All’s well? Boston Celtics edge Washington Wizards 100-94
What did Boston do to anger Kevin Seraphin so deeply?
Overall, it’s about the win; that’s what we did.
-Rajon Rondo
Rondo is right. Kind of. Nothing negative about tonight will matter in the grand scheme of things. Nobody was injured. Nobody flipped out on anybody else. Nothing notably BAD came out of the Celtics’ win tonight, and it WAS a win. So all’s well that ends well, right?
Ehhhhh.
You know how we all had jokes on jokes for the Lakers after they won their first game of the year by blowing out the Pistons? The Celtics just improved their record to 2-2 on the season so YAY .500 but on the other hand, both wins were against a team considerably crappier than the Pistons and both wins could have been decided on the final possession of regulation. So there’s some gloomy food for your thought.
I should say at the outset that I’m going to attack this game again, tomorrow if possible. So if you would like a more rational, statistically based breakdown, you might want to hold off for that one. But if you are here to reminisce about yet another win-that-didn’t-feel-like-a-win, I’ve got you covered.
Negativity isn’t always good, so let me start with some positive bullet points:
- Chris Wilcox was fantastic during the 0.00006 seconds he was on the court. He scored six quick points and converted a fast break opportunity on a pass from Rondo. Everything about his short stint was encouraging, but perhaps nothing was as encouraging as seeing him run the floor with Rondo. Imagine having a big man who isn’t 60 feet behind Rondo when he takes off on a fast break. Wilcox could be that guy.
- Jason Terry FINALLY broke through somewhat. He still looks a little bit uncomfortable within the offense, but he created his own opportunities tonight, dropping 16 points on 7-15 shooting.
- Umm. Boston won?
- Pierce/Rondo/Garnett played well, especially early. But I’ll get to this again in my negatives section, I’m afraid.
Aaand that about wraps up the positives. So now the not-positives:
- Aww, hell, let’s just pick up where we left off. It’s great that Rondo/Pierce/Garnett played well together, but it’s also to be expected. They’ve been together since the Brooklyn team was the Dodgers. Or at least since 2008, but either way, they’ve had plenty of time to adapt. Except…they aren’t really adapting. One of my theories is that after the Celtics run out to an early lead, utilizing those three players, other teams make an adjustment that shuts the Celtics down, and they don’t really have an adaptive answer. I’m going to go back and look at the tape as soon as it’s up on Synergy to make sure, but I’ll bet you a big ol’ internet high-five I’m right.
- In our nightly “Jeff Green didn’t do much
” feature, Jeff Green didn’t do much. In 23 minutes off the bench, he took just six shots (for six points), attempted no free throws and grabbed just two rebounds. So he continues to aggressively dominate, obvs. - Overtime forced Paul Pierce to play over 40 minutes tonight. Garnett would have had a very comfortable game if Boston could have avoided five extra minutes, but even so, worse things have happened than his 35 minutes.
- One Celtic who IS glad overtime happened is Brandon Bass. Sure, it’s great that Bass scored five consecutive points and helped put the game away (“BRANDON, I COULD KISS YOU ON YOUR MOUTH RIGHT NOW, ” I blurted out after Bass’ leaning layup. I was sitting directly next to my fiancée). But before his big OT period, Bass was an unproductive 2-7 from the field. Again, all’s well that ends well (kind of), but some of those heroics late in the fourth would have been nice for those of us working under a deadline.
- Boston won the first and third quarters by a combined 17 points. And this game STILL went into overtime.
- In the fourth quarter, that magical time when Boston’s defense USUALLY seems to clamp down, the C’s got torched for 30 points. Let me just point out (again) that it was by the Wizards, as well. Yikes.
There’s plenty more to get into, but I won’t quite yet. I have a suspicion that most of you are feeling as mehhh about this win as I am, so let’s save the rationality for the morning, shall we?
Follow Tom on Twitter: @Tom_NBA.
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Celtics Blog | Tom Westerholm | November 8, 2012
Yeah sure, all’s well…
In 2 games vs Wash. we have allowed their bench to score 110 pts and get 51 rebs. Pathetic. JG 22 mins = 2 rebs. CW 4 mins =2 rebs. Sit JG and play CW. I could go on, like RR and CL with 6 total FTs in 2 games vs Wash, but it would make me sicker than I am. Go Cs…please play harder than just showing
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On one hand the Cs showed ‘grit and balls’. That’s important. Wilcox was big. If that guy comes through, it could mean a lot to us. An awful lot. He could be the key. We need a big behind KG who has athleticism and length, and – on a less obvious level – he and Rondo seem to have some real spark together. He seemed to wake up Rondo when he came into the game. And Rondo is the key to this team. KG can’t carry this team. What he can do is totally amazing, but he can’t carry this team all year, or even in one game. Rondo has given us the one thing that people demanded the most; consistency. In fact, his consistency this season has been fairly astounding; a double double in every game so far. Apparently, no one else in the league has done this. He has raised his scoring average, improved his jump shooting, and is leading the league in assists per game again.
Weird. He’s done all that and yet, somehow, we are left feeling that we aren’t getting the full Rondo. So one is left thinking, is this the prologue? Because if it is, the symphony must be freaking amazing. But could they get to it? But there’s also a nagging fear; is this it? Because if we finally have found out what Rondo’s ceiling is, and this is it, well, it’s actually disappointing, even though it’s pretty darn good.
But there seems to be something not contained in the numbers that isn’t happening. Look at Kidd’s influence in NYC. Inspiring a team. This team doesn’t seem terribly inspired so far.
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the big misunderstanding this team has been through is Jeff Green CANT’T play power forward. Sure, he can guard JBJ down there when Miami goes small, but if JG is a tweener, he’s much closer to a 3, as tall, range-less and strong a SF can be. I really hope Wilcox sees more playing time, since Doc doesn’t seem to like having Darko around. (One day someone will tell me the meaning of having a 15-deep roster and playing just about always the same 8/9 -some pretty old- players)
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We’ll be fine – some of the negatives can be fixed easily. For example, Bass had mostly good looks during regulation, he just didn’t make them this time. That’ll change.
The one thing I’m not happy about is a frontcourt combination of Green/Bass or Sullinger/Bass. It just doesn’t work. I’m much happier with Wilcox replacing KG when KG needs his rest, and then bring Bass or Sullinger (whoever starts on the bench) to be on the court with Wilcox. And Green to give Pierce a rest. That will work much better.
Other than that, I’m pretty happy with Terry – he’s already figuring it out. Lee and Green look lost, but hopefully Green will settle down once Doc defines his role a bit more, and Lee – well, we won’t need him as much when Bradley is back! (also we have Barbosa who looks great when he runs)
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