Celtics 91, Magic 83: Oh, what a night
For two and a half quarters, the Celtics were trying to win the MLB home run derby using a wiffle ball bat. The Magic led by as many as 27. Boston’s deficit normally fluttered between 18 points and 21 points, or some other number that seemed impossible to recover from, on the road, without three starters, against one of the Eastern Conference’s top teams. The Celtics were dead. They were all but guaranteed to move to 7-10, after what would have been yet another loss to yet another winning team.
And then it happened. E’Twuan Moore hit a few threes. Paul Pierce’s All-Star form came rising from the Amway Center floor with steam coming off its head. Glen Davis fired jumpers that didn’t go anywhere near the center of the rim. Boston’s defense paced around the backyard, barking and snarling and turning every visitor away. The Magic suddenly seemed flustered. They stopped running their sets. Boston continued to attack the rim and find the open teammate. Orlando continued to settle for garbage.
The 27-point lead disappeared, or rather, the Celtics seized it and threw it in the dumpster. Moore hit his fourth three of the contest to actually give Boston the lead, and for the first time in many comeback threats this season, Boston completed the quest.
The C’s didn’t whittle away the lead. They chopped it all off with one swing of the ax. The Magic led by 20 one second. The next it was nine. Then a tie score. Then the Celtics were pulling away and Orlando was falling apart in a sea of technical fouls, Brandon Bass was shaking Pierce as if to say “look what we done did,” a still-amped Kevin Garnett was telling Craig Sager about the bar fight Boston had just won, Stan Van Gundy was likely wishing he still had a voice so he could scream at his team in the locker room, and Doc Rivers was pumping his fist, slapping people’s asses and telling anyone who would listen, “Yes sir, that’s how you win” on his way off the court.
One night — one half, really — does not necessarily mean the Celtics are back to being the Celtics, but for 18 or 19 glorious minutes, as Orlando’s ball of yarn began to unravel, as Garnett bounced around, Pierce marked the Amway Center his own, Moore became the latest Celtic to climb from the basement and make major contributions, and Boston deleted a 27-point lead despite missing three starters, two of them All-Stars, it felt like they were. They are not yet .500, they still have not beaten a single winning team not named “the Orlando Magic” — but if you close your eyes and listen to the sound of basketballs bouncing off the hardwood, it’s easy to believe the Celtics are regaining an identity, the scrappy old men who won’t lay down and close their eyes, no matter how many excuses whisper in their ear that it’s time to fall asleep.
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Celtics Blog | Jay King | January 27, 2012
This week was glorious. This week we looked like champions. This week looked and felt like not only a turning point, but the turning point.
But the rest of the season still depends on what happens when and if Rondo comes back. It’s just getting weirder and weirder the way Rajon and Paul cannot seem to get their games in sync. Our offense seems to run better when Pierce plays point guard/forward. That worked brilliantly in the last game Rondo played, and it’s worked brilliantly in the last three wins. Maybe that’s the way to go? In that case maybe Rondo becomes someone we can trade?
I guess the best way to go would be to find some way that both guys can handle the ball, both guys can run breaks, both guys can call sets, both guys can attack the basket, both guys can freelance, etc.. But so far in their careers, it seems like it always has to be one or the other, never both, and frankly, it almost always ends up being some kind of weird division of labor where Rondo brings the ball up, slowly, cuz the old guys are slow, and then dumps the ball into PP and stands around for the rest of the possession.
If we could just find a way to get these guys to get their games in sync consistently, we could be so powerful. But they are like two Big Dogs who both want the same bone, only Paul is the bigger dog, so he always ends up with the bone and Rajon always ends up sulking.
So trade Rondo. He just doesn’t fit. Both he and Paul need to run the offense and it seems they can’t both do it. They just can’t work that out. So trade Rondo.
Or for God’s sake, talk to each other and work this out, Paul and Rajon. Why not make the most of having two such brilliant leaders on one team?
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Come-on paul, that was hardly championship ball. Far from it. It was so bad in the first half that I decided not to watch the 2nd half and only tuned in mid Q4 to check the score to see the Cs down 76-72. So I was intrigued of course after watching as bad a Celtic performance of ‘not showing up’ and no effort whatsoever in the first half. PP sucked and was 0-5, with 1 reb in his first 19 mins and was taking fall-away jumpers and I was screaming at the TV for him to follow your f’in shot…more than once. Their performance was disgusting and it really looked like they could not care even being out there. So leave it to Doc to ‘panic’ (or rest his starters being down 27) and let Moore get some time (as I have been saying all year and for several years – use the young guys, Doc). In the first half 3 starters (MP/BB/PP) played 44 mins and had a grand total of 4 rebs with one offensive. Look at the rebounding numbers and the Cs gave up 16 offensive rebs or in other words gave the Magic 16 extra shots, which luckily for the Cs they were only shooting 38% because the Cs actually defend pretty good (except for the 3-line). The other glaring non-championship issue I have also was prevalent in the first half and that’s the Cs ongoing tendency to watch shots being taken and then they all stand still and then run back on defense. Where the hell is the offensive rebounding? Truthfully, it’s a fabulous comeback and hopefully they will now be ‘awake’ for all future games and come to play with the intensity they should having to comeback. Next time maybe they start playing that way and let PP shoot them out of leads instead of shooting them to deficits. If they do play with this energy, and Doc uses Moore and Bradley properly then maybe by March we can say this is a championship team but being 29th in rebounding and still under .500 says differently. Let’s see if they show up again tonight. If so, then maybe things are changing but if not then last night’s effort in the 2nd half proves nothing. Go Cs…
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trade rondo so pp can run the show for two years?? please lets find a better reason than that to trade rondo
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I don’t want to trade him. I don’t think we should. But if the two Dogs can’t learn to share the bone, what choice do we have?
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rondo always been a “pass-first” pg.
it takes an healthy pierce to benefit from such kind of player, so no surprise if the Cs struggled when rondo had no one to pass the ball to.
I disagree with Paul, because I don’t think our offense should go primarily through rondo (he’s kind of shy sometimes, he just disappears for entire quarters), but at the same time the big 3 can’t carry the burden by themselves any longer on a consistent basis, so an aggressive rondo makes our offense less predictable
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I agree that Rondo is a pass-first player, but I don’t think that means he can’t be a scorer. In fact, what I see is a player who can and must be a scorer as well. That’s just the next step. And it seems to me that, even with Pierce improving the way he has – a lot more than I thought he would – Rondo is still the guy who can make defenses react, who can break down defenses most effectively, and that in turn not only makes him a scorer, but also enhances the players around him if they look to give him more passing options.
I think that part of the reason Rondo disappears for large chunks of games or whole games is that his role in the offense is very confusing, and it’s only becoming more confusing as he starts to really enter his prime as a player.
Like I said, I think there are two Big Dogs on this team, at least on offense, Rondo and Pierce, and only one bone, and they really need to learn to chew on the bone together.
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What a game. Vote on today’s Gronk spike at http://www.wickedimproper.com
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I would not be looking at trading Rondo for the next 10 years for ANYONE. Good win Celtics!!!! THE FIRE STILL BURNS…
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Maybe this will put some pressure on Rondo to “bring it’ every night, instead of going into his lapses. Avery Bradley has proven he deserves playing time after setting the tone with his defense that can literally change the outcomes of games. Rondo may have had Mark Sanchez syndrome in being too relaxed as the franchise player. But I’d hate to trade him or anyone at this point. Give this team a chance to gel, please, Danny Ainge! Rondo and Pierce were great together in the playoffs two years ago. But Paul has some valid points; the C’s are often out of sync on offense.
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