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8 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
10 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 [...]

42
14 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 [...]

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It Never Ends: Delonte West Sprains Ankle, Will Miss Tonight’s Game

The injuries are getting a bit comical at this point, but the C’s took another hit yesterday, when Delonte West sprained his right ankle during…..a skeleton drill of all things….by stepping on a teammate’s foot. I’ll let Julian Benbow of The Boston Globe take it from there:

“It’s not a bad sprain,” Rivers said. “If it was a playoff game, he’ll play. But you know how we are now. He’ll miss today, maybe even Wednesday’s game and then he’ll be back after that.”

Injuries have been the story of the Celtics season with nine different players missing a combined 177 different games.

“It’s been one of those years,” Rivers said.

After starting the season with a 10-game league suspension, West missed 39 games after breaking his wrist in November. He’s played just eight games this season.

“I don’t even think they noticed today,” Rivers said. “We were doing film and I said, ‘Delonte’s not here.’ The guys were looking around. I don’t even think they count anymore who’s in the room and who’s not. They just kind of focus on what they have to do and move forward.”

Obviously, not a huge blow, but given how terrific Delonte looked Saturday night against the Clippers, this setback if nothing else, may set back his rhythm a bit. Still a skeleton drill? Doc can’t even catch a break in non-contact practices.

As for tonight, luckily the Jazz are not as deadly at the point guard spot with Deron Williams shipped out of town. Look for Doc to go heavy on the minutes with Rajon Rondo and perhaps we see some Ray Allen/Paul Pierce point forward maneuvering like earlier in the year as well. There’s a chance of course Avery Bradley could be thrown into the fire as well in the second quarter, but that hasn’t gone well this year either, so Von Wafer will likely be beneficiary of most of the extra minutes that West has taken, with the Pierce/Allen/Rondo trio handling the point duties.

Finally, Benbow also noted via his twitter account that Danny Ainge expects Shaq back in 1-2 weeks and Jermaine O’Neal returning in 3-4 weeks. Take it for what it’s worth.

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