Celtics Central

The Boston Celtics jumped out to a 24-13 1st quarter lead and never looked back, beating the Bulls 96-80.

The night had it all, ghoulish shooting, scary defense, and ghosts of the past season for the Bulls. They were dead and buried by half time. The Celtics played the vampire and sucked the life out of their opponent before they knew what hit them. Both teams were in a ‘foul’ mood.

The Celtics dominated so much that at one point the Bulls were shooting 3-18. That improved in the second half, but the Bulls finished at a beleagured 29.8% from the floor.

The Chicago Bulls came to Boston with new hopes, a new coaching staff, and the number one
draft choice running the team in 20 year old Derrick Rose.

The Bulls have a talented roster and are coming off a throwaway year. They ended up with a throwaway game to go with it. Drew Gooden knows they have a lot of work to do before they can play with a team like the Celtics.

They got after us at jump. At jump ball they took us out of everything we wanted to run offensively. We shot terribly from the field. And we couldn’t get stops defensively.

We didn’t distribute the ball well tonight. With 11 assists and 30% shooting…we didn’t do what we wanted to do. We’ll put this game behind us and move on. We have a game tomorrow, so this game is done and over with.

Kevin Garnett was particularly aggressive and had 16 points on 7 of 10 shooting with 7 rebounds at the half. He finished with 18, leading a balanced scoring effort by the Celtics. Defensively, he was challenging everything. Though he missed some open looks, Tyrus Thomas ended up shooting 2 of 17 largely due to the defense of Garnett.

Kevin:

I thought that tonight I was a lot more under control. I told “P” I put a lot of burden on he and Ray the first game. Nonetheless we anchor a lot of the responsibility here. Tonight I was more poised.

This was Kevin’s 1,000 NBA game. How dies it feel to be the youngest player in NBA history to reach 1000?

It feels crazy, to be honest.

At least he didn’t say, “Scary.”

The Celtics didn’t really want to have to start the year against the Cavs. The Bulls must feel the same way for Vinny Del Negro’s 2nd game as a head coach. Face the NBA Champions in game two of his coaching career?

They were more physical, more aggressive, they competed harder than we did. We didn’t shoot well enough to put any pressure on them.

For the Celtics, the scoring distribution after one period was a model of the team concept they have locked in on. Four starters had 4 points each and Rondo had 5. Rajon took it to the basket all night, ending up 14 points, but it could have been more as he was 6-11 from the line. His defense was even better, as he made things difficult for Derrick Rose all night.

It appears that Derrick got caught up in it a bit as he finished with 18 points on 6-14 shooting with 6 of 6 foul shooting, leading the Bulls, but with just one assist. But that has do to with more than just Rondo’s defense. The Celtics’ team defense broke up plays all evening.

Kendrick Perkins was aggressive early as the Cs controlled the paint. What Garnett didn’t stop Kendrick did. Kendrick had a strong first quarter when the Celtics established complete dominance. He blocked a Drew Gooden baseline jumper, then hit a turnaround jumper over Gooden and put the exclamation point on his run with a thunderous put back dunk from out of nowhere on a Rajon Rondo miss.

Though still a foul monster (5), Perk tied with KG with 10 boards (4 offensive) to go with 8 points in 28 minutes.

The scoring rundown: Ray Allen and Paul Pierce tied with Rondo for 2nd with 14 points each. The Big Three all took exactly 11 shots each. How is that for equality? Leon Powe had another solid outing wit 13 points in 18 minutes and 6 rebounds.

Glen Davis (2 pts., 0 of 3) and Tony Allen (6pts. on 1 of had difficulty scoring, but both played solid aggressive defense all night.

A perfect example was a scrum for an offensive rebound that Glen muscled away from 7′ Aaron Gray and passed to Tony Allen underneath. Tony missed the shot but also fought hard for the rebound and passed to Leon as the crowd roared.

Paul Pierce scored with surprising ease against his usual nemesis, Luol Deng, but played completely within the system by helping out where needed. He almost finished with a double-double with 9 rebounds.

Both teams went to the foul line often with 69 foul shots total in a foul fest complete with 3 technical fouls ( Chicago bench, Andres Nocioni and Kevin Garnett).

I loved the way our guys played tonight. The first five, six minutes of the game, that was great. Great execution. Great intensity. That was just perfect for us early on.

It stayed that way for much of the game. The Celtics seem to be getting better after playing together for a year. That’s scary news for the rest of the league. Happy Halloween.

They went from unbelieva-bull to unpredicta-bull.

Of all the teams this year, they are one of the hardest to figure out.

When the Bulls couldn’t land Suns’ head coach Mike D’Antoni,and former Bulls’ coach Doug Collins withdrew his candidacy, they went upstairs and offered the position to Phoenix Suns’ Asst. GM Vinny Del Negro, a man with no coaching experience. He accepted.

New Bulls rookie head coach Del Negro then sought advice from another NBA head coach who started the same way, without any experience – NBA Champion Coach Doc Rivers.

Vinny had played with Doc in San Antonio for 2 years from 1994-1996. According to K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune:

“Doc gave me some advice, but it’s more between me and him,” Del Negro said. “He knows what it’s like. Those are the people I talked to a lot and sought out. He was kind enough to give me some helpful information.”

A solid core of talent remains from the Bulls’ play-off team of 2 years ago. Last year the team melted down, going from 49 to just 33 wins. Trade rumors early in year worked chaos on fragile egos. Ben Gordon and Luol Deng, two team cogs, turned down enormous and fair multi-year offers before the out of control season began. Some on the team had grown weary of Skiles dictatorial style. Scott was fired. The team never recovered.

Interim coach (asst. coach Jim Boylan) was unfairly thrust into a caretaker position to chaffeur team to the neverending season’s end. Someone’s got do it. He drove a limo with 4 flat tires into the Chicago garage.

2008

Enter: Untried 42 year old Vinny Del Negro who wisely surrounds himself with NBA Eternals Bernis Bickerstaff and Del Harris.

Bickerstaff brings over 30 years NBA experience to his position. Over 13 years, he was head coach of 4 different teams (Supersonics, Nuggets, Bullets/Wizards, and Bobcats). He has coached teams to the play-offs five times. He was named Coach of the Year in 1987 while with the Sonics. He was most recently the head coach and GM of the Charlotte Bobcats.

Del Harris has been an NBA coaching fixture for 20 plus years – 7 as an assistant and 13 years as a head coach with 3 different teams.He was named Coach of the Year (1995) with the Lakers. He also coached the Rockets and Bucks.

I’m sure between the two of them, there isn’t a situation they haven’t already seen.

For their misery, the Bulls lucked out with the number one pick in the draft and they took talented point guard, Derrick Rose from NCAA finalist Memphis. They lost back-up point guard Chris Duhon to the New York Knicks who are trying to distance themselves from a radioactive situation of their own.

The Bulls are trying to put last year behind them and regain lost momentum. They managed to re-sign forward Luol Deng to a multi-year contract this summer, but were unable to convince shooting guard Ben Gordon to accept their slightly lower offer (than their original one) after that disappointing season. He decided to play out the final year of his contract in hopes of landing a
better payday in free agency.

The Bulls started out the new season with a win against their old coach, Scott Skiles, and the Milwaukee Bucks.

It should be a competitive match up. The Bulls are a starless team, in search of a post presence and a bonifide go-to guy at crucial times. When motivated, they can play at a high level.

The match up between Rajon Rondo and Derrick Rose will be something to watch for. Perkins should be able to overpower Drew Gooden in the middle, but must stay with him outside where Drew can hit the mid range shot. Luol Deng always seems to give Paul Pierce trouble defensively. Tyrus Thomas is coming off a strong start, but should be no match for Kevin Garnett. Thabo Sefolosa started at guard, but played only 11 minutes in the last game.

The Celtics are on a mission to repeat last season. The Bulls are on a mission not to.

We’ll see who is more successful.

It is always fun to watch a player develop.

Leon Powe had the ball and headed to the hoop for a throw down. Delonte West leaped with extended arm to block it. Leon climbed air to go just above West’s reach and Wham. Throw down with emphasis complete. Instant poster.

But it isn’t that part of his game that is emerging.

Right before our eyes, 24 year old, 6′ 8″ Leon Powe is filling out his game. Inch by inch, shot by shot. Until recently, he was known more for his rebounding and dunking. His nick name is “The Show.” It’s tough to put on a show as a role player on a star laden championship team. But Doc Rivers is letting Leon show more of what he can do as time goes on.

Another bonifide 2nd round treasure drafted by Danny Ainge (drafted by Denver at #49 and traded to the Celtics), Leon seems more comfortable than ever in the Celtics’ rotation this season.

Great Beginning to 2008-9
Powe scored 13 points in 23 minutes on 5 of 7 shooting with 3-4 from the line, and tied for team high with Paul Pierce with a +12 scoring advantage while he was in the game. He’s adding variation on his shot making and making them count against tough competition.

Before that, he had an excellent preseason, scoring 10.6 points in just 19.6 minutes while shooting .50%. That was good enough for 2nd on the team in scoring per 48 minutes at 25.99. Only Eddie House was more prolific. Leon is a respectable foul shooter for a big man, averaging .73% in the preseason, right in line with his career stats.

He culminated a solid preseason with 19 points in 25 minutes against David Lee and the Knicks. But his performance against the Cavs was more impressive.

The Cavaliers are known to defend the middle well, yet Leon worked effectively against their inside defense. He is also adding a little distance to his shooting range. He has always been aggressive to the hoop with dunks and contact heavy lay-ups.

Now he gets even harder to defend with a short mid-range game, a spin move, and a bit of a fall away after first establishing contact. Where’d all that come from?

Like a lot of NBA players he was a scoring star in high school. Leon averaged 27 points as a high school senior. Could he light it up? You bet. Leon poured in 40 points for three straight game including the HS league title game, and averaged 33 points and 14 rebounds in the state play-offs in California.

One HS rating combine had Leon as the 4th best HS player in the country. His basketball resume was among the best. Parade All American, MacDonald’s All-Star game and he was part of the Oakland Soldiers, an elite travel team made up of some of the best national talent including LeBron James and DeMarcus Nelson (Golden State Warriors).

Before high school, he first drew coaches’ attention when he scored 44 points twice in a row in middle school.

Leon went on to lead the Pac-10 in scoring and rebounding with 20.5 and 10.1 becoming only the 6th player in league history to do so. He recruited current Washington Wizard Dominic McGuire to play with him at California.

Along the way Leon was often double and triple teamed. That experience comes in handy now in the pros as Leon is comfortable putting the ball back up in traffic.

Always considered a ‘tweener, neither tall enough for power forward nor quick enough for small forward, Leon is carving his playing time in the NBA at power forward and occasionally at center. Long arms, skill, and toughness have allowed Leon to overcome that label.

But, back to that jump shot shot we are starting to see more of…a Leon Powe archeology dig finds that an old assessment on collegehoops.net says….

Great hands. Decent mid range jumper. Is a 20 point, 10 board threat every time he walks onto a college court.

So the mid range jumper was part of his game all along.

And for your amusement….

Too short to play power forward in the NBA – may actually only be 6’7”. Injury worries – has already had two knee surgeries. Inexperienced – is 22 years old but has only played 2 years in college. Needs to get range on his jumper back beyond the college three point line to show he has the potential to play the three spot in the pros.

Psssst…please don’t tell Leon or the NBA that. They both are finding out that he can play the power forward position…those crazy people. Three point shot not required.

But it was those multiple knee surgeries that scared everyone off but Dr. Danny Ainge. It is Danny’s success with Leon that has him scouring the medical scrap heap of former big potential players for another bargain or, if you will, leap of faith. Enter Darius Miles (and exit) and Bill Walker who may yet prove to be a worthwhile, low risk gamble.

Leon is still proving to Doc, his team mates, himself and their NBA opponents what he can consistently be relied on to do. His individual defense is solid, his team defense is improving, and now he is increasing his range and his value as an effective scorer against most defenders.

More important, he is doing it within the framework of the team. That is the only way anyone is allowed to develop on this goal driven team.

Leon’s emerging game is a pleasure to watch. Tune in to Celticvision and watch the Leon Powe Show. You will be glad you did.

Game one of the new season brought forth a lot of emotion, especially from Paul Pierce and a hard fought win over a team that took them to the brink in the play-offs, not that long ago.

The Celtics won 90-85, behind Pierce’s 27 points, Rajon Rondo’s 14, and Leon Powe’s 13.

Paul Pierce shook off the pre-game effects and went out and delivered his normal array of shots from all over the court to lead the Celtics to victory once again. He went 2-4 from the arc, hit some quick mid rangers and went to the hoop and the line a number of times.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Though the Cavs trade for Mo Williams received a lot of attention, as did the James Posey departure from the Celtics to New Orleans, both teams are essentially the same. Consequently, the results were pretty much the same. Low scoring, low amount of field goal attempts by both teams (68-74).

Things were sloppy for both teams at times. The Celtics defense wasn’t that good in the first half, giving up 28 first quarter points and 50 at the half to a team that has trouble offensively. The Cavaliers had 21 turnovers for the game.

The Celtics turned it around in the 3rd quarter when they held the Cavs to 13 points. Still, the Cavaliers came back to regain the lead a few times before the Celtics managed to (barely) stay ahead. LeBron James missed a big free throw in the last ten seconds that would have brought Cleveland to within one point and missed one of two with 4 seconds left to give Boston a 3 point lead.

Ray Allen struggled with his shot (2-9), as did Kevin Garnett (5-15, 11 points). Rajon Rondo (4-5), Powe (5-7) and Tony Allen (4-9, 11 points) more than made up for the stars’ misfiring.

A much more confident Leon Powe is showing improved variation on his shot making around the hoop. If he keeps this up, no one will be asking for PJ Brown to unretire. A crowd pleasing, high rising, monster dunk over a leaping Delonte West was part of the Powe show.

Rajon Rondo had a Rondo type game with 6 assists, 5 rebounds, 3 steals and went 6-10 from the line as he made an effort to attack the hoop tonight.

4 technicals were called, due to a bit of woofing between players, as these teams are becoming true rivals. After a split regular season (2-2) last year, the Cavs continued to play the new look Celtics tough in the play-offs. But, if we’re counting pre-season, this is the Celtics 4th straight win against the Cavs.

Mike Brown’s team still have trouble with their offense. Lebron James took 21 shots. The next closest was new PG Maurice ‘Mo’ Williams with 10 attempts. Cleveland ran the shot clock down too much, while the Celtics are still poised and confident enough to comeback from a slow start to regain the lead.

The ring ceremony and Banner 17 raising literally brought a teary eyed Paul Pierce to the center of the court to greet NBA Commissioner David Stern. He said he couldn’t control his emotions. Who knew that the Celtics’ star with a tough exterior was such a softy?

The whole team was drawn into the emotion of the moment as they accepted their rings and took part in raising Banner 17 to the rafters.

Cleveland took advantage of the situation and ran out to a quick 14-4 lead, as the Cs shot 2-8, only making 2 dunks (Pierce, Garnett). Heralded Mo Williams delivered the outside shot as they had hoped he would, going 3-5 from the arc. While he did have a +3 while he was in the game, he produced just 2 assists and had 4 turnovers in 31 minutes.

7′ 3″ Zydrunas Ilgauskas seems to present particular problems for Kendrick Perkins and the Celtic back-ups because of his skill and size. That was evidenced by his +7 and Perk’s -7 for the game. Kendrick appeared frustrated much of the evening and fouled out in 21 minutes, while Z scored 15 points on 3 of 5 shooting and 9-10 foul shooting.

So the reigning kings of the NBA start off with a home court win against a dangerous play-off contender. Just 81 more games to go.

The Boston Celtics will be pointing fingers at each other tonight at the TDBanknorth Garden.

But they will be smiling when they do.

Their hard earned NBA championship rings will be distributed to the players at pre-game ceremonies.

Even Scot Pollard and at last look, PJ Brown will be flown in for the event. Only current New Orleans Hornet James Posey will be not be able to attend the festivities.

Combined with raising banner #17, it will be the final ceremony to close out the celebrations of achieving last season’s ultimate accomplishment.

Lebron James has stated he won’t be watching when they do the deed.

Indeed. The NBA has curiously put Boston’s 2nd round opponents of last season’s play-offs, the Cavaliers, here for the event. Some feel that a whole year together with last year’s trade imports, plus Mo Williams, will make the Lebron James led Cavs a true rival for the title this season.

Echoes will reverberate through the Garden of that now famous 7th game duel between LeBron and Paul Pierce for a long, long time.

But those echoes will be driven out for long moments of jewelry admiration and fan appreciation on this evening. The Celtics will be stylin’ some glistening and heavy armor on their digits. As Doc said, all the other accolades end up on shelves. The rings are walking billboards of unique and historic accomplishment. Raise ‘em and praise ‘em.

The Celtics climbed the NBA’s Mount Everest in a single season. Making history, the league’s biggest turnaround (42 games), ended in storybook fashion. Will they live happily ever after?

Yes….and no.

Long live the king – the king is dead. End equals beginning.

The Celtics embark on another long march up the NBA hill. These same Celtics, plus a few, minus a few, will remove their ‘nice ice’ baby, and get to work on proving they aren’t one hit wonders like that Vanilla fellow. They’d rather be the Ceatles with a string of number ones. Will they ‘come together’ to make it happen?

The Big Three version 2 Celtics, season two journey starts tonight on TNT at 8. But they better be ready, because there is a player on the other team that almost singlehandedly beat them a few short months ago. His name is James. He is back, and he’s brought help…’Mo’ help, if you will.

The goal is to repeat.

I’ve predicted that they would/could.

But that is based on a few holes being plugged by unknown players (in the sense that we only know what preseason has shown us about them). It could mean Danny might need to find ‘leak stoppers’ in the NBA supermarket, if they can’t.

The obvious question is…does Tony Allen, Bill Walker, and Patrick O’Bryant give them enough to go the distance against 29 teams that would like nothing more than clawing, pushing, pulling, beating the new NBA champs around when they play them?

And then…..are those the guys that will show up, mix it up, do it up, and make excellent play-off opponents give it up over a very tough, potentially 7 game series?

If we are being honest, we don’t really know, do we?

In fact, if rumors are true, Danny already feels he will need strong defensive help in the middle. I can’t say he is wrong….or right.

Patrick O’Bryant has definitely shown some skill in the preseason. But he is slightly built and will need to bulk up a bit to be able to hold his ground against the league’s stronger centers and power forwards. Not that he will be playing power forward, but he will trying to rebound against them every night. Can he take NBA-size abuse every night? Do we see POB holding his ground and wrestling rebounds away from aggressive, muscular rivals in the trenches in the heat of play-off battle?

We keep saying (myself included) that we can replace James Posey. But most agree that it would be through a couple of players, because neither the Celtics (nor anyone else) has a player quite like James Posey. Doesn’t that mean something will be missing whenever the Celtics’ player who is “not quite Posey” takes off his warm-ups and enters the game? We don’t seem to want to deal with that reality. It will magically clear itself up.

Is Doc, Danny and the team expecting Bill Walker to fill veteran shoes…as a rookie…on a championship team? He does a lot of huffing at league stars and has shown some nice athletic ability around the hoop. But can he deliver the type of defense and smarts the team needs against a wide variety of talented NBA players throughout the season? We simply don’t know for sure.

The Posey ‘clutch’ factor. Some will argue with me, but I maintain that…while Posey reached another level in the play-offs, he was quite often clutch during the long season as well. Some concentrated on what he didn’t do, instead of what he was doing. That was hitting threes, making steals, and defending tighter at the absolute right times for most of the year.

Would we even fair to expect similar from Tony Allen?

Most assuredly, Tony’s game is quite different from James Posey’s game. Something will be lost. Something will be gained. Tony will give the team something new and put his own stamp on a game. We might not see that crushing three pointer drained at exactly the right time. But we might see a drive to the hoop that dissects the defense for the lay-up or dunk, or a big rebound out of nowhere and the put back. Tony can be relentless in his own way.

But only time will tell what we can expect out of Tony Allen on a nightly basis. Just remember, Posey wasn’t great every night either.

Gabe Pruitt has played his way into the edge of the Celtic point guard picture. Will any of that translate into minutes during the season?

Eddie House looks better than last season, and he is working on his weaker points. Can he and Pruitt keep Sam Cassell in street clothes?

Rajon Rondo will improve just from experiencing last year’s trial by fire. Kendrick Perkins has established his role and only needs to continue to do what he has done – only a bit better. The Celtics are often a lesser team with unsung Perkins on the bench.

Leon Powe might be asked to do a bit more at both ends of the floor. His featured role in the offense against the Knicks recently did not go unnoticed. Glen Davis must come to grips with his role on this team and play to that end – the very best he can.

Brian Scalabrine had a tough offensive preseason. But he will be there if a big man falters, or they need some energy, or someone to make some hard fouls.

The biggest questions are answered. It is the little questions that remain. But sometimes little questions can be big.

With the country’s biggest election and voting just about to happen, the NBA GM’s weighed in with some voting of their own.

The NBA released the answers to a GM survey they took on the league’s coaches.

Best coach – Gregg Popovich 53.8%
Phil Jackson 23.1%
Jerry Sloan 7.7%

I have no problem with the top choices. But Doc Rivers should have, at least, appeared on the radar.

Rick Adelman ‘received votes’. Though leading the biggest team turnaround in league history, Doc Rivers did not get a single vote (as mentioned) for best coach. Even Stan Van Gundy, Rick Carlisle, and Nate McMillan got votes. It hardly seems right. Call it the Joe Torre syndrome. Nice guy coaches big stars = easy. We know now that isn’t so easy…..don’t we?

I would like to see what Phil Jackson could do with the teams Doc Rivers had the previous 2 seasons. In fact, I’d like to see what Gregg Popovich would do with such limited talent. I happen to agree that Popovich may be the best coach in the league, but again, Tim Duncan is a very coachable superstar and a leader in his own right – not unlike Garnett.

Both Popovich and Sloan are quite impressive when encountered in person. The phrase “professional, but accessible” comes to mind. and they will try to give you a straight answer to your questions. Not that has anything to do with coaching ability. But maybe it does, in some small way.

Between deciding how to structure the offense, to deciding that defense would be stressed, to making sure the big three got plenty of minutes early to limiting their minutes as the year went, Doc did a great job. His teams are loyal and play hard every year. The three stars got just about the same amount of shots each (not a coincidence) and he developed a young point guard, and 2 talented power forwards along the way. He also tried to negotiate a happy medium with late season addition Sam Cassell.

Doc did gets props as the 3rd best motivator (12%), behind Jackson (44%) and Popovich (28%). Again, I think that’s a bit low in light of the final results last year.

There was a watershed moment in the survey in that Doc was picked by 8% (tied for 4th) as making the best in-game adjustments. That was often an area of criticism by some in the past.

Rivers was second (38%) only to Popovich (50%) for best defensive schemes. But a large part of the credit goes to Tom Thibodeau, who was received the most votes for top assistant coach with 41.7%. Well done on both parts. In fact, I don’t know how Doc (and Tom) doesn’t get voted number one for defensive schemes. No team was better over the course of the season.

In an interesting rating, Eric Snow was voted top active player (24%) who would make a great head coach one day. The Celtics’ own Sam Cassell was 2nd with 16% of the vote.

I’m not unhappy with Doc’s respect, but I thought it should be higher in most cases. I guess Doc still has something to prove as much as the team does, to get top respect around the league. We will learn some new things about both this season.

Some headlines write themselves.

The Celtics beat the Knicks in Madison Square Garden 101-90 as Eddie House picked up where he left off last week against the Knicks (27 points), leading the Beantown Ballers with 20 more long range points. The game wasn’t as close as the score might suggest.

Leon Powe got to show off a nice set of post moves against David Lee and whoever else tried to guard him, scoring 19 points on 6 of 11 shots, going 7 of 7 from the line, and led the Cs with 12 rebounds.

It was going to be a strange game right from the start as D’Antoni went with a 3 guard offense. Chris Duhon, Nate Robinson, and Stephon Marbury were starters with David Lee and Wilson Chandler. It was Marbury’s first start of the preseason.

According to the Knick announcers, Coach D’Antoni said not to make too much of it. He was still experimenting. It made for some unusual (mis)match-ups like Duhon guarding Pierce, Chandler guarding Garnett, Lee guarding Perkins, Marbury guarding Allen.

If D’Antoni thought it would give them a quickness advantage, that idea was quickly put to rest. The Celtics lead ran up to 20 points for most of the first half and reached 25 for the game. The Knicks shot just .282 for the first half. They did shoot 20 of 38 (53%) in the 2nd half, mostly later against the Celtics bench.

Meanwhile the Knicks shot 1-19 from the 3 point line in the first half and a woeful 4-31 from the arc for the game. The Celtics defense was pretty good but the Knicks did miss many open perimeter shots as well.

Kevin Garnett overpowered the height challenged Knicks for 14 points and 9 rebounds in 19 minutes. Ray Allen had 12 points in 21 minutes. Paul Pierce went 0-7, with 6 points but 4 rebounds and 5 assists, a steal and a block in 21 minutes.

Gabe Pruitt started again as Doc wanted to rest Rondo and get another look at Gabe, who once again did little to hurt his chances of earning a spot on the team. Pruitt was solid if not remarkable with 8 points, 3 assists, 3 rebounds and a steal in 32.5 minutes.

Kendrick Perkins and his healing shoulder played but 13 minutes, scoring 6 points and grabbing 5 boards along with a block while over powering David Lee.

Nate Robinson led the Knicks with 25 points in 31 minutes, followed by Marbury with 14 points. From the Celtic bench, Eddie House had a running discussion with a playing Marbury that got quite prolonged and animated in the first half.

Zach Randolph finished with a double double of 12 points and 11 rebounds while posting the only Knick plus/minus of +7 in 26 minutes. Wilson Chandler, who had been having a solid preseason, turned his ankle in the first half and didn’t return. David Lee had 13 rebounds, 7 points, and 2 blocks in 37 minutes.

I’m not sure what good this game did either team. It was the Celtics last exhibition game. They open the season next week against the Cleveland Cavaliers. it would be hard to make too much of what they accomplished against a team in the situation as the Knicks are. The Celtics finished the preseason 6-2 while the Knicks are 3-3 with one more game to go.

In fact, other than saving in travel time, the Celtic preseason schedule with 2 games against the Nets and 2 against the Knicks did not do the Celtics much good, IMO. Nor did it do the Nets or Knicks much good either from my frame of mind. This was poorly thought out by the NBA, I feel.

Both New York area teams are in difficult transitions at the moment, while the Celtics are mostly set and coming off a mind boggling Championship season.

With Darius Miles now gone, the Celtic roster is set for the near term.