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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 [...]

9
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Anything Seems Possible!!!!!!

Cavaliers home record last season: 39-2

Cavaliers home record this season: 0-1

Today was all bad news or business news. Big Baby, staring ahead at a promising season, broke a bone in his hand during a stupid fight over something stupid his (probably drunk) friend said about his girlfriend. The rest of the C’s news concerned the unpleasant financial reality that may hover Rajon Rondo all season long, even if it is very unlikely he signs anywhere else. 

But then the C’s put on those bright white uniforms, laced up the shoes and took it to the Cavs in Cleveland, and everything feels better. Doesn’t it? It won’t feel like this all season long. We’ll have losing streaks and nagging injuries, Rondo’s jumper will be inconsistent, Tony Allen will be infuriating and Paul Pierce and Ray Allen will play too many minutes (38 and 42 tonight, respectively, with a game looming tomorrow). 

But right now? We’re 1-0. KG looked good. Good enough that the team ran the majority of their late-game offense in part through him, mostly via screen/rolls with Pierce on the left side of the floor. The play achieved devastating results—good looks for KG in the post, open foul-line jumpers for Pierce and a couple of good looks from deep for Sheed when his man drifted down to help on Truth. 

Other quick thoughts before Brian Robb gives you his detailed recap:

• Perk is going to take that baseline J this year, apparently. He was 2-of-5 tonight, but one of those misses was halfway down and the shot generally looked smooth. He’s lighter and quicker, and yet his defense on Shaq was strong. His inside-out passes were crisp. Get ready for a nice year from Perk.

• There were spans of this game where Rondo was the best player on the floor. Period. He looked confident and completely in control with the ball. Ten assists to just two turnovers and a slew of big deflections, takeaways and offensive boards or near-offensive boards. Spectacular. 

• Shaq was decent but far from dominant. 

• Daniels and Sheed will fit well here. Sheed looks a bit slow moving around on defense, but he’ll (hopefully) work the kinks out as the season goes on. Daniels provides a slashing dimension the team just didn’t have on the second unit last season. 

• Early in the game, David Thorpe said during our mega-ESPN chat that KG looked as if he were moving at about 70 percent of his peak agility. I thought KG looked better as the game went along. 

That’s it for now. More from Brian later.

Welcome back, NBA.

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