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5 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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7 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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2 days 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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How Big a Deal is Rafer Alston?

When Rafer Alston slapped Eddie House in the back of the head, Ben Q. Rock of Third Quarter Collapse said on the Twitter that an Alston suspension would mean that the Celtics would likely win Game 3 in Orlando. Does losing Alston make that much of a difference? 

Ben Q’s co-author Eddy Rivera, who kills it over at TQC ever day with stats analysis, ran the numbers and found that Alston and Anthony Johnson have been a wash offensively during the playoffs. 

In the regular season, Alston was a better distributor and turned the ball over less often than “AJ.” Johnson’s defensive numbers for the season look solid–the Magic gave up the same number of points per possession with AJ in the lineup as they did when he was on the bench. 

One interesting nugget: Eddy says that we could see Courtney Lee spend some time guarding Rajon Rondo tomorrow, since AJ has trouble guarding quick points. We’ve seen lots of teams guard Rajon with taller guys (Kobe, Jared Jeffries) who play a step or two off of Rajon, daring him to shoot the jumper. Something to watch tomorrow.

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