Ray Allen got hot and stayed that way, offsetting LeBron James’ 35 points with 35 of his own as the Boston Celtics beat the Miami Heat in their own South Beach backyard in a nationally televised game on TNT. He and Paul Pierce provided the 1-2 punch as Pierce added 25 points on 10 of 16 shooting in support.
In a highly anticipated rematch of the 2 Eastern Conference powerhouses, the Celtics were clearly the hungrier if not the healthier team.
If anything, the Heat are having a hard time getting a positive chemistry going, or at least playing anywhere near their potential. They fall to 5-4 after this contest and have now lost 2 in a row, including a game they were up over 20 points to the Utah Jazz – also at home. That is hardly worthy of the word powerhouse as a description of this ‘ready made’ title contender.
Many expect Pat Riley to re-appear as their coach, as he once did by dispatching Stan Van Gundy under the guise of ‘personal reasons’, if this house doesn’t get itself in order soon.
Behind the hot shooting of Ray Allen, in a game that was a lot like their first encounter to open the season, the Celtics went up early and held a 20 point lead before the Heat made a concerted 4th quarter comeback. This time the Heat got to within 3 points with 13.3 seconds left before succumbing.
Miami did it by slowly crawling back into the game on the back of LeBron James and then found a hole in the Celtic defense in the second half. In the 3rd quarter, they continually had Udonis Haslem and even Chris Bosh open at the right elbow as Shaq and Glen Davis were planted in the middle to stop penetration by LeBron James and Dwayne Wade and were slow to rotate out to the jump shooting bigs. Miami exploited that by having James start to drive to the right and kick it out. The Heat made 3 straight baskets on open looks on the same play in the 3rd quarter.
The Celtics lead at intermission was 61-46 and the Green Machine was shooting 60% to the Heat’s 40%. The Heat could manage only 5 assists at the break. Things changes drastically after that.
Ray Allen did a nice imitation of his 2nd Finals Series game by making 7 straight 3 pointers before missing his last 2. The former UConn Husky star and Connecticut resident is now within 91 of tying Reggie Miller’s career NBA record. Ray constantly lined up on the weak side and Rondo found him most of the time. Ray also hit a number of other mid range jumpers along with a few clever lay-ups in traffic to complete a well rounded scoring night. It was vintage Ray Allen and a joy to see. It turned out that they needed every basket.
You would think that a smart defensive team would stop leaving the game’s best three point shooter so open. But the Celtics, known for intelligent and tenacious defense, did the same thing with Eddie House, allowing him to go off for open looks for 13 points in 18 minutes.
Kevin Garnett added 16 points on 6 of 8 shooting but grabbed 13 rebounds including 3 offensive boards. After drawing 2 defenders at the rim, KG laid off a beautiful interior pass to Shaq who was fouled. KG once again contained Chris Bosh, the 3rd member of the Heat’s version of the new big three. Bosh finished with 15 points, only 6 in the second half, and 7 rebounds.
Paul Pierce
Pierce looked quite his old self offensively, making a number of fall away and fading mid range jumpers and even had a nice scoop shot at the buzzer to end the first half. But he also looked like his old self defensively as well. Though he put effort into guarding LeBron, he was not as quick nor effective as he has been in the past.
Pierce was guarded or mismatched against Eddie House frequently in the second half and took advantage of it
Paul and Ray are supposed to be committed to rebounding more this season. Maybe Doc gave them the night off due to who they were guarding, as Pierce had zero rebounds and Ray added one. Another unlikely stat, they also had a single assist between them.
Rajon Rondo
Rajon Rondo continues his hot start in distributing the rock with 16 assists to go along with 8 points, 2 steals and defense that helped hold Dwayne Wade to 2 points in the first half on 0-6 shooting, with zero rebounds and 1 assist.
Rajon is in a class of his own when it comes to ball fakes. I don’t recall seeing any other player in the NBA, let alone a point guard, pull off ball fakes and misdirection feints of passes as much nor as well as Rondo does. The master of deception. He had two fantastic moves in particular in this game.
The first was in the 3d quarter. He ball faked to KG at the top and drew the defense in that direction before finding Ray in the weak side corner for an open three pointer. He did something similar in the 4th quarter when Pierce passed to Rondo, Rajon found Ray behind a few defenders again in that far corner for another open three. His court vision and anticipation is unbelievable.
Speaking of anticipation, Rondo had another spectacular play when he broke up an alley oop meant for Chris Bosh at around the 5:50 mark of the 2nd quarter.
Rondo Dunk
Using a Glen Davis screen near the left side of the foul line, Rondo drove and had an emphatic, crowd silencing dunk with Chris Bosh looking on in the first half. Rajon also had a sweet pass to Marquis Daniels to make the score 32-24.
Davis
Glen Davis added charge #15 to his league lead with Wade being the victim. Davis pulled down 9 rebounds and 6 points in 28 minutes, and defies his weight and size when he does his patented “almost 360” spin move to the basket. He even pulled it off against tough defending Udonis Haslem.
Davis added a one handed put back to make the score 39-29. This came right after Rondo passed to Glen who backed down his defender on the right side and then kicked it out to Pierce for an open three pointer.
The Celtics ball movement was awfully good in this contest and it was contrasted by the lack of same by the Heat.
Haslem
The chink in the Celtic armor was stopping LeBron and Wade but not rotating out to defend the elbow jumpshot by the Heat big men especially Haslem. He finished with a season high 21 points on 9 of 10 shooting – all of them open jump shots, mostly against Davis and Shaq.
Haslem, who signed for much less money to return to the Heat and help them try to get a title, played like he should be a bigger part of the team. He added 10 rebounds and blocked a Ray critical Ray Allen lay-up in the final minute. But as Reggie Miller noted, the ball should have been awarded to the Celtics, but was given to the Heat instead.
Haslem wasn’t done as he fouled Glen Davis out with 13.3 seconds left and hit two big free throws to make the score 110-107. It was the Heat’s final points.
Nate Robinson
This started as another difficult game for Nate but he ended up finding his scoring touch while adding 12 points in 11 minutes and dishing for 3 assists. You can clearly see the difference between Robinson running the offense and Rondo. I don’t fault Nate too much for this because he has to find his missing scoring touch to really help this team, but on 2 of his drives for lay-ups, there were two completely wide open three point shooters standing behind the arc each time in Allen and Pierce.
Jermaine O’Neal did not suit up. Shaq played while enduring residual effects from various ailments. Semih Erden continues to play with a shoulder injury. Rajon Rondo plays with plantar fasciitis in both feet.
The Miami Heat are not a balanced team offensively at all at this point. They also have issues at point guard and at center. But mostly they need to get Chris Bosh more involved offensively. Doc Rivers made sure each of the three stars got about the same amount of shot attempts each in each of the first 2 seasons for a reason. Bosh is being left behind as a second class citizen in that offense.
By contrast, I could not see Doc Rivers managing that team that way. They would never be running the kind of offense schemes they are running. Ball movement is sparse at this point. Bosh seems unaggressive, even lost at times at both ends of the court. It seems to me that that team does not move forward until he is utilized as more of a weapon, instead of as an afterthought. You build on those three pieces. From there you see how and where the other pieces best fit.
Celtic Improvements
Though the Celtics defense declined severely as the game wore on, and mismatches occurred too often (Rondo found himself matched against LeBron on a number of plays), they eked out the win.
Rondo missed two critical lay ups in the final minutes and took too long to get the team into the offense. On two plays in the final minutes, Rondo wanted to set up a certain plays but the team took too long in the shot clock to do it. The Cs didn’t get one play going until there were 8 seconds left on the shot clock. On another Pierce missed a turnaround jumper as the shot clock went off.
End of game execution has been less than perfect recently and cost them the game against the Mavericks.
After just 46 half time points and shooting 40%, the Heat added 63 second half points and finished at 50% shooting for the game. While not masterpieces, the Celtics are winning games and doing it with confidence. That is a good sign.
The Celtics are now 7-2 and play Memphis on Sunday.
Semih Erden kind of alluded to this in my interview with him on Celticsblog.com…about staying healthy himself. Maybe he knew then he wasn’t right.
“I have to make sure I’m not injured. I have to be ready. That is the most important thing for me. I hope we all have a healthy season.”
Hmm….
Anyway, Greg Payne at Celticsblog picked up Chris Forsberg’s article on ESPN about the Celtics’ big man situation and Doc Rivers said this…
“[Erden's] shoulder is what it is, it’s not in great shape,” said Rivers. “He’ll have to have something done on it eventually. We’re just hoping to get through the year, at least get through to [Perkins' return]. That’s basically what we’re thinking. We basically have to, somehow, get these three guys to survive until Perk comes back, and that’s what we’re trying to do.”
So, three bigs, three players not healthy.
Who would go?
Luke Harangody and Von Wafer are the biggest suspects to go if they sign another big. Von Wafer would be cut free, I guess., especially if West returns and continues to look good Harangody would do the D-League thing for the Maine Red Claws. They may designate injured first round draft pick Avery Bradley for assignment, as well.
If the O’Neals can actually get healthy together this may all blow over. But methinks that is a doubtful supposition.
Ray Allen even was kidding Jermaine about it saying that they have more than one O’Neal jersey. They can both play at the same time. Shaq is expected to play tonight against the Heat. Jermaine may shut it down for the next 4 games.
Doc Rivers now acknowledges the Celtics may need another experienced big man. I don’t expect a trade so off the top of my head, my first thoughts are…. Josh Boone.
Can’t say that this is unexpected. In fact, I was thinking this right after the Dallas game.
“I Wonder
With all the injury issues already with both center acquisitions, what was once thought to be a deep position may require a rethinking somewhere along the way. If Doc and the trainers can’t get both players healthy at the same time for any stretch, and Erden doesn’t develop quickly enough, would they make a move? We are only 8 games into a long season and it is already a problem.”
Rivers even hinted at the idea of signing another big man, meaning the club would have to release somebody on the roster.
“We had 15 guys, No. 1, so if we did that we’d have to release someone, we would,’’ “But the one thing we’ve all learned, there’s usually not a lot of bigs wandering around. There’s just not a lot out there. We just have to try to get them healthy as much as possible because we have to try to win games during the regular season too, so we need them.’’
The brief article lays it out well regarding the expectations for the two high mileage O’Neals even when the Celtics signed them…
“I actually told you guys that there will be games where we’ll have neither guy and it’s just what it is,’’ coach Doc Rivers said. “That’s why we’re trying to get Semih as many minutes as possible. When they’re both healthy and both playing, we’re really good. We just haven’t had that this year. For us we just have to get through it. Obviously it’s a little earlier than I anticipated but we’re prepared for it.’’
A little earlier is right. From training camp actually. Jermaine has had multiple issues (wrist, back, knee, etc.) almost from the get-go. Shaq has had more than one lingering issue (arthritis, back, shin, etc.), as well. These guys probably creak when they walk at this stage of the game. Make no mistake, even reasonably healthy Shaq and Jermaine are dangerous. But ‘reasonably’ is the operative word.
As it is Glen Davis is getting big minutes. He can get worn down too. It has been suggested by Rondo that he start icing down his knees for precaution’s sake. Glen has been just great. But more shot blocking length would be in order.
So who in their address book of available big men would the Celtics call?
Josh Boone came to mind. He is playing in China right now. I don’t know if his contract has an out or not. That could be a deal killer, but let’s assume he might have an ‘out’ written into it.
Now I know this is not the perfect big man. But guess what? None of those available right now are. They are (mostly) all being overpaid on some NBA roster. In fact,anyone who has anything going on a consistent basis is on an NBA roster. The dearth of capable big men has been a non-stop story in the NBA for years now – probably forever. You can get a goodly amount of talented players. You can get a goodly amount of tall players. Getting that combination together is quite a different story.
But I was wondering why Josh Boone was never signed this summer as a restricted free agent. Yes, I know he is worse than Shaq at shooting free throws and that is saying something. He doesn’t have much of a offensive game away from the hoop. But he rebounds pretty well, blocks shots reasonably well and he can play interior defense fairly effectively. Those are the three major requirements of being a legit big on the defense oriented Celtics. Playing team defense is also up there and Josh can learn to do that better one would assume.
Josh will turn 26 on November 21. He is young enough to be active. He is old enough to not have to teach him the basics of playing in the NBA like Rolle Magnum, a current D-league favorite big by some pundits. The Celtics already have a talented young big man in Semih Erden that they are doing that with.
No, they need someone with real NBA experience. Any other suggestions? Please don’t say Earl Barron.
A list:
Primo Brezec? Tony Battie is with the 76ers. Unretire Adonal Folye? Jake Voskuhl? I actually like Rasho Nestorovic? Would Kevin Garnett want to play with him again? Brian Skinner is available, I believe.
Who else would you think they may seriously consider?
Going into this game the Mavericks were giving up only 92.8 points a game and are the 3rd best in field goal percentage in the NBA. Those are heady numbers for a team that have never quite lived in that zip code for very long.
A change in starting line up for this contest for Rick Carlisle made an impact. DeShawn Stevenson got the nod over Jason Terry and he played a physical defense against Ray Allen while hitting 2 three pointers. The Mavs held the Cs to 32% shooting on 8 of 25 attempts with Ray going 0-3 in the first period. That allowed Jason Terry to give the Mavs scoring off the bench. Terry scored 17 points and hit a huge three pointer to tie the game at 87 all with 1:13 left.
They held the Boston Celtics to 87 points and 41.8% shooting. Dirk Nowitzki’s highest scoring average against any one team is against the Celtics at 28 per game. He scored 25 points in this contest and hit a jumper on a pass from Jason Kidd from beyond the left elbow with 18 seconds left that broke a tie to win the game 89-87.
Paul Pierce led the Cs with 24 points on 10-19 shooting with 2 of 3 from the three point line, while adding 7 rebounds. Pierce scored the Celtics last points of the game on a pull up jumper with 1:58 left giving the Celtics an 87-82 lead. Dallas scored the next 7 points while holding the Celtics scoreless.
Centers of Attention
Call it a loss of attrition. After crawling back into the game and the lead in the 3rd quarter, the Boston Celtics succumbed to 4 games in 6 days including 2 overtime games, the second game of a road back-to-back and the loss of their starting center. A game like this exacerbates the loss of Perkins and spotlights the same value that Tyson Chandler and Brendan Haywood have for their new team.
With Shaq already out with a bone bruise on his shin, Jermaine O’Neal went out after playing one half with a problem knee that swelled up. Tyson Chandler had a near double double by half time in his best game of the year against a gimpy O’Neal.
In the first half, with Kidd feeding him passes at the rim, Chandler was able to score 10 points to go with 9 rebounds and 2 blocks by the break. How much was the immobility of O’Neal and how much was it about Kidd knowing when and how to get Chandler going is still to be decided. This could become a similar situation to his days in New Orleans when he was most effective. Chris Paul knew best how to get Chandler going offensively by doing the very same thing.
Glen Davis started at center in the second half and was effective against Tyson Chandler as he finished with just 2 more points and 4 more rebounds. But Chandler’s defense in the middle and against Garnett was excellent. KG was only 1 of 6 on shots within 10 feet but not at the rim.
Kevin Garnett had a strong game with 18 points and 15 rebounds, even though he was hounded by Chandler and some double teams into shooting 9-20. Rondo worked the alley oop with KG at least 3 times.
Rajon had 15 assists, 11 points on just 5 of 15 attempts, 6 rebounds including 4 offensive, and 5 steals. The Celtics made an effort to hit the offensive boards in this game and won that battle 14-4 with KG grabbing also grabbing 4 and Jermaine adding 3 of his own.
Davis hit 3 more jumpers, including a big one to start the 4th making the score 78-74. He added 3 boards and 3 steals. That Glen Davis’ game is evolving in the right direction is evidenced by his usage rate (the amount of time someone monopolizes the ball). He had the lowest on the team at 12 in this contest. That he is able to catch and shoot at a high efficiency helps the offensive flow.
Semih Erden played 11 minutes scoring 6 points on 2-4 shooting with 2-2 from the line and a steal, an assist and a rebound. But he was unable to defend against the Mavs’ attack as they added 11 more points while he was in the game.
After being down 50-40 at the half the Beantown Ballers came out and outscored Dallas 27-13 to start the 3rd to take the lead at 67-63 at one point. Boston’s biggest lead of the night was 6 points at 80-74 with 7:25 left in the game. The Mavs clamped down and went on a 15-7 run to win and stop a Celtic 5 game winning
streak. From that point Dirk Nowitzki attacked the middle, ending up with 2 lay-ups and 2 foul shots before he hit his big jumper to win it.
With Davis as the only viable option at center Paul Pierce helped assist in the middle in the 3rd period. After making a jumper that tied the score at 57 all, Pierce came down and fouled Chandler on a put back. Pierce moved into the paint to cover on other Maverick plays, including a big block on Chandler late in the game.
Taking only 66 shots, the Mavericks shot 50% from the field and made 17-20 foul shots. They are a perennial league leader in free throw pct.
Ray Allen finished with just 11 points on 4 of 11 shooting with 5 rebounds, 2 assists and a steal.
Jose Juan Barea had his best game of the season, by far, said the Mavs announcers, with 11 points on 4 of 7 shooting and 3 assists in just 14 minutes. His counterpart, Nate Robinson, struggled with 3 points on 1 of 6 shooting in 8 minutes, with a rebound and an assist.
Celtics Miss Their O’Neal Brothers
Dallas impressed with its new defensive mindset and the Celtics missed their newly acquired height in the O’Neals. With Dirk and Chandler (or Haywood) defending the paint the Mavs seem to be able to cause problems for the Cs. Boston did win the battle of points in the paint 38 to 32. But Boston shot 54% on 13 of 24 attempts at the rim to the Mavericks’ 69% on 9 of 13 attempts at the rack.
I Wonder
With all the injury issues already with both center acquisitions, what was once thought to be a deep position may require a rethinking somewhere along the way. If Doc and the trainers can’t get both players healthy at the same time for any stretch, and Erden doesn’t develop quickly enough, would they make a move? We are only 8 games into a long season and it is already a problem.
The Celtics are winning and it is much too quick to hit the panic button. Hopefully things resolve themselves in a more positive way soon. Just thinking out loud.
The Cs are now 6-2 with 2 more road games coming up including their first rematch against the Miami Heat on national TV (TNT) Thursday night and the Grizzlies on Saturday.
Oh Yeah…
one thing everyone can talk about is Rondo taking that three to end the game. He was 2 for 4 this season but it isn’t a reliable shot at this point. Obviously, he missed it. It was the shot the Mavericks left open and wanted, hoped and prayed the Celtics would take. Should he have taken it?
Most stats were obtained from Hoopdata.com. The rest from Yahoosports.
For those who remember the pre-Kevin Garnett days, back before we rooted for a team of basketball gods, and I hope it would be 90% of those reading this, you remember a young team with limited but growing talent who played terribly hard as in terribly…but hard.
If the current version of Celtics are the NBA’s version of the Harlem Globetrotters, amazingly skilled, entertaining, and full of fun, with assorted crowd pleasing plays, then the Celtic teams just previous were the Washington Generals. You knew they would lose every game, but not before being the foil to the other teams much more skilled units, and not before making a frenzied run toward respectability to make each and every game interesting. The stated goal was, of course, to win. The real goal was not to lose by an embarrassing score.
Even if they were down 20-25 points by half time, as they often were, they would come out and play as hard as they could, often against the other team’s reserves. As the Little Green Engine That Almost Could, they would stoke a comeback to within single digits, sometimes even tying the game, and make the other coach shake his head and then look at his bench of resting starters. With a wave of his arm he would signal to the starting line up to go back in, just long enough to barely break a sweat again, to polish off the pesky, but futile Celtic pups.
Why in the name of all things good, profound and gracious am I be bringing that up now?
If you saw tonight’s game against the Oklahoma City Thunder, we both know that answer.
We can now witness the opposite. Because this uber talented group of players gets bored, we rarely have boring games. Even as they coalesce and absorbed their new additions for the season, such as twin towers Jermaine and Shaquille O’Neal, the Turkish Tower Semih Erden, the still adjusting mighty mite Nate Robinson, the returning twins of diversity Delonte West and Marquis Daniels….
….they are so talented and experienced, they can toy with teams. Even after last season’s Midwinter’s Night Slumber, they know that once they go up 20 points, even against a team that won 50 games last year and pushed the Lakers to 6 hard fought games in the playoffs, it is all but over.
For the most part, the Celtic starters are like Ashford and Simpson – solid as a rock. On nights like tonight the bench is deeper than Freud and Kant. Other nights, ‘fraud’ and ‘can’t’ are more appropriate.
The numbers and the game
Ray Allen led a balanced scoring attack with 19 points. 7 Celtic players had 8 points or more. Paul Pierce supported with 17 points, but only 2 rebounds and zero assists.
Rajon Rondo had a double double with 10 assists and 10 points in 36 minutes. In a turn of events, 6 of Rondo’s points were on 3 off-the-dribble jumpers. Rondo added 3 important steals.
After an early struggle, the Celtics went up by as much as 22, starting with a 12-2 run to finish the 1st quarter ahead 28-21. From there they put a defensive stranglehold on the Thunder and went into half time up 21 points at 58-37 thanks to a Nate Robinson long three pointer that bounced in at the midway buzzer. They outscored the Thunder 30-16 in the 2nd quarter, holding OKC to 5 field goals on 18 shot attempts.
In the second half, the Thunder got to within 10 and then later to within 6 points of tying ay 67-73 early in the 4th. Each time, the Cs would counter with a run of their own. This last time, Davis would strike with 2 straight jumpers on Nate passes, Erden would hit 4 straight free throws, sandwiched around a Nate Rob lay-up in traffic. Davis would his 3rd straight jumper to ice the game at 85-71 and shortly after, Ray would hit a 3 on a pass from Davis to make it 88-71.
Jermaine O’Neal played 21 and a half productive minutes with 9 rebounds, a steal, 2 blocks and 5 points.
The Celtics missed at least 3 open jumpers in the 1st. Ray, KG, and Pierce all missed uncontested shots, while allowing Durant too much room and he took advantage of it. Kevin Garnett came out strong, scoring 6 points with 4 rebounds in just 8 minutes. He didn’t score again, taking only 3 more shots until late in the 4th quarter, when they needed him again.
The Bench Mobs OKC
The Cs’ bench outscored the Thunder bench 33-12 and that was largely the game. Marquis Daniels went 3 of 3 in the first for 7 points, and has now made 8 of his last 11 shots.
Semih Erden was the bench star of the game, contributing an unexpected 9 points, 4 rebounds and deft foul shooting, going a perfect 5 of 5 from the line. He also played fairly solid defense and had an assist on a dump off pass underneath.
After a slow start, Glen Davis made 3 straight jumpers in the 4th at the top of the key, on assists from Nate Robinson and finished with 8 points, breaking his string of 6 consecutive games in double digit scoring to start the season. Davis added 5 rebounds, 2 assists and a steal.
Nate Robinson broke out of his shooting slump with 9 points on 4 of 7 shooting, with 3 assists and a rebound.
With Jeff Green out with a twisted ankle, it was the Kevin Durant Show early. He scored 10 first quarter points, and had 17 of the Thunders’ 37 half points. KD finished with 34 points on 11 of 22 shooting. Russell Westbrook overcame a poor first half to finish with 16 points and 10 assists.
The Celtics won the turnover battle 18-11 with Westbrook getting 8, and Durant 4. The two teams tied in rebounding at 40 all.
What could have been a surprising blow out of one of last season’s top new teams, ended up being just close enough to care about what happened out there until early in the 4th after that Celtic 15-4 run put it out of reach.
With this game the first of a back-to-back and coming off 2 straight overtime games. The Celtics were glad to have the rest for most of their starters tonight.
Shaquille O’Neal is traveling with the team and is rumored to be available for tonight’s game against the Mavericks in Dallas.
What is with the Celtics and the Bulls? These two teams set a playoff record for overtimes and overtime games 2 years ago in the playoffs. Last night, the Cs outlasted the Bulls, 110-105, in yet another boxing match type overtime game.
The Celtics landed the most hay makers going up by 16 points a few times, putting the Bulls on the ropes and threatening to break the game wide open each time. The staggered Bulls recovered their composure each time and gained enough strength to go toe to toe with the Celtics by the 4th quarter.
From then on each team went punch for punch, duking it out through 48 minutes and an overtime. To say you get your money’s worth with these teams is an understatement.
Starting off down 23-19 after one quarter, the Celtics went on a suffocating 22-3 tear to go up 41-26. The Cs defense held the Bulls scoreless for the first 6 minutes of the second quarter as they raced ahead behind Marquis Daniels’ 9 points and contributions by Glen Davis, Nate Robinson, and Semih Erden.
It was Daniels’ best game of the young season. The Celtics exploited his match ups and Daniels delivered with an array of close in moves that Marquis is known for. He finished 5 of 6 shooting and 3 of 4 from the foul line for his 13 points in 19 minutes.
Daniels and Davis led an uneven, but generally solid performance from the Celtics’ bench. They outscored the Bulls reserves 37-19.
This was a great game to watch with sensational, if somewhat flawed performances by two of the best point guards in the game today. Rajon Rondo and Derrick Rose can both flat out motor and get by most defenders on any team with an unstoppable ability to get to the rim. Even without Carlos Boozer, arguably the Bulls only post up player, Chicago tied Boston with 48 points in the paint.
Both Rondo and Rose are intrinsically needed on the floor for their respective teams to do well. The drop off in production when they leave the game for their respective teams is immediate and severe.
Whenever either team sat their starting point guard, the other club immediately took advantage and made their opponent pay. Because of that, Rose played almost 46 minutes and Rondo 40, even with his foot issues. That the two of them combined for 10 turnovers speaks to the defenses of each team and some careless play along the way.
Rondo was not supposed to play due to his foot, but decided he would play and finished with 11 assists, 10 points and 4 big steals. Doc Rivers said after the game that Rondo may have a mild case of Plantar Fasciitis.
Derrick Rose did what he does and that is shoot and score, with 18 points on 8 of 19 attempts, but added 9 assists, 5 rebounds, and had 6 turnovers.
Ray Allen led a balanced Celtic attack of 7 players in double figures with 25 points on 9 of 12 shooting with 3 of 5 from the three point arc. Ray’s shot making from all over the court was excellent last night.
The biggest shot for the long baller was his shortest one, a back breaking, game deciding dunk on a pass from Pierce in OT when Paul Pierce was about to be triple teamed. From the left side Ray saw Pierce drawing all the attention and blew toward the hoop with Kyle Korver chasing behind in his draft. Pierce stepped away from the triple team to lace the ball perfectly on a bounce pass to the cutting Ray for the emphatic dunk turning a three point lead with 1:19 left into 5 at 108-103. In game of big shots, it was the final dagger, and a heart breaker.
In the time out just before that, Doc praised Rondo’s defense in knocking away a ball from Rose with the Celtics up 105-103. Then Doc said, ‘Bring us home Paul.’ Pierce did that with the pass to Ray instead of forcing up a tough shot.
Kevin Garnett missed his first 6 shots but finished 7 of his last 11 for 16 points, 10 rebounds, and drew a big offensive foul on Rose with 1:31 left in OT and stole the ball from Noah with 15 seconds left
If their games were records they would be LPs. They can’t seem to get enough of each other…so they continue to play ‘extended play’ games with every cut on the album a good one. They are just fantastic competitions. If they were prize fights, they would be ‘decisions’ after going the distance much of the time.
After landing a few initial hay makers in regulation and going up by 16 points a few times, the Celtics just could not put the Bulls away. Chicago came back from being staggered each time to draw back into the game. They finally found strength enough to come all the way back in the 4th quarter and tie the game multiple times. Each team hit big shot after big shot and made big play after big play, causing the game to go into overtime at 96 points apiece.
Glen Davis seemed to have greased fingers with a number of balls going through his hands, but he played solid defense for most of the night. With Shaq out, Jermaine in early foul trouble, and Erden fouling aggressively (4 fouls), Davis played center quite a bit, often going head to head with Joakin Noah. That is a match up of energy guys if there ever was one. Joakim has the edge in height and overall experience.
Still, Davis came up big in scoring again, hitting for 15 points in 37 minutes of extended play, including a couple of big jump shots late, as well as free throws (7 of 8), to keep the Bulls at bay.
Though Jermaine O’Neal did not grab a rebound in 19 plus minutes, he played fairly effective defense and his shot was working for 5 of 6 shooting for 12 points.
Pierce – Few ‘Makes’ but Big Ones
It was a tough night scoring for Paul Pierce. With 3 plus minutes left in regulation he only had 4 points. He then had a big tip-in for a 92-86 lead and added a step back jumper to start the over time. He had his biggest shot with the score tied at 103, a lay-up on a fastbreak pass from Rondo in traffic to give the Cs a lead the Bulls finally could not match.
It was a homecoming of sorts for Tom Thibodeau, the former Celtic associate head coach who is now head coach of the Bulls. The architect of the Celtics’ vaunted defense (and numerous others) is now designing ‘whole game’ strategies for Chicago.
It was also a return for former Celtic favorite Brian Scalabrine, a Bull now. Brian and Tom were honored with big board videos for both of them. Brian played and blocked Paul Pierce’s shot when Paul immediately went right at him.
Kevin, Ray and Doc all went up to Tom right after the game and embraced him. Before the game Celtics’ owner Wyc Grousbeck kidded around with Tom and Doc also came over to talk.
Semih Erden played against Omer Asik, his fellow countryman (Turkey) for a while and drew a foul on him.
Nate Robinson also hit a couple of big hoops in this contest, but is struggling to find his shot so far.
The Celtics are now 5-1 and unbeaten at home. The question is whether they should be beating the teams they are playing by more decisive scores or not. They have been in games where no lead is safe, though they have managed to take care of business in the end. With Delonte West, and Shaq out, I guess we will have to wait to see how they develop when those two come back. The bench’s play has been erratic, save for Glen Davis, who has played an important role with his consistent play at both center and forward. He has been in double figure scoring every game so far and his defense has been solid.
Is it too soon to start calling them The Green Machine again? It has been a long, long while since they earned that moniker. Granted, save Miami, they haven’t played anyone good yet.
Behind Rajon Rondo’s 17 assists, zero turnovers, 4 thefts, energetic defense and commanding floor game, the Men in Green looked crisp, hungry and focused. Rajon Rondo set a new NBA record for the first 4 games with 67 assists. He surpasses two of the game’s greatest point guards in Magic Johnson and John Stockton who both had 65.
They pounded the ball inside against Detroit’s weakness – interior defense. 30 first half points in the paint and 46 for the game were the result. Boston also took care of the ball for a season low 8 turnovers while creating 17 Pistons TOs for 23 points. All that and fine play by The Big Three were the story of the ball game. I don’t want to get too crazy but it almost looked like 2007-8 for the Big Three. Except now they have a full blown Rondo engine running things.
The Celtic lead was as high as 21. Though the Pistons made a run to get as close as 12 in the 4th quarter, the game was never in doubt.
The game included rookie big man Semih Erden’s NBA debut and a solid outing by Jermaine O’Neal.
The Cs went to Kevin Garnett early and often as he finished with a game high 22 points on 9 of 12 shooting to go with 2 blocks, a steal and 6 boards.
Paul Pierce looked sharp in supported with 21 points on 8 of 13 shooting with 3 three pointers, 5 boards, 3 assists and a block. More rare than Shaq making 2 straight free throws, Paul’s performance included two, yes, two dunks. That, as much as anything, lets you know Pierce is not playing hurt right now.
Ray Allen added 16 points on 6 of 14 shooting with 4 rebounds, 3 assists, including a nice angled lead pass to a cutting Jermaine O’Neal for his first basket of the game. Ray led the team with 3 offensive rebounds.
Rondo Leads the Way
But Rajon Rondo continues to play exciting basketball without scoring a point. That doesn’t mean he didn’t score. He did, 9 points to be exact, including a pull up jumper and a three pointer at the buzzer for the first half on a pass from Paul Pierce giving the Cs a 57-44 lead at the break. He also had a couple of weird angle, almost-by-the-basket lay-ups that are now his signature.
It was his assists and defensive play that were the most inspiring. He drives and kicks with purpose and the Cs shooters were finding themselves open often because of that. He harasses the ball handler and plays passing lanes with now common efficiency and that disrupts the opponent’s offense as well as gives the Celtics some easy baskets on fast breaks from the steals.
The Pistons were simply no match for the Celtics on this evening.
Jermaine O’Neal played a solid game and seemed to get in a better rhythm as the game went on. Though it looks as though he is still not in game shape, he finished with 12 points on 5 of 8 shooting, with 2 rebounds and 2 blocks in 21 minutes.
Semih Erden entered the game late in the first quarter and immediately blocked a Jason Maxiell shot on a drive. Shortly after, he was the recipient of a Rondo pass on a fast break and dunked it with flair for his first NBA basket. Erden played 15 solid minutes with 3 rebounds and 2 blocks to go with his dunk.
Glen Davis continues his fine early season play with 10 points and 5 rebounds in 24 minutes. He received a ‘new style no tolerance tech’ for dancing away after a foul was called on him for a reach in that looked like a clean knockaway on the replay.
Von Wafer also played 10 minutes scoring 2 points with 2 rebounds and 3 assists.
Detroit was led by Charlie Villanueva off the bench with 17 points, supported by Austin Daye’s 16 points and Ben Gordon’s 15. They are now 0-4 to start the season. The Celtics improve to 3-1 and have their first winning streak.
The most amusing match up was 5’ 9” Nate Robinson against 6’ 9” Tayshuan Prince, and that happened quite often as the Celtics second unit did well and stayed on the floor because of that.
Marquis Daniels struggled early offensively, but added 9 points on 3 of 7 shooting, including a three pointer, with 5 rebounds and 3 steals in 16 minutes.
The Celtics were a perfect 18 of 18 from the foul line last night. They held the Pistons to 86 points and 44% shooting.
The Cs play the second half of a back-to-back tonight in Boston against the Milwaukee Bucks who were beaten 90-76 by the Portland Trailblazers last night.
That game will feature a match up of two of the league’s top young point guards.The Buck’s Brandon Jennings had his first triple double the other night and Rajon Rondo was named the Eastern Conference Player of the Week. Rondo set a new Celtic record for assists in the first three games to start the season with 50. Last night he set the NBA record with 67.
The 6’ 11” forward/center with 5 All Star games (selected for 6) under his belt who once scored 55 points in a game (against Milwaukee in 2005) has somehow been as close to invisible as you can be at that height and with the resume that he has.
Jermaine – the ‘other brother’
For the Celtics’ recent Halloween party, Ray Allen dressed up as Michael Jackson. Jermaine O’Neal dressed as a Mr. T character. A more likely costume would have been as Jermaine…… as in Jackson, the other brother.
Doc Rivers likes to call Jermaine and Shaquille “The O’Neal Brothers.” While Shaq might just eat Michael Jackson for an appetizer,and still be hungry, he gets ‘Michael style’ attention. Jermaine might be feeling more like a Blues Brother or even a black and blue brother.
And that has largely been a part of his resume since that ’05 season. He has missed 146 regular season games in the last 6 years. The good news is that the last two years he has ‘only’ missed 12 and 14 games each season.
This season so far he has knee, back, hand, and wrist injuries dogging him since pre-season. That and the fact that the Celtics signed arguably the league’s biggest name in Shaquille O’Neal has made Jermaine less than an afterthought for media, and fans.
Jermaine has played a little over 25 minutes total, playing in 2 of the 3 games played. Some of that has been due to foul trouble, some to his health, and some to not knowing the plays well. His big issue right now seems to be swelling in the knee. If they keep that down, he will start tonight against the Detroit Pistons in Detroit. He practiced a full practice yesterday. With Shaq probably not able to play with knee issues of his own, they will need him in a big way.
He is a critical piece in the Celtics plans for retaking the NBA title this season. The team was so convinced about what Jermaine could do for them that they used the entire Mid-Level Exception ($5.8mil) to sign him.
“I haven’t been able to do things that I want to do out there,” he said. “I know the people that are happy about me being here aren’t happy quite yet with what they’ve seen. But I can guarantee before the year is over with they’ll be really happy with my play.”
Jermaine’s best season statistically was the 2004-5 season when he scored 24.3 points per game with 8.8 rebounds and 2 blocks per game. The three previous years he had double double seasons with points and rebounds. Coming to the NBA straight out of high school, now 32 years old, Jermaine has a fair amount of mileage on him.
No one expects ‘prime of career’ numbers from him. But the Celtics are counting on strong interior and team defense along with rebounding numbers befitting the position. Jermaine has a solid mid range jumper and decent post game offensively, though those have been in the Lost and Found Department so far with the Celtics.
Hopefully, tonight will help Jermaine get going and help him with rhythm, flow and chemistry with the rest of the team.
If Shaq has been Michael Jackson to Jermaine’s Jermaine Jackson, you might not have known it on Halloween. Shaq could have been more a like fat, ugly Jackson sister. I wouldn’t call him Janet or Latoya as he dressed up in drag as ‘Shaquita’ O’Neal, even singing a Beyonce song on the video.
Erden Expected to Play
The other big man who will most likely play will be Semih Erden the rookie from Turkey. He will make his NBA debut and fans are anxious to see him play after seeing his promising pre-season play and hearing glowing reports from virtually all of the Celtic stars, who are a tough group to please.
Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Shaq have all had positive things to say about the young 6’ 11” center. Semih has not been immune to the Big Man Contagion and is nursing his own injuries with shoulder and hand issues.
It is strange how a position that looked so deep has become an issue so soon. There is a saying that you can never have too many big men in the NBA. We are seeing why.
“It depends on what Shaq does, but there’s a good chance,’’ the coach said of Erden’s chances of playing. “[Erden] looked OK. He’s still got a ways to go but he’s trying his best and that’s all you can ask for as a coach.’’
This just in from A Sherrod Blakely of the Globe…
The Boston Celtics will once again be short-handed, with Shaquille O’Neal (right knee) not making the trip with the Celtics for tonight’s game against the Detroit Pistons.
And Blakely’s recent tweet…
“With no @the_real_shaq tonight, @jermaineoneal will start and Semih Erden will likely see some action at center as well as Glen Davis.”
