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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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Celtics Lose A Squeaker: Celtics 85, Mavericks 90

Dallas Mavericks 90 Final

Recap | Box Score

85 Boston Celtics
Kevin Garnett, PF 37 MIN | 4-11 FG | 8-8 FT | 10 REB | 3 AST | 16 PTS | +15
KG may have had the double-double tonight but he missed a wide open 13 footer and a point blank layup with under two minutes to play. He also looked completely over-matched by Dirk Nowitzki at times. Lots of players do but not everyone has the defensive reputation that KG does.
Paul Pierce, SF 30 MIN | 2-5 FG | 2-4 FT | 5 REB | 3 AST | 7 PTS | -7
Mickael Pietrus ended up eating up a lot of Pierce’s minutes in the third and fourth quarters. Was Pierce’s heel acting up? Did Doc just want to give Pietrus some extra run because he was playing well? We’ll find out soon enough. Weirdly enough, Pierce only attempted five shots all game.
Jermaine O’Neal, C 22 MIN | 1-3 FG | 0-0 FT | 3 REB | 0 AST | 2 PTS | -5
The effort was there as JO looked pretty good on two blocks but he could only stay on the court for 22 minutes. Not what you want or need from your starting center.
Ray Allen, SG 33 MIN | 3-8 FG | 2-2 FT | 4 REB | 2 AST | 9 PTS | -7
Ray Allen was there when the Celtics needed a three but wasn’t really heard from when they didn’t.
Rajon Rondo, PG 38 MIN | 8-16 FG | 8-12 FT | 3 REB | 7 AST | 24 PTS | -6
The Celtics needed Rondo to step up in the worst way tonight. Even though he definitely did that but because the rest of the starters didn’t have it offensively, Rondo still had to force the action more than anyone should be comfortable with.
Mickael Pietrus, SF 18 MIN | 2-5 FG | 0-0 FT | 1 REB | 0 AST | 5 PTS | +2
A three, a steal, and a transition dunk. Not to mention really tough perimeter D and holding his own on Lamar Odom in the post. This is the Mickael Pietrus the Celtics were banking on.
Brandon Bass, PF 31 MIN | 3-6 FG | 2-4 FT | 4 REB | 2 AST | 8 PTS | -6
Played 33 big minutes tonight and made his customary open shots.

Five Things We Saw

  1. Lineups. The Celtics had some interesting lineups tonight. At one point they trotted out Rajon Rondo, Keyon Dooling, Mickael Pietrus, Brandon Bass, Chris Wilcox. At another time they had JO, Pierce, Dooling, Rondo, and Bass sharing the court. It’s still early but it’s going to reach a point where Doc Rivers should really be settling in on a rotation and only utilizing some guys in injury situations.
  2. Fans. The 16th man was in full force tonight. Whenever the Celtics tied it up the TDGarden crowd got incredibly loud. There was even a point in the fourth quarter where the Celtics may have induced a shot clock violation but the crowd was so loud you couldn’t hear the buzzer. Luckily the C’s got the rebound, so no harm no foul.
  3. Foul! I tweeted during the first half that no one on either team was in foul trouble thus a player fouling out would be highly unlikely. The officiating in the second half was so wildly inconsistent that Ian Mahinmi fouled out and Mickael Pietrus had four.
  4. The Shot Clock is Real. The Celtics pressured the wings tonight so well that it forced the Mavs to violate the shot clock a handful of times. Seriously, I lost count at five. It may have been a byproduct of a lack of ball movement from the Mavericks but it was impressive nonetheless.
  5. Dirk is Dirk. I was just thinking right after the Pierce three to tie the game that the Celtics have kept Dirk Nowitzki really quiet tonight (4-10, 13 points till that point). Then the last play happened and well, you know, you don’t really get to be the Finals MVP by being lucky or just okay.

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