Celtics Central

Just when you thought he’s completely out of the picture, second year Celtic, J.R. Giddens received 33 minutes of playing time in a preseason game. The Celtics rested Ray Allen, Paul, Pierce, and Kevin Garnett, opening up playing time for players like J.R.

All the 6′ 5″ player did was respond with game honors in rebounding with 13 boards, 7 points on 3 of 5 shooting, 2 assists, and a steal (3 TOs). While he was in the game, the team was up 7 points, good for the third best plus/minus on the team.

I had talked with J.R. Giddens after the Knicks game. I asked him to assess his own performance in that game…

I feel like I was out there, (feel) like I was comfortable. I played aggressive and I just went there and made plays when I needed to make the best of the minutes.

Making the transition from college to the pros is always a bit of an adjustment and Giddens’ has had his own bumps in the road. What is the hardest part?

The hardest part for me is just the speed of the game, and being patient. And you know, just learning the offense and stuff like that. But I say that main part is just the speed of the game, playing with guys on a different level, and getting used to offense. You know, the guys that are bigger, athletic, you (have) guys on the perimeter than are more athletic and quicker so its’ getting used to that. I fell like I’m used to it now.

So I’m feeling pretty comfortable out there on the court and every time I get minutes I feel like I make the best of them. So, I think I’m in transition now. Better this year than last year.

You looked like you were a little excited last year, when you came into the game.

Yeah, I’m more calm. I’ve got a lot more time in practice. All summer I’ve been working on my game. A lot more confidence. Like you said I just feel more comfortable out there on the court.

Doc says that defensively you’re looking pretty good. It is on offense that you need to blend your skills in better.

Definitely. I feel like I’m, like you said, sometimes I just have to trust the offense. Let the offense make the plays instead of trying to reject the ball screen, sometime just roll off, you know, let the plan unfold, see what they’re going to do. That means I might have to pass it back to the big or just do other things besides just look for my shot, or not my shot but looking to be aggressive. Like I say, just make the play unfold and see what happens.

Giddens apparently has taken that to heart. He took only 5 shots in 33 minutes against the Nets and made 3. He concentrated on doing other things to help the team.

Some think J.R. might not be in the Celtics long term plans any longer. He is a 25 year old NBA sophomore. This performance could be J.R.’s best plea for Doc looking his way when he looks for bench help at certain times in the game. We will have to see how things work out.

There is little question that minutes will be hard to come by for players at the end of the bench this season. But it is important that Giddens shows he can be a positive for the Celtics when he does hit the court. His defensive skills are said to be good. Using his skills and energy in a team concept would be his best hope for helping this team.

Last night was a good sign in that regard.

While the Celtics were unable to land a long defensive small forward, they did the next best thing. They got a player who can back up three positions, at least, in most circumstances. So, when I met Marquis, there was a question I wanted to ask him.

You can play 1,2,3. Can you play guys like Kobe defensively?

(Thoughtfully) Ummm…I’ve been guarding him ever since I’ve been in the NBA so…I’ve been playing the two, three when I was in Dallas, so I’ve been guarding him.

How have you done against him?

That’s a great player there. You just do the best you can. Try to contain him. Make it hard for him. Don’t give him nothing easy.

Tom Thibodeau has a reputation as a strong defensive coach. Has he been able to help you do anything like that?

A lot of the stuff is attitude. You (have) to want to do it. It’s having great guys behind you. We all have each other’s back. If you get beat… you (aren’t) supposed to get beat, (but) you know you have some guys to back you up and be up court. So I know, he has his great strategies but at the same time, you have to do your job.

Unless you’re committed to it, it doesn’t matter what the strategy is.

Right.

Defense Happens When Players Commit to It

Tom Thibodeau has made teams’ defenses successful at nearly every team he’s been associated with. His reputation is well known, even beyond inner NBA circles to many fans now. How many other assistant coaches have reputations at all with the watching public? Not very many. Name me three.

His reputation is solidly established. Here is a great article by Bill Burt of the Eagle Tribune from May 2008 that frames the career long success of the Celtics own Tom Thibodeau. And in case you haven’t noticed the difference in Tom’s title, he is not an assistant coach. His official title is Associate Head Coach. Give Doc Rivers kudos for a humble outlook, just for accepting that minor but significant difference.

That Burt’s article is so good is because of his own research. The Celtics don’t allow interviews for any coaches except Doc Rivers. I suggest reading the whole thing.

Bill Burt…

His teams have been in the top ten in defense 15 of his 18 seasons as an NBA assistant coach; the 2001-02 Knicks set a then-NBA record by holding teams under 100 points in 33 straight games.

There is no doubt that is no coincidence.

But there is the flip side to that.

To make a point, there is a strange but true aphorism that I have observed that goes something like this…

A bad plan enthusiastically executed, will be better than a good plan unenthusiastically followed.

Not that I’m not suggesting that the Celtic plans are anything but excellent. But good plans don’t mean a thing without players believing in them.

Marquis Daniels, in his own way, recognized that. Marquis Daniels has been around enough to know that defenses are only as good as the players who play them.

You need committed players. When you get that effort for a coach almost every season, it fits that that coach gets credit for making that happen.

It is quite possible that an average defensive scheme will produce good results if the players really get after it for 24 seconds each time and help each other out. Heretical, but true.

It’s kind of like the chicken and the egg. There is no doubt that some coaches are better than others at certain aspects of the game. But a big part of it is convincing players to enthusiastically carry out your directives on the court for 82 games. Only a few teams put in the defensive effort over a whole season that the Celtics do.

On the Celtics, Marquis is snowballing towards a motivated attitude on defense. That’s a good thing. He’ll be facing a few players with a very motivated attitude on offense. The other good thing he’s got with the Celtics are team mates that have his back.

It starts with the veterans and the coaching staff. They believe in everything the coaches tell us. The veterans want to play defense and it’s just a trickling effect, snowballing down to me, the other guys, and even the guys like Rondo and Perkins come and helping. (I’m) getting better and better offensively and defensively. I mean it’s just a rollover effect, snowballing on everybody.

They pay more attention to defense here. Is there more helping going on than you’re used to? Or was help defense stressed on the other teams too?

It starts with the veteran guys. If all I’m playing with (are) All Stars, those guys coming in, seeing them working hard everyday, getting better, it just makes you want to work harder. Seeing that, coming in and working behind those guys. I mean, you can’t come in slacking after seeing them going out there playing hard, so…it’s just a snowball effect.

No slackers allowed when the stars are busting their butts at that end. Good thing. I couldn’t really think of a good ending using snowball effect. But Marquis has the experience and the right idea about playing great offensive players like Kobe. Just make life difficult for him and be glad you have back up.

If not, use that snowball.

Here’s the full list of the Southwest Division previews.

Dallas Mavericks

Mavs Moneyball | The Two Man Game | NBA Mate

Houston Rockets

The Dream Shake | Ballerblogger

Memphis Grizzlies

3 Shades of Blue

New Orleans Hornets

At The Hive | Hornets Hype

San Antonio Spurs

Pounding The Rock | Project Spurs

Read them all. Your brain still has room. I checked.

Courtesy of orchestrator Jeff Clark of Celticsblog.com, the NBA Carousel of Team Previews continues with the Dallas Mavericks. They are an improved team roster-wise with Jason Kidd back and the Shawn Marion and Drew Gooden acquisitions.

Here are the breakdowns and lowdowns…

Mavs Moneyball…

2. What are the team’s biggest strengths?

The Dallas Mavericks now have the players to fully integrate Rick Carlisle’s offense and at the same time get after people on the defensive end. This team will be extremely difficult to handle if they are able to get out and run. Transition offense is going to be a huge plus for them this season. The Mavericks should also be able to matchup with just about anyone 8 or 9 deep. This should be a very active and athletic team, while they may be a little older team now, the athleticism is there and even more so than the last few years.

The Two Man Game

1. What significant moves were made during the off-season?

The Mavs made significant strides this off-season by turning a lot of nothing into something. Jerry Stackhouse barely laced up in 2008-2009, and yet a money-saving provision in his contract made him valuable enough to net Shawn Marion via trade. They added Quinton Ross to fill the void of the departed Antoine Wright. Drew Gooden and Tim Thomas were picked up for pennies on the dollar, and Kris Humphries may hold unexpected value after being considered a throw-in in the Marion deal. That’s quite a catch of players, even if it doesn’t quite heal the burns Otis Smith was kind enough to leave with the Marcin Gortat ordeal.

NBA Mate

2. What are the team’s biggest strengths?

The three-headed forward line of  Nowitzki-Howard-Marion gives the Mavericks a heap of fire power, flexibility, and the potential to cause a lot of match up nightmares. The challenge is obviously going to be fitting all their minutes in, and I suspect they’ll do this by sliding Josh to the two-guard a lot more. I also expect the Mavericks transition game to pick up in leaps and bounds. Marion still loves to run the floor and gets a lot of his points on opportunistic plays, and Jason Kidd, while old, can still run the floor with the best of them. I’ve read some stuff saying the Mavs are too old, and while some of their key players certainly are, I don’t see it slowing their game down one bit. Barea plays at light speed and Terry is never afraid to fire away early in the possession. It all adds up to an already exciting team to watch possibly becoming even more exciting.

I’d say the Mavs “bench” is a strength, but when I think about it, I really mean Jason Terry.

Pull up a chair and get reading. Impress all your friends with your vast NBA knowledge. Call your friends in Dallas and speak intelligently about their team in just three quick reads.

Be sure to listen in to the best Celtic podcast on the net with Justin Poulin. Jon Duke partners with Justin in fat free, protein rich punditry weekly.

Tonight’s guest is Marc Spears of Yahoo Sports, and formerly of the Boston Globe covering the Celtics.

the link is here at celticsstufflive.net

Paul Pierce scored 25 points today as the Celtics defeated the New Jersey Nets in Boston in an early afternoon game (1pm).

Pierce was supported by a solid performance by a rehabbing Kevin Garnett with 12 points on 6 of 8 shooting and 6 rebounds in 21 minutes of play. Reports are that KG looked good on the floor today with no visible signs of stiffness for the intense leader of the Celtics defense.

Eddie House was second on the team with 13 points, also contributing 3 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 steals in 23 minutes of play. Kendrick Perkins was solid with 7 points and 7 rebounds in  23 plus minutes.

The second unit looked like it had a positive impact on the game when you see the plus-minus numbers. That is something the Celtics hope is a season long trend. It is something that wasn’t able to occur often enough last season.

Brook Lopez led the Nets with 21 points, followed by Yi Jianlian with 20. Both had 8 rebounds and Connecticut player Josh Boone added 7 rebounds and 14 points to the Nets cause.

Because I didn’t see this game, I’ll bring you a game recap from Jimmy Toscano of Celticsblog.com…

The talk going into this season was that this Celtics team was extremely deep. After just the third preseason game of the season, the Celtics showed just how deep they were.

Beating the New Jersey Nets 100-93 at the TD Garden, it was the second unit- not the first- that gave the Celtics some breathing room in the fourth quarter. Playing with a lineup of Lester Hudson, Eddie House, Marquis Daniels, Glen Davis, and Rasheed Wallace, the Celtics turned a two point game at the start of the fourth quarter into a 13 point game in under six minutes.

Paul Pierce, who scored a game high 25 points on 8-12 shooting, was quick to give credit where credit is due.

Speaking after the game, Pierce said, “To tell you the truth I think our second unit was a lot more impressive than we were. They were the ones who pushed the lead out and they’re looking like they’re gelling well together.

Daniels, who saw time at small forward today during that fourth quarter run, knows how important it is to pick up where the first unit left off.

“We did a lot of great things in the second half,” said Daniels. “When the first team comes out we have to look to continue to build the lead, keep the pressure on the other team, and keep things going.”

Read the rest on Celticsblog.com

Celtics play in Connecticut this week

The Celtics play back-to-backs with the Nets in New Jersey on Tuesday night, followed by the Toronto Raptors in an exhibition game at the XL Center in Hartford, Connecticut on Wednesday, Oct 14th. Connecticut residents – Be sure to see one of the most talented teams in the league playing right in your back yard. Tickets are still available.

Celtic draft pick #58, Lester Hudson, late this summer, eventually got his first NBA contract from the Celtics. A place on the team is another story. He is currently roster spot #15 on a 15 man team.

His recent play in two exhibition games has done nothing to discourage that. The muscular 6’ 2” 25 year old has appeared to played well in his limited minutes in preseason. A scoring point guard at a small college Division I college – Tennessee-Martin Lester made his mark their by being a fearless multifaceted offensive player who can put the ball in the hole, hit his free throws, make steals, and generally bring the energy.

One of the nation’s top scorers, Lester averaged 27 points for Tennessee-Martin. Hudson also became the first Division I men’s basketball player to record a quadruple-double in a game when he put up a line of 25 points, 12 rebounds, 10 assists, and 10 steals.

He can shoot outside and likes to take it to the hoop. There is a remote possibility for playing time behind Rajon Rondo as the back up point guard. Right now that spot is filled by Eddie House and Marquis Daniels.

Lester looks surprisingly comfortable on the court with NBA players after never really playing against even top college competition. That he was drafted so late illustrates the risk. But there have been a number of undrafted players who end up being solid NBA players, let alone late draft picks. Marquis Daniels is a great example as an undrafted player who made good.

Get to Know Lester Hudson

I caught up with Lester after the Knick game. Here’s how it went…

How do you think you did tonight?

I think I did real good. Brought a little energy into the game and run the offense like coach wants me to. So I think I did okay.

Feeling comfortable out there?

I’m getting used to it. Getting used to the home crowd…all the energy they bring. I’m feeling comfortable.

Last year lower level college team, now the Celtics. Did you expect that to happen?

I didn’t expect the Celtics but I believe in myself that I was going to be in the NBA. and I’m very blessed to be on this team because of all the veterans tell you what to look out for and motivate you to keep working hard and you’ll win here. So I’m very blessed being in the position I’m in right now.

Could be a special team this year.

Oh yes sir. You saw it tonight so I’m hoping to trying to come in and bring my energy and help the team. That’s all I want to do, help the team.

In terms of transition to the NBA anything that has surprised you?

Just the game is a little quicker than, quicker pace, quicker pace than college. I expected it to be a little slower but it’s a little fast so I have to keep up with the pace.

Discussions with Doc are you supposed to fit in more as a one or a two or combo?

I think mostly one but sometimes I might play the two so whatever he wants me to do. Wahtever is best for the team. I just want to go out and play as hard as I can.

You’ve been a scoring point guard in college. I guess that is what you’re learning going out and seeing the court?

I’ve been a scoring point, but I can get the ball to my teammates and make plays for them, so I’m sure I can do it, so I can play a little more minutes on the floor. I can score the ball to so, that’s the great thing.

You’re not afraid to get to the hole. How about your outside shot?

Oh I can shoot the ball real well. I will show you soon as the season goes on, I’ll show that I can shoot the ball.

If Lester ever develops enough to be counted on in real games during the season that skill will come in handy, as we all know that teams will quickly drop players that can not establish a reliable jump shot.

We hope we get to see Lester shoot the ball…and pass it..,. or he won’t get more chances to shoot it, will he?

But he seems to understand that. Here is wishing good luck to a late bloomer.

Glen Davis played well in the Friday night game against the Knicks. Last season, he was expected to extend out to space the floor and hit the open jumper when teams sag off him, as they did often.

That put him out of position to rebound and his numbers went down, especially at the offensive end. This season that may change. Rasheed Wallace is working his old jump shooting grounds now, even stepping out to three point land. Glen is heading toward the hoop on pick and rolls, instead of being the ‘pick and pop’ guy. He’s also supposed to grab those rebounds a bit more.

Glen had 8 rebounds in 16 minutes against the Knicks and shot 3-6, but those points came around the hoop as well. He had a lay up in traffic and a baby hook went down over pressure. Doc has said previously that he was clever around the hoop. He looked pretty good in this game.

How would you describe your game (against the Knicks)?

It was good for the whole team. Get a win under our belt. Kind of get in sync a little bit. You know we (are) still off a little bit. We (have) a lot of work to do.

More offensively than defensively, you guys looked a little out of sync.

Yeah. That’s just repetition and practice, watching film, things like that. You know we are a veteran team, we’re going to do it right.

It seems like there are three things that there should be improvement for you that you showed tonight. One is rebounding. It looks like you’re hitting the boards a little more

Yeah, I’m not on the perimeter as I was popping a lot, ‘cuz now we (have) Rasheed on the perimeter doing a lot of jump shots and I just got to find a new role for our team.

It looks that is going to work out well.

Yeah, as long as I stay in shape, it will be okay.

Filling in for Kevin Garnett defensively is a tough job for any NBA player. No one expected Davis to be Garnett. But he had his ups and downs defensively last season. The Celtics defense requires their bigs to be mobile and cover a lot of ground on helps and switches. Staying in front of an offensive player is fundamental, but requires solid and nimble footwork. Doc had reported that it wasn’t always there, especially at the end of the year.

I’m conscious of that. I’m trying to get better every day. Making sure that I deliver on the defensive side. It’s a process, you know. It’s a process. Making sure that I stay focused on the defensive side. Making sure that I know what I’m doing out there.

One of Glen’s jobs this season is to develop some reliable moves around the basket. Doc expects Glen to be putting together a little more offensive game around the hoop including using his body more.

I have a lot of moves. You guys haven’t seen (all of them) yet. I just have to get back to (being) used to it, because last year that was Leon Powe, and I was a shooter.

So Glen Davis, popularly known as Big Baby, will be expected to take over some new real estate on the floor and will develop the appropriate skills that go along with that territory.  Glen’s low post game from LSU will get dusted off, worked on, improved and put on display a little bit this season. And while rebounding wasn’t a problem for the Celtics last season (#1 in the NBA in rebounding differential) we may see Davis ripping down few more rebounds along the way.