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9 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
9 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
10 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 [...]

94
11 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
14 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
14 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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Game 55/82: Knicks (19-36) @ C’s (35-19)

Posted by on Feb 23, 2010 3 comments

(AP Photo/Bill Kostroun)

New York at Boston
7:30 P.M. EST.
TD Garden
Local TV/Radio: CSN/WEEI

Offensive Efficiency:

Boston: 106.8 points/100 possessions (13th)

Knicks: 106.6 points/100 possessions (15th)

Defensive Efficiency:

Boston: 101.5 points allowed/100 possessions (1st)

Knicks: 109.7 points allowed/100 possessions (24th)

Probable NYK starters:

Dario Gallinari, Wilson Chandler, David Lee, Sergio Rodriguez, Tracy McGrady?

Injury Report

Knicks: PROBABLE: Tracy McGrady (knee) Celtics: DOUBTFUL: Paul Pierce (thumb) (ed note: I’d bet the house and the farm he doesn’t play tonight)

Thumbnail: Eddie House returns to Beantown in what will be, without a doubt, one of the biggest ovations this year from the Garden crowd, when he takes the floor. Former C’s Bill Walker and J.R. Giddens also will be back and oh yeah that Nate Robinson guy is scheduled to make his debut as well to exact revenge against his former team and the coach that he was constantly at odds with in Mike D’Antoni.

WHAT THE KNICKS DO WELL:

This is a tough category to define for the New Yorkers given how much change in personnel they’ve had over the past week and the fact, they just don’t do much well as it is, not lately anyway (1-9 in past 10 games) All that said, let’s try to focus on a couple pluses here:

* Defend The 3 Ball

For a poor defensive team, this is the one thing they do quite well on that end on the floor, limiting their opponents to just 33.8 percent shooting from downtown this year, good for 5th in the league. Why this is, I’m not too sure but their strong perimeter defense definitely does not translate well to the interior.

*Take Care of the Ball

10th in the league in turnover percentage…..not exactly world beaters, but a heck of a lot better than your Boston Celtics. New personnel though in the form of White Chocolate and Tracy McGrady could change this however.

WHAT THE KNICKS DO POORLY:

Lots to pick from here, so let’s just make a nice laundry list of items to choose from:

Shooting

Doesn’t matter from where it is on the floor (45%) or from deep (33.7%) they don’t do it well

*Rebounding

Rank in the bottom 5 in both offensive and defensive rebounding percentage. That will happen when your 2nd best rebounder is Al Harrington at 5.6/game. David Lee is terrific, but gets no help down low

Defending the interior

As noted above, when your 2nd best big man rebounder is Al Harrington, it likely indicates a bit of a problem in the paint defending big men. David Lee is no world beater inside either on the defensive side of things.

PLAYER/S WHO MAKE ME WORRY:

* David Lee

His offensive rebounding and efficient movement without the ball have always given the C’s some trouble. As long as the C’s keep him to just 20-10, they will be fine, but Perk and company need to pay extra close attention to him on the boards tonight, given their rebounding problems this year.

* Eddie House

We could get a 25 point effort or a 4/16 effort we saw last night against Milwaukee. I’m banking on something in between but how do you not fear Eddie getting into the zone on a night like this? Luckily, we have Nate Robinson to counter him.

PLAYER/S WHO DO NOT MAKE ME WORRY:

* Tracy McGrady

This will be his 3rd game in four nights, and he is also playing on a bad knee. The latest reports have him as probable, but I expect Tony Allen to enjoy his assignment in place of Paul Pierce to hound the former Rocket all night, all over the floor.

WHAT WE WANT TO SEE FROM THE C’s TONIGHT:

* Pound The Interior

As I said before, the Knicks front line right now is extremely thin. In fact their depth chart at center consists of David Lee, Jonathan Bender (yes, the former Pacer) and Al Harrington. KG seems to have gotten his groove back offensively these last couple games as has Perk. With Pierce out, the time is right to get the ball down low to the big boys early and often this evening. Strong interior play will open up the outside game as well as potentially put the Knicks biggest threat against the C’s (David Lee) in foul trouble.

* Focus

After an encouraging western road swing against tough Western Conference opponents, the C’s return home to face the lowly Knicks with the distraction of a homecoming and a debut of Nate Robinson, to go along with the likely absence of Paul Pierce. On paper, the C’s should have no problem winning this game even without The Truth, but they will need to show the sense of urgency and focus, especially on the defensive end they exhibited out West. The Garden hasn’t been the best venue for Boston this year regarding that kind of effort, so tonight will be the start of a new era this season hopefully.

PREDICTION: This one stays tight early on, but the Celtics pull away easily in the 2nd half. Eddie puts up 12 points, Nate makes a nice debut with 14 and a nice open court dunk and we get a Bill Walker sighting as well during crunch time. Everyone goes home happy. Celtics 109, Knicks 91

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