Celtics Central

There is a lot of buzz around the net about Glen “Big Baby” Davis and his performance against the Spurs and Tim Duncan specifically on Sunday. It’s all well deserved. Great job by the rotund rambunctious rookie. Heroic even. Glen is learning his role on the team and taking coaching instructions well from Doc.

There is also a buzz about the team’s play without Kevin Garnett and Kendrick Perkins. The Celtics are on a modest 3 game win streak and are 5-2 in KG’s absence. Depth, my friends, depth. Rondo, House, Posey, and Powe has stepped up huge.

The early season question marks are all being answered with positives. The system instilled early on by Doc Rivers is showing that it isn’t simply KG doing his thing.

They roll into Indianapolis tonight to play the Pacers at 7:00 pm.

Kendrick Perkins is again expected to sit and KG will be out until after the All Star break.

That shouldn’t be such a problem tonight as team leader Jermaine O’ Neal remains sidelined. Jeff Foster will play center. Either of Leon Powe or Glen Davis should be able to off set Foster.

The Pacers are on a mini 2 game win streak after losing 7 in a row, and are 3-8 in O’ Neal’s absence.

The Pacers’ are 11-14 at home. There are a lot of reasons to expect another Celtic win. The Cs are on a mission. The Pacer’s are going down hill and have little to play for at this point. But Jim O’Brien would love to catch the Cs napping and steal a win. It is the NBA and strange things happen.

Doc, Paul and Ray must keep the team focused and playing at a high level for a game that would be easy to overlook and be over confident for.

Travis Diener should be over matched against Rajon Rondo. Mike Dunleavy should have his hands full with Ray Allen and Danny Granger must keep Pierce active on defense, because he
will be a difficult match up for Danny on the other end.

Will the KG-less Celtic roll continue?

The Boston Celtics have now beaten two of the NBA’s finest teams in the last few games and did it without Kevin Garnett. Today downing the defending NBA Champion San Antonio Spurs on national television 98-90. They have just passed their mid term tests with flying colors.

The Mavericks and Spurs were both without their starting point guards, Devin Harris and Tony Parker. But it wasn’t like they were without Dirk Nowitzki or Tim Duncan. And in this game, the Celtics were ‘short’ on height.

Starting center, 6′ 10″ Kendrick Perkins was held out with a shoulder strain, giving the Cs no one over 6′ 9″ to guard the middle against the Spurs and the league’s toughest bag of low post tricks, Tim Duncan.

Once again a number of players played well with the most surprising performance being Glen Davis’ guarding Tim Duncan capably in the second half.

But Paul Pierce’s 35 points (11 of 18 from the floor, and 5 of 9 from 3 point land) and Rajon Rondo’s double-double the hard way (rebounds 11, assists 12 – career high) shouldn’t get lost in all the attention that Davis’ fine performance will draw. Neither should Ray Allen’s 19 points, Eddie House’s 10 second quarter, nor Tony Allen’s defense on Manu Ginobili and 8 fourth quarter points. The Celtic’s team, and the bench particularly, are all finding ways to contribute.

Paul Pierce was on the floor for the entire 2nd half to anchor the team’s inspirational effort.

Pierce got them going in the first quarter with 14 points including 11 of the first 13. Manu Ginobili almost matched with 11 early on. Paul closed his fine performance with 9 in the 4th quarter.

Rajon Rondo recently showed he can score with a career high 24 points. Tonight he showed how he can impact a game without scoring. He was the team’s leading rebounder for a third time since KG went out. He also logged a career high in assists with 12. He had 5 points. There was a height shortage but there wasn’t a ‘heart’ shortage.

Because it is Sunday……I bring you…..The Gospel According to Paul Pierce….

“Everytime he leads us in rebounds we win, so keep crashing the boards Rondo.”

Can I get an Amen.

But the Glen Davis Rookie Adventures took a turn for the worse…and then for the better this
afternoon.

With Garnett, Perkins and Pollard all out with injuries, long armed, 6′ 8″ Leon Powe drew the starting assignment and quickly drew two fouls in the first 2 minutes of the game against 4 time NBA champion Tim Duncan.

Enter Glen Davis. His first half was better than Leon’s, but not a whole lot. He had to be careful of fouling, yet drew 2 himself, had a rebound knocked away after appearing that he was fouled, missed three shots and had 3 turnovers. While playing what would normally be considered decent defense, Tim Duncan made 2 shots right over him. Nothing seemed to be going Glen’s way. Glen did lead the team in hustle and floor burns.

In the second half, you could see Glen rise to the challenge, push Tim out of his comfort zone and hound Tim on every catch. He jumped in front of Tim to steal two passes, deflected a number of other attempts and frustrated a number of dribble move attempts by Tim. He was quick, proactive and far more nimble than you would expect for a man his size.

Glen Davis…

“Instead of reacting to him, I wanted to make him react to me.”

With some help, he turned Duncan into more of a passer than he wanted to be in the 4th quarter. He outscored Duncan 7 to 6 in the quarter.

Doc Rivers comments on the match up….

“What we told Glen was, “He’s taller than you. You’re heavier than him.You know, literally. and we said, “You’re lower than him. You’re not going to grow today. He’s going to be taller than you by the end of this day. But because you’re low, and you have a low center of gravity, get into his legs, and try to push him off the block. And try to keep him out of the middle, and beat him to the spot baseline.”

We told him, ‘we’re not going to give you a lot of help.’ But I thought our helps were pretty good for the most part, but we didn’t trap him. I’m sure most people thought, going into the game, that we were going to trap Duncan every single time.”

So yes, Davis played Duncan straight up a number of times and got late help when it was needed. Tim had a solid stat line (22 points, 14 rebounds, 8 offensive), but was unable to take over the game when he most wanted to.

Glen said this afterwards….

“They have one of the greats on the team. To match up against Tim today, it meant a lot..you know…for my confidence…and for my team. My coach gave me a lot of confidence, putting me out there. It just felt good.”

Coach Popovich had this to say about Glen Davis…

“He has good athletic attributes. I think he played well within himself. He’s got such a physique [but] he doesn’t try to be overly macho. A lot of guys will fall into that trap. He had a good rhythm going. I liked his pace.”

It seemed that the Spurs missed Parker as Tim Duncan led the team with 6 assists. Manu Ginobili has picked up the passing slack of late with 8 and 10 assists in the past few games, but was unable to duplicate that today, finishing with just 4 assists.

When I asked if he was being asked to take on more passing responsibility until newly acquired
Damon was more acquainted with the team’s sets he responded….

“well yes, a little more ball handling. But it’s because my number is being called more often (with Tony out). Opponents are paying more attention to me. I’m getting some more blitz(ing). But I don’t have to shoot when I drive. I try to find the open shooters. Today a little less, but that’s what I’ve been trying to do. When they call my number, it doesn’t mean I have to shoot. If I draw enough attention, I’ve got to be smart enough to find my team mates open.”

The key to the Celtics win was keeping the offense moving and rebounding well. They did both as they had 18 fastbreak points to none for the Spurs, and 46 boards to 37 for the Spurs.

It was another great ‘test’ win to a sold out arena on a Sunday afternoon. The fans were into it from the start and got their money’s worth with a smart heart fulled performance by a well coached team and an important win against a possible finals team.

The Celtics needed test games. They needed measurement games. The broadcasting network is billing this game as a ‘possible finals preview.’

So, Sunday is ‘Pop’ Quiz day.

That’s better than a ‘Finals’ Exam without Kevin Garnett

We knew that Kevin Garnett wasn’t going to play, so what has else ‘popped’ up?

Greg ‘Pop’ovich’s San Antonio Spurs are in town, and Kendrick Perkin’s shoulder was strained (popped out?) in the last game and won’t play.

The Celtics only other big of legitimate size (Pollard is out) may be unable to play. 6′ 10′ Kendrick Perkins came up with a shoulder injury in the third quarter of the Minnesota game. He has had a shoulder dislocation in his past, so I’m hoping it hasn’t been aggravated in any way. He says he is fine and ready to play. Doc Rivers says he will be evaluated on game day.

But the real test is ongoing and the Celtics are coming up with multiple choice answers every game. Sometimes it is – All of the Above.

Every game they play without Garnett is a test for the rest of the team. They have definitely had different answers on different nights. It has really been impressive how well the team is rising to the occasion. They are 4-2 without Garnett, and while the defense has suffered somewhat, the offense has done very well. But even the losses to play-off bound Cleveland and Orlando were by 1 and 3 points respectively.

What is quite satisfying is seeing the team run the plays and pass the ball even with the non stars in the game. They are all trying to play solid defense as well. It’s just not as easy without 8 time All Defensive Team (5 times First Team) Kevin Garnett in there.

The Celtics were burned for 50 points in the paint against the smallish Minnesota Timberwolves. But we all know that size isn’t everything, especially when Perkins went out and Davis and Powe especially, stood tall.

The NBA Champions San Antonio Spurs are currently 5th in the west at 32-16 but are on a 4 game winning streak. They also know how to win with a key player out as Tony Parker has missed the last 5 games, and have a quality win over the Phoenix Suns in that streak.

Veteran Michael Finley has stepped up offensively in three of those games, while timely free agent pick up Damon Stoudamire has stepped right in to try to learn to run the team the Popovich way. But it has been Manu Ginobili that Pop has asked to run the offense through as Manu’s assist total over the last three games has risen to over 8 per game, double his average for the year.

The Spurs execute as well as any team in the league in both offensive and defensive sets. They are 3rd in points allowed and 3rd in 3 point defense. Sixteen losses notwithstanding, they are quite difficult to knock off their game.

Many feel they aren’t as sharp this season as evidenced by the record, but they are still the team the championship must go through. Tim Duncan anchors a smart, consistent team that knows how to stand up to pressure.

This will be a very good test for the Celtics. I know they won’t be using injuries as excuses and that is another reason to like this team. But the hill to climb will be a difficult one without KG and possibly Perkins.

Brian Scalabrine, Glen Davis, and Leon Powe all bring different things to the game. Each can cause Tim Duncan some trouble in their own way. As Doc Rivers has said, it is “Bigs by Committee” He may try different looks on the Big Fundamental and he has 12-18 fouls to give, depending on how he sees things. They are all somewhat undersized height-wise, by NBA standards, but Davis makes up for it with girth and energy, Powe plays bigger with his wing span, and Scalabrine brings energy and hustle.

The match up to watch is Rondo against …anyone. He has turned things up a notch in KG’s absence and is becoming a real handful when he gets aggressive offensively. I don’t see a player on the Spurs who can match up with him. So it will be interesting to see if Pop tries to take the ball out of his hands and how well Rondo responds.

The Celtics, as a team, are becoming better and better at splitting the defense on drives and finding the weakside cutters for easy lay-ups. The Spurs seem like a team that could anticipate and respond to that. We will have to see.

I’ll be at the game again and will report back later.

After giving this trade more thought, I at least see what Kerr sees.

Steve seems to be quite intelligent and has knowledge that I’m certainly not privy to. So why does he make this move to acquire a legend on the very last road of a memorable career? The man simply doesn’t play their style of ball.

Kareem has been mentioned as being the non running piece of the fast breaking Lakers. Shaquille could be the same thing, it’s assumed. Shaq says someone has to start the break with a rebound. That is true. He also gives them a defensive presence they were lacking. It allows Stoudamire more freedom on the court. Amare will have a mentor (willing or not), as O’Neal says he will begin the Stoudamire Project.

So there are a number of potential benefits.

If you throw in that Marion has been unhappy for a while and owner Sarver has been unhappy with him, along with the idea that Marion wants a lot of money for his next contract, it becomes more obvious why he might let a talent like Marion go. Not necessarily wise, but obvious.

Could this put the Suns over the top? I think, with luck, it could. They have someone now to guard Ming and Duncan and Beidrins (j/k). They didn’t before. It moves Amare to his natural position and the position he wants to play – power forward. Steve Nash should do a better job of getting Shaq the ball on the low post.

But much will depend on Shaq. If he is revived and ups his recent play, good things can happen. So, I see what is hoped for here. The rumor mill had the Suns breaking up the team after this season if they didn’t bring home the trophy anyway. If they don’t win it all, the question will be, couldn’t they have gotten more for Marion than that?

My own opinion is that they were one game away from playing for the title last year. I didn’t see the need to make this move to get there. But I don’t run the team and I don’t know what is going on behind closed doors.

Gasol to the Lakers

Laker fans are counting on a finals appearance now that Gasol is a Laker. Counting on it. I understand that enthusiasm. Teams fans do that. They believe in the best possible outcome.
With the Lakers playing solid ball before the trade, and not losing Odom or Bynum, the other 2 key pieces with Kobe, it strengthens their hand, without a doubt.

Pau Gasol has improved in his weakest areas, aggressiveness and defense in the middle, over the last few years, though you can’t tell that from his team’s record during that period. I haven’t seen enough of his play to judge, but my guess is that pairing him with Bynum will be good for both players. That remains to be worked out though.

Randolph and Curry hasn’t worked out. Most teams don’t have that problem. Garnett has Perkins, Howard has Lewis who plays on the outside, Ming has Scola, Rasheed plays in a team concept, etc.

Maybe the closest comparison is Cleveland with LeBron, Z, and Drew Gooden. But Pau is going to be a bigger part of the offense than Z or Gooden are on a nightly basis, I’m assuming. Pau should really blossom on that team. He has a good system and solid players around, with the key (besides Kobe) being Bynum. Andrew Bynum is the biggest difference, (Derek Fisher and Jordan Farmer as well) between this year’s Lakers and last. How well those two mesh, and I think it is possible for them to find a way to stay out of each other’s way, will say whether it was a great trade. It was definitely a good trade.

Bynum is the better defender, Gasol the better offensive player. Gasol is a play-off veteran and used to pressure and double teams. The Lakers now have 2 guys who need double teams all of the time. That helps Bynum, Odom, and everyone else.

There is a strong possibility that Jermaine O’ Neal, and perhaps Jason Kidd might find new homes soon. If that happens, it will be the most high profile trades in one season in a long time.

Meanwhile, the Clipper’s Sam Cassell is still on the Celtics’ radar. It seems that both Rondo and he wanted to send each other a few messages when Rondo carved up Sam and the Clippers and Cassell answered with flagrant foul that earned him a one game suspension.

Another rumor says they patched things up at half time, so there is no real drama here.

Stay Tuned.

Also don’t forget to listen to the Celtics Stuff Live podcast on Sunday night from 7 to 9. Justin Poulin, JB (Jim Metz), and the Duke (Jon Duke) will have on Mike Gorman, the Celtics’ TV announcer. He is a great guest and has interesting insights into all things Celtic.

Leon Powe put back a missed Ray Allen fast break lay up at the buzzer to win a closely contested game. Ray had stolen a pass at the other end, with the game tied with 5 seconds left and took it the length of the court, drove, and looked like he was fouled without getting the call. Leon was right behind him to rebound the miss and quickly put it back in as time ran out.

It was a game where 14 points and 7 rebounds from Leon would have meant overtime and who knows what from there. It was his 8th rebound and 15th and 16th points that were required to extricate a regulation win.

Kevin Garnett received a very warm welcome before the start of the game in the town where he played his entire career. As the fans showed their love and appreciation for him, Kevin Garnett actually smiled a solid smile. That alone was something to see from a guy who always, and I mean always, appears to have a game face on.

Kevin made the trip to Minnesota to be able to greet his former adoring fans, but he is not expected to play again until after the All Star break. (update it is about 50/50 according to Doc on 2/7 )

In an exciting contest where the Celtics lost Kendrick Perkins to a shoulder injury, after logging 26 minutes, they refused to lose the game as they came back a number of times with runs to take a lead they usually couldn’t hold for long. The new Timberwolves continue to play competitive ball as this game literally went down to the wire.

The Wolves went up by as much as 11, before the Celtics were able to whittle it down. Paul Pierce and Ray Allen scoring 18 and 17 points, were the offensive book ends around Leon ‘s 16 , Eddie House’s 14 points in 15 minutes, and Rondo’s 12 with 7 rebounds. Leon led the team with 8 rebounds.

The Celtics spent much of the game and most of their energy clamping down on Al Jefferson, the Wolves only real offensive option. He was suffocated by double and triple teams every single time he got the ball. He was definitely unnerved by all the effective defense and was unable to even hit rim with his first 3 jump shots.

He had only 8 points for the game by the 7:43 mark of the 4th quarter. From there, he was finally able to break free for ten 4th quarter points to lead the Wolves to an 84-84 tie with 2:05 left. It was the last of three straight jump shots, and Al’s 18th point, that tied the game.

After Paul Pierce missed two straight jump shots, Craig Smith made an emphatic dunk off of a great pass by Sebastian Telfair to give the Wolves a 2 point lead with 38 seconds left. Rajon Rondo made a huge 8-10 foot jump shot shot with 28 seconds left to tie it.

Marko Jaric missed a three pointer with 5 seconds left and Ray picked off the errant throw back into the court from underneath the hoop and took off.

It looked like Ray was definitely fouled as he went but there was no whistle and Powe went right back up for a lay up as the buzzer sounded, giving the Celtics a 3-2 record without KG.

Eddie House and Powe provided the bench’s offensive support and Kendrick Perkins had 4 blocks, 5 rebounds and a steal before his shoulder injury forced him from the game.

A few bounces went the Celtics’ way tonight, and they persisted in the face of Wolves growing confidence to eke out this win.

They are now 38-9 as they await the Tim Duncan-led San Antonio Spurs in Boston on Sunday.

It looks like we are witnessing the birth of a complete point guard over the last few games.

Real births are 9 months long. NBA caliber point guards take longer – unless you are Chris Paul. Even NBA stud Deron Williams took a year of tutelage under taskmaster Jerry Sloan, playing him often at off guard in his rookie year, before he would turn over the reigns to him.

Rajon Rondo is on his way, and it’s fun ride to watch.

In truth, it was an ensemble win – like Cheers or Friends, where all the cast members have important parts, but one or two have a little bigger part in that episode. In this game friends, there was a lot to cheer about.

Most on my mind….

Rajon Rondo had a career high, offensively, with 24 points on 10 of 13 shooting. It all started with 18 first half points on 8-9 in what was an eye opening array of unstoppable drives. But Rondo says he is most proud of his defense recently. He had 4 first half steals, and harassed the ball handler all night. He did his scoring within the offense and he was also quite effective at driving and dishing when the defenses closed in to try to stop him. He added 8 assists and 5 rebounds to his crowd pleasing night.

When Paul Pierce was asked if he is surprised at what Rondo did last night, he responded…

No, Not at all. You have to realize this kid is one of the 4-5 fastest guys in the league.

When Paul was asked if he knew he was as tough as he is, Paul said….

Yes. I knew that from pre-season.

So what Rondo is doing doesn’t surprise his team mate. He may be surprising the rest of the league though.

In a pre-game interview with Brevin Knight I asked about Rondo…

“He is a good player.”

What is his long term potential in your eyes?

“He is doing what he has to. He’s starting to hit the open jumper. He is in a perfect spot for himself. Just hit that open shot when they drop off him to guard Garnett.’

Rondo showed last night that he can do much more than hit the open jumper. His offensive aggression last night was so good that it apparently embarrassed Sam Cassell, a possible future team mate, if the rumors come true. He took down Rondo hard on one of his many drive attempts with 2:54 left in the half with the Celtics ahead 48-40. He was assessed a flagrant foul #2 and was immediately ejected. Even Rondo’s offense was good defense by getting the wily veteran guard out of the contest before half time.

An early Celtic lead, born of 9 straight point unanswered points by Paul Pierce right out of the gate, slipped away, and turned into a 4 point deficit, 25-29, by the end of the first period.

But there was an omen of what could be possible, when Doc started the 2nd quarter with Ray Allen and Paul Pierce on the bench. Posey, Tony Allen, House, Davis, and Powe turned a 4 point deficit into a 4 point lead, before Doc started bringing his starters back in.

In the beginning of the year, that would be a disaster as leads were promptly lost when all three were rested. That is no longer necessarily so. Tony Allen , Leon Powe, Glen Davis, James Posey, and Eddie House all played as an effective unit all night. They even increased the lead.

The bench scored 44 points tonight with Tony Allen leading the way with 17 and Leon Powe adding 13 points, and 10 rebounds in only 26 minutes. Leon had a few tenacious man sized rebounds and put backs with shot blocker extraordinaire (6 on the night) Chris Kaman right there.

Kendrick Perkins played a physical game and grabbed very some tough rebounds (6) while playing his usual tough defensive game. Glen Davis contributed 4 points, 3 boards and a big steal in a game where his hustle didn’t really show up in the stats.

Ray Allen was the second leading scorer with 19 points in 30 minutes, with 3 of 6 from downtown. He also grabbed 5 boards.

Many of the baskets by the second unit were exciting, as they often were the result of good passing and team work. With a few exceptions, the KG-less Celtics moved the ball well and attacked the basket all night.

Coach Dunleavy…

Kamen picked up his 5th foul with 8 minutes to go in the 4th quarter. Had to take him out. That breaks our rhythm. Just some bad results for us.

Bad results indeed. It was like a green light for the Cs to increase their attacks in the paint. Dunleavy tried natural PF Josh Powell at center. He has been playing well for the Clippers over the past week or so. When that wasn’t working, he brought in Aaron Williams, again to no avail.

The Celtics were merciless as they scored 56 points in the paint to the Clippers 24 on the night.

Dov Rivers took the opportunity to rest the Celtic starters for all but the last 49 seconds of the final quarter. The second unit almost closed out the entire quarter and the game with a victory. Only when the lead finally got down to 7 with 49 seconds left and momentum appearing to change towards the visitors, did Doc put back in Pierce, Rondo and Ray Allen to lock up the win.

Corey Maggette, who led the Clippers with 33 points and 8 rebounds said…

Eddie House made a big three towards the end. Gave then the opportunity to go up 7 at that point. Turnovers.Turnovers we had. Plus Chris really couldn’t get into a rhythm. They was doubling, double and triple teaming him. But he was doing something else, blocking shots, saving us in the paint

Rondo played extremely well, attacking the basket.You guys have one of the best second units, just so many options, they played really well tonight. Rondo stepped up, if they missed a shot, you got them big dogs down there, grabbing rebounds and putting them back up, so I mean, it was really good. Big Baby came in and made some big plays….They just have so many options, Leon Powe had 10 rebounds, a double-double. Perk did some great things too.

The Celtics did give Chris Kamen, in the midst of a career year, lots of attention and that took him out of his game and caused some TOs. The Clippers played good defense at times and caused 19 Celtic turnovers themselves.

For the Celtics to score 111 points without Kevin Garnett, it has got to be a big stride forward as this team learns to play together as a true unit. Rondo, in particular, seems to be benefiting by his increased role with Garnett out.

Kendrick Perkins said it best..

Physical game. I thought we had a good team win tonight. Everytime we play together and share the wealth, we always win. Everytime we come out (and) we have different agendas, it don’t turn out so good. Everytime we play together – we win.

Doc even has his second unit playing good unselfish ball together now – and when that happens, as Kendrick says….they win.

Boston plays at Minnesota on Friday.

The Cavs were without Anderson Verajeo and Sasha Pavlovic, They lost Drew Gooden in the 3rd with a groin pull. They still don’t add up to Kevin Garnett. Only losing Lebron would be comparable.

You have to keep that in mind when judging this game. It was close throughout.

It had upward of 28 lead changes, and the biggest lead of the night was Cleveland at 8.

Two things come to mind.

1) The Celtics came into Cleveland and played one of the league’s hottest teams to a virtual tie, without their most important player – Kevin Garnett, losing in the final seconds on a couple of Ilguaskas free throws. Not bad.
2) They were so close, you wonder what they could have done slightly different to actually pull out the win.

The reason for number one is partially PG Rajon Rondo. He has picked up his complete game recently and is scoring much more in KG’s absence. Last night he had 20 points on 8-13 shooting, and added 7 boards to go with 2 assists. He did have 5 TOs, including a big one at the very end on a drive, where he was stripped.

Rondo was 4-4 in free throws last night and has made 18 of his last 20 foul shots, including (at least) 8 in a row.That is another important part of his improving game.

The answer to number two might be – defense. The Cavs scored 114 points. The team has a different complexion without KG in the middle to pick up the mistakes of the perimeter players. The Cavs scored 42 points in the paint. That is a huge amount against this year’s Celtics. Two guards had big games in Larry Hughes and Ira Newble.

7′ 3″ Zydrunas Ilguaskas is a handful for any center. He scored 21 points, grabbed 10 boards, and blocked 5 shots at the other end. But Larry Hughes had a big game with 18, including numerous slashes to the bucket, and Ira Newble, not known for his offense, added 15 points in a starting role. Boobie Gibson contributed 11 points off the bench, but also had 3 big defensive plays in the last few minutes, including stripping Rondo on a crucial drive.

But the main difference was that they had Lebron James, who flirted with a triple double (33 points, 12 assists and 9 rebounds) and had 5 steals (but 7 TOs) to anchor the win, while the Celtics didn’t have their anchor, Kevin Garnett, to do the same.

Paul Pierce and Ray Allen did their best to make up for KG’s absence, scoring 24 and 19 points respectively. Ray added 5 rebounds, 5 assists, and 2 steals while Pierce gutted out this game playing with the flu. It just wasn’t quite enough. He missed an almost meaningless bunny lay-up with 3 seconds left and down 4, summing up the “not quite” effort of the Celtics last night.

Kendrick Perkins with 12 points, 5 rebounds (4 offensive), 4 assists, and 5 fouls gave everything he had to the cause. He had the best plus-minus at +5 for the leaking defense of the Cs. Kendrick has made 10 of his last 11 attempts foul shooting, and 25 of 32, bringing his season average up to 60%. If he keeps that up, it bodes well for more fourth quarter minutes and boosting his season scoring average as well.

Tony Allen added 14 points, 3 rebounds , an assists and a steal. Glen Davis help the cause with 9 points in 13 minutes on 4-5, all from around the hoop, including a nice put back on a miss without coming down.

Pierce seems to find Davis on drives, as he gets the attention and Davis gets the lay-up, coming in from the opposite side. Pierce made two sweet passes that way. Tony Allen had another like that to Perkins. I love that play and the Celtics do it often this year.

The Cs were out rebounded by 10 (39-29) and that played a big role in the outcome. One would have to think that a healthy Scot Pollard would have helped.

The Celtics are 2-2 without KG, that is better than Cleveland, 0 for 6 without James. No one expects the Celtics to compete for a title without Garnett. While not flawless by any means, the Celtics showing resiliency in his absence is a good thing to see.

Tonight, the Celtics play at home against the Los Angeles Clippers. There are rumors surrounding the possibility of Clippers’ veteran PG, Sam Cassell, coming to the Celtics in the near future, making this evening’s contest just a little bit more interesting.

A most unlikely trade is now….quite likely.

Shquille O’Neal is about to become a Phoenix Sun.

This means that Phoenix is going for broke aaaaand changing their style of play – all at the same time.

Wha?

The running and gunning Phoenix Suns are getting the league’s slowest plodder, but still a defensive force in the middle, that tree stump simply named ‘Shaq’.

With his game is serious decline, the Heat have managed to breathe new life into their own franchise while jettisoning the central pillar of their last and only championship. Since that championship it has been a bumpy road for the franchise. This year, the shaky empire, built around Dwayne Wade, Shaq, and to some extent Alonzo Mourning, three of the league’s most dominant players, has collapse within itself like a dwarf star turning into a black hole. All energy was being sucked inward, never to see the light of day again, as the team has a 9-37 record to date.

Shaq is not in good shape and has slowed down considerably, prompting comments from Dwayne Wade about how hard it is to even get the ball in to him now. Alonzo is out with a career threatening injury, leaving Wade to carry the banner all by himself. His new team mates are perennial ‘also rans’, like Ricky Davis and Mark Blount, while versatile James Posey and sharp shooting Jason Kapono were allowed to leave for other surroundings.

But the main problem has been the decline of Shaq himself.

So Phoenix’s interest is surprising. It says a lot about the Suns mindset. My guess is that Coach D’Antoni had to be talked into this one by General Manager Steve Kerr, who favors a move towards a more conventional game, from what I have read.

The thinking here must be that, Shaq plays center while Amare moves back to his more natural and more comfortable position – power forward. This creates a solid, old school, mainstream front line. It also means the team plays more half court ball. Everyone will have to attempt to play more defense overall. But they will know that any mistakes they make will be covered by their rotund giant at the hoop – at least until he gets into foul trouble – which could be quickly with the present defense of the Suns. The team is built around offense.

I know that they say the team is better defensively than they are given credit for. Fair enough. And they probably figure they can play even better defense now going forward. Maybe they can. A lot is riding on it.

The window is this year, maybe next year. The Suns will get rid of unhappy and somewhat self centered (I need more touches) Shawn Marion, and some lead weight in Marcus Banks’ contract (a mistake from the day it was signed), for a chance at making a real run for an NBA title, with Steve Nash at the helm, Amare at PF, and Shaq in the middle. The rest are pieces to fill in around this core.

There was talk of breaking up this Suns team for a while now. There was exploration of changing its style as well. They will keep the core, minus Marion, and change the style due to the player they are adding.

Trying to see the Suns view of this, they traded a player they have been trying to trade for a while, keeping their other mains parts and adding a player who shifts the team towards a style that should benefit Stoudamire, who should now be even more effective around the hoop against other PFs. I’m not sure how it benefits Steve Nash who was tailor made for the current system. Remember, he wasn’t an MVP type player in Dallas. Can he get Shaq the ball better than Dwayne Wade could? My guess is yes. How much Shaq has left will tell the value of doing that.

It is an interesting move. If it gets them the title, it will, of course, be considered a success. If it comes close, well, they were within a game of winning it all last year, many would say.

For the Heat, the benefit is obvious. Two players who can play, for one who can’t. It doesn’t regain what they had, but no trade can do that, save for Tim Duncan. It does give them a new hope and parts to build on going forward. Nice move by Riley.

I don’t love the move for the Suns. I thought they should have tried this current style one more time for a title run and evaluated the changes they need to make in the off season, should they not be successful in winning it all. Shaq appears to be an albatross at this time. I could be wrong. Kerr could be right. We will know come June.

This season just got a whole lot more interesting.