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7 hours ago

Highlight: Rondo Leads The Break

I love this decision-making from Rajon Rondo. While leading the break, you can see him eyeballing Ray Allen, who runs the wing and spots up on the arc. The Sixers have a 1-2 disadvantage but are mostly concerned about Allen’s three balls, which allows Mickael Pietrus to make an unmolested baseline cut behind the defense. [...]

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21 hours ago

Celtics-Sixers Game 5 Tips off at 7pm

A note to all you local C’s fans out there that may be attending the game tonight at TD Garden. The game will start just after 7pm and will be broadcast nationally on TNT. However, unlike most TNT regular season games during the season, the tip will not come 15-20 minutes after the scheduled start [...]

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9 days ago

(Video) Rajon Rondo Continues To Dominate In Postgame Interview

Rajon Rondo is a tremendous player, but he tends to have a little bit of an issue scoring the ball late in games. I won’t go as far as saying he is scared, but he does pass up shots and defer to teammates in crunch-time….well a lot. Last night though may have been his coming [...]

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9 days ago

Video: Full Kevin Garnett Reaction After Game 1

Garnett followed up his season-best effort against Atlanta in Game 6 with a new season-high in points and another sensational double-double, as well 60 percent shooting (12-of-20) from the field. Over his past two contests, Garnett is averaging 28.5 points, 12.5 rebounds, two steals and four blocks a game. After the game, KG was candid [...]

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9 days ago

The Enemies List: Philadelphia, Part II

Before every playoff series this season, we’re doing some rundowns on the opposing roster for each team. Now that the Hawks have been dispensed with, we’re onto the Sixers. Here’s Part II. Players are listed in alphabetical order. Andre Iguodala: There are five guys in the league who have a claim on the title of [...]

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10 days ago

NBA: Hawks Should Have Had Free Throw on Last-Second Foul

Mike Fratello had it right: the NBA announced today that Al Horford should have been given a free throw on Marquis Daniels’s off-ball foul at the end of Thursday’s game. At the time, ref Eric Lewis ruled that Daniels’s foul had occurred after the throw-in, making him probably the only person in the arena who [...]

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Collateral Damage: Pierce’s Minutes

After last night’s overtime marathon, The Truth is now averaging a team-high 37.8 minutes per game, about two more minutes per game than last season and his highest total since ’05-06 (which, I realize, isn’t that long ago). 

Here are his minutes for the last 10 games:

45, 37, 47, 45, 45, 40, 32, 38, 38, 47.

I realize that Doc has little choice but to play him heavy minutes right now. But the injuries have gotten so bad that they are causing some collateral damage–forcing the C’s best-time crunch time scorer to play more minutes than he or anyone else would probably like him to be playing in regular season games against Miami. 

The two minute difference between last year and this year may not seem like much, and maybe it isn’t. It adds up to about 3.5 extra games over the course of a full season, and I have idea when an extra 100 or 200 minutes starts to make a difference to a 31-year-old star with more than 30,000 career minutes. Can’t help, though. Pierce played 38 minutes per game in the playoffs last season, so he’s matching that number so far in the current regular season.

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