Logo
The Ticker
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
8 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
9 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 [...]

93
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
13 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
13 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 [...]

9
Browse Archives by:

Cleanest Sweep: Celtics 101, Knicks 89

ESPN Box Score • Knickerblogger • Posting And Toasting

Greatest Facial Hair on a Celtic Fan Ever (prove me wrong).

The Celtics are 100% against the New York Knickerbackers this season.  It didn’t matter when the Knicks had Amar’e Stoudemire +.  It didn’t matter when they traded that “+” for Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups.  The Celtics took the Knicks on in all forms and ultimately dispatched them each time.

There will be much more analysis on this game, and this series (hey, we have to stretch out a week somehow) later.  For now, there are only a few things you need to know:

  • Before I say anything about any Celtics, I must stop and give immense credit to the Knicks.  They were down by more than 20 in the second half, and they refused to roll over.  They could have.  They did in the regular season.  But even with Stoudemire tentative (at the very least) with his back, the Knicks did not give up.  Props.

Okay, now I have to brush my teeth.

And we’re back!

  • The Celtics won this game largely on their ball movement and defensive intensity.  A welcome sign considering the Cs will most-likely face the Miami Heat next series and will most-assuredly need everything working well.
  • The bench is still struggling, and the most depressing thing about it is the fact that the only guy on the Celtics that had a negative in the +/- column was super-sub Jeff Green.  I’ll make the small caveat that his primary role this series was to slow down Carmelo Anthony.  The only problem:  he didn’t do that particular well either (3 fouls in 17 minutes).
  • Glen Davis had an amazing first half!  I checked the box score at halftime and said to my friend Bernie, “Glen Davis is on pace for 24 and 10!”  He finished the game with 14 and 5.  Eeeesh.
  • Hello JO!  Jermaine O’Neal had six boards and one nice jumper today.  He also had the highest +/- in the game.  Before the playoffs started, Avery Bradley was more likely to have a playoff impact. This is such a welcome sign; especially if Shaquille O’Neal can come back and play 15 minutes a game (sorry Krstic!).
  • The Celtics outrebounded the Knicks by 11 today.  A lot of those boards had to do with New York missing a lot of shots.  Still, the Celtics were not gang rebounding today so to see the Cs still win the battle of the boards is reassuring to say the least.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>