Celtics fall late to Mavericks, 101-97
(Photo by Brian Babineau/Getty Images)
It’s a bullet point type of night, for which I profusely apologize.
- Two games against Dallas. Two times the Mavericks have out-executed Boston down the stretch. Even though that late-game alley oop from Rondo to Garnett would have been oh so purdy.
- Perk’s playing great. There’s no way in hell I thought he’d be this healthy, this fast. It’s before the All-Star break, and he’s already distanced himself (in my eyes, at least) as the clear-cut starter. I thought his injury would leave him slow and winded for a long time. Hell, I thought we might not see the real Perk at all this whole season. But he’s back and looks like the same old dude, except he can’t really jump like he used to. Then again, even Perk’s diminished vertical leap doesn’t really matter much — it’s not like Perk ever excelled because of his rise. If you can call it rise.
- Marquis Daniels yet again proved the “Marquis Daniels loves mismatches” theorem. I swear, if Jason Terry defended Daniels every night, Daniels would be an MVP candidate. Okay, that’s hyperbole. But still. When Daniels has an advantageous matchup (read: Kyle Korver or anyone at least two inches smaller than Daniels), he looks like a ten-time All-Star. And when he doesn’t, well, it’s often tough to determine whether he’s even on the court.
- Kevin Garnett is getting to the point where I’m not surprised by any on-court antics he partakes in. Hit an opposing player in the nuts? Smack an official’s hand off his arm, repeatedly? Eat a child in the first row? I’m honestly not surprised by anything he does. I was talking about this at dinner tonight: KG’s even more off the wall than ever. He should probably get suspended by the league for smacking a ref’s arm tonight. Not that KG’s smacks were at all vicious. But he was hitting a ref. A ref!
- I keep thinking back to Ray Allen’s three-pointer. The Celtics were ahead 97-96, with 51 seconds left in the game and 20 seconds left on the shot clock. Ray caught the ball on the wing, and instantly fired. Normally, I love that shot. He’s wide open, in rhythm, and, well, he’s Ray Allen. If that shot went in, it’s just another notch on Allen’s big-shot belt and the game would have been almost over. But with less than a minute remaining, don’t you try to take some time and get a better look? On the other hand, he’s Ray Allen open for three. Are there really better looks than that? As you can tell, I’m still confused about my thoughts on that play. All I know is it missed, and I think back to that shot as the one that I want back.
- The Dallas Mavericks are good. Damn good. Dirk Nowitzki’s just about the toughest player to guard in the entire NBA. Terry makes shots from anywhere. Jason Kidd, for whatever reason, still does his thing. Tyson Chandler’s been a monster. And they defend like hell. Few people talk about the Mavericks as a legitimate contender, partly because history tells us not to and partly because they start DeShawn Stevenson or Brian Cardinal at small forward. But it’s time. Dallas Mavericks, you’re contenders. It’s official, because I said so.
- Still, the Celtics let one get away tonight. They forgot their defensive structure and allowed a lot of easy looks. They stopped executing down the stretch and paid for it.
- And, oh yeah, Jermaine O’Neal underwent surgery on the left knee he wasn’t going to have surgery on. O’Neal’s knee, according to Danny Ainge, “didn’t respond like we had hoped.” Which is almost funny, because that means the Celtics actually thought O’Neal’s body would respond the right way. “This surgery was not something to fix him long-term,” said Ainge. Ahh. Terrific. In other news, the Celtics signed O’Neal to a two-year, $12 million contract this past summer.
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Celtics Blog | Jay King | February 5, 2011
When are the Celtics going to learn to box out? If they rebounded better (PP – 40 mins – 3 rebs and only 1 reb through 3 qtrs) then they would have it easier winning games like this…that they should have won. And what’s with RA jacking a 3 with 48 secs left but only 4-5 secs off the 24 second clock? What’s the rush RA? Still plenty of time for a 2-for-1 and PLEASE stay on your f’in man (Kidd) instead of jumping down into the key to try and make a steal. The Cs got killed in the first qtr not guarding the 3 line and it cost them at the end. Go Cs…
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James, I agree with everything you said. Was Ray thinking he had to fire off a shot for a two-for-one? I actually believe he did some bad math in his head, wide open or not. That may have cost them the game.
After game 7, I remain worried that the C’s cannot close a game down the stretch. They looked lost and confused on offense, taking bad shots, turnovers, ugh!
Where was Pierce tonight? How hurt is Rondo? He’s not on top of his game.
The game against the Lakers last Sunday had me believing the C’s were the best team in the East, if not the NBA. After tonight, I’m not sure they will get through the second round of the playoffs. FUCKING TURNOVERS!
Maybe it’s true; maybe they are just too old and tired and cannot finish a game. If so, maybe Doc needs to play the bench in the final 3-5 minutes. Seriously, they might have pulled it out.
Okay, I”m talking out of frustration, but still……
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he shuffled his feet.. but was that a travel?
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Good points. Yes, Dallas CLEARLY is a contender. The teams out West are in for some playoff surprises if they don’t realize this. As for Perk. Wow. But still one wonders, how did we lose to Dallas? Twice?! We are better than this team.
I think that the story of the game is in the first quarter, not the last quarter. On one hand, it was exciting to watch Garnett and Nowitski exchange baskets in the early going, but Garnett’s heroic play masked the fact that the Cs were playing badly not just on defense, but also on offense. There was a lot of standing around on offense. Whenever you see that in the first quarter, you know the Celtics are in for a looong game. It doesn’t matter that the Cs had a high shooting percentage in the first quarter. That was mostly sustained by Garnett’s amazing play. The WAY they were playing had them behind after one quarter, when they should have been ahead, and ensured that they would struggle all game long.
And it comes back to young Mr. Rondo. Increasingly, it is widely recognized that this is Rondo’s team, and we fans, I think, increasingly see this too. Heck, Charles Barkley sees it!
When Rondo comes to play, this team can be amazing. When he doesn’t. Well, we struggle. For most of last night, Rondo played passively and sluggishly on offense, though he gambled a lot on defense (and did manage to accomplish quite a bit of disruption there, though, as usual, he failed to stay home on his man consistently). He may have had only one turnover during the game, but this may not have been such a good thing. When Rondo doesn’t play aggressively, the team tends to stand around, and we end up out of rhythm and struggling.
Interestingly, with that thesis in mind, when Rondo played more aggressively at times in the second half, the Cs seemed to come to life. It seems clear that Rondo is not quite comfortable with the increasingly important leadership role he is playing for the Cs. Increasingly the team’s state of mind seems to reflect his state of mind … but he sometimes seems to want to hide.
I think all this has something to do with Garnett’s increasing histrionics. Now let’s be fair. The referee whose hand Garnett pushed away was clearly behaving inappropriately. It’s one thing to separate two guys, but it’s another to keep pushing against one of them far beyond the point of necessity, almost to the point of groping him. If I were Garnett, I would have pushed off the jerk’s hand too. But there is another aspect to this. Garnett is a guy who tries to push the motivation button, not only for himself, but for the team too, when the guys are struggling, and that (motivation) seems to be a major problem for this team. It’s not that we aren’t motivated. Sometimes we are. Sometimes we are not. We are inconsistent.
We are losing games that we need to win, and I think Garnett more than anyone knows that these losses will matter a lot when the playoffs come. You get the feeling that sometimes Garnett is pushing hard against a sometimes immovable object, Celtics (lack of) motivation, and sometimes he blows a gasket from the effort.
What he needs to do is talk to Rondo. Rondo’s affect is typically one of diffidence. But when you are in a leadership role, that isn’t quite enough. Increasingly, being a leader isn’t a choice for Rondo. It’s the role he is in, and its a role we need him to adapt to. Garnett, Pierce, Allen – these guys really need to help Rondo figure out how he is going to do this leadership thing. It isn’t just about calling the plays and putting the ball in the spot. It’s about how you become responsible, maybe sometimes more than you are comfortable with, for the energy and attitude of the team.
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@Paul…another very good analysis and some interesting points. It’s just so frustrating to watch the same mistakes being made over and over and then they play like they did vs the Lakers. Or was that a faux ‘mistake’? I don’t think so because I think they all believe in the flawed assumption that they can ‘flip the switch’ whenever they need to (like last year’s playoffs). Well it worked then and likely will again but the difference maker is that if they execute, defend, box out, rebound, run the offense properly, like they can (and how we know they should and can) the WHOLE game – then they will not lose Game 7s ever. I just rather they focus and cut the TOs down. Go Cs…
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Turnovers and rebounding and Rondo, true indeed. But can this team finish a big game in the fourth quarter? Not scoring in the final two minutes-plus last night is a major concern.
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