Despite recent reports that the Boston Celtics attempted sign-and-trade for Houston Rockets shooting guard Courtney Lee was falling apart, A. Sherrod Blakely of CSN tweets that the deal is still expected to be completed shortly. Via Blakely:

#CelticsTalk: #Celtics trade for Courtney Lee still expected to go through. #Rockets will waive E'Twaun Moore, making him a free agent.

July 19, 2012 6:41 pm via Twitter for BlackBerry®ReplyRetweetFavorite

@SherrodbCSN

A. Sherrod Blakely

According to Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe, JaJuan Johnson will request a trade from the Rockets.

Details of the Boston Celtics sign-and-trade for Courtney Lee have emerged, and, according to Steve Bulpett of The Boston Herald, the Celtics will part with E’Twaun Moore and Sean Williams, in addition to JaJuan Johnson.

Celtics will send E'Twaun Moore, JaJuan Johnson, Sean Williams and 2nd rd pick in Courtney Lee trade. Those 3 won't play today.

July 19, 2012 5:24 pm via Twitter for AndroidReplyRetweetFavorite

@SteveBHoop

Steve Bulpett

According to ShamSports, Johnson’s contract (just over $1 million) combined with the non-guaranteed deals of Moore ($762,195) and Williams ($915,852) will free up roughly $2.75 million in cap space for the first year of Lee’s deal. The details of Lee’s contract have not been made public yet, but John Hollinger of ESPN has an estimate of what the deal may look like:

Lee's deal would pay a max of $4.25M in first year and $18.15M overall if its for four years.

July 19, 2012 5:44 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@johnhollinger

John Hollinger

The Boston Celtics cruised to a 94-73 victory over the Orlando Magic to conclude their stay in the Orlando Pro Summer League Friday morning. With Jared Sullinger given the day off to rest, Dionte Christmas exploded for 19 points in the first half, while E’Twaun Moore impressed once again, chipping in 18 points on 6-of-10 shooting.

According to A. Sherrod Blakely, however, Moore and rookie Kris Joseph suffered hip flexor injuries during the game. Joseph started, but did not play in the final three quarters of the game. He played only eight minutes, missing all three of his shots, including an airball and an ugly turnover, in his first pedestrian effort of the summer. Via Blakely:

#CelticsTalk: #Celtics E. Moore and K. Joseph have hip flexor injuries. Neither deemed serious enough for either to miss action in Vegas.

July 13, 2012 12:06 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@SherrodbCSN

A. Sherrod Blakely

The Celtics will now travel to Las Vegas for the NBA Summer League, where they open play Monday against the Atlanta Hawks. Here are some observations from Friday’s game:

• Fab Melo recorded 10 rebounds in just 23 minutes of play. In his final season at Syracuse, he reached double figures in rebounds ONCE. Melo has exceeded my meager expectations with his play thus far, though it’s clear he still has a long way to go to become a viable NBA player. In the first half, Melo attempted an 18-footer  which nearly killed a baby in the first row (or so it seemed). In the fourth quarter, Melo posted up along the baseline and, after a spin move, shot the ball off the side of the backboard. Melo did keep after the play and end up scoring on a nice move into the middle of the lane, but both plays showed how raw he is offensively.
• E’Twaun Moore continued his strong campaign for a spot on the Celtics Opening Day roster. Danny Ainge has until the end of summer league to decide whether or not to guarantee the second year of Moore’s rookie deal. What has been most impressive about Moore is his patience, his calm on the offensive end. Moore is still learning how to play the point guard position, yet he always plays at his own pace, never rushes to his spots on the floor. For instance, in the first half, Moore attacked the defense in transition on a 3-on-2 fast break, driving into the defense just deep enough so they collapsed on him as he passed out to Christmas for a wide open three-pointer. Moore’s pace of play– not his skill level, let me be clear– reminds me of Sam Cassell. He is confident in his outside shooting and works to get to his hot spots.
• Aside from a thunderous put-back dunk late in the contest, Sean Williams didn’t do much to convince Ainge to guarantee HIS roster spot. Williams played 21 minutes, but recorded just six points and four rebounds in an underwhelming performance. Williams’ athleticism is undeniable, but the more I watch him play, the more it seems it’s his only redeeming attribute.

There’s really nothing I can say about Rajon Rondo’s effort that would do him justice. Rondo played 53 minutes, scored 44 points (16-24 FG’s), dished out 10 assists and grabbed eight rebounds. Just to add to the degree of difficult, he also guarded Dwayne Wade for a good portion of the second half and matched up with LeBron James on the final play of regulation.

The competitive nature of these Big Three Era Boston Celtics needs to be shouted from the top of a mountain  somewhere, but I don’t have a mountain, I have a blog. These guys simply never give in, never back down. The Celtics are clearly overmatched athletically, but they refuse to surrender. Say what you will about Garnett/Pierce/Allen/Rondo, but you can never question their desire.

I’ve got to give credit to the Miami Heat, as well. They took Boston’s best shots and kept coming forward with a never-ending onslaught of Wade and James. If this is the way the Big Three ends, and I think it is ( though I’ve learned not count out these guys), then Celtics fans have nothing to complain about.

Just compare how the Los Angeles Lakers championship Era came to a close these past two seasons to that of the Boston Celtics. The difference?

Celtic Pride.

Not yet, Doc Rivers says.

The Boston Celtics training staff floated the idea of resting Ray Allen, but Allen naturally said,”Hell No” and the coach stuck by his player. It’s an admirable display of loyalty, but, unfortunately, playing Allen major minutes in Game 2 could put the Celtics in an 0-2 hole even Tarzan couldn’t climb out of.

For all the talk regarding Allen’s 3-point percentage in the playoffs (27%) and free throw shooting (60%), his defense is hurting Boston the most. The Celtics allowed Miami to record a 53.5 eFG percentage in Game 1, compared to their season average of 45-percent, which was second best in the NBA. And the Heat put up those numbers while missing 20 of their mostly-uncontested 25 three-pointers.

Boston surrendered 19 layups, many of which were hardly contested at all. Aside from fatigue, perhaps, the two biggest reasons for the atypical defense were 1) Allen’s porous man-to-man defense and 2) Rivers’ poor decision to match Kevin Garnett and Greg Stiemsma with Heat shooters such as Shane Battier and Mike Miller. The problem with the latter was two-fold; because Garnett/Stiemsma were guarding shooters, they were much farther out from the basket and unable to protect the rim as effectively. Both Boston bigs were also caught over-helping on penetration and leaving their men open, which forced the rest of the team into emergency rotations. But those problems won’t occur again in Game 2. Rivers said he will make an adjustment and stop putting Garnett (and, I assume, Stiemsma) on perimeter-oriented players again, so let’s focus on the role Allen played in Miami’s layup lines.

Even in the best of health, Allen has never been an above-average defender — though he does seem to do a good job on Kobe Bryant, for whatever reason. He tends to lose sight of the ball or his man far too often in the half court and has a tendency for laziness that shows itself most of all when he gets screened. Granted, Thibodeau and Rivers were able to hide Allen’s deficiencies within the team defensive concept, and Allen did improve for a few seasons. But due to age, fatigue, injuries, or whatever other reasons, Allen has reverted to his pre-Boston defense this season. It wasn’t talked about much before the injury amplified things, but it’s something I’ve noticed intermittently throughout the season.

Early during Game 1, Miami was keenly aware of Allen’s defensive limitations. The Heat’s second hoop was a Wade layup as a result of Allen jogging back in transition, while their third hoop came via a backdoor screen for Wade which Allen stuck to like super glue. It was obvious Miami sought to exploit Allen’s defense when they ran two consecutive pick-and-roll plays for Mike Miller, of all people. Naturally, Miller canned open jumpers on both plays as the result of Allen’s unwillingness or inability to fight through the screen. As the game wore on, Miami continued to attack Allen defensively with various screens, both on-ball and off. Ray simply didn’t seem to have the energy to withstand the physical play or the lateral ankle movements.

As I watched each Heat field goal attempt again on Synergy Sports, it became painfully clear to me that Allen does not belong in the starting lineup for Game 2.

As much as I love Allen and respect him as a professional and a competitor, the Celtics are at a grave disadvantage with him on the floor defensively. If I were Doc, I’d consider bringing Allen off the bench for the threat of his outside shooting only when LeBron James or Dwayne Wade are taking a rest. Allen has become too much of a liability on defense to protect against that most potent duo, especially when considering his historically poor shooting. Michael Pietrus has been shooting just as poorly, and not exactly playing stellar defense, yet he’d still be a major defensive upgrade from Allen. I’d also like to see Sasha Pavlovic and/or Marquis Daniels to get some of Allen’s playing time If Allen started to see a bigger basket, perhaps I’d see if I could get away with some extended playing time, but only if Miami wasn’t exploiting him the way they did in Game 1.

It’s an agonizing decision for Rivers, sure. I can’t imagine it’s easy to bench a sure-fire Hall of Famer and the NBA’ best shooter, but it’s a decision he may have to make for the good of the team.