Bulls 88, Celtics 79: Too little, too late
I just got out of work and haven’t actually seen the game yet, so a full recap will come tomorrow or much later tonight. But from what I see in the box score and based on following Twitter, it’s tough to win when spotting a 19-point halftime lead to the East’s best team, especially when the Big Three (again) amount to Ray Allen plus whatever small amount of gas Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce have in the tank.
Feel free to sound off in the comment section while I watch a game that should provide very little pleasure.
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Celtics Blog | Jay King | January 13, 2012
What you will see when you watch the game is that the best player on the Celtics is CLEARLY Rajon Rondo. Come ON people. It’s not even a serious question anymore. He’s head and shoulders above anybody else on the team. It’s not even a joke at this point. When you watch Chicago, you see a team who knows who their best player is. When you watch the Celtics, you see a team that thinks their best player is their fourth OR EVEN FIFTH best player.
It’s beyond stupid at this point. The Cs constantly tried to force the offense through Pierce. In the fourth quarter, it got so bad, that Rondo was reduced to pretty much standing in back of the three point circle. Like I said, it’s not even a joke anymore. It’s truly pathetic. I got the impression that the halftime guys were feeling genuinely sorry for Rondo. The situation he is in is unreal. I don’t recall ever seeing a situation so freaking surreal.
When you look at Chicago, you see a team that knows who their best player is. When you look at the Cs, you see a team that thinks their best player, someone everybody else can see is head and shoulders better than anyone else on the team, is their fourth or fifth best player.
I’m just speechless. They aren’t just a dysfunctional family anymore. They are flat out crazy.
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Totally agree. Thought they were at their best tonight when Pierce was on the bench.
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I agree with your assessment, but they need him to take those shots to get his rhythm back… Smh
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Awful first half. Cs take sooooo loooong to get moving. Flashes of brilliance in the second half. I love KG and PP but they looked old-as-dirt tonight. Awful.
I think brandon Bass was a great get but he did not have a good night. Some defense from him would be nice. Always been a Pietrus fan and saw some good stuff tonight.
Also, for the record, the officiating SUCKED!!!!!!
That’s my rambling disappointed recap. Oh, one more thing, I made my son watch one play three times. Joachim Noah and three
white jerseys in the paint and Noah came up with the offensive rebound!!! It’s called boxing out, put a body on the guy!!!!! I learned that in third freakin’ grade!!
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It’s not that our guys are old. I mean, yes, they are old, but that’s NOT the problem. The problem is that the Bulls know who their best player is and they feed off his energy. Every play goes through Rose. They give their best guy the ball and everyone else plays off that.
The Celtics do not have a clue who their best player is. It’s so darn obvious. It’s not even close anymore. Rondo is on another level entirely. I know I keep repeating myself, but it’s just so surreal at this point. How can Doc and the team – and so many writers and fans too – not get it at this point? We have a superb player truly coming into his own and we don’t even give him the ball. Instead we keep trying to force our offense through and to Pierce.
It’s so blazingly stupid. How can a team win if it takes the ball out of the hands of its best player? It freaking cannot!!
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Heads should roll, starting at the top. FIRE DA.
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Can you believe, at this point, that they wanted to trade Rondo? Rondo is freaking amazing, but unfortunately, he is playing for a team and a fandom that has no freaking clue. All night long tonight the Cs tried to jam the offense through Pierce. I could not believe what I was seeing. For nearly the entire fourth quarter, Rondo was relegated to standing outside the three point line. It’s so far beyond stupid at this point. If you have a player as good and potentially great as Rondo is, and you can’t even see that he is your best player and that you should hand him the freaking ball and play your game off his game, then by god you won’t win many games, and you don’t deserve to.
It’s sheer madness at this point. Can you imagine if the 1980 Celtics had told Bird “ok, Rook, you are the fourth or fifth guy on this team, and you will stay that way until Cowens, Tiny and Cornbread retire. Got that, kid? And don’t give us any attitude, kid.”
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This game was lost by Doc. When the Cs were playing their best he decided to yank RA after he hit a 3 and then bench MP after he hit two 3s and reinserted PP who took 5 of the next 7 or so shots and basically shot the team out of all the momentum they had built and to a loss. So PP shoots 3-12 and gets 1 f’in rebound in 36 mins while letting his man (Deng) light him up for 21 pts and 16 rebs. So besides Doc costing the Cs tonight PP also had a major role but the fact is he should not have even been in the game once the Cs got back into it. Doc KILLED all the momentum and great work that the group (RR/RA/KG/MP/BB) had worked so hard for.
So here is my solution for fixing the Cs. Trade PP. Yep, there I said it and will say it again even if he regains his form. He is the only player with any real substantial value other than RR and the team needs to be built around RR. As much as I love PP and his contributions over the years it is quite apparent his head is not in the game and he will not hustle or rebound/block out whatsoever. before everyone else figures this out DA should start talking to teams seeking an experienced player to help get a younger team into and through the playoffs. we could get a good player and possibly a great draft pick for PP. KG and RA are focused on winning and can come off the bench as the team transitions but PP is like sludge and molasses and that is killing the offense as mentioned. the EXPN announcers made excuses that he is not in shape yet but you don’t have to be in shape to block out, defend properly (gets beat every single possession) and not take rally killing step-back jump-shots with no jump and no chance to go in…all followed up with zero effort to rebound his miss!!! So besides the lack of rebounding (-13 in the first half and giving up 11 offensive rebs) and Doc killing rallies I am advocating the trade of PP before his value becomes less than Perks had become (just for you… paul). So another lame loss with a nice effort wasted by the coach and executed by 5 PP shots off the rim. Can’t wait for the next game…that’s a lie. Props to RR/RA/MP as they showed a lot of heart and effort. And I’m with Sarah, the refs sucked!!! Go Cs…
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Fine James. You call OKC and tell them we’ll make a deal for Perk. What do you think your chances of getting him are? You could offer them Garnett, JO, Stiemsma and Wilcox all for Perkins and they wouldn’t give him up for that.
And you damn well know that what I’m saying is true, pal.0
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Read my other post re your ‘trade’ comments and why would I ever want Perk back??? I don’t even want him on OKC, which is the other team I follow. Get over Perk, he’s a has been and not worth talking about ever again. Go Cs…
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Trading Pierce is a bad idea James. As you yourself said, the problem is Doc. Doc continues to coddle the egos of the Big Three, while continuing to hammer the kids, including Rondo. A good coach would recognize that Rondo is clearly, head and shoulders, the best player on the team, and potentially not only as good as Rose, but better. Rondo is MVP material. Ray ray gets it, I think, and Garnett is starting to, but Pierce is still acting like an egomaniacal idjit. But see, it’s up to Doc to do something about that. What does Doc do? He takes the ball out of Rajon’s hands and runs the offense all night through Pierce. This is freaking perverse. I don’t call Rivers Smarm Master Doc for nothing. His greatest talent is for drawing up plays, and his second greatest talent is for sucking up to Danny, and his third greatest talent is for pandering to the Big Three. And if I’m wrong, I say prove me wrong, Doc. Hand this team over to Rondo, and if Paul won’t go along with it, then you deal with that.
I’ll be Rondo looks at Rose’s situation in Chicago and wishes he had that. Instead he has to deal with a situation where he is basically relegated to standing around outside the three point circle the entire fourth quarter. I’ll bet the kid is truly pissed off at this point.
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Yes, RR is the leader and if you watched closely he and PP got into it during the game. Doc just got his ‘tenure’, a 5-year deal so he isn’t leaving unfortunately but PP should be traded. He has value and is still young enough that some team might make a trade favorable to the Cs whereby we don’t have to rebuild as much in the future. PP’s skills are deteriorating faster than KG and RA so I say get what you can as I am tired of him standing outside the 3-line and not playing defense or rebounding as he should. go Cs…
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