Perk Out for Game 7

This doesn't come as a surprise to anyone who watched the game last night, but Kendrick Perkins will not suit up in Game 7 due to the knee injury he suffered in the first quarter of Game 6. There are conflicting reports about whether the injury is a torn MCL and PCL or just a sprain of the ligaments, but Perk isn't having an MRI until he returns to Boston after the series and he officially isn't available for tomorrow night. For the sake of next season and Perk's future, let's hope it's just a sprain.

However, now is not the time to think about next year; next week is. Now is the time to think about what Perkins' absence means for Game 7 against the Lakers, and what adjustments need to be made.

The bad news is obvious. Perk is our best on-ball defender in the post, and while he hadn't consistently delivered his best work on that end this series, he had done a decent job on Pau Gasol (with Kevin Garnett sliding over to guard Lamar Odom when Andrew Bynum was out of the game, which was more often than not due to Lakers' young big's own knee injury). In addition, Perk is a reliable big body, of which we are now down to just three -- making foul trouble a real danger for Game 7. With Boston weakened on the front line, LA will probably look to dump it into Gasol more often in the hopes of getting Rasheed Wallace into foul trouble. The Lakers are best when the offense runs through Gasol, but they are sometimes reluctant, for some reason, to exploit him. But even Kobe Bryant should see that foul trouble to Wallace would be so detrimental to the Celtics that he can't help but go to Gasol early, and thus the Lakers offense may be more effective by accident.

There is some good news, or I guess at least a silver lining. For starters, Wallace has actually guarded Gasol fairly well in this series, although he has had trouble doing so without getting into foul trouble. If 'sheed can force Gasol to catch the ball off the block and contest his shots without fouling (content to live with the results of a contested shot) -- things Perk does extremely well -- then we may not miss Perkins at all defensively. If, however, Wallace gambles for steals and blocks in his typical fashion (which is okay when we're less reliant on him for minutes than we will be Thursday night), we could be in some trouble. Either way, I look forward to seeing, at least once, Gasol fall on his ass and then look up helplessly at the official when 'sheed breaks out the "pulling the chair" move.

Offensively, the news is better. There's a John Hollinger column on ESPN about how the Celtics are better off without Perkins, but I'm not an Insider and am not particularly inclined to go around searching for it. I have seen bits and pieces, however, from various blogs, and Hollinger has at least one thing right: Wallace is a much better offensive player than Perkins. Perk's offensive limitations allow the Lakers to guard Boston's starting unit close to 5-on-3, with Bryant backing well off of Rajon Rondo and whoever is guarding Perkins ignoring him unless Perk is standing within five feet of the basket. Wallace's range, which extends out to the three-point line, should unclog the paint for Rondo drives and Paul Pierce isolations, and keep the Lakers honest on pick-and-rolls with Pierce and Ray Allen. I suspect that LA will be more than happy, at least initially, to roll the dice with Wallace bombing away, and so he'll have to knock a couple down for this advantage to really bear fruit. (Fortunately, Wallace expertly didn't waste any of his makes on a lost cause in Game 6!) We don't need the 29 points on 5-for-7 from deep that he gave us in a January win at Toronto with Garnett out (though we'll take it), but the zero points on 0-for-6 from three-point land from Game 6 won't do, either. I'd love to see 'sheed step inside the arc for some of his offense, but at this point, I consider that something of a lost cause.

No matter how well 'sheed plays, however, he, Garnett, and Glen Davis are probably going to need help handling Gasol, Bynum (if he plays), and Odom, particularly on the glass. Last night, that guy was Shelden Williams, and he was, well, terrible. That leaves one other possibility: Brian Scalabrine.

When Shelden is playing regularly, like he was at the start of the season when Davis was out with a hand injury, he's a better option than Scalabrine. He's stronger, a better rebounder, a little more athletic. But he's out of rhythm now, and his performance in Game 6 was bad to the point of being painful to watch. (His play in four minutes in Game 2, his only other action of these Finals, was not much better.) I know Scalabrine hasn't played since March 28 and has barely even dressed for any games during the playoffs, but at this point, if Scalabrine can simply catch the ball most of the time it lands in his hands, he'd be an upgrade over Shelden.

Look, I know this isn't ideal, but there was a time, before we got Wallace, that this wouldn't have been so ridiculous a suggestion. Last year, Doc Rivers tabbed Scalabrine eight times as a starter; five times when Perkins was out and three when Garnett was out. In one of the former, against Phoenix, with Garnett guarding Shaquille O'Neal, Scalabrine held Amare' Stoudemire to 0-for-7 from the field, actually outscoring the five-time All-Star 4-to-3. Scalabrine defends and rebounds with every ounce of his by-NBA-standards-underwhelming ability. If he sees the court on Thursday, there won't be anyone on it playing harder than Brian Scalabrine.

Scal also has the ability, when left open -- and he gets left open a lot -- to knock down an open three or two. It's asking a lot of a guy to step in after not playing for two-and-a-half months and hit jumpers in Game 7 of the NBA Finals, but six or nine points from Scalabrine could be absolutely huge.

Heading into Game 6, there was a lot of chatter on the Internet about how, if Boston won the series, who would win the MVP was still an open question. Scalabrine will never be mentioned in that discussion. But in a series in which the best two players are wearing purple-and-gold, it may take a solid, if unspectacular, performance from a forgotten role player to push the team wearing green-and-white over the top.

Celtics Drop Two to Western Opponents

There have been a couple of games since my last post. Sunday's blowout loss in Boston to Tony Parker-less San Antonio is hardly with writing about, another of the inexplicable (though increasingly explicable as their frequency grows) all-out debacles that have plagued us this season, particularly at home.

Wednesday was an exceedingly entertaining, narrow home loss to the up-and-coming Oklahoma City Thunder. Boston lost this one despite shooting nearly 60 percent for the game, for two reasons:

1) They had no answer for Kevin Durant. That hardly makes them unique among NBA teams, of course, but it doesn't change the result of the game. The Praying Durantis had 37 points on the evening, upping his scoring average to 29.7 per game, tying him with LeBron James. And even when Durant wasn't the one doing the actual scoring, he played a major role. On the first of two late Jeff Green three-pointers, Durant's presence on the strong side led Green's defender, Kevin Garnett, to cheat off of Green, in order to be in a better position to help should Durant drive. As we are too aware, post-knee surgery KG doesn't recover quite as quickly as pre-knee surgery KG, and he couldn't recover in time to disrupt Green's shot once the ball swung to the weak side.

2) Oklahoma City shot 34 free throws to Boston's 17, with Durant nearly matching Boston's total, shooting (and making) 15 from the charity stripe. This wasn't lost on Garnett, who after the game colorfully commented that Durant was getting calls that only the game's greatest player would get. I wasn't paying close attention the entire game, and save one really bad foul that Pierce got called for stripping Durant late, I wasn't terribly upset with the fouls that Boston got called for, but upset because I felt that Boston was getting hit for stuff that OKC wasn't. In terms of averages, the Thunder shot about eight more free throws than Boston usually gives up, and the Celtics took about eight fewer than they usually do. (Hat tip, Boston Globe.) In my view, I think it's accurate to say that Oklahoma City was not 33 percent more aggressive than most opponents last night, nor was Boston 33 percent less aggressive. Clearly, the officiating had some effect on the game.

With that said, Boston still gave up better than 50 percent shooting, and themselves missed two very open looks in the final seconds. Rasheed Wallace couldn't convert a wide-open three from the top of the arc that would have cut the Thunder lead to one with 1:09 to play. Not to blame Wallace -- that shot was his only miss of the night and his 18 points were the most he's scored since January 10 -- but that was a big one. And Ray Allen missed a very good look without about eight seconds left that similarly would have made things interesting.

The Hawks, by the way, soundly beat the Lakers in Atlanta, and now are a game up on the Celtics for the third seed in the playoffs with eight games left. Frankly, I don't care -- the only way we're not going through Cleveland anyway is in the unlikely event Atlanta beats them, and while I suppose playing the Hawks is better than playing the Cavs, our results against them this year don't suggest that this would be a much easier proposition. However, some people do care, and for those that do, I'll remind you that Boston needs only to finish the regular season with the same record as the Hawks to earn the third seed, thanks to a rule that everyone hates and expects to change (the first tiebreaker is not head-to-head record, but whether one team won their division and the other didn't).

Upcoming games: Houston on Friday, Cleveland on Sunday (1 p.m. Eastern, ABC).

Boston 94, Sacramento 86

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This was a strong performance for about 30 minutes, before the bench came in and let the lead slowly slip away. By the time the starters returned, they were a little out of synch. The team never really seemed in danger of losing this game, but a more consistent effort would have been nice.

Return of the bullets:

• Kendrick Perkins missed this game with tendinitis in his left knee. (Why is tendinitis spelled that way and not "tendonitis"? It is, after all, itis of the tendon.) We don't know exactly how long Perk's going to be out, but word is that he'll miss the San Antonio game.
• Rasheed Wallace, starting in Perkins' place, played the most energetic game we've seen from him in a while. At one point, he jumped on the floor to tie up Carl Landry, earning a Tommy Point in the process -- the first one I can remember him receiving this year. (To be fair, Heinsohn hasn't given as many of these rewards for hustle plays this season.)
• Rajon Rondo was at his apothecarial best on Friday, dishing out a regular season career-high 18 assists. He was masterful, particularly in the first half, whipping the ball through the narrowest openings and playing with his usual flair. Too much flair, perhaps, but a lot of fun to watch -- and effective, against the hapless Kings, at least.
• Rondo's strip of Sean May in the second quarter gave him the Celtics single-season record for thefts. His 168th steal eclipsed the mark of Rick Fox. Whatever we can do to erase Fox's name from the team record books is a positive thing, in my opinion.
• Marquis Daniels got the DNP-CD in the first half, and didn't enter the game until the third quarter, when the game seemed well in hand. I think I heard Greg Dickerson say in a sideline report that Daniels is in some ways still learning how to fit in with the team, since he missed all that time with the hand injury. Sitting him for the whole first half is a funny way to get him comfortable.
• Nate Robinson sprained his ankle in the first half and didn't return to the game. I don't have any word as to how much more time he'll miss, if any.

San Antonio is in town on Sunday (8 p.m. Eastern, ESPN). The Spurs are missing their point guard, Tony Parker, but as they seem to do when they are missing one of their big three (Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, and Parker), they have been playing well of late. They knocked off the Cavs on Friday after beating Oklahoma City earlier in the week, alternating those wins with losses to Atlanta and the Lakers. Sunday's game is the last in a five-in-eight stretch, as difficult a series of games as you'll see in the NBA. Maybe we can catch them tired, though we shouldn't need to to beat them.

Boston 113, Denver 99

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The Celtics concluded an encouraging four-game stretch with a decisive victory over the Nuggets in Boston.

Boston's 110-97 loss in Utah on Monday threatened to leave Cs fans uneasy after a couple of encouraging games. A loss to Denver at home would largely erase the positive that came out of back-to-back victories in Houston and Dallas.

The Nuggets did their part to make this an easy victory. Their defense was non-existent, and they were perhaps feeling the effects of having played the night before (a relatively stunning loss to the Knicks in New York). Then again, they've really struggled on the road this year; they're just 17-19 away from home, by far the worst mark among division leaders. It was strange to see a relatively listless game after three very intense contests.

Boston clinched a playoff spot with this win, and there is hope that the team is starting to play its best ball at the right time. Everyone is more or less healthy; despite the odd off-game from or another of them, the starters seem to have shaken off injury and are playing well; Michael Finley has been better than anyone realistically thought he could be; and Glen Davis is finally starting to do the things on the court that a man who weighs 290 pounds should do. We still need to figure out what do with Rasheed Wallace, whose refusal and/or inability to get into shape is both obnoxious and curious this late in the season. It's really having an effect on his play, particularly defensively, where he barely challenges any shots and is routinely beaten for rebounds. Whether that's due to his age and fitness or his apparent apathy is unclear, but it's at the point where I don't trust him to get any better and don't feel particularly comfortable when he's in the game.

Plenty of tests remain in the season's final few weeks, although we're really playing to keep our rhythm and go into the playoffs on a high note; we're a long shot to catch Orlando for the second seed in the East and in no real danger of giving up home-court advantage in the first round by falling to the fifth seed. I suppose we'd rather have the three than the four, just so we could avoid Cleveland in the second round, though in all likelihood we'd need to go through the Cavs anyway.

Next game is Friday at home vs. Sacramento. Next TV game is Sunday at 8 p.m. Eastern on ESPN, in Boston, against the Spurs.

Boston 95, Sacramento 92

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A close win against the 18-35 Kings, even in Sacramento, is nothing for an elite team to get excited about, but this game is a positive for the Celts, and not just because of the win. Boston reversed a recent trend of blowing decent-sized leads in the fourth quarter. Sort of. The Celtics led by 10 points in the first half and held an 82-75 lead in the fourth before giving up 12 of the next 16 points to go down one with 2:42 remaining. But they got a big stop after a Ray Allen miss, and then Paul Pierce -- the league's newest three-point champion -- nailed a triple from the top of the key to grab a lead they wouldn't relinquish. Sacramento helped Boston out by missing, I believe, eight fourth quarter free throws, but given our team's fourth quarter struggles over the past month and a half, we'll take the win.

Full marks to the bench in this one, which picked up a sluggish starting unit. Led by Rasheed Wallace's 17 points and Eddie House's 12, the second unit contributed 44 points, nearly half the team's total.

This was a chippy, physical game in which the two teams combined for 18 blocked shots, most of them around the basket. It's a tough way to start what will be a challenging week. Boston's got three more road tests this week, against some very difficult Western Conference opponents: In Los Angeles to face the Lakers on Thursday, at Portland on Friday, and at Denver on Sunday. Looking ahead to Thursday's contest with the defending champs, Kobe Bryant has missed the last four games, as well as the All-Star game, with a sore left ankle. Bryant, who is also battling a finger injury and possibly a bad back, didn't play in Tuesday's game against Golden State, but knowing him, he'll play Thursday.

VIEWING ALERT: Probably the only positive thing about playing three elite teams in four days is the opportunity for fans without League Pass to see the team -- if they're willing to stay up to do it. All three of the Cs' remaining games this week will be on national television: Thursday at 10:30 p.m. Eastern on TNT (Lakers); Friday at 10:30 p.m. Eastern on ESPN (Blazers); and Sunday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. Eastern on ABC (Nuggets). Be sure to tune in!

New Orleans 93, Boston 85

Thank God for all the All-Star break.

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Wednesday's game was more of the same; double-digit lead, putrid third quarter, disappointing loss. The Celtics continued to have turnovers problems (22 for the game) and added poor free throw shooting in this one, going 16-for-27 from the stripe, including eight consecutive misses at one point.

Anyway, I'm happy the break is here -- for my own sanity. It's taxing to follow a team this closely and have them inexplicably fall apart the way the Celtics have lately, and frustrating to see no one do anything to change it. None of Boston's leaders stepped up against the Hornets; Marquis Daniels and Rasheed Wallace, off the bench, were our best players throughout the evening.

There are a million trade rumors floating around right now, most of them centering around Ray Allen. I'm not going to report on them unless something actually happens -- as I said, I need a break. You can catch Rajon Rondo in the All-Star H-O-R-S-E game on Saturday at 7 p.m. Eastern on TNT; Paul Pierce in the three-point contest on Saturday at 8:30 p.m. Eastern on TNT; and Rondo, Pierce, and Kevin Garnett (the latter two hopefully playing only cursory minutes) in the All-Star Game on Sunday at 8 p.m. Eastern on TNT.

Boston 107, Miami 102

Great stuff from the Cs last night.

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In the absence of Paul Pierce, who is out until at least the weekend with the strained foot he suffered on Monday against the Wizards, many Celtics stepped up. Rajon Rondo was masterful all night, finishing with 22 points, 14 assists, and six rebounds. Kevin Garnett had one of his best games of the year, with 14 points, six boards, and nine assists of his own. Ray Allen had one of his best shooting nights in a while, hitting 7 of 15 from the field on the way to a team-high 23 points. Tony Allen struggled replacing Pierce in the starting lineup, but was vital down the stretch, forcing Dwyane Wade into a very difficult jumper with just over a minute to go and then picking Wade on the next Heat possession, nailing two free throws on the other end to give Boston a five point lead with 36 seconds left. (Give Doc Rivers credit for making offense-defense substitutions down the stretch to keep Allen on Wade.) Eddie House chipped in 16 big points off the bench, and Rasheed Wallace (7 points) and Glen Davis (6 points) came up with big contributions for the second unit.

Most notably, Boston pulled away in the fourth quarter, taking control of a tie game and outscoring Miami 33-28 in the decisive period. I'm not at all saying that the team is better without Pierce on the floor, but his absence forced them to actually run offense down the stretch, and they were undoubtedly better off for it. Hopefully, this serves as a nice lesson for crunch-time offense when Pierce does come back.

Boston's next game is Friday, against New Jersey. Pierce may be back for the game on Super Bowl Sunday against Orlando (2:30 p.m. Eastern on ABC), though if they decide to sit him until after the All-Star break, I won't be upset. The Celtics beat the Magic on Christmas without Pierce, and moreover, while a game like this is important, it's not as important as making sure the captain is healthy for the second half of the season.

Dallas 99, Boston 90

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Boston just fell apart in this one.

Up 50-41 at the break, the Celtics imploded during a 34-18 third quarter and never recovered. Return of the bullets:

• As I feared would happen, Boston had no answer for Dirk Nowitzki. Rasheed Wallace did a decent enough job on him, but once 'sheed had to go to the bench with foul trouble, Action Dirk ran wild over Brian Scalabrine and Glen Davis. Final line for the big German: 14-22, 37 points.
• Defense was the real culprit in the loss -- the Mavs shot better than 57 percent for the game -- but it's hard to say much more than we stopped getting back.
• Offensively, while I love the fact that Rajon Rondo's jumper is getting better and Kendrick Perkins is becoming a viable post option, I feel we're relying on them a little too heavily. Especially when we need to regain some momentum, I see dumping the ball in to Perk as a fourth or fifth option. And there have been a couple of times in recent weeks where Rondo has taken the first jumper the defense has given him, which I'm generally okay with as long as he picks his moments; the middle of an opponent's run is not necessarily one of those moments.
• Mostly, I just want to see Ray Allen get more than 15 shots on a night he was making three out of every five he put up.

We're at Detroit on Wednesday. Still no KG, but supposedly he practiced today and will be back on Friday against Portland.

Viewing Alert

Dallas comes to town, at 8 pm Eastern on TNT, as part of the network's MLK Day tripleheader (Phoenix and Memphis kick it off at 5:30 Eastern, and Dallas at Boston is followed by Orlando at the Lakers at 10:30 Eastern).

The Celtics will be attempting to bounce back from Thursday's disappointing 96-83 loss to the Bulls. I only watched part of the game, and that part was from a seat at the Wynn sportsbook. My attention thus divided between a blackjack table and the sportsbetting atmosphere, it's a bit hard to analyze the game. TNT's Doug Collins noted that the Celtics looked tired, and I had to agree with him. It was their fourth game in five days, and they were again without Rasheed Wallace and Kevin Garnett. Still, Doc had limited everyone's minutes the night before in the blowout over the Nets -- no one played more than Rondo's 29 -- and I had hoped that the team would be fresh against Chicago. But it certainly looked like that wasn't the case.

The Mavericks may be a little beat for Monday's contest, as they are coming off a 22-point loss to the Raptors in Toronto on Sunday. And speaking of Wallace, which I was earlier, he's supposedly going to play against the Mavs, which is a good thing, since the prospect of facing Dirk Nowitzki without either of our long, mobile power forwards isn't a pleasant one. KG, by the way, may play Friday against Portland.

Golden State 103, Boston 99

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"Annoying" is the word I will use to describe this loss. It was annoying for several reasons. First, it came the day after another annoying loss to a bad team, the Clippers. Second, we've now lost six in a row at Oracle Arena. Third, the officials in this one matched Delta Airlines employees in terms of incompetence. Fourth, we turned the ball over 25 times. And fifth, we blew an 18-point lead.

I'll try to tackle these one by one in reverse order. I'm not going to do bullets, because I have too much to say. Then again, I have to be up early to go to the dentist, so maybe I should do bullets. Nah, I'm too fired up to sleep at the moments. Narrative it is.

Blowing an 18-point lead. So, yeah, we had a big lead in the first quarter, gave up a few buckets to end the period, and then the second team came in and by halftime the lead was gone. The second team does this a lot; comes in with a big lead, decides to take the quarter off, and pisses the whole thing away. (You'll recall that this is what had Kevin Garnett yelling at Glen Davis in the famous crying incident last season). Oddly, the bench often brings us back in games after a sluggish first quarter. It's like they are paid by the NBA to keep games close, no matter what. Hmmmm. I probably shouldn't joke about that, or David Stern will revoke my League Pass and have my family killed.

Also, we shouldn't just blame the bench for blowing the lead. We should additionally blame the starters for not taking the lead back. Ray Allen hit something like six of his first eight shots and ended up finishing 10-for-21; Kevin Garnett never really established himself in the post against Vlad Radmanovic, of all people; and except for a flurry of threes in the fourth quarter from Eddie House and Rasheed Wallace (among a much larger hailstorm of misses), we didn't get much of anything out of the bench. House and 'sheed are bench guys, but hey, I was rollin'.

According to the Golden State broadcast, we had gone something like 88 straight games in which we had a 16-point lead at some point. I guess we were due.

25 turnovers. That's a season-high, thank God. The Warriors lead the league in steals, but some of that is due to the pace of their games and the relatively high number of possessions that result. They aren't a good defensive team, and yet at one point, it was as if C.J. Watson was wearing a green jersey, we were throwing him the ball that often. He had something like six steals in his first ten minutes of action and finished with seven. Also, when Tony Allen moves into your starting lineup, you are just going to turn the ball over more. That's a given. Five turns for Tony in 28 minutes, one fewer cough-up than team leader Rajon Rondo, but Rondo was so bloody masterful offensively (more later) that we are giving him a pass.

The officials. Just comically bad-slant-weird stuff from the crew tonight. Hard to say which team, if any, was favored. I'm obviously biased, but I had the Golden State broadcast on League Pass Broadband and the Warriors announcers spent as much time being mystified by calls against Boston as they did griping about calls against Golden State. I recognize that not everyone is Tommy Heinsohn, but when the your opponent's announcers ackowledge questionable officiating in their favor, that's generally a sign you're getting screwed.

A few things stood out. We got called for at least two and I think three offensive foul calls for pushing off with the off-arm while shooting a layup, a fairly high number considering this call didn't really exist five years ago. Monta Ellis actually got called for what my father has always referred to as "up-and-down," which was technically the correct call on the play, but I literally cannot remember ever seen it called in an NBA game. Davis left the game with a knee injury in the fourth quarter on a play where he was both dragged to the ground by his arms and body blocked by another player below the waist; no call. And Kendrick Perkins got called for the most ridiculous technical foul I have ever seen: Perk caught the ball in the post, went up for the shot, and made it despite being fouled (no call). While this was happening, Rony Turiaf came over to block Perk's shot from behind, only he was too late, and he ended up off balance, hanging on Perk's back, elbowing Perk in the head in the process (no call). Perk then shrugged his shoulders ever so slightly, a fairly natural reaction for someone who suddenly finds himself with a 260-pound Martinican hanging on his back (you're damn right I Googled "What are people from Martinique called?"). Turiaf went crashing to the floor, which was his own fault, and Perk gets rung up for ... what? Who knows? The point that Golden State got on the ensuing free throw might have come in handy.

(Also, I know Ronny is listed at 247, but this was the first game he's played all month, and this is the holidays. Plus, he's added at least three or four pounds to his beard since the preseason. I'm sticking by 260.)

Losing to bad teams. I spent a lot of time talking about this last year, too much time probably, but in the big picture, losses to non-contenders like the Clips and the Woyas don't really matter. They happen every season, and they frankly just aren't a big deal. We don't need to send a message to these teams, we don't have to worry about them gaining confidence against us. They are horseflies to be swatted away by our thoroughbred tail.

With that being said, home court advantage could be really important this year, and the freaking Kings just lost consecutive home games in which they first failed to score a single point in overtime against Cleveland and then blew a seven-point overtime lead to the Lakers before falling in double OT. With other teams giving away games to our chief competition, it'd be nice if we won most of the games we should win and all of the ones in which we have an 18-point first-quarter lead. And while I'm not panicking at all about this, you'd like to see us play with the same crunch-time killer instinct that guys like Lebron James and Kobe Bryant always have. I'm not saying we don't have it, just that I'd like to see it a little more often.

Now we're ready for some bullets, for the denouement. This post is a masterpiece.

• 30 points and 15 assists for Rajon Rondo one night after missing two potential game-winning free throws against the Clippers. A friend and I had a brief conversation before the game, as we wondered how Rondo would respond to the situation. With 12 points and seven assists in the first quarter, apparently. The old Rondo sulks, maybe refuses to shoot, and certainly avoids drives to the basket so he doesn't have to step to the stripe. The new Rondo goes for 30 and 15 and knocks down seven of nine free throws. I actually thought there were two occasions where Rondo sought out contact in numbers-up situations where he normally would have (correctly) given up the pill. It was as though he wanted to shake those free throw demons right away. Man, I love this kid.
• Wallace has stopped going inside. 'sheed started the season only shooting from the outside, and shooting well; he quickly moved to only shooting from the outside, but shooting poorly; then, after Doc Rivers apparently begged him to do so, he went inside for several games and was going great. He's now back to shooting almost exclusively from the outside, but he skipped the stage where he makes them. He hit a couple wide-open ones tonight, but he missed three that he shouldn't have taken. All five of his shots came from beyond the arc.
• On a related note, I hate that we took 19 threes against a team like Golden State, which has so little in the post. Turiaf was in just his second game back after a month-long hiatus, and Andris Biedrins played just 14 minutes in his first action since November 8. No one else on their team is a legitimate player in the post (and Turiaf is barely that). And yet we didn't pound it into the paint, even without Paul Pierce.
• Down 101-98 with 44 seconds left, Doc called a timeout and drew up a play for a Ray Allen three-pointer, which he always does in those situations. I generally hate that call, especially since Ray hadn't hit anything in a while. Forty-four seconds is too much time to force a three. Two points aren't exactly guaranteed, but defenses are generally so concerned about not giving up the three (especially with Ray and Eddie House on the court) that it's pretty easy to get to the bucket. A Rondo penetrate-and-kick probably results in a cleaner look anyway.
• Ray missed that three, but we got a stop on the other end and Golden State ended up fouling intentionally. Ray went to the line down three with under five ticks left. He made the first and then missed the second on purpose. What's noteworthy about this, for me anyway, is that Ray did what I've been saying for years that people should do in this situation: Throw a line drive at the front rim without going through your usual pre-shot routine or shot motion. The other team isn't expecting you to shoot out of rhythm; the element of surprise will be enough to get the rebound, if not often, then at least more often than taking a conventional shot with the intent to miss. Ray's execution was lacking -- his fastball was a little high and rocketed off the backboard without scraping the rim, resulting in a dead ball and Golden State possession -- but the idea was right.

Next game is Wednesday at Phoenix, where the Lakers just got their faces melted by the Suns tonight. A win in the desert would avenge an early-season home loss, but without Pierce, Boston's going to have to play awfully well to avoid a third straight defeat.

Boston 98, Milwaukee 89

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I was excited for this matchup because it was my first look at Brandon Jennings, the point guard for the Bucks who hung a double-nickel on the Warriors last month, the most points by a rookie in a single game in more than 40 years. Jennings was decent, but his opposite number stole the show. Rajon Rondo did a nice job of keeping the clamps on Jennings, spent three quarters setting the table for his teammates -- my favorite was a no-look feed to Kendrick Perkins after an offensive rebound on which three Bucks defenders bit on Rondo's ball fake -- and then scored all 11 of his points in the fourth quarter, including going 5-for-7 from the free throw line. Rondo's fell one rebound short of a triple-double, adding five steals to go with 13 assists.

Kevin Garnett continued his torrid shooting, and Rasheed Wallace came up with big offensive contributions off the bench.

Marquis Daniels missed this game, and it appears it was the first of what will be quite a few more: He had thumb surgery today and the Boston Globe is reporting that Daniels will be out about eight weeks. I didn't even notice that Daniels wasn't playing, only that the Rondo-Eddie House-Ray Allen combination Doc Rivers ran out there for a while was a little odd. These are the kind of details you miss when you are watching a game at 4 in the morning, having spent the past 12 hours staring at law review articles about Christian political realism.

Losing Daniels hurts, for all the reasons that we got him in the first place: He can handle the ball and let House play the two with the second unit; he can guard both big guards and small forwards; he gives us someone other than Tony Allen to spell Ray Allen and Paul Pierce on the wing. Daniels' contributions aren't apparent from the box scores, but he'll be missed. His absence will probably cost us a game or two down the line, and Doc should be advised to ensure those losses come while Daniels is still out, rather than in the playoffs (due to Ray and Pierce being worn out from playing more minutes during the regular season in Daniels' absence).

Speaking of Tony Allen, he played for the first time all season, and picked up where he left off: Canceling out roughly every positive play he made with a negative one. Relatively early into his brief return to the court, he went up and gathered a very tough defensive rebound over two Bucks. The carom took him towards the left sideline, and while falling ever so slightly backwards, with the Bucks retreating back downcourt, he whipped a chest pass towards the Celtics basket that missed an understandably surprised Brian Scalabrine (he is, after all, a power forward, and had no reason to think that Tony would be passing him the ball) by about three feet. Tony just never looks comfortable with the rock in his hands. I'd like to be able to say that this was just rust, but I know better. It's Tony being Tony.

Next game is a TV game; Thursday on TNT at 8 p.m. Eastern against the Wizards.

Muy Beno: A quick note on Brandon Jennings. I saw him play in Summer League in Vegas, and while you could tell he had talent, he seemed like he was a ways away from being a positive contributor. Moreover, this was when all the stuff about him being brash and undisciplined was coming out. I was sitting fairly close to Bucks coach Scott Skiles and general manager John Hammond in the Vegas crowd, and Skiles -- a notoriously tough, no-nonsense guy as both a point guard and a coach -- had this look on his face the entire time that read: "This is the asshole you drafted to be my point guard?" If you could bet on stuff like Skiles performing a reverse Sprewell and strangling Jennings by season's end, I would have.

It wasn't enough to keep me from drafting Jennings late in one of my fantasy leagues, on the theory that he was going to play a lot and guys who play a lot put up decent fantasy stats (this worked very well with Oklahoma City's Russeell Westbrook last season). It was enough, however, to get me to drop Jennings before the season when I discovered that Andray Blatche would be starting the first several games for Washington while Antawn Jamison recovered injury. Jennings was quickly scooped up, and now I'm starting T.J. Ford in one of my "utility" slots on a team that is one good assist man away from being about as close to a lock as you can get in a semi-competitive league.

I overlooked a lot of things about Jennings, particularly the fact that the guy was perhaps the best point guard in his high school class, and that his modest averages (something like six points and two assist per game) in his one year playing professionally in Italy could be explained by many things: Transition to a foreign culture; playing a different style of basketball (an adjustment for any player, but particularly a point guard); the fact that European teams give sparse minutes to young guys, particularly those who they know will be jumping to the NBA soon. (Spanish phenom Ricky Rubio, the 19-year-old point guard whom the Wolves made the fifth pick in the NBA Draft this past summer, continues to make NBA mouths water despite averaging around 20 minutes, five points, and five assists in 17 games for DKV Joventut in Serie A and EuroLeaugue competition.)

Anyway, Jennings is quick and wiry, with a very mature-looking floater and a jumper that looks decent but wasn't falling last night. Moreover, he seems to have won over the Milwaukee organization. So, yeah, I was wrong about him.

Boston 108, Charlotte 90

[recap] [box score]

I watched this game on League Pass Broadband in the basement of the law school, where the connection isn't great. The feed kept freezing and I never got a great feel for the rhythm of what was going on. We jumped on 'em early, though, and didn't really let up.

I did manage to catch Rasheed Wallace's antics, which included picking up a technical foul while walking to the bench, then yelling his trademark "Ball don't lie!" when Charlotte's Flip Murray missed the ensuing free throw. This was the third straight game that 'sheed's picked up a T, and its his eighth on the year after going his first four games in Boston without one. I believe he is now halfway to the 16-tech threshold, after which you start getting docked a game for each infraction.

As much as I like what Wallace brings to this team, I'm already tired of his act vis-a-vis the referees. He doesn't just argue with them; he actively antagonizes him. When he got rung up against Charlotte, it was after a play on which not he, but Marquis Daniels, was whistled for a foul. Though I didn't catch what he was saying at that particular moment, I earlier had heard him chastise an offical with a comment along the lines of "Wait for me to foul him before you blow that whistle." In other words, 'sheed was not arguing that he didn't foul the guy; rather, he was arguing that the call came too early.

There's only so much of this the refs can and will put up with. Even without 'sheed last year, we got a rep for woofing to our opponents and barking at the refs, and Wallace's behavior exacerbates that. To their credit, I haven't noticed the officials treating us more harshly because of all this, but it's not absurd to think that might happen. Moreover, we really don't want Wallace suspended when push comes to shove in the spring.

Boston 92, Miami 85

[recap][box score]

This was a strange game in which both teams found a nice rhythm offensively in the first half despite too many whistles from the officials, then hit a bit of a lull at various points throughout the third quarter before picking it up again. In the end, the Heat had some key misses and the Celtics made just enough shots to win.

Things to like:

• Kevin Garnett making 11 of 12 shots. He's now 17 of 18 over his last two games.
• Rajon Rondo playing assertively on the road, which he doesn't always do. Rondo was a blur offensively on Sunday. He didn't always make the right decision, but the offense is so much better when he's attacking.
• Rasheed Wallace taking his game to the low post for the second straight outing.
• A strong final four-and-a-half minutes on the road against one of the game's best closers, Dywane Wade. Boston trailed 82-78 with 4:26 to play, and then turned it up on both ends in closing on a 14-3 run.

Things not to like:

• Another game where we played almost no defense in the first half.
• Letting Miami back into it immediately after grabbing an 11-point lead. We scored the first four points of the second half and two minutes in, it really looked like it was going to be the kind of third quarter we saw a lot during the championship season. But this team seems to lose its concentration with a lead, and it only took six minutes for Miami to tie the score.

Next game is Tuesday at Charlotte against a Bobcat team that a) almost always plays us tough and b) has won four straight, including an impressive win over Cleveland. Though we held them to 59 points in their season-opener at the end of October, it's not the team I want to see in the middle of a four-game road trip that takes us to San Antonio on Thursday (8 pm Eastern on TNT) and Oklahoma City on Friday. Tough week.

Orlando 83, Boston 78

I pity the beat writer who has to come up with a recap for this one. It was a game without a lede.

[recap][box score]

We on the Boston side can play the "What if..." game, although it's more accurately the "How often..." game: How often are we going to shoot 2-for-19 from three-point range? Those on the Orlando side, however, can respond with "How often are we going to make just 15 of 26 free throws and commit 20 turnovers?" The statistical anomalies more or less balance each other out.

Really, it boiled down to the fact that Orlando had a stretch where their shots were falling (the first quarter), whereas Boston never really got going. That's it, plain and simple. Even as Boston cut a 16-point first quarter deficit to one just before halftime, I never felt confident in our ability to score on a given possession. Nor could I really say how we ended up scoring 29 points in that period. Some free throws here, a basket in transition there, a jumper or two sprinkled in. The offense just never was clicking. The same was true after we went down 66-57 late in the third. We came back to tie the score at 78, but it took nearly a whole quarter to do it. Holding a team as good as the Magic to 12 points in 11 minutes is a terrific defensive effort, but scoring just 21 points during that stretch wasted it.

There are a couple of positive things to take from the game. Other than the first period, the defense was very good, which it hasn't been at all recently. Additionally, our two big off-season acquistions, Rasheed Wallace and Marquis Daniels, were arguably our best players tonight. Despite his terrible shooting night, Wallace had a major positive effect, grabbing 13 rebounds and making three steals in a season-high 33:38 of court time (he played the last 19 and a half minutes after Kendrick Perkins went to the bench with his fifth foul 4:30 in to the third quarter). Daniels' stat line wasn't nearly as full, but he made a lot of little plays that helped us get back in it.

Some quick bullets:

• Perkins picked up his fourth foul trying to draw a charge on Rashard Lewis with 8:47 on the clock in the third quarter. As mentioned above, he picked up his fifth a minute later, with Wallace at the scorer's table waiting to check in for him. Why do I mention it? Because Doc Rivers had two opportunities to get Perk out of there before he picked up his fifth (immediately after the foul, and when Rajon Rondo commited a loose-ball foul on the other end) and didn't do it. It probably didn't hurt us because Wallace filled in so well, but it's still a mistake that shouldn't be made.
• For the second time this year, Eddie House played the crunch time minutes in place of Rondo. I've been thinking about it for an hour or so, and I still can't decide how I feel about it. On the one hand, Rondo wasn't having much of an effect on the game and House's defense, normally a reason for Rondo over House, wasn't a problem. On the other hand, the big reason to play House over Rondo is House's outside shooting, which wasn't there at all tonight. The other argument for House is that his presence forces the opposition to play honest defense, and the rest of the Celtics got some good looks at three-pointers as Orlando ran at House on ball reversals; they just didn't knock them down. But House can't break down his man like Rondo can, and Rondo taking the ball to the basket often results in an open look for a teammate. Maybe I'd be singing a different tune if Wallace had knocked down a couple of the threes he took off of House passes, but I would've gone back to Rondo a bit sooner. We weren't hitting our jumpers and a still-hobbled Paul Pierce was having a tough time getting his own shot. We needed someone to create.
• On a related note, some of you are no doubt saying something to the effect of "No team should ever shoot 2-for-19 from three-point range" -- the idea being that if you're that cold, you should look for a different way to score. There's some truth to that, but the looks Boston got were by and large good ones. Orlando played pretty good defense, Rondo wasn't playing down the stretch, and Pierce really struggled to create for himself. Those were the shots that were available, and on a normal night, they knock enough down that it's not an issue.
• I thought Pierce did a very nice job of battling Dwight Howard on several defensive rotations, keeping the big guy out of scoring position while our bigs recovered.
• During the broadcast, ESPN's Jeff Van Gundy noted that Kevin Garnett tonight surpassed 40,000 career minutes. I hopped on to Basketball Reference to see where that ranked all-time (25th) and discovered something a little unsettling; among active players, Boston has four of the top 12 in minutes played. I knew we were old, but that was still pretty unsettling.

Boston 105, Philadelphia 74

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

[recap] [box score]

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

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

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

Bullets!

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

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

Boston 97, New Orleans 87

Our first subpar performance of the season.

[recap] [box score]

The Celtics may have fallen victims to their own early-season success a little bit in this one. Despite not shooting particularly well, they looked to have the game completely in control, holding a nine-point lead late in the third. Whether they let up at that point or simply couldn't find the killer instinct they had in putting the Bobcats and Bulls away I can't say, but letting a Chris Paul-led team hang around without paying for it. The Celtics' price for their lethargy was a much more difficult final period than it needed to be.

This one wasn't over until just over two minutes remained in the fourth. Boston went to a 3/4 pick-and-roll for three consecutive possessions. On the first two, Paul Pierce posted up Peja Stojakovic on the left wing, took an entry pass from Kevin Garnett, and then dribbled right over a screen from Garnett, forcing a switch. The ball then went to KG in the post, and the havoc this mismatch wreaked on the Hornets' defense resulted in in an easy bucket for Rondo cutting to the hoop and a wide-open three for Pierce after New Orleans triple-teamed KG. The last time we ran this action, Pierce took a high screen from KG and dribbled right. Garnett rolled to the foul line, took a pass from Pierce, drew Emeka Okafor out ever so slightly, and dumped it down to Kendrick Perkins for an easy two.

Bullets:

• The bench had a nice sequence starting at the end of the third quarter, after New Orleans had come back from down 12 to tie it. Rasheed Wallace hit a three with the shot clock expiring to end the period, then hit a little turnaround in the lane to again push the lead to three with a minute and a half gone in the fourth. Stojakovic tied it with a three, but Marquis Daniels drew a foul on the next possession. He hit the first free throw and missed the second, but he then combined with Wallace to tap out the offense rebound, and Wallace hit a three on the possession. Eddie House then sandwiched nice assists to Shelden Williams and Daniels around a Stojakovic triple, which gave the starters the cushion they needed.
• Rajon Rondo didn't have a bad game, but he made several mistakes in the fourth quarter: A bad pass, a dribbling violation, a gamble on Paul that used up Boston's foul to give, and an over-aggressive attempt to keep the ball out of Paul's hands that ended up putting CP3 on the line. He was hardly the only guy not at his best Sunday night, but he came down to earth a bit after his remarkable start to the season.
• Stojakovic nearly buried us with his outside shooting (26 points on 9-of-15, including 6-of-10 from deep). Pierce was on him a big chunk of the time and Stojakovic just ran him off of screens. Boston never really helped; it was as though they were totally unprepared for New Orleans to run plays for Peja. That may be forgivable, given how balky his back has been, but it sure was frustrating to see the guy who is fourth all-time in three-pointers made have so much daylight over and over in the second half. Boston didn't really make him work on the defensive end until the final few minutes, either, despite the fact that his cover, Pierce, had a very strong first half offensively.

A win's a win, though, and the Celtics move to 4-0. Next game is Tuesday night, at Philly.

Boston 95, Cleveland 89

A rocky start. An excellent first half. A great beginning to the third quarter. A bit of a lull. A bit more of a lull. And then just enough plays to take it home.

[recap] [box score]

The first half was surprisingly smooth given that it was the inaugural 24 minutes. After the break, however, the game took a noticeable turn for the worse, a combination of offensive stagnation, sloppy play and carelessness with the ball, and good defense. But the Celtics got it done down the stretch, stemming the tide just when they needed to, as they've done so often the past couple of seasons.

A game this choppy doesn't deserve one of my elegant, flowing narratives (cough). How 'bout some bullet points?

• I'm happy overall with what I saw out of Kevin Garnett. He played 33 minutes overall (a few more than I and the coaching staff would have liked) and didn't seem like he was limping or anything like that. I noticed in the first half that he wasn't as quick to loose balls and rebounds as I'm used to seeing. The only bad sign we saw in the second half was a missed dunk on a break, however. I think it's probably him just getting his legs back.
• I wasn't quite as happy with what I saw from Rasheed Wallace, even though he hit three of six three-pointers and finished with 12 points. His play was fine; he just didn't look very good. TNT announcer Doug Collins said that 'sheed was out of shape, maybe 10 pounds above ideal weight. I didn't necessarily notice that, but I did notice that Wallace got almost no lift on his jumpers and on his way up for rebounds. I haven't seen much of him the last few years, so I can only hope that this is just him working into game shape and we won't see him play so ... geriatrically for long.
• Doc Rivers' substitution patterns were markedly different tonight than we're used to seeing. Wallace checked in for Kendrick Perkins with about five minutes remaining in the first quarter, with Marquis Daniels spelling Ray Allen a minute later. Garnett sat for Shelden Williams with 2:31 to go in the period, and Eddie House came in for Rajon Rondo with just over a minute left. It was pretty common for the starting five, save Garnett or Perkins, to play the whole first quarter last year, with one of Pierce or Allen starting the second stanza as well to provide offense for the second team. There had been a lot of talk in the offseason about having a true second unit, but in this game Doc seemed more focused on gradually transitioning to the second string from the first and back again (Allen started the second for Paul Pierce and played the entire quarter, while the rest of the starters came back at the six- and four-and-a-half-minute marks). Whether this was Doc experimenting or dealing with a depleted bench -- remember, Glen Davis, Brian Scalabrine, Tony Allen, and Bill Walker missed this one with injuries -- or a new philosophy remains to be seen.
• Doc used a similar substitution pattern in the second half, but he had the starters back in earlier, with 8:03 remaining. However, our offense was stagnant and Doc replaced Perkins with Wallace with 4:16 to go to spread the floor and force the Cavs to guard every position. Who gets the frontcourt minutes in crunch time alongside KG will be something to watch all season.
• Marquis Daniels is a career 23.7 percent three-point shooter. I mention this for the benefit of RwH readers who are largely unfamiliar with Daniels and who may have heard the TNT announcing team of Kevin Harlan and Doug Collins imply that Daniels was dangerous from behind the arc. Daniels hit a triple early in the fourth quarter, and Collins mentioned that the lineup on the floor at the time -- with Allen, House, Wallace, and Daniels -- was a good three-point shooting lineup (which it is, but not because of Daniels). Seconds later, Harlan mentioned how Daniels is the kind of player Doc likes, because he can defend and make the three-pointer. C'mon, fellas. Do your homework.
• Daniels, by the way, played very well on both ends of the court. Nothing spectacular, but very solid.
• Even with Shaquille O'Neal around, Cleveland is a one-man band offensively. There's so much standing around in that offense, it's ridiculous. Rarely do they have more than one thing going on at a time.

I don't want to say this was a statement game, because we didn't play well enough for it to be a statement. But it's our first win in Cleveland since 2004, and a road win is a big leg up in the head-to-head should we need it for playoff tiebreakers.

***

NEXT GAME: Boston's back in action Wednesday night at home against Charlotte in the opener for the Bobcats. A potential letdown game if played at a different point in the season, but there's no such thing as a letdown game in your home opener. Especially when it's KG's return to the parquet.

VIEWING ALERT: The game against Charlotte isn't on national TV, but NBA League Pass is running its free preview through November 3rd. If your cable company doesn't offer League Pass, try League Pass Broadband's free preview. The game's at 7:30 Eastern.

TMJF: Minnesota hosts New Jersey in the opener for both teams tomorrow night, but Jonny Flynn might not play. He's missed two practices in a row with an illness. If he does go, he'll have his hands full with Nets point guard Devin Harris, one of the league's bright young stars at the position. Harris is super-quick and has a few inches on Flynn. If it materializes, it's a tough assignment for an NBA debut.

While I'm talking about Flynn, though, I do want to make a few additional comments to the ones I made the other week. While I expect great things from him long-term and think he'll have a strong rookie season, I do expect him to experience some ups and downs. Any point guard who is immediately handed the keys to an NBA team will have encounter some bumps in the road, particularly if he's as reliant on Damien Wilkins and Corey Brewer as Flynn has to be. Flynn will have his share of high-turnover games and nights where his shot isn't falling. His size will leave him vulnerable against certain point guards. His work ethic, competitive nature, and ability to get to the free throw line should be insurance against any truly disastrous games, but I didn't want my glowing comments from before to be read that I think Flynn's just going to hit the ground running and never look back.

The Literally Big Three

"Rasheed Wallace is going to stretch the floor for us. He's going to give us another post player. Defensively, he's going to be huge for us, with his size and with his verbal [ability]. I think he's one of the best talkers in the NBA. Verbally, when you put him and Kevin [Garnett] on the floor at the same time, and [Kendrick Perkins], I think we have a chance to be the loudest team, in a positive way, defensively, in the game.

--Doc Rivers, as quoted by The
Boston Globe

I don't really care about being loud on defense. What I do care about is the implication that we'll see 'sheed, KG, and Perk on the court together on occasion.

It's the answer to a question I had pondered for a while, ever since we signed Wallace in the offseason. I originally thought about it because, as I wrote in my offseason recap, I was worried about the effect the signing would have on Perkins -- particularly, who would play alongside KG, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, and Rajon Rondo down the stretch. I assumed basically what this guy over at CelticsBlog did; that Perkins would remain the starter and Wallace would play most of the fourth quarter minutes. And I was concerned that it would set Perkins back after his breakout performance toward the end of last year.

If we had added Wallace last offseason, before the 2008-09 season, this would be an easy question. Wallace would fill James Posey's role off the bench, taking the majority of the fourth quarter minutes. It seemed to me that Rivers didn't trust Perkins in the fourth quarter.

But last season, out of necessity due to Garnett's knee injury and the lack of a guy like Posey on the roster, Doc's hand was forced. And the big fella, after taking a little while to get comfortable, responded in a big way. He was arguably the team's MVP during the playoffs, and he guarded Orlando's Dwight Howard as well as anyone in the league. That level of individual, one-on-one defense against a man of Howard's size is better than what we'd get with Garnett or Wallace trying to check.

So it became clear to me that at least against certain teams, Perkins was awfully valuable to be sitting on the bench during the fourth quarter of close games, whatever his offensive deficiencies might be. At the same time, a Perkins/Garnett/Wallace frontline could be historically good defensively.

It's a little tricky to see, however, in what situations Doc might go to this big lineup. Those three guys represent the only three players on the roster who can play center; our next-best big (Glen Davis) is too small to guard many fours, let alone fives; and the guy at the end of the bench, Shelden Williams, has averaged four points, four rebounds, and 15 minutes per game in a five-year NBA career. Especially if the goal is to limit Garnett's minutes, it's hard to see an opportunity for this lineup in the first 42 or so minutes of the game.

That leaves crunch time. At the end of games, we don't need to keep a backup center in reserve, and it's conceivable that the three of them could play together. If they do, of course, that means Rondo sits, as there's simply no way Pierce or Allen sit in the fourth quarter. While I'm not crazy about this prospect -- Rondo brings an important dynamic to the offense when he's playing right -- there have been times in his career, particularly on the road, when he hasn't been aggressive. In those spots, his questionable jump shot and poor free throw shooting can turn him into a liability on offense. You may recall how effectively the Lakers neutralized him during the 2008 Finals in Games 3 through 5 in LA. Ideally, those nights wouldn't happen, but it's unrealistic, at this point, to suspect that they won't, and when they do, this big lineup is a nice alternative.

Three questions may be jumping out at you at this point. The first is whether Rasheed can guard the 3. I haven't paid enough attention to him recently to say for sure, but if Doc is considering playing him alongside Perkins and Garnett, then at least the coach thinks he can. Certainly he could guard Lamar Odom if the Lakers went big with an Odom/Pau Gasol/Andrew Bynum front line.

The second is who would bring the ball up. This concerns me some, because I don't trust Allen's handle against a smaller player, and having Pierce dribbling can be an adventure. Still, those guys have some experience bringing it up, and at the very least it's worth seeing whether they can do it.

The third question is how Ray Allen guards opposing point guards. We already know that Pierce can guard twos, thanks to his excellent work on Kobe Bryant in the Finals two seasons ago. But Ray stands to be a real liability on defense against any type of scoring point guard.

Thing is, at this stage in his career, Ray's a liability when he's checking many shooting guards. We have to give Ray a lot of help as it is; does it matter all that much who we're helping him with? I submit that it doesn't, or at least that it might not, and that it's worth finding out whether it does.

Generally speaking, I don't want to see Rondo on the bench in the fourth quarter, and I'd be fine with Doc playing whichever two of our three bigs are going better that night or make sense because of matchups. And I don't think the big lineup would work against every team, although every matchup problem an opponent would give us on defense, we'd give right back to them on offense. But there may be times when our best five means Perk/KG/'sheed/PP/Ray, and I'd hope that we'd at least experiment with that combo during the regular season.

Iverson for Billups

Of course, the big news from yesterday is that Detroit sent Chauncey Billups and Antonio McDyess to Denver for Allen Iverson. Everyone's got an opinion on this one, but the consensus seems to be -- and I'm sorry to give only ESPN links here, but I'm lazy these days -- that it's win-win: Denver gets better; Detroit clears cap space to make a run at the big-name free agents this summer and next.

Since this blog is Celtics-themed, a quick word on how this affects the Celtics. As word of the trade spread, I talked briefly to a lot of friends and read a lot of blog posts and comments, and the prevailing wisdom seemed to be that this trade helped the Celtics, since Billups was such a matchup problem for Rondo.

I'll give you a second to digest that, because it took me a second to digest it myself.

I know, right?

People are actually saying that Rondo will have an easier time guarding the Pistons now that he "gets" to check Allen Iverson instead of Chauncey Billups.

Allen Iverson. Allen fucking Iverson. AI. The Answer. The nine-time All-Star. The 2000-2001 NBA MVP. He of the 27.7 ppg scoring average. ALLEN IVERSON!

Okay, so Iverson won't have the size mismatch that Billups had on Rondo. And okay, maybe Rondo's quick enough and Iverson's old enough that Iverson doesn't have the edge in quickness the way he might have a few years ago. But there's one mismatch he does have: He's Allen Iverson, and Rajon Rondo isn't.

As tough as Billups was for Rondo to check, he wasn't the kind of guy you were terrified of, at least not these last couple of years. Iverson still is that guy. He's one of the most hard-nosed and competitive players the league has seen in years, and one of its more remarkable athletes and talents, too.

We played Denver, Iverson's old team, twice last year. In the two games (both Celtics victories), Iverson shot 31 free throws. 31! That's a Dwyane-Wade-in-the-Finals kind of statistic. Iverson's not going to abuse Rondo in the post the way Billups did, but the idea that Rondo will be more effective defensively on Iverson than he was on Billups just seems wrong.

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As a basketball fan, I'm really excited to see how Iverson works out in Detroit. Iverson has never played on a team like these Pistons. It's been said that you can't play Iverson alongside another star, because of the way he clashed with Jerry Stackhouse early in his career in Philadelphia and never found the right rhythm with Carmelo Anthony in Denver.

At the same time, when Iverson's teams have had success, it's been almost solely by virtue of his effort. Quiz time: The second-best player on the Philly team that went to the Finals and took Game 1 from the Lakers in 2001 was ...

I'm waiting...

Aaron McKie -- who, get this, won the Sixth Man of the Year award that season.

The present-day Pistons are different, a team of veterans that doesn't care who does the scoring, as long as somebody is. Rip Hamilton led the team with 17.3 points per game last year; Billups, Tayshaun Prince, and Rasheed Wallace were all in double figures. All told, ten Pistons averaged at least 6.5 per last year. Shots were almost evenly distributed among the starters; Rip got 14 a game, but Billups, Prince, and Wallace each hoisted 11 times per contest. There's no current Piston whose style Iverson will cramp.

And yet, these guys are hardly a team of role players. They are Eastern Conference finalists from last year, the only team to beat the Celtics in Boston during the playoffs. They aren't Aaron McKie and Eric Snow and George Lynch and Matt Geiger. (Betcha hadn't thought about Matt Geiger in a while!) Wallace is a four-time All-Star. Hamilton's been named to the All-Star team three times. Both he and Prince have championship rings. Iverson's got plenty of help in his new city.

The composition of the league's elite has changed even since the Pistons won their championship in 2003-2004, and certainly since Iverson took his Sixers to the Finals in 2000-2001. You probably need more than one star (or, alternatively, one star whose name is LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, or maybe Chris Paul) to be a serious contender for the chip these days, and Iverson is far enough past his prime that he won't be able to lift his team the way LeBron or Kobe can. We'll probably never know, but maybe Joe Dumars has found, too late, the right formula for success with Iverson, and these Pistons are built the way those Sixers should have been.