Logo
The Ticker
7 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
7 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
8 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
9 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
12 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
12 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
Browse Archives by:

Game 14: Celtics (7-6) @ Magic (5-7) Open Thread

Boston @ Orlando
6:00 PM
Amway Center
CSNNE

Offensive Efficiency:
Boston: 105.6 points/100 possessions (11th)
Orlando: 97.8 points/100 possessions (29th)

Defensive Efficiency:
Boston: 107.0 points/100 possessions (24th)  
Orlando: 101.4 points/100 possessions (4th)

Probable Magic Starters: Jameer Nelson (PG),  Aaron Afflalo (SG), Moe Harkless (SF),Glen Davis (PF), Nikola Vucevic(C)

View From The Opposing Bench: Magic Basketball

THUMBNAIL

The Celtics arrive in Orlando tonight to face a Magic squad riding a bit of momentum themselves, with a two-game winning streak in hand, during a five-game home stand for Jacque Vaughn’s crew. Most fans will paying attention to former Celtic and now Magic captain Big Baby tonight, but keep your eyes on Celtic castoff E’Twaun Moore as well. The former Purdue star who Danny Ainge dumped to acquire Courtney Lee in July, has been quite an offensive threat for Orlando early, playing point guard off the bench and also filling in quite well for an injured Jameer Nelson a few weeks back as well.

Moore is averaging just over 10 points per game, is shooting nearly 44 percent from beyond the arc  all while playing just under 30 minutes per game. After being glued to the bench for the majority of the 2011-12 season under Doc Rivers, expect Moore to be itching to prove the C’s wrong for choosing to trade him away this offseason.

As far as the team matchup goes, Orlando should be an interesting test for Boston on both sides of the floor. They boost a top-5 defense to date, which is somewhat misleading due to an easy early schedule. Boston will have plenty of matchups to exploit against Orlando all over the floor, but Harkless guarding Pierce will be an interesting matchup to watch as athleticism faces off with a veteran’s savvy.

On the other side of the floor, the Magic really do struggle to put the ball in the basket. Boston took some baby steps forward in their defensive effort against the explosive Thunder Friday night, but tonight will be a good test against an inferior defensive team to see if Boston can sustain their momentum and limit their mistakes on the defensive end.

 Prediction: Celtics 98, Magic 88

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>