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 [...]
The Celtics are back in town today with an off day and in a slight bit of a surprise (not really) are not practicing before their Sunday evening tilt with the Milwaukee Bucks tomorrow at the TD Garden at 6 pm. Perhaps Doc Rivers, sensing his starters were a bit burnt out with all these extra minutes following the injuries and trades, figured the guys are better off with more rest at this point than the additional practice time.
Nonetheless, with five new faces on the roster along with Avery Bradley, you would think that crew needs as much time as they can get right now to get acclimated with the Boston system on both ends of the floor. In a way, it’s almost an impossible scenario for Doc to try to balance right now, but then again, it would probably be just as challenging with Nate Robinson, Luke Harangody and Semih Erden on the roster.
We’ll start things with Glen Davis, who walked through with the second unit down in Philadelphia before last night’s game. Doc had referred to Baby practicing with the team earlier in the week during today’s practice session, but since that’s not happening, we’ll assume that he’ll also go through tomorrow’s walkthrough at the TD Garden before the game. Here’s Doc on how he looked yesterday. (ESPNBoston.com)
“He looked better,” said Rivers. “He didn’t do enough, just skeleton. You can’t tell from that. It’s just skeleton offense, nothing strenuous. But I do think he’ll play Sunday, we just don’t know for sure.”
With the starters swooning (outside of Nenad Krstic) and Doc (rightfully) unwilling to let Troy Murphy see the floor more than five minutes a game at this juncture, I’d say it’s a safe bet we see Baby on the floor tomorrow night to give this team a much needed energy boost. Davis worked wonders in the first half of the season in this department, now it’s time to see whether some extra rest for his sore knee will allow him to get back to that form.
The good news for the C’s is the Bucks play tonight against Philly in Milwaukee, so they will be losing an hour (two actually) when you factor in daylight’s savings heading into tonight’s early evening tilt. So if there was ever a time when an opponent might be incredibly gassed on the second half of a back-to-back, tomorrow might be it.
With that said, Milwaukee is still a very young team and will be much healthy (Andrew Bogut’s back) than they were when Boston beat them last Sunday. The Bucks are fighting tooth and nail for that elusive 8 spot in the East, so their focus will there, despite any issues of fatigue for Scott Skiles’ squad.
More Reasons To Like Carlos Arroyo
“I give him a lot of credit, at shootaround this morning, [the second unit] knew every play and they ran through it like they’ve been doing it all year,” said Allen. “The second unit that we have now, a lot of them have a high basketball IQ.” (ESPNBoston)
Give this guy 20-25 minutes already until Rajon Rondo snaps out of his funk/gets healthy and Delonte West returns (who is doubtful for Sunday).
Excuses, Excuses
Ryan covered the starters’ problems in his recap last night, but it’s still interesting to hear what a few of them have to say on their issues and whether it ties into the moves that were bad: (Boston Herald
KG: “Myself, I know I have to be more consistent and do a lot more,” Garnett said. “Doc Rivers just says, ‘Be aggressive, be aggressive.’ We’re trying to figure it all out on the go, but still we have to get it done.
“I’m not the one to make excuses,” he said. “The transformation is not an easy thing, but we have to fix it, and I’m sure we will.”
Rondo: “It’s on the starters, the new guys aren’t starting the game. Now, it’s on us.”
The fact that the starters can second guess themselves and trying to “figure it out on the go” is a bit bothersome in my mind, and one of the many risks of this trade. There’s always going to be that voice in the back of their heads when the playoffs roll around wondering, man what if Perk was here.
I think this team is mentally tough enough to get over that, and the current issues will obviously be eased when more experienced big bodies return, but I don’t like to hear KG talk like that, since it’s clear he shares the same worries than we do.
Finally the latest edition of the CelticsHub podcast featuring yours truly and a frequent CelticsHub contributor Jro or John Rodier. Enjoy!
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