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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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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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