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19 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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Five Things We Saw in Game 5

Five Things We Saw
  1. Another poor shooting night for Rondo, further magnified by a costly turnover in the game’s closing seconds after a nice steal. Blame a hobbling Paul Pierce for not coming back to get the ball perhaps, (although he air-balled a mid-range jumper for the lead just moments earlier) but you have to get some kind of shot up in that instance if you’re Rondo. Great defense by Al Horford cutting off the angle, but as Doc Rivers said postgame, I would have preferred Rondo going up the middle of the floor there where he had more options.
  2. Atlanta shot 6-for-21 in the first quarter, then hit 52 percent of their shots for the final three quarters. It’s hard to complain when you allow just 87 points to a team on the road, but in this case it is warranted. Far too many defensive breakdowns over the final 36 minutes.
  3. Biggest red flag about Pierce’s line? 0 free throws. If not catching iron on a potential game-winning shot with under a minute left wasn’t big enough of a concern for you, the lack of trips to the line should be. Pierce had feasted on manufacturing points at the charity stripe in this series, but when the turnovers return (14 last night) and the free throws aren’t there (just 15 for the team) it’s an issue.
  4. Speaking of issues, this Horford guy is going to be one for the remainder of the series, particularly on the glass. The C’s had held their own on the defensive end for the first 4 games with their rebounding, but with Horford and Josh Smith wreaking havoc, and Pierce banged up, Boston was exploited on Game 5 in this area. They will need to clean this up if they want to finish the Hawks without incident.
  5. Close-out games on the road. They just don’t happen too often in the NBA, and especially for this particular roster. 2008 in Detroit and last year in New York are the only times they’ve finished the job in a series-clinching game away from TD Garden. So don’t be too alarmed that Boston failed to close the deal last night. However, Atlanta presents a new host of challenges with Horford back, so this will not necessarily be a walk-over in Game 6. C’s will have to come out and step on the throat of Hawks to avoid risking another trip to Atlanta.

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