Archive for 2010

Celtics pierce Rockets, 94-87

For the third night in a row, Pierce was vintage.

Paul Pierce came alive in the fourth quarter, leading the Boston Celtics to a 94-87 victoy against the Houston Rockets.  The Rockets turned a 50-41 deficit into a 52-all tie, but three Ray Allen three-pointers gave the Celtics cushion, and Pierce’s 15-point fourth quarter took Boston home.

Playing on the road, against a solid team boasting a four-game winning streak, the Celtics — set on beating a legitimate team for the first time in months — took it to the Rockets.

It was a win to be proud of, but one the Celtics can hardly afford time to brag about.  They will be back in action Saturday night against the Mavericks.

Celtics start daunting stretch against Rockets

Tonight's the night, Celtics. (Photo by Bill Baptist/NBAE via Getty Images)

15 games left. The playoffs await the Boston Celtics after only 15 more games.

As Kendrick Perkins says, every team is 0-0 when the playoffs roll around. That’s true. But you know what else is true? Teams that can’t beat other good teams don’t fare well in the playoffs.

Tonight, it’s time. Time for a big win. Time to start a winning streak against opponents that actually deserve to be playing in the NBA. Time for the return of the team the Celtics were supposed to be.

The Houston Rockets may not seem like a great measuring stick. If the season were to end today, they wouldn’t even be in the playoffs. But do you want to hear a startling fact? If you discount wins against the Lakers (Kobe was hurt) and the Blazers (everybody was hurt), a win tonight against the Rockets would mark Boston’s best since Christmas.

Coupled with three dominant home performances in a row, a “W” tonight would provide the Celtics a springboard to the toughest portion of their schedule. Tonight begins a string of nine games, eight against the Western Conference, eight against winning teams, capped by a home tilt against the league-leading Cavaliers on April 4.

The Celtics play in Houston tonight, Dallas tomorrow, and Utah two days after that. (From Dallas to Utah? Doc Rivers says, “I don’t think I’ve ever done that. Not since I’ve been here. That’s a strange one.”) Two days after Utah, they’re at home against the Denver Nuggets. They take a breather against Sacramento, then continue a home stand with San Antonio, Oklahoma City, Houston (again), and finally finish the brutal string of games with the aforementioned clash against the Cavs. For a team used to beating elite opponents, that’s the schedule from hell. For the Celtics? It’s nothing but a test.

Are they worthy of being considered a contender? Can they make a late run to regain their status among the NBA’s elite? Or is the season all but over, as it seemed when Boston was beaten into submission by the Cleveland Cavaliers, less than a week ago?

If you have doubts about this Celtics team, you are part of a list as wide and ever-growing as Tiger Woods’ detractors. Some nights, they’ve looked every bit the team expected to challenge the NBA record of 72 wins, and others they’ve looked like a team that should be challenging the New Jersey Nets for NBA wretchedness. They win on the road, lose at home, and confound everybody who watches them from one night to the next. Through it all, one constant has remained, as steady as Ray Allen at the line: The Celtics can’t beat good teams. Not on the road, not at home, not on weekdays, or weekends, or on outside courts with chain nets. The C’s haven’t beaten a contender since Christmas, and there is no denying that fact.

Yet they look like they’re rounding into shape. Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce look better than they have all season. Ray Allen has found his shooting touch. Rajon Rondo is learning how to balance keeping the Big Three happy and continuing to be aggressive himself. They haven’t yet done it against the Big Boys, but the Celtics are starting to resemble the team we believed we’d see all season long.

Now, they need to make us believe. To make themselves believe. They’ve got an opportunity to put it all together, to enter the playoffs with momentum, confidence and a couple wins they can take pride in.

The schedule is daunting, and it’s going to be a challenge. But with the Celtics looking to peak heading into the postseason, and desperately needing to prove themselves against teams that have a chance to be playing into June, perhaps the schedule from hell couldn’t have come at a better time.

Only the next nine games will tell.

A couple new Larry Bird stories

Bird probably still wants to destroy Eddie Johnson.

Eddie Johnson has a piece about how players nowadays are too friendly with each other.  In it, he includes two stories about Larry Bird, who he considers to be the epitome of a player who kept his opponents at a distance.  (HoopsHype)

That’s why I loved Bird – because he had no fake in him. He was an assassin and he took pride in destroying your confidence on the court if he could.

I had two memorable run-ins with him. The first was my first start as a rookie in the Boston Garden. He walked out for the jump ball and asked out loud who the (expletive) was going to try and guard him that night? Once he realized it was me, he immediately walked over and told me that he was going to destroy me – which he did with ease.

The next encounter was the following year, but I was a different player and was having a breakout year. I happened to be in one of my zones and was berating Bird all game long when he told me all I could do was score. The next play I gave him a head fake, popped him in the mouth and drew a foul. While I was shooting the free throw, I said out loud, “I can make you bleed too.”

He tried like heck to get me back the rest of the game, but didn’t succeed.

I thought it was over when I was in the safe haven of the locker room, but to my amazement I looked up and Bird had come in to hand me his hotel room key. He looked at me and said, “Why don’t you come over and we can finish what you started?”

I said I wasn’t going to do that so him, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish could beat me up. He started laughing and said, “We will finish this next year and I will not forget.”

I knew right then that Bird could have played on any playground where I grew up in Chicago and hold his own. Why? Larry Bird knew how to talk trash. I remember when he was wearing out Julius Erving and talking smack. Dr. J got upset and started to choke him. Bird responded with a right-handed punch.

That boy was bad.

Whatever you think about Larry Bird’s bravado (personally, I loved it), you can’t help but come to the conclusion Johnson did.

That boy was bad.

Young Doc: I’ll hit someone in the face to win

Doc Rivers was featured in a documentary on Chicago hoops originally released in 1992, and apparently re-released last week via an online website.

A young Rivers, when interviewed, said, “I am not the same person off the court that I am on the court. Off the court, I’ll probably do anything for anyone. On the court, I’m gonna win. If I have to hit you in the face to win, I’m gonna hit you in the face.”

Just the mentality I want his Celtics to regain.

(h/t Boston Globe)

Highlight Reel: Ray Allen commercial

In honor of March Madness and a spectacular day of basketball yesterday, here’s a funny commercial about Ray Allen destroying Syracuse when he was in college.

I wonder if they have anybody named Walter working at this place?

For what it’s worth, I chose Syracuse to win the title.

Doc has a team he’d like to play in playoffs… kinda

Doc Rivers says he has been looking at the standings to see how the 5,6,7 and 8 seeds in the Eastern Conference work themselves out. The Celtics could play any of those teams (Bucks, Bobcats, Heat, and Raptors), so it makes sense that Rivers has been keeping tabs on them.

But he claims he hasn’t looked at the top three teams in the standings (Cavs, Magic, Hawks), or how far ahead of the Celtics they are. I guess he uses his hand to cover up the top three teams while he checks the bottom of the standings. Yeah, that sounds right.

No matter how often he checks — or doesn’t check — the standings, Rivers has a team he’d like the Celtics to play. (Boston Globe)

Where the Celtics end up and whom they’ll play isn’t completely in their control. But if Rivers had his way, he absolutely has a preference for a first-round opponent.

“But,’’ he said with a grin, “they’re not going to make it.’’

Perhaps he wants to play the Washington Generals?

Has Scal played his last game as a Celtic?

I always laugh when I see Gabe Pruitt.

With 13 players on the roster (excluding Marcus Landry, assigned to the Maine Red Claws) and only 12 allowed to play, there has to be an odd man out.  So far, it’s been Brian Scalabrine.

While Doc Rivers has told Scal to stay ready, that his time may come, there was a jarring paragraph from Steve Bulpett’s piece in yesterday’s Boston Herald.

Translated, that means that with 15 games left in the season, Scalabrine will play only if: A) Rivers wants an extra forward active; B) a teammate is injured; C) the Celtics decide to rest regulars at the end of the regular season. It is, thus, entirely possible that Scalabrine has played his last game as a Celtic, but he sincerely hopes that is not the case.

Wow. Scal might have played his final game as a Celtic.  It’s hard to believe.

Some may see Scal as nothing more than a towel-waving Human Victory Cigar or Human White Flag, but not me.  I see Scal for what he is: a professional, someone who’s always ready to play even though he knows he probably won’t.

Before last season, Scal had done little to earn his any of his $15 million contract.  He’d been largely a disappointment, becoming the butt of jokes more often than a difference-maker in games.  I made jokes about him, too.  It was tough not to: He’s as goofy, lumpy and, well, white as NBA players come.  He was making $3 million a year to sit at the end of the bench, and once in a while play in a blowout.

But something weird happened last year: Jokes about Scal stopped being funny.  He became a valuable member of the team, and played — *gasp* — well.  With Kevin Garnett and Leon Powe out for the playoffs, and Mikki Moore struggling to find a pulse, Scal became the first big man off the bench.  For anyone who’d seen Scal play in Boston, that would seem to spell disaster.  But he was solid.  Good, even.

He gave the Celtics 20 legitimate minutes per game, made 45% of his three-pointers, and even somehow found it inside that rounded body of his to defend Hedo Turkoglu and defend him well.  The Celtics didn’t end up beating Orlando, but Scal wasn’t at all the reason why.  He had proven his worth.

But it’s a new year, and Scal has been ice-cold.  His touch has eluded him, and with Marquis Daniels, Nate Robinson, Michael Finley, Rasheed Wallace and Shelden Williams added to the mix, Scal is again on the outside looking in.  Even with Scal nursing a shooting percentage even Rasheed frowns upon, there aren’t as many Scal jokes going around.  We remember how he stepped up when the Celtics needed him, shouldering a load he’d never been faced with in Boston.

A year after proving himself, Scal might have already played his last game as a Celtic.  Still, he hopes to be back in Boston next season.

You know what’s weird?

I hope he is, too.

Doc Rivers will get earful from Nate Robinson

Did anybody else think Isaiah (not Isiah) Thomas looked a lot like Brandon Jennings? (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)

Uh-oh, Nate Robinson has been doing some “verbal sparring” with Doc Rivers.  That’s bad.

Don’t worry, though, the two were just discussing the Marquette-Washington opening round game. (ESPNBoston)

“We don’t bet, of course,” Rivers said with a smile when asked if the two had a friendly wager on the game. “But we have discussed the Marquette spanking of Washington [Thursday]. We have definitely talked about it — and Nate has talked about it quite a bit, as you might imagine. We have to win that game, that’s very important.”

Doc’s Marquette boys had to win that game, but they didn’t.  Instead, Washington, winners of the worst major conference in recent history, beat his Golden Eagles thanks to Quincy Pondexter’s bucket with 1.7 seconds left.

Something tells me the Diminutive Dunker isn’t going to let Doc live this down.  But there is a silver lining for Doc:

At least he didn’t go to Georgetown.

Maintenance: Changing our comments settings

Just wanted to alert everybody that we have changed the comments settings for our blog.  We had previously moved to Intense Debate comments, because it offered more than the normal WordPress settings.  However, since the change — and despite our traffic getting higher — the number of comments had gone way down.  So we did the natural thing: We switched back.

Hopefully, the change will encourage more comments.  We love to hear all your opinions, both about the Celtics and the way we run our site.

We look forward to seeing more and more comments in the future.

Morning Walkthrough: Nate taunts D’Antoni

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.

Frank Isola, Newsday (Via Celtics Hub) – “Nate Robinson rose from his seat on the Celtics bench, looked at Mike D’Antoni and began clapping. Lil’ Him wasn’t honoring his former coach Wednesday night as much as he was taunting him. With Boston building a 27-point third-quarter lead over the Knicks, Robinson twice made it a point to show that he was enjoying D’Antoni’s misery. It was another example of Nate being Nate during the Celtics’ 109-97 victory over Robinson’s former club.”

Green Street, WEEI – “When you said, ‘This team is very, very close,’ what did you mean by that? I thought you might even be a little sarcastic with the remark. ‘No, I was not. You look at the Cleveland game, we didn’t play great and it was 68-all with four minutes left in the third quarter, on the road. There was a lot of positive signs, we had the ball back to back in those possessions, turned it over, and missed four free throws in a row. What we didn’t do was when Cleveland made their next run, was fight after. You can just see things — Paul improving, Kevin improving, everybody’s starting to get their rhythm back. And I’ve said it earlier, I don’t think people realize — and it wasn’t about the injuries, it was about the amount of injuries and trying to bring guys back at the same time — you lose your rhythm. Not only as a team but as an individual, and we haven’t gotten it back. But we’re starting to get it back, and if we can get it back in time, like I said in the interview, I love our chances.’”

Julian Benbow, Boston Globe – “‘I know a lot of people are like, ‘You don’t want to be in that fourth seed to face Cleveland in the second round,’ ‘ Perkins said. ‘But, shoot, we both got to get to the second round.’ The Celtics have 15 games left, 10 against teams with winning records. The Magic, currently the second seed, are in the enviable position of simply having to win winnable games. Only seven of Orlando’s last 13 games are against teams above .500. Atlanta has nine games left (out of 15) against winning teams. The Celtics are 13-18 against teams with winning records. ‘It’d be great, obviously, to get the second or third seed,’ Rivers said. ‘It’s not going to be easy.’”

A. Sherrod Blakely, CSNNE – “Boston’s next three foes – Houston, Dallas and Utah – have a combined winning percentage of 61.9 this season. And for a team with so few quality wins to its credit, Boston could benefit in more ways than padding its win total with a successful West coast trip. Coach Doc Rivers has been preaching for weeks that no one game has a greater value than another. But even he acknowledges the C’s could use a few more wins over teams above .500 between now and the playoffs. ‘It’s nice to beat a playoff team,’ Rivers said. ‘We haven’t played well against a lot of them.’ Uh, try most of them, coach.”

Steve Bulpett, Boston Herald – “What’s critical is that Garnett recognize the changes and adjust. NBA people have been saying for years that he is not the best when it comes to some of the positional minutiae, but Garnett always has had the energy, desire and physical gifts to recover when an opponent gained a step on him. Now the foes are finishing. ‘I think now he has to be a little more sound fundamentally,’ Ainge said. ‘He’ll have to do it more, because he’s not the same athlete. He’s had some adjustments to make, for sure. KG’s got to do a better job of keeping guys in front of him because he can’t catch up. But that’s the case with everyone on our team.’ The question is whether Garnett can perform as well as the Celtics need him to in the postseason. ‘Yes,’ Ainge said. ‘Absolutely.’”

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

Red Claws Annihilate T-Birds

The Maine Red Claws destroyed the Albuquerque Thunderbirds 122-95, giving another sellout crowd the biggest home blowout of the season.

A case of the too’s

A great quote from Mike D’Antoni after his Knicks were trounced by the Celtics last night. (Boston Globe)

“There were a lot of toos out there,’’ Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni said. “They were too big, too quick, too good, and the road trip a little too long. They are playing at a pretty high level right now.’’

Hopefully, the Rockets will come down with a case of the too’s tomorrow night.

Should Rajon Rondo defer to the Big Three?

Who should lead the Celtics?

Since then, the Big Three has thrived in two straight games while Rondo has taken a back seat and Perkins has done his normal dirtywork.

Now, Chris Forsberg writes that the Celtics are at their best when the Big Three lead the way.  (ESPNBoston)

But it’s clear that the Celtics need it most out of Pierce and Garnett. The stats tell the story. When Boston started the season blistering hot at 23-5, either Pierce or Garnett led the team in scoring in 15 of those wins.[...]

Since Rivers’ proclamation after an awful loss to the Grizzlies, Pierce has averaged 20.5 points per game (three points above his season average), while Garnett has averaged 15.3 points (a point higher than his mark for the season).

Rivers hesitated to get too excited about the duo Wednesday after they combined to score nearly half of Boston’s points (51 on 20-of-28 shooting), but he knows it’s a good sign for the success of his team if this trend continues.

Rich Levine agrees with Forsberg. (CSNNE)

Were these two youngsters taking over the team right before our eyes?

Many convinced themselves yes. And it was an understandable. The Big 3 were struggling — Ray Allen with his game, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett with their bodies — while the “Other Two” were keeping Boston afloat. Doing things they’d never done before, leading in ways you never thought imaginable and steadily narrowing the gap between them and their Hall of Fame teammates.

But as playoff time draws closer, the reality’s become clear. This team still belongs to the Big Three. Rondo and Perk could turn into Archibald and Parish, and it won’t make a difference unless Allen, Pierce and Garnett turn back into, well, Allen, Pierce and Garnett. (The last one probably isn’t possible, but at least they need him to get close.)

Doc Rivers seems to agree that the team is at its best when Rondo is more of a distributor than a scorer.  (Boston Herald)

“Part of the stuff that happened in that stretch where all of the injuries happened was we needed Rondo to score more,” coach Doc Rivers said. “We needed Perk (Kendrick Perkins [stats]) to score more, we needed Baby (Glen Davis) to look for it more, because we had all those guys out. And part of your rhythm getting screwed up a little is when everybody comes back now you have to revert back to your old roles, and it takes time. You’re trying to fit these guys in, (and) they’re not really ready, but we’re still trying to get them the ball. And we couldn’t score, but we’re still going to them because we know eventually (they have to step up).

“So that’s part of all that, and Rondo understands that as well as anybody. The great part about him (is) he doesn’t care if he has 20 (points) or 20 assists. He’ll take either one. He’s fine with it.”

Me? I think the Celtics are at their best when the ball is moving freely. It doesn’t matter who’s scoring the points as long as the offense is equal-opportunity and that ball is moving like a hot potato.

What do you guys think?

Doc: Leadership remains the same

Doc Rivers isn’t buying that Kendrick Perkins and Rajon Rondo have to step up and be better leaders because the Big Three are all battling health ailments. (WEEI)

An online columnist recently suggested that a key problem with the C’s is that Rajon Rondo and Kevin Perkins need to step up and be leaders because the Big Three have been distracted by health problems. “That’s ludicrous,” Rivers said. “It’s ridiculous, it really is. Kevin Garnett and Paul [Pierce] and Ray [Allen] are the leaders, but so is Rondo and Perk. I think the starting five leads our team and they always have this year. So I don’t know how all of a sudden you assume a different leadership role. That sounds so great in print, or saying it, but it’s not realistic. I think that our team’s leadership has been intact all year. I think all five of those guys lead when they need to. The bottom line is our starting five … all five of them have to set the table for his entire team.”

I agree with Doc.  Pierce, Garnett, and Allen are battle-tested champions who have proven their leadership over long, storied careers.  Rondo and Perk are rising stars (okay, it may be a stretch to call Perk a star) who have yet to fully come into their own as professionals.

Just because the Big Three haven’t played great lately (though they’re all coming around) doesn’t mean they’ve lost their positions as leaders.

Show us the way, Paul, Kevin and Ray.  Take us to the promised land.