Major hat tip to Chris Forsberg at ESPNBoston.com, who has a piece on the history between Paul Pierce on Ron Artest. I forgotten Artest had done this to Pierce back when Artest played for Indiana. Make sure to watch the full clip, which ends with Artest’s apology to Pierce, in song form.
Archive for May, 2010
Watch Ron Artest Pull Paul Pierce’s Shorts Down
May 31st, 2010Injury Updates on Sheed, Rondo, Baby, & Daniels
May 31st, 2010A quick report on the C’s first official practice in Waltham, since they defeated the Magic Monday night. Only Paul Pierce and Doc Rivers addressed the mob of media (including myself), before the team was to depart for LA at 3pm this afternoon on the team charter. There was a lot of talk from both The Truth and Doc about the rivalry between the C’s and Lakers, as well as the the differences between now and 2008 for both sides, among other things.
First things first though, let’s get to the injury report from Doc. Let’s get the bad news out of the way first.
-Marquis Daniels is out indefinitely with a concussion. According to Rivers, “”Marquis is out, I don’t know if it’s the whole Finals, but right now he’s out.”
The opening in the active roster should again bode well for all you Brian Scalabrine fans out there (myself included), who will be the one to dress until Daniels can go. Don’t kid yourself though people about Scal. That guy didn’t see the floor in the 2008 finals run, and this team is better than that. Still it would be fun to see him come in and knock down a garbage time three before this series is over. Daniels injury really doesn’t hurt Boston here
-Rasheed Wallace is still hurting and is the team’s main concern right now on the injury front, besides Daniels. Here’s Doc again:
”Rasheed is not right yet, he did the skeleton offense stuff, but other than that, we didn’t allow any contact. So if we have a concern right now with anybody, Wallace would be the only one.”
The rest should help Sheed, but a cross-country plane trip probably won’t deal anything to help a cranky back. He gutted it out well in game 6 and will almost assuredly look better on Thursday, but this sounds like something we are going to have to monitor all series long.
Further updates on Rajon Rondo, Glen Davis and Tony Allen, after the jump » More: Injury Updates on Sheed, Rondo, Baby, & Daniels
Memorial Day Notebook: ’08 Comparisons, Artest Factor, Kobe on Rondo
May 31st, 2010Some brief links/commentary before I head out to celebrate Memorial Day:
• Comparisons with 2008 are inevitable, and I will have one here tomorrow, and Boston fans will inevitably counter the notion that this version of the Lakers is superior to the ’08 version (they are, and it’s obvious) by pointing out that Rajon Rondo makes this Celtics team a different animal. Here’s Shaun Powell at NBA.com on Rondo’s maturity:
The big change with Rondo? He’s no longer a legend in his own mind. Sounds crazy, but Rondo actually thought he was a star before he officially became one, according to people within the organization. It led to some friction with the Big Three and the higher-ups, who grew weary of Rondo’s act. They paid their dues, he hadn’t.
There were times when the dominant voices on the club (Doc Rivers, KG, etc.) would say one thing and Rondo would do another, not to be defiant, but because he thought his way was better. And that often became an issue.
“Leadership is established by what you do on the court,” Ainge said. “It’s not what you say. It’s how you go about your job. Rondo’s had to learn that. He’s always been bright and looked at himself as one of the veterans. He’s had to learn how to be a listener.”
This narrative of a brazen young Rondo clashing with the wizened veterans has been floating around for 18 months now, and it usually appears, as it does here, in very general terms. » More: Memorial Day Notebook: ’08 Comparisons, Artest Factor, Kobe on Rondo
Finals Predictions
May 30th, 2010I’ll track the many, many Finals predictions here. When you notice one we don’t have, leave it someplace in the comments. Here are the much talked-about (by people who get fired up over these sorts of things) ESPN predictions:
So the number of ESPN experts picking Boston has jumped from zero against the Cavs to two against Orlando and now to four against the Lakers.
As we/you all see more predictions, I’ll add them here.
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Final Shot Selection Numbers Against Orlando And What They Tell Us Going Forward
May 30th, 2010Here is how the Magic’s shot selection numbers finished up for the Eastern Conference Finals as compared to their regular-season numbers. All stats are per game and found via the indispensable Hoopdata:
Boston series Regular Season
At rim 11.7-of-19.5 (59%) 15.1-of-24.1 (62.8%)
< 10 feet * 5.7-of-12 (47.2%) 3.9-of-8.3 (46.5%)
10-15 feet 2.5-of-5.8 (43%) 2.3-of-5.6 (41.4%)
16-23 feet 2.7-of-9.8 (27%) 5.1-of-12.6 (40%)
Threes 8.2-of-24.2 (34%) 10.3-of-27.3 (37.7%)
FTAs 29.5 26.5
So what happened?
» More: Final Shot Selection Numbers Against Orlando And What They Tell Us Going Forward
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