Celtics Central

Someone forgot to tell the Bulls that they are not supposed to play this well. The Celtics are supposed to be the clutch team.

Before I get to the individual highlights, stats, and personal duels (unintended or otherwise) that are playing out, there are a few things puzzling me about the Celtics in this game.

Switched Signals
The simple question is why is Rondo switching to a big and the Celtic bigs switching to Rose or Gordon? Rondo is often not fighting through picks effectively.

The Celtic bigs, Perkins and Davis, far too often, were caught guarding Rose or Gordon, and sometimes Hinrich on switches on the perimeter. Rondo would switch and guard Brad Miller or Noah, while the bigs were supposed to keep Rose or Gordon in front of them all the way to the hoop. There were either a number of bad switching decisions, or if that was the plan, it created mismatches that worked far more often to the Bulls favor.

Paul Pierce Questions
Paul Pierce is juking us. If not, tonight’s game plan was certainly puzzling. I’m guessing that he is nursing some semi-inhibiting malady, but covers it well and is playing politician. You can say that his numbers are about the same, but not the way he was getting them in this game.

Paul scored the last six Celtic points and led the game in scoring with 29 points, but had 6 critical turnovers, and shot 9 for 24. He also had 7 rebounds, 2 steals and an assist.

In the first half, he was met with major contact in the middle, but couldn’t get a foul called on a couple of drives. He took two foul shots in the half. Then he stopped driving almost altogether. John Salmons (recovering groin injury) or Kirk Hinrich guarded him the entire game. If Paul is really himself, doesn’t he make hamburger out of either Bull?

I can only call it a seeming lack of playoff level energy and his drives or lack there of. He did go to the line a Piercian nine times in this game. But some of those calls weren’t on drives.

In rewatching the game, when Paul got the ball in the second half, the Cs went to a spread offensive set for him to work with, often leaving him at the top with open lanes to the hoop staring him in face, and one-on-one coverage. Paul was consistently shooting straight up or fadeaway jumpshots throughout the second half and overtimes. This was done over guys he could breakdown with his size and bulk (Hinrich) or his quickness and guile (Salmons).

He opted almost every time for a jumper. More curious, the one time I remember him trying to attack the hoop was the one time he was in the paint, staring at triple coverage. He was stripped on the play. In fact Pierce has three big unforced turnovers, affecting the outcome of the game.

The second half saw no patented Pierce power drives. No spin moves, no dissected paths to the rim, no drives and kicks to open shooters or to weakside or back door cutters. Just Paul pulling up for a energy saving “J”.

Pierce was blocked three times, twice in the first half. John Salmons had three blocks in the game, two against Pierce. Salmons hasn’t blocked three shots in a game all season.

Thrilling Game
This wasn’t a great performance by the reigning champs. Ray and Paul made a number of clutch shots, yet each missed a critical free throw. But it was a tight, generally well played game and exciting to watch.

The Bulls, led by clutch shooting by rookie Derrick Rose and Ben Gordon (22 pts.) , and clutch foul shooting by John Salmons (20 pts.) at the end, got an impressive complete team effort from all seven players Coach Del Negro used. It took it all of that to win the game.

A Game of Duels
Rajon Rondo gave another jaw dropping triple double with 25 points on 9 of 18 shooting, 11 assists, and 11 rebounds. Rajon is cementing his imprint on this series and rising to true star status in the league.

His counterpart on the Bulls, Derrick Rose has been taking notes from the complete schooling Rondo gave him in games 2 and 3 and came to class prepared this time, missing a triple double of his own by a single assist with 23 points, 11 rebounds, and 9 assists.

Kendrick Perkins and Joakim Noah seems to have a thing going. Perkins added 15 points (11 in the first half, 9 boards, 6 turnovers, and 3 blocks to Noah’s equally active defense, and 12 points and 10 rebounds.

Ray Allen and Ben Gordon continued their duel, as Ray won the individual battle with 28 points and made a game tieing three pointer (96-96) with 9.8 seconds left in regulation . Ben Gordon hit two huge shots including three pointer himself.

The Celtics bench got mixed grades, with Brian Scalabrine, Eddie House and Mikki Moore getting passing grades. While Scalabrine and Moore generally played good D, Marbury continues to have trouble in short minutes (5). The Bulls bench outscored the Cs by 30-11.

The intention was to win this game, deflate the Bulls, get any ideas of equality out of the Bulls’ heads and shorten the series. Instead, it turned into a contest of execution and the series into a fight.

Glen Davis hit two big foul shots to tie late in the game, but generally had a tough shooting day, just missing a number of lay ups, and going 4 for 16 on the day, with 11 rebounds.

The Bulls played a tough and poised game, winning on John Salmons four clutch foul shots in the final 27 seconds of the second overtime. Salmons played some solid defense, had 3 steals, 3 blocks, went 9 for 9 from the line including the game winning points.

Tyrus Thomas, Noah and Salmons each had three blocks. Tyrus added two steals, while Hinrich played effective defense and had 3 steals.

Kendrick Perkins added 9 boards, but had too many offensive fouls and 6 turnovers and he and Brain Scalabrine both fouled out late in the game, forcing the Celtics to go with Davis at center and a small line up in the extra periods.

Brad Miller received a technical foul and was almost ejected for pushing on and kind of striking Glen Davis when Glen fouled him under the hoop.