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13 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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8 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 [...]

3
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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9 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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12 days ago

Game 6 Time Set For Thursday Night

Boston will face off with the Hawks on Thursday night at 8pm at TD Garden. The broadcast can be seen on TNT or CSN locally. There was a risk that it would be a 6pm tip for Boston-Atlanta, if the Nuggets failed to extend the series last night against the Lakers. That would have created [...]

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A Reason to be Thankful: It’s not 1997

At halftime* last night, I flipped over to watch the last few minutes of the Wizards-Bobcats game to find the Wizards’ crew talking about how Washington hadn’t yet beaten a team in its own division (the Southeast); they were 0-14 (or something like that) before rallying to beat the Bobcats, 95-93. (If a “rally” can include two straight turnovers on inbounds passes in the last 1:30).

The network broadcasting the game put up a graphic showing the worst divisional records in NBA history. No team has ever gone through a full season without a division win. Three or four have managed just one, and none had a worse record than the 1996-97 Celtics’ 1-23 showing in what was then a seven-team Atlantic Division. (The other one-win teams were 1-15, reflecting the less division-heavy schedule teams play now). If you’re reading this site, I probably don’t have to remind you this was the M.L. Carr-coached team that inarguably tanked in an effort to get Tim Duncan.

That one win? It came against Philly in the 81st game of the season. Here’s the box score from the epic 119-113 conquest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Holy crap, that was a terrible team. Fun fact: Brett Szabo, Nate Driggers and Steve Hamer never played a game in the NBA again after the ’97 season, according to their Basketball Reference pages.

So, yeah. Last night’s loss was tough but it was nice to get a random reminder of the 1997 season, when I was in college in New Hampshire openly cheering for the team to lose and then talking myself into Chauncey Billups and Ron Mercer. “It’s not Duncan, but Ron Mercer should score 18 a game right away in the NBA with that mid-range jumper.” Yup.

 

*Is it possible it wasn’t halftime given that both were East Coast games? Maybe. Let’s just say I flipped over during some break in the C’s game.

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