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16 hours ago

Rondo Replacing Johnson on All-Star Team

The Herald got it right from Rondo’s agent. According to his agent, Bill Duffy, the Celtics point guard has been named to the Eastern Conference All-star roster, presumably to replace Joe Johnson, the injured Atlanta Hawks guard. This would be Rondo’s third all-star appearance. Nice birthday present for RR, who probably should have been selected [...]

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3 days ago

Comments Deleting?

We apologize if your comments are being deleted (provided that they are not offensive). We are looking into why this is happening. We also want to apologize for the lack of a game thread for last night’s game.  We had a premonition that the Celtics would play that poorly and thought if we pretended the [...]

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7 days ago

5 Questions With Greg Monroe

I talked with Detroit star forward Greg Monroe prior to the Celtics-Pistons game on Wednesday night.  Here is what the 2nd year big man out of Georgetown, who is averaging 16.4 points, 9.7 rebounds, 2.5 assists per game had to say. 1. Just your 2nd year in the league, but playing so well, were you disappointed [...]

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8 days ago

Call for Responses: 5-on-5

Readers! Last week’s responses to the 5-on-5 questions were really, really great. We had way more qualified answers than we were able to use. So we’re going to keep doing it! FOREVER. Here are this week’s questions: 1. Are you concerned about Rondo’s media boycott this week? 2. The trade deadline is less than a [...]

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11 days ago

5 Questions With Ronnie Brewer

I talked with Chicago starting guard Ronnie Brewer prior to the Celtics-Bulls game on Sunday.  Here is what the 6th year man out of Arkansas who is averaging 7.6 points, 3.1 rebounds, and 2.1 assists had to say. 1. You guys have a lot of the same players back from last year’s team which was [...]

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13 days ago

5 Questions With Josh McRoberts

I talked to Los Angeles back up big man Josh McRoberts prior to the Celtics-Lakers game Thursday night at the Garden.  Here is what the former Duke Blue Devil, who is averaging 2.9 points and 3.8 rebounds in his first year in LA, had to say. 1. How have you guys been able to deal [...]

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Five Questions About Heat-Celtics

For the past month, ESPN.com has been running a terrific feature, pulling together a panel of five writers to pick up apart the finer points of the NBA Playoff picture. Today, Celtics-Heat is the topic of the hour and our own Hayes Davenport represented CelticsHub in the Q and A, along with Chris Forsberg and three members of the Heat Index. Here’s a sample of Hayes’ responses. You can check out the full piece by clicking here.

1. What do you take from the four Celtics-Heat regular-season games?

Hayes Davenport, Celtics Hub: My homerism glands are forcing me to chalk up the fourth game to the Celtics’ late-season apathy, but the takeaway from the first three is probably that the Heat are not looking forward to this matchup. The Celtics have an unnatural ability to force below-average performances out of the Heat stars, and that’s obviously the key to beating Miami.

2. Which player will you be watching most closely in the series?

Hayes Davenport, Celtics Hub: Rondo is the puppeteer of the Celtics’ offense, but this series will be decided on the other end, so I’ll be watching Kevin Garnett on defense. He’s going to try to be everywhere at once, and he actually can do that. But the motivated Heat are probably his greatest defensive challenge yet.

3. What’s the potential fatal flaw for each team?

Hayes Davenport, Celtics Hub: Miami’s fatal flaw is the belief among its star players that they’re really awesome at shooting from distance. Boston wants them to think this and plans to make them prove it.

Boston’s flaw, meanwhile, is its bench. With either James or Wade on the court at any time, the Heat have a chance to make runs against the Boston reserves.

4. What’s the potential fatal strength for each team?

Hayes Davenport, Celtics Hub: Boston’s strength against everyone they face, but especially Miami, is team defense. The Heat have several players who require multiple defenders to stop them, but sending a second defender to help is central to the Celtics’ defensive scheme.

Miami’s strength, of course, is that the best player in the league is on its side, and his best teammate isn’t Mo Williams anymore.

5. Celtics-Heat: Who wins?

Hayes Davenport, Celtics Hub: Boston in seven.

I think Miami is a better team than Boston. If the Heat get through this round, they have a better shot at beating the Chicago Bulls and the Western Conference champ than Boston does. But I also think the Celtics are the one team that can stop the Heat.

Stay glued to CelticsHub later today and tomorrow for a full series breakdown and predictions from the entire CelticsHub crew.

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