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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.

Celtics Pistons Recap

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The Celtics lost for the third time in four games against the Detroit Pistons Wednesday 98-88. Ben Gordon was the difference as he came off the bench for 22 points, including a 4-6 effort from 3 in the fourth quarter to put away the Celtics. Kevin Garnett sat out the game with a sore left hip, Chris Wilcox started in his place. The Celtics were outscored 25-16 in the fourth quarter as the Pistons pulled away by going on a 14-4 run to start the 20120216-130547.jpgfourth quarter on the backing of 3 quick Gordon 3’s. Rondo finished the night with 35 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists, and 4 steals, but was held without a basket and only put up one shot during the 14-4 run.

Chris Wilcox shot 8-12 from the field and had 17-9 in his spot-start for KG. Jermaine O’Neal in his first game back from the injured shoulder had 1 point, 2 rebounds, and 2 blocks. Jujuan Johnson had 10 points in 25 minutes but seems to be a step outside his comfort range. Ray only had 8 free throws in the first quarter and one basket in the second, he finished with 10 points. Rodney Stuckey, Greg Monroe and Ben Gordon scored 69 out of the Pistons 98 points.

Extra Notes

Doc said that Kevin Garnett looked “great” in the morning shootaround; Bill Russell was in the stands for the game; Rondo and Wilcox had two more alley-oops last night; the Celtics play the Pistons again at Detroit this Sunday; from ESPN.com, the Celtics have held their last 26 opponents under 100 points. Other than Ben Gordon, the Pistons scored 7 points from their bench.

Avery Bradley Alert

Avery played nine minutes last night and was largely ineffective from the floor. He left Gordon wide open for a 3 and was immediately pulled in the fourth. Hopefully he’ll have a bounce back game against the Bulls.

The Celtics play the Bulls tonight at 8:00 PM in Chicago. Look for a preview later on today.

 

Celtics Bulls Recap

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20120213-132449.jpgCeltics come up with a big win over the Derrick Rose-less Chicago Bulls as they win 95-91. Rajon Rondo led the way for the Celtics as he had 32 points, 10 rebounds, and 15 assists. His constant pace pushed the Celtics to 33 fast break points as he controlled the flow of the game. Rondo played with an attitude that hasn’t been seen for the last few games as he really took it at the Bulls. I couldn’t tell if either he had been ripped into by Doc after the last game or if he was really offended that Rose wasn’t playing. It almost seemed as to Rondo that playing against the likes of C.J. Watson and John Lucas was insulting to him and he was punishing the Bulls for it.

Celtics continued their 3-point shooting woes as they went 3-13 from the field, but hit two huge threes in the fourth quarter to keep the Bulls at bay. Maybe not in the best interests of the Bulls, but with Rose out Watson and Lucas shot the ball 32 times. After Luol Deng had 21 points and 16 rebounds in the first game he was held to 10 points and 5 rebounds.

The Celtics will look to make it 2 in a row as they take on the Pistons on Wednesday at 7:30.

Extra Notes: Derrick Rose missed his second straight game with a sore back; Brandon Bass is going to be out until all-star break with a sore knee; Stiemsma played only five minutes but had a major impact as his block led to a Rondo And-1,but he was shafted on the high five with Rondo; Keyon Dooling played after missing the last 9 games; Rondo tried to turn the Celtics into the east coast version of lob city last night by throwing alley-oops to both Jujuan Johnson and Chris Wilcox.

Avery Bradley Alert: Bradley played eight minutes, great defense on C.J. Watson who kept forcing up bad shots during the time Bradley was in. Bradley shot 2-4 from the field for 4 points, had 1 block, and two rebounds.

 

Celtics Lakers Recap

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Tough loss for our guys last night as they had two chances to win the game, one at the end of regulation and one at the end of overtime. Comes down to the Celtics age-old question, is it OK to live and die by Pierce isolation as the clock winds down. It’s tough to keep giving it to Pierce on isolations if he is not healthy enough to get to his spot at the top of the key. Sooner or later the ball is going to end up in Rondo’s hand with him running maybe a pick and roll with Garnett or Bass and finding the open man. The stagnant offense is tough to look at end of games, especially since Doc is known as one of the games premier last second play coaches. Ray Allen again played great defense on Kobe, even though Kobe put up 27 points, Ray made him work for each bucket and the ones he had in the fourth didn’t come easy. The big Achilles of the Celtics all year has been giving up offensive rebounds to opposing teams. Last night the Celtics gave up 15 offensive rebounds with 7 to Bynum and 4 to Gasol, including two huge tip ins with 9 seconds left in regulation and then the game winning basket in overtime by Bynum. In the end it comes down to boxing out your man, something that’s taught from when you first start playing basketball. Gasol shouldn’t be able to snake his way in through four Celtics and get that tip.

Celtics shot just 6-19 from 3 and only 39.2% from the field. Allen led the team in scoring with 22 points as he was 9-22 from the field. Pierce had another great night as he had 18-9-7 with a big three in OT to put the Celts up with two minutes left in OT. The Lakers shot 1-15 from three and only 39.6% from the field. Derek Fisher was extremely ineffective as he went 0-7 with 1 rebound and 2 assists. Avery Bradley did not see the court in a game where I was interested in how he would be able to guard Kobe.

Celtics will look to bounce back today against the Raptors as the second part of their back to back.

Extra notes: Shout out to Paul Pierce as he was named to the All Star team. On this day last year Ray Allen became the NBA all team leading three point shooter passing Reggie Miller. Rondo, Pierce, and Allen all played over 40 minutes. Greg Stiemsma, Jujuan Johnson, and Avery Bradley all  received DNP’s.

 

Celtics Win and Pierce Makes History

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Celtics pull out a relatively easy W over the Bobcats as they win 94-84. Garnett led the team in scoring as he had 22 on 10-15 shooting. Rondo had his second straight night with 14 assists and also put up 10 points. Bobcats shot 45% from the field which was helped by Derrick Brown’s 10-10 night shooting. Jujuan Johnson played only 2 minutes after playing 22 the night before.

But the night was all about Paul Pierce. While he had a relatively poor shooting night by his standards, 6-18 for 15 points, he again led the Celtics +/- ratio with a second straight game of over +26. You could tell Pierce wanted to get it over with, he started out the game well, but missed two open three’s to clinch it. The fans almost willed the first one in, but we had to wait until after halftime for Pierce to go down in the books. He drained hist first shot after halftime to become the Celtics second all-time leading scorer. Rondo assisted on the memorable basket as he ran underneath the hoop and kicked it to an open Pierce for three.

Pierce on what it would mean to catch Havlicek. “Records are great, but it would mean more to me and the fans if we won another championship, so that’s my goal.”

Extra Notes: 12th straight game for Pierce with five or more assists. Always a great night when Tommy screams into the microphone, “THIS IS STUPID”. Pavlovic played 7 minutes, airballed a three and let a rebound through his legs and wasn’t seen again. Stiemsma played 2 minutes and had 2 points, 1 block, and 1 forced travel.

Kobe comes to Boston this week as the Celtics take on the Lakers Thursday at 8:00 PM.

Grief at the Garden

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At this point, most people have written off the Celtics. “They’re just too old.” Well I still have faith that not all will be lost this season. There’s still time to turn it around. Regardless, last night’s game was one of the more aggravating C’s games this year. I’m not saying this because they lost to the Cavs, although that hurts too, but because we had the win in the palm of our hands. Up 11 points in the 4th quarter, the Celts let Cleveland go on a 12-0 run to finish off the game and win 88-87 with two seconds left. One single basket would have made the difference. We just can’t score, even against teams like the Cavs who let up close to 100 points a game. Again, our defense is solid. We’re pressuring teams and not letting up easy buckets. Avery Bradley has stepped up big time in Rondo’s absence, constantly down opponents’ throats on defense. The C’s just need to find their rhythm offensively. It’s there, somewhere in the mix of great basketball players in the Celtics lineup. The true test will be how they bounce back against the same Cavs team tomorrow night. After all, they have been hot as of late, winning four straight before losing last night.

Celtics Head to South Beach

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The Celts are taking their talents to South Beach tonight as they prepare to take on Lebron and the Heat. Pretty much everyone has already counted the C’s out. I mean the spread is -10.5 in favor of Miami. I’m not going to sit here and pretend to talk like the Celtics should win, but I don’t think it’s going to be as much of a massacre as everyone is making out to be. Christmas Day we saw what the Celtics are capable of. They can play. Granted, we also saw the Heat man handle the defending champion Mavs right after. But then again, the Nuggets just smoked them last night too so I feel a little better about it. If Rondo comes out firing, takes control of the offense and Brandon Bass steps up again, I could see this being a close game. Only thing that’s rough for the C’s is they’ll be once again without Pierce, and Pietrus isn’t going to start until Friday, leaving a questionable defense to cover Lebron and Wade. I guess it could go either way. Regardless, the Celtics can’t sit back early on because the Heat are not the Knicks. If we don’t show up right away, they won’t let us in.