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16 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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Ray’s Hot Night In A Historical Perspective

On the heels of perhaps the most entertaining (and nerve-wracking) win of the Celtics young season, there’s one facet of the game that stands out to me more than anything else two days later. Ray Allen’s shooting display.

No, I’m not talking about those two free throws he bricked in the last minute. I am speaking about his 13-of-16 masterpiece for an jaw-dropping 81 percent shooting. These weren’t layups either as evidenced by his shot chart that Hayes made a point of his displaying in his recap on Thursday.

What a beautiful sight. The stellar numbers got me thinking though. The numbers on the surface aren’t completely ridiculous. Here’s the catch: it’s one thing for a big man to go 13-of-16 in a game when he’s taking all his shots within ten feet and dunking half of them. I’m sure Shaq’s done it more than a few times in his career.

For a guard though, to put up that many shots (16) and shoot a ridiculous 81 percent? It’s not something I’ve seen often….thus I made a point to head to Basketball-Reference to dig up just how we’ve seen these kinds of numbers in a game from any kind of guard….ever.

Ray Allen's Shot Chart: Spurs 1/5/11

The answer: it’s unsurprisingly rare. It’s been done just 33 times since 1986 by guards where they’ve hit (at least) 13-of-16 shots, including once more by Ray in a losing effort back when he was with Milwaukee as a 24-year-old.

Wednesday night’s effort by Allen though made him the oldest person to put up that kind of fantastic line by a guard in the last 25 years. The 35-year-old is more than two years older than everyone else who completed the feat, the vast majority of which did so in their prime, with names like Reggie Miller, Mitch Richmond, Dale Ellis, Magic Johnson leading the way along with some surprising ones (Jarrett Jack? Anthony Parker?)

The fact Ray can still be this hot, while playing so many minutes is just example number 1,342 of how fans are spoiled here in Boston. If he keeps it up, that 10 million dollar player option he has for next year…..may be a bargain.

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