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14 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 [...]

3
9 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
11 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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Friday Night Smackdown: Kings 120 Celtics 95

Boston Celtics 95 Final
Recap | Box Score
120 Sacramento Kings

Four Things We Saw

  1. In games as lopsided as this, individual grades are misleading but the collective team defense gets an F. The Celtics turned the ball over too much (19 times) and allowed 52 points in the paint (an improvement over the 60 they surrendered to Golden State but terrible nonetheless). They never overcame the energy deficit against the Kings, who are athletic enough to get out and run and finish (32 fast break points).
  2. Kevin Garnett was in foul trouble tonight because he was matched up with the man-child that is DeMarcus Cousins. He did a credible job and even baited Cousins into a few fouls. But the game should serve as a warning. The Celtics already struggle to protect the rim and rebound. If they lose KG to early fouls in a playoff game, it’s almost inconceivable they’ll win the game, especially because the perimeter defense continues to be a problem. You can only rotate so much when you have problems in the paint and on the perimeter.
  3. Ray Allen had 26 points on 9-16 shooting. It was clear early that the Kings were not going to stick to him and because he got good looks, he knocked the shots down. But the Celtics didn’t take enough advantage of that. Allen’s offense suffers when he can’t get separation. Good teams stick to him now and bad teams don’t. That’s usually the determining factor in whether or not Allen does damage. Of course, Sacramento is not a good team but that didn’t matter tonight…
  4. Rajon Rondo decided to sleepwalk through this one. That’s two soft games in a row for RR. Brandon Bass had 1 rebound in 32 minutes or the same number that JaJuan Johnson had in 5 minutes. Greg Stiemsma is not an NBA player.

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