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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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The Obliterati: Hornets 97 Celtics 78

ESPN Box Score • Hornets247 • AtTheHive

This is not good.

The Celtics were thrashed by a New Orleans team missing its best scorer tonight. They head home to Boston at 0-3, looking entirely unlike a championship contender.

There are certainly caveats available. No Paul Pierce, no training camp, no continuity amongst the new players, not enough effort. Eventually, these may all prove valid reasons for this sluggish start and the Celtics may find their defensive mojo (the biggest surprise of this slow start) and run off a long winning streak. But Boston looked meek and often lifeless in this game, like they were playing to stay in the game rather than win it.

Most of the Celtics played poorly tonight.

Kevin Garnett (8 points, 7 rebounds) has looked old this season, particularly in light of Doc Rivers’ stated intention to run more of the offense through him (it’s not happening). Jermaine O’Neal has faded badly since the first game of the season and was outplayed tonight by unheralded rookie Greg Stiemsma.

After two terrific games to start the season, Rajon Rondo wasn’t aggressive enough going to the basket, made some lazy passes and racked up 4 turnovers. His positional opponent, Jarrett Jack, raced around him on the way to 21 points and 9 assists. His backup, Keyon Dooling, cannot create anything off the dribble.

Let’s leave it there. There are more lowlights to revisit and we’ll get into them in detail overnight. But for now, feel free to vent, worry or rationalize below.

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