Celtics Central

I don’t know whether December is bringing out the holiday spirit in the Boston Celtics, or they are preparing to throw just about everyone but the ball boy at opponents come playoff time.

Keeping with the emerging theme of the multi-headed monster that the Celtics are becoming, it was truly an ensemble win.

In one way, it was like watching Cheers or The Office. The Celtics’ entire cast of players went to work and everyone knew their lines.

Perhaps a better analogy might be an ensemble chorus. It was multi-part harmony with a few solos at it’s best and a surprise finale. Rajon Rondo conducted the choir, and sang a little solo himself. Kevin Garnett delivered his refrain from down low and on high. Kendrick Perkins brought the bass. At the very end, Paul Pierce harmonized down low with Ray Allen hitting the surprise final high note to send the Celtics home winners….of 11 straight games.

A close game throughout, leads mostly hovered around 1-3 points until the final quarter. The Celtics built an 8 point lead with 2:47 left, but couldn’t maintain that either.

In the final minute, after screening Rudy Gay off, Paul Pierce made a driving lay-up on the right over the smaller Mike Conley, giving the Celtics a 4 point lead at 107-103. O.J. Mayo followed that with a jump shot to close back within 107-105. Ray Allen picked up a deflected Pierce pass, rolled to the left top of the arc and drilled his 5th three pointer of the game to seal the win 110-105 with 17 seconds left.

With Grizzlies defense lacking and the Celtics defense perhaps a bit tired, it was a game of shot making for both teams.

On top of that, by matching the Grizzlies in offensive rebounding (11 each) and overall board (36 each) work, this Celtic team showed they can do it when they want to.

Ray Allen and Paul Pierce found their three point groove with 8 of 9 from downtown combined.

Contributions by all
This is getting ridiculous. The last 5 Celtic baskets were scored by each of the 5 starters. No one scored twenty points but three players had at least 18.

Led by Paul Pierce’s 19 points (Pierce went 3-3 from the arc and had 6 assists, a steal and two blocks), six Celtics scored in double figures with Eddie House just missing with 9 points.

Rajon Rondo had 18 points and 9 assists. It might be getting to be time for the rest of the league to fear their worst nightmare. Rondo is starting to hit jumpers now as well as his free throws. He was 2-3 in this game and 12 for 16 over the last 4 games at the free throw line.

Ray Allen looked particularly comfortable out there shooting in this contest, especially at the arc. With 5 of 6 three pointers drawing nothing but net, Ray added 18 points to go with 4 assists and 4 rebounds.

Kevin Garnett continues to play a fat free game with 13 points on 5 of 7 shooting, adding a team leading 8 rebounds.

Kendrick Perkins got called for a few ticky tack fouls and fouled out with 13 points and 6 rebounds.

Rasheed Wallace abused his former Trailblazer teammate, Zach Randolph, around the hoop for most of his 15 points, while adding 4 rebounds and 2 blocks.

Called the trap game, the final game of a road trip can be the one that gets away. The Celtics didn’t play their best, but they played well enough to grab control early in the 4th quarter and never let go.

To Memphis’ credit, they continued to make shots and stay close, keeping the game undecided until the final seconds. With the Celtics shooting .525% from the field and the Grizzlies hitting at .512, both teams’ offenses were clicking.

Not the strongest example of Celtics’ defense we have ever seen, it was an excellent demonstration of a Celtic offense that had Rajon Rondo’s fingerprints all over it. Rajon continues to blossom offensively, logging the most shot attempts of any starter for the 3rd straight game.

With the long term contract with the Celtics now done and put away, we are seeing the future of the Celtics’ organization assume his place among the previously called Big Three. The ascension is appearing to be a smooth one. That these three future hall of famers are accepting that subtle but real change is amazing to watch. It is almost seamless.

Shelden Williams played an aggressive board game, fighting for 5 rebounds in 12 minutes. More important, he had 4 offensive boards and set a few nice picks.

Eddie House was only 1-4 from the three point line but 3-3 from inside the arc and the team was +3 while he was on the court.

Speaking of plus/minuses….

Mike Conley, Memphis’ young point guard was –12 in 34:51 on the floor. New acquired Jamal Tinsley was +7 in exactly 13:09 minutes of playing time. Combined they were –5, the difference in the game. The times combined equal exactly 48 minutes, meaning that the two were subbed for each other and were never on the court at the same time. While Jamal probably came in against the Celtics second unit, the difference is noted.

For 47 minutes and 43 seconds it was a very competitive game against a talented young Grizzlies team. After getting the Great Allen Iverson Scare out of their systems, the Grizzlies have gone 9-5 over their last 14 games with wins over the Cavaliers, Mavericks and Trailblazers.

The Memphis team drops to 10-14 overall, while the Celtics move to 20-4 for the most wins and best record on the NBA.

After going off for 17 first half points, Rudy Gay finished with 23, but hit only 3 of 9 in the second half. At one point, he took and missed three straight shots in a single offensive series, with the last shot, a three point attempt, catching air.

The Grizzlies had 6 players in double figures as well. Former UConn star, Hasheem Thabeet, actually looked like a basketball player who is making great strides in learning the game while he was on the court. Tinsley has taken him under his wing and they will often play at the same time. He had 8 rebounds and 4 blocks in just 18 plus minutes.

Doc Rivers said that rookie point guard Lester Hudson is being optioned to the Maine Red Claws, their D-league affiliate for a few weeks.

An older rookie at 25 years old, Hudson has shown a solid offensive game in short appearances, but needs the minutes to improve and see if he can contribute something to the team in the second half of the season. Good move.

The Celtics are now a league leading 12-1 on the road. The NBA record is 31-7 by the 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers.

More Stats
The Grizzlies are the best points in the paint NBA team at 50 per game. They had 52 in this game. The Celtics had 46.

Points off Turnovers:
Grizzlies 23
Celtics 13

Fastbreak points:
15 each team

Second Chance Points:
Celtics 20
Grizzlies 13

The Celtics return home for a long stretch of days off before playing Friday night in Boston against the 76ers with Allen Iverson back with them.

In a rematch of last year’s most exciting playoff series, the slumping Bulls met the surging Celtics. Two teams with two completely different stories this season.

The Celtics crushed the Bulls behind another stellar performance by Rajon Rondo: 106-80

Until now, I’ve been reluctant to call the Celtics ‘the Green Machine’ this season. They haven’t been consistently dominant enough, long enough, for that moniker. It may be time to dub them the Verde Machine once again.

Bull’s head sophomore coachVinny Del Negro is fighting for his job, while the Celtics are fighting their way toward another Finals series. The Celtics came in with a 9 game winning streak, while the Bulls are in a 2-10 downward spiral.

Absorbing injury to Tyrus Thomas, and the loss of Ben Gordon to free agency have been more than the Bulls could handle. John Salmons, (nor anyone else)  has been able to replace Gordon’s big time 4th quarter shooting.

Because I didn’t see the game nor was I able to record it, I bring you the following recap from Celticsblog.com’s own Green 17…

Rajon Rondo came into Chicago tonight and gored the Bulls.  He did it with passing, defense, boards, oh and a few buckets of his own.   If there is any doubt, Rondo officially owns the Bulls.   Brad Miller tried to even some scores from last year with a horse-collar tackle on Rajon early on, earning Bradley a flagrant foul.   Surely he would be happy taking the flagrant if it was traded for intimidating Rajon.   Well just a few moments later, there goes Rondo on the break with only Miller back.   What does RR do?   He aggressively pushed it into Miller, drew the contact, made the bucket, and sent Sad Brad to the bench with his second foul.   It turned out that Rajon sent the early message tonight (i.e. I’m not intimidated), and then backed it up by destroying the Bulls in the third quarter.

I pasted the box score after the jump because it is a thing of beauty.   Balanced scoring!  All starters not named Rajon played fewer than 30 minutes!   Everyone was a + tonight, even Tony!

Boxscore

And here’s Celtic Town’s thoughts….

The Boston Celtics defeated the Bulls in Chicago, breaking the game open in the second half with a 13-2 run in the 3rd Quarter on their way to their 10th consecutive win, 106-80.

Rajon Rondo continued his stellar play of late, netting 16 points, 14 assists, and 7 rebounds. On a night that the starters rested much of the 4th Quarter, Eddie House fired his way to 15 points, on 5-15 shooting, while Rasheed Wallace added 15 points and 5 rebounds.

KG grabbed his 4th double-double of the season with 12 points and 10 rebounds, while Ray Allen (10 pts), Paul Pierce (14 pts), and Kendrick Perkins (10 pts) also reached double figures.

Brad Miller repayed Rajon Rondo for that hard playoff foul last season, raking Rondo across the neck, and dragging him to the floor for a flagrant foul. Brad Miller has officially become the white guy in the NBA it’s so easy to hate.

With age, he has lost his athletic ability and degenerated into a player who grabs, pulls, tricks, and sneers his way to whatever success he has on the court. Celtics announcer Tommy Heinsohn practically had to be restrained from going over the table after Miller. I’m exagerrating. A little bit.

I want to bring you other voices from time to time.

Jay King of Celtics Town is a bright and enthusiastic young voice in Celtic Nation. Here is a portion of his latest….

Jay King….

A few days ago, I told you not to take the Celtics for granted. I wrote about how they inspire me, play the game the right way, and play it in such a cohesive manner that makes you wish you were on a team just like the Celtics. They value the extra pass, defensive rotations, and contesting shots, and care little, if at all, about individual statistics. In the end, it’s all about winning for the Celtics, all about helping their teammates out in order to become a better team.

Here’s an excerpt from my piece:

Watching the Boston Celtics, though, floods back all the memories of high school basketball, a time when my team wasn’t a bunch of individuals, but a close-knit group of brothers. It is easily evident on the court just how much the Celtics care about each other and want to win the game, not just for themselves, but for each other. You can see it every time Kendrick Perkins sets a screen to free somebody else to score, or Kevin Garnett sits on the sidelines during a blowout and screams like the world is ending.

You can see it when Rajon Rondo takes fewer than five shots in an entire game, more than willing just to set his teammates up, or when Paul Pierce defers to his teammates for large parts of the game, happy to ride out somebody else’s hot hand. You can see it when the Celtics go on a run, and the entire bench is standing up and cheering, even if NBA rules no longer allow that. You can see it when Shelden Williams, fresh after catching his first DNP-CD of the season, remarks on Twitter not about being hurt by not playing in the game, but about how big a win it was to beat the Spurs.

You can see it in every defensive rotation, every dive to the floor after a loose ball, every extra pass to a more open teammate; the Boston Celtics play the game the right way, a selfless way, a way that inspires teamwork, friendship and camaraderie. A way that not only brings wins, but happiness .

I meant every word of it.  I love the Celtics because they’re the Celtics, I grew up in Massachussetts and was born and raised a Celtic fan.  But even if I were from L.A., my favorite player was Kobe Bryant and I bled purple and yellow, I would respect and admire the hell out of Boston.  Not for how good they are, but simply the way they play the game I love.

Be sure to read the rest and get Tim Legler’s supporting point of view…

Be sure to check out Jay’s Celtics Town blog regularly for a solid dose of Green caffeine.

Assisted living means one thing to a 70 something year old.

I know what you’re thinking.

But to the Celtics’ 30 somethings, it’s a bit different. And they’re not quite ready for that kind of assisted living. This team’s offense is solidly built around the assist,and it is led by an energetic 23 year old point guard who was born with the passing gene.

I’m sure that the fact that Doc Rivers was a point guard himself, also made it easy to decide on what kind of offensive philosophy he wanted for this team.

Without getting stat crazy, here is the simple picture…

2009-10: Celtic assisted field goals .647 (2nd)
2008-09: Celtic assisted field goals .607 (3rd in the NBA)

The Celtics are currently second in the league in total assists per game with 24.5.
2008-09: 22.7 assists
2007-08: 22.4 assists (Championship season)

Credit that increase to Rajon Rondo’s influence on the offense and perhaps a return to ubuntu. Rondo gets one more assist on one more made basket (total) compared to last season. Is it really that simple? Partially.

While usage numbers won’t really illustrate, Rondo’s ability to direct the offense is getting locked in. He generally gets the team into its offense quicker in shot the clock. He definitely knows what he is doing more on his drives now. He almost always has an open shooter in mind as he starts his drive. That wasn’t always true before and drives could be unpredictable adventures with unknown endings.

In fact, now you may become frustrated with him passing up open lay ups to kick it all the way back out for open three pointers at times. Paul Pierce has done the same. That seems just crazy. But hey, I guess it’s working with a 17-4 record.

But Rondo’s not the only assist man on the team. Both solid passers, Ray Allen’s assists are up slightly as are Paul Pierce’s. Kevin Garnett’s remains about the same as last season. But his alertness will hurt any team that doubles him.

As we know, lovable hard working Kendrick Perkins depends on teammates finding him open around the paint to get his points. His scoring is up 3.5 points to 11.9 on the season. He is currently leading the league with a 65.6 FG% on one more shot per game than last year, and just as important, 2 more foul shots this season.

Kevin Garnett is just in such a shooter’s zone right now. And his shots are even more dependent on the pass than last season. From 82games.com:

Jump shot:

09-10: 80% assisted
08-09: 71% assisted

Close shot:

09-10: 80% assisted
08-09: 74% assisted

Dunks:

09-10: 100% assisted
08-09: 93% assisted

Garnett is hitting at a career high 55.9%. But he has gone ozone layer in the last 6 games at 77% on 50 of 65 shots. That includes a number of long jump shots, which makes the streak that much more mind boggling. I can’t remember when I’ve seen such a reliable long range jump shooter, let alone one who is 7 feet tall. And I felt that way before this streak. He is just an incredible treat to watch shoot.

Besides Rondo alley oops and drive and kicks, Paul Pierce and KG have developed a pick and roll rhythm that is tantamount to basketball music.

With 13 symphonic assists, the Bucks game is as good an example as you will find to see how far Rondo has come. And he added his scoring at the most important time, with a few made jump shots, and made foul shots, both of which have been absent for most of the season.

That it happened against a rookie point guard and a team that isn’t known for strong inside players, I’ll grant you. But without a special defensive strategy devised to just to stop Rondo, he will get into the interior defenses of any team. Yes, he will have some trouble against talented interior length. The good thing is that Rajon isn’t the only willing passer on the team.

The team relies more and more on Rajon Rondo’s ability to conduct the offense. But Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, and Kevin Garnett are all good facilitators in the offense, too.  It’s an ubuntu world.

Instead of rocking chairs and making passes at nurse’s aids, they’re rocking the house, making passes to the open man. And we who love a team game, love it.

Rajon Rondo gives the phrase ‘assisted living’ a whole new meaning to a veteran (read that: aging) team. That Doc Rivers has built the team’s offensive philosophy around passing is obvious to even the casual observer. There is a good reason for it. Most of the successful teams try to play that way.

Most of the top assisting teams are over .500 (6 of top 8 ) while most of lowest assisting teams are under it (8 of bottom 10).

But is that the only way to win? No.

Four very successful teams are in that middle ten group – Orlando, Denver, Cleveland, and Atlanta. They all use the isolation play with great success.

Could Doc Rivers have gone with another offensive philosophy that would produce wins? Yes. He has the kind of talent to do that. In fact, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett all worked far more isos, and had the ball in their individual hands more, before coming together on one team.

Right now, the offensive ball movement on the Celtics is pretty close to ideal. Like the oft invoked illustration of a hot potato, it moves around the court to the right shooter. Probably too often, they even pass up good shots, looking for a better one. Often, the three second calls they get, are from making one more pass, after someone sets up for a rebound. Sometimes the turnovers are from over-passing. But mostly it is a thing of beauty.

So… what form of basketball would you rather watch?

Doc Rivers has a team, a philosophy, and a point guard that believes in assisting others.

Solo acts? The Celtics will pass, thank you.

Drop 55 points on somebody and you get that team’s attention. Do it as a 20 year old rookie in your 5th NBA game and you get everyone’s attention.

That is what the NBA’s newest budding star, point guard Brandon Jennings did to the Golden State Warriors on November 14. Okay, so he should get a ten point handicap because it was the Warriors, but still, that is fantastic shooting by any standard.

He is currently leading his team the Milwaukee Bucks in scoring at 21.3 points, and assists at 5.8. He is also grabbing 3.9 rebounds a game at 6’ 1” and 169 pounds.

I don’t want to call it the Brandon Jennings Show, because he is really all about learning to play a complete game for the team that took a chance on him, the Milwaukee Bucks. That his coach is  “everybody plays defense” Scott Skiles, will only help him learn to play both sides of the ball.

I say ‘took a chance’ because there were more than few teams that didn’t expect this kind of success from young Mr. Jennings. The word from his Italian team coaches was that he was over rated, didn’t play defense, was too flashy, and had a bad attitude.

Jennings is a mold breaker, in that, after failing to pass SATs here, instead of playing for a junior college or the NBA D-league, or some other such thing, he obtained a 3 year contract guaranteed for $1 million dollars to play in Italy. It had opt outs for each year. One year was enough and many figure it actually hurt his draft interest. Some say he would have been a top 5 pick instead of dropping to number 10, as he did.

The question is what should he have done? Attended one of those 13th year private academies where star high schoolers go when they have scholastic problems?

In some ways, going to Europe showed this kid’s mental toughness and drive. That it hurt scouting reports is apparent.

Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald has some interesting information on him…

“Then he went overseas, and I think that’s where things got a bit off
track. There’s a certain pecking order on teams over there, and I
don’t think they knew what to do with some kid who was only going to
be there a year. I think they considered him an assault on their way
of doing things, and they resented him.”

The result might have cost Jennings in the draft.

“People don’t want to talk about it because they don’t want to hurt
any relationships over there, but the Italians really badmouthed the
(heck) out of him,” one NBA personnel man said. “You should have heard
the litany of criticisms from over there. He’s overrated. He’s too
flashy. He’s careless with the ball. He can’t defend. It was
unbelievable. I’m thinking, ‘Are they talking about the same kid?’

Since he has risen to the top of the must watch list of every NBA fan, Jennings has struggled with his shot, but continues to do other things and is improving at the rest of his game. The kid is for real.

Most important is his ability to take and hit big pressure shots and free throws. The young man has the psyche of a winner.

As teams game plan him and look to exploit his weaknesses, he should be able to continue to find a way. He just seems like that kind of player.

Another big thing is that he is moving from cocky and bragging to a more humble and reserved public approach since a few things he said in the summer came to light. Before even playing a game, he said he will be a star in this league and he dissed Ricky Rubio. It made it out onto the net.

Now he’s learned to be more circumspect in what he says. Call him a quick learner. I see good things in his future.

The Bucks are playing at a much higher success level than anyone predicted pre-season. That is only partially Jennings doing. Skiles is a hard nosed, no nonsense coach that gets his teams to over achieve early in his reign.

But during the pre-season Jennings started to make a believer out of Skiles. By opening day, he was named the starting point guard.

Jennings and Bucks need to adjust
The Bucks left the gate at an ‘other earthly’ 8-3. Since they are in a 1-7 free fall for their current 9-10 record. They have lost three in a row coming in. They were not expected to win more 36 games all year by any pre-season predictions.

Part of that is that opponents are making it difficult for Jennings to score. Brandon hasn’t come close hitting 50% of his shots since November 20th against Charlotte. His FG% up to that game was a robust 48%. Since then it’s 33%. It was another 7 games before he even hit at 40% (his last game against the Cavaliers).

While Brandon will go through growing pains, it seems inevitable that he will figure things out. It will also help if and when he can get some other serious scoring threats on the court with him. Michael Redd has been out most of the year. Andrew Bogut has been out as well, and he isn’t that big time scorer that always draws double teams when he touches the ball.

Charlie Bell does what he can and unsung Luke Ridnour has come in and stabilized things when he is on the court.

But the Bucks are dead last in free throw attempts (19 per) and only Jennings (4.2 attempts) and role player Hakim Warrick (4.3 attempts) gets to the line with any regularity. Redd has that ability as well.

Not having that dimension means not putting foul pressure on the team, not being able to get to the bonus free throw situation for your own team, and allowing other teams’ bigs to defend with confidence when you try to attack the middle. A team like the Lakers are so talented they can get away with playing that way. The Bucks can’t.

The Bucks offset that by being a solid rebounding team. In most other categories they are middle of the NBA road, as in points in the paint, fast break points, etc. The same goes for their defense of those categories. Thus a 9-10 record. Makes sense.

But tonight’s game against the Celtics will be about the new player who just put up the most rookie points since Earl ‘The Pearl” Monroe had 56 in 1968.

For the Celtics, it will be about taking care of business at home. The Cs are on a 7 game winning streak and starting to look very good.

Kevin Garnett is shooting lights out lately. Kendrick Perkins has played outstanding ball. The Celtics have a point guard of their own named Rajon Rondo. He tends to take things personally when a highly touted point guard is his opponent. So tonight should be interesting just for that reason alone. And I haven’t even mentioned Paul Pierce and Ray Allen.

Nursing a swollen and extended thumb, Marquis Daniels is not expected to play. Tony Allen might make his first appearance of the season on his recovering foot injury.

The Celtics, at 16-4, are tied with Orlando for top spot in the east heading into this game. They have the best road record in the league. But they are just 7-3 at home and look to improve on that this evening.

Let the fun begin.

They were supposed to be T-rouble with a capital T.

They were 6–4 over their last ten. They won 3 of the last 4. They are young. More important, they are athletic in a way that gives the Celtics trouble. They play defense. They have beaten playoff teams. They have Kevin Durant and you don’t.

It was the 4th and last game of the Celtics’ road trip. They just played San Antonio in a tough game. It was the back game of a back-to-back. It’s what is called a trap game. It would be easy to get surprised, outplayed, and call it a week. (Remember last year’s Clippers game ?) They have three days until their next game.

The aging Celtics had a lot of reasons to lose and go home 3-1 with a solid road trip.

The Celtics had different ideas. Looking more and more like the Green Machine of the previous two years, they crushed the Oklahoma City Thunder 105-87.

The Beantown Ballers were led by another dazzling shooting performance by Kevin Garnett. KG led Boston with 23 points on 10 of 11 shooting as they out shot, out rebounded and outplayed the young and talented Thunder ballers.

Garnett, Perkins Continue to Slice Through League Defenses

Kendrick Perkins finished 5 of 7 shooting for 13 points with 8 rebounds, 2 assists and a block. The Celtics got back on track on the boards with a 40 to 30 advantage and had 9 offensive boards to 6 for the Thunder. Making teams pay within 3 feet of the basket, Perkins is shooting 77% over 7 games on 40 of 52 shooting.

Move over Kendrick Perkins. Garnett’s alley oops, dunks, lay ups, and a jump shot you can set your watch by, have never been better. Rondo and KG gave the Thunder an advanced chemistry lesson to boot.

Garnett is shooting 41 for his last 52 attempts over 5 games for 79% accuracy.  If these were D-league games, it would be time to bring him back up to the big club. One might hazard a guess that the leg is getting better.

Move over Rasheed Wallace. Kendrick Perkins is trying to supplant you as technical foul king. He got another one tonight.

Sweeping the road trip 4-0, the Celtics stretched their winning streak to 7 straight (tying the Lakers who won last night as well), for the longest streak in the league so far. They are 9-1 on the road for the best road record.

Things are looking decidedly better in the past week for a club has appeared largely unmoved and somewhat lethargic not so long ago.

Now 16-4 overall for the most wins in the NBA, the Celtics are a half game ahead of Orlando for home court advantage in the Eastern Conference.

With two previous single digit showings, this game started as the Paul Pierce Show. The ball went right to him early and often. He got the Celtics off on the right foot with 11 first quarter points on 4 of 5 shooting including 3 of 4 three pointers for 11 points.

Like the night before, the Celtics grabbed the early lead and didn’t let go. They led the rest of the game. Unlike the night before, the Thunder crumbled under a Celtic third quarter assault, as Boston won going away. The lead got as high as 24 points.

Pierce had 21 first half points on 6 of 10 shooting, 6 of 6 from the line, and took only one more shot the rest of the way, sitting out the final quarter. He added 6 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 TOs.

It should be noted that his two turnovers could have been three in a row, when he tried to play point guard with Rajon Rondo out in the second quarter. He failed to cross mid court in 8 seconds and threw two straight passes away, though one turnover was credited to Rasheed Wallace when he couldn’t handle it. The three turnovers occurred consecutively and the score went from 38-24 to 38-31 as the Thunder scored 7 straight points in response.

Shortly thereafter, Rivers replaced Eddie House with Rondo to settle things down, and he did. Even without that little disjointed sequence, it is really quite noticeable when Rondo is out of the game.

Kevin Durant tried to single handedly keep the Thunder in the game with 22 half time points of his own. He finished with 36 on 13 of 19 shooting, and 9 of 9 free throws.  Russell Westbrook added 15 points. No other Thunder player made double digits.

The Celtics, on the other hand, had 7 players in double figures when the final buzzer sounded.

Rondo and Garnett Run Game On the Thunder in 3rd

Rajon Rondo and KG teamed up in the third quarter like the Flash and Green Lantern. They combined for 24 of the Celtics’ 28 points. The Thunder simply had no answer for them.

I actually see Rondo as rubber armed Mr. Fantastic of the Fantastic Four, so maybe Garnett was the Human Torch. He’s certainly been ‘Flaming On’ for 5 games now. Whatever. Pick your own hero combo….they were super.

Rondo scored 13 points and had 4 assists with KG adding 11 points on 5 of 5 shooting. They sprinted out of the gate at half time with an 11 to 4 run to push an 11 point half time lead up to 71-53 with just over 4 minutes gone.

The burst started with a Rondo lay up. Garnett then had a lay up, a dunk, a dunk, and an alley oop. Rondo assisted on the last three scores. OKC coach Herb Brooks finally subbed Etan Thomas in for Serge Ibaka to stop the open rim policy and internal hemorrhaging. It was too late.

Rondo took over with Ray and KG kicking in a few more buckets to balloon the lead to 87-63 with 2 minutes left in the quarter. With Gino left in Boston, the fat lady sang.

The bench played most of the 4th quarter with Wallace (6 pts.) and Eddie House (8 pts.) doing the scoring to hold onto the win.

Numbers

Rajon Rondo finished with 15 points, 6 assists, 2 rebounds and 4 harassing steals, while holding his alter ego, Russell Westbrook, to 15 points on 6 of 16 shooting with just 4 assists.

Ray Allen finished with 11 points on 4 of 11 shooting, with 4 rebounds, 3 assists, and a steal.

Rasheed Wallace finished with 10 points on 3 of 7 shooting, 2 for 2 from the arc, 3 rebounds, aa assist and a steal in 18 minutes.

Marquis played almost 19 scoreless minutes and took just one shot.

Eddie House added 11 points on 4 of 8 shooting, 3 of 5 from the arc, with 3 rebounds, an assist, and 2 steals.

Shelden Williams played 12 minutes with 2 rebounds, 2 steals and a turnover with no points.

Brian Scalabrine played 15 scoreless minutes with a rebound, an assist and a turnover.

Lester Hudson played almost 6 minutes with 2 turnovers. J.R. Giddens got 8 uneventful minutes of burn as well.

The Celtics had 48 points in the paint to the Thunder’s 34.

The Cs had 19 second chance points to the Thunder’s 9 points due to their offensive rebounding advantage.

The Celtics come home for a three day rest before playing Tuesday night against the Milwaukee Bucks with their budding star rookie point guard Brandon Jennings.

San Antonio head coach Gregg Poppovich called this a good test for his club. The final grade was 90 to 83: Celtics.

The Celtics passed, though I wouldn’t call it a complete failure for the Spurs.

It wasn’t the Celtics ‘A’ game either, but behind Kevin Garnett’s 20 points, Rajon Rondo’s 12 assists and some pretty solid team defense, the Boston Celtics outlasted the surging San Antonio Spurs for their 6th win in a row.

Boston opened shooting .579%, including some fast break points off 6 Spur turnovers, while San Antonio went 1 for 5 from the free throw line. The Celtics went up by 12-4 and led 25 to 15 after one period. They maintained the lead throughout the game.

It was a good ‘test’ game for both clubs. Each team came in on 5 game winning streaks, but none of those wins for either team were against anyone you would circle on the schedule, and certainly no real contenders.

Two of the best coached teams in the league, they both are very disciplined ball clubs and grind it out offensively. They are each led by two of the best and fastest, but worst shooting guards in the league, Rajon Rondo and Tony Parker. They also have two of the best power forwards in the NBA in Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett.

The Spurs are coming together a bit after a 4-6 start themselves and are getting 3 new starters and 5 new roster players learning to play the Spurs way.

The Celtics, save rebounding, are starting to look better at many aspects of their own game.

I guess you can give them an ‘A’ for their ‘D’. They held San Antonio to 7 of 22 shooting to open the game and just 83 points and 42% shooting on the night. The Celtics created 18 Spur turnovers, including 7 steals with 3 of them copped by league leader Rajon Rondo.

Rondo’s active energy at both ends of the court stands out most every game, in part, due to the lack of it by the rest of the team. Saying that, the Celtics defense was more active in this game than it has been in most recent games.

The truth is that both teams were missing open three point shots all night. So both teams get Fs for their threes.

But the Celtics gave San Antonio far too many second chances with a ridiculous 20 offensive boards. Duncan had 7 and board eater DeJuan Blair had 5 of those 20. The Spurs scored 52 points in the paint. Most of them came on solid drives, inside passes, and put backs, while some came off fast breaks.

That the Celtics maintained the lead throughout was a credit to their overall tenacity, though certainly not their rebounding skills. Taking away the 2 for 16 from the arc for the Spurs, they shot 35 for 72 which includes the Spurs paint attack.

That actually means the Celtics contested all of the offensive rebounds and inside shooting fairly well. It would obviously be much easier if they took care of defensive rebounding better.

Spurs’ Blair Scores Two for Celtics
The Celtics even got Spurs rookie DeJuan Blair to put the ball back in the hoop for them on a Celtic miss. Blair went to grab the rebound with one hand and lost control and accidently pushed it back up and in for two points for the Cs. It almost was the difference in the game as San Antonio came back to get with 4 points twice in the closing minutes.

Wouldn’t that have been something. Blair put back wins game….for Celtics.

This game was really about what each team didn’t do, as much as what each team did. Turnovers and poor foul shooting got the Spurs in an early hole.

Poor rebounding, a Boston mediocrity all season, and especially on the offensive boards tonight, allowed the Spurs to climb back into the game in the second half. The Celtics had 2 paltry offensive boards all game.

Rasheed Wallace did hit two three pointers, blocked 4 shots, had a few ‘knock aways’ from behind the man he defends (he’s really good at that, I’m finding out) and did play some solid defense, but grabbed just 2 rebounds in almost 16 minutes.

In a Doc Rivers twist, Shelden Williams did not play at all in this contest. Brian Scalabrine got Shelden Williams (12) minutes in this contest.

A strong first quarter by the Boston Celtics, and consistent out side shooting throughout by Kevin Garnett kept the San Antonio Spurs at bay the rest of the game.

Ray Allen was solid shooting (6 for 12) until the last quarter (0 for 3) and finished with 15 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists with 2 TOs.

Rajon Rondo had 12 assists but could have had more if a few more open threes went down for the Cs. The Celtics went just 4 of 18 from downtown with Pierce and Allen going 1 for 8 on mostly open looks.

The Celtics, led by Paul Pierce, started the year blazing from the arc. They are now shooting a mundane 35.4% (before this game) overall.

Kendrick Perkins had 9 points and 7 rebounds, and 2 blocks, while doing fairly well against Duncan all night.

Paul Pierce was off shooting for the second game in a row, hitting just 2 of 9 for 8 points and only 2 rebounds and no assists in an uncharacteristic game for him.

Have you ever noticed that Ray Allen and Paul Pierce almost never have good games together on the same night?

Rajon Rondo took and hit more jumpers in this game. He finished with 12 points on 6 of 11 shooting with 6 rebounds, 3 steals, 3 TOs, and a block. He hit a big jumper with 2 minutes left to give the Celtics an 87-81 lead. Take that Tony Parker.

Kevin Garnett finished with game honors with the 20 points on a sharp 9 of 15 shooting, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, and 2 steals, with zero turnovers in 35 minutes.

The Celtic bench was outplayed by the Spurs bench, with Wallace adding 13 points, Marquis Daniels contributing 6 points with 1 rebound, and 1 assists in 16 plus minutes.

Eddie House had a quiet 5 points on 1 of 3 shooting, with 2 rebounds.

Celtics get “F” in Rebounding

Or maybe it should be a ‘D’ as in destroyed. After going even in the first half, San Antonio’s 33 to 11 second half rebounding rampage nearly saved the day for the Spurs, as Boston continues to be a puzzle in that category. In fact, one wonders how they even won the game with such a disparity. Those are losers’ numbers. Yet the Spurs only outscored the Celtics 44-43 in the second half.

So you might want to ask the Spurs how they could out rebound the Cs by a 3 to1 ratio and… still lose. A big part of that answer was that the Celtics didn’t let them convert enough to take over. As poorly as they rebounded, Perkins, Garnett, and Wallace did a good enough job of defending to keep the conversion rate manageable…barely.

But the league’s rule says you only have to win by one and the Celtics actually never let them get closer than 4 points.

Last season, the Celtics were a top 3 team in out rebounding their opponents. This season they are just breaking even, putting them in the middle of the pack.

The Spurs are second in the league in defensive rebounds (32.5) and are third in differential (+3.1). They showed why last night with aging Tim Duncan showing the way with 15, while rookie board specialist DeJuan Blair added 11 to go with his career high 18 points. He may be the second coming of Charles Barkley. He is, at least, a poor man’s imitation. He’s got the ‘round mound’ look down too.

I haven’t seen a 6’ 5” player play with such effect in the power forward position since Barkley retired. The kid looks good….very good. Gregg Popovich will have to make room for him in the rotation soon. The Spurs are 9-7, too early to make any judgments, and Popovich said he’s still searching out a starting five that works best.

The Celtics have now won 4 straight in San Antonio, after losing 15 straight there, starting, not coincidentally, with the coming of Duncan. It is just another reason to be proud of this team, enjoy this team, and to bask in the here and now, the continuing journey of this special assembly of  tough minded, colorful talent. Flawed? Perhaps, but what team isn’t. Enjoy the ride. There is much basketball left to be played.

So the Celtics are making like Bachman Turner Overdrive and taking care of business. (Oldie alert – in more ways than one.)  But they still have room for improvement.

And if someone can, please explain the rebounding mystery to me.

Next up: Oklahoma City Thunder – Tonight

Mario West last played for the Atlanta Hawks. He is now hooping for the Celtics’ D-league affiliate, the Red Claws.

Here is the NBA Release:

RED CLAWS ACQUIRE MARIO WEST
The Maine Red Claws, presented by Quirk Chevrolet, announced that the team has acquired Mario West. To make room on the roster, the team waived Stanley Thomas. West, 25, appeared in 117 regular season games with the Atlanta Hawks over the last two seasons. He saw action in five preseason contests with the Hawks this season, putting in 2.2 ppg, 3.0 rpg and 1.0 spg. He was waived by Atlanta on October 22. West signed an NBA D-League contract and was claimed by the Red Claws.