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20 hours ago

Jason Terry’s 2012-13 Final Grade

  Acquiring any player, whether it’s via trade, free agency, or the draft, comes with an air of uncertainty. The NBA has no guaranteed covenant and all sales are final, no matter how talented, proven, or productive the player may have been in year’s past. But these memories—especially recent ones—often clouds the judgment of a [...]

4
10 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
10 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
11 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 [...]

94
12 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
15 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 [...]

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Game 31/66: Celtics (15-15) @ Mavericks (20-12) Open Thread

Likely no rematch tonight

Boston at Dallas
8:00 P.M. ET
American Airlines Center
TNT

Offensive Efficiency:                                         
Boston: 100.7 points/100 possessions (24th)      
Dallas: 102.1 points/100 possessions (19th)

Defensive Efficiency:
Boston: 98.3 points/100 possessions (3rd)  
Dallas: 
98.5 points/100 possessions (4th)

Probable Dallas Starters: Jason Kidd(PG), Vince Carter (SG), Shawn Marion (SF), Dirk Nowitzki  (PF), Brendan Haywood (C)

View From The Opposing Bench: The Two Man Game

THUMBNAIL: Once again, the C’s will likely be without Kevin Garnett (personal reasons) and Brandon Bass (knee), this time on the second half of a back-to-back against the defending champs. The good news? The Mavs are coming off playing in New York yesterday as well, increasing the odds this will be an ugly matchup between the two aging squads. In order to help get us ready, I did another 3-on-3 with the boys over at ESPN Boston to get ready for this national affair. Be sure to check out the full piece but here’s our thoughts on the biggest worries we have about the Mavs.

1. What worries you most about this game against the Dallas Mavericks?

Payne: Dallas’ defense and overall talent level. The Celtics’ defense, overall, this season, has been very good, but Dallas has so many offensive weapons and they have great length throughout their whole roster. Given the Celtics’ offensive struggles lately, I’m worried about Dallas just smothering them on the defensive end.

Robb: Before yesterday, Dallas had been playing extremely well as of late, rolling off five straight wins over quality opponents. With a refreshed Dirk Nowitzki wreaking havoc on defenses already and the Celtics ill-equipped to stop him without the services of Kevin Garnett, this back-to-back could get ugly in a hurry.

Forsberg: Dallas opponents are shooting a league-worst 41.6 percent from the floor and average a mere 91.2 points per game. For a Boston team struggling to generate any sort of rhythm on offense at the moment, that’s an incredibly daunting obstacle on the second night of a back-to-back. Opponents have shown an ability to get to the free throw line against the Mavericks, but that’s clearly not one of jumper-happy Boston’s strengths at the moment. The Celtics need to be super aggressive this evening if they’re going to score enough to hang around against a team with this many weapons.

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