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5 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 [...]

15
5 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
6 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 [...]

92
7 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
10 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
10 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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A night off? Thunder @ Celtics Preview

Oklahoma City at Boston
7:00pm CSN

Celtics: 55-19 (29-6 at home); Off. Efficiency 110.4 (4th); Def. Efficiency 101.6 (1st)

Thunder: 20-52 (6-29 on road); Off. Efficiency 103.2 (28th); Def. Efficiency 109.2 (20th)

Season Series: 2nd of 2 meetings. Boston leads 1-0
November 5th: BOS 96 OKC 83

Injury Report:
Celtics: OUT: Leon Powe (knee), Tony Allen (thumb), Brian Scalabrine (concussions) Kevin Garnett (knee) QUESTIONABLE: Rajon Rondo (ankle)

Thunder: OUT: Desmond Mason (knee)

The Thunder, accompanied by a day of rain ironically have arrived in town to face off with the C’s this evening. This Oklahoma City team is an interesting glimpse into what might have been for this Celtics franchise with Kevin Durant and Jeff Green leading the way for young squad that is loaded with potential.

Despite the Thunder’s shoddy record that leaves them in the cellar of the Western Conference, they have been playing better lately, going 7-7 in their last 14 games under interim coach Scott Brooks. A couple quality wins over San Antonio and Dallas have come during this stretch so this is a team that is on its way to putting it together.

To be honest, they remind me a lot of Memphis since they have a lot of extremely young talent that need some seasoning and time playing together. I would argue the Thunder’s future is brighter than the Grizzlies simply because of Kevin Durant. Marc Spears had a great piece on the 2nd year star who has really taken a great step forward once P.J. Carlesimo was fired. He ranks 4th in the league in scoring with 25.8 points/game and is shooting over 42 percent from 3 point range.

Those numbers are scary for the 6’9” forward especially considering the fact he is only 20 years old. Combine that with a strong young nucleas in Jeff Green, Russell Westbrook, Desmond Mason, and Nenad Kristic, plus 15 million dollars in cap room makes one believe this team should be a player in the Western Conference sooner rather than later.

For the time being however The Thunder have a long way to go. They have trouble putting the ball in the hoop, coming in dead last in the league in field goal efficiency. They also are the one team in the league that turn the ball over more than the Celtics. Actually when I consider that fact, we could be in for an extremely sloppy game here tonight at the Garden.

The Thunder’s defense is lacking as well, ranking in the bottom third of the league in defensive efficiency and other corresponding defensive categories. The Thunder, as a team really don’t do much well so unless Kevin Durant goes MJ on us, I don’t see a depleted Celtics team having much trouble against a young team that plays incredibly poor (6-29) on the road.

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