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A Team I Recognize: C’s 94, Rockets 87

March 19th, 2010

Pace: 89 possessions (slow)

Offensive Efficiency: 105.6 points/100 possessions (below average)

Defensive Efficiency: 100 points allowed/100 possessions

Thumbnail: It felt a bit like 2008, as the Big Three combined for 60 points on 23-of-42 shooting and the C’s played one of their best defensive games of the season in a solid road win. The bench was solid, the energy was high and the C’s showed resiliency after Houston opened the 2nd half on an 11-2 run to tie the game. Rajon Rondo scored two points and the C’s still controlled the game. Paul Pierce scored 15 in the 4th to put the game away.

This was a good way to start a tough nine-game stretch.

Recap: Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. This was the first game of a brutal nine-game stretch. The C’s committed 28 fouls (their 6th-highest total of the season), allowed nine offensive rebounds in the 1st half and coughed the ball up three times in the early part of the 3rd quarter to help Houston get back in the game.

But this looked like the team that started the season 23-5. I rarely comment on whether the team looks energized or lazy; I don’t trust myself, watching from the couch, to make that sort of judgement in most games. It seems too likely that I’ll allow how the game goes to color my judgement about the team’s effort. But tonight I’ll make an exception. » More: A Team I Recognize: C’s 94, Rockets 87

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Posted in Game Recaps

Friday Notebook: Pierce’s Recovery, The Five Most Hated Celtics, Screeners and the Strangest Sentence Written About the C’s This Year

March 19th, 2010

Happy Friday.

• Doc did his weekly interview on WEEI Thursday, and this excerpt on Paul Pierce stood out to me more than anything else he said:

We had to change our offense a little bit when he came back, because he was struggling to beat guys. We were using a lot of pick-and-rolls with Paul, using a lot of pin-downs with Paul, and those are things we usually things we don’t have to do. We usually can use basic, and we’re starting to get back to that.

I had two clashing reactions to this. The first: Paul Pierce is getting older, and this is the exact sort of thing the team should be doing to help Pierce on offense! And then this: There are only 24 seconds on the shot clock, and if you’re running off the ball action for Pierce, that means you’re not running it as often for Ray Allen or someone else.

There must be a balance, right? Either way, I’ll be keeping a closer eye on how the C’s integrate Pierce into the offense tonight and toward the end of the season.

• Terry Foster of the Detroit News devoted some of his column Thursday to arguing that the Celtics are finished as contenders. That’s a perfectly rational argument considering the C’s are just 20-19 since Christmas. But the column contains what might be the single most bizarre sentence written about the C’s this season. » More: Friday Notebook: Pierce’s Recovery, The Five Most Hated Celtics, Screeners and the Strangest Sentence Written About the C’s This Year

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Posted in Notebook

Nate Robinson: Boorish Clown or Righteously Angry?

March 18th, 2010

You decide (via the NY Daily News, who put the story of my beloved Sandra Bullock’s cheating husband on the front page this morning. I told you, Sandra! If it weren’t for the restraining order, you’d realize that what we both has been right in front of us all along!):

Nate Robinson rose from his seat on the Celtics bench, looked at Mike D’Antoni and began clapping.

Lil’ Him wasn’t honoring his former coach Wednesday night as much as he was taunting him. With Boston building a 27-point third-quarter lead over the Knicks, Robinson twice made it a point to show that he was enjoying D’Antoni’s misery.

First of all, I hate the nickname Lil’ Him or L’il Him or, really, Lil’ anything. Second, I’m not totally anti-Nate here. In general, it drives me crazy when fringe NBA players carry on about meaningless accomplishments, and scoring 8 points in a blowout win against a horrible team fits the definition of “meaningless.”

» More: Nate Robinson: Boorish Clown or Righteously Angry?

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Posted in Commentary

This Could Be Interesting

March 18th, 2010

If you believe in regular season tests and the importance of getting into a nice groove before the playoffs, you should probably start watching the Celtics now.

Here comes the toughest prolonged stretch of the schedule this season:

3/19: @ Houston (35-31)

3/20: @ Dallas (46-22)

3/22: @ Utah (44-24)

3/24: vs Denver (46-22)

3/26: vs Sacramento (23-45)

3/28: vs San Antonio (40-26)

3/31: vs Oklahoma City (41-25)

4/2: vs Houston (35-31)

4/4: vs Cleveland (54-15)

Yikes. That’s nine games against teams with a combined 364-241 (.601) record. Sure, six of those games are at home, but a) these are really good teams; and b) we all know what Boston has done at home this season.

So what’s the verdict: Does this stretch constitute a referendum on how good this team is right now? Are you looking for proof they can hang with the good teams? Or is this just another string of irrelevant regular-season games before the post-season starts?

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Posted in Commentary

The Popularity of the Beast

March 18th, 2010

He turns the ball over a lot. He can’t really shoot foul shots. He’s grouchy, ranks 3rd in the league in technicals and slumped through much of January and February.

But C’s fans feel a great deal of affection for Perk, and anecdotes like this one (from Doc Rivers regarding Paul Pierce’s explosion last night) explain a lot of that affection (via ESPNBoston.com).

“There was a play right before they came out [of the game] where we should’ve thrown it to [Kendrick Perkins], and Perk said, ‘No, I told Paul to just keep being aggressive, we’ve got to get him back aggressive.’ So it’s great when everybody recognizes that.”