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8 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 [...]

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8 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
9 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 [...]

93
10 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
13 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
13 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 [...]

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Big Baby’s (Sorta) Big Night, Plus Other Random Thoughts

Dwight Howard went off last night. But there was one Celtic he had a small bit of trouble with (via ESPN Stats and Information):

That’s some good work off the bench for Big Baby, whose ability to at least credibly defend Howard allows Kendrick Perkins and Rasheed Wallace to foul Howard when necessary without worrying about fouling out or going to the bench.

Davis, earning $3 million this season and again next season, looks like a very sensible signing. And I’m sorry, but all of you who were suggesting Shelden Williams should play over Davis, well, you were wrong all along.

Some other random thoughts that have been going through my head:

• What would have happened had Paul Pierce missed that buzzer-beater in Game 3 against Miami and the C’s had gone on to lose that game? How differently do these playoffs unfold?

• Can you imagine if the C’s had pulled off the Caron Butler/Carlos Boozer double they apparently contemplated, at least according to Sports Illustrated?

• If I’m reading Rajon Rondo’s shot chart at NBA.com right, that 17-foot jumper he made to put the C’s up 93-90 last night was just the second jumper he’s made from that part of the court all playoffs:

Worth noting: Rondo is 28-of-74 (38 percent) in the playoffs on shots outside that area right around the rim, according to this chart. Some of his runners/floaters must have been close enough to sneak into that at-the-rim zone on NBA.com’s hot spot charts, right?

• Given how well this team has played so far in the post-season, it’s reasonable to ask: Had KG not gotten injured last season, would we be talking about Boston inching closer to its third straight NBA Finals appearance?

Such hypotheticals are ultimately a waste of time and brain power, I realize.

But we’ve got three days until Game 3 in Boston, so now’s the time to think about them.

• Finally, Ben Q. Rock at Orlando Pinstriped Post dips into the Synergy Sports data to see how various Boston big men do defending post-ups and on pick-and-rolls. There are many, many interesting nuggets in Rock’s analysis, including this one on Sheed:

Oddly, Howard might be best served posting [Wallace] up. Wallace allows 0.885 points per possession in these situations and yields points 48.3% of the time. But with the post-up comes the risk. Wallace’s quick hands and savvy enable him to poke entry passes or sloppy dribbles away, and he knows how to pull the chair out from under his man to force a travel every now and again. Those skills explain why 19.5% of post-ups against him result in a turnover.

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