Rajon Rondo is a tremendous player, but he tends to have a little bit of an issue scoring the ball late in games. I won’t go as far as saying he is scared, but he does pass up shots and defer to teammates in crunch-time….well a lot. Last night though may have been his coming [...]
Garnett followed up his season-best effort against Atlanta in Game 6 with a new season-high in points and another sensational double-double, as well 60 percent shooting (12-of-20) from the field. Over his past two contests, Garnett is averaging 28.5 points, 12.5 rebounds, two steals and four blocks a game. After the game, KG was candid [...]
Before every playoff series this season, we’re doing some rundowns on the opposing roster for each team. Now that the Hawks have been dispensed with, we’re onto the Sixers. Here’s Part II. Players are listed in alphabetical order. Andre Iguodala: There are five guys in the league who have a claim on the title of [...]
Mike Fratello had it right: the NBA announced today that Al Horford should have been given a free throw on Marquis Daniels’s off-ball foul at the end of Thursday’s game. At the time, ref Eric Lewis ruled that Daniels’s foul had occurred after the throw-in, making him probably the only person in the arena who [...]
Boston will face off with the Hawks on Thursday night at 8pm at TD Garden. The broadcast can be seen on TNT or CSN locally. There was a risk that it would be a 6pm tip for Boston-Atlanta, if the Nuggets failed to extend the series last night against the Lakers. That would have created [...]
Desperate times call for desperate measures and after a blowout in Game 4, Atlanta’s head coach Larry Drew is going to shake things up a bit and add some bulk to his starting five at each position. Kirk Hinrich and Jason Collins will head to the bench, while Marvin Williams will be inserted at small [...]
Kevin Garnett, PF36 MIN | 6-23 FG | 0-0 FT | 12 REB | 3 AST | 12 PTS | +6 Like Pierce, KG also had an off-shooting night. A really off-shooting night as he went 6-for-23 including some big misses down the stretch. Also like Pierce, he somewhat made up for it by rebounding the basketball and playing tough defense on Andrew Bynum when necessary.
Paul Pierce, SF48 MIN | 7-18 FG | 3-3 FT | 9 REB | 7 AST | 18 PTS | +2 All Star selection curse? Pierce couldn’t hit a shot in the first half and it really didn’t seem to have anything to do with Metta World Peace. He missed wide open jumpers and nailed ones over the artist formerly known as Artest. Still, Pierce made up for his poor shooting performance by filling up the rest of the box score and his ability to avoid getting discouraged when his shot isn’t falling is very underrated.
Jermaine O’Neal, C33 MIN | 1-3 FG | 0-0 FT | 6 REB | 1 AST | 2 PTS | +1 Almost none of JO’s contributions showed up in the box score but he played tough D on two really good bigs when he was in there. Aside from the tough defense, JO continues to show how badly the Celtics can rebound when they face a formidable front court.
Ray Allen, SG40 MIN | 9-20 FG | 2-2 FT | 6 REB | 2 AST | 22 PTS | 0 Ray drew the tough assignment of having to guard Kobe and provide the offense on an uncharacteristic off night for Pierce and Garnett. He capably defended Kobe in the first half and passably in the second. His offense was still keeping the Celtics in the game late and for that he breaks the BA barrier.
Rajon Rondo, PG45 MIN | 7-13 FG | 0-0 FT | 2 REB | 7 AST | 14 PTS | +6 Assists (7) and rebounds (2) were way below average but Rondo had an efficient 14 points including a sprinkling of jump shots. The Kobe Free Safety strategy wasn’t as effective in the first half but Rondo bricked a few jumpers late to really put the crap stamp on this loss.
Chris Wilcox, PF13 MIN | 1-1 FG | 0-0 FT | 3 REB | 0 AST | 2 PTS | -3 Wilcox provided some energy off the bench but otherwise pretty unspectacular.
Marquis Daniels, SG1 MIN | 0-0 FG | 0-0 FT | 0 REB | 0 AST | 0 PTS | 0 He played? (C means “Incomplete”)
Mickael Pietrus, SF18 MIN | 3-9 FG | 0-0 FT | 1 REB | 0 AST | 9 PTS | -4 Pietrus put forth a valiant effort on the defensive end guarding Kobe better than both Ray and Rondo. He also hit a very timely three in the fourth quarter to get the C’s back into the game.
Brandon Bass, PF24 MIN | 4-9 FG | 0-0 FT | 5 REB | 1 AST | 8 PTS | -6 Bass had a great game for an average bench player but an average game for the great bench player he is.
E’Twaun Moore, G9 MIN | 0-1 FG | 0-0 FT | 1 REB | 1 AST | 0 PTS | -7 8+ minutes and no points. The Celtics needed him in the game for his offense and he had almost none tonight.
Three Things We Saw
The Celtics fought Kobe’s Hero Ball act with running plays and lost– to the Lakers’ size advantage. After seeing Kobe front-rim jumper after jumper only to fail to secure the rebound must have been hard on the Green Team.
Rebounding. Yeah I went there. Tonight, it wasn’t even close. We all expected that but Bynum’s offensive rebounds and Gasol’s defensive rebounds down the stretch really hurt the Celtics. They were expected to lose the battle but 55 to 45 should be a guaranteed loss.
The last in regulation was very poorly executed by the Celtics. Ray Allen set a ball screen for Paul Pierce only to leak out behind a KG screen. How many times have we seen this before? I’ll guarantee you the Lakers have seen it more on film. The thing is, it shouldn’t matter if the C’s execute which they did not. Pierce shouldn’t have picked up his dribble after Ray made his move in case he couldn’t get open. The result, a Pietrus prayer 27 footer moving away from the basket. That should have been a sign of things to come.
The Ticker
