Offensive Efficiency:
Boston: 98.8 points/100 possessions (18th)
Cleveland: 97.6 points/100 possessions (T-21st)

Defensive Efficiency:
Boston: 95.3 points allowed/100 possessions (3rd)
Cleveland: 101.5 points allowed/100 possessions (22nd)

Key Injuries:
Boston: Rajon Rondo is out.  Ray Allen and Keyon Dooling are both questionable.  And it looks like Jermaine O’Neal is going to give it a go.
Cleveland: Injury free.

UPDATE: Boobie Gibson for Cleveland  is out with a stiff neck.  Ray is going to play.  Rondo and Dooling are out.  Jermaine O’Neal is a true game time decision.  Doc still doesn’t know.

Probable Cleveland Starters: Kyrie Irving (PG), Anthony Parker (SG), Omri Casspi (SF), Antawn Jamison (PF), Anderson Varejao (C)

View From The Opposing Bench: Cavs The Blog

THUMBNAIL

The Celtics get their first look at the number one overall pick Kyrie Irving tonight and I doubt the outing will disappoint.  While I have serious doubts about Irving’s ability to become an elite player, it was cool to see him put up an efficient 32 points against the Nets.  I don’t expect the same kind of production against the C’s.  If Avery Bradley can slow down Jameer Nelson and John Wall it’s only natural to assume he’ll pester to rook’ all evening.

On the injury front, the Celtics look like they’ll be without Rajon Rondo, Keyon Dooling, and Ray Allen.  This is all subject to change but honestly, I hope it doesn’t.  The C’s are rolling right now and the none of those players are going to allow Paul Pierce or Kevin Garnett to play less minutes.  It’s true that with Rondo and Allen back, Pierce won’t be required to be as versatile but he’s still going to be running up and down as much.

As for the Cavaliers, the league’s worst team last season have played much better this season.  They are still going to need some time before the young guys really put it all together but there are definitely reasons to be encouraged (if you’re a Cavs’ fan, of course).  The Cavs have played pretty well in their wins, sporting double-digit point differentials in 6 out of their 7 victories.  They can score and they also give themselves extra opportunities by how well they rebound the ball offensively.  Brian said as much today in ESPN Boston’s 3-on-3:

Varejao is an absolute menace.  He never stops moving and works hard for every board, point, and scrap he can get on the court.  To Cavs fans, he’s the quintessential energy player.  To everyone else, he’s annoying.  The Celtics will need to do everything necessary to contain him.  And I mean everything:

PREDICTION

There’s really no point in betting against the C’s right now with the way they’re rolling.  Couple that with the fact that the Cavs only have one quality win on the season (1/6 against Minnesota) and the C’s should prevail.

Celtics 101, Cavaliers 93

Sometimes when you’re in a crowded locker room with a bunch of other media miscreants, things get hectic.  When things get hectic, maybe you get distracted and have a slip of the tongue.  Maybe you are me.

If that is the case then you tried to ask Avery Bradley about the hard foul he took from Dwight Howard by using the word “shot” instead of “foul” because you’re hip and original.  But because you are also an idiot, you replaced the ‘o’ with an ‘i’ and now you have been completely blacklisted by the Comcast camera guys.

Such is the life of a blogger.  Working tirelessly to improve your reputation while only sabotaging it more.

Other than laughing at my expense (and please do not hold back), Bradley’s contributions during Rajon Rondo’s absence should not only be acknowledged but also admired.

So far, Bradley has had to face Steve Nash, John Wall, and Jameer Nelson.  Each game he has consistently pressured the ball handler, making it enormously harder for the point guard to establish a rhythm.

For everything Bradley lacks on the offensive end, he is consistently making it harder for opponents’ offenses to get set up and run their stuff.  Bradley’s contributions become all the more important when you consider how little the Celtics are getting from E’Twuan Moore right now.

Consider the following: in the past three games, the Celtic’s starting point guards have committed more turnovers than they usually do (Nelson committed 5, averages 2.6; Wall committed 7, averages 4;  Nash committed 4; averages 3.4).  Not a perfect analysis for sure, but definitely food for thought while we watch Bradley going forward.

And after a thoughtful pause, respectfully answered the question:

No, they understand. You know what the Celtics have done for me over my career, I’m more than happy. They kept me this long and I’ve been able to play in a lot of good situations. You gotta understand the business.”

“It’s been a while since I’ve been down that road. But I don’t think about it actually.”

Later, when asked if he felt he would still retire as a Celtic, Pierce responded:

“Of course, I feel that way. Yeah.”

Pretty typical stuff from a guy who’s really been through these types of things before.  The actual transcript does not accurately capture Pierce’s tone.  It could very well have been the fact that the C’s lost to a team they should have beaten.  Or maybe it was because Pierce didn’t play particularly well.   Whatever it was, Pierce seemed a bit beaten.

See video of Pierce’s comments at ESPN Boston.

Toronto at Boston
7:30 PM
TD Garden
CSNNE

Offensive Efficiency:
Boston: 101.1 points/100 possessions (20th)
Toronto: 96.9 points/100 possessions (28th)

Defensive Efficiency:
Boston: 104.2 points/100 possessions (21st)  
Toronto: 103.5 points/100 possessions (17th)

Probable Toronto Starters: Jose Calderon (PG), DeMarr DeRozan (SG), James Johnson (SF),  Ed Davis   (PF), Amir Johnson (C)

Injury Report: Andrea Bargnani (questionable), James Johnson (probable), Aaron Gray (out), Jerryd Bayless (out)

View From The Opposing Bench: Raptors Republic

Don’t let that artist’s rendering of the Toronto Raptors fool you.  These Raptors can dunk zee basketball.  Guys like DeMar “DeDunk” DeRozan and Amir Johnson are high fliers certainly capable of throwing the ball through the hoop with authority.  Now let’s explore what the Raptors don’t do very well.

Here’s a short list:

• score efficiently

• rebound offensively

• block shots

• play fast paced

Guess what the Celtics’ don’t do well?  All of the above.  The Raptors and the Celtics are pretty comparable this season.  Two things the Celtics have going for them:  they can shoot the deep ball and  haven’t lost to Washington.  Toronto can not check off either feat.

WHAT IT MEANS TO THE C’s

I am going to go out on a limb and say the Celtics need to blow the Raptors out tonight.  Not just for their win total.  Not just so everyone will stop talking about major overhauls.  The Celtics need a blow out win to remember what success feels like.  This group has felt a lot of success over the last four years and very few stretches of sustatined suck.  With that in mind, a single-digit win over a Raptors with only 3/5th’s of their starting rotation isn’t going to make the lockerroom any more inviting to meek part-time journalists.

Celtics’ fans should watch this Raptors team with caution.  The Raps have tried to build through the draft and through free agency and have hovered south of .500 for much of their existence.  The C’s may be facing some tough decisions this season but luckily, those don’t need to be made tonight.

Celtics 105, Raptors 82

Would this be considered "up in his grill"?

ESPN Box Score • The Two Man Game • Mavs Moneyball

Offensive Efficiency: 90.4 points/100 possessions (second to league-worst)
Defensive Efficiency: 95.7 points/100 possessions (teetering on the edge of Top-5)
Pace: 94 possessions (exactly average)

WHEREFORE ART THOU OFFENSE?

Many believed that the Celtics would be alright if they could just get back to playing Championship-level defense.  The Celtics were at that level last night and they are still not alright.

There was a moment in last night’s game (alright, two moments but we’ll get to the second one later) where I tweeted something to the effect of, “good offense will ultimately triumph over good defense.”  This was right after a play where Kevin Garnett was blanketing Dirk Nowitzki and the reigning Finals MVP still banked in an off-balance jumper.

The Celtics don’t need Dirk Nowitzki-offense, they just need some semblance of one.  They have shown flashes in the season’s early-going but it has almost come at the expense of the Celtics’ usual defensive intensity.  The Celtics should have  put it all  together by now and taken care of business on most of the non-back-to-backs but alas, they have not.  The fact that the Celtics weren’t on the second half of a back-to-back and the Mavericks were is probably the most depressing about last night’s loss.  The C’s need to be winning these games because they sure as hell won’t be winning many games played in consecutive nights.

IT WASN’T ALL BAD

Okay, I’m done with the pessimism for a bit.  While I will refuse to keep doing the “the Celtics just need one more piece/need to figure out one last thing” song-and-dance if the Celtics don’t find themselves in playoff contention, I will keep it up for now.  It’s still early enough to have hope that the C’s will get it together to make the playoffs, which, I might add, should be the only goal of this regular season.  Forget seeding.  The C’s just need to concentrate on getting in because as it stands right now, they’re clinging to the eighth seed in the East.

Premature playoff implications aside, there really were some positive take-aways.  The Mickael Pietrus era in Boston has officially begun.  I don’t think the C’s could have asked for a better first game from Air France.  As I mentioned in the Rapid Reaction, he got a steal, a dunk, and made a three.  He also, along with Keyon Dooling and Avery Bradley applied really great pressure to the Mavericks’ ball-handlers, pushing them  way beyond the three point line.

Along with the pressure defense, the Celtics also neutralized the Mavericks’ drastic height advantage through shear effort.  At one point, the match-ups consisted of Lamar Odom on Pietrus (6’11″ to 6’6″) and Brandon Bass on Nowitzki (6’8″ to 7’0″).  I don’t have the exact +/- figures but I would be interested to see the actual numbers.  I got the feeling that the Mavericks were trying to take advantage of Odom and Nowitzki post-ups but couldn’t.  Meanwhile on the other end of the court, there were times where Garnett was being guarded by Shawn Marion and KG was able to hit a couple over-the-top turn-arounds.

I glossed over it earlier, but Avery Bradley is an absolute menace on defense.  When I’m at the TDGarden, I’m usually up in the 9th Floor Halo and everything has a different perspective up there.  For example, I saw so many of the Celtics’ shots take weird bounces off the rims.  I’m sure you saw these too from whatever vantage point you had but from up high, I could tell very quickly how inaccurate those shots were.  I could also see how confident Bradley is on the defensive side of the ball.  He keeps his hands active, his butt low, and really stays attached to his opponent.  If his guy has the ball, he is attached to him regardless of how close they are to half court.

STAT’S SCARY

The Celtics shot 28% in the first half, a shooting percentage predominantly cultivated by the aforementioned “in-and-outs”.  It’s mildly encouraging to know that the Celtics were getting good shots in the first half, they just weren’t knocking them down.  It’s incredibly DIScouraging to see that the Celtics only attempted 64 field goals to the Mavericks’ 79.  The Celtics did attempt 32 free throws, but the disparity in field goal attempts still isn’t offset when you factor in the Mavs 25 free throw attempts.

The Celtics were just bad on the offensive end last night, especially the all bench units.  When Doc trots out the all bench units, two things a pretty apparent: 1) Keyon Dooling is there to initiate the offense, and 2) if his opponent makes him give up the ball, no one sets up the offense.

There isn’t really a stat that separates these from other turnovers (at least that I know of) but the Celtics forced the Mavs into a ton of shot-clock violations.  I lost count after five.  It’s nice to see that the Celtics’ defensive intensity remained constant even when they could not make a bucket to save their lives.

SHRUNKEN GARNETT

Did anyone else see KG miss a wide open 13-footer and completely blow a layup in the fourth quarter?  The shot is forgivable because even the best shooters miss.  The layup attempt, on the other hand, is a virtually unexplainable phenomenon that will periodically happen to KG .  The ball will inexplicably fail to travel anywhere after KG releases it.  It’s almost as if Garnett’s X-Men power is to turn composite leather into stone.

HIGHLIGHT GALLERY

3. Mickael Pietrus debuts in the “Abbott and Costello”

I have been trying to come up with a nickname for this play.  It’s just hilarious to watch as Ray Allen and another viable three point shooter spin around the lane setting half picks for each other until one of them decides to break for the three point line.  It’s like musical chairs or a merry-go-round.  I ultimately settled on the “Abbott and Costello” because it’s circuitous and absurd.

Even though Pietrus misses the shot and doesn’t really set a pick for Ray, I included this in the highlights as a kind of prayer for the future.   It seems like an Allen and Pietrus combo in the “Abbott and Costello” will work really well.  We’ll see if it makes an encore on Friday.

2. Keyon Dooling Fouls Roddy B.

From where I was on-high, I could not tell if this was a foul or not.  After watching the replay, I believe it’s pretty clear Dooling grabs Roddy’s shoulder and pulls him down.  The most frustrating thing about the play is the late whistle.  It’s as if the officials have been instructed to wait until the ball either goes in or misses on a 50-50 play and make the call accordingly.  I caught the end of the Miami game when I got home and Dwyane Wade got a similar call in his favor only the whistle blew after he screamed in the refs’ face.  Conspiracy theorists won’t like it, but either it’s a concerted effort or the officials become fans for two seconds before realizing they actually have to make a call.

1.  Last Turnover

It was a tough pass to handle, for sure, but Allen should have been able to collect it.  I’m not sure he would have been able to get a shot off cleanly but he still should have secured the ball.

0.  Momma There Goes That Man

Ryan cut these highlights for me and aptly titled this one “Dirk Nowitzki Will Kill You”.  This doesn’t really need commentary but the one thing I will say is that Brandon Bass was far too late on the help.  C’mon Brandon, you played with Dirk.  You know what he can do.