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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 [...]

18
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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Game 33/66: Celtics (15-17) @ Cavs (13-18)

These days feel so long ago

Boston at Cleveland
7:00 PM
Quicken Loans Arena
CSNNE

Offensive Efficiency
Boston: 100.1 points/100 possessions (26th)
Cleveland: 101.4 points/100 possessions (22nd)

Defensive Efficiency
Boston: 99.1 points allowed/100 possessions (4th)
Cleveland: 105.3 points allowed/100 possessions (22nd)

Probable Cleveland Starters: Kyrie Irving (PG), Anthony Parker (SG), Omri Casspi (SF), Antwan Jamison (PF), Semih Erden (C)

View from the Opposing Bench: Cavs the Blog

Injury Report
Boston:  Jermaine O’Neal is out.
Cleveland: Anderson Varejao is out.

The road back to .500 starts tonight, as the C’s have the young Cavaliers nipping at their heels for the 8th spot in the Eastern Conference. Boston will almost be back to full strength with the returns of Brandon Bass, Chris Wilcox and Rajon Rondo from injuries and suspension respectively. The Cavs will still be without the offensive rebounding machine in Varejao, making tonight’s contest an incredibly winnable one if Kyrie Irving can be held at bay. I wouldn’t put past Semih gobbling up 5+ offensive rebounds tonight either.

Per usual, I caught up with the guys at ESPNBoston for a quick 3-on-3 action and here were our thoughts on tonight’s festivities as well as the Cavs’ as a potential playoff contender. You can check out the full piece at ESPN Boston:

3. These Varejao-less Cavaliers, contenders or pretenders? Who wins tonight?

Payne: The Celtics win on Tuesday. The Cavs have a strong, young nucleus, but Varejao is capable of wreaking havoc on the Celtics more so than anyone else on Cleveland’s roster. Without his rebounding and overall feistiness, Cleveland won’t have its biggest advantage and the C’s prevail.

Robb: Pretenders. Rookie Kyrie Irving is having a tremendous year, and clearly a lot of the younger pieces of this roster have progressed considerably since last season, but let’s not kid ourselves. Talent-wise this isn’t a playoff team with or without Varejao in the improved Eastern Conference and the C’s will take the first step in ensuring that tonight with a hard-fought win on the road on Tuesday.

Forsberg: With a healthy Varejao, I actually think this is a somewhat scary team (maybe not a playoff team, but one that’s going to be enough of a pest to knock off better teams as the Celtics found out during that 11-point rally at the Garden earlier this season). And they have some quality wins lately, topping the Mavericks, Clippers, and Pacers this month. Losing Varejao really hurt their chances to muscle into the playoffs, but they’ll hang around if the rest of the East’s lower seeds don’t get their act together. As for Tuesday night, it’s unfathomable that the Celtics don’t come out inspired and try to get this ship sailing in the right direction. If this team has a desire to make waves this season — and not risk being torn apart at the deadline — it has to start winning games like this immediately.

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