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7 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 [...]

19
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
9 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
12 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 [...]

9
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A Casual Dismantling: C’s 100, Nets 75

ESPN Box ScoreNets Are ScorchingNets Daily

Well, that takes care of that second-quarter bugaboo.

After a run by the Nets to end the first quarter with a two-point differential, the Celtics, led by an unlikely bench lineup of Wafer, Bradley, Daniels, Baby, and Shaq, unceremoniously held the Nets to 12 points in the 2nd to open up a 20-point lead.  Their bloodlust for humiliation not satisfied, the C’s allowed only 16 more in the 3rd, and only 75 for the game, the lowest Jersey total of the year.

This was a substantial blowout in which A) the best player did not play, and B) the bulk of the shot attempts (not just in garbage time, throughout the game) went to Nate and Glen. Nate had 12, Glen had 13, and nobody else had more than 8. And they converted 60% of them. That’s the depth, people. We’re 20,000 leagues under the sea here.

Even without Rondo, the C’s got the ball in excellent position under the basket on a consistent basis and finished extremely well. I’m beginning to think Johan Petro isn’t a great post defender. They also made productive use of the offensive strategy “Who Is Standing Closest to Anthony Morrow, Get Him the Ball Immediately.”

None of the old guys played more than 26 minutes, and at the end of the game we got a long, almost boringly long look at a lineup of Wafer, Bradley, Daniels, Harangody, and Erden. That’s a very unhealthy number of victory cigars. When I come back in a little while we’ll talk about what we saw from the scrubs, Shaq’s sore calf, and the second-half performance on both ends, including that crazy lineup mentioned above. For now, enjoy this win that you stopped watching an hour and a half ago.

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