Monthly Archives: February 2012

Thornton Embodies the Black and Gold

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20120220-145108.jpgIf Shawn Thornton is not one of your favorite Bruins players then you probably are not a big fan of hockey. This guy is laying his ass on the line night in and night out. In terms of skill he is limited. But he is willing to out-work, out-hussle, and out-physical other players. I’m glad Claude brought the fourth line (Campbell, Paille, Thornton) back together against the Wild, because they bring an energy this team has clearly lacked since the calendar flipped to 2012.

 

Check out Shawn’s fight against a much bigger Matt Kassian (6’4” 232 lbs) who keeps his helmet on for the whole fight. Thornton hangs in after a quick start by Kassian and gets a few shots in. He is literally not afraid of any player in the NHL, but he knows the right time to get involved. Claude trusts his judgement and usually Thornton rewards him with a well-timed fight that raises the energy of the rest of the team to where it needs to be. He is a throwback hockey player that is fun to watch. Next time you are watching a B’s game, pay attention when the fourth line comes out and you will see constantly these guys out working the other team.

College Weekend Recap

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It was a good day to watch college basketball on Saturday with barely anything else on as a Boston sports fan.  #14 Murray State was able to beat #16 Saint Mary’s by double digits,  while #1 Kentucky, #5 Kansas, & #7 North Carolina were all able to do the same in their games.  #6 Ohio State was upset by rival #19 Michigan 56-51.  #15 San Diego St was also upset for the 3rd straight game against Air Force.

On Sunday, there were few good games on.  For a while, unranked Rutgers was able to keep it close against #2 Syracuse but the Orange proved to be too much in the Big Ten conference battle as they beat them by 10.  #4 Duke also ran right over BC with a final score of 75-50.

March Madness is right around the corner!

Celtics-Pistons Recap

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Celtics lost their third straight game, second in under a week to the Detroit Pistons, 96-81. Kevin Garnett did not play due to personal reasons in his family. Rajon Rondo was also ejected in the 3rd quarter after the referees missed a layup where he was clearly hacked. He got up and had some choice words for the referee, which got him the first technical. As the ref was signaling the technical, Rondo threw an underhand chest pass to the ref. Unlike the assist that usually follows, Rondo was ejected from the game and the Celtics were left down 13 without their motor.

Nice to see Paul in a little bit more of an attack mode tonight, especially when the Celtics were trailing in the fourth quarter. The ref’s weren’t giving a lot of calls but he was getting into the paint and getting his shots off. He had 18 points on 6-11 shooting. Before the ejection, Rondo was 1-6 with 5 points and 10 assists. Pistons outshot the Celtics from the line 46 to 15. The Celtics committed 22 turnovers and gave up 31 points of their turnovers. The Pistons were all over the place tonight, they went to a 3 guard lineup for a majority of the game. The players were just ball hawking all night and the Celtics were way to lazy passing the ball.

The Celtics have the 3rd game of their 5 game road trip at Dallas tomorrow night 8:00.

Extra Notes:

Tommy was so angry after the game that he wouldn’t appear on the initial postgame show. He later said that “I can’t blame Rondo, but he’s going to lose a lot of money for a simple pass to the Referee”. Rodney Stuckey had the same amount of free throws as the Celtics; Game could have been a lot worse, the Pistons missed 17 free throws;

Avery Bradley Alert

Avery Bradley played relatively well tonight; he was 3-8 from the floor with 7 points and 2 assists. While his defense at one or two points was overaggressive from his defense, he still played well and pushed the pace for the Celtics. I would like to see him help set the tone of the game earlier as he did in the Magic games this season. Nice stat from Comcast sports network, when Bradley plays +10 minutes, the Celtics are 13-4.

Celtics Pistons Preview

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The Celtics look for revenge against the pistons today at 6:00 in Detroit. The Pistons won the last game Wednesday 98-88. Detroit is on a hot stretch as they won 6 of their last 8 after starting the season 4-20. The Celtics are now 15-14 on the season as they look to rebound from losses to the Bulls and Pistons. This season the Celts are 4-6 on the road and the Pistons are 7-10 at home.

Rondo cooled off a little after two straight games of +30 points, he had 17against the Bulls. Kevin Garnett had 18 and 10 in his first game back from a hip flexor. The Pistons are coming off of a win against the Kings where they were paced by Rodney Stuckey’s 36 points. Brandon Knight their rookie had a double-double with 23 points and 10 assists. The Celtics have to make sure that they find Ben Gordon after he went 4-6 from 3 in the 4th quarter the last time they played.

According to Synergy Sports, the Celtics have the 3rd rank defense and the 9th ranked offense. The Pistons have the 29th ranked defense and the 27th ranked offense. The Celtics should look to use their advantage off of screens to Ray Allen and even Mickael Pietrus. The Pistons rank 27th in defending screens. The Pistons are also the 30th best team in the NBA at defending isolations. The Celtics should look to spread and let Paul and Rondo have a little one-on-one  fun.

Wakefield Calls It Quits

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Forty-five year old knuckleballer Tim Wakefield has just announced his retirement. Although many Sox fans saw this coming, it is going to be a weird sight this year without Timmy coming out of the pen or pitching every fifth day in the rotation. Through his 19 year career, he played 17 years with the Red Sox and contributed many great memories during his tenure. He was never the most talented pitcher in the league, but he never complained and helped the squad in every way he could. His rubber arm was crucial during spot starts in the dog days of the summer when other starters were injured or needed a rest. He won 200 games and had 2156 K’s in his long career, and also had 22 saves. Although he will never make it into the Hall of Fame, what he gave to the Red Sox organization in the last 17 years can never be replaced and I hope someday his number hangs with Teddy Ballgame and the others in Fenway Park.

In honor of Timmy, sadly we won’t be seeing this knuckleball anytime soon.

 

J.R. Smith NY

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With the emergence of Jeremy Lin, the Knicks have been on a seven game winning streak. Now it looks like their getting some more help. All signs point to J.R. Smith signing with the New York Knicks over the Clippers and other teams in contention. The Knicks can offer him the most money 2.5 million dollar mid-level exception pro-rated from February 10th. As of last week it was looking like Jeremy Lin was going to be the cut to make way for Smith but we all know now that isn’t happening. All signs point to Mike Bibby as being the cut for the Knicks. If he signs then the question goes to where does J.R. fit with the Knicks. Is he their starting shooting guard or does he come off the bench as a 6th man. He would be replacing Landry Fields in the starting lineup. This presents a challenge for all teams in the NBA east as the Knicks now have a top five guys as good as any. People know about J.R. Smith’s ability to shoot and score, but when motivated he is one of the premier defenders in the NBA. The only question is whether or not they can find enough shots for this many shooters. Look for Lin’s points per game to take a major dip but assists to rise to 10-15 area. Time will tell if this is a good fit, I always thought he should have gone to the Clippers.

 

Bruins Winnipeg tonight @ 8

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The team received some depressing news today, Rich Peverley will be out 4-6 weeks with a knee injury sustained during the Canadiens game. It was the result of a knee-to-knee collision with former B’s defenseman Hal Gill. His speed and playmaking ability will be missed but others are going to have to step up. Let’s see if the Bruins can get some momentum in the right direction after a nice win vs. the Habs. I’m expecting a strong performance from them tonight as they continue there six game road trip. Look for Pouliot to have a nice game as he is starting to gel nicely with Krejci and Looch.

In other news, Brad Marchand won’t be subject to a hearing with NHL principal Brendan Shanahan for his 2nd period hip check/clip in Montreal. No doubt he likes to play on the edge.

Projected Lineup:

Brad Marchand-Patrice Bergeron-Tyler Seguin
Milan Lucic-David Krejci-Benoit Pouliot
Josh Hennessy-Chris Kelly-Jordan Caron
Daniel Paille-Gregory Campbell-Shawn Thornton

Zdeno Chara-Johnny Boychuk
Dennis Seidenberg-Joe Corvo
Andrew Ference-Adam McQuaid

Tuukka Rask
Tim Thomas

Celtics Bulls Recap

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The Celts losing streak reaches two games as they fall to the Chicago Bulls 89-80. The Celtics season long problems came back to haunt them as they were out-rebounded by the Bulls 52-37 and gave up 16 offensive rebounds. They were held to just 12 fast break points as opposed to the 33 they put up against the Bulls just this past week. After being down 16 at one point in the early 3rd quarter, the Celtics fought and clawed their way back with a 22-7 run to take a 61-60 lead. The big surprise of the game was Mike James, who the Bulls just signed to a 10-day contract. He came off the bench in the 4th quarter as the Celtics were making their comeback and completely changed the game for the Bulls. He scored 8 points and had 4 assists in his 17 minutes and had the best +/- of any player on the court. His defense on Rondo was far superior to the play of John Lucas and will likely get minutes in the following games.

Rondo had another effective night with his 18 points, 7 rebounds, and 8 assists, but he found the ball in his hand too late in the shot clock a few too many times and was forced to take shots that are not part of his game. A lot of credit is due to the Chicago defense. Kevin Garnett had an efficient double-double as he scored 18 points on 7-13 shooting with 10 rebounds. Ray Allen shot 3-8 from 3, all of them coming during the Celtics third quarter run. The Bulls were led by Deng and Boozer with 23 points each.

Extra Notes:                                                         

Noah had 16 rebounds, 8 of them offensive; Kyle Korver missed all 5 of his 3’s; During their run, the Celtics went mostly to a 2-3 zone, something Doc doesn’t like to pull out very often, it was also the cause for their downfall as Mike James picked them apart in the 4th; Derrick Rose missed his fourth straight game with a bad back.

Avery Bradley Alert:

Avery didn’t give us much to talk about last night, playing four minutes and missing his only shot. In a low scoring game against a team like the Bulls I would like to see some defense out there. Hurts to see Keyon Dooling out there for 9 minutes when Bradley’s losing the burn.

Piggyback Anyone??

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At Century High School in North Dakota last week, plenty of fans were in attendance to watch their schools’ basketball teams go at it. One man, who is 5’8 240 pounds, named Sherwin Shayegan, decided to get a little more into the game. He showed up in a full uniform of the visiting team, acted like he was handicapped, and got water for the team. He even began to give the players back massages.

After the game was over, Sherwin went out to celebrate with the team and asked for a piggyback ride. One player actually gave him one! In fact, this is not his first rodeo (no pun intended). He is known as the “Piggyback Bandit”. His piggyback rides can be traced back to 2008 and have happened in Washington, Oregon, Montana, North Dakota, and Minnesota. How has he not gotten in trouble yet?

He has even tried to pay for piggyback rides too. He gets close to them by playing it off like he has an illness, writing term papers, acting team manager, and even just used the crowd to blend in as an every day fan.

Patriots Offseason: Tight Ends

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The Patriots clearly do not need to address the tight end position this offseason. With Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez the Pats have two of the top tight ends in all of football. Gronkowski is not only an elite pass-catching tight end; he is also one of the best blockers at his position. I’m sure the Patriots will carry three tight ends on the roster so expect them to go after a veteran as more of a blocking presence to throw out their on the occasional running down. I’m sure the Patriots will be looking to give the tight end tandem some new contracts very soon. Whether or not that will happen this off-season has yet to be determined, but either way Hernandez and Gronkowski have earned themselves a serious payday. If healthy; the Patriots will enter the 2012 season with by far the best tight end tandem in the NFL.