofed right back whenever Garnett tried to intimidate him by getting in his face.

Garnett did a nice job on the much stronger Shaquille O'Neal when Perkins was out with the shoulder injury earlier this month, and we'll need the same effort from him against Big Al J Sunday. The other issue is that this leaves our frontcourt rotation very thin, as Brian Scalabrine is still out after suffering two concussions in three days earlier in the week.

It's always fun to play the Wolves, as Jefferson and the Boston fans seem to have a mutual love for each other. Because of the trade, Minnesota also has a couple other former Celtics, including RWH faves Ryan Gomes and Sebastian Telfair, and it's fun to track their progress. Finally, this also marks the return of Celtics legend Kevin McHale to the parquet, as he added interim coach to his GM title in taking over for Randy Wittman 19 games into this season. The Wolves are 12-14 since that time, and there's some basis to think that McHale has something to do with that; this is his second interim stint in Minnesota, and he went 19-12 at the end of the 2004-2005 season.

There's no national TV for this noon Eastern game, so I'll watch on League Pass broadband and try to post some quick thoughts before the Super Bowl that night.