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9 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 [...]

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9 days ago

Final Grade: Avery Bradley (C+)

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9
10 days ago

Danny Ainge Expects Doc Rivers & Kevin Garnett To Return, Unsure About Paul Pierce

A long, challenging offseason awaits Danny Ainge this summer. Before he dives in head first, he joined Salk and Holley on WEEI-FM 93.7 to discuss the multitude of decisions facing him this offseason, as well as the progress of Rajon Rondo in his rehab from ACL surgery. A few of the notable highlights from the interview. Ainge [...]

11
10 days ago

Suns Hire Away Celtics’ Assistant GM Ryan McDonough

In one way or another, there will be change this offseason in Boston. That process started in the past couple days, with the first piece moving out coming as a name most C’s fans might not be familiar with. Yet, it was Celtics’ assistant general manager Ryan McDonough, one of Danny Ainge’s top lieutenants, who [...]

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11 days ago

Doc Rivers Finishes 13th in Coach of the Year Voting

It was a tough season for the Boston Celtics, and that includes for head coach Doc Rivers. The long-time coach battled to find the right fit for a lot of new pieces that were both underperforming and/or failed to pick up his schemes on both ends of the floor. Naturally, an unfortunate plethora of injuries [...]

23
12 days ago

Overconfident Answers To Offseason Questions (Part 1)

It seems like every offseason since 2010 we’ve been through this: a myriad of questions and concerns about the Celtics’ roster that usually involve the possibility of the core of the team being dismantled. As we head into the summer of 2013, we’ve got a whole batch of questions, many of which will be familiar.  [...]

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Game 39/82: Dallas (26-14) @ C’s (27-11)

Dallas at Boston
8 p.m. EST
TD Garden
Local TV/Radio: CSN/WEEI

Opposing viewpoint: The Two Man Game

Offensive Efficiency:

Boston: 108.9 points/100 possessions (10th)

Dallas: 107.5 points/100 possessions (13th)

Defensive Efficiency:

Boston: 101.5 points allowed/100 possessions (3rd)

Dallas: 105.2 points allowed/100 possessions (11th)

Probable Dallas Starters:

Jason Kidd, Josh Howard, Dirk Nowitzki, Shawn Marion, Erick Dampier

Injury Report

Dallas: QUESTIONABLE: Tim Thomas, Eduardo Najera

Boston: OUT: Marquis Daniels, Kevin Garnett

WHAT THE MAVS DO WELL:

Take Care of the Ball

The Mavericks are a fairly run of the mill offensive team when you look at their overall shooting numbers but one thing they take care of the little things quite well when they have the ball and that includes not turning over the ball. They rank 3rd in the league in turnover percentage with no one in their rotation averaging more than 2 a game. A strong contingent of guards with Jason Kidd, J.J Barea, and Jason Terry help a lot in this area.

Keeping Opponents off the line

Dallas has been deceptively strong on the defensive end this year and one of the main reasons why is their ability to keep their opponents off the charity stripe. Ranking 2nd in the league in fewest Free Throws allowed per FG attempt for their opponent. Given the C’s success in this department offensively (6th in the league) will be very interesting to see what side wins that battle this evening.

WHAT THE MAVS DO POORLY

Offensive Rebounding

The Mavs aren’t extremely poor in this department but do rank in the bottom 3rd of the league in Offensive Rebound percentage. Outside of Erick Dampier and Drew Gooden, they don’t have a lot of guys that like to get their hands dirty down low on a regular basis, which is a relief for the C’s tonight as they will once again be shorthanded without KG with reports having Rasheed Wallace being ready to return.

PLAYERS WHO MAKES ME WORRY

Dirk

No need to get into this too much but thank god Sheed is back so we don’t have to see Scal foul out in 20 minutes trying to guard him. Sheed will have to bring his A defensive game tonight in order to help contain the 7 footer.

PLAYERS WHO DO NOT MAKE ME WORRY

Drew Gooden

His numbers have actually been fairly solid this year (9 points and 9 boards a contest in last 10 games) but I don’t trust him or his facial hair to be much of a factor tonight.

WHAT WE WANT TO SEE FROM THE C’S TONIGHT

Energy

Coming off of a nice 3 day respite, the C’s should have regained their legs after their brutal stretch of 5 games in 7 nights. With the return of Rasheed, they will have the manpower to match up with a deep Dallas team that don’t shoot particularly well from the field (15th in league) or deep (14th). The C’s have had their struggles at home this year so it will be nice to see them come out aggressive tonight and jump on the Mavs early, much like they did last year too when they cruised to a 124-100 win over Dallas at the Garden.

PREDICTION

Three games in the row here that I’ve been off in my predictions. With that in mind, we are going with the reverse jinx again tonight since I like the C’s. The good guys are coming off of 3 day of rest, while the Mavs are going off of a back to back loss yesterday afternoon in Toronto. So on that note:

Mavs 97, C’s 92

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