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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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4 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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4 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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A Window Into A Veteran Team

Earlier this season, a few players on the Raptors were begging coach Jay Triano to show them film, so they could see the all of the mistakes they were making on defense and hold themselves accountable. Triano, for whatever reason, hesitated to have a group film session, and the call for him to exercise his authority turned into a mini-insurrection that verged into “this could cost the coach his job” territory.

Is it possible that group film study, NFL style, is not as big a part of NBA culture as some of us (myself included) think it is? It must vary from coach to coach, right? 

Whatever the case, my favorite tidbit from the Globe’s rightfully sunny recap of the C’s-Wolves beat down is this:

Celtics coach Doc Rivers said he also told Pierce, who scored only nine points in Friday night’s loss to the Sixers, to get back to his instincts instead of trying to figure out ways to get everyone involved. The team watched film after the loss — a rarity during the regular season — and Rivers put together a sequence of all the uncontested shots.

“There were a lot of them,” Rivers said. “It was good for them to see.”

It’s unclear from the context if Rivers was showing uncontested shots that Pierce passed up or uncontested shots the C’s defense yielded to Philly. Either way, the line that caught my eye was “a rarity during the regular season.”

I wonder if Doc has always minimized group film sessions, or if this is him tailoring his coaching to fit a veteran club that doesn’t need to be babied or chided in public. Doc himself is a film nut; he has mentioned before how he enjoys solo plane rides so that he can whip out some film and watch it alone for hours at a time. (Wait, that sounded bad. Sorry.)

In any case: A nice win that Brendan will analyze in-depth later. 

Enjoy it. We’ve got a short work week this week, and then the Orlando game on Christmas. 

Oh, savor this Tony Allen performance. Good for him. Bring that effort every night, and the C’s have a weapon we didn’t anticipate going into this season.

For all the dunks and the sterling +16, the most important line of TA’s box score: Zero turnovers.

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