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:

Reaction: Lingering Regrets About That Final Regulation Play

Twelve hours have passed and the bitterness has only seemed to worsen. The Celtics were on the verge last night, of stealing a contest after only scoring 33 points in the second half of a contest. LeBron had coughed up a crucial possession and the Celtics would have their final chances. They did it to New York in Games 1 and 2. Last night was a different story. Jessica Camerato of CSNNE.com put together a great piece with reaction from everyone on just exactly how that final fateful play broke down.

Doc Rivers: “We didn’t execute the play, I’ll just leave it at that. Ended up leaving Paul on the island. It’s a play we’ve run several times and we just didn’t execute it. [It] was supposed to be a pick-and-roll with a flare and none of it happened, which was unusual for us. But it happened.”

Paul Pierce: “It was supposed to end up with a fade for Ray [Allen], then I was coming off a pick-and-roll for Kevin [Garnett]. I guess there was a little confusion right there and we never got into it, and I had to force a bad shot.”

Ray Allen: “We wanted to get a pick-and-roll with Paul and Kevin. We kind of screwed it up because we wanted Paul to get the ball, and I’m at the free-throw line and I wanted to kind of fan off and create some misdirection and then Kevin go set the screen, and then from there see what we got. But I don’t think we got a great shot. Paul still got a shot at the basket. We’re kicking ourselves over that.”

Kevin Garnett: “The timing actually got messed up when he went and got the ball and miscommunication. Paul went with a couple seconds on the clock and felt like he had to be aggressive in that situation. But plays are all timing. If you don’t come off at a certain time, clock’s going, and Paul felt like he had to go. It’s what it was.”

Rajon Rondo: “It’s a surprise but it happens, you know? Lotta talking in the huddle, but there wasn’t enough listening, I believe.”

Brendan Jackson will have a full breakdown of that fatal play, along with Doc Rivers’ lineup decisions down the stretch shortly. For now though, the Celtics will be questioning just how they let that chance slip away….perhaps for years to come.

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>