There’s a reason why guys like Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen are given a lot of the credit for turning around the entire Boston Celtics organization. (You know, besides their terrific skills and all that jazz.)

Here’s what Garnett said to Rajon Rondo after he choked missed two late free throws in the loss to the Clippers.

Via the Boston Herald:

“I told him after the game, ‘Man, we’ve all been in that position. We’ve all made them; we’ve all missed them,” Kevin Garnett said before last night’s 103-99 loss to the Warriors. “And more than less, I’ve got the confidence in you to go back up there and make those.’ That’s the confidence I’ve got in Rondo. If he was to go up there a hundred times, I’m going to support him a hundred times, if not a hundred and one.”

He shared tales of his own failures, saying, “I have actually airballed game-winners. I think when we had a chance to put the Lakers away I missed two big free throws. I mean, it’s what gives you tough skin.

“And I told Rondo the true essence and the true meaning of confidence is being able to step back up there and take them. A lot of people don’t want to be in that position. A lot of people shy away from that. Things happen to certain individuals, and he’s a special one. You know what? He’ll grow. This is part of it. It’s part of growing pains, and you live and learn with it.”

And Ray:

“The percentage I’m shooting now, you can only get there from habit, those pressure situations that you’ve been in during your career,” Allen said. “I’ve missed plenty of shots, plenty of free throws to win games. So now when I go to the line, you remember those moments.

“I just told him, I said, ‘That’s what you remember. When you go to shoot free throws and you try to duplicate that situation over and over again, it’s going to make you a better free throw shooter. It’s going to make you a better player.’

“It makes him a better player because he has to live with that,” Allen said. “He has to deal with that. We’ve all had that gut-wrenching feeling in our stomachs that you don’t want to eat, you don’t want to do anything until you can play the next game and try to put it as far as you can in the back of your mind.”

You’ve got to love the support from KG and Ray. Even if they don’t really believe in Rondo at the line, just to say that they do should bring Rondo some confidence.

And a night after saying those things?

Rondo went 7-9 from the line.

Lost amidst another bad loss to a mediocre team was Doc Rivers’ (Tom Thibodeau’s?) late-game coaching decision to have his two biggest men defend the inbounds passer.  With the Celtics down two points and only 4.4 seconds remaining, Doc had Kendrick Perkins and Kevin Garnett harass the inbounds passer on two successive plays. 

The first play, C.J. Watson drew the unfortunate task of passing the ball inbounds, and couldn’t even see over Boston’s two monsters, much less pass the ball over them.  Four seconds later, he called timeout and Don Nelson had to switch inbounders to give the 6’10″ Vlad Radmanovic a chance.  Even Vlad had troubles throwing the ball in, and had to loft a super-dangerous pass right in front of his own basket that, unfortunately for the Celtics, was corralled by Monta Ellis to end the game.

For those of you who didn’t see the game, here’s what the defense looked like:

Be sure to applaud my serious photo-shopping skills.  Look at that high-tech and well-rounded circle. 

Seriously, though, has anyone ever seen that strategy employed before?  I hadn’t, at least not that I can remember.  (And it’s tough not to remember two seven-footers flailing their arms and doing jumping jacks in a strategy you’ve never seen before.) 

It seems like a great move, as long as you have two long seven-footers to execute it.  Who knows?  Maybe Doc will start a trend and, before you know it, every team will have their seven-footers jumping all over the place on late-game inbounds plays.

It was almost enough to save the Celtics last night.

It’s been a rough season so far for Glen Davis. First he went down for a few months after throwing a haymaker at his friend. Then he struggled to come back, played in three games, and now he’s hurt again.

Via Chris Forsberg, ESPNBoston:

Celtics forward Glen Davis, playing in only his third game of the season after missing the first 27 because of a fractured right thumb, departed Monday’s game against the Golden State Warriors with a mild right ankle sprain.

Thankfully, it doesn’t seem too serious:

“I didn’t even ask; he’ll be all right,” Rivers said when asked about Davis’ health. “The way I look at it, we’ll find out [Tuesday].”

The injury comes at a bad time for Davis, who was seemingly just finding his way how to become a professional.

Via the Boston Herald:

“[My injury] made me think about a lot of things,” Davis said. “I still think all the time about basketball, but what happened made me think even more about me as a person, as a man off the court. I’ve just been thinking about what’s important and what I need to do to be successful on and off the court. So it’s been a big time for me to reflect on me as a person and my morals and my goals further on.”

Davis came to the striking conclusion that, at age 23 (he turns 24 on Friday), he didn’t know everything.

“I think I’ve really started to understand that no matter how old you are you can never stop learning,” he said. “You never stop learning how to be a better person. You watch people around you. You have to be able to learn from everyone. I think I’ve also learned the business of basketball even more. You have to go out and play hard and enjoy it, have fun and all that. But at the same time you have to approach it in a serious way, because it is a business. I just came to the conclusion that I’m not as old as I think I am.”

Besides maturing, Davis had shown some signs of playing very good basketball. Against the Clippers, he was a beast on the offensive glass and a menace flopping taking charges. It’s too bad he had to go down; hopefully the recovery will be as quick as the Celtics seem to think.

UPDATE: It might not be such an easy recovery after all.

Via the Globe:

Glen “Big Baby” Davis left the arena on crutches and told reporters he has a sprained right ankle. He was wearing a protective boot and said he couldn’t walk without aid. He could be out for an extended period. He didn’t sound positive. X-rays were negative.

The Celtics have gotten rid of their morning walkthrough, but that doesn’t mean we have to. Here are a few Celtics links, and maybe even an NBA link or two, to help wake you up and get you focused for the day.

Chris Forsberg, ESPNBoston – “‘[Ellis] played great for them,” said Celtics coach Doc Rivers. “He basically saved the game for them at the end of the game with that play. One misstep and Tony [Allen] would have had a layup. [Ellis] made a great adjustment to get to the ball and maintain control.’ Ellis connected on 15 of 26 attempts, and added four assists. Celtics guard Ray Allen admitted there was little the Green could do to slow him. ‘We started out putting one-and-a-half guys on him to start the game, which turned into two guys guarding him and that didn’t work,’ said Allen. ‘By that time it was too late. He basically had his way with us tonight.’ Said Ellis of his big night: ‘[Scoring is] really just coming to me. I’m trying to get everybody involved — got myself going, and they keyed in on me, so I moved the ball and everybody got involved.’”

Chris Forsberg, ESPNBoston – “Celtics coach Doc Rivers pointed to a season-high 25 turnovers as the key in allowing the Golden State Warriors to rally from an 18-point deficit for a 103-99 triumph at Oracle Arena. ‘I told the guys [at halftime] that we had 58 points with 15 turnovers — that’s a miracle,’ said Rivers. ‘Typically, if you have 15 turnovers, you have maybe 35 points. The fact that we had 58 points with that many turnovers was amazing. But you can’t have turnovers against them. They score too quick and too easy. Honestly, that was the difference in the game. ‘We were up 18 in the first quarter — that happens. Eighteen points doesn’t mean much, they’re an offensive team and we knew they’d get back in it. It was more the 25 turnovers that turned the game around.’”

Steve Bulpett, Boston Herald – “Instead of patiently pounding the ball into the paint against the undersized Warriors, the Celts were content to jack up 3-pointers. They went 5-for-19 from beyond the arc and got outscored in the lane, 44-36. The best sign for the Celts was Rondo, who was utterly undaunted by his two free throw failures against the Clippers. Rondo also tweaked a sore left hamstring in the first quarter. ‘I thought he played terrific all night,’ said Rivers. ‘His hamstring is bothering him. We almost took him out at the end but he just wanted to keep playing, and he played great.’”

Tom Halzack, Celtics Central – “In a move never before seen in an NBA basketball game (by me), Doc Rivers stationed his two tallest players, Kevin Garnett and Kendrick Perkins, in front of Watson, the player throwing the ball in. Garnett and Perkins went crazy jumping and waving their hands. When Watson was unable to get the ball in, the Warriors called time out and substituted the taller Vladimir Radmanovic as the player to throw the ball in. Perkins and KG again waved wildly, causing a huge distraction as Radmanovic was forced to throw a football pass leading Ellis to a spot in the back court. The scheme almost worked as Ellis started to fumble the ball a bit as he got to it. But he recovered and the Celtics were forced to foul him. Monte made both foul shots essentially ending the game.”

Paul Flanner, WEEI – “We have been down this road many, many times before with Tony Allen. Throughout his star-crossed career, Allen has shown sporadic spasms of brilliance, mixed with head-scratching periods of inertia. So, it comes with no small parts of restraint to say that Allen’s return to the Celtics lineup has been nothing short of solid. Yes, Allen still mixes the sublime with the bizarre, but on the whole the good has far outweighed the bad. His latest comeback is even more intriguing because when the season started one would have been hard-pressed to imagine a scenario in which Allen would have even been given the chance to contribute, let alone excel.”

Have a link I might want to look at? Send it my way by email (jayking@celticstown.com) or Twitter.

The Boston Celtics lost their second straight West Coast road game, falling 103-99 to the Golden State Warriors at Oracle Arena in Oakland. Read more »

The Maine crowd no doubt expected another blowout victory for the home team, a repeat of Saturday. Instead the Maine Red Claws fell 115-98 to the 2-11 Bakersfield Jam Sunday evening, giving the visitors their second win of the season. The loss dropped the Claws to 8-3 and put them two games behind the league-leading 10-1 Iowa Energy, whom they face Thursday. Bakersfield stepped it up and played well, clearly eager for a win. The Claws were fizzling on both ends of the court, with the defense falling flat and the offense searching desperately for a rhythm.

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