Leftover Thoughts from Dirty Jersey

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Zach Lowe covered the bases quite well of this debacle in his bullets from last night, so I will just elaborate with a few more thoughts on the nights’ happenings.

—First off, I am a self admitted member of the small but loyal “Brian Scalabrine can be a useful player on this team” contingent. With that said, the guy really was pivotal in this contest for the C’s, particularly in the 4th quarter. Scal is like the anti Rasheed Wallace when it comes to 3′s, patiently waiting for his opportunity through his first 15 minutes of play before hitting the team’s only trifecta of the night 35 seconds into the final frame.

The shot gave the C’s the lead and helped catapult their 4th quarter comeback. Scal followed with another long 2 a minute later in the frame, before handing over the scoring heavy lifting to a re-energized Ray Allen over the final 10 minutes. Number 44 also contributed 3 steals in his 20 minutes of play along with a +11 on the floor. Scal is limited in a lot of things he can do on the floor, but a savvy high IQ veteran player that knows his role and picks his spots well was exactly what the C’s needed on a dismal night like this. He was one of the few bright spots out of the C’s effort.

—Was anyone else surprised not to see Lester Hudson at all in this one? With Eddie House going cold recently (2 of 14 in last 3 games), and no one else showing the capability to hit a jumper in the 1st half, I thought Lester might give some the shorthanded C’s some spark off the pine. I don’t blame Doc for not giving him any run, he just wanted to get out of dodge with the W tonight, but given how capable Lester has looked in his limited time out there so far, I thought a night like this when the team is running on fumes might be a team when Hudson could help.

—Like Zach, I was curious to know why Rondo sat out the entire 4th quarter. Was it punishment for his lazy/foolish play in the 3rd or just simply Doc trying to spread the floor with Eddie and other shooters? The Globe recap seems to indicate it was more strategy than anything else out of Doc based on his quotes which you can read below in Zach’s notebook post. I’m guessing it’s nothing but given Rondo was the only energetic player on offense through 3 quarters, still an interesting play by Doc, that ends up paying off.

—Brook Lopez will be an NBA All Star this year. There I said it. It will be fun to see what he can do with some decent talent surronding him.

—Give Lawrence Frank credit, he still has this Nets team playing hard despite their shortcomings. Stuck with primarily a 7 man rotation, it came down to execution in the 4th quarter. The Celtics had the personnel to do it, the Nets didn’t.

—The three days off is clearly desperately needed by this C’s team. I think moreso than the rest, the C’s need to work as Doc mentioned on their defense. Things have gotten sloppy these last few games on that end of the floor and there is a lot there that Doc, Tom and company can try to clean up.

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