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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 [...]

2
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 [...]

2
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 [...]

3
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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Rapid Reaction: Celtics 96 Raptors 73

Posted by on Jan 18, 2012 10 comments

Toronto Raptors 73 Final
Recap | Box Score		 96 Boston Celtics
Kevin Garnett, PF 25 MIN | 5-7 FG | 5-6 FT | 7 REB | 2 AST | 15 PTS | +4
Before it became clear the Raptors would offer no opposition tonight, the C’s put KG in a couple of early ISOs to get him going. He responded with an efficient 15 points and 7 rebounds in 25 short minutes, then spent the fourth quarter cheering on the reserves and dancing to Gino.
Paul Pierce, SF 23 MIN | 3-10 FG | 2-2 FT | 4 REB | 7 AST | 8 PTS | +19
With Rondo doing the scoring, Pierce ended up facilitating, which is a good thing because he had another bad shooting night, including three missed layups. Legs still aren’t there despite positive signs the last week. That said, to get a layup to miss, you have to be assertive in the first place. It’s coming, folks.
Jermaine O’Neal, C 20 MIN | 4-5 FG | 0-2 FT | 7 REB | 1 AST | 8 PTS | +12
Active early on both sides of the court. The C’s are using him as the roll man more and more, with good results.
Ray Allen, SG 28 MIN | 2-7 FG | 0-0 FT | 3 REB | 1 AST | 6 PTS | +24
He’s been struggling lately and one reason is that it takes a village to get him open for shots. He can rarely do it himself, especially because an opposing village is usually trying to stop him. Had an up and down night on defense as the Raps had a mind to go at him.
Rajon Rondo, PG 28 MIN | 7-8 FG | 7-11 FT | 3 REB | 2 AST | 21 PTS | +24
Did whatever he wanted against the Raptors defense. They couldn’t stop him in transition and with three steps of a running start in the halfcourt, he could zip by whoever was on him as well. It’s not a surprise his injury occurred when he was attacking the basket. He did it all night long.
Marquis Daniels, SG 12 MIN | 0-4 FG | 0-0 FT | 3 REB | 3 AST | 0 PTS | -2
Has almost no impact on the game offensively, but plays competent defense. That sounds a bit like Avery Bradley, his garbage-time running mate. Yikes.
Mickael Pietrus, SF 23 MIN | 4-7 FG | 0-0 FT | 3 REB | 0 AST | 12 PTS | +6
The more you watch him, the more you notice his personality comes through in his on-court game. He plays boldly on the defensive end, knows how to get himself open for long balls on the offensive end and loves to take them. He hit four tonight. Not only that, he fits into all manner of lineups with his defensive flexibility, giving Doc Rivers some room to negotiate, so to speak.
Brandon Bass, PF 31 MIN | 4-11 FG | 5-6 FT | 9 REB | 0 AST | 13 PTS | +16
Another nice game for Bass, who manages to be a black hole within the context of the team offense, which is quite the trick. Still not there on defense (and maybe never will be) but 13 and 9 is a good night’s work.
Greg Stiemsma, C 14 MIN | 1-2 FG | 0-0 FT | 2 REB | 1 AST | 2 PTS | +12
He really needs to shoot more. Dare I suggest the C’s should run some stuff to get him face-up looks?
JaJuan Johnson, F 6 MIN | 1-3 FG | 1-2 FT | 2 REB | 0 AST | 3 PTS | +2
Giving him a passing grade for his season high in minutes, even if it came after all competitiveness had seeped out of the game.
E’Twaun Moore, G 17 MIN | 0-3 FG | 0-0 FT | 1 REB | 3 AST | 0 PTS | -7
You see flashes with Moore, but you also see rawness. That’s an empty line for 17 minutes. He does seem to be picking up the offense even if he can’t make a major impact on it yet.
Avery Bradley, SG 12 MIN | 3-4 FG | 2-3 FT | 1 REB | 1 AST | 8 PTS | +5
He had his usual grisly moments on offense but also a couple of good ones, including a steal and breakaway dunk and a weak-side baseline cut for a stuff. Baby steps.

Three Things We Saw

  1. A hopeless Raptors team. Without Andrea Bargnani to create offense, the Raptors spent the first quarter burying themselves by missing long jumpers and watching Rondo race around them for layups. Any rumors of Toronto playing tougher or more physical or with more defensive energy proved unfounded (tonight at least). After a third quarter push by the Celtics, Toronto effectively gave up.
  2. A dirty throwdown by Linas Kleiza on Rajon Rondo. Rondo (sore right wrist, day-to-day) was lucky to escape serious injury when Kleiza hammered him in mid-air and then gave him an added push to make sure he went hard to the floor. I suppose it’s one way for Toronto to stop the C’s, because they had no interest in using defense to do it.
  3. A morale-boosting win. It portends little given the quality of the opponent but Boston can head into Friday’s game against Phoenix with a few less questions hanging over their heads.
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