Celtics Central

After defeating the Miami team from the ACC, 88-62, Boston moves on and Miami goes home.

That was a NCAA tourney game, wasn’t it? Well, at least one team looked like a college team.

Oops. That was the Miami Heat, an NBA team, loosely speaking. They were on the receiving end of a record setting defensive game by the league leading Celtics. I might add that Boston played without malice. It actually could have been much, much worse.

The ‘Heat’ were cold (Yes, I liked writing that.) and utterly unprepared to face an NBA juggernaut. The Ron Rothstein coached team ended up setting an NBA record for field goal futility. They managed only 17 made shots for the game – an NBA record since the shot clock came about during the 1950s. I watched a painfully large part of the ‘event’.

The previous low of 18 was by the Chicago Bulls (sans Jordan/Pippin, etc.) on April 10, 1999, ironically, against the Miami Heat. If there is a bright side to the accomplishment, the Bulls were even worse with 18 more attempts (77). Tonight, the Heat managed only 59 attempts for a still dubious .288 FG%.

The NBA record for least attempts is 53, accomplished twice in 1997. No wonder the league made changes in foul calling to create a freer flowing offense. Thank you very much. But it was deja vu all over again for quite abnormal reasons.

It is as much an indictment of Miami’s throwing in the towel on the season and bringing in nameless players on 10 day contracts. Marion is out. Dwayne Wade is out. Chris Quinn is in. After the 2 most experienced players on the team (Davis, Blount) the rest of the team has less than 4 years of NBA experience combined according to the announcers. They can’t possibly expect them to compete like an NBA team. Pat Riley’s absence for college scouting adventures speaks volumes about the situation.

The Heat are now 4-20 since the trade that moved Shaq to the Suns and brought Shawn Marion to South Beach.

So we got what we expected as the Celtics jumped out to a 22-4 lead and took their foot off the pedal for the rest of the game. They were happy to maintain a 20 point lead for the long run, as they worked all 12 active players into the game. The Cs biggest lead was 31.

No starter played more than 25 minutes as Leon Powe led the team with 27 minutes, 17 points, and 13 rebounds (6 offensive). In a game like, I really wonder how helpful it is for anyone on the team to play.

Tony Allen got necessary PT, but the team as a whole played down to the competition. And I will give the Heat players some credit. They did try to play solid defense at times throughout the game. Those combined factors resulted in a poor offensive performance by the Celtics. But really, who cares?

The Celtics scored 88 points on .386% from the field and .259 from the arc. They out rebounded the ‘Blountiful’ Heat 54-31. They gave up just 10 points in the paint and mercifully scored only 38 in the middle themselves. The Heat had 12 assists. The Celtics had 23. Need I go on?

Of note, Doc played Sam Cassell and PJ Brown with 3 starters for a while, in order to get them comfortable playing together.

There were strange line-ups and substitutions in the course of play. At one point, Ray Allen played SF, with Eddie House and Sam Cassell in the back court. If you find out which one was the point guard, let me know. On one possession, it ended up being Ray Allen anyway. Cassell contributed 9 points on 8 attempts, and 2 assists in about 15 minutes

The Celtics toyed with them throughout. Perkins blocked the league’s newest version of Dan Dickau, Chris Quinn, twice. KP had three blocks and 8 rebounds in 24 minutes. Pierce had 10 points, 2 steals and 4 assists. Garnett led the team with 5 assists in just 21:30 minutes while adding 12 points and 8 rebounds. Rajon Rondo provided 8 points, 6 rebounds and 2 assists in 22 minutes.

Glen Davis had a nice hustle put back on a miss by Powe on a fastbreak and folks……that’s a wrap.

What tonight didn’t solve or resolve is any suggestion of rotation for the play-offs. Doc plans to play Tony Allen, PJ Brown, and Sam Cassell more as they head toward the regular season’s finish line. Doc says it is important to get Tony Allen going. The other two are still getting up to speed with their team mates and plays. That means others will have to take a step back in minutes to get that accomplished.

Doc has plenty of options now. The question arises – does he have too many choices? And will he choose the right ones for the right situations? It’s not as easy as it looks. Chemistry can be a fragile thing. As it looks right now, Cassell and Brown may not play as much as I originally thought. The problem is that the other players roles have been pretty well defined at this point and the team is playing very well with the original cast. Inserting Sam and PJ is more of a delicate operation than it looks from a distance.

Still, I think Doc will get it done with this Veterans Administration, and have all hands on deck for an all out assault on capturing the NBA crown. While the rest of the games are largely presupposed wins, it will be the playing time and performances of the rotations that will be of great interest until we hit the play-offs.

With just 5 more wins out of the last 9 games, the Celtics will have accomplished the greatest single year turnaround in the history of the league. That looks like it will most likely happen. For long time Boston Celtic fans, it will be a highly appreciated event.

New Orleans, more than any other American city, is a tale of two cities.

After Hurricane Katrina, it was in a state of complete and total devastation. I had relatives and friends living in the devastated area that was southern Louisiana. They are starting an inexorably slow rebuild there, and still have many problems to overcome. The full time return of the New Orleans Hornets has provided some much needed hope, entertainment and a tremendous feel good distraction for the “city that America forgot”.

On any given night, they can see what could be the best point guard in the NBA running their team, a solid coach, a top rebounding/defending center, an All Star power forward and a team that appears to me to overachieve, especially defensively. They are the 5th best in the league in points allowed at 95.2, though I’m still not quite sure how they do it. They have run out to a 49-22 record, due to the magnificent play of their point guard. They are play-off bound and can make a splash.

They came in on a 5 game winning streak, a recent win over the Celtics at their house, and with the 2nd best road record in the league (22-11).

Throughout the first half, New Orleans was looking very much like they thought they could play with Boston. They had taken over in the 4th quarter in the previous match up in New Orleans and were ahead at the half in Boston with a surprising 60 points to Boston’s 56.

It was simply a tale of two halves.

First half – New Orleans 60 points. Second half – New Orleans 32 points.

By half time I was beginning to wonder what was up. Did this team really have the ability to play with Boston on the Celtic’s home court? Could they win two in a row and in Boston? Did they want the game more? They certainly needed it more considering the dogfight that is taking place in the west over pole positions for the play-offs.

The 2nd half became a message statement to the Hornets recent sting of the Celtics.

Mr. Everything, also known as Paul Pierce, was incredible tonight as he put in yet another superb game with 27 points on only 7 of 11 shots. Paul did what Paul does best and that is get to the line for a perfect 13-13 to go with 9 assists and 6 rebounds. He was turning Bonzi Wells every which way but loose this time around, with a variety of moves including a few drive-shoulder-forward-then-step-back fade aways. He has now made 22 straight foul shots.

As the season has worn on, Pierce has made it a regular habit of drawing the post defenders, then constantly feeding the big men underneath. Tonight, Leon Powe was the main receiver with 12 points on 5-7 shooting while adding 7 rebounds in a strong effort off the bench.

Last night the crowd broke into an MVP, MVP chorus for team captain Paul Pierce. It will never happen, but Paul Pierce’s name should be in the running for MVP. He has been that good this season. He has the whole game working now. A more complete 2-way player with as many offensive skills as Paul has would be hard to find. He is just doing it all, over the course of this season.

Kevin Garnett’s consistency with his shot and defense have made things easier for everyone. Tonight he has 21 points on 9 of 15, with 13 rebounds and yet another game changing 2nd half defensive effort. Excellence every night out is what Kevin gives you.

Rajon Rondo can mark down another strong game against a top NBA point guard. He played Chris Paul mano a mano, scoring 17 points on 8 of 10 shooting, with 4 assists, a steal and blocked CP3 on one drive.

Ray Allen was excellent in support with 12 points in only 27 minutes, splashing two big threes, and playing solid defense.

Tony Allen played solid defense over 20 minutes, at times being asked to guard Chris Paul, adding 6 points on 3-5 shooting and had a beautiful assist on a drive, underneath to Powe.

David West and Chris Paul were both put under wraps by the Celtics’ game altering defense in the pivotal 3rd quarter. The Hornets scored just 15 points to the Celtics 32. CP3 was held to 3 points and 2 assists by Rondo and solid help defense. West had just 4 points in the quarter as Garnett and Perkins shut down the mid range and the middle.

The Celtics shot a blistering .595 and took excellent care of the ball with only 6 turnovers. By the same token, New Orleans had zero steals against them, zero turnovers at the half and finished with 7 TOs for the game. I can’t remember when the last time was that the Celtics hadn’t caused a TO against an opponent by the halftime.

The Celtics’ bench did much better in the 2nd half than the first, led by Powe and Tony Allen.

The Celtics have now beaten every team in the NBA. Only the Utah Jazz had accomplished that feat until tonight.

Sam Cassell played a total of 3 seconds. I’m wondering when the last time that has ever happened to him. 3rd grade maybe?

The rest of the schedule gets decidedly easier for the rest of the season, starting with the Miami D-Leaguers on Sunday. We should see more of Cassell and Brown going forward, as Doc gets them comfortable with the system and the plays.

At this point, it is fine tuning for the play-offs, and going for home court advantage all the way through the play-offs.

82games.com has a ‘Clutch Stats’ page and seems to be keeping it updated fairly regularly.

I just looked at it and thought I would share some Celtic stats and observations from it.

First of all, I don’t completely agree with its very premise – that basic scoring percentages in the final 5 minutes of a game with a team within 5 points of the lead (either ahead or behind) is an accurate way to define clutchness. But it’s close enough to get a good idea of who performs well in a close scenario.

As with all statistics, a little ‘modular’ thinking is required. Every save in baseball is not equal. Neither is every assist in basketball. But they are in the record books. So why not a parameter for clutchness.

I won’t debate the premise. But I will share where the Celtics came out.

Number one in points scored (on a 48 minute basis)? Ray Allen.

It justifies my thinking about Ray’s clutchness for the Cs. He is the most prolific scorer on the team under the criteria. Ray is 52nd overall at 26.2 points. Kevin Garnett is the next Celtic at 21.1, followed by Paul Pierce at 20.2. Overall, not surprising at all.

Because each of these stars have taken turns trying to win at crunch time, none of the three has dominated the scoring, as they might have, if still starring on other teams. But Ray is slightly ahead, as I thought he might be. Ray has had a knack for coming up big at the ends of games.

Lebron James is hands down number one in the league at 60.7 points (per 48) in crunch time. Kobe is number two at 53.5. Neither one surprises for reasons obvious even to a blind man on Mars.

But here is a surprise…

Guess who is a clutch Celtic foul shooter?

One Mister Rajon Rondo. He is shooting 87% from the foul line in these circumstances. While he hasn’t taken a lot, he has made most of those he was asked to. 87% would stand with almost anyone. Johnny Rondo has nerves of steel, and rises to the occasion, it seems.

James Posey has shown to be a clutch foul shooter all year and leads the team is FT accuracy at 88%. While neither Rondo nor Posey take a lot, they have been more than good when they did.

Paul Pierce has quietly upped his foul shooting this season, including crunch time. He is 3rd on the team at 83% in those moments. He seems more focused, and his form even seems more of a crouch this season. He had a recent streak of foul shooting in the low 90s. He once said this season, that he wasn’t sure people noticed that he had improved in this category. Paul, they will now know.

Ray Allen is surprisingly 4th with a pedestrian 78%. Ray is 4th in the league overall (.907), but not so much in the last 5 minutes. That was a little surprising. Far behind is Garnett at 68%.

But who hits their shots with the best accuracy in this situation?

The envelope please…..

“And the winner is….Rajon Rondo. It’s an upset folks!”

That is correct. in 28 games that fit the parameters, Rondo leads the Celtics with a .444%. He is followed by Ray Allen at .431%. Garnett is next at .410%. Posey is far back at .267%, followed by Pierce at a paltry .250%. Who would have thunk it.

One thing – the low-high range for all the Celtic players mentioned here was from 28 to 34 games and from 81 minutes to 134 minutes, so each had a significant enough amount to time to make comparisons with.

The best clutch 3 point accuracy?

Ray Allen at 33%. Posey was next at .308%. Pierce was next at .182%. Needless to say, unless it was Ray Allen shooting, the Celtics haven’t won too many games with 3 point bombing at the end. It also follows Doc’s ‘take it to the hoop’ philosophy, and with those numbers, reinforces his thinking, doesn’t it?

Ray Allen actually is 5th in the league with 3 point attempts at 12.1 (per 48 min.). No other Celtic comes close. Pierce is way down at 4.2 (per 48 min.), and who could blame him with a .182% success rate.

Pierce, not surprisingly, leads the Celtics in foul shot attempts at 11.4 in crunch time.

One more surprise stat.

Guess who leads the Celtics in rebounding in clutch situations at the end of games?

We have a multiple clutch stat winner, folks….

Rajon Rondo at 13.9. Yes, he even beats 7 foot board eater, Kevin Garnett, who gets 13.2 boards in those situations.

One final thought – the only Celtic with a positive plus/minus was James Posey at +9. Every other Celtic is a strong minus. That seems to mean that the other teams are uniformly outscoring the Celtics in those situations. With only 15 losses, that would also suggest that teams were mostly closing in on a Celtic lead.

So young and ‘never nervous’ Rajon Rondo is the top rebounder, top FG%, and 2nd in FT% for each of these stats. While I’m not sure he is who I want taking the last shot or shooting the game winning foul shots for us, when he has been asked to do so, he has responded with great success. He has shown a knack for making big plays all year. Clutch time is no exception. In fact, he has excelled in such moments.

You can take your pick who you want taking the shot in the last few minutes with the game on the line, but for me -

if it’s a three pointer – give me Ray.

if it is a drive to get fouled – give me Pierce. He mostly makes those clutch FTs now.

If it is a mid range or drive to score – give me Garnett.

Oh yeah, if you want the rebound – put Rondo in there. He has come up with big rebounds so often, you almost expect him to find his way to the ball against anyone. Remember that rebound he slid in front of Dirk for? He has an uncanny knack for rebounding.

Some surprising numbers, some not so surprising. The plus-minus numbers would indicate that the Cs need a little work in those close, end of game situations. but with a 56-15 record, I guess there isn’t too much to be concerned about.

And Rondo is quietly answering all critics with his play as he hones his craft.

Well, it did in the second quarter and the entire first half against Amare Stoudamire, who had 22 by the half way mark.

But it was there for the rest of the game and stopped a high power offense from reaching triple digits. At the same time the Celtics went for a size large in points themselves by winning 117-97.

Green fuel stopped solar power. How could the Suns could shoot .559 for the game and not make 100 points? It happened because they were limited to an anemic 68 shots on goal. The Cs had 86 attempts and a solid shot .523. It was also due to 21 Sun turnovers from pressure defense that is the Celtic’s road to success.

Garnett and Pierce carried the team to victory with 30 and 27 points respectively. Garnett was steady all game and Paul had little explosions of scoring. Sometimes I don’t think I appreciate Kevin Garnett enough. Ditto for Paul, as he was vintage Pierce with 9-9 from the line, with 9 of 16 shooting, often against supposed tough defender, Raja Bell.

The other Celtic road to success is points in the paint. Tonight they had over 50 against the former king of the paint and his associates.

After the Celtics went up by 15 in the first quarter, the Suns came back behind Stoudamire, to even things by half time, 57-57.

A 16 point 3rd quarter punctuated by Amare getting shut out, put the Suns in a hole they didn’t have the means to climb out of this evening. They scored just 40 in second half as the Celtics shut the door.

Meanwhile, the Celtics maintained an amped offense with 60 second half points.

Rajon Rondo had an ankle breaking drive and score against Steve Nash that was so bad, Nash was good naturedly razzed shortly after, on the bench, by his own team mates. Rondo played a tremendous game overall, going for 14 points on 7 of 12, with 6 assists and 6 rebounds, while helping to contain the 2 time MVP point guard. Rondo’s growth is amazing.

Unsung heroes of the game include Kendrick Perkins with solid defense and a double double (13 points, 10 boards) and Leon Powe, who drew a critical foul on Shaq with an attempted lay up. James Posey did his best work off the stat page as well, except for 3 steals. Even Eddie House was active on defense, while contributing 6 points in 12 minutes.

Ray Allen had, what seemed to me to be, a quiet 14 points, on 5 of 10 shooting, but dished out 8 assists to lead the team. He epitomizes the team concept on this team as much as anyone, perhaps more.

In a game that meant much more to Phoenix, Boston evened up the season series with a message win at the right time.

Doc had to ratchet down the minutes and Cassell (6 minutes) and Brown (DNP) took the hit. It also keeps some of the previously established chemistry in place.

How the minutes go from here on will be interesting to see. I know for sure that Doc won’t have a 12 man rotation for the play-offs. But who comes in when might be an open question depending on the circumstances of each game.

Doc certainly has some very different options, and skill sets on the bench for different game and match up situations. Will he go traditional, shorten the rotation, make some hard decisions, and sit a few players for the duration? Or will he break new ground in ’substitution philosophy’ in a record breaking year and have the ‘flavor(s) of the night’ each night, come play-off time?

The Hornets come to town for a rematch and another big game on Friday night.

If the Boston Celtics could only have gotten this game to end after three quarters, all would be well in Beantown tonight. As things are, it’s still not so bad. But it was almost perfect.

The Celtics played great basketball for 19 quarters on this trip. It looks like they mentally started to board the plane by the 4th quarter. Actually they met some great 4th quarter defense and apparently tired. Because of that, they go home 4-1. After being up most of the game, they uncharacteristically made poor plays on both ends of the floor and lost 113-106.

In their previous game, Boston shot .345%, was out rebounded by 2…and won in Dallas. Tonight the Celtics shot .554%, out rebounded the Hornets by 15….and lost. Usually 106 points scored is an automatic double digit win for the defensive minded Celtics.

After being up by 15 for most of the game, the Celtics still had an 8 point lead thanks to a Paul Pierce drive and difficult lay-up at the buzzer, ending the 3rd with his 22nd point(s). It looked then like the Hornets were making a move…finally.

A 5-0 sweep on their toughest road trip of the year would have been a reality if the game ended then and it would have been very sweet to fly home with.

Instead, the Celtics had to go south to be beaten by the West. David West, that is. The under rated Hornet power forward poured in 27 points in the second half in a variety of ways, and finished with 37 for the contest.

Instead, the Celtics fell apart in the all important 4th quarter. They were the team making bad passes, bad shots, and playing bad defense. They simply lost focus.

Instead, they turned the ball too many times to hold the lead. They had only 3 TOs sixteen minutes into the game. They had 13 in the second half. They coughed up the ball, and the win.

Instead, the tough defense played in the 4th quarter was against them, as they were held to 17 points. I stand corrected. I now know that more than Tyson Chandler plays defense on the Hornets. At least, they do when it is need it most.

Wells Steals the Show

Bonzi Wells alone stole the ball 8 times, and played aggressive defense on Paul Pierce in the 2nd half, especially in the 4th quarter. Paul had 22 points at the end of three, but finished with 28. Bonzi had the best plus/minus of the game, by far (+23). Yes, that Bonzi Wells. He had 6 steals (Hornets record) in the 4th quarter drive to take the lead, including 3 in two minutes, culminating with an assist to West for his 30th point, to take the lead at 94-93 with 6 minutes left in the game. It was the first time New Orleans led since 6-5 to open the game. Boston began to fade away.

At this point, Ray Allen had 2 big unforced TOs on bad passes and missed a hurried 3 pointer on consecutive plays that opened the door to David West scoring 7 straight points for a 98-93 lead. Perhaps too late, at this point Perkins was substituted in for Posey as even West was driving the middle.

Boston went 5 minutes, from 8:53 to 3:53 without scoring a point, while the Hornets scored 9 straight points to lead 99-93.

The Hornets continually found a man open in the right corner for most of the night, as Celtic rotations were late or non-existent. They never really solved that play.

For the first 30 minutes, it was looking too easy. The Celtics had gone up as much as 15 points in a ‘less than Celtic’ effort. I was losing respect for the Hornets by the minute. This was one of the top teams in the west? Really?

Instead, New Orleans was doing what most good teams do, they were not panicking. They were patiently waiting…..waiting for that opportunity that always seems to present itself in any game. They also kept slowly closing the point spread between themselves and the best team in the league.

Turnovers killed the Cs. After not doing so for a long time, Paul Pierced tried to force his way through double teams a few times. Pierce alone had 4 TOs in the 4th quarter. Bonzi Wells knocked the ball away twice and was guarding Pierce when Julian Wright doubled down and picked up another.

What David West and Bonzi Wells started, Chris Paul finished. CP3 got into foul trouble in the first half as Rajon Rondo aggressively attacked the basket for 13 first half points. Chris Paul re-entered the game with 5:21 left and the Hornets up 94-93. He scored 7 straight points in the final 2 minutes to maintain the lead and finished with 19 and 7 assists in 29 minutes.

Boston was led by Pierce with 28, followed by Rondo with 23 pts., 7 assists, 2 steals and 3 TOs. Kevin Garnett added 19 points and 12 rebounds.

The Celtic bench performed poorly while the Hornets bench, especially Jannero Pargo, played very well. When Chris Paul went to bench in the first half, they actually closed the gap with Pargo playing a big role for them. Pargo had 15 points and 6 assists in 20 minutes for them.

Contrary to the previous three games, this one did not feel anything like a play-off game, from the very start. While the Celtics can be forgiven for letting this one get away, it shows what happens when you let good teams hang around. A solid defensive effort would have iced this.

The next Celtic game is at home on Monday against the hot Philadelphia 76ers.

The Boston Celtics, led by their three stars and some mighty defense, beat Dallas by 94-90 in another meat grinder of a game.

These have all been ‘grind it out’ games. Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett have both used that term this season. It is one of Tiger Woods’ pet phrases to describe how he goes about a round of play and a tournament. “I’m just out there, grinding it out.” It is the best way to describe these three Texas games.

The Celtics are now an impressive 3-0 against the Texas Triangle (San Antonio, Houston and Dallas) in this toughest of road trips of the year for the Men in Green. They haven’t accomplished that since 1987. The Celtics now stand at a league best 55-13 and are on a 14-1 tear since their 3 game losing streak on their last west coast swing. They have a modest 4 game winning streak to put on the line against the Hornets on Saturday.

We have come to expect great defense from the Celtics. The defensive effort by Dallas wasn’t far behind in this game. Yes, the Celtics missed some open shots. But Dallas earned the ‘D’ in its name in this game.

The Celtics demonstrated the fortitude necessary to gut out yet another tough, tough win. They shot just .345 from the field in Dallas’ house where they were 29-5, tied with Boston as the 2nd best home court record in the league. Dallas is now 29-6 and the Celtics are 6-0 against the three Texas teams this season. Most of the statistical battles were dead even, as neither team could control the game for very long.

While the trip is slowly wearing the Celtics down, or so it appears at times, they have dug deep and found the will and energy to pull out 3 difficult wins against 3 potential title contenders on their home courts. They have kept to the game plan, had a few strong performances from the bench, kept their poise under pressure and willed themselves to these wins.

In a very evenly played game, Paul Pierce led the Celtics with 22 points on 6-14 shooting and 10-13 foul shots. He had two season highs with 13 rebounds and 3 blocks, to go with 3 assists. His assist total should have been at least a few higher as he continues to draw the coverage on drives and passes to open big men around the bucket. Perkins and Powe both missed shots that would have meant more dimes for multiple threat Paul Pierce.

Paul drew fouls at critical times all night while hitting the deck often. He was getting up slowly each time, but found the energy to put together enough points to engineer a few comebacks. He scored eight 4th quarter points, all on free throws, including 8 for 8 at one point.

James Posey added 12 points, including 8 in the decisive 4th quarter while doing a credible job guarding Jerry Stackhouse and Josh Howard all night.

Garnett and Perkins teamed up to played tough defense on Maverick big man Dirk Nowitzki. Though Dirk had a big night with 22 points and 19 rebounds, he only shot 8-20 and missed two big shots in the final minute. Perkins fouled out in the 4th quarter. The Celtics held Dallas to a combined .393% shooting.

Meanwhile Dallas did a excellent job on Kevin Garnett with aggressive double teams as Garnett had to work very hard for his points, scoring 20 on 7-22 shooting. He added 13 boards and 3 big steals.

It was Ray Allen who came in after sitting for most of the 4th quarter, to hit a big 3 point basket to give Boston a 90-88 lead with 32 seconds left. He redeemed himself for throwing a bad pass on a sure fast break lay-up to Sam Cassell on the play before. Ray was 7-17 and 3-9 from downtown on the evening, finishing with 20 hard fought points.

The Celtics finished off the Mavericks by hitting 4 clutch free throws by James Posey and Kevin Garnett sandwiched around a Dampier lay-up that brought Dallas back to within 2 points at 92-90.

It was an off night shooting for the point guards from both teams as Kidd, Rondo, and Cassell shot a combined 2-24. Kidd at times was wildy off on his shots, though he added 11 boards and 9 assist.

The Mavericks have yet to beat a team over .500 since the Kidd trade.

Boston’s win was even more impressive considering the off nights from both point guards and the poor overall team shooting. The team is developing the timing of a successful boxer that musters up the energy at the right time to flurry and score to take the fight away from his opponent.

Boston next opponent is the league’s 4th best team, the 46-21 New Orleans Hornets, on Saturday in this unofficial Starbucks Grind-It-Out (bait and switch metaphor alert!), 5 game road trip.

I wasn’t able to watch this game as it happened. In fact, I just finished watching the tape. Maybe that’s a good thing.

I would have posted great superlatives about the Big Green Celtic Machine and such. Boo-ya! and woo-hoo! Indeed, they rocked….and rolled the Rockettes, 94-74.

By getting time to ponder the recent 2 wins against two of the west’s best (Houston and San Antonio) on their home courts and without Ray Allen, it has made me rethink a few well accepted propositions.

The West is the better conference?

The west may be deeper but I’m suspicious that it is not better. They don’t play something on the left side of the country the way they play it on the right side. It’s called defense.

Granted, it is played best by only two or three teams in the east, but is really only one team in the west that hangs their hat on defense, and that team is San Antonio.

The points allowed by the Rockets and the Hornets notwithstanding, only the Spurs have proven they can play lock down defense in the play-offs to turn it into wins. And everyone knows it is defense that wins play-off games.

I am as surprised as anyone about the Celtics defense this year. But darned if it isn’t exactly the right way to win ball games. More important, it is the right way to prepare for a title run. The increased physicality of the play-offs, the regression to half court basketball, and the inside/outside game all make the strategies of the Boston Celtics look dead on. They are going to be tough to beat and the toughest play-off series of all just might be the Eastern Conference Finals.

Is the west over rated? Boston has now faced most of the west’s best and has come out looking very, very good. They don’t have battles out west like the Detroit and Boston battles. They just don’t. The shiny, bright records of 10 teams makes the west looks imposing. But that just might be fool’s good.

As Tracy McGrady said last night….

I’ve never seen a defense like that. I mean, if they play defense like that, night in and night out, the NBA is in trouble because that was defense at its finest.”

That is what Boston does on a regular basis. They play defense at its finest. When they forgot that was what made them a special team, they lost to two western teams (Denver and Golden State in consecutive games) at their own game – offense.

Defensively, the top 2 teams are the Celtic and Pistons. The Spurs are right there.

Houston plays good solid defense. By points allowed, as the benchmark, the Hornets do too, though I haven’t seen enough to really make a judgment call on them. Yet, beyond Tyson Chandler, who on that team scares you defensively?

The modus operandi of this year’s Celtics is to play championship level team defense and to win the battle in paint.

If you take a look at the points in the paint numbers on most any night, Boston wins, and wins that category big. Boston has three point shooters, but they are mostly decoys and outlets. They, no doubt will make you pay if you pack the middle. But that ball is going inside, and going inside often, no matter how hard you try to stop them from doing it.

Boston beat Houston by 52 -34 in the paint. Houston has the best record in the west. But they are not the best team in the west. Boston outscored the Spurs in the paint by only 34-30. The Cs lost to the Jazz at home and lost the battle in the middle by 50-40. It’s not a coincidence.

Control the middle and you control the game. A more solid tandem defensively than Garnett and Perkins, I haven’t seen. Perkins’ inside defense has been quite good since the very start of the year. He is now becoming even better and he is contributing in other ways much more often now. Garnett is definitely the quarterback and the cornerstone of the Celtics’ inside defense. When KG went out, the Celtics kept winning, but they weren’t controlling the middle as they do when he plays.

There are a number of teams that could win it all, but it is rare that you win the NBA title by outscoring the opponent.

Boston’s handling of both San Antonio and Houston certainly levels the commonly accepted tilt to the west, in my opinion. If they can sustain it throughout this trip, it also speaks well to their ability to maintain a high level of play against top competition for multiple games – like is needed in a playoff series.

Boston is showing it can match up against a variety of situations, styles and opponents. They now have depth at every position where a Sam Cassell, Glen Davis, Leon Powe, Eddie House, James Posey, or P.J. Brown can come in and hurt you while you are paying attention to Garnett, Pierce, or Ray Allen. And don’t forget about Rondo.

I used to think that the east is handicapped because their top teams don’t face high level competition like the western teams do on a regular basis. I’m beginning to think that the west might be handicapped because they don’t face Detroit, Boston and even Cleveland style defense on a regular basis.

I am a believer that there is more than one way to win a championship. But it is the way that the Celtics are going that is the tried and true way.

The Ray Allen-less, but surprisingly confident Boston Celtics and Paul Pierce were poised and brought the noise against the always tough San Antonio Spurs.

The Celtics dug a deep hole in the first quarter, going down by 17-6 without Doc Rivers ever calling a time out to stop the Spurs run. His first time out was at 2:49 with the score at 21-8. They scored a season low 11 points first quarter points. But his ‘no panic’ approach must have worked.

After having their score tripled at 11-33 early in the second quarter by the defending champion Spurs on their own court, the Boston Celtics said, ‘We’ve got them right where we want them.’ and went on to prove it.

Showing the poise that championships are made of, from that point on they outscored the Spurs by 51-26 to get the score to 62-59. Their defensive pressure increased and they got great play from both point guards.

With San Antonio leading by nine at 81-72 with about 5 minutes left in the game, it looked like the Spurs were going to salvage a win after losing every bit of the 22 point lead first half lead and falling behind by as much as three in the 3rd quarter.

That’s when Paul Pierce went to work and scored 7 of the next 9 Celtic points on a number of drives to the hoop. Manu Ginobili then hit a very difficult running bank shot to make it 85-81. The Celtics came down and worked the ball around the horn to find an open Eddie House on the baseline arc for a 3 pointer and his only basket of the night.

Tim Duncan, who was bottled up all night, responds with an arcing lay-up over Kevin Garnett for only his 10th points of the evening. Pierce is fouled and continues his improved clutch 4th quarter foul shooting this season by hitting them both for 9 of Boston’s 15 points in this unlikely comeback.

Pierce then steals the ball from Ginobili and Sam Cassell shows why Boston waited to sign him as he drains a 3 pointer for his 17th points of the night with 46 seconds left, to give Boston the lead for only the second time in the game.

At this point, Doc Rivers appears to be a master of the substitution as he brings in Rondo for House, and he quickly gets a huge rebound of a Garnett miss. But before the 62% foul shooter can get rid of the ball, he is fouled. Rondo then makes them both with 16 seconds left for an almost insurmountable lead of 4 points at 91-87.

After Ginobili is fouled and makes two for his 32 points of the evening, Doc sends in 90% foul shooter House for Rondo, who gets fouled and makes them both for a 93-89 lead with 9 seconds left.

Tony Parker answers with a quick lay-up with 4 seconds left. With Boston now leading by only 93-91, Garnett’s in bounds pass is intercepted by defensive specialist Bruce Bowen, who gets it to Big Shot Bob Horry standing at the arc with enough time to face up and shoot a three pointer that would have counted at the buzzer had it gone in. It didn’t, and an indefatigable comeback wasn’t wasted.

St Patrick’s Day luck prevails once again for the Boston Celtics. They beat the Spurs last year as a terrible team, in San Antonio for the first time in the Tim Duncan era. They did it again this year as a great team that almost made its own bad luck.

In a strange first half, Boston had only one assist for the entire team, for a season low. After falling behind by 22 they came back to be within 10 by half time. Except for Parker, the rest of the Spurs starting five scored a meager 22 points.

While Pierce was outstanding, Rajon Rondo added 20 points on 18 shots. Sam Cassell must be influencing Rondo already.

The Celtics rebounded by committee, as Pierce and Garnett each had 8 while Rondo and Perkins added 6 each and Sam grabbed 5 more, as they out rebounded the Spurs by 40-34.

Pierce led the team with 22 points and Garnett added 21. Kendrick Perkins went scoreless as he concentrated on keeping Duncan busy. Posey’s contributions were unsung as well, and on the defensive end, as he scored but 2 points in 29 minutes.

This was an extremely poised Celtic team that played tonight.

The Celtics play the white hot Houston Rockets next and will look to break their 22 game winning streak in Houston.