In a quid pro quo, the Boston Celtics rested their three stars and lost to the New Jersey Nets 82-71 last night. The Nets were once again without Jason Kidd (back). Celtic starting center, Kendrick Perkins, also sat out with a minor injury (tight ham).
New Jersey had rested it’s three stars in the previous match up between the 2 clubs.
Eddie Gill started for the Nets at PG in name only as Vince Carter led the team with 7 assists.
A similar thing might be said for the Celtics.
Rajon Rondo started at PG, but it was Tony Allen dishing dimes. He led the Celtics with a lusty 9 assists. Tony Allen?
I’m not sure what that says when Rondo ended up with 2 assists in 26 minutes. Rondo did nothing to dispell concern over his shooting as he shot 1-8 from the floor and 2-4 from the line. He did garner 7 rebounds on the night. Rondo will climb out of this rut. Of this, I’m sure. But the rest of his game needs to improve as well.
Tony’s line score was Antoine-esque as he shot 2-15, and added 6 steals and 6 turnovers in an ‘AW’ schizophrenic way. Help and hurt – no in between.
Glen Davis didn’t start, but was first off the bench and led the team in scoring with 21 pts in 32:38 minutes on a solid 6-10 from the floor with an eye opening 9-9 from the free throw line. Glen had 13 of his points in the first half. Glen is showing that he knows how to draw contact in every game he plays and he can hit the free throws. It’s a nice combination.
Glen also contributed 6 rebounds (4 offensive) and 3 blocks. We won’t mention that he had 4 turnovers.
The starless Celtics did an admirable job coming back from a 7 point third quarter deficit to be tied at 66 in the fourth quarter. From there the Nets regained the lead, thanks to Antoine Wright and the well traveled Mateen Cleeves , who is trying, yet again, to make an NBA club.
I’m not exactly sure what a game like this tells Doc Rivers or ourselves. Coaches gamesmanship aside, it’s time to start melding a 5 man unit and establishing the role players.
James Posey played a rather unremarkable 30 minutes and Leon Powe got 4 fouls in 14 minutes at center. I’m not quite sure that is what Doc had in mind when he said that Powe should be using his fouls more.
Posey’s time with the Celtics has been just that so far. Remarkable for being unremarkable. He is being asked to play more PF this season, according to Doc. He too, is still adjusting.
So, we knew this would take some time….and it is. You don’t – presto-chango – create a cohesive unit with 2/3 of your roster new, though it looked that way for a while, didn’t it?
But……Tony Allen had 9 assists?
T
