Celtics 115, Knicks 111: That was enjoyable, no?
I hope you had as much fun watching that game as I did.
More to come tomorrow. I moved near Boston this weekend so I still have a lot to do with the house, or else this recap would be far more epic.
P.S. — The Truth with some more late-game heroics.
P.P.S. — 18, 20 and 17 is outrageous.
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Celtics Blog | Jay King | March 4, 2012
trade rondo, he sucks
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That was huge. I almost cried at the end of regulation however, and then BANG baby. PP for 3. That was absolutely brilliant. Awesome game.
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You know who else came through in the clutch and pretty much willed us to the win. Yeah. That’s one more thing the haters may not be able to cry about anymore. What will they come up with though?
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WHEW! Rondo is amazing. Period. the only flaw in his game today was missing some layups off the glass that he would normally make (at least three that would have kept the game from going into OT). As happy as I am to get this win, I have to bitch about that one play in the fourth quarter with less than 2 minutes remaining — loose ball with 3 celtics right there and Lin ends up with it and scores a layup, cutting a 5 point lead to 3. had they grabbed that loose ball, the game probably never would’ve gone into OT. Pierce is a hero today; and yet I have to question Doc’s play calling once again. Down by one in the fourth, he calls a timeout with less than a minute to play. Why is it always Pierce dribbling the ball in isolation (which he almost lost and had to call timeout). They always do this, and Pierce often loses the ball or ends up forcing a bad shot, which is what happened on that possession. Then they had to foul, which put them in the position of needing a big 3 (thank you Pierce). The C’s are the better team, yet they always make it harder on themselves they have to. Even in OT, there were a couple of possessions that could have put the Knicks away, but they didn’t get a good shot off. But, at the end of the day, we know which team has the superior point guard, and the C’s look like contenders. Will someone tell Pietrus to knock down a wide open 3? he went 1-6 today and it’s becoming a trend. If he knocks down just one or two of those wide open misses, this game never would’ve gone to OT. And Garnett had a bad shooting day, which isn’t normal. So overall, I’m feeling good about the C’s right now. Wilcox made some great hustle plays, including the tip-in that was mistakenly called for interference. And Ray Ray finally appeared when it mattered. The C’s proved again that they only win by defense, that defense leads to offense. When they play their game, they can beat anyone.
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also on that lin play, he carried the ball(unless im not understanding the rule?) and im pretty sure he traveled, right? again i could just be maybe not fully understanding it….
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To Merry X-mas; you are either a Knicks or Heat or Bulls fan, or you did not watch the game today. To say Rondo sucks is like saying Jay Leno looks like Brad Pitt. Or some better analogy; I’ll leave the witty metaphors and similies to Jay
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chris i was joking, but i like ur analogy… even better i like that u called jay out on his metaphors and similies he is the king of those.
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Well this was a huge game for us. To go on a 4 game winning streak to start the second half of the season is just what the “Doc” ordered. We are contenders. Yes, I agree with the notion that there were a few blown plays, unnecessary turnovers, and bad fouls, but man, what a swag-booster. PP was outstanding today. Rondo looked and played like a man possessed. I mean really…what other guard has had 20 assists this season?!?! And 17 rebounds?! That’s absurdly good. With him playing that way, his scoring touch getting a lot better, and PP getting on the same page, we’re looking damn good. An extremely alarming stat though: NYK’s bench had 43 points, we only had 18 or 19 if I’m not mistaken. That can’t continue. Wilcox, Bass, Bradley, Pietrus NEED to get on the same page because the bench is what killed us last year. Our starters played their butts off in the first round and where exhausted before the 2nd round started. But overall an amazing game. Simply amazing. God, one can only get even more excited about the thought of this team PLUS Jeff Green next year.
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ever heard of free agency and off-season changes (ray allen and KG for starters…)
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Lin who?
RONDOOOOOOO!
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Rajon Rondo is the best PG in the league. Period.
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Now you want to kiss his a$$. Wow you Celtics fans are incredible (in a bad way!.) First you are really to hang him, then you cheer for him when he has a good game. U guys r so full of $h1t
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Awe somebody’s salty because the Linsanity is over. Poor baby.
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As big a win as this is, and as good as I feel, I still don’t think this proves the C’s are title contenders. Anyone can beat anyone on any given night in the NBA and while the Celtics showed their trademark grit and mental toughness to close bring it home in OT I think some of their core problems are not going away any time soon.
Offensively they’re still basically just a perimeter team and it’s disgusting how few buckets they get close to the rim. I don’t see them getting to the finals or winning a title with no paint game. Even their great defense can’t make up for that. Hoping every night that their perimeter game will be enough to beat the Heat/Bulls is just not realistic.
Rebounding is still a problem. If we had a reliable center that could rebound and get easy buckets I would agree that all this team needs is to make a push in the playoffs and they’d have a real chance to shock the league. But right now? No.
These are the realities as I see them:
1 – Rondo can be a beast and the perhaps the best all around facilitator/pg in the league on any given night (and that headband may have something to do with it). He’s like Lebron to me. He’s truly a special player, with an array of gifts that few players possess and his strengths far outshine his weaknesses. But you don’t build around him, you build with him in mind. He needs a gifted center to play with. If Dwight Howard slips into Free Agency he would have to be insane to not at least consider playing with Rondo. Absolutely insane.
2 – If ON this team is very dangerous but the lack of a real inside presence this year offsets that, and fatally I would argue. KG isn on the record saying that he will play C for this team but heavily prefers being a 4. You don’t say that unless you’re trying to say that you don’t really intend to play the 5 that much, or at least do 5-ish things. Would Perkins have fixed that problem? Not enough. Would we need Dwight to remedy that? Not necessarily. An old dog like Shaq, if he could stay healthy would’ve be enough as we saw in the first half of last year.
3 – The BIG 3 are still very valuable players. KG can still give you 18-10 every now and then and is still one of the best defenders in the league. He’s also more crucial to the Celtics defense than I think can be reasonably quantified. There is no better glue-guy in the NBA. The Celtics have two leaders: Pierce is the leader because he inspires the team to step up and win when they need to win. KG is the leader because he consistently sets a tone for playing team defense and being responsible for your role. He also embodies the loyalty and the Celtic pride that is the glue of the team.
4 – I don’t think anything can be done to put the Celtics where they need to be this year. Ray is the only piece I’d trade for anything less than a superstar. There’s really no opportunity to trade for a paint presence that wouldn’t hurt the team in some other way. I think that if healthy the C’s will lose in the second round in a hard fought 7 gamer and then fade gracefully into the night. At the most they’ll make enough noise to reach the Conference Finals and face a younger, more talented and athletic juggernaut that can’t be toppled. Rondo will be a warrior and will up his profile considerably and silence doubters. This will dispel all rumors of him being un-coachable and in the process possibly lure some big free agent that wants to play with the Rondo the Facilitator/triple-double machine, semi-ageless/clutch as hell Paul Pierce and thinks that Jeff Green could be another solid piece when/if he comes back.
So I’m resigned to the reality of this year and hope that we can turn this thing around enough to make a big splash in free agency next year. We’ll see what happens. Your move Dwight.
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With a good win, haters will come. Can you leave this site to people who know basketball? And bring your idiocracy elsewhere?
Wilcox and KG can rebound.
Being a perimeter team isn’t so bad when your the best jump shooting team in the league.
We have the best perimeter defense in the league
We have Rajon Rondo.
Why are you allowed to give opinions again?
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Wow. First of all, I’m no hater. I’m wearing Celtics shirt as I type this. I love this team.
Secondly… Idiocracy? Who are you and what the hell are you talking about? If I could block people in these comments you and Paul would be first on the list. You get way too personal.
Thirdly… they’re opinions. I called it “as I see it” because I’m not trying to say that I’m guaranteed to be correct. What I thought would happen is that I would post my opinions post-game and someone would agree or disagree in an intelligent manner. I read this blog every day and post very little until I have something to say. My argument is that we don’t rebound well enough. If you disagree let’s have a discussion.
Jay’s got a nice blog here with some interesting and intelligent commenters. So, please, at the very least try not to be a fucking prick.
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How about you watch all of our games to put things in perspective, instead of spouting things based on the one or two games you’ve seen this year? Wilcox is a more than capable big man, and along with KG, can rebound nicely. Not top 10 in the league, but enough to get wins. Or maybe you haven’t watched the games this year? Rebounding is about boxing out, and the C’s have started to do this since the all star break.
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Why would you assume to know how many games I’ve watched? Because I live in LA? I’ve seen almost every game this year. I’m not going to respond to you after this. I’ll keep my discussions for reasonable posters.
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You sound like yet another brainwashing victim who believes that youth wins championships. Miami is young, how did that work for them last year? Dumbass.
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Greg, I like your confidence in the team, and I believe the C’s could make it to the championship and possibily win it if they play at the very top of their game. That said, Brad in LA has some good points. We are short on size and that’s why the Lakers beat us two years ago. We’re getting killed on the boards, and we don’t have a go-to guy inside, which would free up the perimeter shooting a lot more (often the half court offense is stagnant b/c of this). Perkins wasn’t the God we made him out to be, but he was better than having no true center at all. Brad, agreed, we need a big man, a true center; he doesn’t have to be Howard, but oh my gosh that would be nice.
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Well I’ll agree on the big man issue, although I think you guys aren’t showing any confidence in Wilcox. He can score, rebound with the best of them, and he can run the floor with Rondo. Surely you guys have seen the games? If Oneal goes down for the season then we may need to cut some dead weight and maybe a pick to get a mediocre big man for our run this year.
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Merry Xmas, glad to hear you were joking. Now, if we can only hire Barry Bonds to be Steimsa’s personal trainer, we might have a bona fide center, once Steimsa gains 40 lbs of muscle (and a nasty attitude to go with it)
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ya he needs a little shot of barry bonds in the butthole.
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Oh god. Brad isn’t going to respond to me. What shall I do now…
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Wilt, Oscar and Rajon. Enough said. He is not getting traded people and he is the best Celtic player. More later as I need to read all the comments and write up my little counter euphoria post, as although it was a win and enjoyable at the end, we should have won by 10-15 pts. easy. Ergo, I’m concerned about the usual as RR will not be having games like that to save the Cs nor will PP get lucky 3s that if he had played defense four times in the last 2 mins that shot would not have been needed. Great game by RR and overall pretty decent effort but… Go Cs…
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P.S. I agree with BradinLA on about 80% of his comments and will address them in my next post. Greg…ease up please on Brad as he is very much a loyal follower and Celtic fan and as all, we are just expressing ‘opinions’…which at the end of the day mean not much. Go Cs…
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I disagreed with his assessment of our team. That’s it. It’s that kind of negative thinking that will prohibit this team from winning. They face it from the media 24/7…do they need it from fans too?
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Thanks, James. Looking forward to your thoughts on my thoughts. Btw, I accidentally clicked the thumbs down button on your comment. Sorry bout that.
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Sorry for the delay but here goes real quick. Nice win but should have won easily by 10-15 pts. Had big lead and gave up 7 pts in like 30 seconds as they softened up and got cocky as they do and of course it bit them on the ass. PP had a great offensive game but also had a terrible defensive game, especially in the last 2 mins where he let Melo score 3 times (two of which he was out of position and let him beat him for lay-ups – including the inbounds play). Getting to OT was lucky and everyone knows it as this team disintegrated in the last 14 minutes after getting the big lead. I agree mostly with Brad that we’re not a title contending team (yet, as the pieces are there but I question the team’s will) but could be very quickly if the team collectively chose to rebound and focus on getting that deficiency fixed ASAP. We have the talent and can operate with multiple centers if needed but the team will not go anywhere if last in rebounding (#30 folks) as they are. Yes, they are getting better and are actually cutting the offensive rebs given up way down (only 9 today) so maybe Doc finally said something. Even PP had 5 in the 1st QTR but only 2 the rest of the game – not good enough! RR was spectacular and the team played with more passion and focus than in recent weeks. But again, an easy win became a struggle and rightfully should have been a loss. Lastly, the focus on the perimeter shooting needs to change immediately as we are not getting to the line (free pts) anywhere near as much as we should be (none of the bench players shot even 1 FT today and KG & RA only had 2 FTs each). If the team rebounds better (everyone goes to the boards – RA 45 mins and 0 rebs and MP 24 mins w/2 rebs and CW 17 mins w/3 rebs is not good enough) then driving inside makes more sense as shots blocked or missed can be rebounded instead of just handed over with only RR in the paint (seen many times and way too much this year). So a good win, as it carries momentum, but still not the full hard-nosed effort for a full 48 mins that would have led to an easy win and would start to establish a game mind-set that this team can complete and win against the best teams they’ll face in the playoffs. Go Cs…
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