Celtics Central

Welcome everyone…. to Celtic Nation.

The new look Celtics wrapped up their first real competition with a win.

The Boston Celtics were in Rome all week to practice and to get ready to play the Toronto Raptors. The game went off today and the Celtics, led by their new triple threat…or triple treat depending on what side you’re watching from, put away last year’s Atlantic Division leader. The final score was 89-85.

This game was what seemed like a long awaited debut of the three headed Celtic monster named Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce. Just think. One of those guys was the 3rd option today. And one of them will always be that this year. What other team in the league has a 3rd option to compare with these guys? Not one.

Welcome to brand new hopes by Celtic fans everywhere, for a title run, driven by these three stars.

Once the dust finally settled on the two trades that purged Boston of much of it’s promising youth, Danny managed to bring 2 mature stars, in the sweet spot of their careers, into the fold. They will play along side resident Celtic ‘top dog’, Paul Pierce, and people everywhere realize this is going to be a very tough team to beat. Whatever doubts they might have had about the supporting cast, receded enough to put most skeptics into a ‘hmmmm’ mode. One well know site even had the Cs picked as the number 2 team in the entire league. That might be getting just a little ahead of things, I think. There is still work to do in Boston.

First acquiring 3 pt.specialist Eddie House, and then the former member of the Miami Heat’s championship team, defensive-minded SF James Posey was enough to make most prognosticators realize that there is possibly enough depth here to really make things happen – even this year. When you add them to Rajon Rondo, and Tony Allen, you have a very decent set of options beyond the 3 stars.

The speculation on what would actually happen once live action began, got a sneak preview with today’s game.

Lights, Camera, Action……

Let the star laden show begin.

Right on cue, Paul Pierce led the way in scoring with 21 points on a crisp 8-14 shooting, while the Big Ticket, Kevin Garnett did what he does best, rebound and score, contributing 19 points and 16 rebounds. The next highest rebounder was Toronto’s franchise player, Chris Bosh, with a distant 9 boards.

Ray Allen had difficulty finding the range and finished with 10 points on an inefficient 4-13 shooting (1-6 from downtown).

Entering just his second year, 21 year old point guard Rajon Rondo played 25 minutes and garnered 6 assists while shooting just 2-7. Reports were that he did a good job leading the team into its sets.

Well traveled ‘shooter for hire’, Eddie House came out firing and finished with 14 points in 22 minutes, in addition to some solid floor play for a nice debut.

What may surprise some is that Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen all played 30 minutes or more in their very first exhibition game. On more established teams, that wouldn’t happen until they neared the start of the actual season. But coach Doc Rivers said he would use the pre-season to get the three of them as much floor time together as he possibly could.

The starting 5 are all sporting the shaved head look, a la Kevin Garnett. A unified look doesn’ make a unified team, but it’s a start.

Starting center, 22 yr. old Kendrick Perkins got into early foul trouble and finished with 8 points, 7 rebounds, and one block in 23 plus minutes. In a nice surprise, he was 4-4 from the foul line.

Toronto was led in scoring by lightning quick point guard, TJ Ford, with 15 points. Last year there was definitely a little ‘chippiness’ between Ford and Rondo in their contests. I don’t know if any of that is carrying over or not. Rondo plays the kind of defense that can get under your skin after a while.

Italy’s own hometown favorite, 6′ 11″ Andrea Bargnani, was 2nd in scoring for the Raptors with 13 points in only 14 minutes on 4-6 shooting. He should continue his development as a player this season.

For the previously beleagured Celtic team (24 wins last year) beating last year’s division champion had to be satisfying.

I’ve learned never to put too much stock in preseason games, especially the first few. But this year is different. Every Celtic fan will be watching to see how our ‘triple treat’ mesh. It will certainly take a little time – even for stars like these.

The boxscore is here…

http://www.nba.com/games/20071006/TORBOS/boxscore.html

Next up for the Cs -

the Minnesota Celtics, I mean Timberwolves.

Where? ‘wolves’….in London. Owww-ooo!

After pina coladas at Trader Vics – (Apologies to the late Warren Zevon.)

The Celtics will play the Timberwolves in London, England in the 02, on Wednesday 10/10. It is the very first time the two teams will meet since the big trade.

The ‘Wolves received 5 Celtics last year in the Garnett trade – a league record. They are: rising star Al Jefferson, versatile Ryan Gomes, dunking Gerald Green, underperforming Sebastian Telfair, and the oft injured expiring contract of Theo Ratliff, plus 2 draft picks and a partridge in a pear tree. This is after trading for 4 other recent Celtics the previous year (2 remain from that group – Mark Blount and Ricky Davis). That has got to be another record. As far as I know, Danny did get to keep the statue of Red Auerbach near Fanueil Hall.

I hope that Doc doesn’t get totally confused and start barking plays at the Timberwolves. Or start to yell at Telfair, and try to yank him from the game. Similarly, these players might not know who to throw the ball to. This better be a ‘shirts and skins’ game, just to keep things straight. I might even forget who I’m rooting for.

I look forward to an interesting year as this ready made contender, or so it may seem, goes about the business of putting things together, finding chemistry and responding to whatever other teams may try to do to stop them.

It won’t be boring. I’m sure of that. Kevin Garnett, one of the most intense players in the league, will make sure of that. He has already received his first technical foul in the 3rd quarter of his very first pre-season game. Way to go Kevin.

Watching this team come together will be quite an experience. Hop on the bandwagon and enjoy the ride.

peace,

Tom