Celtics 86, Cavaliers 83: An ugly, terrible, lazy, gritty, kind of awesome win
That win didn’t conjure any images of unicorns, pots of gold or 85-degree days spent at the beach, but the Celtics pieced together three straight possessions of terrific pick-and-roll defense late to hold off Kyrie Irving and the Cleveland Cavaliers, 86-83. Just like so many other wins (and losses) this season, little came easy for the Celtics, like they were attempting to chop down a tree using a butter knife. But the C’s made defensive stands late to emerge with a road victory, confusing the league’s best rookie down the stretch on the way to ending their own five-game losing skid.
It wasn’t an A+ performance, but a C or C+ surely beats an L.
Plenty more to come later.
P.S. — Loved fouling Irving on the floor with 3.8 seconds left. Credit goes to Doc Rivers for making the decision, and to Rondo for making sure he fouled Irving before he released the shot.
P.P.S. — Anthony Parker got a pretty good look as time expired. But it missed and the Celtics earned a gutsy, gritty, somewhat disappointing (remember, those middle quarters were revolting) victory.
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Celtics Blog | Jay King | February 28, 2012
I like how we didn’t come out slow and uninspired. That’s what kept us out of games earlier this season. But I’m still kind of worried about the lack of inside scoring we had. We’re a jump shooting team yes, and a good one at that, but inside scoring is important too. Really happy to see RA getting some mojo finally. Pierce was aggressive as well, which is good. Bass was awesome on offense as well, and even got a few rebounds. Rondo got his assists which is excellent, but took a night off from scoring, which isn’t excellent. I think he thinks of his scoring game as a fail-safe when our other options go down. He shouldn’t think that way. He should try to maintain a 15-12 type of game. He can attack the basket as well as shoot now, so that shouldn’t be as hard as it has been in his career. But overall an ugly win against a physical team. Milwaukee should be a but easier, since they don’t have the top rookie in the world and all. And who else is increasingly optimistic about Wilcox??
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That’s where I disagree, Greg. You are absolutely right that Rondo’s lack of even trying to score hurt us badly, but I don’t think it’s his call. As far as I can tell, this is how Doc game plans it. Remember, every time Rondo has a big scoring game, we hear about how it’s not good for the team, about how he’s trying to do too much, that he has to get everyone else involved, etc.. It’s just gotten to be so routine now. Rondo almost always ends up the first quarter fourth or fifth in FGA. We can’t do it that way. We NEED to establish Rondo’s aggressive, attacking game early in every game. He should always be first, or second, or at least no lower than third in FGA by the end of the first quarter, and he should always have several FTA (meaning that he is attacking the basket).
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Rondo and Pierce were both just awful tonight. Interestingly, fans are harshing on Rondo bigtime, even though he did at least manage 11 assists. Pierce shot almost as badly as Rondo did, had one more TO, one less rebound, and didn’t have to cover the other team’s best player all night, but apparently fans want to blame everything that went wrong tonight on Rondo, as usual. I’m not excusing Rondo’s horrible game, but you know, when a guy plays a horrible game and still has 11 assists, he might actually be a pretty good player? Fans are just fixated on hating Rondo.
Thank goodness, though, that Garnett, Allen and Bradley came through for us tonight.
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Ehh I mean Doc just doesn’t want this to be a Rondo-scores-and-everyone-not-named-Rondo-get-out -of-his-way team. I can see how Rondo rationing his aggressiveness can be extremely beneficial to this team. And I don’t know about being 3rd in FGA Paul. Maybe fourth or fifth behind PP, RA, KG, Bass and maybe Pietrus depending on if his shots are falling. Either way his 11 assists was huge. And if Bradley can keep shooting like he did tonight, then he can elevate his game to a whole new level. He’d become more of an all around player. I personally would like to see Wilcox capitalize on his rebounding abilities. He’s still athletic enough and he plays hard. I’m liking this guy more each game.
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Wow. You totally don’t get it do you? You just reallyyyyyy reallllly realllly want Rondo to stay in his little tiny hole, no matter what.
Listen, Rondo is our best player. We NEED HIM ATTACKING THE BASKET AND TAKING SHOTS. What the hell do you not understand about our best player actually playing like our best player?
How many points do you think Kyrie would score if he was constantly preached at that his job was to set everyone else up and maybe be the fourth, fifth, sixth or even seventh option, depending on who is hot, as you say he should be?
WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?
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Of course, I’m not saying that Rondo is the scorer that Irving is, but he IS a scorer, and his scoring is key to us right now, because he is our best player at breaking down the defense and getting into the paint. This is patently obvious. WE NEED HIM SCORING.
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If Kyrie did that, then cleveland wouldn’t be the shitty team that it is. We will never win if Rondo scores 35 a game but only 6 assists. I know that game was euphoric and arousing for you, but WE LOST. Assisting is a true point guards main duty, or have you never seen a winning team before?
Did we win in 08 with him as our main scorer? Oh okay. Did the Mavs win with Jason Kidd scoring the most? Ohhh okay. Did Cleveland win against the spurs with Lebron scoring the most?
Just making sure guy…
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Certainly not impressed by anything tonight except CW’s 11 rebs. Rebounding is killing the Celtics ability to win games comfortably. We lost the rebounding but again gave up 11 offensive rebs. We cannot keep giving teams that many 2nd shots. PP sucked with a measly 2 rebs in 35 mins. He had 1 in each half. Get off the 3-line PP and f’in get involved in the game. If your shot isn’t falling then rebound. I also don’t like that RA only had 1 reb in his 35 mins. So two starters play 70 mins and get 3 rebs. that will not win games and will never get us past the first round of the playoffs. EVER! And as far as RR is concerned I am with paul that he needs to be more aggressive and get to the FT line. When he doesn’t then the team struggles. A 3-pt win over Cleveland isn’t anything this team should be happy about. Miami and Chicago are so much better than Cleveland. Lastly, get rid of KD and please Doc give his minutes to EM. Go Cs…
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Not sure how much a SG and a SF are gonna effect the game with rebounds…I know you are aroused by rebounding James but really? RA has 22 points are your harping about rebounds? That’s what we have PF’s and C’s for. That’s why we have 5 people out there, so each person can have a different role…
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Greg. Listen. Try to understand. We are not a big team, so we have to be an energy team. That means, among other things, that the guards and the sf have to help with the rebounding.
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I do believe that the SG & SF are part of the 5 people “out there” Greg. Come-on, you can’t be happy with their rebounding. You think giving up 11 offensive rebs a game is healthy for our winning games? That’s 11 extra shots. If RA and PP could average 5 rebs each then that would have been +8 added to our -2 deficit tonight and therefore we win the boards and likely by more than 3 lousy points. I want EVERYONE rebounding. That’s what Scoot Brooks was telling his OKC team last wk vs the Cs…remember? He was imploring “everyone hit the boards”; and they were up 15 pts. Rebounding isn’t about talent, but about effort and it is the single most important thing any player can bring to the team as it affects so much of the flow of the game. We are not going to do anything in the playoffs being 30th in the league in rebounding. We’re that bad because RA and PP are not carrying the load like they need to be. Defense is about more than guarding someone and rebounding is key to winning games. I’d rather RA get 15 pts and have 8 rebs every night because then we wouldn’t be having 5 game losing streaks and having to struggle to beat weak teams like Cleveland. Go Cs…
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Well I don’t know if RA will ever average 5 rebounds but I do think that the C’s are just trying to finish the regular season. I believe they’re gonna go all out in the playoffs. The rebounding or, “effort” as you put it, can and will only increase as the season goes on. Our defense is actually good but you’re right, offensive rebounds are killing us right now. I think as the season goes on it’ll be fixed.
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They can’t afford to coast or play out the season and then turn it on in the playoffs because they dug themselves too big a hole this season by thinking all they had to do was show up. I wish Doc would get pissed, but I don’t think that’s in his DNA. We need to hustle more, box out and rebound better and really, really cut down on the TOs. This team needs to get it together fast and start beating everyone by dbl digits otherwise I fear their bad habits will show up in the playoffs and their light-switch turning days may just be over. Go Cs…
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How many times has Doc said that Rondo needs to be more aggressive, Rondo needs to get to the FT line, etc? And how many times is a big scoring night from Rondo followed by declarations that he needs to get everyone involved, needs to get Pierce involved, needs to ‘get in the flow of the offense’, and all the rest of the coded ways of saying “get back in your hole YA PUNK!”
Yes, we need Rondo playing aggressively and scoring. Also, when Rondo attacks the basket, the other guys need to be spotting up and slashing to give him kick back and drop down options.
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I know we argue, guys, but I have to say, I appreciate the fact that you are mostly a lot more sane than fans on other sites. Of course, the Rondo Haters are out in force, crapping all over Rondo. I’m mad at Rondo too tonight. I think he totally lost his composure in the second and third quarters, but to his credit, he got it back in the fourth and calmed down. In fact, I notice that none of the haters have brought up the fact that he was the one who actually made the steal that won us the game. Check out the film. Garnett seems to get a hand on the ball, but it’s Rondo who tips it away from its intended target and back to Garnett, who then throws the pass to Rondo.
That’s a good way to redeem yourself, rondo. It doesn’t show up in the stat sheet, but that steal won us the game.
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I think you assume that just because some people hate rondo, that everyone hates rondo. I too am appreciative of this site’s sense of rational thought, and I think for the most part people are sensible. I just don’t think that the whole world wants to see Rondo out his head in the sand like you think. And yes, that steal should be credited to rondo.
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