[recap] [box score]
This was it. This was the performance I was hoping for in Game 3.
The Celtics just blitzed the Hawks on Sunday night. Came out strong, hit 'em in the mouth, knocked 'em down, and never let 'em back up. Boston came out with a purpose offensively, with Paul Pierce creating his own shot and Rajon R-ndo getting shots for others with sometimes spectacular assists. Pierce was on fire; he had 24 points in just 16:37 of court time, including several heat-check three-pointers. R-ndo had at least a dozen assists in the first half alone, and finished with 20 points to go along with 16 helpers and just 1 credited turnover -- though I remember two more turnovers in the second half that they didn't give to him.
The one piece of bad news is that Pierce tweaked his knee a bit in the second quarter. I heard him say after the game that he had actually initially hurt it during shootaround before the game, and then he got tangled up with Josh Smith on a screen and tweaked it a bit more. He came out of the game, but did return to start the third quarter. He drilled a couple of threes before Doc took him out, content with the big lead and seeing no reason to push the captain. I don't expect that the knee will cause any real problems -- Pierce plays through injuries like this in the playoffs all the time without ill effects.
Atlanta barely showed any fight. Perhaps their most courageous moment of the game actually came before tip, when Josh Smith decided to play through a sprained knee and Al Horford suddenly reversed course and suited up for the first time since tearing a pectoral muscle in January. The Horford decision seemed particularly odd, given that a week ago he had ruled himself out of the series. It doesn't seem like he could have healed that much in a week, and having been out of action for so long, it was going to be hard for him to have any sort of positive impact. Indeed, Horford was completely overmatched on an early Kevin Garnett post-up, and didn't improve much from there. He's unlikely to be a factor in this series, even if he does continue to play.
The only other time Atlanta showed signs of life was late in the third quarter, when they cut a 37-point lead to 22, with Pierce and Garnett out of the game and presumably done for the night, circumstances permitting. But R-ndo and Ray Allen hit back-to-back three-pointers to stop the rally, and Larry Drew didn't even bother playing his starters in the fourth quarter.
As well as the players played, give Doc some credit for this win, too. Recognizing how tired the team was after Game 3, he gave them Saturday off, and they responded with a performance that was infinitely more energetic and purposeful than the previous one. As much as I think some of Doc's in-game decisions are still questionable, he's one of the best in the biz at managing his players.
We shot extremely well in this game and played extraordinarily well overall, whereas Atlanta played pretty horifically. I wouldn't expect either team to repeat its performance in Game 5, which is back in Atlanta on Tuesday night. (I'm surprised at the lack of a travel day.) Philips Arena is a tough place to play and the Hawks will come out fighting. It's a winnable game, though, and it'd be nice to finish the series early so we can get some rest.
Showing posts with label Rajon R-ndo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rajon R-ndo. Show all posts
Sunday, May 6, 2012
Saturday, May 5, 2012
Boston 90, Atlanta 84 (Overtime)
[recap] [box score]
Game 3 was ugly. That's all you can really say about it. Boston's defense was good throughout, but we only played well offensively for like a five-minute stretch at the beginning of the fourth quarter and then a few possessions in overtime. It was enough, though.
Rajon R-ndo is getting all the attention with a 17/14/12 triple-double in his return from a one-game suspension, but don't be fooled by the stat line or the headlines -- he didn't play that well. I was actually a little disappointed in him at the beginning of the game; I had hoped he'd come out with a lot of energy, determined to get his team off to a good start -- something like a "I've got this one, fellas" after his teammates picked him up in Game 2. Instead, he -- like the rest of them -- came out lackadaisical and uninspired on offense. There really wasn't any urgency from anyone, which bothered me, and given the circumstances, the lack of urgency from R-ndo bothered me the most.
With that said, R-ndo was the best player wearing white on Friday night and he's the reason Boston won. He was the catalyst for the aforementioned rare stretches where the Celtics played well offensively. And while Kevin Garnett sealed the game with a follow-up jam late in overtime that put the Celtics up, it was R-ndo who drew KG's defender, freeing the big fella up for the rebound.
Ray Allen came back, alleviating fears held by me, anyway, that he wouldn't suit up again this year. He made his first shot and finished with 13 points (despite uncharacteristically missing two free throws), but he definitely didn't look in rhythm with the offense. That'll come, though. What was encouraging was that he moved well out on the court and apparently held up well over 37 minutes of playing time (the extended burn necessitated, I guess, by Atlanta's "medium/small" lineup, discussed below). It's good to have Ray back; hopefully the ankle responds well and he'll be in the lineup moving forward.
Atlanta was without Josh Smith, making them even more shorthanded inside than they had been already due to injuries to Al Horford and Zaza Pachulia. When Jason Collins got into early foul trouble, they had really no choice but to go small, bringing in Tracy McGrady, who was surprisingly effective in the first half before spraining his ankle. With McGrady, though, Atlanta's "small" is really more of a "medium," which explains why Mickael Pietrus played as many minutes as Avery Bradley. As good of a defender as young Bradley is, he still struggles against guys who can shoot over him, fouling too often instead of making them make a tough shot. Joe Johnson got hot and hit a couple of big shots late in regulation, but Pietrus played well him well -- they were just really tough makes.
And while it's probably encouraging to the Hawks that they hung close despite missing so many key players inside, I'm still not that scared of them. Their offense has pretty much the same theme even when Smith is on the floor; it's just a lot of guys trying to do their own thing. Even when you have multiple guys who are having success getting their own on the same night, it's very hard to beat a very good defensive team like Boston. If you're not moving the ball and creating for others, the defense knows where to focus. On some nights, you'll make enough shots to win; in most games, you won't.
Smith promised he'll be back on Sunday for Game 4, so we'll see if he makes any difference. The game's at 7 p.m. Eastern on TNT.
I don't have any other place to write this, so I'm gonna write it here: Adam Yauch, the founding member of the Beastie Boys better known as MCA, died on Friday at the age of 47 after fighting cancer for three years. I love the Beastie Boys; while my musical tastes are mostly heavy metal these days, there was a time where I listened to almost nothing other than their first three albums. In fact, as I'm writing this, I'm playing Paul's Boutique and, despite the fact that I haven't listened to this album in years, I still know nearly every word.
Artists tend to be able to identify their influences. They know what they listened to growing up and know what inspired them to become musicians themselves. They know how their musical style. And outsiders, if they're paying attention, can figure it out, too; you can listen to Led Zeppelin and hear the way the blues are incorporated into their music, the way you can listen to countless rock bands these days and hear Zep's influence
As a non-artist, though, I've found that it's hard to pinpoint the influence that music in general and certain musicians have had on me, other than affecting the music I choose to listen to now. And so it wasn't until after the Celtics game last night, when I sat down for an hour or so to read some of the tributes that had been written in the aftermath of his death, that I thought, for the first time, about what effect the Beastie Boys had on me.
A lot, as it turns out. My love of wordplay and allusion, something I (mostly unsuccessfully) try to incorporate into my own writing from time to time, definitely comes from the Beastie Boys' whimsical, reference-laden lyrics. My love of alter egos -- I'm H.S. Slam, Ph.D on here for a reason -- no doubt is inspired by Nathaniel Hornblower, Yauch's alter ego who has several Beastie Boy video credits and who once stormed the stage at the MTV Awards to protest REM winning best video. Hell, even my hatred of Bill Laimbeer has remained bolstered all these years by "Tough Guy" (off of Ill Communication).
Mostly, though, I thought about MCA's transformation from arrogant kid to thoughtful activist. My life in no way parallels MCA's, but his (and the band's) maturation in some ways mirrors my own. It's too personal a story for someone of my limited writing ability to really articulate, and so I think I'll leave it at that.
I've spent my whole life quoting the Beastie Boys, and yet I can't think of one appropriate to pay tribute. And I think that's fitting. One thing that's great about the Beastie Boys is that they never took their music too seriously, and that they were always about the bigger picture, particularly later in their careers. To try to pay tribute to the man's life with some silly rhyme he wrote years ago is as inapt as it is futile.
That being said, I know that tomorrow, as I watch New York probably get swept by Miami, I'll hear his words from "Unite" in my head: "Will someone on the Knicks please drive the lane?"
Thanks, Adam. RIP.
Game 3 was ugly. That's all you can really say about it. Boston's defense was good throughout, but we only played well offensively for like a five-minute stretch at the beginning of the fourth quarter and then a few possessions in overtime. It was enough, though.
Rajon R-ndo is getting all the attention with a 17/14/12 triple-double in his return from a one-game suspension, but don't be fooled by the stat line or the headlines -- he didn't play that well. I was actually a little disappointed in him at the beginning of the game; I had hoped he'd come out with a lot of energy, determined to get his team off to a good start -- something like a "I've got this one, fellas" after his teammates picked him up in Game 2. Instead, he -- like the rest of them -- came out lackadaisical and uninspired on offense. There really wasn't any urgency from anyone, which bothered me, and given the circumstances, the lack of urgency from R-ndo bothered me the most.
With that said, R-ndo was the best player wearing white on Friday night and he's the reason Boston won. He was the catalyst for the aforementioned rare stretches where the Celtics played well offensively. And while Kevin Garnett sealed the game with a follow-up jam late in overtime that put the Celtics up, it was R-ndo who drew KG's defender, freeing the big fella up for the rebound.
Ray Allen came back, alleviating fears held by me, anyway, that he wouldn't suit up again this year. He made his first shot and finished with 13 points (despite uncharacteristically missing two free throws), but he definitely didn't look in rhythm with the offense. That'll come, though. What was encouraging was that he moved well out on the court and apparently held up well over 37 minutes of playing time (the extended burn necessitated, I guess, by Atlanta's "medium/small" lineup, discussed below). It's good to have Ray back; hopefully the ankle responds well and he'll be in the lineup moving forward.
Atlanta was without Josh Smith, making them even more shorthanded inside than they had been already due to injuries to Al Horford and Zaza Pachulia. When Jason Collins got into early foul trouble, they had really no choice but to go small, bringing in Tracy McGrady, who was surprisingly effective in the first half before spraining his ankle. With McGrady, though, Atlanta's "small" is really more of a "medium," which explains why Mickael Pietrus played as many minutes as Avery Bradley. As good of a defender as young Bradley is, he still struggles against guys who can shoot over him, fouling too often instead of making them make a tough shot. Joe Johnson got hot and hit a couple of big shots late in regulation, but Pietrus played well him well -- they were just really tough makes.
And while it's probably encouraging to the Hawks that they hung close despite missing so many key players inside, I'm still not that scared of them. Their offense has pretty much the same theme even when Smith is on the floor; it's just a lot of guys trying to do their own thing. Even when you have multiple guys who are having success getting their own on the same night, it's very hard to beat a very good defensive team like Boston. If you're not moving the ball and creating for others, the defense knows where to focus. On some nights, you'll make enough shots to win; in most games, you won't.
Smith promised he'll be back on Sunday for Game 4, so we'll see if he makes any difference. The game's at 7 p.m. Eastern on TNT.
I don't have any other place to write this, so I'm gonna write it here: Adam Yauch, the founding member of the Beastie Boys better known as MCA, died on Friday at the age of 47 after fighting cancer for three years. I love the Beastie Boys; while my musical tastes are mostly heavy metal these days, there was a time where I listened to almost nothing other than their first three albums. In fact, as I'm writing this, I'm playing Paul's Boutique and, despite the fact that I haven't listened to this album in years, I still know nearly every word.
Artists tend to be able to identify their influences. They know what they listened to growing up and know what inspired them to become musicians themselves. They know how their musical style. And outsiders, if they're paying attention, can figure it out, too; you can listen to Led Zeppelin and hear the way the blues are incorporated into their music, the way you can listen to countless rock bands these days and hear Zep's influence
As a non-artist, though, I've found that it's hard to pinpoint the influence that music in general and certain musicians have had on me, other than affecting the music I choose to listen to now. And so it wasn't until after the Celtics game last night, when I sat down for an hour or so to read some of the tributes that had been written in the aftermath of his death, that I thought, for the first time, about what effect the Beastie Boys had on me.
A lot, as it turns out. My love of wordplay and allusion, something I (mostly unsuccessfully) try to incorporate into my own writing from time to time, definitely comes from the Beastie Boys' whimsical, reference-laden lyrics. My love of alter egos -- I'm H.S. Slam, Ph.D on here for a reason -- no doubt is inspired by Nathaniel Hornblower, Yauch's alter ego who has several Beastie Boy video credits and who once stormed the stage at the MTV Awards to protest REM winning best video. Hell, even my hatred of Bill Laimbeer has remained bolstered all these years by "Tough Guy" (off of Ill Communication).
Mostly, though, I thought about MCA's transformation from arrogant kid to thoughtful activist. My life in no way parallels MCA's, but his (and the band's) maturation in some ways mirrors my own. It's too personal a story for someone of my limited writing ability to really articulate, and so I think I'll leave it at that.
I've spent my whole life quoting the Beastie Boys, and yet I can't think of one appropriate to pay tribute. And I think that's fitting. One thing that's great about the Beastie Boys is that they never took their music too seriously, and that they were always about the bigger picture, particularly later in their careers. To try to pay tribute to the man's life with some silly rhyme he wrote years ago is as inapt as it is futile.
That being said, I know that tomorrow, as I watch New York probably get swept by Miami, I'll hear his words from "Unite" in my head: "Will someone on the Knicks please drive the lane?"
Thanks, Adam. RIP.
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Atlanta 83, Boston 74
[recap] [box score]
Rajon R-ndo did a very bad thing tonight.
Here's the video, in case you weren't watching the game. Basically, with the Celtics down four and about 40 seconds to go, Brandon Bass was called for a loose-ball foul by official Mark Davis after a wild scramble. R-ndo didn't like the call and got in Davis' face; Davis turned to the scorer's table to ring him up; R-ndo took a step forward, tripped slightly, and then quite deliberately bumped Davis in the back with his chest. Davis rightly tossed him; Atlanta made three of the four ensuing free throws, and that was that.
I want to address a few of the talking points surrounding the incident before getting on with analyzing the basketball game (though the Celtics played so badly that there's little to talk about in that regard).
1. It was a foul on Bass. People like to get upset at officials for calling fouls on these types of plays, but I thought Davis handled this one perfectly. He let Bass and Josh Smith scramble for the ball, and once Smith had it, Bass ended up with his arm across Smith's face and neck. The ball was no longer loose at that point. Not that it being a bad call would excuse what happened after that, but anyone using the classic "if the refs called the game right, the players wouldn't get upset" argument is even more wrong than usual. It was a clear foul.
2. R-ndo definitely tripped when he took that step towards Davis. He did not, contrary to his claim after the game, trip into Davis. He inadvertently stepped on Davis' foot and that caused him to stumble towards the official, but R-ndo quite deliberately closed the gap between the two.
3. My prediction is that R-ndo will get a one-game suspension. From what I understand, one game is the minimum required by NBA rules. There are arguments, I think, for giving him more, including his two-game ban earlier this year for tossing the ball at an official. But I think public opinion is a big factor in deciding the length of these suspensions that the NBA hands down, and the majority of the talking heads seem to be saying that they don't think R-ndo should be suspended. That's obviously not happening; there's no chance he gets off scot-free. But since the general sentiment seems to be that his punishment should be minimal, a suspension that lasts for multiple games won't play well. (And I think that's particularly true in light of some overly paternalistic officiating in the Heat-Knicks game and the absences of Dwight Howard and Derrick Rose from these playoffs due to injuries.)
4. There probably are few, if any, bigger R-ndo fans-slant-apologists than I, but there's no excusing what he did. He lost his cool, and it cost his team a chance at the game -- and put them in a hole for at least the next game, as well. I don't love him any less for it, but he messed up and he deserves the criticism that's coming his way.
Back to the Xs and Os. It's really a shame that R-ndo's night ended the way it did, because he was really the only Celtic who was consistent throughout the game. After subordinating his own scoring for most of the second half of the season, R-ndo recognized that the usual suspects weren't off to a great start and kept the Cs remotely close during a torrid first quarter from the Hawks. He finished with 20 points and 11 assists on 10-for-18 from the floor, the most shots he's taken since March 4.
Other than that, it was a very uneven performance for the Celtics. They were terribly defensively at the start, though it was exacerbated by some really good Hawks shooting, but turned up the pressure considerably in the second half. Kevin Garnett was awful to start, opening 1-for-9, but made seven of his last ten and finished with 20 points and 12 boards. Paul Pierce never really got going, though, to his credit, he did about as good a job on Joe Johnson defensively as Johnson did on him. I thought Avery Bradley and Brandon Bass were non-existent all night. Greg Stiemsma had nine rebounds, but other than that, the bench didn't contribute anything.
Assuming R-ndo only misses a game, and even assuming that Atlanta wins that game, I don't think Sunday's game changes much regarding the outcome of the series. Boston came out incredibly flat, something I don't think you'll see again now that the Hawks have their full attention. Garnett and Bradley got plenty of the open jump shots they've been making recently; they just missed them. I do think Bass is going to have a tough time scoring against Smith, but I expect to see some of these shots go down and I think we'll see a different Paul Pierce in from here on out.
Defensively, we showed what we were capable of in the second half. The effort wasn't there in the first, but it's worth noting that the Hawks came out on fire. Smith was excellent all night, but he hit a number of tough jumpers that I'm sure we're comfortable with him taking the rest of the series. Kirk Hinrich was key, as well; he hit a couple of threes early and then made some tough shots in the third quarter when Boston seemed on the verge of making a run.
Game 2 is Tuesday night on NBA TV. I'll have an update with the length of Rondo's suspension once it's announced.
Rajon R-ndo did a very bad thing tonight.
Here's the video, in case you weren't watching the game. Basically, with the Celtics down four and about 40 seconds to go, Brandon Bass was called for a loose-ball foul by official Mark Davis after a wild scramble. R-ndo didn't like the call and got in Davis' face; Davis turned to the scorer's table to ring him up; R-ndo took a step forward, tripped slightly, and then quite deliberately bumped Davis in the back with his chest. Davis rightly tossed him; Atlanta made three of the four ensuing free throws, and that was that.
I want to address a few of the talking points surrounding the incident before getting on with analyzing the basketball game (though the Celtics played so badly that there's little to talk about in that regard).
1. It was a foul on Bass. People like to get upset at officials for calling fouls on these types of plays, but I thought Davis handled this one perfectly. He let Bass and Josh Smith scramble for the ball, and once Smith had it, Bass ended up with his arm across Smith's face and neck. The ball was no longer loose at that point. Not that it being a bad call would excuse what happened after that, but anyone using the classic "if the refs called the game right, the players wouldn't get upset" argument is even more wrong than usual. It was a clear foul.
2. R-ndo definitely tripped when he took that step towards Davis. He did not, contrary to his claim after the game, trip into Davis. He inadvertently stepped on Davis' foot and that caused him to stumble towards the official, but R-ndo quite deliberately closed the gap between the two.
3. My prediction is that R-ndo will get a one-game suspension. From what I understand, one game is the minimum required by NBA rules. There are arguments, I think, for giving him more, including his two-game ban earlier this year for tossing the ball at an official. But I think public opinion is a big factor in deciding the length of these suspensions that the NBA hands down, and the majority of the talking heads seem to be saying that they don't think R-ndo should be suspended. That's obviously not happening; there's no chance he gets off scot-free. But since the general sentiment seems to be that his punishment should be minimal, a suspension that lasts for multiple games won't play well. (And I think that's particularly true in light of some overly paternalistic officiating in the Heat-Knicks game and the absences of Dwight Howard and Derrick Rose from these playoffs due to injuries.)
4. There probably are few, if any, bigger R-ndo fans-slant-apologists than I, but there's no excusing what he did. He lost his cool, and it cost his team a chance at the game -- and put them in a hole for at least the next game, as well. I don't love him any less for it, but he messed up and he deserves the criticism that's coming his way.
Back to the Xs and Os. It's really a shame that R-ndo's night ended the way it did, because he was really the only Celtic who was consistent throughout the game. After subordinating his own scoring for most of the second half of the season, R-ndo recognized that the usual suspects weren't off to a great start and kept the Cs remotely close during a torrid first quarter from the Hawks. He finished with 20 points and 11 assists on 10-for-18 from the floor, the most shots he's taken since March 4.
Other than that, it was a very uneven performance for the Celtics. They were terribly defensively at the start, though it was exacerbated by some really good Hawks shooting, but turned up the pressure considerably in the second half. Kevin Garnett was awful to start, opening 1-for-9, but made seven of his last ten and finished with 20 points and 12 boards. Paul Pierce never really got going, though, to his credit, he did about as good a job on Joe Johnson defensively as Johnson did on him. I thought Avery Bradley and Brandon Bass were non-existent all night. Greg Stiemsma had nine rebounds, but other than that, the bench didn't contribute anything.
Assuming R-ndo only misses a game, and even assuming that Atlanta wins that game, I don't think Sunday's game changes much regarding the outcome of the series. Boston came out incredibly flat, something I don't think you'll see again now that the Hawks have their full attention. Garnett and Bradley got plenty of the open jump shots they've been making recently; they just missed them. I do think Bass is going to have a tough time scoring against Smith, but I expect to see some of these shots go down and I think we'll see a different Paul Pierce in from here on out.
Defensively, we showed what we were capable of in the second half. The effort wasn't there in the first, but it's worth noting that the Hawks came out on fire. Smith was excellent all night, but he hit a number of tough jumpers that I'm sure we're comfortable with him taking the rest of the series. Kirk Hinrich was key, as well; he hit a couple of threes early and then made some tough shots in the third quarter when Boston seemed on the verge of making a run.
Game 2 is Tuesday night on NBA TV. I'll have an update with the length of Rondo's suspension once it's announced.
Friday, April 27, 2012
Boston 87, Milwaukee 74
At this point in the season, the game is "whatever." Rajon R-ndo returned and notched double-digit assists again -- 15 of 'em, in just 25 minutes of court action. (Rondo took just one shot, an end-of-the-clock job, and was the only one of the 13 Celtics who played who didn't score.)
The one thing I want to talk about is the fact that Paul Pierce suffered a mild toe injury in the first quarter. It's probably nothing serious, but I don't understand why Doc decided to play Pierce and KG tonight after sitting them last week against Atlanta. If the goal was home court advantage against the Hawks (which we would've earned tonight only by winning and having Atlanta lose at home to a Dallas team who is resting guys for the postseason), we should have played all out for it from the get-go. It doesn't make sense to do it now; no circumstances have changed. If, on the other hand, the goal was to get some guys in synch with R-ndo, then I guess I can buy that.
Anyway, the first playoff game is Sunday night, 7 pm Eastern, in Atlanta, on TNT, the third game in the second consecutive quadruple-header in what is the NBA playoffs' version of the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament. Atlanta's going to be without Al Horford for the entire series, and likely will be without Zaza Pachulia for the first couple of games. That's good news for Boston, as it eliminates a big part of their offensive rebounding, which is an advantage every team has on us.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
New York 118, Boston 110
[recap] [box score]
Look at New York's three-point shooting on Tuesday -- 19 for 32 -- and you'd think that the Knicks were simply too hot to be beat. And while it's true that they were on fire from behind the arc, the fact is that Boston's defense was as bad as it has been all season. The rotations were off all night, and even when they made an adjustment to better guard the three-point line, they left the paint wide open, ceding a number of easy baskets to Tyson Chandler.
And yet the Celtics gave themselves a chance to win in the fourth quarter, mostly thanks to Paul Pierce, who had a season-high 43 points, largely on the back of a 17-for-18 performance at the free throw line. Battling foot injuries, though, he was almost as ineffective on defense as he was effective on offense, and Carmelo Anthony got plenty of his 35 points against Pierce. (Melo added 12 boards and ten assists for his second career triple-double.)
Other than Pierce's offense, Avery Bradley was a bright spot for the Cs, draining 5-of-6 three-pointers, most from the corners. It's beginning to look like his outside shot, which was atrocious at the beginning of the season, has improved permanently to something respectable. Rajon R-ndo had 13 points and 13 assists -- remarkably, something of a pedestrian performance for him lately -- but sat for some of the second half after falling awkwardly on his back after colliding with Chandler on a rebound. R-ndo refused to go back to the locker room for treatment, however, and gamely finished out the game
Really, though, the big story in this one was the difference in bench production. In about 50 minutes of court time, the Boston reserves scored a total of two points. The Knicks got 25 each from Steve Novak and J.R. Smith, who combined to go 15-for-20 from beyond the arc.
To be fair to Boston's second unit, two of Boston's top reserves (Bradley and Brandon Bass) have moved permanently to the starting lineup, and the next two missed the game -- Ray Allen was a late scratch with his lingering ankle injury after participating in shootaround, and Mickael Pietrus went back to Boston to have fluid from his knee drained. But I can't help but contrast the Celtics with, say, the Spurs, who I watched dismantle the Kobe Bryant-less Lakers in the nightcap. San Antonio has like 11 guys who play and contribute, while there are nights, like tonight, where you wonder how Keyon Dooling and Marquis Daniels and Sasha Pavlovic even have NBA jobs.
Anyway, back at it Wednesday night, 8 Eastern, in Boston against Orlando. I think our magic number is two; we just need some combination of two wins and Knicks losses and we've got the division, unless we lose our last four and Philly wins its last five. With a road game in Atlanta and then a home date with the revenge-minded Heat looming before the season finale against Milwaukee, it'd be nice to get this one against the Magic to take some of the pressure off.
Look at New York's three-point shooting on Tuesday -- 19 for 32 -- and you'd think that the Knicks were simply too hot to be beat. And while it's true that they were on fire from behind the arc, the fact is that Boston's defense was as bad as it has been all season. The rotations were off all night, and even when they made an adjustment to better guard the three-point line, they left the paint wide open, ceding a number of easy baskets to Tyson Chandler.
And yet the Celtics gave themselves a chance to win in the fourth quarter, mostly thanks to Paul Pierce, who had a season-high 43 points, largely on the back of a 17-for-18 performance at the free throw line. Battling foot injuries, though, he was almost as ineffective on defense as he was effective on offense, and Carmelo Anthony got plenty of his 35 points against Pierce. (Melo added 12 boards and ten assists for his second career triple-double.)
Other than Pierce's offense, Avery Bradley was a bright spot for the Cs, draining 5-of-6 three-pointers, most from the corners. It's beginning to look like his outside shot, which was atrocious at the beginning of the season, has improved permanently to something respectable. Rajon R-ndo had 13 points and 13 assists -- remarkably, something of a pedestrian performance for him lately -- but sat for some of the second half after falling awkwardly on his back after colliding with Chandler on a rebound. R-ndo refused to go back to the locker room for treatment, however, and gamely finished out the game
Really, though, the big story in this one was the difference in bench production. In about 50 minutes of court time, the Boston reserves scored a total of two points. The Knicks got 25 each from Steve Novak and J.R. Smith, who combined to go 15-for-20 from beyond the arc.
To be fair to Boston's second unit, two of Boston's top reserves (Bradley and Brandon Bass) have moved permanently to the starting lineup, and the next two missed the game -- Ray Allen was a late scratch with his lingering ankle injury after participating in shootaround, and Mickael Pietrus went back to Boston to have fluid from his knee drained. But I can't help but contrast the Celtics with, say, the Spurs, who I watched dismantle the Kobe Bryant-less Lakers in the nightcap. San Antonio has like 11 guys who play and contribute, while there are nights, like tonight, where you wonder how Keyon Dooling and Marquis Daniels and Sasha Pavlovic even have NBA jobs.
Anyway, back at it Wednesday night, 8 Eastern, in Boston against Orlando. I think our magic number is two; we just need some combination of two wins and Knicks losses and we've got the division, unless we lose our last four and Philly wins its last five. With a road game in Atlanta and then a home date with the revenge-minded Heat looming before the season finale against Milwaukee, it'd be nice to get this one against the Magic to take some of the pressure off.
Sunday, April 15, 2012
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).
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).
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Boston 88, Atlanta 86 (Overtime)
[recap] [box score]
Tuesday night's win in Miami told us something about this Celtics team's confidence and ability to play at a high level. Wednesday night's triumph over Atlanta back in Boston told us something about this Celtics team's guts.
After that incredible offensive display on South Beach, after all those minutes in a highly intense game, most people would have given the Cs a free pass tonight against the Hawks. But I liked something that Tommy Heinsohn said during the broadcast -- that if you lose this one, you undo all the good work you did the night before. So the Celtics, instead of resting their legs or resting on their laurels or both, came out and fought for this win every bit as hard as they had fought for the one the night before.
It wasn't pretty. The whole night, Boston seemed a half-step behind, physically or mentally. They committed 19 turnovers, a full handful of which were caused by a simple lack of concentration. Particularly in the second half, you could see our legs getting tired, and the results: a slower pace, and flat jump shots left short. But Boston dug deep and never gave up on the defensive end, getting just enough stops to pull out a big win.
Some notes:
* Ray Allen sat out with soreness in his ankle, the same one that kept him out earlier. I think the idea here is that Doc wants to make sure that Ray's healthy for the playoffs, and not that Ray suffered some kind of setback, but it's a little disconcerting that he apparently hasn't fully healed.
* The Celtics controlled the glass, outrebounding the Hawks 56-39 and grabbing 15 offensive boards. I always thought of the Hawks as a tough team to keep off the glass, but with Al Horford out, they really don't go to the boards that well. The Boston bigs rebounded well, but I thought a big key was the small guys rebounding down on the defensive glass. Rajon R-ndo had ten boards, Mickael Pietrus had six, and Paul Pierce had five.
* Speaking of Pietrus, this was his first game since his concussion on March 23. He looked pretty good, knocking down a couple long jumpers and playing some solid defense. His return is welcome, especially if Allen is going to miss a bunch of time.
* Despite shooting just 3-for-16, R-ndo was brilliant, again. His stats were gaudy; 10 points, 10 boards, 20 assists -- his sixth triple-double of the season (a league high) -- but I thought the big key was his energy. Boston's lost a lot of close games over the last several year's due to slowing the pace way down on offense, and R-ndo, after playing more than 40 minutes the night before, took each and every outlet pass and raced up floor, forcing his teammates to at least get into their stuff at a reasonable pace if not attack on the fast break. The kid played 47 minutes tonight and looked just as fresh at the end as he did at the beginning. Words cannot describe how much I love watching him play.
* Boston did a nice job shutting down Atlanta's attempt at a game-winner at the end of regulation. Jannero Pargo was inbounding the ball on the far side without about six seconds to go, and he tossed the ball to Joe Johnson. As Johnson caught it, Pargo started to cut across the floor to the opposite wing, and R-ndo left him to double. Pargo took a little while to figure out that he was open and that he should get to some place he could shoot from, and he ended up with a rushed three at the horn that missed. I'm not sure if R-ndo or Doc gets the credit for that decision, but it really caught the Hawks by surprise and might have saved the game.
* Scary moment near the end of the game when Brandon Bass came down awkwardly and spent several moments on the ground, holding his knee. He stayed in the game, however, and it looks like Boston dodged a bullet there.
* The officials made two of the worst calls I've ever seen in overtime, both resulting in Boston turnovers. I haven't been able to find a video of them, but I'll post one if I can later. Just another thing the Celtics had to overcome.
So, here's the deal. We've mercifully got a day off before embarking on our road back-to-back-to-back in Toronto, New Jersey, and Charlotte. We've got a three-game cushion on Philly for the Atlantic crown, which would mean dodging Chicago and Miami in the first round. The final five games of the season are tough: at New York, home to Orlando, at Atlanta, home to Miami and Milwaukee. A sweep of these three upcoming games would probably give Doc the luxury of resting a few guys before the playoffs.
A sweep is a big ask at the end of what will end up being a very long week. But at this point, I'm not saying anything's out of the realm of possibility.
Tuesday night's win in Miami told us something about this Celtics team's confidence and ability to play at a high level. Wednesday night's triumph over Atlanta back in Boston told us something about this Celtics team's guts.
After that incredible offensive display on South Beach, after all those minutes in a highly intense game, most people would have given the Cs a free pass tonight against the Hawks. But I liked something that Tommy Heinsohn said during the broadcast -- that if you lose this one, you undo all the good work you did the night before. So the Celtics, instead of resting their legs or resting on their laurels or both, came out and fought for this win every bit as hard as they had fought for the one the night before.
It wasn't pretty. The whole night, Boston seemed a half-step behind, physically or mentally. They committed 19 turnovers, a full handful of which were caused by a simple lack of concentration. Particularly in the second half, you could see our legs getting tired, and the results: a slower pace, and flat jump shots left short. But Boston dug deep and never gave up on the defensive end, getting just enough stops to pull out a big win.
Some notes:
* Ray Allen sat out with soreness in his ankle, the same one that kept him out earlier. I think the idea here is that Doc wants to make sure that Ray's healthy for the playoffs, and not that Ray suffered some kind of setback, but it's a little disconcerting that he apparently hasn't fully healed.
* The Celtics controlled the glass, outrebounding the Hawks 56-39 and grabbing 15 offensive boards. I always thought of the Hawks as a tough team to keep off the glass, but with Al Horford out, they really don't go to the boards that well. The Boston bigs rebounded well, but I thought a big key was the small guys rebounding down on the defensive glass. Rajon R-ndo had ten boards, Mickael Pietrus had six, and Paul Pierce had five.
* Speaking of Pietrus, this was his first game since his concussion on March 23. He looked pretty good, knocking down a couple long jumpers and playing some solid defense. His return is welcome, especially if Allen is going to miss a bunch of time.
* Despite shooting just 3-for-16, R-ndo was brilliant, again. His stats were gaudy; 10 points, 10 boards, 20 assists -- his sixth triple-double of the season (a league high) -- but I thought the big key was his energy. Boston's lost a lot of close games over the last several year's due to slowing the pace way down on offense, and R-ndo, after playing more than 40 minutes the night before, took each and every outlet pass and raced up floor, forcing his teammates to at least get into their stuff at a reasonable pace if not attack on the fast break. The kid played 47 minutes tonight and looked just as fresh at the end as he did at the beginning. Words cannot describe how much I love watching him play.
* Boston did a nice job shutting down Atlanta's attempt at a game-winner at the end of regulation. Jannero Pargo was inbounding the ball on the far side without about six seconds to go, and he tossed the ball to Joe Johnson. As Johnson caught it, Pargo started to cut across the floor to the opposite wing, and R-ndo left him to double. Pargo took a little while to figure out that he was open and that he should get to some place he could shoot from, and he ended up with a rushed three at the horn that missed. I'm not sure if R-ndo or Doc gets the credit for that decision, but it really caught the Hawks by surprise and might have saved the game.
* Scary moment near the end of the game when Brandon Bass came down awkwardly and spent several moments on the ground, holding his knee. He stayed in the game, however, and it looks like Boston dodged a bullet there.
* The officials made two of the worst calls I've ever seen in overtime, both resulting in Boston turnovers. I haven't been able to find a video of them, but I'll post one if I can later. Just another thing the Celtics had to overcome.
So, here's the deal. We've mercifully got a day off before embarking on our road back-to-back-to-back in Toronto, New Jersey, and Charlotte. We've got a three-game cushion on Philly for the Atlantic crown, which would mean dodging Chicago and Miami in the first round. The final five games of the season are tough: at New York, home to Orlando, at Atlanta, home to Miami and Milwaukee. A sweep of these three upcoming games would probably give Doc the luxury of resting a few guys before the playoffs.
A sweep is a big ask at the end of what will end up being a very long week. But at this point, I'm not saying anything's out of the realm of possibility.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Ray A Sixth Man?
I should preface by saying that I've been busy and out of town and haven't had much chance to watch the Celtics or even read about them since Ray came back after missing six games with a bad ankle. So I'm basing this whole post on what I saw against Miami Tuesday night, what I can glean from the box scores of previous games, and from the pre-game interview Doc gave prior to the Miami game.
When I first heard that Allen was coming off the bench, I was concerned about the effect of the move on Ray. Not because I thought he'd sulk the way you'd worry about with some guys; he's too much of a professional for that. But even in a profession where routine is such a big part of success for so many, Ray is extraordinarily regimented: eating the same pre-game meal; arriving at the arena hours early; getting up a certain number of shots before tip. Before last week, Allen had come off the bench four times in his NBA career, the last time being in November of 2002, early in his final season in Milwaukee (he would be traded to Seattle later that season). How, I wondered, would a mid-season change in routine affect his performance on the court? At the very least, it seemed like the uncertainty would shake his confidence a little bit. Ray knows that his routine works; no matter how confident he is in his abilities, he has no point of reference as to how he'd play in a bench role.
Doc's pre-game interview on Tuesday assuaged some of those fears. According to Doc, while he had broached the topic with Allen earlier in the year, it was Ray's own suggestion that set the change in motion. So any discomfort Allen might feel from the unfamiliar situation seems to be minimized.
The effect on the team's play as a whole remains to be seen, though it's hard to argue with the early results. Avery Bradley was outstanding in the starting shooting guard slot while Allen was out (the team won five of six during that stretch) and after losing to Chicago last Thursday in Allen's first game off the bench, the Celtics have now won three in a row. Bradley gives Boston a different look on offense, a player who looks to attack without the basketball, in many ways a more suitable running mate for Rajon R-ndo. And, of course, Bradley's tenacious defense is an upgrade on that end of the floor.
In addition, Allen's move to the bench gives the second unit some real scoring punch, which has been sorely needed ever since Brandon Bass moved into the starting lineup after injuries ended the seasons of Jermaine O'Neal and Chris Wilcox. Doc's monitoring of Kevin Garnett's minutes (limiting him to five- or six-minute stretches until the fourth quarter) means that KG has been spending more time with the second unit, and suddenly he and Ray give that lineup some real weapons.
On the other hand, Allen is the greatest three-point shooter of all-time, and he's still one the game's premier weapons from downtown. Employing him in a Kyle Korver-type role seems like a waste. He only took seven shots against Miami on Tuesday, and two of them were end-of-the-shot-clock jobs -- contested, off-balance looks that he was forced into. The problem, at least against the Heat, seemed to me to be that he wasn't getting the ball in the exact right spot at the exact right time. Allen's offense with the Celtics has been based on precision, running through a series of screens that are designed to lose his defender for a fraction of a second, just enough time for him to catch and release. If the timing is off, the moment is gone, and Bradley hasn't yet developed the chops to deliver the ball on time, every time. Keyon Dooling didn't play against the Heat for some reason, but I haven't seen much during this season or Dooling's career that suggests that he's the solution. That means to be effective, Allen is still going to have play a lot of minutes with R-ndo, which either means even more minutes for R-ndo or limited minutes for Bradley, whose minutes this whole thing is supposed to maximize.
Then again, it could just be me over-reacting to one game. Ray did take nine and ten shots, respectively, against Philadelphia and Chicago, just a couple below his season average, and he took 18 shots against Indiana. And he's shown throughout his career that he can come into a game cold or out of rhythm and still hit a big shot (he proved it yet again just last week, burying a late three against the Spurs that gave us a shot at the win).
The results so far have been great. But it's a risk. In order to make a deep playoff run, we're going to need Ray Allen making big shots in the fourth quarter. We know we can get those shots out of starter-Ray. We don't yet know if we can get them out of sixth man-Ray.
When I first heard that Allen was coming off the bench, I was concerned about the effect of the move on Ray. Not because I thought he'd sulk the way you'd worry about with some guys; he's too much of a professional for that. But even in a profession where routine is such a big part of success for so many, Ray is extraordinarily regimented: eating the same pre-game meal; arriving at the arena hours early; getting up a certain number of shots before tip. Before last week, Allen had come off the bench four times in his NBA career, the last time being in November of 2002, early in his final season in Milwaukee (he would be traded to Seattle later that season). How, I wondered, would a mid-season change in routine affect his performance on the court? At the very least, it seemed like the uncertainty would shake his confidence a little bit. Ray knows that his routine works; no matter how confident he is in his abilities, he has no point of reference as to how he'd play in a bench role.
Doc's pre-game interview on Tuesday assuaged some of those fears. According to Doc, while he had broached the topic with Allen earlier in the year, it was Ray's own suggestion that set the change in motion. So any discomfort Allen might feel from the unfamiliar situation seems to be minimized.
The effect on the team's play as a whole remains to be seen, though it's hard to argue with the early results. Avery Bradley was outstanding in the starting shooting guard slot while Allen was out (the team won five of six during that stretch) and after losing to Chicago last Thursday in Allen's first game off the bench, the Celtics have now won three in a row. Bradley gives Boston a different look on offense, a player who looks to attack without the basketball, in many ways a more suitable running mate for Rajon R-ndo. And, of course, Bradley's tenacious defense is an upgrade on that end of the floor.
In addition, Allen's move to the bench gives the second unit some real scoring punch, which has been sorely needed ever since Brandon Bass moved into the starting lineup after injuries ended the seasons of Jermaine O'Neal and Chris Wilcox. Doc's monitoring of Kevin Garnett's minutes (limiting him to five- or six-minute stretches until the fourth quarter) means that KG has been spending more time with the second unit, and suddenly he and Ray give that lineup some real weapons.
On the other hand, Allen is the greatest three-point shooter of all-time, and he's still one the game's premier weapons from downtown. Employing him in a Kyle Korver-type role seems like a waste. He only took seven shots against Miami on Tuesday, and two of them were end-of-the-shot-clock jobs -- contested, off-balance looks that he was forced into. The problem, at least against the Heat, seemed to me to be that he wasn't getting the ball in the exact right spot at the exact right time. Allen's offense with the Celtics has been based on precision, running through a series of screens that are designed to lose his defender for a fraction of a second, just enough time for him to catch and release. If the timing is off, the moment is gone, and Bradley hasn't yet developed the chops to deliver the ball on time, every time. Keyon Dooling didn't play against the Heat for some reason, but I haven't seen much during this season or Dooling's career that suggests that he's the solution. That means to be effective, Allen is still going to have play a lot of minutes with R-ndo, which either means even more minutes for R-ndo or limited minutes for Bradley, whose minutes this whole thing is supposed to maximize.
Then again, it could just be me over-reacting to one game. Ray did take nine and ten shots, respectively, against Philadelphia and Chicago, just a couple below his season average, and he took 18 shots against Indiana. And he's shown throughout his career that he can come into a game cold or out of rhythm and still hit a big shot (he proved it yet again just last week, burying a late three against the Spurs that gave us a shot at the win).
The results so far have been great. But it's a risk. In order to make a deep playoff run, we're going to need Ray Allen making big shots in the fourth quarter. We know we can get those shots out of starter-Ray. We don't yet know if we can get them out of sixth man-Ray.
Boston 115, Miami 107
[recap] [box score]
This win's even better than the one back in Boston ten days ago. Any good team, like the Heat, can have an off night on the road, especially at the end of a long trip away from home. Any good team, like the Celtics, can put together a dominant performance in its own barn and wax a good opponent. Beating that same opponent on their floor in a payback game less than two weeks later, however, is not something every team can do.
I hope you watched this one, because it was an entertaining basketball game, but if you didn't, here's how it went: Miami predictably jumped out to a hot start, but Boston kept it close; Boston went on a big run to end the first quarter and led by double digits for most of the rest of the half; Miami kept chipping away in the third quarter to stay within striking distance; Boston lost their composure on a couple of early possessions and the Heat cut the lead to one point; Doc Rivers brought Rajon R-ndo and Kevin Garnett back a bit earlier than usual and, with the building going crazy and the game seemingly slipping from their grasp, they (along with Paul Pierce) calmly put the game away.
Those are the broad strokes, but there are some interesting details, and the most interesting is Boston's shooting a percentage: a torrid 60.6% for the game. Some will no doubt point out that the fact that the Celtics shot better than 60%, made 9 of 14 three-pointers and 20 of 25 free throws, and still only won by eight, is worrisome. There's some truth to that; Boston had to make a ton of plays to win this game, and they played exceptionally well -- a few more empty possessions at the wrong time could have brought a different result. But there are a couple counter-points to that.
First, while it's true that by the end of the game, Garnett and Pierce had to make some really tough shots, the whole game wasn't like that. Boston got pretty much anything it wanted in the first half, in which they scored 65 points, the most by a Heat opponent this season.
Second, the Heat had to make a bunch of tough shots, too, just to stay in it. And yeah, maybe Miami is more capable of making tough shots on a consistent basis because they have superior one-on-one players who don't rely as much on the jumper as the Cs do, but Boston has always been comfortable with letting individuals do their own thing against them. James had his usual game against Boston: huge numbers (36 points, even boards, seven assists) and a loss. Dwyane Wade was assertive in stretches (the second and fourth quarters), but when they play Boston, the two Heat superstars still take turns more than they seem to play together. Chris Bosh was once again a non-factor for much of the game, and once you get past him, you simply have to hope that the rest of Miami's unspectacular supporting cast doesn't have a big night. Those are chances I'm willing to take.
The big downside to this win was the minutes: 40-plus for R-ndo and Pierce; 39 for Brandon Bass; 33 for Garnett. (It's hard not to contrast Doc Rivers with San Antonio's Gregg Popovich, who left Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginobili at home on Monday night for a road game in Utah, even though the Spurs were tied atop the Western Conference at the time and fighting with Oklahoma City for home-court advantage.) The big concern with the minutes is the schedule; Boston heads back home on Wednesday to play the Hawks, then get one day off before a back-to-back-to-back in Toronto, New Jersey, and Charlotte. That many minutes, and that short of a rotation (Doc only played eight guys) could really come back to hurt the team.
Only eight guys played, but all played well. Garnett was the star, shooting 11-for-14 and finishing with 24 points and nine rebounds, but Pierce led the team in scoring with 27 points. R-ndo had 18 points and 15 assists (the 18th straight game he's had double-digit dimes), and Bass also notched a double-double with 12 points and ten boards. Avery Bradley had five early points, keeping the Heat from getting going, and finished with 11. Off the bench, Greg Stiemsma (eight points, seven boards) and Sasha Pavlovic (2-for-2 from deep) did most of their damage in the first half. Ironically, Ray Allen, who was 3-for-7 on the night, was the only Celtic who didn't make at least half his shots from the field.
Speaking of Ray, he came off the bench for the fourth straight game. I've gotta post about this...
This win's even better than the one back in Boston ten days ago. Any good team, like the Heat, can have an off night on the road, especially at the end of a long trip away from home. Any good team, like the Celtics, can put together a dominant performance in its own barn and wax a good opponent. Beating that same opponent on their floor in a payback game less than two weeks later, however, is not something every team can do.
I hope you watched this one, because it was an entertaining basketball game, but if you didn't, here's how it went: Miami predictably jumped out to a hot start, but Boston kept it close; Boston went on a big run to end the first quarter and led by double digits for most of the rest of the half; Miami kept chipping away in the third quarter to stay within striking distance; Boston lost their composure on a couple of early possessions and the Heat cut the lead to one point; Doc Rivers brought Rajon R-ndo and Kevin Garnett back a bit earlier than usual and, with the building going crazy and the game seemingly slipping from their grasp, they (along with Paul Pierce) calmly put the game away.
Those are the broad strokes, but there are some interesting details, and the most interesting is Boston's shooting a percentage: a torrid 60.6% for the game. Some will no doubt point out that the fact that the Celtics shot better than 60%, made 9 of 14 three-pointers and 20 of 25 free throws, and still only won by eight, is worrisome. There's some truth to that; Boston had to make a ton of plays to win this game, and they played exceptionally well -- a few more empty possessions at the wrong time could have brought a different result. But there are a couple counter-points to that.
First, while it's true that by the end of the game, Garnett and Pierce had to make some really tough shots, the whole game wasn't like that. Boston got pretty much anything it wanted in the first half, in which they scored 65 points, the most by a Heat opponent this season.
Second, the Heat had to make a bunch of tough shots, too, just to stay in it. And yeah, maybe Miami is more capable of making tough shots on a consistent basis because they have superior one-on-one players who don't rely as much on the jumper as the Cs do, but Boston has always been comfortable with letting individuals do their own thing against them. James had his usual game against Boston: huge numbers (36 points, even boards, seven assists) and a loss. Dwyane Wade was assertive in stretches (the second and fourth quarters), but when they play Boston, the two Heat superstars still take turns more than they seem to play together. Chris Bosh was once again a non-factor for much of the game, and once you get past him, you simply have to hope that the rest of Miami's unspectacular supporting cast doesn't have a big night. Those are chances I'm willing to take.
The big downside to this win was the minutes: 40-plus for R-ndo and Pierce; 39 for Brandon Bass; 33 for Garnett. (It's hard not to contrast Doc Rivers with San Antonio's Gregg Popovich, who left Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginobili at home on Monday night for a road game in Utah, even though the Spurs were tied atop the Western Conference at the time and fighting with Oklahoma City for home-court advantage.) The big concern with the minutes is the schedule; Boston heads back home on Wednesday to play the Hawks, then get one day off before a back-to-back-to-back in Toronto, New Jersey, and Charlotte. That many minutes, and that short of a rotation (Doc only played eight guys) could really come back to hurt the team.
Only eight guys played, but all played well. Garnett was the star, shooting 11-for-14 and finishing with 24 points and nine rebounds, but Pierce led the team in scoring with 27 points. R-ndo had 18 points and 15 assists (the 18th straight game he's had double-digit dimes), and Bass also notched a double-double with 12 points and ten boards. Avery Bradley had five early points, keeping the Heat from getting going, and finished with 11. Off the bench, Greg Stiemsma (eight points, seven boards) and Sasha Pavlovic (2-for-2 from deep) did most of their damage in the first half. Ironically, Ray Allen, who was 3-for-7 on the night, was the only Celtic who didn't make at least half his shots from the field.
Speaking of Ray, he came off the bench for the fourth straight game. I've gotta post about this...
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Boston 91, Miami 72
[recap] [box score]
One of my friends texted me after the final buzzer and asked me if this was a "statement win" for the Celtics. I didn't respond, in part because I hate communicating via text, in part because I'm not sure I believe that such games exist in today's NBA, and in part because I didn't really know how to answer. Let me take a moment now to address it.
What statement might Boston have made? A statement to the Heat that they wouldn't be a pushover in the playoffs? That's hardly a statement that needed to be made; anyone who thought that this group of aging but competitive veterans would simply roll over in May and June hasn't been paying attention. A statement to the rest of the league that they're a contender? Not with the game at home and the Heat so obviously disinterested, and playing their third game in four days.
In today's NBA, there are simply too many games and too many variables for any single regular-season game to have much meaning beyond its effect on the standings. It was a big game for Boston in the sense that the Celtics had to have it to stay a game ahead of Philly in the standings, and the Celtics played like it. It was a big game for Miami, too, as Chicago's loss to Oklahoma City gave the Heat an opportunity to close the gap between them and the Bulls for the East's top seed and homecourt advantage throughout the playoffs. But the Heat didn't play it was a big game, and it would be folly to judge them too harshly by it. (More on this later, though.)
Honestly, the fact of the matter is that Boston is probably still a dog to win the Atlantic, which likely means the seven seed, and it seems a bit silly to talk about statement wins when you're the seven seed. Moreover, the Celtics and Heat clash two more times before the regular season runs out, and Sunday's win really will only be a small part of the conversation should these two teams end up linking up in the playoffs.
So I guess my answer is no, I don't consider this a statement win, and I am skeptical that any such thing exists.
With that said, this was a fun game to watch from a Boston perspective and it does give us fans some hope that our team can make a bit of noise in the playoffs. Rajon R-ndo was spectacular, establishing himself early by going hard to the basket for seven of Boston's first nine points, then spending most of the rest of the game setting the table for his teammates. His final statline included 16 points, 11 rebounds, and 14 assists, yet another triple double (he's the league leader in that category, by the way). R-ndo has been extremely passive offensively the last several games, but he was aggressive from the beginning and pushed the tempo throughout; on one second half play, you could see him gesturing at his teammates to run the floor with him. We're a different team (in a good way) when he's aggressive on offense and we're a different team (in a bad way) when we slow the pace down. If anything, hopefully this game gives Doc something to remind the guys about later in the year when we inevitably start trying to ice games with isolations late in the shotclock.
R-ndo was spectacular; everyone else wearing white was somewhere between solid and very, very good. Avery Bradley continues to play extremely well in Ray Allen's absence -- it's the same old song with him, really; a tenacious on-the-ball defender who bails his teammates out a couple of times a game on offense with timely cuts to the basket. Paul Pierce led the way with 23 points; Brandon Bass had a double-double, making all ten of his free throws; and Kevin Garnett chipped in with 10 points, eight rebounds, and his usual terrific defense that shut Chris Bosh completely down. Greg Stiemsma and Keyon Dooling did a nice job off the bench for a second unit that has seen a couple of its members promoted to the A-team due to injuries to the regular starters.
As for Miami, there's really nothing good to say here. Aside from the second quarter, when Dwyane Wade put the team on his shoulders for a bit, the Heat didn't look engaged at all. LeBron James was unassertive, Wade seemed distracted, and Bosh was a total non-factor (I think he had their first four points, then didn't score again). No one came in and sparked them. I kept waiting for a hard foul or some jawing to wake them up a bit, but no one -- not even newly acquired Ronny Turiaf -- could muster even that.
The buzz around the NBA is that the Heat have been wretched, by their standards, on the road since the All-Star break, and it's for that reason that I don't want to read too much into this game. For it to be a big game, both teams have to be aware of the importance of it, and nothing Miami did on the court on Sunday suggested that they were. My hunch is that it'll be a different story down in South Beach next Tuesday, that the Heat will regain their motivation during their upcoming five-game homestand, and that the postseason questions surrounding them will once again be not whether they'll feel the urgency of the situation, but whether they'll wilt under the pressure of it.
One of my friends texted me after the final buzzer and asked me if this was a "statement win" for the Celtics. I didn't respond, in part because I hate communicating via text, in part because I'm not sure I believe that such games exist in today's NBA, and in part because I didn't really know how to answer. Let me take a moment now to address it.
What statement might Boston have made? A statement to the Heat that they wouldn't be a pushover in the playoffs? That's hardly a statement that needed to be made; anyone who thought that this group of aging but competitive veterans would simply roll over in May and June hasn't been paying attention. A statement to the rest of the league that they're a contender? Not with the game at home and the Heat so obviously disinterested, and playing their third game in four days.
In today's NBA, there are simply too many games and too many variables for any single regular-season game to have much meaning beyond its effect on the standings. It was a big game for Boston in the sense that the Celtics had to have it to stay a game ahead of Philly in the standings, and the Celtics played like it. It was a big game for Miami, too, as Chicago's loss to Oklahoma City gave the Heat an opportunity to close the gap between them and the Bulls for the East's top seed and homecourt advantage throughout the playoffs. But the Heat didn't play it was a big game, and it would be folly to judge them too harshly by it. (More on this later, though.)
Honestly, the fact of the matter is that Boston is probably still a dog to win the Atlantic, which likely means the seven seed, and it seems a bit silly to talk about statement wins when you're the seven seed. Moreover, the Celtics and Heat clash two more times before the regular season runs out, and Sunday's win really will only be a small part of the conversation should these two teams end up linking up in the playoffs.
So I guess my answer is no, I don't consider this a statement win, and I am skeptical that any such thing exists.
With that said, this was a fun game to watch from a Boston perspective and it does give us fans some hope that our team can make a bit of noise in the playoffs. Rajon R-ndo was spectacular, establishing himself early by going hard to the basket for seven of Boston's first nine points, then spending most of the rest of the game setting the table for his teammates. His final statline included 16 points, 11 rebounds, and 14 assists, yet another triple double (he's the league leader in that category, by the way). R-ndo has been extremely passive offensively the last several games, but he was aggressive from the beginning and pushed the tempo throughout; on one second half play, you could see him gesturing at his teammates to run the floor with him. We're a different team (in a good way) when he's aggressive on offense and we're a different team (in a bad way) when we slow the pace down. If anything, hopefully this game gives Doc something to remind the guys about later in the year when we inevitably start trying to ice games with isolations late in the shotclock.
R-ndo was spectacular; everyone else wearing white was somewhere between solid and very, very good. Avery Bradley continues to play extremely well in Ray Allen's absence -- it's the same old song with him, really; a tenacious on-the-ball defender who bails his teammates out a couple of times a game on offense with timely cuts to the basket. Paul Pierce led the way with 23 points; Brandon Bass had a double-double, making all ten of his free throws; and Kevin Garnett chipped in with 10 points, eight rebounds, and his usual terrific defense that shut Chris Bosh completely down. Greg Stiemsma and Keyon Dooling did a nice job off the bench for a second unit that has seen a couple of its members promoted to the A-team due to injuries to the regular starters.
As for Miami, there's really nothing good to say here. Aside from the second quarter, when Dwyane Wade put the team on his shoulders for a bit, the Heat didn't look engaged at all. LeBron James was unassertive, Wade seemed distracted, and Bosh was a total non-factor (I think he had their first four points, then didn't score again). No one came in and sparked them. I kept waiting for a hard foul or some jawing to wake them up a bit, but no one -- not even newly acquired Ronny Turiaf -- could muster even that.
The buzz around the NBA is that the Heat have been wretched, by their standards, on the road since the All-Star break, and it's for that reason that I don't want to read too much into this game. For it to be a big game, both teams have to be aware of the importance of it, and nothing Miami did on the court on Sunday suggested that they were. My hunch is that it'll be a different story down in South Beach next Tuesday, that the Heat will regain their motivation during their upcoming five-game homestand, and that the postseason questions surrounding them will once again be not whether they'll feel the urgency of the situation, but whether they'll wilt under the pressure of it.
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Boston 100, Minnesota 79
[recap] [box score]
On Wednesday night, the Celtics beat a Utah team featuring Al Jefferson, the promising young center who was the major sacrifice of the deal that brought Kevin Garnett to Boston. After three years in Minnesota, Jefferson was traded to the Jazz before last season. Through nearly five seasons with two different clubs, however, Jefferson is still searching for his first win against his old team.
On Friday, the Celtics traveled to Minnesota and beat Kevin Garnett's old team, the team with which the franchise-altering trade was made in the 2007 offseason. Like Jefferson, the Timberwolves were looking for their first-even win over a Celtics team featuring KG, and like Jefferson, they didn't get it.
I didn't watch the whole game, but did catch the better part of the first three quarters, during which Boston led comfortably most of the way. KG was predictably over-hyped playing in Minnesota, but once he settled down a bit, the offense pretty much clicked on all cylinders the whole way. Boston shot about 49 percent from the field for the game, but if you remove Sasha Pavlovic's 0-for-5 (he was way off all game), the Celtics' percentage jumps to over 51 percent.
Avery Bradley, playing in place of the injured Ray Allen, was once again excellent, making six of nine shots from the field and five of six attempts from the line. I'm amazed at his offensive development; he's become a viable option off the ball, though he certainly benefits from being a secondary option. Rajon R-ndo controlled the tempo from the getgo, picking up a dozen of his 17 assists in the first half. KG (24 points, 10 rebounds) and Paul Pierce (21 and 9) did much of the heavy lifting. The Celtics got 20 bench points, though Keyon Dooling and Greg Stiemsma contributed 10 of their combined 16 in a 31-point first quarter.
For Minnesota's part, it's a bit unfair to judge evaluate them with their current injuries. Rookie point guard sensation Ricky Rubio (aka The Other Woman) is done for the year with a torn ACL; young big man Nikola Pekovic, who exploded on to the scene in February and averaged close to a double-double that month, has been limited by bone spurs in March and has missed the last six games; sixth man Michael Beasley has been limited by a toe injury that is submarining one of my fantasy basketball playoff runs; and backup point guard J.J. Barea, who has battled injuries all season after coming over from Dallas as a free agent, suffered a thigh bruise while amassing a triple-double against Oklahoma City on March 23 and hasn't played since. All of this leaves precious little around power forward Kevin Love, a budding star.
For those unfamiliar, in his fourth season, Love has become one of the league's best players, a tenacious rebounder with legitimate three-point range. As far as I can tell, he's more effective facing up than with his back to the basket, which may be why he struggled so much against the Celtics. Love seemed to struggle with both with KG's length and KG's comfort level on the perimeter. He was simply off all game, and his 5-for-18 performance left him nine points short of having the most prolific month, in terms of combined points and rebounds, in NBA history.
With all the injuries, the only other T-Wolf of note was rookie Derrick Williams, the second overall pick in last summer's draft. With Pekovic out and Love playing the five, Williams has been playing the four, but he's more comfortable on the perimeter and is probably better suited to the three. He's had a difficult week, but he did have a decent game against the Celtics. What surprised me, however, is how poorly he finishes in traffic. Confronted with a Celtic defender on several drives to the rim, he neither assertively changed course to get to the basket nor tried to draw the foul by finishing through the defender. Instead, he wildly altered his shot, missing more often than not. Hopefully that part of his game will develop.
And now, the best news. Boston won, and Philadelphia suffered a stunning 21-point loss in Washington to the Wizards, the second-worst team in the NBA. As I detailed in an earlier post, the Celtics faced an uphill battle against the Sixers for the Atlantic division crown and the spoils that come with it: the fourth seed in the East and a playoff series against a team like Indiana instead of a team like Chicago or Miami. We now hold a one-game lead in the division, and the unexpected loss by Philly chips a way a bit at the schedule advantage they hold over the season's final month.
The Celtics are back in action Sunday at 3:30 Eastern, on ABC -- against Miami.
On Wednesday night, the Celtics beat a Utah team featuring Al Jefferson, the promising young center who was the major sacrifice of the deal that brought Kevin Garnett to Boston. After three years in Minnesota, Jefferson was traded to the Jazz before last season. Through nearly five seasons with two different clubs, however, Jefferson is still searching for his first win against his old team.
On Friday, the Celtics traveled to Minnesota and beat Kevin Garnett's old team, the team with which the franchise-altering trade was made in the 2007 offseason. Like Jefferson, the Timberwolves were looking for their first-even win over a Celtics team featuring KG, and like Jefferson, they didn't get it.
I didn't watch the whole game, but did catch the better part of the first three quarters, during which Boston led comfortably most of the way. KG was predictably over-hyped playing in Minnesota, but once he settled down a bit, the offense pretty much clicked on all cylinders the whole way. Boston shot about 49 percent from the field for the game, but if you remove Sasha Pavlovic's 0-for-5 (he was way off all game), the Celtics' percentage jumps to over 51 percent.
Avery Bradley, playing in place of the injured Ray Allen, was once again excellent, making six of nine shots from the field and five of six attempts from the line. I'm amazed at his offensive development; he's become a viable option off the ball, though he certainly benefits from being a secondary option. Rajon R-ndo controlled the tempo from the getgo, picking up a dozen of his 17 assists in the first half. KG (24 points, 10 rebounds) and Paul Pierce (21 and 9) did much of the heavy lifting. The Celtics got 20 bench points, though Keyon Dooling and Greg Stiemsma contributed 10 of their combined 16 in a 31-point first quarter.
For Minnesota's part, it's a bit unfair to judge evaluate them with their current injuries. Rookie point guard sensation Ricky Rubio (aka The Other Woman) is done for the year with a torn ACL; young big man Nikola Pekovic, who exploded on to the scene in February and averaged close to a double-double that month, has been limited by bone spurs in March and has missed the last six games; sixth man Michael Beasley has been limited by a toe injury that is submarining one of my fantasy basketball playoff runs; and backup point guard J.J. Barea, who has battled injuries all season after coming over from Dallas as a free agent, suffered a thigh bruise while amassing a triple-double against Oklahoma City on March 23 and hasn't played since. All of this leaves precious little around power forward Kevin Love, a budding star.
For those unfamiliar, in his fourth season, Love has become one of the league's best players, a tenacious rebounder with legitimate three-point range. As far as I can tell, he's more effective facing up than with his back to the basket, which may be why he struggled so much against the Celtics. Love seemed to struggle with both with KG's length and KG's comfort level on the perimeter. He was simply off all game, and his 5-for-18 performance left him nine points short of having the most prolific month, in terms of combined points and rebounds, in NBA history.
With all the injuries, the only other T-Wolf of note was rookie Derrick Williams, the second overall pick in last summer's draft. With Pekovic out and Love playing the five, Williams has been playing the four, but he's more comfortable on the perimeter and is probably better suited to the three. He's had a difficult week, but he did have a decent game against the Celtics. What surprised me, however, is how poorly he finishes in traffic. Confronted with a Celtic defender on several drives to the rim, he neither assertively changed course to get to the basket nor tried to draw the foul by finishing through the defender. Instead, he wildly altered his shot, missing more often than not. Hopefully that part of his game will develop.
And now, the best news. Boston won, and Philadelphia suffered a stunning 21-point loss in Washington to the Wizards, the second-worst team in the NBA. As I detailed in an earlier post, the Celtics faced an uphill battle against the Sixers for the Atlantic division crown and the spoils that come with it: the fourth seed in the East and a playoff series against a team like Indiana instead of a team like Chicago or Miami. We now hold a one-game lead in the division, and the unexpected loss by Philly chips a way a bit at the schedule advantage they hold over the season's final month.
The Celtics are back in action Sunday at 3:30 Eastern, on ABC -- against Miami.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Celts Tie Sixers Atop the Atlantic
Since I last posted:
Philadelphia 99, Boston 86
Boston 88, Washington 76
Boston 102, Charlotte 95
A lot's happened in those three games, but what's most important is really what hasn't happened: Ray Allen hasn't played. The veteran shooting guard has a sore right ankle, which he reportedly injured back on March 12, even though he didn't sit out til last Friday. I haven't seen any sort of timetable for Allen's return, but I take the fact that he was able to play with the injury for a while as a good sign, though there is of course the chance that in doing so, he injured it more seriously. Hopefully, the team and Allen are just being cautious.
Allen's absence from the lineup got even more serious in the second quarter of the Philly game, as his replacement, Mickael Pietrus, took a nasty spill and banged his head on the court, eventually being carried off on a stretcher as a precaution. (Side note: I was watching the NCAAs at the time and flipped over to ESPN to check on the Celtics game at pretty much the exact second that ESPN went to commercial. Because the medical personnel tending to Pietrus blocked much of the view, all I saw before the cameras cut away was an unidentifiable Celtic wearing a jersey with a last name that started "P-I-E". I'll cop to being a bit relieved when I found out that it was Pietrus, not Paul Pierce -- and then guilty, and then relieved -- both for Pietrus and for myself, for karma purposes -- when I learned that Pietrus had escaped serious injury and should return to action soon.)
All of this sets the stage as to why Avery Bradley has been in the starting lineup the last two games, playing 40 minutes a night. The second-year guard announced his presence in a big way against the Wizards, hitting his first seven shots on the way to a career-high 23 points. (Weird fact: the Celtics were up 19 at halftime against the Wizards, and Bradley and Greg Stiemsma were the team's leading scorers.) Bradley added 11 points against the Bobcats on Monday, and he's developed into a decent rotation player. His jumper still needs a lot of work, but one thing he's done well all year is move well without the basketball. I first noticed it when played in place of Rajon R-ndo for a few games in late January, and Pierce seemed to find him a lot on cuts to the basket. Bradley knocked down a couple of jumpers against the Wizards, but a lot of his points in the last couple of games have come on layups.
What else? Center Ryan Hollins made his Celtics debut in one of the weirdest ways I can imagine: as the bench player elected by Philly coach Doug Collins to take the free throws in place of Pietrus, who was fouled on the play he was injured. (Hollins missed the first and made the second.) The long, athletic Hollins hasn't contributed much in limited court time over his first three games, but while Stiemsma has been playing his best ball of the season of late, I expect he'll have a larger role as the season wears on, now that Jermaine O'Neal and Chris Wilcox are both done for the season.
Finally, Monday in Charlotte, Pierce put the team on his back, leading all scorers with 36 points and helping the Cs hold off the Bobcats after blowing most of yet another big first-quarter lead. The Captain is now averaging 25.5 ppg and nine boards over the last four games.
Thanks to Philly's loss to Tim Duncan-less San Antonio on Sunday, Monday's win over Charlotte puts Boston into a tie atop the Atlantic Division. Whichever team can break the tie will be rewarded with the fourth seed in the East and a likely playoff matchup with Indiana or Atlanta, rather than the seventh and a first-round battle with Miami or Chicago. While it's true that the path to the Finals will probably run through the Heat or Bulls anyway, you never know when a big upset or an untimely injury might change the playoff landscape. (Last year, for instance, #8 Memphis beat #1 San Antonio in the first round of the West playoffs.) So Boston would like to earn the Atlantic title, if possible.
So how likely is it that the Celtics can capture their fifth straight division crown? I wish I had some scientific, math-based approach that could spit out a probability, but I don't. But as the brief analysis below shows, the reality is that Boston probably is an underdog, at this point, to beat out Philadelphia.
Let's start, though, with the things that do line up in Boston's favor. First, the game on April 8th between the two teams (the third and final meeting of the season), will be played in Boston. Philly won the first two matchups, which gives them the tiebreaker, so this opportunity to pick up a full game on them will be very important. Second, while both teams have 17 games remaining, Philly has just six home games, while Boston has eight. And the Sixers (10-12 away from home so far this season), like the Celts (10-14), haven't been that great on the road.
When you dig a little deeper, though, you find things starting to swing in Philly's favor. Both teams have four back-to-backs as well as one back-to-back-to-back. Each team will be on the second night of a back-to-back when they play each other on the 8th, so advantage Boston there. But the Celtics have three tough games on the second night of their other back-to-backs -- at Chicago, vs. Atlanta, and vs. Orlando. The Sixers get Atlanta in Philly and then Toronto twice (one home, one road) on the second night of their other back-to-backs, a significantly easier configuration than Boston's. And the Cs' back-to-back-to-back also puts them at a disadvantage, I think, even though traveling to Toronto, New Jersey, and Charlotte is less daunting than at Orlando, vs. Indiana, then at Cleveland; having three of your most winnable games in a back-to-back-to-back increases the probability of a "bad" loss, something the Celtics can't afford.
The teams have six games in common: they both host Atlanta and Orlando and travel to Indiana, Miami, Toronto, and New Jersey. The teams share a seventh common opponent, Milwaukee, though Boston gets the Bucks at home and Philly has them on the road. Subtract those seven games and the one between Boston and Philadelphia, and you have nine remaining games.
Boston: Home against Utah, Miami (twice), and San Antonio; at Minnesota, Chicago, Charlotte, New York, and Atlanta.
Philadelphia: Home against Cleveland, Toronto, New Jersey, and Indiana; at Washington, Orlando, Cleveland, New Jersey, and Detroit.
To put a point on it, the combined win-loss record of the nine teams in Boston's list is currently 256-185, a winning percentage of .580. Philly's list is a combined 171-269, a winning percentage of .389. Two of the Sixers' nine opponents have a winning record; two of Boston's have a losing record.
Finally, these two teams are about to play 17 basketball games in 31 days, one final push at the end of an already grueling season. Deep and youthful, less injury prone and more able to survive injuries, Philadelphia is built far better than Boston for a a run like the one that's upcoming. Indeed, should the teams remain close, Doc Rivers may have to decide between going all-out for the division and resting the veterans, with the second alternative quite possibly being the correct one. The Celtics are still in the running, but it's going to take something remarkable -- a remarkable stretch of basketball for Boston, or a remarkable choke job by Philly -- for it to happen.
Philadelphia 99, Boston 86
Boston 88, Washington 76
Boston 102, Charlotte 95
A lot's happened in those three games, but what's most important is really what hasn't happened: Ray Allen hasn't played. The veteran shooting guard has a sore right ankle, which he reportedly injured back on March 12, even though he didn't sit out til last Friday. I haven't seen any sort of timetable for Allen's return, but I take the fact that he was able to play with the injury for a while as a good sign, though there is of course the chance that in doing so, he injured it more seriously. Hopefully, the team and Allen are just being cautious.
Allen's absence from the lineup got even more serious in the second quarter of the Philly game, as his replacement, Mickael Pietrus, took a nasty spill and banged his head on the court, eventually being carried off on a stretcher as a precaution. (Side note: I was watching the NCAAs at the time and flipped over to ESPN to check on the Celtics game at pretty much the exact second that ESPN went to commercial. Because the medical personnel tending to Pietrus blocked much of the view, all I saw before the cameras cut away was an unidentifiable Celtic wearing a jersey with a last name that started "P-I-E". I'll cop to being a bit relieved when I found out that it was Pietrus, not Paul Pierce -- and then guilty, and then relieved -- both for Pietrus and for myself, for karma purposes -- when I learned that Pietrus had escaped serious injury and should return to action soon.)
All of this sets the stage as to why Avery Bradley has been in the starting lineup the last two games, playing 40 minutes a night. The second-year guard announced his presence in a big way against the Wizards, hitting his first seven shots on the way to a career-high 23 points. (Weird fact: the Celtics were up 19 at halftime against the Wizards, and Bradley and Greg Stiemsma were the team's leading scorers.) Bradley added 11 points against the Bobcats on Monday, and he's developed into a decent rotation player. His jumper still needs a lot of work, but one thing he's done well all year is move well without the basketball. I first noticed it when played in place of Rajon R-ndo for a few games in late January, and Pierce seemed to find him a lot on cuts to the basket. Bradley knocked down a couple of jumpers against the Wizards, but a lot of his points in the last couple of games have come on layups.
What else? Center Ryan Hollins made his Celtics debut in one of the weirdest ways I can imagine: as the bench player elected by Philly coach Doug Collins to take the free throws in place of Pietrus, who was fouled on the play he was injured. (Hollins missed the first and made the second.) The long, athletic Hollins hasn't contributed much in limited court time over his first three games, but while Stiemsma has been playing his best ball of the season of late, I expect he'll have a larger role as the season wears on, now that Jermaine O'Neal and Chris Wilcox are both done for the season.
Finally, Monday in Charlotte, Pierce put the team on his back, leading all scorers with 36 points and helping the Cs hold off the Bobcats after blowing most of yet another big first-quarter lead. The Captain is now averaging 25.5 ppg and nine boards over the last four games.
Thanks to Philly's loss to Tim Duncan-less San Antonio on Sunday, Monday's win over Charlotte puts Boston into a tie atop the Atlantic Division. Whichever team can break the tie will be rewarded with the fourth seed in the East and a likely playoff matchup with Indiana or Atlanta, rather than the seventh and a first-round battle with Miami or Chicago. While it's true that the path to the Finals will probably run through the Heat or Bulls anyway, you never know when a big upset or an untimely injury might change the playoff landscape. (Last year, for instance, #8 Memphis beat #1 San Antonio in the first round of the West playoffs.) So Boston would like to earn the Atlantic title, if possible.
So how likely is it that the Celtics can capture their fifth straight division crown? I wish I had some scientific, math-based approach that could spit out a probability, but I don't. But as the brief analysis below shows, the reality is that Boston probably is an underdog, at this point, to beat out Philadelphia.
Let's start, though, with the things that do line up in Boston's favor. First, the game on April 8th between the two teams (the third and final meeting of the season), will be played in Boston. Philly won the first two matchups, which gives them the tiebreaker, so this opportunity to pick up a full game on them will be very important. Second, while both teams have 17 games remaining, Philly has just six home games, while Boston has eight. And the Sixers (10-12 away from home so far this season), like the Celts (10-14), haven't been that great on the road.
When you dig a little deeper, though, you find things starting to swing in Philly's favor. Both teams have four back-to-backs as well as one back-to-back-to-back. Each team will be on the second night of a back-to-back when they play each other on the 8th, so advantage Boston there. But the Celtics have three tough games on the second night of their other back-to-backs -- at Chicago, vs. Atlanta, and vs. Orlando. The Sixers get Atlanta in Philly and then Toronto twice (one home, one road) on the second night of their other back-to-backs, a significantly easier configuration than Boston's. And the Cs' back-to-back-to-back also puts them at a disadvantage, I think, even though traveling to Toronto, New Jersey, and Charlotte is less daunting than at Orlando, vs. Indiana, then at Cleveland; having three of your most winnable games in a back-to-back-to-back increases the probability of a "bad" loss, something the Celtics can't afford.
The teams have six games in common: they both host Atlanta and Orlando and travel to Indiana, Miami, Toronto, and New Jersey. The teams share a seventh common opponent, Milwaukee, though Boston gets the Bucks at home and Philly has them on the road. Subtract those seven games and the one between Boston and Philadelphia, and you have nine remaining games.
Boston: Home against Utah, Miami (twice), and San Antonio; at Minnesota, Chicago, Charlotte, New York, and Atlanta.
Philadelphia: Home against Cleveland, Toronto, New Jersey, and Indiana; at Washington, Orlando, Cleveland, New Jersey, and Detroit.
To put a point on it, the combined win-loss record of the nine teams in Boston's list is currently 256-185, a winning percentage of .580. Philly's list is a combined 171-269, a winning percentage of .389. Two of the Sixers' nine opponents have a winning record; two of Boston's have a losing record.
Finally, these two teams are about to play 17 basketball games in 31 days, one final push at the end of an already grueling season. Deep and youthful, less injury prone and more able to survive injuries, Philadelphia is built far better than Boston for a a run like the one that's upcoming. Indeed, should the teams remain close, Doc Rivers may have to decide between going all-out for the division and resting the veterans, with the second alternative quite possibly being the correct one. The Celtics are still in the running, but it's going to take something remarkable -- a remarkable stretch of basketball for Boston, or a remarkable choke job by Philly -- for it to happen.
Monday, March 19, 2012
Boston 79, Atlanta 76
[recap] [box score]
The Celtics were bad tonight. The Hawks were worse. The officials were atrocious. No one who had anything to do with this game should be satisfied with their performance. And yet the Celtics walked out of Philips Arena with a win, and an end, albeit an ugly one, to an even uglier two-game losing streak.
Almost from the beginning, you could tell it was going to be a low-level game. The Celtics' legs seemed understandably road-weary. Rajon R-ndo made quick work of Jeff Teague on a few early drives and cuts to the basket, but missed the layups. Paul Pierce left his early jumpers well short off the front rim. Kevin Garnett couldn't seem to get his feet underneath him operating in the post.
Fortunately, the Hawks didn't look any better, perhaps tired from the previous night's win over Cleveland. In addition to looking flat-footed on defense, Teague -- who has enjoyed something of a breakout year as Atlanta's starting point guard -- showed no interest in penetrating the Boston D. Former Celtic Joe Johnson, the team's best offensive player, was so quiet that I was surprised to look up at the start of the fourth quarter and see that he had scored even 11 points. The only Hawk interested in doing anything seemed to be Josh Smith, who hit three long jumpers in the game's opening minutes. That turned out to be a bad thing for Atlanta, as Smith fell in love with the jumper, which has been a valid criticism of his game for years now. Smith started the game 3-for-4 from the field; he finished it 5-for-20.
Atlanta is one of those teams that reacts to Boston's bullying in kind, and Zaza Pachulia is a known agitator who really seems to get under Garnett's skin, in particular. So I was expecting a chippy game. The pace was so slow in the first half, though, the intensity level so low, that it looked like it might not materialize. But a hard foul -- nothing dirty, but a clear flagrant 1 -- by Brandon Bass on Pachulia early in the third quarter seemed to get the blood boiling a bit, and the rest of the game was dotted with cheap fouls and quick whistles.
Midway through the third, Teague dunked on the break to give Atlanta a 47-39 lead, and had words for Ray Allen. That earned him a technical foul, but even after Allen nailed the free throw, the Hawks had a chance to blow the game open. In the last few weeks, Boston opponents had taken control of close games in the third quarter, and the Celtics seemed ripe for it to happen once again: Boston was really struggling offensively and Paul Pierce was on the bench with foul trouble. But given three opportunities to extend the lead, the Hawks came up empty, with two turnovers and an empty trip to the free throw line.
Fully two minutes after the Teague tech, Allen drilled a three-pointer to keep Boston in striking distance. He hit another at the end of the quarter, on a nifty inbounds pass from Rondo; there was but a second left on the clock, and Rondo faked as though he was going to throw a lob to Garnett. Allen's defender reacted to the fake, and Ray's lightning quick release got the shot off in plenty of time. Boston trailed 51-50 after three quarters (if not for Orlando's 59-point performance tonight against Derrick Rose-less Chicago, Boston and Atlanta's offensive futility would be a big talking point among NBA types today).
The Celtics scored six straight points to start the fourth, but Atlanta got five on consecutive possession to tie the score at 76. And then, for whatever reason, Boston got hot. A 17-2 run, including 13 in a row at the end, the last nine coming on two three-pointers by Allen (one from like 26 feet at the top of the key, moving noticeably left, with Kirk Hinrich's hand right in his face) and one from Mickael Pietrus.
If you're paying attention, you know that Boston scored only six points over the final 4:30. The culprit was the usual; the Celtics stopped running their stuff, took the air out of the ball, and settled for contested jumpers at the end of the shot clock. Atlanta finally woke up, and Johnson's second three-pointer of the final minutes cut the Boston lead to 75-71 with a minute left. The Celtics got nothing on the ensuing possession and it really looked they might let this one slip away.
Enter Josh Smith, who found himself with the ball on the wing, with no Celtics defender nearby. Apparently not realizing that there was a reason he was left open, Smith launched his third and final three-pointer of the game. Like the other two, it missed, and a golden opportunity was wasted. A missed free throw by Pierce and another Johnson three gave the Hawks a chance to tie it up. Doc Rivers made a mistake, I thought, by ordering a little full-court pressure with 10 seconds left. The pressure left Teague wide open in transition for the potential game-tying three-pointer, but the young fella pulled it left and didn't even catch the rim.
The Hawks, at least without Al Horford (who's been out for months with a torn pectoral muscle), are actually a decent matchup for Boston, as long as Smith decides to stay outside (something he's generally been a lot better about during the last two seasons). Pachulia is a nuisance and with 16 points and 13 rebounds he was probably the only Hawk who played a good full game, but he had no real help on the offensive glass, where Boston opponents have been exploiting the Cs lately. And the bench -- another vulnerable area for Boston now that Brandon Bass has moved into the starting lineup for Jermaine O'Neal (whose season is over, it was confirmed today) -- features Tracy McGrady and Jerry Stackhouse -- a formidable duo a decade ago, maybe, but not now.
Anyway, good matchup or not, Boston got a huge win. They kept pace with the Sixers, who win Charlotte; they gained a full game on the Hawks for the six-seed; and they put the pressure on the Knicks and Bucks. As importantly, they rid themselves of some of the disappointment of the losses in Sacramento and Denver. The road trip can still be a success.
The Celtics were bad tonight. The Hawks were worse. The officials were atrocious. No one who had anything to do with this game should be satisfied with their performance. And yet the Celtics walked out of Philips Arena with a win, and an end, albeit an ugly one, to an even uglier two-game losing streak.
Almost from the beginning, you could tell it was going to be a low-level game. The Celtics' legs seemed understandably road-weary. Rajon R-ndo made quick work of Jeff Teague on a few early drives and cuts to the basket, but missed the layups. Paul Pierce left his early jumpers well short off the front rim. Kevin Garnett couldn't seem to get his feet underneath him operating in the post.
Fortunately, the Hawks didn't look any better, perhaps tired from the previous night's win over Cleveland. In addition to looking flat-footed on defense, Teague -- who has enjoyed something of a breakout year as Atlanta's starting point guard -- showed no interest in penetrating the Boston D. Former Celtic Joe Johnson, the team's best offensive player, was so quiet that I was surprised to look up at the start of the fourth quarter and see that he had scored even 11 points. The only Hawk interested in doing anything seemed to be Josh Smith, who hit three long jumpers in the game's opening minutes. That turned out to be a bad thing for Atlanta, as Smith fell in love with the jumper, which has been a valid criticism of his game for years now. Smith started the game 3-for-4 from the field; he finished it 5-for-20.
Atlanta is one of those teams that reacts to Boston's bullying in kind, and Zaza Pachulia is a known agitator who really seems to get under Garnett's skin, in particular. So I was expecting a chippy game. The pace was so slow in the first half, though, the intensity level so low, that it looked like it might not materialize. But a hard foul -- nothing dirty, but a clear flagrant 1 -- by Brandon Bass on Pachulia early in the third quarter seemed to get the blood boiling a bit, and the rest of the game was dotted with cheap fouls and quick whistles.
Midway through the third, Teague dunked on the break to give Atlanta a 47-39 lead, and had words for Ray Allen. That earned him a technical foul, but even after Allen nailed the free throw, the Hawks had a chance to blow the game open. In the last few weeks, Boston opponents had taken control of close games in the third quarter, and the Celtics seemed ripe for it to happen once again: Boston was really struggling offensively and Paul Pierce was on the bench with foul trouble. But given three opportunities to extend the lead, the Hawks came up empty, with two turnovers and an empty trip to the free throw line.
Fully two minutes after the Teague tech, Allen drilled a three-pointer to keep Boston in striking distance. He hit another at the end of the quarter, on a nifty inbounds pass from Rondo; there was but a second left on the clock, and Rondo faked as though he was going to throw a lob to Garnett. Allen's defender reacted to the fake, and Ray's lightning quick release got the shot off in plenty of time. Boston trailed 51-50 after three quarters (if not for Orlando's 59-point performance tonight against Derrick Rose-less Chicago, Boston and Atlanta's offensive futility would be a big talking point among NBA types today).
The Celtics scored six straight points to start the fourth, but Atlanta got five on consecutive possession to tie the score at 76. And then, for whatever reason, Boston got hot. A 17-2 run, including 13 in a row at the end, the last nine coming on two three-pointers by Allen (one from like 26 feet at the top of the key, moving noticeably left, with Kirk Hinrich's hand right in his face) and one from Mickael Pietrus.
If you're paying attention, you know that Boston scored only six points over the final 4:30. The culprit was the usual; the Celtics stopped running their stuff, took the air out of the ball, and settled for contested jumpers at the end of the shot clock. Atlanta finally woke up, and Johnson's second three-pointer of the final minutes cut the Boston lead to 75-71 with a minute left. The Celtics got nothing on the ensuing possession and it really looked they might let this one slip away.
Enter Josh Smith, who found himself with the ball on the wing, with no Celtics defender nearby. Apparently not realizing that there was a reason he was left open, Smith launched his third and final three-pointer of the game. Like the other two, it missed, and a golden opportunity was wasted. A missed free throw by Pierce and another Johnson three gave the Hawks a chance to tie it up. Doc Rivers made a mistake, I thought, by ordering a little full-court pressure with 10 seconds left. The pressure left Teague wide open in transition for the potential game-tying three-pointer, but the young fella pulled it left and didn't even catch the rim.
The Hawks, at least without Al Horford (who's been out for months with a torn pectoral muscle), are actually a decent matchup for Boston, as long as Smith decides to stay outside (something he's generally been a lot better about during the last two seasons). Pachulia is a nuisance and with 16 points and 13 rebounds he was probably the only Hawk who played a good full game, but he had no real help on the offensive glass, where Boston opponents have been exploiting the Cs lately. And the bench -- another vulnerable area for Boston now that Brandon Bass has moved into the starting lineup for Jermaine O'Neal (whose season is over, it was confirmed today) -- features Tracy McGrady and Jerry Stackhouse -- a formidable duo a decade ago, maybe, but not now.
Anyway, good matchup or not, Boston got a huge win. They kept pace with the Sixers, who win Charlotte; they gained a full game on the Hawks for the six-seed; and they put the pressure on the Knicks and Bucks. As importantly, they rid themselves of some of the disappointment of the losses in Sacramento and Denver. The road trip can still be a success.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Los Angeles Lakers 88, Boston 87 (Overtime)
[recap] [box score]
Losing to the Lakers always sucks. Losing to the Lakers at home is worse. Losing to the Lakers at home because we couldn't grab a couple loose balls is sleep-deprivingly frustrating.
Actually, we didn't lose because we couldn't grab a couple loose balls. We lost because we couldn't shoot -- just over 39 percent for the game -- and didn't attack the basket to try to get to the line. Particularly in the second half, with the Lakers sagging off of Rajon R-ndo as they have the last several seasons, the Celtics relied exclusively on jumpers, and paid the price.
The Lakers shot horribly, too, which is why we even had a chance to win the game. They missed a ton of open looks, as we did, and both tams played well enough defensively to win the game. But the Lakers got the loose balls when it mattered:
* After Boston had retaken the lead late in the fourth, the Celtics forced Pau Gasol into a long three from the right corner, which he missed. But Andrew Bynum was there for the putback and the foul, converting the free throw to put the visitors up one.
* Ray Allen gave Boston the lead with a three-pointer with 1:07 left, and after an exchange of empty possessions -- a missed jumper by Kevin Garnett and a horrific three-pointer from Metta World Peace (where was that in Game 7 of the 2010 Finals when we needed it?) -- LA had the ball with 30 seconds to go. Steve Blake drove, stopped at the foul line, passed up a shot, before throwing a terrible pass into the post. It was knocked away, and anyone of three Celtics could have grabbed it. They didn't, though, and Blake, following up on his pass, snatched it.
* Blake got the ball to Kobe Bryant, who missed a jumper, but Gasol was there for the tip and the tie. Overtime.
* The Lakers got the first four points of overtime, holding the Celtics scoreless for the first half of the extra period. Pierce brought us back, hitting a foul-line jumper and then a three with 90 seconds to go. Kobe again missed a jumper, but Bynum was there for the tip-in. The Lakers would go scoreless on their final two possessions, but Boston came up empty in its last three, and the Lakers won.
Boston had plenty of chances on the offensive end to win the game. At the end of regulation, Doc drew up the predictable 2-3 pick-and-roll with Pierce and Allen. Allen was free, but Pierce hesitated on the pass and the ball ended up in the hands of Mickael Pietrus, who had no choice but to throw up a 35-footer.
* On the final possession of the game, Doc iso'd Pierce against World Peace, who has guarded Pierce well since he was known as Ron Artest. Pierce got off a decent look at a mid-range jumper, but it missed by a hair, bouncing softly of the front of the rim and the backboard into the waiting hands of Allen, who had pushed aside Blake as the shot went up. The Lakers' length would save them one last time, however, as Gasol came over and blocked Allen's putback as time expired.
The Celtics haven't beaten the Lakers in Boston in the regular season since 2007, with three of those four losses coming by a single point. The last time the Celtics beat LA on the parquet was, of course, June 13, 2010, Game 5 of the NBA Finals. Boston led the series three games to two and headed west brimming with confidence, a win away from yet another banner.
Things sure have changed since then. Kendrick Perkins, whose knee injury probably cost us the 2010 title, is gone, shipped to Oklahoma City at last year's trade deadline. Boston went down fighting to Miami in the second round of last year's playoffs, a five-game series that signaled a changing of the guard in the East. The Lakers, for their part, embarrassed themselves in getting swept by the Mavs last year, then lost key bench players in the offseason and didn't replace them. Neither team has been very impressive this season.
Yes, things are different. In past years, games like this really bugged me, not only because I hate the Lakers, but because I always had it in my mind that we might see them down the road. I'd worry for days afterward about what we'd do if they ever made Bynum and Gasol the focal point of their offense, or why R-ndo attacks their sagging defense some nights and disappears on others.
Now, there are no such worries. Neither team looks to be championship-caliber; the playoffs, for both, are not even a sure thing. And yet the loss still eats at me, and not just because I live among Lakers fans. There are a lot of games in an NBA season, but this one always means a little bit more. So the way we lost Thursday night eats at me. The fact that the offense slogged down in the second half eats at me. It gnaws at me that Doc sat Ray for so long, and that he didn't at least try Pierce on Kobe when Bryant got hot in the third quarter. (Though Ray did pretty well, all things considered; Kobe just hit some very tough shots.)
But we soldier on, across to the border to Toronto to face the Raptors in the second half of the back-to-back. Should be an easy win, under normal circumstances. But after all the minutes tonight and the letdown of letting this one slip away, it's going to take a particularly focused effort.
Losing to the Lakers always sucks. Losing to the Lakers at home is worse. Losing to the Lakers at home because we couldn't grab a couple loose balls is sleep-deprivingly frustrating.
Actually, we didn't lose because we couldn't grab a couple loose balls. We lost because we couldn't shoot -- just over 39 percent for the game -- and didn't attack the basket to try to get to the line. Particularly in the second half, with the Lakers sagging off of Rajon R-ndo as they have the last several seasons, the Celtics relied exclusively on jumpers, and paid the price.
The Lakers shot horribly, too, which is why we even had a chance to win the game. They missed a ton of open looks, as we did, and both tams played well enough defensively to win the game. But the Lakers got the loose balls when it mattered:
* After Boston had retaken the lead late in the fourth, the Celtics forced Pau Gasol into a long three from the right corner, which he missed. But Andrew Bynum was there for the putback and the foul, converting the free throw to put the visitors up one.
* Ray Allen gave Boston the lead with a three-pointer with 1:07 left, and after an exchange of empty possessions -- a missed jumper by Kevin Garnett and a horrific three-pointer from Metta World Peace (where was that in Game 7 of the 2010 Finals when we needed it?) -- LA had the ball with 30 seconds to go. Steve Blake drove, stopped at the foul line, passed up a shot, before throwing a terrible pass into the post. It was knocked away, and anyone of three Celtics could have grabbed it. They didn't, though, and Blake, following up on his pass, snatched it.
* Blake got the ball to Kobe Bryant, who missed a jumper, but Gasol was there for the tip and the tie. Overtime.
* The Lakers got the first four points of overtime, holding the Celtics scoreless for the first half of the extra period. Pierce brought us back, hitting a foul-line jumper and then a three with 90 seconds to go. Kobe again missed a jumper, but Bynum was there for the tip-in. The Lakers would go scoreless on their final two possessions, but Boston came up empty in its last three, and the Lakers won.
Boston had plenty of chances on the offensive end to win the game. At the end of regulation, Doc drew up the predictable 2-3 pick-and-roll with Pierce and Allen. Allen was free, but Pierce hesitated on the pass and the ball ended up in the hands of Mickael Pietrus, who had no choice but to throw up a 35-footer.
* On the final possession of the game, Doc iso'd Pierce against World Peace, who has guarded Pierce well since he was known as Ron Artest. Pierce got off a decent look at a mid-range jumper, but it missed by a hair, bouncing softly of the front of the rim and the backboard into the waiting hands of Allen, who had pushed aside Blake as the shot went up. The Lakers' length would save them one last time, however, as Gasol came over and blocked Allen's putback as time expired.
The Celtics haven't beaten the Lakers in Boston in the regular season since 2007, with three of those four losses coming by a single point. The last time the Celtics beat LA on the parquet was, of course, June 13, 2010, Game 5 of the NBA Finals. Boston led the series three games to two and headed west brimming with confidence, a win away from yet another banner.
Things sure have changed since then. Kendrick Perkins, whose knee injury probably cost us the 2010 title, is gone, shipped to Oklahoma City at last year's trade deadline. Boston went down fighting to Miami in the second round of last year's playoffs, a five-game series that signaled a changing of the guard in the East. The Lakers, for their part, embarrassed themselves in getting swept by the Mavs last year, then lost key bench players in the offseason and didn't replace them. Neither team has been very impressive this season.
Yes, things are different. In past years, games like this really bugged me, not only because I hate the Lakers, but because I always had it in my mind that we might see them down the road. I'd worry for days afterward about what we'd do if they ever made Bynum and Gasol the focal point of their offense, or why R-ndo attacks their sagging defense some nights and disappears on others.
Now, there are no such worries. Neither team looks to be championship-caliber; the playoffs, for both, are not even a sure thing. And yet the loss still eats at me, and not just because I live among Lakers fans. There are a lot of games in an NBA season, but this one always means a little bit more. So the way we lost Thursday night eats at me. The fact that the offense slogged down in the second half eats at me. It gnaws at me that Doc sat Ray for so long, and that he didn't at least try Pierce on Kobe when Bryant got hot in the third quarter. (Though Ray did pretty well, all things considered; Kobe just hit some very tough shots.)
But we soldier on, across to the border to Toronto to face the Raptors in the second half of the back-to-back. Should be an easy win, under normal circumstances. But after all the minutes tonight and the letdown of letting this one slip away, it's going to take a particularly focused effort.
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Phoenix 79, Boston 71
[recap] [box score]
You might be tempted to look at the box score of this game, note the absence of Rajon R-ndo's name, and assume that was the reason the Celtics managed just 71 points while just shooting just 40 percent from the floor. And it's probably true that R-ndo, who missed the game with the sprained wrist he suffered Wednesday night against Toronto, would have made a big enough difference to swing the outcome of this game from a Boston loss to a Boston win; he's much too quick for Steve Nash, and indeed registered his career high of 32 points in a matchup with Nash in the 2008-09 season, well before he became a consistent scoring threat.
Hell, even R-ndo's backup, Keyon Dooling, might have made the difference. It wouldn't have taken much: The Suns didn't exactly scorch the net themselves, and they turned the ball over 21 times. But Dooling sat this one out, too, sidelined for the fifth straight game with a sore knee.
What's really frustrating, though, is that Boston could have -- should have -- won this game, even without their first- or second-string point guard. It came down, as it has in each of the team's last seven losses, to the most basic fundamental in the game of basketball: making open shots.
At around 45 percent on the season, the Celtics are in the middle of the NBA pack when it comes to shooting. And yet, I'd bet that if you filtered the data for open, mid-range jumpers, Boston would rank at or near the bottom of the league. (There's a good chance such data is available, but I don't know where to get it.)
You really ought to be able to take an open jumper for granted in the NBA. I'd say that almost every team, at any given time, has at least three guys on the floor who you'd feel reasonably confident in taking a wide-open 15- or 17-footer. Right now, Boston has two guys on its entire roster who I feel confident seeing take those shots: The great Ray Allen, who hasn't exactly lit it up recently, and Brandon Bass, our backup power forward.
That's not good, and it gets worse, because so much of Boston's offense is predicated on that mid-range jumper. (Again, I'm sure the data to prove or disprove this claim is out there.) Sure, we'll run Allen off of screens to try and spring him for a three, and R-ndo will take matters into his own hands and penetrate on occasion, but there's no post-up game to speak of, and so many of R-ndo's forays into the lane end in a kick-out to a teammate whose defender has sloughed off to help.
Statistically speaking, an offense based around mid-range jump shots is not a good one: you're better off taking a contested three than a contested two, for example, because the added difficulty of making the longer shot is outweighed by the extra point when the shot is made. Boston has succeeded in recent years in part because it has some excellent mid-range shooters, in part because the shots they got were more open than is typical, and in part because their defense was so good that they didn't need to be outstanding offensively.
We're seeing now that the offense looks like when the shots aren't falling, and it isn't pretty. And with R-ndo on the sideline and Paul Pierce still not himself, the usual alternative sources of offense aren't available. There's little we can do at this point but hope that the shots start to get down.
On to some Phoenix-game-specific stuff:
* After Marcin Gortat went nuts with a 14-point first quarter, mostly off of pick-and-roll with Nash, the Celtics defense was pretty good the rest of the way. They forced something like ten turnovers in the third quarter alone, and by and large shut down Nash, both his scoring and his assists. There were a couple crucial errors in the fourth quarter by the new guys -- a missed rotation by Mickael Pietrus; Bass leaving Channing Frye to help Kevin Garnett with Gortat in the post -- but the Celtics were more than adequate on that end to win.
* Boston trailed 46-35 at halftime, then opened the second half by scoring 18 of the first 22 points, the team's lone offensive outburst of the game. From there, however, the offense sputtered, as the Suns quickly went on a 12-0 run to re-seize control. The Celtics, maddeningly, went away from the more fluid offensive sets that had been working, in favor of a series of clock-draining post-ups. When Pierce is healthy, these plays are annoying, but tolerable. When he's not, or when the guy posting up is Marquis Daniels, it's just stupid. Stick with what's working.
* Bradley probably had the best game of any Celtic. He had ten points on 5-of-9 from the field, even burying a couple of the open mid-range jumpers that have eluded him in his career (and his teammates this season). He also had three steals, including picking Nash clean as the veteran point guard dribble near midcourt. Only one assist, but only one turnover, too. It was his finest outing of the year.
* In contrast, Bradley's backup for this game, E'Twaun Moore, was terrible. He shot 1-for-6, including a bad miss on a wide-open three-pointer (supposedly his specialty), and he committed three turnovers in 12 minutes of action. Moore's a rookie, and the way he's playing reminds me a lot of a college freshman in his first couple weeks of game action. As you move up in levels, the game moves faster, and for many, it takes some time to adjust, for the game to slow down, as some are fond of saying. You don't see it as much in NBA rookies as you see it in college freshman, but it happens, and its happening with Moore. His lone bright moment came in the third quarter when, with the shot clock running down, he find himself in an isolation with Nash. Moore calmly backed Nash down, then swished a sweet turnaround.
* It's funny, because Doc Rivers has quite notably been terrible at developing rookies over the last several years by not giving them playing time. His hand is forced somewhat with Moore, but Doc seems willing to give Moore run even without the exigent circumstances of injuries and a crazy schedule. Whatever Doc has seen in Moore on the practice court hasn't translated to games.
You might be tempted to look at the box score of this game, note the absence of Rajon R-ndo's name, and assume that was the reason the Celtics managed just 71 points while just shooting just 40 percent from the floor. And it's probably true that R-ndo, who missed the game with the sprained wrist he suffered Wednesday night against Toronto, would have made a big enough difference to swing the outcome of this game from a Boston loss to a Boston win; he's much too quick for Steve Nash, and indeed registered his career high of 32 points in a matchup with Nash in the 2008-09 season, well before he became a consistent scoring threat.
Hell, even R-ndo's backup, Keyon Dooling, might have made the difference. It wouldn't have taken much: The Suns didn't exactly scorch the net themselves, and they turned the ball over 21 times. But Dooling sat this one out, too, sidelined for the fifth straight game with a sore knee.
What's really frustrating, though, is that Boston could have -- should have -- won this game, even without their first- or second-string point guard. It came down, as it has in each of the team's last seven losses, to the most basic fundamental in the game of basketball: making open shots.
At around 45 percent on the season, the Celtics are in the middle of the NBA pack when it comes to shooting. And yet, I'd bet that if you filtered the data for open, mid-range jumpers, Boston would rank at or near the bottom of the league. (There's a good chance such data is available, but I don't know where to get it.)
You really ought to be able to take an open jumper for granted in the NBA. I'd say that almost every team, at any given time, has at least three guys on the floor who you'd feel reasonably confident in taking a wide-open 15- or 17-footer. Right now, Boston has two guys on its entire roster who I feel confident seeing take those shots: The great Ray Allen, who hasn't exactly lit it up recently, and Brandon Bass, our backup power forward.
That's not good, and it gets worse, because so much of Boston's offense is predicated on that mid-range jumper. (Again, I'm sure the data to prove or disprove this claim is out there.) Sure, we'll run Allen off of screens to try and spring him for a three, and R-ndo will take matters into his own hands and penetrate on occasion, but there's no post-up game to speak of, and so many of R-ndo's forays into the lane end in a kick-out to a teammate whose defender has sloughed off to help.
Statistically speaking, an offense based around mid-range jump shots is not a good one: you're better off taking a contested three than a contested two, for example, because the added difficulty of making the longer shot is outweighed by the extra point when the shot is made. Boston has succeeded in recent years in part because it has some excellent mid-range shooters, in part because the shots they got were more open than is typical, and in part because their defense was so good that they didn't need to be outstanding offensively.
We're seeing now that the offense looks like when the shots aren't falling, and it isn't pretty. And with R-ndo on the sideline and Paul Pierce still not himself, the usual alternative sources of offense aren't available. There's little we can do at this point but hope that the shots start to get down.
On to some Phoenix-game-specific stuff:
* After Marcin Gortat went nuts with a 14-point first quarter, mostly off of pick-and-roll with Nash, the Celtics defense was pretty good the rest of the way. They forced something like ten turnovers in the third quarter alone, and by and large shut down Nash, both his scoring and his assists. There were a couple crucial errors in the fourth quarter by the new guys -- a missed rotation by Mickael Pietrus; Bass leaving Channing Frye to help Kevin Garnett with Gortat in the post -- but the Celtics were more than adequate on that end to win.
* Boston trailed 46-35 at halftime, then opened the second half by scoring 18 of the first 22 points, the team's lone offensive outburst of the game. From there, however, the offense sputtered, as the Suns quickly went on a 12-0 run to re-seize control. The Celtics, maddeningly, went away from the more fluid offensive sets that had been working, in favor of a series of clock-draining post-ups. When Pierce is healthy, these plays are annoying, but tolerable. When he's not, or when the guy posting up is Marquis Daniels, it's just stupid. Stick with what's working.
* Bradley probably had the best game of any Celtic. He had ten points on 5-of-9 from the field, even burying a couple of the open mid-range jumpers that have eluded him in his career (and his teammates this season). He also had three steals, including picking Nash clean as the veteran point guard dribble near midcourt. Only one assist, but only one turnover, too. It was his finest outing of the year.
* In contrast, Bradley's backup for this game, E'Twaun Moore, was terrible. He shot 1-for-6, including a bad miss on a wide-open three-pointer (supposedly his specialty), and he committed three turnovers in 12 minutes of action. Moore's a rookie, and the way he's playing reminds me a lot of a college freshman in his first couple weeks of game action. As you move up in levels, the game moves faster, and for many, it takes some time to adjust, for the game to slow down, as some are fond of saying. You don't see it as much in NBA rookies as you see it in college freshman, but it happens, and its happening with Moore. His lone bright moment came in the third quarter when, with the shot clock running down, he find himself in an isolation with Nash. Moore calmly backed Nash down, then swished a sweet turnaround.
* It's funny, because Doc Rivers has quite notably been terrible at developing rookies over the last several years by not giving them playing time. His hand is forced somewhat with Moore, but Doc seems willing to give Moore run even without the exigent circumstances of injuries and a crazy schedule. Whatever Doc has seen in Moore on the practice court hasn't translated to games.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Boston 96, Toronto 73
[recap] [box score]
The Raptors aren't very good, so I'm not going to pretend that this win means much of anything or that the Celtics are even on the road to being "back." But I will say that as a fan, it was nice to have a game against an inferior opponent go the way we've gotten used to around here for the last several years. Boston jumped out to a 29-14 first-quarter lead, then buried Toronto in the third quarter after the second unit let the Raps back in the game in the second.
The big news from this game, really, is that Rajon R-ndo left near the end of the third quarter after landing on his elbow/wrist trying to break his fall after being fouled by Linas Kleiza. (Kleiza is a tough customer and the refs called a flagrant on the play, but it didn't look to me like a dirty play at all.) He was down for a while, then got up to shoot his free throws -- a good sign, all things considered, because the game was well in hand at the time and he didn't need to take them (if he hadn't, he'd have not been allowed back in the game at any point). R-ndo is day-to-day and reportedly said he'll be ready to play Friday when the Suns come to town.
Up until his injury, R-ndo was excellent, scoring on a bunch of nifty drives and getting to the free throw line. So easily was he getting to the basket and scoring, in fact, that he didn't have his first assist until midway through the third quarter -- certainly the longest I ever remember seeing him going before dropping his first dime.
It's been a difficult early season for R-ndo, on whose shoulders a heavier offensive burden has been placed. To be effective, he needs teammates who can either knock down shots (to spread the floor and open up the lane) or who can get out on the fast break with him, where his vision and creativity can flourish. As has been well-documented, however, the Celtics are busy playing their way into shape, and no one is really knocking down many shots. This isn't something he's used to, and I think his production has suffered a bit as he tries to adjust.
Any win is a good win when you're struggling, but just as important as the result was the progress made on the court: The Celtics are starting to knock down some open looks, rebound, and get into shape. There's a long way to go, but on any journey, the first step is going to be small.
Notes:
* Mickael Pietrus hit four of seven three-pointers Wednesday night, the only seven shots he took. In five games this year, he's 11-for-27 behind the arc -- and three for five inside it. If he continues to hit at his current 40 percent clip, that's fine, but the guy is at 36 percent for his career from downtown and I'm not convinced he's a good enough outside shooter to justify such an imbalance. At least he contributes defensively, as well.
* E'Twaun Moore has gotten Avery Bradley's minutes the last couple of games. (Bradley only played in garbage time against the Raps.) Moore has not, in my eyes, played particularly well, and I wonder if his inclusion in the rotation has more to do with Keyon Dooling's absence than anything else. Without Dooling, the second unit has been badly hurting for offense, and Bradley is a disaster offensively. If Moore's not knocking down shots, however -- and he isn't -- the Celtics are probably better off with Bradley's defense on the floor. We'll see what happens when Dooling returns.
* Another position battle is that for backup center, between Greg Stiemsma and Chris Wilcox. Doc has said that neither has separated himself, and that he'd use them situationally: Stiemsma in physical games, Wilcox in more uptempo contests. Wilcox has been bothered by a sore calf and missed the last three games, and so Stiemsma got the backup pivot minutes against the Raptors. I prefer Stiemsma to Wilcox because of the rim protection he provides, but if he's gonna stick in the league, he'll need to learn to grab a rebound with two hands, rather than try to tip it to a teammate with one. Against the Raptors, Stiemsma rebounded as though he were trying to prevent the ball from touching his body, swatting it in the direction of his teammates on the perimeter. There are times where tipping a rebound is appropriate, but it seemed to be Stiemsma's default Wednesday.
The Raptors aren't very good, so I'm not going to pretend that this win means much of anything or that the Celtics are even on the road to being "back." But I will say that as a fan, it was nice to have a game against an inferior opponent go the way we've gotten used to around here for the last several years. Boston jumped out to a 29-14 first-quarter lead, then buried Toronto in the third quarter after the second unit let the Raps back in the game in the second.
The big news from this game, really, is that Rajon R-ndo left near the end of the third quarter after landing on his elbow/wrist trying to break his fall after being fouled by Linas Kleiza. (Kleiza is a tough customer and the refs called a flagrant on the play, but it didn't look to me like a dirty play at all.) He was down for a while, then got up to shoot his free throws -- a good sign, all things considered, because the game was well in hand at the time and he didn't need to take them (if he hadn't, he'd have not been allowed back in the game at any point). R-ndo is day-to-day and reportedly said he'll be ready to play Friday when the Suns come to town.
Up until his injury, R-ndo was excellent, scoring on a bunch of nifty drives and getting to the free throw line. So easily was he getting to the basket and scoring, in fact, that he didn't have his first assist until midway through the third quarter -- certainly the longest I ever remember seeing him going before dropping his first dime.
It's been a difficult early season for R-ndo, on whose shoulders a heavier offensive burden has been placed. To be effective, he needs teammates who can either knock down shots (to spread the floor and open up the lane) or who can get out on the fast break with him, where his vision and creativity can flourish. As has been well-documented, however, the Celtics are busy playing their way into shape, and no one is really knocking down many shots. This isn't something he's used to, and I think his production has suffered a bit as he tries to adjust.
Any win is a good win when you're struggling, but just as important as the result was the progress made on the court: The Celtics are starting to knock down some open looks, rebound, and get into shape. There's a long way to go, but on any journey, the first step is going to be small.
Notes:
* Mickael Pietrus hit four of seven three-pointers Wednesday night, the only seven shots he took. In five games this year, he's 11-for-27 behind the arc -- and three for five inside it. If he continues to hit at his current 40 percent clip, that's fine, but the guy is at 36 percent for his career from downtown and I'm not convinced he's a good enough outside shooter to justify such an imbalance. At least he contributes defensively, as well.
* E'Twaun Moore has gotten Avery Bradley's minutes the last couple of games. (Bradley only played in garbage time against the Raps.) Moore has not, in my eyes, played particularly well, and I wonder if his inclusion in the rotation has more to do with Keyon Dooling's absence than anything else. Without Dooling, the second unit has been badly hurting for offense, and Bradley is a disaster offensively. If Moore's not knocking down shots, however -- and he isn't -- the Celtics are probably better off with Bradley's defense on the floor. We'll see what happens when Dooling returns.
* Another position battle is that for backup center, between Greg Stiemsma and Chris Wilcox. Doc has said that neither has separated himself, and that he'd use them situationally: Stiemsma in physical games, Wilcox in more uptempo contests. Wilcox has been bothered by a sore calf and missed the last three games, and so Stiemsma got the backup pivot minutes against the Raptors. I prefer Stiemsma to Wilcox because of the rim protection he provides, but if he's gonna stick in the league, he'll need to learn to grab a rebound with two hands, rather than try to tip it to a teammate with one. Against the Raptors, Stiemsma rebounded as though he were trying to prevent the ball from touching his body, swatting it in the direction of his teammates on the perimeter. There are times where tipping a rebound is appropriate, but it seemed to be Stiemsma's default Wednesday.
Monday, January 16, 2012
This Could Be a Very Important Week for the Celtics
Three games, four nights, three losses. After losing at home to the Bulls on Friday, in Indy to the Pacers on Saturday, and at home to the Thunder on Monday, the Celtics are now 4-8, having lost five straight for the first time in the Big Three era.
There were signs of life on Monday, to be sure, as Boston hung with a young Oklahoma City squad, currently the holders of the best record in the NBA. Paul Pierce looked more like his old self than he has at any point during this young season, and for the first time in a while, the Celtics put in a respectable performance on the glass and seemed to get most of the loose balls. Ultimately, turnovers and an inability to capitalize offensively down the stretch did the Celtics in, the same way they were done in against Chicago when they overcame a horrible-shooting first half to cut a 20-point lead to one, only to see their chance to take the lead rim out. Turnovers, an ability to score, and somelucky skillful...nah, let's go with lucky, three-point shooting from Russell Westbrook.
As the title of this post suggests, I think the next six days could dictate the future of the Celtics franchise. That may seem a bit strange, given that the next three teams on the schedule are the 4-10 Raptors, the 4-8 Suns, and the 1-12 Wizards. Here, however, is my completely unsubstantiated and probably untestable hypothesis.
Last week, after the loss to the Mavs, someone asked Danny Ainge if the Celtics were too old. His answer was non-committal, but he did throw this in: "I'm committed to the guys as long as they're going to perform, but they've got to perform. They've got to show they have an opportunity to win. Otherwise, I've got to at least make an effort to go in another direction."
Ainge certainly isn't the only person to give the Celtics a far-from-ringing endorsement -- something the players deserve with their performance thus far. In a post-game interview last Wednesday, Dallas' Jason Terry said, in so many words, that the Cs were too old to compete at a high level in the NBA. At halftime of the Bulls telecast on Friday, the EPSN studio crew wrote Boston off, announcing the physical decline of Pierce in the process. And there's been plenty of talk in the blogosphere about Ainge blowing it up -- selling off the veterans with an eye towards building a new contender.
What's this got to do with Toronto, Phoenix, and Washington?
It's just a hunch, but I think that if the Celtics can't win these upcoming games -- or at least two of the three -- Ainge will have his answer to whether his team has an opportunity to win. At least, he'll have that answer in his mind, and that's all that matters.
We can talk all we want about Pierce and Garnett playing themselves into shape and giving the new bench guys time to gel. By the end of this week, the season will be a month old, and all the other teams off to slow starts will have righted the ship. Boston's schedule isn't getting any easier -- seven of their games so far have been at home, and the games against the Raps and Suns are also on the parquet. Boston has also already had a four-day break, a rare luxury in this condensed season. In contrast, they've got a five-game road trip coming up in February, an eight-games-in-thirteen-nights roadie in March, and a road back-to-back-to-back looming in the middle of April. If the Celtics can't beat the Raptors, Suns, and Wizards, then the Celtics' ability to even make the playoffs would be in doubt -- and I guarantee that simply making the playoffs is not what Ainge had in mind when he talked about the "opportunity to win."
I'm not saying that "blowing it up" is necessarily the smart move. Kevin Garnett's physical decline and price tag for this year make it unlikely Ainge could fetch much of value for him -- he'd probably be more valuable as an expiring deal. Pierce's age and slow start to the season are likely to make potential buyers wary, as he's scheduled to make a combined $32 million in 2012-13 and 2013-2014 -- and trading the Captain would likely incite a riot among the team's fan base. And Boston's early struggles have only served to confirm what many have long asserted about Rajon R-ndo -- that's he's not a point guard you can build a team around. Ainge could get something for him, but he's not at the peak of his value at the moment. Ray Allen, an expiring contract who has performed well thus far, probably would bring in something, but nothing to build a dynasty around.
There's also a third option, an alternative to "put up or shut up," where Ainge patiently waits for the team to play better (this is going to happen, by the way; it's just not possible for us to continue to miss as many open shots as we have so far), then pulls the chair out from under everyone at the trade deadline by shipping out Rondo and the veterans. This possibility, rather unpleasant to stomach though it may be, is probably the smart play for Ainge -- wait for everyone's stock to bounce back, rather than sell low. But that's something to worry about in March.
For my part, I think the team is going to improve. We're going to start hitting some shots, Doc will (hopefully) settle on a bench rotation, and our conditioning will continue to improve. At this point, my expectations are low -- I want to make the playoffs and make a little noise there, though I reserve the right to later talk myself into how we can win a championship (one of the privileges of being a fan). But I can't argue with anyone who says the Celtics are done, and I don't think anyone will be able to convince Ainge otherwise, either, once he makes up his mind.
Here's hoping that's not this weekend.
There were signs of life on Monday, to be sure, as Boston hung with a young Oklahoma City squad, currently the holders of the best record in the NBA. Paul Pierce looked more like his old self than he has at any point during this young season, and for the first time in a while, the Celtics put in a respectable performance on the glass and seemed to get most of the loose balls. Ultimately, turnovers and an inability to capitalize offensively down the stretch did the Celtics in, the same way they were done in against Chicago when they overcame a horrible-shooting first half to cut a 20-point lead to one, only to see their chance to take the lead rim out. Turnovers, an ability to score, and some
As the title of this post suggests, I think the next six days could dictate the future of the Celtics franchise. That may seem a bit strange, given that the next three teams on the schedule are the 4-10 Raptors, the 4-8 Suns, and the 1-12 Wizards. Here, however, is my completely unsubstantiated and probably untestable hypothesis.
Last week, after the loss to the Mavs, someone asked Danny Ainge if the Celtics were too old. His answer was non-committal, but he did throw this in: "I'm committed to the guys as long as they're going to perform, but they've got to perform. They've got to show they have an opportunity to win. Otherwise, I've got to at least make an effort to go in another direction."
Ainge certainly isn't the only person to give the Celtics a far-from-ringing endorsement -- something the players deserve with their performance thus far. In a post-game interview last Wednesday, Dallas' Jason Terry said, in so many words, that the Cs were too old to compete at a high level in the NBA. At halftime of the Bulls telecast on Friday, the EPSN studio crew wrote Boston off, announcing the physical decline of Pierce in the process. And there's been plenty of talk in the blogosphere about Ainge blowing it up -- selling off the veterans with an eye towards building a new contender.
What's this got to do with Toronto, Phoenix, and Washington?
It's just a hunch, but I think that if the Celtics can't win these upcoming games -- or at least two of the three -- Ainge will have his answer to whether his team has an opportunity to win. At least, he'll have that answer in his mind, and that's all that matters.
We can talk all we want about Pierce and Garnett playing themselves into shape and giving the new bench guys time to gel. By the end of this week, the season will be a month old, and all the other teams off to slow starts will have righted the ship. Boston's schedule isn't getting any easier -- seven of their games so far have been at home, and the games against the Raps and Suns are also on the parquet. Boston has also already had a four-day break, a rare luxury in this condensed season. In contrast, they've got a five-game road trip coming up in February, an eight-games-in-thirteen-nights roadie in March, and a road back-to-back-to-back looming in the middle of April. If the Celtics can't beat the Raptors, Suns, and Wizards, then the Celtics' ability to even make the playoffs would be in doubt -- and I guarantee that simply making the playoffs is not what Ainge had in mind when he talked about the "opportunity to win."
I'm not saying that "blowing it up" is necessarily the smart move. Kevin Garnett's physical decline and price tag for this year make it unlikely Ainge could fetch much of value for him -- he'd probably be more valuable as an expiring deal. Pierce's age and slow start to the season are likely to make potential buyers wary, as he's scheduled to make a combined $32 million in 2012-13 and 2013-2014 -- and trading the Captain would likely incite a riot among the team's fan base. And Boston's early struggles have only served to confirm what many have long asserted about Rajon R-ndo -- that's he's not a point guard you can build a team around. Ainge could get something for him, but he's not at the peak of his value at the moment. Ray Allen, an expiring contract who has performed well thus far, probably would bring in something, but nothing to build a dynasty around.
There's also a third option, an alternative to "put up or shut up," where Ainge patiently waits for the team to play better (this is going to happen, by the way; it's just not possible for us to continue to miss as many open shots as we have so far), then pulls the chair out from under everyone at the trade deadline by shipping out Rondo and the veterans. This possibility, rather unpleasant to stomach though it may be, is probably the smart play for Ainge -- wait for everyone's stock to bounce back, rather than sell low. But that's something to worry about in March.
For my part, I think the team is going to improve. We're going to start hitting some shots, Doc will (hopefully) settle on a bench rotation, and our conditioning will continue to improve. At this point, my expectations are low -- I want to make the playoffs and make a little noise there, though I reserve the right to later talk myself into how we can win a championship (one of the privileges of being a fan). But I can't argue with anyone who says the Celtics are done, and I don't think anyone will be able to convince Ainge otherwise, either, once he makes up his mind.
Here's hoping that's not this weekend.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Viewing Alert
Friday: Chicago at Boston, 8 p.m. Eastern, ESPN.
At first glance, the last thing a struggling Celtics team needs right now is a tough home game against the class of the East, coached by a defensive wizard (Tom Thibodeau) who, as a former Doc Rivers assistant, is intimately familiar with what the team does. Boston's had trouble putting the ball in the basket as it is; it's going to be even harder against the Bulls.
Derrick Rose, last year's NBA MVP, missed Wednesday's game against the Wizards with a sprained toe, but I've read that the Bulls are optimistic he'll play against the Celtics. That's bad news for those fans whose sole concern is a Boston win or loss, but it's good news for basketball fans: Rose and Rajon R-ndo tend to bring out the best in each other -- remember their battles in that first-round playoff series in 2008-09, when Rose was a rookie? And Chicago, who can be a little boring to watch even with Rose on the court due to their pace, becomes positively excruciating with their best catalyst on the bench.
The key to the game, if I had to pick just one, will probably be rebounding. Boston has struggled on the glass this year and Chicago, with the energetic Joakim Noah, can definitely cause some problems in that regard. The Bulls also have a good-shooting power forward in Carlos Boozer, the kind of player the Celtics have struggled to guard in recent years (because he keeps Kevin Garnett occupied).
Here's to stopping the bleeding...
At first glance, the last thing a struggling Celtics team needs right now is a tough home game against the class of the East, coached by a defensive wizard (Tom Thibodeau) who, as a former Doc Rivers assistant, is intimately familiar with what the team does. Boston's had trouble putting the ball in the basket as it is; it's going to be even harder against the Bulls.
Derrick Rose, last year's NBA MVP, missed Wednesday's game against the Wizards with a sprained toe, but I've read that the Bulls are optimistic he'll play against the Celtics. That's bad news for those fans whose sole concern is a Boston win or loss, but it's good news for basketball fans: Rose and Rajon R-ndo tend to bring out the best in each other -- remember their battles in that first-round playoff series in 2008-09, when Rose was a rookie? And Chicago, who can be a little boring to watch even with Rose on the court due to their pace, becomes positively excruciating with their best catalyst on the bench.
The key to the game, if I had to pick just one, will probably be rebounding. Boston has struggled on the glass this year and Chicago, with the energetic Joakim Noah, can definitely cause some problems in that regard. The Bulls also have a good-shooting power forward in Carlos Boozer, the kind of player the Celtics have struggled to guard in recent years (because he keeps Kevin Garnett occupied).
Here's to stopping the bleeding...
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Dallas 90, Boston 85
[recap] [box score]
After four days off, going against an opponent who had played the night before, the Celtics nonetheless looked like the more tired team Wednesday night against Dallas.
The explanation, it turns out, is rather simple: Boston was the more tired team. Word is that Doc has been pushing the guys in hard in practice in an effort to use this rare opportunity to get the team in shape after the shortened preseason. Paul Pierce even reportedly did an hour-long sprint workout on the treadmill after today's shootaround.
If this seems implausible to you, or if you're ticked at Doc for maybe costing us a win by pushing too hard, I urge you to consider the alternative. It's either this, or we get four months of the sluggish play we've seen so far from Pierce and Kevin Garnett, followed by an early playoff exit. (Remember how playing into shape worked for Rasheed Wallace two seasons ago?) And if not that, then a realization that is far more unpleasant, if one we're going to have to come to soon: these veterans don't have it anymore.
So, yeah, given these alternatives, I'm going to go with the most pleasant option, the options that affords the most reason for optimism. It's going to be a weird season, and it's too early to start worrying about our playoff spot. We're gonna have to be patient, particularly in the early-going.
We're gonna have to be patient even if the losses come due to infuriating things like the defensive glass and blown defensive assignments. The Pacers killed us with offensive rebounds on Friday; though it wasn't as big a factor Wednesday, especially in the second half, the Mavs did have 13 offensive rebounds (compared to two for the Celts). And while I think that Boston's defense has been quite good over the past six games, Pierce blew a crucial rotation on a late Dirk Nowitzki drive (a mistake he atoned for by drilled the game-tying three with 25 seconds left). And then, on Dallas' game-winning possession, Garnett was in Nowitzki's shorts with no help behind him. Dirk easily drove around KG and made a circus shot while being hammered by Brandon Bass, who was waaaaaaaaaaaaay late on the play. Either Bass blew it or KG did -- there's no way the plan was to defend Nowitzki that way.
So I'm remaining patient, even as we sit a game below .500, having not yet beat a playoff-bound team with three games against such teams (Chicago, Indiana, and Oklahoma City) in four days looming on the weekend, starting on Friday.
Notes:
Rajon R-ndo has been brilliant this season, and on Wednesday (Ray Allen's first off-night of the young season), his aggressive offense has been the only consistently good thing for Boston so far. Yet he's made some crucial mistakes, as well; he's already committed a couple of rally-crushing turnovers this year, and Wednesday night he made a bad gamble for a steal on a Nowitzki drive, leaving Jason Terry wide open for a three-pointer at the end of the shot clock. He also threw away Boston's last shot at a tie by delivering an inbounds pass to Ray too low; Ray couldn't corral it and it went out of bounds, sealing the game ... Avery Bradley has shown that he's one of the most tenacious on-ball defenders in the league, but he also has the worst jumper of any guard I can think of. He had a wide-open 20-footer from the top of the key on Wednesday that he rocketed off the backboard, a foot high and a foot right. It's almost inconceivable that he could miss a shot that badly ... Mickael Pietrus made his Celtics debut against the Mavs, making the first shot he took in the green and white, a three-pointer. He made some nice defensive plays but also took a very bad three-pointer in the fourth quarter. Still, it'll be nice to have a more competent offensive player to spell Pierce ... Marquis Daniels didn't play, though I think it was because he's recovery from some sort of bug as much as it was the presence of Pietrus ... ESPN's announcers noted that part of Boston's rebounding woes are due to the fact that the guards aren't going to get the ball off the glass. That's true, but it's only part of the story. Our bigs are being pushed around by the other team's big bodies ... Dallas coach Rick Carlisle was ejected in the third quarter, charging out onto the court to protest a play in which Garnett grabbed Nowitzki as the big German tried to free himself up around a screen. It's the second time this season an opposing coach has elected the rather unusual remedy of storming onto the parquet to protest a relatively innocuous play at a non-crucial moment; Flip Saunders was tossed less than two minutes in to Boston's home win over the Wizards earlier this month.
After four days off, going against an opponent who had played the night before, the Celtics nonetheless looked like the more tired team Wednesday night against Dallas.
The explanation, it turns out, is rather simple: Boston was the more tired team. Word is that Doc has been pushing the guys in hard in practice in an effort to use this rare opportunity to get the team in shape after the shortened preseason. Paul Pierce even reportedly did an hour-long sprint workout on the treadmill after today's shootaround.
If this seems implausible to you, or if you're ticked at Doc for maybe costing us a win by pushing too hard, I urge you to consider the alternative. It's either this, or we get four months of the sluggish play we've seen so far from Pierce and Kevin Garnett, followed by an early playoff exit. (Remember how playing into shape worked for Rasheed Wallace two seasons ago?) And if not that, then a realization that is far more unpleasant, if one we're going to have to come to soon: these veterans don't have it anymore.
So, yeah, given these alternatives, I'm going to go with the most pleasant option, the options that affords the most reason for optimism. It's going to be a weird season, and it's too early to start worrying about our playoff spot. We're gonna have to be patient, particularly in the early-going.
We're gonna have to be patient even if the losses come due to infuriating things like the defensive glass and blown defensive assignments. The Pacers killed us with offensive rebounds on Friday; though it wasn't as big a factor Wednesday, especially in the second half, the Mavs did have 13 offensive rebounds (compared to two for the Celts). And while I think that Boston's defense has been quite good over the past six games, Pierce blew a crucial rotation on a late Dirk Nowitzki drive (a mistake he atoned for by drilled the game-tying three with 25 seconds left). And then, on Dallas' game-winning possession, Garnett was in Nowitzki's shorts with no help behind him. Dirk easily drove around KG and made a circus shot while being hammered by Brandon Bass, who was waaaaaaaaaaaaay late on the play. Either Bass blew it or KG did -- there's no way the plan was to defend Nowitzki that way.
So I'm remaining patient, even as we sit a game below .500, having not yet beat a playoff-bound team with three games against such teams (Chicago, Indiana, and Oklahoma City) in four days looming on the weekend, starting on Friday.
Notes:
Rajon R-ndo has been brilliant this season, and on Wednesday (Ray Allen's first off-night of the young season), his aggressive offense has been the only consistently good thing for Boston so far. Yet he's made some crucial mistakes, as well; he's already committed a couple of rally-crushing turnovers this year, and Wednesday night he made a bad gamble for a steal on a Nowitzki drive, leaving Jason Terry wide open for a three-pointer at the end of the shot clock. He also threw away Boston's last shot at a tie by delivering an inbounds pass to Ray too low; Ray couldn't corral it and it went out of bounds, sealing the game ... Avery Bradley has shown that he's one of the most tenacious on-ball defenders in the league, but he also has the worst jumper of any guard I can think of. He had a wide-open 20-footer from the top of the key on Wednesday that he rocketed off the backboard, a foot high and a foot right. It's almost inconceivable that he could miss a shot that badly ... Mickael Pietrus made his Celtics debut against the Mavs, making the first shot he took in the green and white, a three-pointer. He made some nice defensive plays but also took a very bad three-pointer in the fourth quarter. Still, it'll be nice to have a more competent offensive player to spell Pierce ... Marquis Daniels didn't play, though I think it was because he's recovery from some sort of bug as much as it was the presence of Pietrus ... ESPN's announcers noted that part of Boston's rebounding woes are due to the fact that the guards aren't going to get the ball off the glass. That's true, but it's only part of the story. Our bigs are being pushed around by the other team's big bodies ... Dallas coach Rick Carlisle was ejected in the third quarter, charging out onto the court to protest a play in which Garnett grabbed Nowitzki as the big German tried to free himself up around a screen. It's the second time this season an opposing coach has elected the rather unusual remedy of storming onto the parquet to protest a relatively innocuous play at a non-crucial moment; Flip Saunders was tossed less than two minutes in to Boston's home win over the Wizards earlier this month.
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Celtics Drop Two to Start Season
I've been in DC since last week, spending time with friends and family over the holidays. I've been too busy to blog, but I haven't been too busy to catch Boston in their season-opening games -- a 106-104 loss in New York on Christmas Day, and a 115-107 defeat in Miami Tuesday night.
In both games, Boston started out very slowly, digging a double-digit hole for themselves in the first half. In both games they clawed back to have a realistic shot at winning, taking the lead into the fourth quarter against the Knicks and getting to within three of the Heat late in the fourth.
It's a disappointing start to the season, and yet we should take it with a grain of salt -- the same grain of salt, I should point out, that would accompany our gloating over a 2-0 start, had the ball bounced that way.
The first way to put these losses in perspective is to remember that Paul Pierce hasn't seen the floor yet due to a sore heel. Boston badly missed his offense in a stagnant fourth quarter against the Knicks, and his presence on the defensive end of the floor could have meant a Boston win in either game (or perhaps in both).
The second is to remember that we just played the Knicks and the Heat, two of the better teams in the league. Miami is the odds-on favorite to win the title this year and are in great form (they absolutely took apart Dallas in a Finals rematch on Christmas Day) and New York just might be the third-best team in the East. Even if the Knicks aren't quite as good as some think they are, it's indisputable that Boston's first two opponents are two of the tougher teams in the league to guard. So the fact that we've surrendered 110.5 points per game -- normally a very alarming number -- is tempered by the fact that we've done so against two of the league's best offensive outfits (teams that play at a fast pace, to boot). If New Orleans lights us up Wednesday night, then I'll start to worry about the D.
Honestly, we're not that far from 2-0. We didn't deserve to win either game, really, not with the way we played in the first half, but we hung around, like we always seem to. Carmelo Anthony got hot in the fourth quarter in New York and a rookie named Norris Cole beat our zone (!) in the fourth quarter in Miami -- if not for those guys, we really could have opened with two wins. Two road wins, without the Captain.
That's probably stretching it. My point is, I'm not too concerned. The season ahead is lockout-shortened, but it's still long. Losing on the road to the Knicks and Heat was likely to happen.
Here's what I do hate: Ray Allen has played 38 and 40 minutes, respectively, in the first two games. Allen is, as always, in outstanding physical condition, but that's just too many minutes. Way too many. I'm going to give Doc a little bit of a pass because of the bodies he's missing (Pierce and the newly-signed Mickael Pietrus play the wing), but given Doc's tendencies, I'm expecting that I'll be complaining about the minutes situation all year. Doc did do a nice job limiting Kevin Garnett to 33 minutes Tuesday after KG played 37 in the opener, and this despite the fact that Chris Wilcox sat the whole second half with some sort of (hopefully minor) injury. But Rajon R-ndo can't play 40-plus minutes a game, either, if we're going to make a deep playoff run after what will be a very grueling season.
Save for one absolutely critical turnover in the waning moments against Miami, by the way, R-ndo has been almost flawless. He followed up a 31/5/13 performance against New York with a 22/8/12. Even better: He hit nine of 12 free throws against New York and seven of 11 against Miami. Seventy percent from the line from your point guard isn't normally something to get excited about, but normally your point guard didn't shoot under 60 percent from the stripe last season. What's more, I think this improvement could be permanent; he's slowed his pace at the line way down and everything about the shot looks smoother. A somewhat reliable free throw stroke should give him the confidence to go to the bucket more this year, which we're going to need.
Another bright spot, offensively, has been the bench. Brandon Bass had 20 points and 11 rebounds against the Knicks, while Keyon Dooling did the heavy lifting with 18 off the bench against the Heat. I'm more confident in Bass' ability to contribute regularly than Dooling's; Dooling will rarely shoot as well as he did Tuesday night, and the confidence these strong evenings brings may end up doing more harm than good if it convinces him to play outside his rather modest offensive abilities. Put another way, I'm going to need to see several more games of solid shooting from Dooling before I get comfortable watching him cock the ball way back -- behind his shoulder, to the side of his head -- truly one of the more bizarre shooting strokes in the NBA.
A lot to improve on, but no need to panic just yet.
In both games, Boston started out very slowly, digging a double-digit hole for themselves in the first half. In both games they clawed back to have a realistic shot at winning, taking the lead into the fourth quarter against the Knicks and getting to within three of the Heat late in the fourth.
It's a disappointing start to the season, and yet we should take it with a grain of salt -- the same grain of salt, I should point out, that would accompany our gloating over a 2-0 start, had the ball bounced that way.
The first way to put these losses in perspective is to remember that Paul Pierce hasn't seen the floor yet due to a sore heel. Boston badly missed his offense in a stagnant fourth quarter against the Knicks, and his presence on the defensive end of the floor could have meant a Boston win in either game (or perhaps in both).
The second is to remember that we just played the Knicks and the Heat, two of the better teams in the league. Miami is the odds-on favorite to win the title this year and are in great form (they absolutely took apart Dallas in a Finals rematch on Christmas Day) and New York just might be the third-best team in the East. Even if the Knicks aren't quite as good as some think they are, it's indisputable that Boston's first two opponents are two of the tougher teams in the league to guard. So the fact that we've surrendered 110.5 points per game -- normally a very alarming number -- is tempered by the fact that we've done so against two of the league's best offensive outfits (teams that play at a fast pace, to boot). If New Orleans lights us up Wednesday night, then I'll start to worry about the D.
Honestly, we're not that far from 2-0. We didn't deserve to win either game, really, not with the way we played in the first half, but we hung around, like we always seem to. Carmelo Anthony got hot in the fourth quarter in New York and a rookie named Norris Cole beat our zone (!) in the fourth quarter in Miami -- if not for those guys, we really could have opened with two wins. Two road wins, without the Captain.
That's probably stretching it. My point is, I'm not too concerned. The season ahead is lockout-shortened, but it's still long. Losing on the road to the Knicks and Heat was likely to happen.
Here's what I do hate: Ray Allen has played 38 and 40 minutes, respectively, in the first two games. Allen is, as always, in outstanding physical condition, but that's just too many minutes. Way too many. I'm going to give Doc a little bit of a pass because of the bodies he's missing (Pierce and the newly-signed Mickael Pietrus play the wing), but given Doc's tendencies, I'm expecting that I'll be complaining about the minutes situation all year. Doc did do a nice job limiting Kevin Garnett to 33 minutes Tuesday after KG played 37 in the opener, and this despite the fact that Chris Wilcox sat the whole second half with some sort of (hopefully minor) injury. But Rajon R-ndo can't play 40-plus minutes a game, either, if we're going to make a deep playoff run after what will be a very grueling season.
Save for one absolutely critical turnover in the waning moments against Miami, by the way, R-ndo has been almost flawless. He followed up a 31/5/13 performance against New York with a 22/8/12. Even better: He hit nine of 12 free throws against New York and seven of 11 against Miami. Seventy percent from the line from your point guard isn't normally something to get excited about, but normally your point guard didn't shoot under 60 percent from the stripe last season. What's more, I think this improvement could be permanent; he's slowed his pace at the line way down and everything about the shot looks smoother. A somewhat reliable free throw stroke should give him the confidence to go to the bucket more this year, which we're going to need.
Another bright spot, offensively, has been the bench. Brandon Bass had 20 points and 11 rebounds against the Knicks, while Keyon Dooling did the heavy lifting with 18 off the bench against the Heat. I'm more confident in Bass' ability to contribute regularly than Dooling's; Dooling will rarely shoot as well as he did Tuesday night, and the confidence these strong evenings brings may end up doing more harm than good if it convinces him to play outside his rather modest offensive abilities. Put another way, I'm going to need to see several more games of solid shooting from Dooling before I get comfortable watching him cock the ball way back -- behind his shoulder, to the side of his head -- truly one of the more bizarre shooting strokes in the NBA.
A lot to improve on, but no need to panic just yet.
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