Celtics Central

Even with a shaky (at times) start, the Celtics have now tied Orlando for first place in the Eastern Conference at 14-4.

The Celtics stretched their winning streak to 5 and stopped the Charlotte streak at 4 as the ball moved freely around the offense and the Boston combine put on a passing clinic with 24 assists on 36 made baskets.

Even that number doesn’t reveal how well they passed the ball in this one. Just amazing ball movement all night. They made it look easy and almost effortless.

Ray Allen vs. Stephen Jackson. It was supposed to be the weak match up. It was…for the Bobcats, as Ray Allen outplayed recently acquired Jackson all night.

In the first quarter, Ray Allen hit consecutive book end three pointers from the corners and you knew he was going to have a good night shooting. With 18 points by half time, Ray led the Celtics to a 62-39 break, and this one was over.

The lead reached as high as 28 points as Ray, Kevin Garnett, and Kendrick Perkins starred in the 108-90 rout of the normally stingy Bobcats ( Best points allowed defense in the NBA at 87.9) . Rajon Rondo ended up with 9 assists on a night the ball moved like a hot potato around the offense. There were more quick hitting three pass or four pass scoring combos than I’ve seen in a while.

Paul Pierce appeared content to play a lower key role as a facilitator all night, registering his first single digit (8 points) game of the year. He also did a credible defensive job on Gerald Wallace as Wallace had his worst game of the season with 5 points.

Ray took game honors with 27 points on 6 of 9 shooting, 5 of 6 three pointers, a perfect 10 for 10 free throws, 5 rebounds, 5 assists, a steal, and a block in front of a cadre of hometown friends and family who were up from Dalzell, North Carolina.

So far this season, the Celtics own the Charlotte Bobcats as they rolled from the opening gun, opening up a 24-10 first quarter lead and were never really challenged the rest of the way.  The Celtics defense was active from the start. The Bobcats had a single assist in the first quarter.

Perkins shooting 81%
Kendrick Perkins continued his torrid play of late with 15 first half points on 6 of 7 shooting, 9 rebounds, and 2 blocks. He finished with a season high 21 points, 12 rebounds, 3 blocks, and 3 turnovers. Kendrick is now 21 of 24 shooting over the last three games, and 31 of 38 over the last five games for an incredible 81% rate.

He is fitting into the offense perfectly and making every scoring opportunity count. Is this a sign of things to come as both Rondo and Perkins begin to emerge as the youthful, energetic representatives of the starting five?

Things are coming easier and Kendrick is making quick and decisive moves. But he isn’t rushing things. He seems to be settling down into a consistent low post option now.

Kevin Garnett continues to play well and without obvious discomfort. His defense was active and impacted the game in a huge way early on as the Celtics built their lead. His shooting also continues to look good as he  had 16 points an 5-8 shooting. More important, he is going down on the blocks more, getting 6 trips to the foul line

Celtics Defense Smothers Bobcats
The Boston Celtics shut down the mid range and inside game of the Charlotte Bobcats. The only thing left was the three point arc and the ‘Cats were 1 of 6 from there. There aren’t any other places on the court and that means the Charlotte team shot just .310 for the first half. The dominant half time lead turned into a laugher in the second half for a team that is looking more like the Beantown Ballers of the past two years.

The Charlotte team was off most of the night as they were contested inside and out and they missed layups and some rare open shots as well.

The Celtics beat the Bobcats by 33 points earlier in the year. The Cs made this look like the same song, though the Bobcats came in riding a 4 game winning streak sparked by their major acquisition of talented but controversial Stephen Jackson.

Beef With Garnett Energizes Nazr Mohammed

The game got chippy as Garnett and Nazr Mohammed got into it in the first half after Garnett was called for an offensive foul when the two made contact in the middle as KG was about to shoot and Nazr went down. Garnett was loudly verbalizing his displeasure with the call to the ref, when Mohammed jumped up and went to Garnett to voice his own objection. Garnett angrily waved him off and pushed his arm away. This incensed Nazr and the two had to be separated, though KG just put his hands up in the air to show that he wasn’t instigating any contact. Nazr tried to push aside both a referee and a team mate before he was calmed down.

Mohammed went to score 16 points in 19 minutes for one of his best games of the season. Maybe the rest of the Bobcats should have gotten angry.

Tyson Chandler and Rondo had words in the second half of a game that was otherwise not competitive.

The other Bobcat offensive force and the league’s leading rebounder, Gerald Wallace, got 2 quick fouls in the first quarter and finished shooting 1 for 6 while being blocked 3 times in by far his worst game of season.

Raymond Felton continued to show improved play with 14 points, 5 assists and only one turnover.

The Celtics Bench

The bench did its job by maintaining most of the lead in the second half. There was a spot when the starters had to return in the middle of the 4th quarter, when a 28 point lead had shrunk to 19. But Charlotte got it down to 15 due to 2 turnovers by Rondo and one by Perkins, before Marquis Daniels made a jump shot off a Rondo pass and Perkins made a reverse layup to restore order.

Eddie House added 12 points, with most coming after the game was well in hand. He did have a few good defensive plays and strategic fouls.

Rasheed Wallace scored 7 points in 16 minutes on 2 of 7 shooting, with 2 rebounds, an assist and 2 blocked shots. Yes, he did get another tech for saying almost nothing that would get anyone else a tech. After that, the foul shot was missed and Wallace twice yelled “Ball don’t lie!” from the bench. I knew you wanted to know that.

Shelden Williams continues to play pretty well. In 21 minutes, he blocked 2 shots, while adding 5 points and  2 rebounds. He did get blocked twice. He demonstrated a willingness to try to score off the dribble, resulting in his only basket of the night on a drive to the middle.

Marquis Daniels had 4 points, 4 rebounds, an assist, a steal and 2 turnovers in 21 plus minutes.

Doc emptied his bench in the final 2 minutes as Lester Hudson made a nice block on a baseline driving attempt, split the defense for a nice pass, assisted on a House three and had a rebound and a turnover. Hudson looks good in limited play.

So the Celtics looked impressive in their fifth straight win. the Bobcats are short of reliable jump shooters so packing it the middle was a strategy that would work if they could contain Jackson which they did. The Celtics had 9 blocks in the game.

Jackson went 4 -13 for 11 points and had just 2 assists, which ties his season low.

There were no significant stat aberrations to mention. The Cs turned the ball over 17 times to the Bobcats 11, but it was not a factor.

Next up: San Antonio Spurs on Thursday

Each D-league usually has two or more NBA affiliations. The Maine Red Claws have relationships with Boston and Charlotte. They sent down a player with some NBA potential.

I remember head coach Larry Brown publicly calling out Alexis Ajinca for poor work habits in the pre-season. He is a young 7 footer with some skills. Maybe this is what he needs. Danny Ainge’s son Austin is the head coach for the Maine combine.

Here is the release:

CHARLOTTE’S AJINCA ASSIGNED TO NBA D-LEAGUE’S MAINE RED CLAWS

NEW YORK, Nov. 30, 2009 – Charlotte Bobcats center Alexis Ajinca was assigned to the Maine Red Claws, the Bobcats’ NBA Development League affiliate, it was announced today.  The assignment is the fifth of the NBA D-League season, the second for Maine, and the second for Ajinca in as many years, who was assigned to the Sioux Falls Skyforce last season.

Ajinca, 7-0, has appeared in six games for the Bobcats this season, averaging 1.7 points and 5.0 minutes.  Last season, Ajinca appeared in 31 games for Charlotte, averaging 2.3 points, 1.0 rebound and 5.9 minutes before being assigned to Sioux Falls on March 9, 2009 for the remainder of the season.

In 11 games in the NBA D-League last season, Ajinca averaged 11.9 points, 6.8 rebounds and 22.8 minutes.  Scoring in double-figures in eight games, Ajinca scored a career-high 19 points in an April 11 home victory over the Anaheim Arsenal at Sioux Falls Arena.

Originally selected in the first round, 20th overall, of the 2008 NBA Draft by the Bobcats, Ajinca played two seasons professionally in his native France prior to entering the NBA Draft.  During those two years, he averaged 5.0 points, 3.1 rebounds and 10.8 minutes playing for Hveres-Toulon of the French ProA League.

Ajinca, who is expected to join the Red Claws (1-1) today, will be available on Dec. 4, when Maine plays its first home game against the Springfield Armor (0-2) at the Portland Exposition Building.  Tip off is set for 8:00 p.m. ET.

Bobcats fans can follow Ajinca and the rest of the Red Claws by logging onto nba.com/dleague to watch all of the team’s games live, online, for free.

Let’s try this theory.

The Celtics are bored.

The problem is… that thinking hurts them with better teams like Orlando, Atlanta, and Phoenix.

They (think they) are so good that they don’t play serious basketball until they have to, and only as long as absolutely necessary. You’ve heard of the ‘greening’ of the planet, conserving and recycling whenever possible, right? This conservation of energy must be Boston’s version of Greening the planet.

On top of that, Kevin Garnett is leading the Cs on a strict and healthy diet of low fat offense. After shooting an unreal .623 the game before, they shot .522 for this game. All without appearing to try that hard.

Kevin Garnett served up a superb, fat free 11 of 12 from the field for 24 points to lead the Celtics. He shot a lean and clean 6-6 the game before. He gets the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval for his energy efficient 17 of 18 in his last two games. Besides knocking down that jumper of his in rhythm, he added some difficult makes in traffic.

It was only Kevin’s second game over 20 points and second highest total of the season.

With just 1:38 left to play, Ray Allen hit the game’s biggest shot, his only three pointer of the game. It gave the Celtics the separation they needed at 89-83 to ensure another win. He missed his first 5 from downtown. He ended up 1 for 7, but hit the only one they needed. This is too easy, really.

Taking up where they left off with Toronto, the Celtics shot a lofty .636 in the first half.

Rondo Key Again
Though Rajon Rondo scored 9 important first half points on 4 of 5 shooting, Rajon waited until the second half to become a driving force again, adding 7 of his 11 assists and his two biggest scoring drives. Many were of the ‘whoa, look at that’ variety, including two great passes to Perkins for baskets.

One was a ‘thread the needle’ pass down the middle between two defenders for a Perkins lay up. The other, started with KG scrambling with a Heat player as he fell, pushing the ball to Rondo who drove on the left baseline, drawing the defenders as he passed quickly to Perkins on the right for the score.

Two Different Halves
The first half the Heat shot .513 and were leading until the Celtics closed with a 17-7 run to go into half time at 55-48.

The second half the Heat shot just .325 and scored only 37 points.

Yet, the Heat stayed in the game until the final minutes. They held Boston to 12 third quarter points with defense of their own. With the Celtics’ second unit in, Michael Beasley went off for 13 of his 18 points in the first 4 minutes of the last quarter to give Miami the lead at 76-72.

Two spectacular driving lay ups by Rondo tied the game at 76. With scoring going back and forth, Rondo assisted on 4 of the next 5 Celtic made baskets, including Ray’s three pointer to lock in the 6 point lead. That was essentially the ball game.

The whole Celtic team waited until the second half to play good defense, and the second half of the last quarter to turn up the heat on the Heat. Right on script, Miami appropriately crumbled with minutes to spare.

Perkins on a Tear

Lost in the shuffle again, Kendrick Perkins put in another gem at both ends of the floor with a double double of 14 points and 13 rebounds, and 3 blocks. Two of those blocks were outstanding plays on Jermaine O’Neal, including blocking an O’Neal hook shot.

But Garnett isn’t the only Celtic zeroing in on the rim. Perkins is 14 of 16 shooting over the last two games. But he’s hot beyond that. He is 22-28 for 78% over his last 4 games and 24-31 over 5 games for 77%. Granted it is mostly lay-ups, but that’s great finishing by any standards.

On top of that Perkins got to the line a season high 11 times (making 6) and got two Miami bigs in early foul trouble. Jermaine O’Neal went out with 2 quick fouls in the first couple of minutes of the game. He was followed by Joel Anthony with three.

Paul Pierce started strong with 12 first half points on 4 of 7 shooting, but was capably defended largely by James Jones the rest of the way. Paul scored just 3 more points on 0-4 shooting, and just one rebound. Pierce did have 2 steals, a block and a number of solid defensive plays, but added 5 of the Celtics 14 turnovers.

Ray Allen finished with 11 points on 5 of 13 shooting with 3 assists, 2 rebounds, a block, and 2 turnovers.

Bench
The Celtic bench players had their third straight game of negative scoring while they were in the game. Beasley’s quick 13 points was a big problem for them.

Rasheed Wallace had 6 points on 3 of 8 shooting, but was 0-3 from the arc, while adding 6 rebounds as the Celtics out rebounded the Heat 41-38. He also got another tech for arguing about a non-call on an inside shot he made. He received a ‘phantom foul’ call on another play as well.  I guess it is all too late for anything to change with Rasheed’s dysfunctional relationship  and the refs.

Shelden Williams had a productive 7 plus minutes with a rebound, 2 assists, a steal and a solid blocked shot right around the hoop.

Eddie House had trouble getting open and took just two shots in 20 minutes, scoring 3 points, grabbing 4 rebounds, but adding 2 turnovers.

Marquis Daniels played 14 plus minutes, scoring just 3 points on his second made three point shot of the year and missing a couple of lay-up. He added 3 rebounds, an assist, and a blocked shot.

One thing noticed is that Daniels is not being used at the point guard position as much. Paul Pierce seems to move to that role when Rondo is out.

Brian Scalabrine came in and hit a three pointer. He is 4 of 5 this season from the arc.

The Celtics continue to be inconsistent from the three point line, shooting just 5 of 21. That means they were incredible inside the arc and in the painted area, hitting 70% and scoring 48 points in paint.

Miami’s Dwayne Wade led all scorers with 27 points, and kept the Heat in this game, though he was a mundane 11 for 23 shooting overall.

Shall we call these Celtics the Detroit Pistons v2?

Will this all come back to bite them in the their collective arses come playoff time, like it did the Pistons?

What I am talking about?

I’m talking about the Celtics 92-85 win over the Miami Heat tonight. I’m talking about…

• 4 straight close Celtic wins against poor to middling teams.
• a 13-4 overall with mediocre effort.
• playing defense only as long as necessary to pull out a win.
• veteran experience and the confidence of a team with major talent to outlast and outplay such teams whenever they want to.
• playing really bad defense for a portion of each game.
• playing very good defense for a portion of each game.

Like killer whales toying with baby sea lions they have caught before they eat them, the Celtics seem to be just having fun before the kill each game.

They simply don’t find the competition worthy of 48 minutes of play. They are getting good at it, too.

Everybody, including Doc Rivers knows what they are doing. Are they moving in the right direction?

I guess so. Thought flawed and limited to the second half, this was their best defensive performance in 4 games.

The Celtics scored 10 fast break points and gave up 2. The Heat assisted on only 12 of 33 made baskets. That is quite low.

The Miami Heat have surprised with their solid early season play. They drop to 9-7 and have lost 2 in a row. The Celtics are now 6-1 on the road, the best road record in the NBA.

How long will this Celtic team continue to play as if they have all the time in the world to buckle down? And how long will ‘just enough’… be enough?

No one seems to be interested in 72 wins, nor The Best Defense Ever anymore. How long ago was that? Way back in October. How about 48 minutes of your best effort?

Atlas Shrugged.

Next up:
Tuesday At Charlotte to play the Bobcats. The Bobcats always seem to give the Celtics and other top teams trouble.

The Maine Red Claws get their very first victory in franchise history with a win over the Dakota Wizards 107-97. They are 1-1.

Boston Celtic Bill Walker led the scoring for Maine with 19 points in 25 minutes, on 6 of 11 shooting, including 2 of 4 from the three point line. Walker added 8 rebounds but had no assists.

The boxscore is here….

http://www.nba.com/dleague/games/boxscore.jsp?gameId=2020900008

Danny Ainge’s son Austin Ainge is the head coach of the new D-League team.

Should Pierce’s rim rattling dunk on Chris Bosh be called:

A: Canadian Club on the rocks
B: Dunk and doughnuts
C: Kneed… for Sheed

As is the habit of many dunkers who know they are going to be met at the rim, feet and/or knees are positioned to meet the defender and inflict a built-in penalty for trying. Of course, never done intentionally, (right?) such moves serve their purpose.

In this case, it caused a stir among the Raptor players, especially Chris Bosh, who wondered why no team mates rose in his defense.

The Raps hadn’t defended anything or anyone all game. To my way of thinking… why start defending anyone now…even their leader?

But here are some interesting accounts from the Canadian side of things. First from Mike Gantor of the Toronto Sun…

Twenty seconds into the fourth quarter he took a knee to the upper pelvic area on an impressive Paul Pierce dunk.

But with Bosh down, Pierce celebrated over the injured Raptor and that brought an irate assistant coach Alex English plus Jay Triano on to the floor. Noticeably absent from the charge were any of Bosh’s actual teammates.

Bosh didn’t see much of the initial reaction to the play.

“I looked at their bench and they were all up standing at half court and no one from their team was down on the floor,” Bosh said. “I think we can react better, be there for one another and react better.”

Truth is…that is the Raptors team. They are a very skilled club offensively. When Reggie Evans went out with injury, their whole toughness scale went with him. They register zero or at least not higher than the ‘Turkododo’ flop level, according to Rasheed.

But we knew this before the season started. While some felt the Raptors were headed for bigger things, and they may be, they won’t get anywhere until they learn to play interior defense and better defense in general. Andrea Bargnani is a skilled big man who can block shots, and hit three pointers.

Sam Mitchell lost his job there, in large part, because he wouldn’t play 7’ 0” Bargnani at center. Why?  Because Bargnani doesn’t play like a center. He is soft as a marshmallow at the moment.

But that mentality extends to the entire Raptor team with few exceptions. Surprisingly, one of the exceptions might be new comer Antoine Wright. He exhorts Bosh to get tougher with his teammates. They are apparently eating and fooling around before games, and then getting blown out (by the Charlotte Bobcats). From Dave Feschuk of the Star.com…

Wright said he told Bosh, “‘Hey, you’ve got guys in here eating popcorn, joking around before the game. And we go out there and lose by 40. It’s a direct result of what’s going on before the game. Guys not coming in with the right mind frame.”

Maybe that’s part of the reason why the Raptors played strong ball for at least one half against the Celtics.

Wright called out uber athletic rookie DeMar DeRozen before the Celtics game….

“I think you’re going to see us come out with a lot of energy. You can expect (rookie starting guard) DeMar DeRozan to be crashing the offensive glass. You can expect (DeRozan) to be chasing Ray Allen like it’s Game 7 of the Eastern Conference final. You can expect him to dive one time,” said Wright. “He’s going to come out with a lot of energy and set the tone for us tonight. We’re riding our rookie.”

DeRozan, who was sitting next to Wright as those words were spoken, bulged his eyes in mock terror. A reporter asked the rookie how he felt about a teammate making promises on his behalf, but Wright interrupted DeRozan’s response.

“He don’t have a choice. You don’t have to talk to him about it. I’m going to answer questions for him today,” said Wright.

Chuckled DeRozan: “That’s my agent today. Y’all discuss it with him.”

In truth DeRozen did start strong and was very active early offensively and against Ray Allen. Unfortunately for Toronto, it wasn’t enough and it didn’t last.

The difference to Bosh…

“They turned up their physicality and we backed down.”

And no one backed up the Raptors franchise player when he was down, though Jarrett Jack didn’t see it quite that way…

“My first priority is going to see if he’s all right,” Jack said. “After I did that I saw Hedo (Turkoglu) go up there (towards the Celtics) by himself, so I ran up there as well. I think we all have each other’s backs. I think the majority of us more or less crowded around Chris just to make sure he was cool and just all right.”

The Celtics can get away with a momentary show of defence against a team like the Raptors, but they will need to get back to their dominating ways to become true contenders come playoff time.

Speaking of toughness, the Celtics can’t just stare and glare other teams into submission anymore. They need to display some energy and basketball toughness of their own. The funny thing is just 36 out of 48 minutes of solid basketball in most games will do.

In the meantime, one might wonder why it takes a role player like Antoine Wright to tell Chris Bosh to lead his team in the locker room…as well as on the court.

Just received this release:

Boston Celtics assignee Bill Walker recorded a double-double with a team-high in points (25) and rebounds (11) for the Maine Red Claws. NBA D-League veteran Billy Thomas scored 18 points behind 3-of-4 shooting from the three-point line.

Way to go, Bill. There is talk that sharp shooting 6′ 3″ Lester Hudson may join him at some point. Tony Allen’s imminent return may dry up any possible minutes that he would have gotten in Boston.

J.R. Giddens is still available to go, but I don’t know if that helps Giddens much as this point. Still, playing is better than not playing.

Maybe Walker and Giddens will rotate ‘Downeast”

For a while it looked like no one would miss.

While the main turkey carving went on Thursday, the Celtics were apparently just practicing as they carved up and ate up the Raptors last light in a return to action. Stuffing? Plenty, as two Kevin Garnett alley oops, Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, Rajon Rondo, and Kendrick Perkins added rim fillers…and there were lay-ups and short jumpers galore.

For one half, both teams were feasting on cordial defenses, obviously leftovers from Thursday’s festivities. For a while, it was hard figuring out who would be Friday’s turkey.

It was the Celtics that turned up the heat in the third quarter, breaking open a very close game and roasting the Raptors the rest of the way.

Ray Allen, with 20 points, led a balanced, highly efficient scoring attack by the Celtics as they had 6 players in double figures while Marquis Daniels just missed the club with 8 points.

The Celtics won their third straight game to go 12-4 and extend their Atlantic Division lead to 5.5 games over the second place Raptors.

Paul Pierce stoked the fire offensively in the third quarter while, like a David Copperfield magic trick, the Celtic defense appeared out of nowhere.

Pierce also laid a vicious driving dunk on Chris Bosh and got a technical for glaring at the downed Bosh after wards. Replays showed that Pierce’s foot kicked Bosh on the dunk somewhere in the mid section on the collision.

Two starters didn’t miss a single shot all night as Kendrick Perkins was 8-8 for a season high 18 points and Kevin Garnett went 6-6 for 12 points.

The Celtics took advantage of a suspect Raptors’ interior defense to score a season high 68 points in the paint, while ‘holding’ the Toronto combine to .557 shooting for the game. Boston had their fourth best shooting percentage game in the last ten years (according to Mike Gorman), finishing at a sparkling .623

After a solid pre-season win against this same team, Kendrick Perkins said then that ‘you can’t be what you aren’t’, meaning tough inside.

The Raptors are 21st in the NBA in points in the paint defense allowing 43.2, but are even worse in the NBA on the road, allowing 52 points in the middle (tied with Memphis for last).

Celtic Defense Sighting
The Celtics’ vaunted defense, close to being featured in one of those History Channel’s Past Myths and Legends shows, finally made a rare but documented appeared in the third quarter. I have the film to prove it. It was enough to break open a tight game.

The team defense looked good, aggressive, and on a string as they held the Raptors down for an extended period, while they came back to take a commanding lead they would never relinquish.

Steadily efficient all year long, Paul Pierce led a third quarter offensive hoop aggression with 8 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists. Combining with the first and only solid team defense of the game, Pierce made a number of difficult shots in traffic, while adding some solid defense of his own. Pierce also exploited some weak defense by Marco Bellinelli, finishing with 18 points and did not play for most of the 4th period.

Pierce added 7 assists, 5 rebounds, and two steals.

Point guard Rajon Rondo did much of the carving with 11 assists overall. A number of them were things of beauty and dissections of two or more Toronto players in the heart of the painted area for lay-ups. Rondo added 12 points of his own.

Kendrick Perkins looked as sharp offensively as I have ever seen. Rasheed Wallace had suggested he slow down offensively, that he rushes things a bit. He did and Perkins looked smooth even muscling a few shots in traffic. Perkins dropped in 18 points for his season high.

Garnett seemed to not be able to get a break with the referees, ending up with 5 fouls. He kept composed and finished with 12 points and 7 rebounds in just 28 minutes. It was his 3rd straight game without a steal or blocked shot. That would be unusual for a completely healthy Garnett, but Doc is bringing him back slowly, and obviously some things will come along more slowly.

The Bench
Rasheed Wallace was the only bench player to have a positive plus/minus (+4). Besides his 4 steals, he had a blocked shot and looked better in the post. He had the three point shot going  and finished with 15 points on 6 of 11 shooting overall.

Shelden Williams, Daniels, and Eddie House were less effective, though Williams did add 6 points and 2 rebounds in 10 minutes.

After allowing 22-33 shooting for the opening half, they held the Raptors powerful offense (4th highest scoring in the NBA) to just 6-19 shooting (31%) including 7 straight minutes where the Raptors went scoreless. The Celtics went on 13-0 run to go from 4 down to a game changing lead of 70-61.

Both teams were shooting a ridiculously high percentage through one half. The Celtics were hitting at .676 and the Raptors were at .667 as the Celtics drove deep to the rim almost at will, and the Raptors were doing much the same.

In addition to the solid strategy to take it to the rim all night, the Celtics shot a solid .417 from the three point line, led by Ray Allen’s 3-4 and Rasheed Wallace’s 3 for 6.

But the Celtics created 25 Toronto turnovers (15 steals) leading to 24 points. The Raptors scored 19 points off 16 Celtic turnovers. Wallace and Rondo each had 4 steals, and Ray Allen added 3 more.

Rebounding
Rebounding has been a problem at times this season for Boston. The Celtics started off rebounding well, holding the Raptors to just 2 first quarter rebounds while grabbing 8 of their own. From there the Raptors took over and out rebounded the Celtics the rest of the way 29-19 to finish with a 31 to 26 advantage.

Due to a frustration with the refs, Doc Rivers got a technical, as did Wallace and Perkins. Though the Celtics attacked the hoop all night, they shot 15 foul shots to Toronto’s 23 attempts. In the end they didn’t need it, running the lead as high as 17 points, before the Raptors would whittle it down to 10-12 points.

Chris Bosh and Hedo Turkoglu led Toronto with 20 points each, with Bosh adding 13 rebounds. Jarrett Jack had 18 points and 5 assists off the bench.

Both teams has 22 fast break points.

The Celtics hope to build on this as they head to Miami for a game on Sunday.

Behind the consistently good play of Paul Pierce this season and the well-timed bursts of Rajon Rondo, the Boston Celtics continue to squeak out wins, even against sub par teams.

Rajon Rondo, an unreliable outside shooter thus far, made a huge baseline turnaround fade away to give the Celtics a 109-105 lead with 9 seconds left.

After an Andre Iguodala three pointer brings the Sixers back within one, Ray Allen hits two big free throws. Thaddeus Young then hits two, making the score 110-111 with 2.7 seconds left. Eddie House is fouled and makes two more foul shots with 1.8 seconds for the final score. The Celtics escape again with a win.

They are 11-4, but are doing it more like an ‘above average’, but not a great team would do it. They aren’t intimidating anyone right now. The starters played better than the subs again, excepting Eddie House, and the team can’t seem to put a solid 48 minutes of defensive effort together.

For most of the game, it was very closely contested with neither team up more than 4-6 points.

The Celtics did break a bad habit and got out of box quickly this time. Trying to start the game as the aggressor for a change, they went up 9-4 and 14-9 before holding on to a 27-23 first quarter lead. By half time that lead was gone.

Paul Pierce led all scorers with 27 points and Rondo came alive in the fourth quarter with 8 of his 10 points, 3 textbook assists and 2 rebounds to win 113-110.

Rando is being used with the second unit more of late and seems to have a natural chemistry with Marquis Daniels. He had two nice assists for lay ups with Daniels as they both attacked the basket together.

Pierce had 7 fourth quarter points as well as 3 rebounds, 3 assists, and some solid defensive work as he drew a big charge on Andre Iguodala in the final minute.

Pierce shot 10 of 15 overall, 3 of 7 from the three point line, with 6 rebounds, 6 assists, a steal and a block, while adding a nice strip or two of Philly offensive force Andre Iguodala.

The Celtics have beaten Philadelphia 6 straight times now, the Sixers have lost 4 in a row, and are 2-8 after starting 3-2. Eddie Jordan has had his troubles getting the team to adapt to his Princeton offensive system.

Philly was without the injured Elton Brand, Louis Williams, and Marreese Speights for this game, Jason Smith and Jrue Holiday started and both did capably well. But it was a supposedly weak bench that kept the 76ers in the game.

Philadelphia substitutes Jason Kapono and Willie Green were Celtic killers last night. Kapono finished with a season high 20 points and Willie Green had 14 third quarter points and finished with 18 points on 5 of 7 shooting in 14 minutes.

The past three seasons the Philadelphia 76ers took 10.0, 11.6 and 13.1 three point shots per game – at the very bottom of the NBA. They have been and are still a fast break team.

This season they are taking 17.7 shots from the arc, but are still second in the league with 18.8 fast break points per game. They had 23 in this contest.

A number of statistical characteristics went against contrary to form in this contest.

Normally a poor rebounding team, the 76ers won that battle 39-37.

Also a top team in steals differential (+2.2), last night the Celtics had 6 steals to their 4.

Normally a lower percentage three point shooting team, Philly was lights out beyond the arc with 13 of 20 three point shots made. Celtic coverage on those shots was usually late. The Celtics, a top three point shooting team, was just 7 for 27 on the night.

The Celtics outscored the Sixers in the painted area 42-32.

The Celtics best three point shooters continued their poor shooting from the arc. Ray Allen was 1of 6, and is 3 of 14 over his last 4 games. Eddie House was 1 of 5 from downtown and is 4 of 15 over his last three games.

Rasheed Wallace went 2 for 6 from the arc, while Marquis Daniels showed why he should be taking it to the hoop with 2 misses from the outer limits.

Wallace has one shot block in the last 5 games.

Kevin Garnett went for 19 points on 5 of 9 shooting with a surprising 12 trips to the foul line for 9 makes. He added 4 rebounds and 4 assists. He has not had a steal or a block for two straight games. That has happened 4 times this season. He pulled a double zero in those categories only 6 times the entire season last year.

Ray Allen finished with 18 points, shooting 6 of 14 overall, in a well played game. He contributed 5 rebounds, 2 assists and a steal. He had a tough assignment in guarding Andre Iguodala, as well.

Kendrick Perkins finished with 12 points, 8 rebounds, a block and a steal in 23 minutes of play.

So, heading into Thanksgiving the Celtics are truly thankful for another win that could have turned into a loss.

They play the Raptors in Boston on Friday.