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The Ticker
6 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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6 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
7 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 [...]

92
8 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
11 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
11 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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I Knew This Would Happen Sooner or Later…

Last year the Celtics and Magic had a fairly epic Eastern Conference Finals series lasting seven games in which the Magic eventually prevailed.  The kicker?  Neither Jameer Nelson nor Kevin Garnett suited up for a single game.  The news swirled around how big of an impact the Garnett injury was the Celtics while Nelson’s generally fell by the wayside.

Why? Because they are obviously incomparable.  Jameer Nelson, while a great player, was not Orlando’s best player like Kevin Garnett was for the Celtics.  If you were to interchange Nelson with Hedo Turkoglu or Dwight Howard, I would entertain a conversation on  the relative impact of their injuries.

Last year, after the Magic prevailed in seven games and given Stan Van Gundy’s proclivity to play the “No Respect” card, Van Gundy was appalled that no one gave the Magic any credit for beating the Celtics without Nelson- seriously, this guy feels slighted when people mistake him for Ron Jeremy rather than the other way around- but that is beside the point. 

The point is the Orlando Magic are ready-made excuse makers, and today’s AP article on ESPN is their first crack at it: Lewis says he has viral infection.

I say, “Here we go again.”

The most telling quote from Lewis is the following:

“Regular season, I probably would have sat out,” Lewis said. “Not to make no excuses, it is the playoffs. You just got to go out there and give it 110 percent. It’s the playoffs. I’ve got to drag myself out there if anything.”

Did you catch that?

Don’t you love when people say thing they aren’t doing something when it’s the very thing they are doing.  Not to make excuses…you mean aside from this one?  It’s like saying, “No offense, but you’re an ass.”  Of course they are meaning to be offensive!

As Zach would say: Game 5 starts in less than six hours…

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