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1 hour 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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3 hours ago

5-on-5: Predicting All-Star Reserves

I was a panelist on the 5-on-5 today at ESPN, choosing reserves for the Eastern and Western Conference all-star teams. I took two Celtics, as noted below. Hit the link to read the rest. 1. Which East and West point guards should be chosen as All-Star reserves? Ryan DeGama, CelticsHub: East: Deron Williams, Rajon Rondo [...]

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1 day ago

Greg Stiemsma’s Contract To Become Fully Guaranteed

The C’s gave their 26-year-old rookie a vote of confidence before Tuesday’s game. By not waiving the seven-footer, Stiemsma’s contract will become fully guaranteed on Friday, allowing the shot blocker to breath a little bit and perhaps unpack some boxes for good in Beantown. Here’s Chris Forsberg of ESPN Boston with some reaction from Stiemsma and [...]

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2 days ago

5 Questions With Kemba Walker

I had a chance to talk with Bobcats rookie Kemba Walker prior to the Celtics game against Charlotte on Tuesday night.  Here is what the UConn star, who is averaging 12.3 points, 4 rebounds, and 3.6 assists per game had to say. 1. How much communication have you had with Michael Jordan this year? Walker: [...]

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3 days ago

I Am Awesome!

Yes. This is a “pat myself on the back” post because a) I’m a jackass and b) I predicted something correctly. Back on January 8th, I predicted that the next ten games will tell us everything we need to know about this Celtics’ team. If they struggled, it was time to blow it up. If [...]

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3 days ago

Pierce Wins Eastern Conference Player Of Week

One day before he’s scheduled to pass Larry Bird for second on the Celtics’ all-time scoring list, Paul Pierce won the Eastern Conference Player of the Week award. Pierce averaged 22 points, 6.3 assists and 5.8 rebounds in four Boston wins, playing point forward in Rajon Rondo’s absence. Pierce is only 9 points behind Bird [...]

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Off-day notebook: Pillow talk, Bynum’s knee, KG and babies

Big Baby didn’t fall asleep until 3 a.m. this morning. Rondo “didn’t sleep well, either.” And what did Doc Rivers want Ray Allen to do after an 0-for-13 night?

“Hopefully sleep,” Rivers said Wednesday afternoon.

Pau Gasol on his bedtime: “Yeah, obviously when you go to sleep with a win you sleep a lot better than you would if you would have lost.”

Other than confirming that all players did, in fact, wake up this morning, this afternoon’s media session provided some closure and it-feels-good-to-talk-it-out chatter reflecting on Pierce and Allen’s overall inabilities.

Oh, and what’s a media session without a pseudo-drama unfolding Re: Officiating, fueled by reporters’ Pandora’s Box of wordplay. If this is something that interests you, please reevaluate last night’s performance by the athletes first.

Here’s a sampling of your not-overly-obvious sound bits from today (redacting the clichés, Fisher slobber and officiating speak):

Phil Jackson:

Q. What is the latest on Bynum’s knee? You said last night he’d be questionable for Thursday. Do you see him playing today?
PHIL JACKSON: We won’t be able to have any kind of answer on that until tomorrow. He’ll go through the process he goes through, which tries to take some of the swelling down and alleviate some of the discomfort, and then he’ll have some recovery time between now and then, 36 hours or whatever it is. So there’s still an opportunity for that to happen.

Q. Are you optimistic?
PHIL JACKSON: Yeah, I am. He’s been able to overcome those odds almost all the way through these playoffs, ever since Oklahoma. So we’re really optimistic that he’ll be able to find a way to do that.

***

Paul Pierce:

Q. What kind of problems has Ron presented for you I guess defensively? Is it him just being physical or has he affected you this series in your production?
PAUL PIERCE: I don’t really see anything he’s doing special that any other teams haven’t done throughout the course of the playoffs. That’s it.

Q. So you’re basically saying you’re missing shots that you normally should make?
PAUL PIERCE: You watched the game. What do you think he’s doing?

Q. Just his physical presence, historically he’s given you problems in the past. Just looking at the stats. Is it just coincidence?
PAUL PIERCE: I think so.

***

Kevin Garnett

Q. If Doc is saying that he wants you to have the ball more, do you kind of have to say to the guys the same thing?
KEVIN GARNETT: I think yesterday wasn’t a force-fed type of thing. I thought the flow called for it. We got fast breaks, easy buckets. It was just flow. It had nothing to do with force feeding and shoving the biscuit down the baby’s throat, so to speak. I can’t believe I just said that. (Laughter).

Q. Lamar Odom said you give him two seconds, he’s scoring.
KEVIN GARNETT: Yeah, I think Baby is — I think people don’t really at some point respect his scoring ability, but he can score the ball. He has a lot of confidence in himself, and well deserving of it. He works really hard.

***

Kobe Bryant

Q. Talk about your team’s defense against Ray Allen. What do you feel about that?
KOBE BRYANT: He just missed. If somebody goes 0 for 13, defense has got nothing to do with that. He just missed shots. He won’t miss them the next game.

***

Ray Allen

Q. Did they cause some of that instead of just you missing shots?
RAY ALLEN: You know, defense is defense. It’s one thing if you’re spot blank missing wide open shots. You sit there and start to think about it. But I look at the film and I seen mostly shots that I took, and there were shots that I’ve made before, there are shots that I make, and then just a couple of them didn’t make it to the rim.

Q. Was it because of the blow or you just didn’t have your legs?
RAY ALLEN: You know, I don’t question it, I just move forward. I just move forward and just focus on getting good rest today and being ready for tomorrow.

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