Logo
The Ticker
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 [...]

19
7 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
8 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
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
12 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
12 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:

Highlight Gallery: Thunder 97, Celtics 88

Three transition plays from this one, because it seemed like the Celtics did all their scoring off of OKC missed shots.

3. The Slowest Transition Basket Ever
Pierce goes coast to coast in about the time it would actually take to go from coast to coast. Slowness kills! I love the deliberate way he pounds his dribble, and the way each one takes him in a different direction.

This was part of a flurry of activity for Pierce, scoring eight straight points and 10 of 12.

2. Rondo Rides Alone
This is what an actual end-to-end score looks like. He really burns through that hole in the paint.

But like any great rushing QB, Rondo is nothing without his o-line: that hole only opens up because KG plows Serge Ibaka out of the way.

1. Rondo Threads Needle to Pietrus
This was one of Pietrus’s funnest threes tonight, but the unsung hero of this play is the pass. If Rondo’s 40 feet from the sideline and Pietrus is 30 feet from halfcourt, then the pass is about a 50-footer. And Rondo, on the run, hits Pietrus’s breadbasket in step.

Perfectly straight, perfectly timed, and it needed to be both. Look at that pass again. Keep watching it until you learn!

0. KG Accidentally Scores on Alley-Oop
A rare scoring lowlight this evening! This play makes the cut over all the turnovers because it made me the saddest. Three or four years ago, KG would have caught this lob from Rondo midflight and sat on the rim before casually dropping it through the rim. Remember that? When reporters were always asking Rondo how they established their lob connection? Those were great times. Today, this happens:

That is a blown alley-oop, Marv Albert. KG doesn’t need your pity calls! Wash out your eyes with this:

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>