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8 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
8 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
9 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 [...]

93
10 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
13 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
13 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
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High Quality Win: Celtics 94, Clippers 85

Posted by on Mar 13, 2012 7 comments

Boston Celtics 94 FinalRecap | Box Score 85 Los Angeles Clippers
Paul Pierce, SF 31 MIN | 7-16 FG | 8-10 FT | 3 REB | 7 AST | 25 PTS | +19
Pierce was really aggressive tonight and didn’t settle for off balance jumpers. Instead, he took jumpers that were given to him, made some great back door cuts and freed himself right under the basket for some easy layups.  He also played pretty well in crunch time.
Brandon Bass, PF 30 MIN | 5-6 FG | 0-0 FT | 9 REB | 0 AST | 10 PTS | +11
Bass was really over-matched (at least height-wise) against Blake Griffin. How did he respond? By putting up a near double-double and snagging three huge offensive rebounds.
Kevin Garnett, PF 34 MIN | 8-16 FG | 5-5 FT | 8 REB | 3 AST | 21 PTS | +17
KG Garnett really gutted out a big performance tonight. He fought the young Clipper big men all night and hit every shot he needed for the Celtics to win.
Ray Allen, SG 40 MIN | 5-12 FG | 3-4 FT | 4 REB | 1 AST | 15 PTS | +8
There’s no way to sugar coat this: Allen looked old tonight. I am waiting for Allen to play like he did to start the season. You remember? When he looked like he was wearing a Bucks jersey? I don’t think the ankle injury is serious, but it will definitely speed up the aging process.


Early on, Allen and Eric Bledsoe looked like they were trying to convince their irrespective GMs that they weren’t worth a trade.  No one’s buying it, guys.
Rajon Rondo, PG 41 MIN | 4-8 FG | 4-4 FT | 2 REB | 10 AST | 12 PTS | +6
Rajon Rondo didn’t put up his usual numbers, but he gets credit for making Chris Paul invisible (5 assists and 14 points on 3-of-12 shooting). He made a concerted effort to stay in front of Paul and push him a few feet behind the three point line. Rondo seemed to will his team at times, forcing his teammates to push the pace; exuded leadership tonight.


Play of the Night: Ray Allen posts Mo Williams midway through the fourth. KG tries several entry passes but Ray fails to establish good position. Ball winds up in Rondo’s hands while KG hangs around the perimeter. Rondo screams at KG to go pick down on Ray. The Clippers are so concerned with the mismatch that KG slips the screen and gets right to the rim. Rondo delivers the perfect pass for a KG dunk. Clippers are late rotating back and foul KG on the dunk. Hoop and the harm. 10 point lead.
Keyon Dooling, PG 4 MIN | 0-0 FG | 0-0 FT | 0 REB | 0 AST | 0 PTS | -4
Oh hey Keyon! Oh, okay. Bye Keyon!
Sasha Pavlovic, SF 1 MIN | 0-0 FG | 0-0 FT | 0 REB | 0 AST | 0 PTS | 0
Pavlovic played a very valuable role in the first quarter. He prevented Paul Pierce from logging his 32nd minute. And he wore awesomely bright green shoes while he did it.
Mickael Pietrus, SF 28 MIN | 1-5 FG | 1-2 FT | 3 REB | 1 AST | 3 PTS | -9
I was so tempted to give Pietrus an A- tonight but I was afraid of what fans of offensive basketball would do to me in the comments section (that’s right, you control EVERYTHING I DO!). Sure, he still can’t find his three point shot. He still made huge contributions on the defensive end and in transition. If Pietrus did not play, I’m not sure who else would be in there to rebound from the wing and defend three different positions. Pavlovic maybe? Scary thought.
Greg Stiemsma, C 22 MIN | 1-1 FG | 0-0 FT | 2 REB | 1 AST | 2 PTS | -10
Sure he was a -10 and hardly registered a positive stat, but he played tough and did not back down or get discouraged by how rough Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan were inside. I loved seeing the Stiemah not back down when faced with the cold brown lakes (BLakes?) that are Blake Griffin’s eyes (he stares too much).
Avery Bradley, SG 7 MIN | 2-3 FG | 2-2 FT | 0 REB | 1 AST | 6 PTS | +7
I really wish Bradley got a little more burn in this game but I can understand why he didn’t. The game was so back and forth, it was hard to find a moment to fit him in. In the end, that dunk was AWESOME.

Four Things We Saw

  1. The Celtics applied great defensive pressure tonight. They pushed the Clipper’ wing players out past the three point line. They pushed the dynamic Clipper’ big men far off the blocks. They forced very timely turnovers by the unrelenting pressure. They forced the Clippers to shoot a shade over 37%.  It was to see Celtic defense for a change.
  2. The Celtics were terrible with their entry passes tonight. Lots of slow, high bouncing balls that were easily stolen. The Celtics only had 14 turnovers, but the Clippers had 10 steals.
  3. Like the Lakers did last night, the Celtics really exploited their mismatches. The Clippers switch on nearly every pick-and-roll. Knowing this, the Celtics ran pick-and-rolls with whomever were guarding Chris Paul or Mo Williams. It was beautiful.
  4. The officials were… well, you know. I will say that they were fair in their terribleness. Did you see KG blatantly grab DeAndre Jordan’s wrist on a dunk attempt? And then on the ensuring outlet, it sure looked like Chris Paul had a clean steal. Whatever your thoughts are on the officials, the one silver lining was the physicality with which they allowed these teams to play; just beautiful to see.

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