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5 hours ago

Jason Terry’s 2012-13 Final Grade

  Acquiring any player, whether it’s via trade, free agency, or the draft, comes with an air of uncertainty. The NBA has no guaranteed covenant and all sales are final, no matter how talented, proven, or productive the player may have been in year’s past. But these memories—especially recent ones—often clouds the judgment of a [...]

3
9 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
9 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
10 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 [...]

94
11 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
14 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 [...]

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Outclassed: Celtics 91 Magic 80

ESPN Box Score • Magic Basketball • Orlando Pinstriped Post

One reason the Magic don’t like the Celtics is because the Celtics are clearly the better team. A 2011 playoff series between these two might not go as long as the six games it took Boston to oust Orlando last spring. That’s becoming more obvious with every passing game.

But it didn’t appear that way at the outset today. The Celtics started poorly with Dwight Howard (28 points, 13 rebounds total; 22 and 6 of that in the first half) scoring early and often in the post against Kendrick Perkins. On the other side of the ball, Boston couldn’t make a shot, finishing up the first quarter at 29% from the field with 7 turnovers.

Then came the second quarter and the Celtics locked in on both sides of the ball and slowly sapped Orlando’s resistance over the remaining three quarters, culminating in a barely contested last five minutes of the fourth. Rajon Rondo took the ball to the basket with authority, finishing with a season-high 26 points, including 7-9 from the free throw line. The entire Celtics team followed his lead, getting to the line 34 times and converting 28 makes. Perk got shut out but had 13 rebounds and became more and more effective on Howard as the day progressed. And Orlando’s three-point shooting was abysmal, as they went only 3-24 from the arc. Even D12 can’t make up for that kind of ineptitude.

Of course, the win itself remains secondary to the Marquis Daniels injury. Daniels turned to go to the basket in the second quarter and jammed his neck into Gilbert Arenas’ chest. He collapsed, laid immobile for a few minutes and was eventually taken off the court on a stretcher and transported to hospital with an unspecified neck injury. It was a stomach-turning moment, in large part because the play was so innocuous.

UPDATE: Daniels is expected to miss 1-2 months with what is being called a bruised spinal cord. More information is expected on his status tomorrow.

A full recap of this one later on tonight.

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