Logo
The Ticker
8 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
8 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
9 days ago

Danny Ainge Expects Doc Rivers & Kevin Garnett To Return, Unsure About Paul Pierce

A long, challenging offseason awaits Danny Ainge this summer. Before he dives in head first, he joined Salk and Holley on WEEI-FM 93.7 to discuss the multitude of decisions facing him this offseason, as well as the progress of Rajon Rondo in his rehab from ACL surgery. A few of the notable highlights from the interview. Ainge [...]

11
9 days ago

Suns Hire Away Celtics’ Assistant GM Ryan McDonough

In one way or another, there will be change this offseason in Boston. That process started in the past couple days, with the first piece moving out coming as a name most C’s fans might not be familiar with. Yet, it was Celtics’ assistant general manager Ryan McDonough, one of Danny Ainge’s top lieutenants, who [...]

0
10 days ago

Doc Rivers Finishes 13th in Coach of the Year Voting

It was a tough season for the Boston Celtics, and that includes for head coach Doc Rivers. The long-time coach battled to find the right fit for a lot of new pieces that were both underperforming and/or failed to pick up his schemes on both ends of the floor. Naturally, an unfortunate plethora of injuries [...]

23
11 days ago

Overconfident Answers To Offseason Questions (Part 1)

It seems like every offseason since 2010 we’ve been through this: a myriad of questions and concerns about the Celtics’ roster that usually involve the possibility of the core of the team being dismantled. As we head into the summer of 2013, we’ve got a whole batch of questions, many of which will be familiar.  [...]

29
Browse Archives by:

Game 36/66: Knicks (18-18) @ Celtics (18-17)

New York at Boston
1:00 PM
TD Garden
ABC/CSNNE

Offensive Efficiency
Boston: 98.1 points/100 possessions (23rd)
New York: 97.9 points/100 possessions (24th)

Defensive Efficiency
Boston: 96.0 points allowed/100 possessions (4th)
New York: 97.2 points allowed/100 possessions (8th)

Probable New York Starters: Jeremy Shu-How Lin (PG), Landry Fields (SG), Carmelo Kiyan Anthony (SF), Amar’e Carsares Stoudemire (PF), Tyson Cleotis Chandler (C)

View From the Opposing Bench: Knickerblogger

Injury Report
Boston: Jermaine O’Neal is questionable for a change.
New York: None.

The Celtics have the distinction of being the last team to play the Knicks in pre-Lin era. It was February 3rd, the day before Lin humiliated Deron Williams and became a sentient pun. The Celtics squeaked out a two-point victory that day, just as the Knicks had against them in the first game of the season. Seems crazy, but Carmelo Anthony was actually the focal point of the offense back then, rather than Steve Novak. J.R. Smith was busy trying to keep his sister from killing someone in China. Baron Davis’s back was getting better, but he was considering tweaking it again so he wouldn’t have to play on this terrible team.

So in a way, the Celtics deserve credit for Linsanity. They kept that game close enough that Iman Shumpert had to play 42 minutes, the only reason Lin got the time he did the next day. The Celtics also deserve credit, maybe more so, for ignoring an eventual star who played at a college FOUR MILES AWAY.

PREGAME ANALYSIS

Casual basketball fans are all, “Myaaah, the Knicks are so undisciplined! All they care about is putting up points! What happened to fundamentals and defense myaahh myaaaah!”

The Knicks are great at defense, of course. It’s their offense that sucks. Jeremy Lin has, to some extent, turned things around, and they’ve reeled off some terrific scoring performances since he appeared, but they’re still chilling in the league’s bottom third. And since Carmelo Anthony’s return, they’ve posted three of four games of below-average offense, with their only above-average game coming most recently against Cleveland.

So discouraging the offense should be important here. Cutting off their passing lanes for their limited ball movement, smothering Melo when he stops the ball. I imagine Rondo has seen some tape of Lin’s tendencies, and while Pierce vs. Melo is kind of a scary prospect, Pierce tends to gear up on defense for big games and he’ll probably give Melo a few discreet kidney punches in the opening minutes.

Meanwhile, this should be another game in which Rondo is featured prominently. Lin isn’t great at moving laterally or stopping drives, so if KG can clear out Tyson Chandler there should be plenty of opportunities at the rim for Rondo.

PREDICTION

Boston 94, New York 87

 

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>