Washington 85, Boston 83

The Celtics followed up an inspired blowout of Utah on Friday night with an embarrassing loss to the Washington Wizards.

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After an easy first period in which the Cs raced out to a 35-20 lead, the ball simply stopped going in the basket for Boston. If you watched the game or are any good at math, you'll already have figured out that after that first quarter, Boston scored just 48 points the rest of the way. Jumpers stopped falling, the bench didn't really contribute, and by and large the whole team just looked disinterested.

For their part, the Wizards didn't look much better. The matchup everyone was excited to see coming into the game was John Wall vs. Rajon Rondo, Wall being the top overall pick in last year's draft who didn't play due to injury in Washington's trip to Boston on November 17 (a 31-point Celtics win). Wall stole the headlines by banking in a three-pointer with less than a minute left to put the Wizards up three, but that seems to be because sportswriters don't seem to want to admit what a lucky shot that was. (To his credit, Wall recognized what they didn't: "I knew it was going to hit backboard, but I thought it was going to be a hard brick. It could've broken the backboard. Luckily, it went in.")

Other than that prayer, Wall's biggest play was a layup in transition with 2:34 to play that gave the Wizards their first lead of the game, after coming up empty on no fewer than eight fourth-quarter possessions with the score tied or Washington down a single point. Rondo wasn't spectacular, but he was quite a bit better than Wall all night. Had Paul Pierce been able to knock down the game-winner over Andray Blatche, all anyone would be talking about today was Rondo's strip of Wall on Washington's last possession that gave Pierce the chance to win the game. Don't get me wrong, Wall is going places and I really like the way he handles himself. I just want to temper everyone's reaction to the game by pointing out that Rondo more or less kicked his butt all night.

Shaquille O'Neal sat out after injuring his hip on Friday night against the Jazz, a game in which he played just six minutes. The injury may be related to when Shaq fell on some ice around Christmastime. With Jermaine O'Neal out for the next month or so to strengthen his legs and hopefully be able to play down the stretch, Semih Erden got the start. Doc, at least, doesn't think Shaq's injury is serious, but with the Lakers looming at the end of the week, it's something to keep an eye on.

Glen Davis got the most minutes of any Boston frontcourt player -- give Doc credit for not riding Kevin Garnett too much, which would have been easy under the circumstances -- and seemed to fall back into his habit of relying on jumpers. It seems that this becomes Davis' MO when Shaq is out and he feels he needs to be a bigger part of the offense. Hopefully, he can be broken of that habit.

Boston 86, Detroit 82

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A few laurels to hand out on what was an otherwise ugly game:

• Shaquille O'Neal was all over the court, rebounding on both ends, blocking shots, and diving for loose balls. I'm not sure what motivates Shaq to play like this -- or, to phrase the issue a bit more pessimistically, what prevents him from playing this way all the time -- but it's good to see he has it in him. The Celtics should have gone to him more on the offensive end; nine shot attempts is not enough for man his size going up against the likes of Chris Wilcox and Greg Monroe. Boston has had no qualms about riding the hot hand of Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, and even Marquis Daniels in recent games. There's no reason why they should be shy about going to the big fella until the other team figures out how to stop it.
• Ray Allen's confidence -- and the confidence the team has in Ray Allen -- never ceases to amaze me. Despite the fact that the soon-to-be all-time leader in made three-pointers was cold all night (even missing a pair of free throws), the Celtics still went to him in crunch time, running him off a screen on the right wing with the score tied at 82 and maybe half a minute left. To the surprise of no one, Allen buried a jumper -- though he did have his foot on the three-point line, another sign he was just a bit out of calibration all evening.
• Glen Davis seems comfortable back in his bench role, and he's continuing to see minutes at the end of games, which I think we can expect all season. He's looking for that 18-foot jumper a lot less now, instead preferring to quickly reverse the ball and keep the offense moving. His biggest play Wednesday night came on what was effectively Detroit's last possession, going straight up to bother a Ben Gordon drive with the Celtics up two. Most guys would foul there, but Davis maintained his verticality and forced Gordon into a tough shot, which he missed. Gordon actually could have easily been whistled for an offensive foul himself for discarding Davis with his left arm while laying the ball up with his right.

Boston 109, Orlando 106

Welcome back, Kevin.

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Sidelined by a right calf injury since December 29, Kevin Garnett returned to the Boston starting lineup Monday night and scored 19 points, grabbed eight rebounds, and brought the Celtics alive with his trademark energy and chatter. His biggest contribution, however, was a game-sealing steal of a Jameer Nelson pass in the final seconds. After deflecting the pass and securing the ball, Garnett flung out to a streaking Ray Allen, who dribbled off some clock before getting fouled and icing the game at the free throw line.

It was, more or less, a perfect return for KG in the eyes of Celtics fans. Garnett played 31 minutes and moved well for each and every one of them. Call me paranoid if you wish, but I know I wasn't the only Boston fan waiting to see KG in action before I believed that this most recent injury wasn't serious. The memory of two seasons ago, when Garnett and/or the team hid the severity of his knee problems for weeks, is simply too fresh.

This game was about far more than Garnett's healthy return, however. Doc Rivers, as expected, had the fellas play Dwight Howard more or less straight up. No double teams, no putting him at the line at every opportunity. Just straight-up defense, following the philosophy the Cs have been successful with over the past three-plus seasons: Let their best player get his and worry about shutting down the other guys.

The other guys, in the case of the Magic, are good enough to beat you on many nights, and they almost did. Howard had 33 points and 13 rebounds, and his teammates made 11 of 27 three-point shots in support. But they cooled down just enough in the fourth quarter for the Celtics -- who shot 60 percent from the field but just 3-for-10 from behind the arc -- to avenge the Christmas Day loss.

The one issue I had with the way the Celtics handled Howard was that they didn't attack him on the offensive end. Shaquille O'Neal drew a foul on Howard within the first two minutes of the game, but only took seven shots the whole night. Indeed, Howard ended the game -- after nearly 44 minutes of court time -- with just that one foul. Howard is more than capable of playing defense, and I get that Doc is loathe to change the game plan because of just one guy. But Shaq had a couple of buckets early, and it would have been worth it to see whether he could have kept rolling and/or gotten Howard into foul trouble. During one second-quarter sequence, Howard drew Shaq's second foul on an extremely dubious call, getting to the line simply by bringing the ball into Shaq's forearm. It looked bad when the ref called it and a replay on the Jumbotron confirmed that it was a bad call. The next Celtic possession was a perfect opportunity to go to O'Neal and give the officials an opportunity for a makeup call. Instead, Boston went to Paul Pierce. It didn't cost the Celtics any points, as Pierce hit a jumper, but Shaq picked up his third on the next Orlando possession, sending him to the bench. Had Boston gone to O'Neal, it might have been Howard headed to the bench for the rest of the half, rather than Shaq.

Speaking of Howard and the officials, I yelled at my television enough during the game that I feel obligated to mention the officiating, which was horrible in my estimation. In addition to the O'Neal foul mentioned above, Howard was the beneficiary of a bad call on Garnett's third foul late in the second period. Howard was trying to seal Garnett in the post, and Garnett fought throw Howard holding him off with his left arm to steal the entry pass. Danny Crawford apparently thought that KG grabbed Howard's arm to accomplish this, when in fact it was Howard, if anyone, who committed the foul. For someone who constantly complains that he doesn't receive enough protection from the officials, Howard certainly got plenty of it Monday night.

It wasn't just Howard; the Magic shot 36 free throws to Boston's 26, despite taking 27 three-pointers to Boston's ten and despite the fact that Boston scored a ton of points in the paint. Free throw discrepancies in favor of Orlando are rather commonplace given some teams' preferred strategy for defending Howard, but as I mentioned, Boston wasn't wrapping him up every time he caught the ball in a dangerous position the way some teams do. There's just no way Orlando should shoot that many more free throws while also shooting that many more jumpers. And I haven't yet mentioned what I considered to be the most egregious call of the game, a moving screen on KG that nullified a Ray Allen three with less than two minutes to play. I get that KG moves on screens, like basically every NBA big man, but under two minutes in a tie ballgame is a wacky time to start making that call, especially when Howard had been stepping into screens on the other end all night. The inconsistency drove me crazy.

Not to ramble on and on about Howard, but this game underscored for me the reason why I'm not overly concerned with the Magic, at least not as currently constructed. By giving up center Marcin Gortat in the Vince Carter-Jason Richardson trade with Phoenix, Orlando has left itself with no viable backup for Howard. And while Howard is young and fit and fully capable of playing as many minutes as he did, he's also foul prone and if the game had gone differently, Orlando could have found itself in some trouble -- and that's with Kendrick Perkins and Jermaine O'Neal out with injuries. Even so, there were a handful of occasions that Howard didn't challenge easy shots around the basket, and he didn't block a shot in a game for the first time since Game 2 of the Boston series last May. I have to think Howard is more conscious than ever about foul trouble, which negates some of his shotblocking ability and makes Orlando's defense that much less effective.

In order to get a backup, however, Orlando would probably have to part with either Ryan Anderson or J.J. Redick, young players who, like seemingly everyone else on the team, are real threats from downtown. Anderson entered Monday's game late in the first quarter and promptly hit four threes to bring the Magic back from an early ten-point deficit, and while Redick spent much of a crucial second-half stretch being taken to school by Ray Allen, he has -- against all odds -- became a vital role player that I know Orlando doesn't want to part with. Given that Gilbert Arenas has not emerged as much of a threat since arriving from Washington in the trade for Rashard Lewis, the loss of either one of those guys would be a major hit to their depth. And yet it's hard to see the Magic getting through Boston and the Lakers in the postseason without a backup center.

There was more to this game -- Pierce patiently waiting as Boston rode Allen's hot hand until the final minute, when he calmly sank a jumper after being fouled by Richardson to put the Cs up three; Glen Davis finally refusing to settle for jump shots; Nate Robinson's continued struggle to find his role in the absence of Delonte West -- but that's enough for now. The focus shifts to Detroit -- surprise blowout winners over the reeling Mavericks on Monday afternoon -- on Wednesday, with Utah coming in on Friday and road games in Portland, Phoenix, and Los Angeles against the Lakers to finish out the month.

Boston 119, Sacramento 95

It took a whole half, but a game that should have been an easy win finally became an easy win.

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The Kings aren't very good to begin with, didn't have Tyreke Evans, had lost to the Wizards in overtime the night before, and arrived in Boston around 4 a.m. thanks to the winter storm in the Northeast. Even so, despite a quick 8-0 Boston start, Sacramento hung around during the first 24 minutes.

The Celtics shot well, plain and simple, which they should do against a bad team like the Kings. They hit 12 of 20 three-point attempts, shot 52 percent overall, and with the exception of Glen Davis (who wasn't horrible, at 6 of 14), knocked down more or less every open jumper they got. All eleven Celtics who played scored, and with the starters resting the entire forth quarter, eight Celtics reached double figures. (The ones who didn't were Luke Harangody, Avery Bradley, and Shaquille O'Neal, who, according to Mike Gorman, predicted before the game that he'd get into foul trouble, which he did. Apparently, Bob Delaney has it out for him.)

Jermaine O'Neal didn't play because his knee swelled up right before the game. This is a concern; as well as Semih Erden played in extended minutes last night, we'd rather have JON ot there.

Shaquille O'Neal Needs to Stop Fouling

On a second-half drive in Saturday night's Bulls-Celtics game, Chicago's Derrick Rose drove left and took off from the left block. He sailed under the basket, actually hovering in midair over the endline, looking for a way to squeeze the ball through a tangle of limbs attached to green jerseys. He was trapped; to score, he would need to pull off an incredible shot (which he is capable of doing, of course, but that's not the point).

Shaquille O'Neal bailed him out by fouling him and sending him to the line for two shots.

I've said it before, but Shaq needs to stop fouling. It's not that we don't have the bodies to replace him; even when we're not completely healthy, it's not like he can handle playing a bunch of minutes per night. But for a team whose (highly effective) defense over the past three-plus seasons has been predicated on forcing the other team to make tough shots, Shaq's attempts to "protect the rim" amount to so much sabotage.

In addition to having an excellent defensive point guard (Rajon Rondo), one of the best team defenders in the game (Kevin Garnett) and an underrated defensive center (Kendrick Perkins), Boston has been successful on the defensive end in recent seasons by deciding, in a sense, which shots they are most happy with the opposition taking, and forcing said opposition to win the game that way. Lebron James wants to shoot long jumpers? Fine; better than him taking the ball to the rim. Kobe Bryant wants to go one-on-one? Great; he'll get his, but it keeps the ball out of Pau Gasol's hands. So on a night when Garnett wasn't around to help on Rose or guard Carlos Boozer, Boston should have been more or less okay with Rose beating them, if he was going to beat them, with circus shots. Instead, he took 19 free throws and had 36 points and the Bulls won by 11.

I don't know if it's laziness on Shaq's part or that he's not able to recognize his diminished athleticism (which seems unlikely; he's been playing at his current weight for several seasons now). Perhaps it's something else. But fouling a guy who is trying to shoot with his back turned to the hoop is just bad basketball. It's okay to clobber a guy to save a sure two points; it's dumb to clobber a guy who has a very slim chance to score.

At his size, it should be very difficult to score over Shaq, and the opposition, generally speaking, isn't all that willing to create contact with the big fella. Thus, while he's no longer a big shotblocking threat, O'Neal should be able to affect his share of shots simply by getting in the way. By fouling, he bails the opposition out (and puts his team in the penalty earlier in the quarter, leading to even more points, potentially).

Boston 96, Minnesota 93

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I caught this one with my cousin and a good friend at the Dominion Brew Pub in DC, over many Oak Barrel Stouts. I was watching the game, but also talking and eating and drinking, so I have only a few thoughts:

• As expected, Kevin Love was a handful, scoring 12 points to go with 24 rebounds. I couldn't hear the sound at the bar, but I checked the stats on my phone at halftime and at the break, Love had 15 rebounds. Boston as a team had 14.
• Rajon Rondo had 16 assists against just three turnovers, but even bigger was the 14-foot jumper he hit to put the Celtics by three with 44 seconds left. It's not a shot we want him taking all the time (indeed, he missed a 17-footer with 11 ticks left on the next possession after Michael Beasley had cut it to one), but I do like to see him growing more and more confident with the jumper.
• Von Wafer played really well, scoring ten points and tying for the team lead in boards (with Paul Pierce) with six. I still don't see where he fits into the healthy rotation, but the least I can do is give the man his due when he comes up big in the interim. With Delonte West out and Nate Robinson continuing to struggle, Wafer's contributions on Monday were invaluable.
• Shaquille O'Neal scored nine points in 30 minutes, but also grabbed just two rebounds (though to be fair, Love made it so that no Celtic's rebounding numbers were impressive). Jermaine O'Neal looked decent off the bench and blocked four shots. So far, it seems clear that he's better at protecting the rim than Shaq, when healthy.
• Glen Davis continued to emerge from a shooting slump, making seven of 15 shots. A little more consistency would be nice, but at least he's got a somewhat reliable offensive weapon in his arsenal now.

Boston 93, Toronto 79

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Bullets tonight (and lots of 'em):

• Rajon Rondo returned from his ankle injury. He picked up two fouls in the first six minutes, and didn't really have too big of a direct impact on the game. Jose Calderon got the better of him on both ends of the court, but it was good to see number 9 back in action.
• Rondo's return freed Paul Pierce to move out of the facilitator role he's been playing the last several games and into the cold-blooded assassin role he's more accustomed to on offense. Pierce led the way with 30 points, including 20 in a first half in which all of his fellow starters struggled. His second-half buckets included a ferocious dunk on the entire Raptors frontcourt and a breakaway jam inside the final two minutes in which he appeared to tweak his ankle when he landed. We can't afford an injury to another starter, even with Rondo back, so hopefully it's not serious and The Truth will be in uniform Monday night against Minnesota.
• Glen Davis had a fairly miserable first half shooting the ball, which is in line with his last several games, in which (it goes without saying) he's been fairly miserable shooting the ball. He picked it up in the second half, however, and was just two assists shy of logging one of the more unlikely triple doubles in NBA history.
• Shaquille O'Neal had a subpar game, two days after a subpar game against New Orleans, four days after a subpar game against Detroit, five days after a subpar game against Indiana, and eight days after a subpar game against Orlando. Actually, compared to the previous four, Sunday was a pretty good game for Shaq: he had six rebounds, compared to five combined against the Magic, Pacers, Pistons, and Hornets. And yet Joey Dorsey kicked his butt most of the game. I thought at first that O'Neal might have been dogging it, but he challenged shots when they were in his area and even dove for a loose ball at one point. Dorsey is young, athletic, and energetic, the kind of guy who is going to make Shaq look bad, but I wonder if Shaq isn't completely healthy.
• Fortunately, Jermaine O'Neal looks healthy enough to fill in, should he need to. This was Jermaine's fifth game back. He didn't do much against Orlando and I hadn't seen any of the three games previous to Sunday's, but I was encouraged by the way he moved around. I hope he gets a bit stronger on the boards and finishes better on offense as the season progresses, but the good sign is that he's not moving cautiously or with an obvious limp.
• Marquis Daniels was basically a complete no-show, which I could have predicted because he'd had a couple of good games in a row. If Daniels could be consistent, he'd be such a valuable player, but right now, I just don't trust him as much as I would like.
• Von Wafer actually did a couple of nice things in 14 minutes of action. What I liked most was that both of his shot attempts were at the rim, and I remember at least one nice wraparound pass on another drive that I think led to a foul. He's a good three-point shooter and I don't mind it if he takes those shots when he's in the game, but it's good to see flashes of a more complete player. He'll hopefully be mostly irrelevant when Delonte West gets back, but as an insurance policy, any development is good.
• Luke Harangody works hard, hustles, and isn't afraid to bang, but he is just overmatched against other NBA post players right now. Even fellow rookie Ed Davis, who has gotten burn of late with the Raps' frontcourt injuries and is thus slightly less green than Harangody, pushed him around quite a bit. When he was drafted, everyone thought that Harangody, a power forward in college, would need to become a small forward to crack the rotation this year, because Boston had so much depth in the pivot. Now, it seems that he may need to play the wing because he's not big or strong enough to play inside. It will be interesting to see which way his career goes.
• DeMar DeRozan again led the Raptors, this time with 27 points. His explosion (recall that he had 37 Friday night against the Rockets) coincides with Andrea Bargnani's absence from the lineup, and can be attributed to the offense now running through him, and not Il Mago. I assume this is a temporary state of affairs, and things will go back to the way they were when Bargs gets healthy, but DeRozan is showing that he is capable of carrying more of a load offensively. This development surprises me: I saw DeRozan in person a couple of times when he was at USC, and have followed his brief career somewhat closely, and while he's always good for a couple drives and/or jumpers per game, he lacked the aggressive disposition and consistency you need to be a real scorer at this level. Frankly, he just didn't seem good enough to get "hot" and take over a game the way he took over in the second half against Houston and for stretches against Boston. But he apparently is. What's interesting about DeRozan is that he's the rare NBA shooting guard for whom the three-pointer isn't really a weapon; he does almost all of his scoring at the rim, at the line, and with the mid-range jumper. Fortunately, he hits that mid-range J at a good enough rate that his efficiency isn't terrible, and he knows the limit of his range (that is, he doesn't take a bunch of threes even though he can't hit them). Anyway, it will be interesting to keep an eye on DeRozan when Bargnani returns. Can he emerge as a consistent second banana, or is he an all-or-nothing guy who needs to be the first option?

Orlando 86, Boston 78

Caught the first quarter and second half of this one sandwiched around Christmas dinner.

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Saturday's game was an ugly, low-scoring affair, which was a pattern when the Magic and Celtics met last year -- during the regular season, anyway. I could say that the Cs would have won had they made a bunch of shots they usually make, but the same is true of Orlando. It was one of those games where both teams played pretty good defense, and the effort on that end was magnified from some pretty poor shooting from both sides.

From a Boston perspective, we lost this game because we didn't have Rajon Rondo, plain and simple. Nate Robinson had his worst game as Rondo's understudy, making just two of 15 shots, the majority of which were good looks. The Magic basically could leave Robinson alone on offense, the same way opponents do against Rondo -- but Rondo provides much more playmaking and doesn't use as many possessions as Nate does shooting jumpers. And while Robinson did a nice job keeping Jameer Nelson in check for most of the game, he lost him on a screen on a key possession late, as Nelson hit a three that I believe gave the Magic the lead for good.

While the Celtics probably would have won with Rondo, Robinson wasn't the only Celtic who had a bad game. Ray Allen mad just three of 13 shots, and Shaquille O'Neal had just two points and fouled out despite playing fewer than 13 minutes.

Of course, the Magic have some "we would have won easily ifs" of their own, most notably the fact that Dwight Howard scored just six points against a depleted Celtics frontline (Kendrick Perkins is of course out, and Jermaine O'Neal made his first appearance since November 8). More disturbing is the fact that Howard took just four shots. He was in a bit of foul trouble for most of the game, but his teammates weren't looking for him much even when he was on the floor.

This will be something to watch with Orlando's new look. While some of the departed Magic players -- guys like Rashard Lewis and Mickael Pietrus -- weren't exactly shy about hoisting shots, they were mostly spot up guys (or run off of screen guys). On the other hand, the new Magic players -- guys like Hedo Turkoglu and Gilbert Arenas -- tend to pound the ball a bit more and look for their own shot.

Howard is a really important offensive weapon. He's improved his arsenal this year, and because he's a poor free throw shooter, teams send him to the line a ton -- so he gets the opposition into foul trouble and helps put his team in the bonus situation fairly early in the quarter. But he's not so polished as to consistently demand the ball in the post, and the new additions may make it easier, in a sense, to forget about him on offense. That wasn't the case leading up to the Boston game (Howard had big offensive nights in those) but the Celtics have been very good over the past few seasons at taking away one part of your offense and forcing you to rely on another part (usually outside shots). It will be interesting to see if the Magic make Howard a focal point against the Celtics in future meetings (including, potentially, the playoffs). While the Celtics have generally done a decent job on Howard the past couple of seasons, I'm sure they'd rather have Brandon Bass (21 points on Sunday) try to beat them.

Boston 84, Philadelphia 80

To call Boston's 14th consecutive win a struggle would be an understatement.

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The Celtics battled two things all game Wednesday night (in addition to the Sixers): poor shooting and the officiating.

To the former point, you could tell from the get-go it was just one of those nights. Several early shots -- particularly off the fingertips of Paul Pierce -- rattled in and out, and after serious foul trouble hitting the starting unit and the bench came out cold*, it was only the excellence of Ray Allen that allowed the Cs to score even the 38 points they did score in the first half. The team got it going for brief stretches in the second half, but shot 38.8 percent from the floor for the game -- which I'm fairly sure is a season low.

To the latter point -- the officiating -- the box score doesn't tell the entire story. Philadelphia had 31 free throw attempts to Boston's 21, but until the late stages of the game, the discrepancy was much larger. In fact, the Celtics shot the game's final 12 free throws, which means that after Tony Battie missed an and-one with 4:48 remaining in the game, the Sixers had taken 31 shots from the line to Boston's nine. Some of that differential was justified, but it's a peculiar circumstance, indeed, where one team deserves 22 more free throw attempts than its opponent.

For their part, the Celtics did a nice job down the stretch of forcing the refs to give Boston the calls they had been giving Philly all night. The officials had been calling it close, and the Celts really looked to create contact in the final five minutes or so. After the aforementioned Battie miss it was 74-70, Sixers; Boston closed on a 14-6 run, getting ten points from the line. (The two lone misses from the line in the waning moments came courtesy of Shaquille O'Neal. I was surprised to see him in the game late for precisely this reason, and even more surprised to see the team use him in the screen-and-roll on a couple of late possessions.)

Boston won this game because of excellent defense and because of a champion's knack for winning close games on its less-than-great nights -- the second time in a couple of weeks Boston's pulled this latter trick on Philadelphia. Of course, so many of these games went the other way last season, and it was around this time that last year's regular season started to become disappointing. I heard tonight that Boston is now 94-14 in pre-Christmas games over the past four seasons. The post-Christmas (well, post-pre-Christmas) portion of the schedule begins Saturday, and it says here that Boston continues its winning ways in January and beyond.

*To be fair to the bench, they actually played pretty well -- other than scoring. Glen Davis shot 2-for-9 but had seven rebounds; Marquis Daniels shot 2-for-7 but had four boards and five assists. Semih Erden grabbed five boards. Von Wafer actually hit a couple of shots, and Avery Bradley had a big steal and basket early in the second quarter. Pressed into a little bit of extra duty as three starters were hit with three fouls apiece in the first half, the second unit held things together -- especially on the defensive end -- to keep the game winnable.

The Next Lamb: The Philadelphia 76ers

Game 27: Philadelphia (11-17) at Boston (22-4)

Wednesday, December 22

7:30 p.m.

TV: NBA League Pass

Last meeting: Boston 102, @Philadelphia 101 (12/9/2010)

I'm writing this just a couple of hours after Philadelphia went into Chicago and lost by 45 -- yeah, 45. Obviously, if that's the Philly team that shows up Wednesday night in Boston, than the Celtics don't have much to worry about.

But I wouldn't expect that. Philly -- despite Tuesday night's loss and despite a mediocre record -- had won eight of 11 before the debacle against the Bulls, looking to turn around a season that they started 3-13. One of the three losses during their recent strong stretch came against Boston, a game that the Celtics stole on their final possession with a wonderfully drawn-up play that resulted in a Kevin Garnett layup off an alley-oop from Rajon Rondo.

I watched that game, but didn't have time to record my thoughts afterwards in a blog post, so I'm left to try and dig anything out of my memory that I can. (I know it was less than two weeks ago, but I've got a lot of stuff moving in and out of my brain during final exams.) Offense wasn't Boston's problem in that game; the Cs shot nearly 56 percent against the Sixers -- who are actually second in the league in opponents' field goal percentage at 43.5 percent (but who surrendered like 64 percent shooting to the Bulls Tuesday). One area of concern, offensively, is that Rondo had one of his bigger offensive outputs that night (19 points, 14 assists) and while his ankle rehabilitation seems ahead of schedule, it's unlikely that he'll be available Wednesday night to carry any sort of offensive load. His absence should be offset somewhat by the presence of Shaquille O'Neal, who missed the Philly game but returned to the lineup on Sunday against the Pacers. Shaq should also help on the boards, where Philly held a 39-33 advantage, including a 15-5 edge on the offensive glass.

Defensively, Boston had real trouble defending the three-point arc in the previous matchup; Philly was nine for 19 from deep, with Jodie Meeks (4-for-4) and Louis Williams (4-for-5) doing most of the damage. Paul Pierce did a nice job on Andre Iguodala last time (though Iggy made a couple of very tough shots that almost won the game down the stretch), but Pierce's job is tougher now that he's taken over ballhandling duties with Rondo out of the lineup.

It's the second half of a back-to-back for the 76ers, but the starters didn't play as much as they usually would against Chicago because of the blowout -- so fatigue shouldn't be as much of a factor, even though the Celtics haven't played since Sunday afternoon. How the 76ers respond to such a dreadful performance is an interesting question. On the one hand, they could come out eager to prove themselves and erase the memory of the previous night's performance. On the other hand, less than 24 hours may not be enough time for a young team to regroup. I'm not sure how Philly will react, but if the Celtics can jump on the Sixers early and get the crowd into the game, it could be another early night for Philly's starters.

The Garden Has A Championship Feel

Back in November, I attended a wedding at which Jeff Clark, founder of Celtics Blog, was also a guest. Jeff was kind enough to spend a few minutes talking blogging and ball with me, and one of the things he had to say was, essentially, that there was a different vibe around the Celtcs this year than there was last year. (See this post from earlier this month, particularly the last three paragraphs.) I had sensed it, too, but hearing it from someone who has actually spent some time around the team affirmed it. Maybe it's hard to put a finger on it, but Boston doesn't seem like they are going to let off the accelerator the way they have after fast starts in each of the past two seasons. It just feels like these guys are out to prove a point -- to make a statement -- every time out. It's the same sort of attitude the 2007-08 team took on its way to the franchise's 17th title banner.

Sunday marked the fourth consecutive year I've made the trip to Boston to catch a Celtics game the weekend before Christmas, and I can tell you that the fans at the TD Garden are also in championship form.

Full disclosure: I didn't grow up in Boston and never made it to the old Garden. In fact, I've only been to seven Celtics games in Boston that I can recall. I've therefore never experienced a true "Garden" crowd, and of all the Celtics bloggers out there, I'm perhaps the least qualified to testify as to what a true Celtics championship crowd is (though I was fortunate to be part of the crowd at Game 1 in the 2008 Finals). But I can tell you that the Boston fans know that something special is happening on the hardwood in their series.

The place was packed, well before tip, for a 1 o'clock start on a Sunday against the Pacers. (Okay, maybe it helped that the Patriots were playing the Sunday night game.) When Shaquille O'Neal jogged out of the tunnel as the rest of the team warmed up -- signifying he was going to play for the first time in five games -- the place went bananas (thought not as bananas as when Shaq caught an alley-oop from Paul Pierce in the first quarter, slammed it through with one hand while being fouled by Jeff Foster, then covered the distance between the bucket and the sideline in four giant strides -- "Fee Fi Fo Fum!") The players were met with thunderous chants of "DE-FENSE! DE-FENSE" in the third quarter despite a listless, disjointed performance from the Cs on the offensive end during the entire period. And the crowd, like the team, rose to the occasion in the crucial fourth quarter, helping to put the Pacers away by creating an overwhelming atmosphere.

I know how good Boston fans are, and I'm not saying that the crowd was "bad" in each of the last two seasons when I want to see a game. But it's different this year; it's like it was in 2007-08.

I'm not guaranteeing that we'll win the title. I'm not even guaranteeing that we won't suffer through the same mediocre stretch of mid-season basketball we saw last season and the one before. But our current 13-game winning streak will end, perhaps sooner rather than later, and at some point, we'll lose a couple in a row and people will start to talk about how it's the same old thing from the same old Celtics. But I'm here to say that I think things are different this year -- and that the fans in Boston do, too.

The Next Lamb: The New York Knicks

Game 24: Boston (19-4) at New York (16-9)

Wednesday, December 15

7 p.m. Eastern

ESPN

Last meeting: @Boston 105, New York 101 (10/29/2010)

Long time, no talk. Another semester of law school is in the books, and I've got little to do until Friday other than recycle the mountains of empty TaB cans that have accumulated in my apartment over the last several weeks. So it's time to talk a little Cs.

Last time I posted a game recap, Boston had nearly blown a big lead late against Portland before hanging on for its fifth straight victory. Since that game, the Celtics have continued their winning ways, stretching the streak to 10 with wins over Chicago, New Jersey, Denver (sans Carmelo Anthony), Philadelphia, and Charlotte.

That ten-game streak marks the longest active streak in the league. Second is Miami, with nine straight wins.

Third? Eight games. The New York Knicks.

That's right, after starting off 8-9, the Knicks have run off eight in a row and certainly seem like a different team than the one we beat in the season's first week. "Different" might not be the right word, actually. These Knicks are doing the same thing they've always done under coach Mike D'Antoni -- namely score points and not play defense -- but they're doing it much more effectively this season. Amar'e Stoudemire, in particular, has hit a groove (he's scored 30 or more points in a franchise-record eight straight games) and point guard Raymond Felton has brought a little bit of scoring punch along with his playmaking prowess, a double Chris Duhon never could pull off. Felton's no Steve Nash, but he's grown comfortable in D'Antoni's system rather quickly. Wilson Chandler got off to a great start on the wing for them and has put up solid numbers all year; just as he started to cool off, it seemed like Danilo Gallinari shook off his slow start and began to heat up.

Where the Knicks are vulnerable is on the interior. Stoudemire's been starting at the five with Chandler and Gallinari alongside in the frontcourt. If Shaq plays, it'll either force Stoudemire to work on defense or D'Antoni to bring in one of his real centers, Timofey Mozgov and Ronny Turiaf -- both of which are good things for Boston. But Shaq's missed the last two games with a sore calf and is questionable for Wednesday. If he can't go, the start will likely fall to Semih Erden, who has done a nice job of late but who isn't going to force D'Antoni into any lineup changes.

As well as the Knicks have been playing during this streak, they've won only two games against teams I would describe as anything other than "bad": at New Orleans against the suddenly struggling Hornets, and at home against the Nuggets in Carmelo Anthony's shameless showcase after sitting out two nights before in Boston. Basketball, when you boil it down, is just offense and defense, and the Knicks are pretty good at offense and pretty bad at defense. If you can pretty well on both ends -- not just okay, but it doesn't have to be spectacular, either -- you have a good chance at beating them, winning streak or no winning streak.

The Next Lamb: The Chicago Bulls

Game 19: Chicago (9-7) at Boston (14-4)

Friday, December 3

8 p.m. Eastern

TV: ESPN

Last meeting: @Boston 110, Chicago 105 (OT) (11/6/2010)

Last time we played Chicago, we blew a 16-point lead, sweated out a potential game-winning possession for the Bulls at the end of regulation, and then won in overtime.

The big difference between the Bulls team we'll see Friday night and the one we saw last month is that power forward Carlos Boozer, Chicago's big offseason acquisition from Utah, will be in the lineup. Boozer broke his hand before the season and returned to game action on Wednesday, logging five points in 22 minutes in a 107-78 throttling by Orlando. While Boozer is a good player, it's safe to assume he won't have found his groove by Friday, given that he's just now returning from injury and is playing with a new team. Moreover, Taj Gibson, who started in Boozer's absence, had a very strong game against Boston the first time around, so the Celtics might not be too upset to see Boozer back in the lineup. His return does give a boost to the bench (since Gibson has moved back to the second unit), which was pretty non-existent in the first meeting between the two teams.

Last time out, Boston held Derrick Rose and Luol Deng more or less in check -- each shot 8-for-19 from the field -- but gave up 26 points to center Joakim Noah. Jermaine O'Neal played that night and Shaquille O'Neal didn't, and the reverse will be true on Friday; JON's out, Shaq's in. What effect this will have on Noah's production, I'm not sure. I seem to recall Noah getting a fair number of points with his screwball jumper, and I doubt very much that Shaq is going to bother Noah 15 feet from the basket. Shaq's size, however, should be able to keep Noah off the boards a bit better than Jermaine could. (Odd stat of the day: Noah was held without a rebound in last night's loss to the Magic).

Chicago had been playing well before Wednesday night, and I wouldn't be surprised to see coach Tom Thibodeau pull Boozer early if he's ineffective, delaying Boozer's integration into the team by a game for a chance to beat the defending conference champions (and his old team) in their barn. Chicago always plays us tough, and Thibodeau knows a lot of what we do, so this should be a good game.

Boston 110, Toronto 101

Maybe I'm just being ornery, but I would've liked to have seen a bit more out of the Celtics on Friday night.

[recap] [box score]

Early on, Boston sure looked like it was out to avenge Sunday's 102-101 loss to the Raptors in Toronto. Rajon Rondo, who didn't play in that game or the two games immediately following it, dished out eight assists, Ray Allen hit a trio of three-pointers, and the team barely missed on the way to a 31-20 lead at the end of the first quarter. But the bench let the Raptors back into it in the second quarter -- then let the Raps back into it again in the fourth after Boston led by 19 at the end of three.

I know the second unit is missing two key pieces in Jermaine O'Neal and Delonte West, but that can't become an excuse all season long. West is going is going to be out a while, and even when Jermaine gets back from whatever knee problem that's currently bugging him, he'll still probably going to be game-to-game with the nagging injuries that have plagued his whole career. Semih Erden had one of his better games, but he's still a project at this point, and other than Glen Davis -- who plays a big chunk of his minutes with the first unit -- no one else made any sort of contribution off the bench. Nate Robinson and Marquis Daniels are capable of much more than they showed tonight, and more than they've showed consistently this season.

Kevin Garnett was simply superb Friday night, connecting with Rondo on a number of those 35-foot alley-oops that seem to be the pair's signature hookup. Shaquille O'Neal also had a big game, as he should whenever he spends part of the evening being guarded by Andrea Bargnani. Paul Pierce was pretty quiet for most of the game, but did a nice job stopping the bleeding in the fourth quarter. Allen went quiet after his hot start, and Rondo started well but then got a bit careless with the ball (the man is entitled to need a game to find his rhythm).

The Celtics are off until Tuesday, when they'll have an opportunity to properly avenge the first loss of the season, in Cleveland.

Boston 89, New Jersey 83 - Delonte Breaks Wrist

[recap] [box score]

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Next Lamb: The Atlanta Hawks

Game 14: Boston (9-4) at Atlanta (8-5)

Monday, November 22

7 p.m. Eastern

TV: NBA League Pass

I cannot think of a team I'd like to see less Monday night than the Atlanta Hawks.

Sure, the Hawks are erratic. I can't remember where I saw it, but I read somewhere that Atlanta is the only franchise in NBA history to start a season winning its first six games before losing its next four -- and they've done it two out of the last three years. But ever since they unexpectedly took us to seven games in the first round of the playoffs during the championship year, they more or less always bring it against Boston. It doesn't matter how they're playing at the time; we're always going to take their best shot. Last year, their best shot was good enough to sweep the season series.

In addition, Boston will likely again be without Rajon Rondo, who missed the Toronto game with the hamstring injury he suffered against Oklahoma City. Rondo against the much older and much slower Mike Bibby is a matchup that would certainly favor the Celtics. Nate Robinson's move to the starting lineup also robs the second unit of some of the firepower it needs to match buckets with Atlanta's explosive sixth man, Jamal Crawford.

Up front, the mobile Al Horford is likely to really give Shaq problems, and Josh Smith is a difference-maker on both ends of the floor. And former Celtic Joe Johnson always seems to light Ray Allen up.

I don't mean to seem too pessimistic -- we can still win the game. But the stars seem aligned against us. Little injuries, second night of a back-to-back, reeling after a couple of frustrating losses -- all of these things seem to be conspiring against us, and we're playing a team that always gives us trouble.

Toronto 102, Boston 101

Ugh.

[recap] [box score]

Normally, I wouldn't be too upset losing a game on the kind of freak play the Celtics lost this one on. Up three with 21 seconds left is a pretty good spot to be in, even when the other team has the ball. Toronto's Sonny Weems drove for a quick two, but Boston quickly inbounded the ball to Ray Allen, who is as automatic as it gets from the free throw line. So far, so good.

But Toronto didn't foul right away, and Allen -- a shaky ballhander in the open court -- evaded Leandro Barbosa and headed up court. Barbosa reached around from behind and either flicked the ball away or flicked Allen's arm -- I couldn't tell. No whistle, though, and the ball came loose and bounded to one of the Raptors. Paul Pierce blocked Barbosa at the rim, but the Celtics were in scramble mode, and the ball found its way to Amir Johnson, who was fouled with 2.7 seconds left. Johnson, a career 68.5 percent free throw shooter who is somehow shooting 87.5 percent from the line this season, hit both freebies (he was 9-for-9 from the charity stripe on the day) to put the Raptors up one. Pierce had a great look at the game-winner -- a 15-footer fading to his right that we've seen him hit time after time in his career -- but couldn't get it to go down.

So, yeah, we're not going to lose too many games that way.

But the truth is, Boston didn't deserve to win this game. Playing without Rajon Rondo and Jermaine O'Neal, the Celtics waited until the fourth quarter to turn on its defensive intensity. It looked like that would be enough as they turned a 90-79 deficit into a 97-94 lead, but you can't throw up your hands and curse your bad luck or look to the officials for a foul call when you don't show up to play for most of the game.

The game perhaps underscored the importance of Rondo -- though Nate Robinson had a huge first quarter and led the team with 22 points in Rondo's absence -- but it definitely solidified Boston's need for another big man. Shaquille O'Neal struggled offensively, but it was his defense that really killed us. It's not just that Shaq doesn't block shots anymore and can't move quickly enough to get into proper defensive position when the opposition drives. Guys aren't blowing by Shaq, but he continues to bail them out with fouls. Instead of forcing them to make a very diffcult shot over him on the move, he just hammers them and sends them to the line. He fouled out in 20 minutes today, and was part of a defense that took entirely too many fouls. Toronto, a good offensive team but one that nonetheless doesn't attack the basket all that much, shot 39 free throws -- and I don't remember thinking we got the short end of the stick from the officials very often. (Indeed, Boston shot 38 free throws and I think there were more questionable calls on them than on us.)

Semih Erden, after a promising start to the season, lately seems similarly incapable of staying out the court -- I believe this was the second straight game in which he picked up four fouls in the first half. If Jermaine O'Neal is going to miss a bunch of time with his balky knees, then the Celtics need to look for a solution on the interior or teams are going to continue the parade to the free throw line against us. As I've said previously, I'm not sure what, if any, solutions are out there, but Boston needs to be looking for them.

Oklahoma City 89, Boston 84

The game was on ESPN, but for those of you who missed it, you missed perhaps the worst fourth quarter in NBA history.

[recap] [box score]

The statistics are almost too graphic to post: by my count, according to the ESPN.com play-by-play, the teams combined to miss their last 22 shots from the floor -- 13 for Oklahoma City, nine for Boston. No one on either side made a basket during the final 9:27. The Thunder spent the final 12 minutes watching Russell Westbrook pound the ball and launch contested, ill-conceived jump shots. Boston was hardly much better, taking turns clanging shots, missing free throws, and turning the ball over.

For what it's worth, I thought Boston's defense was good enough to win -- not just in the fourth quarter, but for the whole game. Sure, the Thunder shot 57 percent from the field, but many of those makes were exactly the kind of shots the Celtics were inviting them to take: lightly-contested jumpshots. With Kevin Durant a late scratch due to an ankle injury, Boston perhaps didn't need to pack it in quite as much as they did, but credit Oklahoma City for making shots they don't usually make. Boston forced some turnovers -- and, after all, conceded only 49 points in the half.

In the third quarter, the Thunder extended its lead -- but mainly due to over-aggressive defense, not necessarily bad defense. Oklahoma City was shooting the penalty with over eight minutes to go in the period, and made 12 of 16 free throws. Boston should have eased up on the pressure a bit once they started the quarter committing so many fouls, but they weren't taking a bunch of stupid fouls or getting beat off the dribble all the time. OKC's shooting started to cool down, though they did make all three three-pointers they took in the period: two by Westbrook with Rajon Rondo's hand right in his face (keep in mind that Westbrook was 2-for-14 behind the arc on the season heading into this game), and a late-in-shot-clock heave by Royal Ivey that went in off the glass after the ball squirted to him when Rondo picked Westbrook twice as Westbrook was trying to drive.

This one, in my view, was lost on offense, and there were a ton of things the Celtics could have done differently to win this game on that end. They started the game out of synch for no particular reason, and never seemed to find any sort of flow. Shaquille O'Neal was a perfect five-for-five when he left the floor with 1:07 remaining in the first; he didn't get another opportunity in the post until 5:18 of the fourth -- a span that included 15 minutes of court time for Shaq, and this despite the fact that no Celtic was having a great game offensively. Ray Allen never got involved, and Glen Davis was so bad that we would have been better off if he hadn't gotten involved. Davis missed three free throws late in the fourth quarter (he was 2-of-6 for the game) and was the major part of a bench unit that was 1-for-10 from the line before making its final three attempts).

Even with all that, Boston still had chances. Allen had a good look at the go-ahead bucket with 30 seconds to go, but it was just a hair short. Delonte West got a great look at the game-tying three from the right corner on Boston's final possession, but couldn't knock it down. It was just one of those nights.

That's what it was, actually: just one of those nights. No lessons to be learned. No shame in losing to a Durant-less Thunder team. Just one of those nights.

Accordingly, here are just some of those bullets with a few discussion points that may be of interest:

• The Thunder opened the game with Westbrook playing several feet off Rondo. This defense is designed to keep Rondo out of the lane and to make it harder for him to get the ball to guys like Allen coming off screens. I think it's silly, but we've seen it before. What we haven't seen before, and what is totally inexplicable in my view, is Westbrook switching off of Rondo when Boston ran its 1-3 pick-and-roll to post Paul Pierce at the free throw line. If you're so unconcerned with Rondo's jumper, then just go behind the screen, hold Pierce up for a count so his man can get back to him, and go back to just chilling out ten feet off of Rondo. This play resulted in at least one ridiculous sequence which culminated in a Rondo layup after James Harden left him completely alone under the basket (presumably to double team, though Harden was basically standing in the middle of the lane, equi-distant from Rondo at the rim and Pierce at the line), and could have resulted in several more baskets on a night that Pierce had it going (he hits that 15-foot jumper over opposing point guards with regularity).
• I think the days of team's leaving Rondo that wide open may be numbered, however. He's been looking for his jumper more this season, taking it with confidence, and making it at what seems like an acceptable rate. My favorite play of this game came late in the second quarter, after Westbrook had just hit a pull-up jumper on Rondo at the other end. Rondo came down and came off a Kevin Garnett screen on the right side of the floor. KG popped to the opposite elbow, which is where he always goes on this play, and Rondo almost always passes him the ball. KG was open, but Rondo stopped and drilled the J. (In real time, I could've sworn that Rondo came off the screen, turned his head and look at a wide-open KG, then turned back and nailed the jumper -- take that, Russell! After rewinding and watching it again, I wasn't so sure that Rondo actually demonstratively looked in KG's direction, but make no mistake -- Rondo knew KG was open. It's not often that I'll praise a point guard for taking a shot when a teammate has a good look, but I loved the moxie and Rondo does need to punish teams for leaving him open.)
• Boston had a few minor injuries. Garnett took an elbow to the head on Boston's first possession, stayed on the floor after a quick 20-second timeout, came out after about three minutes, and then returned to the floor with a cartoon-like lump on the back of his noggin. Pierce left the floor briefly in the third quarter with some sort of leg problem, and could be seen limping in the waning minutes. And Rondo sat out most of the final six minutes after suffering some sort of leg injury in a collision with Ivey. Hopefully, none of these injuries are serious and the affected players won't miss any time.
• Officiating question: In the second quarter, Nick Collison drove to the bucket, drew contact from Semih Erden as he was going up for a shot, then clearly discarded Kevin Garnett with his off arm while laying the ball in. Does anyone know if the refs can wave the basket off in that spot, awarding Collison two shots (since Erden got him in the act of shooting) but not giving him the bucket that he got by virtue of committing an offensive foul? I'm not saying Collison should have been called for a foul -- but you can't just do whatever you want after you've been fouled and still get the continuation, can you?
• Westbrook was more or less a one-man band tonight. As such, he'll get all the credit for the win. Maybe I'm being too hard on the kid given that he didn't have Durant tonight or Jeff Green in either game against the Celtics, but I'm glad he's not on my team -- at least right now. He's a great defender and terrific athlete, and he can score some, but all I've seen him do in two games is pound the ball, take terrible shots, and turn the ball over at a prolific rate. In the eyes of many observers, he's already made a big leap this year, but he won't be elite in my eyes until he learns he has limitations and plays within himself.
• Then again, his teammates (those who played tonight, anyway) should be ashamed of themselves for being the biggest bunch of shrinking violets I've ever seen in the fourth quarter Friday night. You guys are NBA players, for chrissakes. Do something.

Boston 114, Washington 83

Just a few bullets on a night the Celtics made two-thirds of their shots and the opposition was without its best player.

[recap] [box score]

• Shaquille O'Neal, who had 16 points and six rebounds on Saturday against Memphis, had a second straight strong game, slapping up 13 and 6 in 22 minutes. As much trouble as he gave the undersized JaVale McGee on the offensive end, however, he gave up a number of offensive rebounds to McGee on the other end, especially in the first quarter. He did seem to be making a better effort to box out later in the game, however, so perhaps he simply didn't want to expend the effort early on.
• Delonte West saw his first action of the season and didn't look he missed a beat. The second team didn't play that well during its first stretch on the court, however, coming together only after the starters had put the game out of reach. Nate Robinson was still running the point the majority of the time, something that surprised me and that I hope will change. Robinson's few high points Wednesday night came when West and Marquis Daniels initiated the offense.
• Semih Erden played well, but he needs to do a better job of going and getting the ball with two hands, especially on rebounds. He's been wearing a brace on his left shoulder for the last several games, and I thought that perhaps the injury was causing the problem. But he took two lefty hooks in the second half, and I remember him fumbling a few one-armed rebounds in his first action this season (before he started sporting the brace), so I don't think that's it.
• Glen Davis had eight rebounds, added to his league-leading total of charges drawn (16 now), and had a couple of great assists, but he did way more facing up and driving than I'm comfortable with.
• Rajon Rondo had another 13 assists. The guy always puts the ball exactly where it needs to be. Always.
• 30 minutes for Rondo, 27 for Ray Allen, 27 for Paul Pierce, 23 for Kevin Garnett, and 22 for Shaq. That's more like it.
• Washington isn't very good with John Wall, and without him, they're terrible. I have no idea how they beat Toronto by 15 the night before. Gilbert Arenas seems content to drift around the perimeter launching three-pointers, and their bigs are erratic, to put it kindly. They have some one-dimensional scorers like Nick Young and Al Thornton -- and those guys are surely more effective with a playmaker like Wall in the lineup, but there just aren't that many good basketball players there.
• I do like the way Washington coach Flip Saunders seems to be holding everyone accountable and won't let the team get away with uninspired play. He kicked the whole team out of practice some days ago, and tonight, he called a timeout two minutes and 15 seconds into the third quarter after a defensive lapse by his team -- then called another 34 seconds later after another defensive lapse on the Celtics' next possession.

The Celtics Should Be Talking to Erick Dampier

There's been an interesting discussion over at Celtics Hub regarding whether the Celtics should release Von Wafer (who has done nothing so far and is unlikey to do anything moving forward) and sign another big. The pros for such a move are summed up here; the cons are here.

I have no idea if the team has reached out to Erick Dampier, nor do I know if Dampier is even remotely interested in joining the team as an insurance policy. And make no mistake, that's all Dampier would be -- an insurance policy. The offseason signings of Jermaine O'Neal and Shaquille O'Neal were supposed to make center a position of strength for the Celtics, especially when Kendrick Perkins returns from ACL surgery, which presumably will be some time in February. If any two of those three guys are healthy, whatever big the Celtics may add is superfluous and won't see the floor much.

But Shaq has already missed six of the team's first ten games, and Jermaine is having some problems with his knees and may miss the next few weeks. It's irrational to think that the O'Neals' nagging injuries will just disappear as the season goes on. Plus, even when Perk gets back, it's not like he'll be his old self right away.

Dampier, the 14-year veteran who was cut by the Bobcats after going to Charlotte from Dallas in the Tyson Chandler trade, is the option that makes the most sense.

One option that has been suggested is that Boston bring back Stephane Lasme, the journeyman who came oh-so-close to making the team out of training camp. But at 6-8, Lasme isn't big enough to play center. While big minutes for Kevin Garnett (35 mpg) and Glen Davis (31 mpg) are an ancillary concern about the lack of center depth, Davis also isn't big enough to play center. Signing Lasme would thus only cut into Davis' minutes, and Davis is both young enough to handle his increased workload and effective enough that his being on the court a lot is not a major problem. With Lasme, KG would still have to play big minutes, and would still have to play out of position at center.

Adding a guy like Magnum Rolle isn't an attractive option because he's a rookie and lacks the experience to be a major contributor, even if Doc trusts him with substantial playing time, which he won't. The other D-League possibility being bandied about, Tiny Gallon, is both too small to play center (like Lasme) and too raw to be a contributor (like Rolle). The Celtics already have a young big man on their roster, Semih Erden. While Erden hasn't been spectacular, he's shown that he's capable enough to play an emergency role, and he has the size to play center. It's unreasonable to expect that Rolle or Lasme or Gallon would be even as effective as Erden has been in the early going.

I don't think rookie Luke Harangody, already on the Celtics roster, is the answer, either. He suffers from the same inexperience and size issues that the young guys listed above have. While he was something of a rebounding machine in college, he's shown a preference for playing the wing -- though perhaps that's in part because it looked like he might need to be able to play small forward in order to get minutes with the team.

To be sure, Dampier has his limitations. He's close to a non-factor offensively and turns the ball over a lot for a player with those limitations. But he's a decent defender, and has NBA size and experience. If the Celtics are going to cut Wafer (their last non-guaranteed contract) and thus hamper their roster flexibility, then Dampier is the only guy who makes sense.

And time is of the essence. Dampier's situation is kind of curious; he was rumored to be signing with the Rockets, but didn't, and it's unclear to me why he hasn't hooked up with Miami, where he'd be an obvious improvement over Joel Anthony. As the Heat continue to struggle on the interior, I imagine they'll make another, stronger push for Dampier, and I don't expect that Dampier will be on the market too much longer.

As far as roster flexibility goes, while it's true that Danny and Doc would be hamstrung by cutting Wafer and giving Dampier a guaranteed contract, I'm not sure for what the team would need that roster flexibility, other than another big. Delonte West's return gives the Celtics three solid backup wing players (West, Marquis Daniels, and Nate Robinson), and rookie Avery Bradley, if forced into duty due to injury, would probably be at least as effective as the young project bigs mentioned earlier. And I haven't heard of any veteran centers that are likely to become available via trade later in the season -- at least not any that could be had for Wafer's modest contract.

A bigger concern for me, if the Celtics signed Dampier, would be what happens if the O'Neals and Perkins do stay (read: get) healthy late into the season. Then they'd have a situation where they'd have four veteran centers and not nearly enough minutes to go around. For that reason, as mentioned above, I'm not sure Dampier is interested in signing with Boston. But it's a conversation worth having. It appears that center is a position that needs to be addressed, and the time for addressing it is now.