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3 hours ago

5 Questions With Josh McRoberts

I talked to Los Angeles back up big man Josh McRoberts prior to the Celtics-Lakers game Thursday night at the Garden.  Here is what the former Duke Blue Devil, who is averaging 2.9 points and 3.8 rebounds in his first year in LA, had to say. 1. How have you guys been able to deal [...]

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5 hours ago

5-on-5: Predicting All-Star Reserves

I was a panelist on the 5-on-5 today at ESPN, choosing reserves for the Eastern and Western Conference all-star teams. I took two Celtics, as noted below. Hit the link to read the rest. 1. Which East and West point guards should be chosen as All-Star reserves? Ryan DeGama, CelticsHub: East: Deron Williams, Rajon Rondo [...]

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1 day ago

Greg Stiemsma’s Contract To Become Fully Guaranteed

The C’s gave their 26-year-old rookie a vote of confidence before Tuesday’s game. By not waiving the seven-footer, Stiemsma’s contract will become fully guaranteed on Friday, allowing the shot blocker to breath a little bit and perhaps unpack some boxes for good in Beantown. Here’s Chris Forsberg of ESPN Boston with some reaction from Stiemsma and [...]

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2 days ago

5 Questions With Kemba Walker

I had a chance to talk with Bobcats rookie Kemba Walker prior to the Celtics game against Charlotte on Tuesday night.  Here is what the UConn star, who is averaging 12.3 points, 4 rebounds, and 3.6 assists per game had to say. 1. How much communication have you had with Michael Jordan this year? Walker: [...]

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3 days ago

I Am Awesome!

Yes. This is a “pat myself on the back” post because a) I’m a jackass and b) I predicted something correctly. Back on January 8th, I predicted that the next ten games will tell us everything we need to know about this Celtics’ team. If they struggled, it was time to blow it up. If [...]

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3 days ago

Pierce Wins Eastern Conference Player Of Week

One day before he’s scheduled to pass Larry Bird for second on the Celtics’ all-time scoring list, Paul Pierce won the Eastern Conference Player of the Week award. Pierce averaged 22 points, 6.3 assists and 5.8 rebounds in four Boston wins, playing point forward in Rajon Rondo’s absence. Pierce is only 9 points behind Bird [...]

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Commentary: Tale of two halves

AP

Can't decide which expression is more satisfying: Noah's or Allen's? (AP)

They must have walked into the locker room at halftime with a unanimous consensus: This can’t happen much longer.

Kevin Garnett bowed his head, helplessly crouched over in a designer suit. Rajon Rondo and Leon Powe hobbled in shortly afterward. Kendrick Perkins and Glen Davis may have just as well done the same, both crippled and plagued with foul troubles that left Boston’s back court essentially non-existent.

AP

AP

The Bulls ran up to a 12-0 run as the final minutes concluded in the second quarter. Sloppy turnovers at an unorthodox tempo left fans wondering why the Garden’s parquet floor looked still iced from the Bruins’ own Playoff run.

Ray Allen seemed just as ice cold. Suddenly they fell into slippery slope of facing a 0-2 deficit en route to AnywhereButTheGarden, which is never good news for the Celtics.

The halftime exchange probably went something like this:

Dr. James Andrews is not walking through that door,” Doc Rivers voicelessly yelled in his signature raspy 4-year-old-with-tonsillitis voice. “We can either let the Bruins and Sox take over this town once again, fall into irrelevancy for six months and wonder how many miles PP34 has left in the tank for the 2009-10 season.

“Or we can start setting picks for Ray, slow down the tempo and suck up our injuries. Nobody feels bad for the defending champions. I won’t be surprised if we get booed heading back out there after how we ended the first half on such a barrage of carelessness.”

“And Scal, what’s with the bright red sweater?” Rivers added. “You look like Ronald McDonald at a high school prom. Especially with the Bulls in town, no less?”

They chuckled. A ginger man who probably sits one concussion away from legitimate color blindness did his part to raise a few eyebrows.

And after 72 minutes of action against a highly capable young group of Bulls, the Celtics woke up to an eye-opening situation of their own:

  • Tyrus Thomas, the monster block artist about to hit Boston right now
  • Joakim Noah, the lanky big man about to hit Perkins in the face right now
  • Derrick Rose, the guy who dropped 36 points, about to burn Rondo right now
  • Ben Gordon, the ticking time bomb about to hit everyone right about now

So how did the Celtics fend off Chicago’s Fierce Four?

  • Second-chance buckets: Credit due in the paint to Perkins’ persistent dominance (both physically and, well, more physically). He grabbed 7 of Boston’s 21 offensive boards, giving the Celtics a dominant second-chance points advantage.
  • Rajon Rondo: Simply brilliant. Player of the Game through my eyes, with the steal that he turned into a not-so-easy breakaway layup. Rondo regulated the offense that looked stagnate in the first half.
  • Big Baby: The only player to trump Rondo’s +17 margin with a +20 of his own. He finished with 26 points, with monumental screens for none other than:
  • And of course, the guy that The Greatest Bar will toast to tonight, Ray Allen: Woke up in the second half to absolutely rain down on the Bulls, specifically The Shot that came within inches of Noah’s freakish wing span. The Gordon-Allen matchup brought flashback’s of Pierce-LeBron in Game 7 last season
There’s no knowing whether the Bulls can execute on all cylinders like they did tonight. Not that tonight’s performance drained the tank on their young legs, but it felt like Chicago just overachieved.
With that said, the bitterness towards Stephon Marbury and Mikki Moore aren’t necessary.
For tonight, at least.

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