Viewing Alert

Hey gang...I hope to keep posting regularly now. I'm studying for the Nevada bar exam but should be able to watch most games and at least put up a few words every time I do between now and the end of February.

Dallas at Boston, 8 p.m. Eastern, ESPN.

After dropping three straight to start the season, the Celtics won four in a row. That's the good news. The bad news is that the teams they beat -- the Pistons, the Wizards twice, and New Jersey -- are hardly world-beaters; they're a combined 5-25 on the season. And in Boston's last outing, a sluggish home loss last Friday night, they lost to the Pacers.

This means, of course, that Boston still hasn't beaten a playoff-caliber team. Dallas, the defending champs, would qualify, but at 5-5 and winners of two straight, they're just now rounding into form.

Boston's had four days off, while Dallas played Tuesday night. But the Mavs got plenty of rest in easily dispatching Detroit -- ten players played at least 17 minutes, but no one played more than Dirk Nowitzki's 28. Nowitzki, by the way, was 9-of-10 from the floor and was a +42 on the night (meaning that the Mavs outscored the Pistons by 42 points when Action Dirk was on the floor, and were outscored by 28 with him on the bench).

By the way, former Celtic (twice over) Delonte West hooked up with Dallas in the offseason, and has started every game other than the season opener. With Jason Kidd sidelined with a bad back, West has been starting at point guard, with the newly-acquired Vince Carter playing the two. Dallas also added Lamar Odom in the offseason, LO having demanded a trade from the Lakers after he was included in the Chris Paul deal that was squashed by the league.

I haven't really seen Dallas this year, and so I can only speculate as to whether integrating the new pieces has been a source of Dallas' struggles. I do know that Tuesday night notwithstanding, Nowitzki's shooting has been terrible this year, as has Shawn Marion's, and that Odom has been more or less a non-factor thus far. Dallas is deep, but they may still be figuring out how to put the pieces together.

Boston 91, Orlando 80

[recap] [box score]

Precious little time to blog about this game, as my Internet cut out right around kickoff time yesterday and I couldn't get it restored until this morning (with a lot on my plate today).

Bullets:

• Marquis Daniels' freak injury -- a bruised spinal cord -- is going to have him out at least a month and quite possibly longer. Daniels' personal long-term health is of course the most important concern and in that regard the news is good -- given how long he stayed on the court, it could have been a lot worse. On the court, his absence means that four of Boston's top reserves -- him, both O'Neals, and Delonte West, will likely be out of the lineup this week when Miami and the Lakers come to Boston. Thankfully, Von Wafer has played a lot better of late -- maybe he can fill some of the void Daniels leaves. Expect to see more of Luke Harangody than we have of late. The other big question will be how much Doc is willing to play Paul Pierce and Ray Allen in some of these "big" games. The Heat are bearing down on us for home-court advantage in the East.
• Rajon Rondo was spectacular, playing as aggressively as we've seen him all year. It was the kind of game we need from him offensively against the strong defensive teams in the league. Opponents have their hands full with Pierce, Allen, and Garnett, and are willing to let Rondo beat them if he can. There'll be plenty of opportunities for Rondo to take over games like this in the playoffs, and we'll need him to do it from time to time if we're going to win a title.
• I don't know what to make of Orlando these days, though I'm leaning heavily -- as I have been since the December trades that shook up their roster -- towards worrying less and less about them. Gilbert Arenas, plucked from Washington for Rashard Lewis, has been a disaster. He didn't score on Sunday. The other new key additions, Hedo Turkoglu and Jason Richardson, have been decent, though inconsistent, and not a huge upgrade over Vince Carter. And the loss of Marcin Gortat, as I've said here before, gives the Magic zero reliable big man depth behind Dwight Howard -- whose petulant elbow to Kendrick Perkins' sternum on Sunday led to his 14th technical foul on the season, just two away from suspension. Getting back Brandon Bass, who is having an excellent year, will help some, but it's still a three-man rotation at the 4/5 spots (Howard, Bass, and Ryan Anderson). It's enough to win a game or two, but a whole series against a team like Boston? I don't think so.
• Boston's at Charlotte tonight, then has the Lakers on Thursday (on TNT) and the Heat on Sunday (ABC).

The Next Lamb: The Orlando Magic

Game 28: Boston (23-4) at Orlando (17-12)

Saturday, December 25

2:30 p.m. Eastern

ABC

If you are but a casual observer of the NBA, you are probably surprised to see the 17-12 record next to the Orlando Magic. Over the past few seasons, the Magic have emerged as an Eastern Conference rival, reaching the conference finals last season and beating Boston and Cleveland on the way to an NBA Finals loss to the Lakers the season before. When this current season opened, not much had changed, and Orlando was expected to make another deep playoff run. After consecutive wins at Chicago and Detroit in the first three days of December, the Magic were 15-4, and everything seemed hunky-dory.

But Orlando lost its next four games, beat the Clippers, then lost to Denver, and the front office decided to shake things up. They sent Vince Carter, Mickael Pietrus, and Marcin Gortat to Phoenix for Jason Richardson, Hedo Turkoglu, and Earl Clark, and shipped Rashard Lewis off to Washington for Gilbert Arenas. They promptly dropped three more -- to Philly (the day of the trades, so they were shorthanded), at Atlanta, and to Dallas -- before snapping San Antonio's ten-game winning streak Thursday night.

More thoughts on this rather shocking attempt to rebuild on the fly in a moment. In terms of the Christmas Day game, it's tough to know what to expect. Sure, the Magic still have Dwight Howard, who has put up gaudy numbers the last four games and looks to have developed a little bit more of an offensive game in the offseason, and they still have Jameer Nelson, their sharpshooting point guard. But Carter and Lewis were starters, and Pietrus and Gortat were rotation players. It's going to take some time for them to jell, and so it's hard to use Saturday's matchup as any sort of measuring stick. They certainly looked impressive in putting up 123 points against San Antonio, but the Spurs were on the second night of a back-to-back and haven't been nearly as good defensively this season as we're accustomed to.

Looking toward the rest of the season and beyond, it's certainly a bold move. Frankly, it seemed to me that the front office panicked a bit: No one likes to lose five out of six, but four of those losses came on the road to possible playoff teams (Milwaukee, Portland, Utah, and Denver) and the fifth was to a solid division rival (Atlanta). Obviously, the goal in Orlando is a championship and you have to be able to beat those types of teams, even on the road, to win a title, but it seems like an over-reaction to turn over so much of the roster in response to a little slide. My hunch is that Orlando perhaps wasn't happy with its roster heading into the season and had been looking to make moves, and that this is the time that a deal to their liking materialized.

From an Xs and Os perspective, one glaring hole this leaves on the Magic roster is backup center, of which Gortat was one of the league's most effective (and highest-paid). It's especially glaring given the makeup of the various title contenders. That is, if the Magic are to win the title, then they have to plan, at least, on beating Boston and the Lakers. That means going through Kendrick Perkins, Shaquille O'Neal, and Jermaine O'Neal (who should return to action Saturday, by the way) in the former case, and Pau Gasol, Andrew Bynum, and Lamar Odom in the latter case. The loss of Gortat leaves Howard and the undersized Brandon Bass (a Glen Davis-ish player) as Orlando's only viable bigs, which you have to think isn't going to be sufficient to beat the Celtics or Lakers. The team has said that it will look to add another big via trade before the trade deadline in a couple of months, but one would be justified in wondering where that player will come from and at what price he will come.

As for the other losses and additions, Richardson should fill in reasonably well for Carter. A little more consistent, perhaps, a little less injury prone, but not as dynamic as Vince, and not as a good a passer. He can fill it up, though, and is a threat beyond the arc. Clark is a non-factor for the foreseeable future; Phoenix didn't pick up his contract option for next year and it's hard to see him breaking into the rotation this season. The key to this deal is Turkoglu and Arenas, and how well they make up for the departure of Lewis and Pietrus (plus whatever they have to give up to get a replacement for Gortat).

Turkoglu was a key part of Orlando's Finals run two years ago, then bolted to Toronto for a hefty contract. He was miserable as a Raptor (both in mood and in performance), lobbied for and got a trade in the offseason, and was basically as ineffective in 25 games in Phoenix as he was in Toronto. He's moved into the starting lineup in Lewis' place in three games with the Magic, going 3-for-15 in his first two outings before bouncing back with a respectable 5-for-10 against the Spurs.

When he's at his best, Turkoglu is a catalyst. He would take some of the ballhandling responsibilities away from Nelson the way he did in 2008-09, when Nelson shot a career-best 50.3 percent from the floor and 45.3 percent from three. (Recall, too, that Orlando made its big postseason run that year with Nelson out of the lineup due to late-season shoulder injury). I, for one, am not at all sure that Turkoglu is, or ever will be, close to his best, but it's possible that his decline in effectiveness over the past season-plus was due to unhappiness. Even if his best days are behind him, he won't be much of a downgrade over Lewis, a fairly one-dimensional three-point shooter with similar career percentage behind the arc to Turkoglu.

Arenas is a huge x-factor. With his recent injury history, it's easy enough to think of him as washed up, but he's only 28, and if he regains his form, he's instantly one of the most dangerous men in the NBA with the basketball in his hands. It appears that he's taking on a role with the second unit, and that strategy has to be right: No matter what you think of Nelson, both Turkoglu and Arenas need the ball to be effective, and they cancel each other out a little bit if they have to share it. But if he is playing well, he's a sixth man of the year candidate type player, injury/foul insurance for Richardson and Nelson, and another option late in the game. Of course, who knows how often he'll play well. I've only seen him once this year, when the Celtics pasted the Wizards, and I wrote then that Arenas did nothing but stand around shooting three-pointers all night. Gil was clearly unhappy with his situation in Washington, though, and perhaps his play will change with a change of scenery. Orlando's certainly counting on it.

As for Arenas' much-publicized off-court issues (you know, the gun in the locker room thing), most reports suggest that once the hammer came down, he put that stuff behind him. (Indeed, it may have contributed to his melancholy demeanor this season). Still, Arenas has always been a peculiar, unique character, and a guy like that -- particularly one who likes to shoot as often as he does -- is always capable of disrupting a locker room. I'm not saying that I think Arenas will try to stir things up, but if he does, I'm not sure Orlando has the personalities required to prevent it from becoming a big distraction. I think Stan Van Gundy is a good coach, but he's high-strung; Dwight Howard is an easy-going guy, but he's young and sensitive. No one in that locker room has won anything, and Arenas was brought in as part of a plan to put the team over the top. The ingredients are present for a bit of a meltdown, though I expect Arenas to behave.

I haven't even addressed defense, in part because it's always a little difficult to tell how individual defenders will fit in with specific defensive schemes. I can say with certainty that Turkoglu's a pretty bad on-ball defender and that while Arenas has been a big steals guy throughout his career, he's not a lockdown type of guy. Howard is perhaps the league's premier shotblocker and he can erase a lot of mistakes, but he's also foul-prone, a characteristic that is magnified by the fact that he doesn't have a backup, at least while the team looks for a replacement for Gortat. Pietrus was a pretty good defender, too, and there isn't anyone on the roster that immediately comes to mind as someone to fill that role.

In short, the Magic have taken a big risk here. Once the team gets acclimated with itself, they've probably done no worse than tread water offensively -- with a chance at great improvement on that end -- but they've probably gotten worse defensively, a big deal for a team coached by Van Gundy that has hung its hat on defense. In theory, they're less reliant on jumpshots -- a big criticism I've had with them -- but now they're more reliant on "outscoring" opponents, as opposed to winning games on the defensive ends. They've also taken some risks with their team makeup.

Moreover, it's unclear whether this team will come together fully this season, and, if it does, whether it's even enough to beat the league's elite. The best they can hope for is probably something akin to their 2008-09 team, and that squad needed seven games to beat the Kevin Garnett-less Celtics in the Eastern semis and never really challenged the Lakers in the Finals. With the Celtics certainly better this year and the Lakers, Spurs, and Heat hanging around as well, it's tricky to see this team getting it done -- particularly if it needs to sacrifice a player like J.J. Redick to pick up a backup pivot. While some may applaud the Magic for making this kind of bold move in the middle of the season, it says here that it won't be enough to push them over the top.

Links of the Day (October 19, 2010)

• With so much talk surrounding the Heat, Celtics, and the defending champion Lakers, Zach Lowe reminds us not to forget the Magic. They're doing their best not to let us by eviscerating opponents in the preseason: New Orleans by 54, Chicago by 38, Atlanta by 29. They're big enough to bang with LA, deep enough to match up with Boston, and both those things give them a good chance to wear out Miami. Of course, they had that talent and size and depth last season, and the season before that. For me, it's always been psychological with Orlando; Dwight Howard's still maturing, and guys like Vince Carter and Rashard Lewis don't seem to embrace the moment. We're a long way from finding out if anything's changed, but it will be an interesting thing to look for come playoff time.
• Doc Rivers doesn't have cancer. Neither do I, but I didn't have a biopsy on lesions found in my throat.
• More Celtics news: The team signed Milwaukee draftee-turned-waivee (!) Keith "Tiny" Gallon to a non-guaranteed contract. Gallon is almost certainly headed to the Developmental League, where the team will be able to keep an eye on him with the Maine Red Claws. The ironically-nicknamed Gallon (he's pushing 300 pounds) was part of a dysfunctional Oklahoma team last year in his sole college season, but he's compared by many to Glen Davis because he's skilled and not quite tall enough to be as wide as he is.
• This clip isn't likely to turn into an NBA Read to Achieve ad.
• I know very little about advanced statistics, but over at Pick and Scroll, you can now calculate them yourself.
• The NBA has banned shoes it says enhance vertical leap. The manufacturer -- who, to be fair, isn't exactly eager to dispute that claim -- is certainly taking advantage of the publicity. For any public relations students that may be reading, here is the company's press release. At least they'll save money on endorsement contracts.
• This Blake Griffin jam is why I'm excited to be living in Los Angeles this season, but why must the Clippers suffer the indignity of playing a home game, even in preseason, with the Lakers floor at Staples? Because the Lakers hosted a preseason game immediately after, that's why.

Viewing Alert

The Celtics play the Suns tonight on TNT at 8 p.m. Eastern as part of the network's Martin Luther King Jr. Day tripleheader. Phoenix beat the Raptors last night, and Shaquille O'Neal scord 16 points, which means the big fella likely won't play tonight (he's been playing only one leg of back-to-backs this season). His opposite number, Kendrick Perkins, probably won't play, either.

Two nights ago, by the way, Boston beat up on New Jersey for the second time in a row, this time by a 105-85 final. I missed this one, but if you read the recap, you'll see that we jumped out to an 18-2 lead on our way to a 68-39 halftime advantage, and that New Jersey's two best players, Vince Carter and Devin Harris, were benched for the entire second half.

Boston 118, New Jersey 86

Easy win.

[recap] [box score] [highlights]

Not too much to say here -- the starters sat the entire fourth period -- so I'll explain a couple oddities from the box score.

-Glen Davis went 1-1 from three-point range. The three-pointer, his first, came at the end of the first quarter.

-Bill Walker played 12 minutes and scored six points. Walker -- a second-round pick of the Washington Wizards in last June's draft who Boston bought soon thereafter -- had been playing in the D-League, but injuries to Kendrick Perkins and Tony Allen left us with 11 active players, one shy of the maximum of 12 allowed. So Walker got the call, got in during garbage time, and acquitted himself well. He looks much more comfortable than he did at the beginning of the season (before he got sent down); it seems like he could contribute if pressed into service, and I like his prospects for future years. The end of the highlight reel has him executing a 360 in midair on a Gabe Pruitt alley-oop.

To mark the midway point of the season, Tommy and Mike had Celtics co-owner Wyc Grousbeck on the broadcast during the second quarter for a "State of the Celtics" discussion. The highlight of that came when the Nets' Vince Carter went down with an ankle injury (he later returned). After a few minutes, Grousbeck made a crack about how loud Carter was after he injured himself (mocking him a little bit for acting like the injury was more serious than it was) then threw out this gem: "We had Paul's wheelchair ready for him." That is, of course, a reference to game one of last year's Finals, when Pierce went down with a knee injury, was carried off the court, was seen sitting in a wheelchair in the tunnel, and then came back to hit two huge threes and lead Boston to victory -- something he's taken a bit of flack for since.

Next game is Saturday night in New Jersey against these very same Nets. No national TV.