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8 days ago

Painful Reminders (Part I): The Celtics Drafted JaJuan Johnson Instead of Jimmy Butler

On June 23rd, 2011, Brian Robb and I stood around a high top bar table in Tommy Doyle’s in Kendall Square.  Before us lay one of the biggest mounds of buffalo chicken wings I had ever endeavor to make disappear.  These 25 cent flappers- one of the few indulgences afforded to the participants of our [...]

19
8 days ago

Chris Wilcox: 2012-13 Final Grade

There are a number of contextually-appropriate ways to craft this post. One would be to forgo words entirely, and represent Chris Wilcox’s entire season with a series of videos. That would involve one part of this: For every eight parts of this: Note the headline on that second clip. Someone was so amused/enraged by Wilcox’s [...]

12
9 days ago

Rajon Rondo’s 2012-13 Final Grade

Here’s a sweeping general statement involving super specific statistics that may or may not mean anything: In the 1423 minutes Rajon Rondo played this season, the Boston Celtics were outscored by 1.3 points per 100 possessions. When he sat (including all contests after he tore his ACL), Boston was better than their opponents by 1.8 [...]

93
10 days ago

Avery Bradley Elected to NBA All-Defense Second Team

Avery Bradley has been a standout defender for the past couple seasons…in the regular season anyway. Now he has a trophy to prove it. The NBA announced this afternoon that the third-year guard has been elected by coaches around the league to the second-team all-NBA defensive team for the first time in his career. Bradley [...]

13
13 days ago

Paul Pierce’s Contract: Dispelling The Myths and Stating The Facts

The first domino to fall this offseason is Paul Pierce’s contract. Until Danny Ainge figures out what he’s doing there, little else matters. As we wait for this decision, we also must face the rest of the offseason, which means it is also rumor season. With that time of year, comes plenty of information floating [...]

42
13 days ago

Final Grade: Avery Bradley (C+)

In his third year in the league, in which promising players often make brash leaps from benchwarmer to starter, from starter to star, Avery Bradley took a big step back. But his regression might be deceptive. When he returned to the Celtics’ lineup on January the 2nd after two in-season months recovering from offseason shoulder [...]

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Let’s get it on! Celtics @ Magic Preview

Boston at Orlando
8pm ESPN

Celtics: 54-18 (25-12 on the road); Off. Efficiency 110.5 (5th); Def. Efficiency 101.5 (1st)

Magic: 52-18 (27-7 at home); Off. Efficiency 110.0 (7th); Def. Efficiency 102.1(2nd)

Quick Notes On Tonight’s Showdown

  • KG will stick to his comeback routine by going 8 minutes in both the 1st and 3rd quarters, so we will once again be seeing a lot of Big Baby tonight. He had a very nice performance during the last time he made the trip to Orlando (16 points in 21 minutes) so I’m sure Doc is hoping he can contribute something similar again this evening.
  • Celtics lead the season series 2-1, so a win tonight for the C’s would give them an extra game in the standings as well as the tiebreaker, if the teams have matching records at the end of the regular season. Thus if the Celtics can pull out the victory tonight, it would go a long way for giving them some breathing room in the battle for the 2 seed during the final 10 games.
  • Despite the tiebreaker implications, this game will likely mean more to the Magic than to the Celtics. Orlando is still a team on a mission to gain respect in the Eastern Conference. Need proof? Here’s what Stan Van Gundy had to say when talking to the Orlando Sentinel earlier this afternoon.

“All I hear is that we’re soft and everything else or that we just win games by jacking up 3’s. Very few people have realized that we’ve won games at the defensive end of the floor. I think Dwight has been consistent defensively, I think Rashard has improved dramatically defensively and we have better options to go big.”

Talk like that makes tonight feel like a statement game for this Orlando team, so look them to bring the intensity from the opening tip against the Celts. Should be a good one to watch. For a more in-depth look at the improvement of this year’s Orlando team take a look at this expanded analysis from earlier today.

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