Next man up: Boston Celtics breeze by Orlando Magic 97-84
With tonight’s victory over the Orlando Magic the Celtics have won three in a row and clawed their way back to .500. Forgive me if I’m not all sunshine and duck boats, but I don’t think wins over the Sacramento Kings and the Orlando Magic (without Glen Davis and Aaron Afflalo!) tell us anything about where this team stands after the loss of Rajon Rondo (and now Jared Sullinger). The win over the Heat was certainly nice, but the Celtics needed that win far more than the Heat did (also I don’t think the Heat got up for that game) and the Heat have beaten the Celtics when it’s counted in the playoffs two years in a row. There are certainly players that have come alive after Rondo’s injury (Jason Terry comes to mind), but I think it’ll be a bit before we actually see this team play in a game that really helps us gauge where the Celtics are at. For now I’m going to enjoy the grit, grind, hustle, no-quit attitude of this Celtics team and try not to think too hard about it. Lets get to the recap:
- Jeff Green led the team in scoring with 17 points. Doc Rivers said Green would have to pick up some of the rebounding slack, which didn’t really happen because Jeff Green didn’t suddenly become a different basketball player (he had four rebounds in the game). Green rounded out his stat-line with four assists, a steal, and three blocks.
- Paul Pierce was not terrible and unlike Jeff Green he DID pick up the rebounding slack, finishing with 14 points, 11 rebounds, and seven assists in 29 minutes of play. The Captain has now had double digit rebounds three games in a row.
- Jason Terry and Leandro Barbosa continued their fantastic post Rondo play (both succeeding for different reasons), combining for 24 points on 10-19 shooting.
- Chris Wilcox played five minutes to Jason Collins’ 11, which while insignificant in the grand scheme of things still fills me with rage.
- Fab Melo played less then both of them, only getting on the court for the final two minutes of the game. That wasn’t unexpected though, and Fab Melo had a hilarious attempt at a rebound which reminded me exactly why I love Fab Melo so much.
- The Celtics as a team had 56 points in the paint and 30 assists on 42 made field goals while shooting 50%. That’s not going to happen every game, but those are some pretty nice numbers, especially for a team playing without a real point guard.
The Celtics continue to play good team basketball but it’s not exactly coming against the stiffest competition. In fact, I should be worried; the Celtics of old would never get up to play a team like Orlando. The C’s next game will come against the Clippers (without Chris Paul), followed by Toronto (meh), and Lakers (who are a mess), so we might not get to see this team face solid competition until next Sunday’s tilt against Denver. Until then, enjoy the Celtics playing hard and hanging tough in the face of adversity.
Follow Jordan on Twitter: @OffensiveG
Related posts:
- Boston Celtics Blow Out Magic to Conclude Orlando Summer League; E’Twaun Moore, Kris Joseph Injured
- No Magic for Orlando; Boston wins Game 3
- Boston Celtics stick together, somehow win ‘character builder’ against Orlando Magic
- Glen Davis gets four year, $26 million contract from Orlando Magic, according to report
- Celtics 87, Magic 56: Boston defense revived, win against .500 team results (!)
Celtics Blog | Jordan Higgs | February 1, 2013
Doc listen stop saying PP needs to be our scorer hes rebounding and passing well and not throwing up 10 three pointer and 20 shots let PP play and continue to play this way
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they are fucking better without rondo!everybody needs to take rondos dick out of their mouth and think straight.how many wins will it be before sports writers stop saying its bad teams we beat etc?they were losing to teams like that by 15 on a regular basis and beating them by 3 once in awhile.
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They are not better without Rondo.There playing better but you gotta understand in a big game or in the playoffs is where they are gonna miss Rondo there playing well now but with a tough schedule coming up we will see if you are still saying this in 2 weeks
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the offensive efficiency was better when he was on the bench all season by 2 points per 100 posessions believe it or not.these last games its probably up 5 over that.its like trying to tell a kid wrestling is fake.nobody wants to believe it.yeah he goes off when hes inspired n the playoffs and on national tv but they will get a better seed without him,i can tellby watching that the way they are playing right now is equal to any time in the kg era.in 2 weeks report back here with you i told you sos lol
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In the long run you will see the difference Rondo makes yes the ball right now is moving better but guys are playing inspired basketball something we were not doing before but in a close game you need a star to take over a game.Rondo is the pest point guard in basketball an all star starter if you are gonna blame someone blame Doc because now JT and LB have more freedom thats not Rondos fault
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So no one wants to ask why these guys played like crap until Rondo was gone? Oh yeah, it’s all Rondo’s fault.
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RR is not the problem. Doc is and just because we luck out vs the Heat (Chalmers, Haslem & Battier – 4 pts total) and then beat two crap teams doesn’t mean we’ve turned any corner. You’re delusional if you think that. Yes, we’re playing better and partly because we’re rebounding better (see PP of late – and why wasn’t he or the team doing this the first 40 games???). There’s also an urgency to these guys as being 20-23 and losing games they should have won easily FINALLY got to them. We have a very tough month with several games on the road. Let’s see if we’re better than 7-6 come Feb. 25th before saying RR sucks and is the problem. I don’t believe it for a second. Go Cs…
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