Knicks 106, Celtics 104: Celtics stumble in opener
Rajon Rondo dazzled, Otis Smith started pounding shots of whiskey after watching Brandon Bass, the Celtics took far too long to wake up, Carmelo Anthony is pretty freaking good, Kevin Garnett decided to put hands on Billy Walker’s neck after missing a jumper at the buzzer, Joey Crawford thinks he’s the reason fans buy tickets, Sasha Pavlovic is still Sasha Pavlovic, and fourth quarter offense might still be Boston’s downfall, at least while Paul Pierce remains injured.
More thoughts to come later, but for now it’s Christmas. Merry Christmas and happy holidays, everyone.
P.S. – What a game.
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Celtics Blog | Jay King | December 25, 2011
Celtics actually looked impressive. With PP and Pietrus still underway, I didn’t expect anything else than a loss. I was suprised that it was really close. Rondo is looking great, Bass is looking great, KG and Ray are still solid, man, I think the C’s are going to impress most of the doubters this year. We still have a solid group with Rondo/Dooling, Ray/Pietrus, PP/Marquis, KG/Bass and JO/Wilcox
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rondo looked great today. gave out a giant F*CK YOU to danny ainge for trying to trade him. bass also looked amazing, but at the end of the day melo was just too good, still the best scorer in the league. merry christmas
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btw we should trick avery into getting on a plane back to israel. dudes a bum. play moore instead, at least he can give us some good offense and better decisions
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No Pierce, no Pietrus, no practice, lose by 2 pts and win the rebounding after a 16-4 reb Q3 and being down by 7 rebs at the half…the Cs looked good and our bench is going to be a whole lot better than many past years. Bass and Rondo were awesome. Joey Crawford SUCKS and should be fired as he is a lame ref that let’s his ego get in the way of being impartial. All in all a championship caliber team if Pavlovic and KD are removed (play Moore). Go Cs…
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Not championship level yet. But this was a surprisingly good start.
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The pieces are assembled so now it’s all about 40 games in and consistency, Doc not mucking it up and staying healthy. The talent is there especially when PP and MP are added to the mix. Go Cs…
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It’s amazing how folks don’t want to give Rondo props. The guy played a sublime game. Folks often talk about someone doing everything, but Rondo really DID do everything, AND he gets his team mates involved, which takes what he does to another level.
What in God’s name do Celtics fans want from Rondo? If this game doesn’t wake people up to the realization that trading him for Chris Paul is a bad idea, I don’t know what the hell will.
Come on people. On both offense and defense, he dominated the game as much as one can do, more than Carmelo even. My only criticism is that he should have shot more in the 4th quarter. That may be the next step for him. When the game is on the line, we want our BEST PLAYER taking the shot. Not Ray, not Garnett, not even Pierce. We want our best player taking us home.
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Am I the only one who thought that Rondo’s jump shot was much improved?
Shit, I’m glad they didn’t trade Rondo for Paul. Rondo’s going to be wonderful this year…If he doesn’t get lacidaisical mid-season like he has a tendency to do.
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Nick…thank god you are still around, as our buddy paul keeps slipping back and touching the 3rd rail (‘the trade’) every now and again… but he’s getting better. Gonna be a fun season! Go Cs…
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Right. Because The Trade was a turning point in Celtics history, for better or for worse. The only reason you want to forget about it is that you know damn well how awful it was.
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No paul…I will celebrate the trade forever as I wrote this post which you may not have seen in a previous ‘the trade’ comment by you after Perk’s debut yesterday which, as he proved as a Celtic, was below average…
“Yep…Perk really lit-’em up tonight. 27 mins 4 rebs (1 offensive) and 6 pts. His 1 TO and 4 PFs erase his effort so he did nothing. Even more glad he is gone FOREVER”. Go Cs…we’re much better without Perk!!!
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Rondo’s jump shot looks MUCH better. And I think we have to put a lot of the blame for Rondo’s mid-season blues last year on his plantar-fascitis. I HOPE he doesn’t get that back.
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Agree with you on these points…Go Cs…
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I think it’s slightly disingenuous for people to attack Rondo-detractors after this game. I’m a huge Rondo fan, I’m wearins his jersey as we speak, but I’m not blind enough to say that there are some glaring holes in his game that he needs to plug.
Today he was a PHENOM. He shot the ball confidently and hit free throws. 31-13. Fucking awesome. Yes, going by today, I’m very glad we have Rondo still over Chris Paul, but you can’t blame any fan for wanting Chris Paul over the Rondo we’ve seen the past couple of years. That goes for Rondo giving Danny a big “fuck you” for trying to trade him. I would trade Rondo too if he couldn’t elevate his gate and plug those glaring holes. And the trade rumors may be a motivating factor for his continued progression.
If he can consistently do what he did today, then Rondo all day. It’s as simple as that.
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Yes you can and should blame fans for wanting Chris Paul over Rondo. Jalen Rose had some nice comments about it the other day, in an interview with Forsberg. There was something sad in his voice, almost pleading, when he said basically why on earth are you looking to trade out the best player you have?!!! Why don’t you build around that player? Fan’s attitude about Rondo is like going to the prom with this sweet and lovely girl you dance with like a dream, though admittedly she has a zit and her teeth aren’t perfectly straight, and you can’t stop staring at the prom queen, imagining married life with her.
In other words, too many fans spend way too much time playing fantasy league sports, for God’s sake.
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* aren’t some glaring holes
Wish Jay had an ‘edit’ option here, lol
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hope rondo brings it like this every day/night. he played like a player with a chip on his shoulder. the best thing i seen from him was getting to the FT line and actually making 9-12. as for the team i was not surprised by their first half play, short pre season and no pierce i was not expecting much. great 3rd quarter adjustments and solid D. forth Q is worrisome because we seen them fail there too much last season. Brandon Bass is a beast and i love the trade. Wilcox dime to melo in the first Q was the difference in the game…bet he wishes he had that one back.
As for the knicks chandler is a difference maker in the since that he brings a defensive presence , but i do not believe that is enough for NY. Melo got a lot of hype for his 37 points but he five turnovers out of the small forward position, thats not a good look.
Overall happy with the game. playing without PP and not having pitreus as a option stinks, he would have served better than sasha OMG how is he and NBA player, never mind a starter. having PP in this game for defensive purposes only (ya i just said that about pierce) would have led to a C’s win. C’s are not going to have a better record than the Heat or the Bulls so loosing games is not the end of the world. They need to keep pace with the knicks and orlando which i believe they will and come up with the three seed come playoffs.
MErry Xmas JAy to u and your family. love jack litz
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What I want to see are games where Rondo isn’t shooting well and STILL continues to attack, continues to take his shots. That is the mark of a real scorer, and it’s something we need from him. He tends to back off if he misses a few. Hopefully that tendency has changed. He needs to take the Allen approach – if you have a bad game, keep shooting and take out your frustration by shooting extra the next day. Once you begin to establish yourself as a scorer, you CANNOT back down.
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I mean, take out your frustration at a bad game by shooting extra in practice the next day.
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Merry Christmas everyone, and I agree with those who say this team shows a lot of promise. Rondo is amazing, but I really wish he could make FTs. Let’s hope they continue to REBOUND like they did today and this team will be a contender. Bass is way better than Big Baby and this could be an exciting year. Welcome back Daniels.
Did they run out of gas in the fourth quarter today or do they simply not have better half court plays to run? This continues to be a problem. Let’s hope they finally fix it.
Avery sucks. I hope they go with one of the new guys instead.
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Real test comes on tuesday against Miami. They looked crazy good as they ate Dallas alive. Will we have Pierce back by then? We need all hands on deck if we are going to get a W against the
Heat in Miami. After that we should be able to get 5 straight against NOH, DET, WAS X 2 and NJN.
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The real test will be a month down the road. This team will take time to gel. It’s really a new team. The Big Three are still here, but this is a new era, a new team. They have to find and establish their own identity.
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