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15 hours ago

Rondo Replacing Johnson on All-Star Team

The Herald got it right from Rondo’s agent. According to his agent, Bill Duffy, the Celtics point guard has been named to the Eastern Conference All-star roster, presumably to replace Joe Johnson, the injured Atlanta Hawks guard. This would be Rondo’s third all-star appearance. Nice birthday present for RR, who probably should have been selected [...]

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3 days ago

Comments Deleting?

We apologize if your comments are being deleted (provided that they are not offensive). We are looking into why this is happening. We also want to apologize for the lack of a game thread for last night’s game.  We had a premonition that the Celtics would play that poorly and thought if we pretended the [...]

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7 days ago

5 Questions With Greg Monroe

I talked with Detroit star forward Greg Monroe prior to the Celtics-Pistons game on Wednesday night.  Here is what the 2nd year big man out of Georgetown, who is averaging 16.4 points, 9.7 rebounds, 2.5 assists per game had to say. 1. Just your 2nd year in the league, but playing so well, were you disappointed [...]

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8 days ago

Call for Responses: 5-on-5

Readers! Last week’s responses to the 5-on-5 questions were really, really great. We had way more qualified answers than we were able to use. So we’re going to keep doing it! FOREVER. Here are this week’s questions: 1. Are you concerned about Rondo’s media boycott this week? 2. The trade deadline is less than a [...]

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11 days ago

5 Questions With Ronnie Brewer

I talked with Chicago starting guard Ronnie Brewer prior to the Celtics-Bulls game on Sunday.  Here is what the 6th year man out of Arkansas who is averaging 7.6 points, 3.1 rebounds, and 2.1 assists had to say. 1. You guys have a lot of the same players back from last year’s team which was [...]

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13 days ago

5 Questions With Josh McRoberts

I talked to Los Angeles back up big man Josh McRoberts prior to the Celtics-Lakers game Thursday night at the Garden.  Here is what the former Duke Blue Devil, who is averaging 2.9 points and 3.8 rebounds in his first year in LA, had to say. 1. How have you guys been able to deal [...]

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How Deep is the Lake?

While combing through through the minutiae leading up to tomorrow night’s showdown, one seemingly innocuous element is the Laker’s depth.  Especially, on the front-line.

The word out of Lakers camp this morning is that the knee drainage procedure Andrew Bynum under-went produced neutral results. For argument’s sake, let’s assume this to be true and not- you know- a Phil Jackson mind-game.  This leaves the Lakers with Paul Gasol and Lamar Odom as the team’s only usable big men.  Is foul trouble a viable topic of discussion?  After comparing the numbers from both the Celtics and Lakers’ playoff runs, I would say a definitive YES.

The Celtics Bigs just played a six game series where they used their fouls liberally- executing the “Hack-A-Howard” strategy to a T.  The previous series against the Cavaliers also saw it’s fair share of fouls as the Celtics Bigs proved to be the last line of defense against the run-away freight train that is LeBron James.  Still, after those two very physical series Kendrick Perkins led the team with 63 personal fouls, Rasheed Wallace followed him up with 56, Kevin Garnett committed 46, and Glen Davis has committed a surprisingly low 37 fouls.

Comparatively, Pau Gasol (42), Andrew Bynum (44), and Lamar Odom (61) all collected enough fouls to give Lakers’ fans pause.  It’s hard enough to be down a big man in your rotation naturally, but if Bynum is not 100%, the Lakers are going to have to give Josh Powell some court time.  This, is yet another factor that should give Lakers’ fans pause given the fact that Powell has played less minutes in the playoffs than Shelden Williams (32 to Williams’ 39).

Obviously, depth has not been an issue for the Lakers yet.  If it were, would they really be in the Finals right now?  Probably not.  Still, the Lakers have not faced a team in the playoffs with the kind of front-line depth the Celtics possess.

I am not saying foul trouble and the disparity in front-line players will play a role in this series, I just believe it is something we should all keep in mind as the series unfolds.

What do you think?

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