On the back of a horrific game six performance, Gary Washburn of the Globe piled on with more bad news: Avery Bradley is almost certainly done for the season. Washburn: A source close to Bradley told the Globe that it’s in the “high 90s” percentile that Bradley will be shut down and will perhaps need [...]
After the Thunder finished up their series by routinely dismantling the Lakers last night to send them packing in five games, a time has been announced for the C’s-Sixers Game 6 on Wednesday night. It will tipoff shortly after 8pm on ESPN. Looking ahead in the postseason, if the C’s do win Game 6, and [...]
I love this decision-making from Rajon Rondo. While leading the break, you can see him eyeballing Ray Allen, who runs the wing and spots up on the arc. The Sixers have a 1-2 disadvantage but are mostly concerned about Allen’s three balls, which allows Mickael Pietrus to make an unmolested baseline cut behind the defense. [...]
A note to all you local C’s fans out there that may be attending the game tonight at TD Garden. The game will start just after 7pm and will be broadcast nationally on TNT. However, unlike most TNT regular season games during the season, the tip will not come 15-20 minutes after the scheduled start [...]
Rajon Rondo is a tremendous player, but he tends to have a little bit of an issue scoring the ball late in games. I won’t go as far as saying he is scared, but he does pass up shots and defer to teammates in crunch-time….well a lot. Last night though may have been his coming [...]
Garnett followed up his season-best effort against Atlanta in Game 6 with a new season-high in points and another sensational double-double, as well 60 percent shooting (12-of-20) from the field. Over his past two contests, Garnett is averaging 28.5 points, 12.5 rebounds, two steals and four blocks a game. After the game, KG was candid [...]
When your team gets beaten by Eduardo Najera and Gerald Henderson Jr., the first thing you do is look for someone to blame. A convenient excuse on which to hang the responsibility. A scapegoat. And we’ve all pretty much found ours tonight in the SEGABABA. I don’t think I read a postgame article tonight that didn’t prominently feature the back-to-back, and Doc Rivers made extensive mention of it in his remarks. Via Chris Forsberg at ESPN Boston:
“I think we have 13 losses, I don’t even know that, that’s a guess. But I know seven of them have come on back-to-backs and it’s the same script in five of them. We win a decent game the day before, we come out, we kind of just play — you could see it in the first half, we were kind of goofing around — then all of a sudden you try to win it in the fourth. Well, you don’t have anything left and I thought that was clear tonight.”
Warning: if you click that ESPN link, you’ll be subjected to a promo for “Only in America with Larry the Cable Guy.” Here’s a brief summary of the promo to save you time:
Tonight’s game obviously came apart in the 4th quarter, where the Celtics were outscored 29-20. So what area of the game is it that the wily SEGABABA affects? The mental focus? The physical ability? The technical execution? Something else?
Unfortunately, tonight’s game might not be all that useful scientifically, because the Celtics blew it in pretty much all of those categories tonight. After the jump is a breakdown of the various goofs made in the 4th quarter. You’ll see that the SEGABABA, if it is responsible, didn’t limit the carnage to one facet of the game tonight.
MENTAL
Rondo shuffling his feet at the perimeter more exaggeratedly than usual, earning a travel call that referees don’t make unless they absolutely have to.
Rondo looking to sling a bounce pass past Shaun Livingston to Pierce under the basket, but instead throwing it it off Livingston.
KG holding the ball loosely enough for Eddie Najera to poke it out of his hands, concluding a string of three turnovers in four possessions.
KG jumping way too soon for a defensive rebound, only to fall under it and lose the ball to Najera (the league’s most annoying player now that Vujacic is irrelevant) who sent it out to Wallace for a three. Why did we of the basketball blogosphere reward Najera for his stupid beer theatrics the other day? Why do we encourage him to do more of this stuff? Why am I posting this video again now?
Just so awkward and stupid. First, after he falls into the seats on purpose with no provocation, he goes with a half-assed “just relaxing here with my buds” bit. Then he gets up and, noticing that he spilled beer all over an innocent women to serve his comedy routine, does a dumb “refill this beer” bit. Then he follows that with a completely unnecessary “fake drinking beer” bit, and then closes with easily his dumbest bit yet: “pretending to pour beer on a fan’s head.” CHOOSE A BIT AND STICK TO IT, YOU HACK. Shaq and Mickael Pietrus never make that mistake. Get in, do a quick set, and get out. That’s how you kill.
Pierce buying his own shot fake and lifting both feet off the ground (this wasn’t called, and Pierce ended up getting free throws out of this possession, so this game was even closer than it should have been).
PHYSICAL
Gerald Henderson Jr. smoking Ray Allen on his way to the rim. He looked like 1984 Gerald Henderson Sr. Ray looked like 2015 Gerald Henderson Sr.
KG just didn’t seem that mobile at times, especially when he wasn’t closing out on Najera for that hugely annoying 3.
A lot of offensive rebounds given up. By my count, the Bobcats had 5 in the 4th quarter to the Celtics’ 1, and the one was Rondo’s. The C’s bigs just didn’t have the bounce (and, when Davis was in, the length) of the Cat’s interior. Also a disappointing lack of boxing out! (shakes a quivering finger like an old man)
TECHNICAL
Pierce and Allen missing badly on 20-footers they normally nail.
Rondo completely lost his defensive assignment at least twice. He let them dribble out to the perimeter and didn’t chase after them, possibly thinking that someone else was going to rotate onto his guy. Here’s an unfortunate example:
Pierce drove with 51 seconds to go, and failed to kick it out to an utterly open Ray Allen. He got foul shots, and he was in traffic, but they were down for and he probably should have been looking for that.
Pierce flubbing that layup with 21 seconds to go. That was a self-inflicted dagger, and I have no explanation for why it didn’t fall. Focus, fatigue, whatever. Seemed like that one was supposed to fall.
OTHER FACTORS
I would imagine that some corners of the Internet are accusing Ray Allen, known attention whore, of forsaking the three-point shot after draining his first two because he wanted to tie and break Reggie Miller’s record A) at home and B) right in Reggie Miller’s googly eye on Thursday. There may be the tiniest sliver of truth to that, only because Ray stepped on the line for a couple of shots, and Ray knows where the line is. But the actual truth is that Doc drew up plays for Ray to get open for three at the end of the game. They just didn’t work. Here’s one such play, uploaded and analyzed by NBA Playbook’s Sebastian Pruiti.
Pruiti puts the onus of this play’s failure on BBD, who he says flubs the pindown screen for Allen. But to me it seems like the real issues here are timing and spacing. Davis has to run a country mile to get from his first pick to his second, and Allen ends up breaking for the top of the arc before Davis can get his feet set, because Ray knows pretty soon Davis’s guy is going to recover and rotate onto him before Davis even picks Henderson off. There’s also about a living room of free space for Henderson to recover from that pick, so even if Davis does stick him, it’s not too much trouble for him to catch up before Ray gets the ball. Seems like Ray could have originally set up a little closer to the action to make the timing work.
I was a little puzzled by a few substitutions and non-substitutions Doc made. Presumably Doc could see that Nate, not by any fault of his own, just because he didn’t get enough nutrients in the womb, was totally incapable of bothering Shaun Livingston’s shot. Yet Doc didn’t A) switch Nate onto the shorter Gerald Henderson (which he was willing to do for Rondo later in the game) or B) just throw in Avery Bradley. You made the guy fly in all the way from North Dakota.
Also, why was Glen Davis in there over Perkins in the last three minutes? The Celtics gave up three offensive boards in that time, and watching Davis flail his stubs at the ball, I couldn’t help but think things might have been different if Perkins had been in there.
No more SEGABABAs this month, guys. Too bad it’s the shortest month of the year.
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