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6 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 [...]

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6 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
7 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 [...]

92
8 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
11 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
11 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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Shaquille O’Neal Will Not Play In Game 1, Remains Day-To-Day

The Celtics wrapped up their final practice today before Game 1 over in Waltham and held an impromptu press conference to announce that Shaq has been ruled out for tomorrow’s series opener against the Knicks. Here’s Chris Forsberg of ESPNBoston.com with more:

The Boston Celtics attempted to get Shaquille O’Neal back on the practice court Saturday morning, but his ailing right Achilles and strained calf would not allow him to go through the activity and Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge announced soon after that O’Neal will not be ready for Sunday’s Game 1 of an Eastern Conference quarterfinals series against the New York Knicks.

“[Shaq's] been making progress and we tried to get him out there to practice today, to simulate a game as much as we could and he’s not ready,” said Ainge. “We don’t know when he’ll be ready, and we’ll just keep evaluating him day-to-day. So he won’t play in tomorrow’s game.”

Added team physician Dr. Brian McKeon: “This guy’s been working his tail off. He’s worked so, so hard, and today we did a mock trial pre-game workout and he failed. It didn’t work. Just too sore. We’ll get back to work tomorrow and keep knowing what we’re doing and hopefully we can get him back soon.”

CH’s Analysis: This really shouldn’t come as a huge shock to C’s fans. To be perfectly honest, could foreshadow O’Neal missing as much as the entire first series, given his variety of ailments and the way New York’s front line matches up with Boston.

On paper, the C’s should be able to take care of business with or without the big fellow for the first round anyway. With Shaq’s lack of on-court progress, the priority has shifted into getting the guy back onto the floor when the team needs him the most.

In the short term, obviously this puts the spotlight on Jermaine O’Neal, Jeff Green, and Nenad Krstic more than ever, given that’s where Shaq’s potential minutes will be divided between against the Knicks. We’ll have more breaking down those matchups tomorrow, but for now it’s clear that the availability of Shaq will be an ongoing saga for what in all likelihood will be the remainder of the postseason.

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