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12 hours 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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1 day 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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2 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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2 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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3 days ago

Garnett’s Wondrous 3-point Rant

Via ESPN Boston’s Chris Forsberg, who knows a great, playful rant when he hears one, here’s Kevin Garnett discussing his not-so-newfound aptitude for three-point shooting after the C’s took down the Grizzlies. “When I walk around the streets, y’all stop acting like y’all shocked that I can shoot 3’s. Everybody in Boston, everybody in the [...]

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3 days ago

5 Questions With O.J. Mayo

I talked with Memphis guard O.J. Mayo prior to the Celtics-Grizzlies, Super Bowl Sunday game at the Garden.  Here is what the 4th year man out of USC, who is averaging 12.5 points, 3.1 rebounds, and 2 assists per game had to say. 1. You started every game your first two years in the league, [...]

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Grist for Conspiracy Theorists

I thought you’d all get a kick out of a study on (alleged) referee bias in favor good teams the good folks at Statsheet.com did for the Wall Street Journal. The WSJ’s David Biderman has the results today:

On average, Top 25 teams draw about two more foul calls per game than their opponents, according to Robbie Allen, an information technology author who runs the Web site StatSheet.com. After scanning more than 4,000 boxscores from the past five years, he concludes that 82% percent of teams that finished the season in the Top 25 drew more fouls per game than their opponents, and last year those teams got 9% more whistles in their favor. Connecticut led the way, drawing 8.3 extra fouls per game.

Alert the conspiracy theorists! But Biderman talks us down from the ledge right away:

But before you accuse the officials of a grand conspiracy to suppress the underdogs, consider that a team like UConn got more foul calls because, well, it was really good.

I bet someone has performed a similar study (or many of them) on NBA refs and whether they favor good teams, though most of the attention seems to be on whether the refs favor a) star players; and b) marquee teams in the playoffs.

What do you guys think?

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