Celtics Central

The final score was 107-104. Boston wins in OT. How they got there was a wild ride.

The Boston Celtics Big Three ended up playing tonight after they got Doc to change his mind about sitting two of them for this game.

They blew the game wide open with a 17-2 blast out of the gate. But by the end of the quarter they were only up 32-29. It was a somewhat deceptive game as the Celtics starters played just fine. At the half, Boston was up 60-45 and had caused 15 TOs on the Bucks. The reserves were playing relatively well so far.

The second half was a different story for reserves on this evening. They had gone wire to wire without the three stars just one game ago, beating the Bobcats by 20. Tonight would not end the same way.

By the buzzer to end regulation, the second unit lost a 14 point lead to start the 4th, and accounted for 19 of the Celtics 23 TOs on the night. But they played the majority of the minutes as Doc placed a firm 20 minute rule on all 5 starters, it appears. No starter played after the 3rd quarter. The game was placed firmly in the hands of Leon Powe, Glen Davis, Tony Allen, James Posey, and Eddie House. When Powe fouled out in regulation, Brian Scalabrine replaced him for the final minute and OT.

I still can’t figure if Big Baby played a good game or not. He was on the floor constantly and drew fouls like flies. Things didn’t seem to be going his way all night. Some of his TOs were offensive fouls. But he never stopped hustling and managed 8 rebounds, 4 of them in the OT. Posey added 9 more, but it was Kendrick Perkins 10 boards in 20 minutes that led the team.

Tony Allen performed well offensively with 17 points on 6 of 10. Posey added 16 points.

Of the starters, Ray Allen played the most with 22 minutes. Kevin Garnett played the least with 19 plus minutes and carved up the Bucks like they were Sunday dinner, scoring 19 in the first half in just 13 plus minutes, on 6-7 shooting and 7-8 from the line. Whenever the starters were in the game, they easily extended the lead.

The second unit could be called the Equalizers. Any lead the starters built, the reserves gave away. The lead was as high as 25 points in the 3rd quarter. With Boston still up by 14 at the end of the third, 80-66, Pierce, Allen, Garnett, Perkins and Rondo were done for the evening, regardless of the outcome. Not that Doc thought they would be needed. Boston was handling Milwaukee rather well and maintaining a healthy lead. Or so they thought.

Milwaukee outscored the second unit by 33-19 in the 4th and caused 7 Celtic TOs. Glen Davis had 7 himself on the night. But he was outdone by Andrew Bogut’s triple double, as he had 15 points, 15 rebounds and 10 TOs before the night was through.

Normally a fairly clutch foul shooter, James Posey missed 2 in a row with 16 seconds left and the Cs up 99-96. That was all Micheal Redd needed as he drained a three from the corner with 10 seconds left. He pump faked as Tony Allen flew by him, giving him an open look as a result. 99-99 and OT.

The Celtics reserves came back to eke out a win in OT on Eddie House’s first basket of the entire game, a three pointer. He had missed one as regulation drew to a close, resulting in the extra session. They won even while adding 4 more turnovers. James Posey had earlier hit a three pointer and added 2 more free throws for the only other points of the extra period for the Beantown Irregulars. It was enough. Whew.

Of note, Sam Cassell was not activated for this game and Doc did not use PJ Brown, adding more intrigued into rotation equation. The team’s rhythm and the players that he started the year with appear to be taking decided priority.

Boston has now won 7 in a row and is 62-15.

Theses two teams meet again on Friday night in Boston.

There was an article I wrote before I started writing for CelticsCentral for the Connecticut Post. It was at the very beginning of the season. September 12th, 2007, actually.

It was called Celtics: A Question of Balance. It was, by far, my most popular article (and most heavily read) on that site, though I’m not really sure why. I guess sports readers love statistical interpretations in their reading.

It dealt with the question that everyone was asking, “Would those three stars be enough?”

Here is the link

Here is a portion of it…

“This 2007-08 Celtics will have one of the league’s premier big men coupled with two of its top swingmen. All of them could score 20-25 points every single night, even under great duress.

I see these three averaging about 60-65 percent of the team’s points this year. If it’s five percent less than that, it means Doc has devised a good system to get other players in the flow. “

That question has been answered.

As it has turned out they are averaging 56.8 points of the team’s 100.5 each game. That is .565% of the team’s scoring. Hence, by my opinion, based on looking at where the team was at the time, Doc has done a great job of getting supportive scoring from the rest of the team. This is in comparison to the Celtics first Big Three and other top three scoring units as measured in the article

Rajon Rondo has managed the 10 points a game that I thought he must, and Perkins is close to the 8 points I thought he must average to help keep the dogs off the three stars.

House and Posey have also done as well as anyone could expect. I did have Posey going for a career year in scoring (14 points per), similar to his best year in Memphis. It hasn’t happened obviously. But that’s because it hasn’t had to happen. Posey is defending the power forwards more this year than ever before in his career. He still scores when they need it, and his stats are tracking the last few years pretty closely

The surprise contributions, (or preseason unknowns) have come from Glen Davis and Leon Powe. Both bring positives to the court most every time they play. Both can score, rebound, and play defense, though they do all of those things very differently from each other.

In fact, Leon Powe is the golden boy at the moment. He just keeps getting it done every time he goes out there. He is looking more and more comfortable out there. If he keeps this up, he is the Ryan Gomes pick of his draft, and Danny has struck gold late in the 2nd round twice (Powe was the 49th pick obtained from Denver in a trade).

There are almost no disappointments with the entire roster this season. Pollard and Scalabrine qualify, but that is about it. That is really rare and a credit to Doc for working everyone in, in a productive way.

Going forward, his job will be to get Sam Cassell and PJ Brown woven into the fabric of what they are doing in the final 6 games. I think he will be able to, as they are both very experienced vets.

This team has been hard to defend and that is because the support players have stepped enough to cause great damage when Paul, Kevin and Ray are double teamed. It is also worth mentioning that 2/5ths of the starting 5 are the remaining 2 young holdovers from the massive trade exoduses and doing quite well, thank you.

The recent win by the team over the Bobcats without all three stars, speaks well of the entire team and the coaching staff.

The most incredible turnaround in NBA history was obtained in the most incredible way.

None of the three ballyhooed Celtic stars were dressed for this game. Pierce was not there as Paul’s fiance just had his daughter. Doc chose to rest Ray Allen (who dressed in a suit and cheered his team from the bench) and Kevin Garnett (who did not sit on the bench – as always when he does not play) for the game, as well.

The Celtics win number 61 tonight against the Charlotte Bobcats in Charlotte, clinched home court throughout the play-offs and represents the biggest turnaround in NBA history. It was the 37th win above than last year’s 24 win squad, which beats the Spurs 36 game turnaround with Robinson and Tim Duncan.

It may have also placed a large stack of straws on the camel’s back where first year Charlotte coach Sam Vincent is concerned. His boss, Michael Jordan, is said to be unhappy with Sam’s performance with the Bobcat team this season. He has said nothing about Sam returning for another year. This game obviously did not help.

The Cats certainly looked bad tonight. With a starting line-up of Rajon Rondo, Kendrick Perkins, Tony Allen, Leon Powe and James Posey, the Celtics opened with an amazing 37-25 first quarter and never looked back. Though the Bobcats got within 7 on a few occasions, the Celtic lead ballooned to over 20 and stayed pretty much out of reach for the entire game. And this was against Celtic reserves for the most part.

What could have been a motivation for the Bobcats, as they had played the Celtics two strong games already, turned into a motivation for the Cs, sans stars, to win anyway with so much on the line.

The Celtics played magnificently with Leon Powe leading the team in scoring with 22 points on 5-8 shooting and a surprising 12 of 13 foul shots, to go with 9 rebounds in just under 30 minutes. Leon excelled this evening as he made a number of tough shots around the hoop.

But he was joined by a host of other Celtics who played well, led by James Posey who added 19 points including 3 three pointers. Eddie House was Eddie Money as he contributed 16 points in 29 minutes, often making back breaking shots that interrupted Bobcat runs.

Glen Davis was 2nd on the team in rebounding with 8 boards in 23.5 minutes, and added 9 points, 2 steals and a block.

Rondo and Perkins clearly steadied the team defensively, which allowed them to jump out to the early lead, behind James Posey’s 5-5 shooting and Leon Powe’s 16 first half points. Both players had excellent games offensively, as each of them made tough shots multiple times. This team looked like they wanted it, as Eddie House was on fire in the first half as well with 10 points in 11 minutes.

The Celtics pounded the boards for a 27-12 half time advantage. That aspect never changed as the Green Team B Unit out rebounded the Bobcats 54-35 on the evening.

Cassell and Brown got about 20 minutes each, though Sam’s shot was off all night. Brian Scalabrine played 17 plus minutes, contributing 6 rebounds, 3 assists, and a steal.

Tony Allen started and played very well in 22 minutes. He scored 12 points and played solid defense all evening.

Rajon Rando ran a solid game, as he constantly set up his team mates for easy baskets. He had a team high 5 assists, 5 rebounds, and 3 steals. Perkins was a presence in the middle, and added 7 boards and a steal.

This Celtic team continues to amaze me, as they had a great excuse to lose this game and they didn’t. Instead they won by 23 points. 23 points!

All Glen Davis’ Mohawk gets him is more attention. He is young. He is Glen. But he might want to become more discreet, as he draws enough attention from the refs without it.

Both teams shot poorly in the 2nd half as the Cs won the half 37-27. Charlotte scored just 9 fourth quarter points to the Celtics 19.

Still this was great team effort and another feather in the cap of Doc Rivers, who has the entire team playing a rather disciplined game.

Next up are the Bucks in Milwaukee on Tuesday.

Boston just lapped the Indiana Pacers 92-77, and were amazingly professional in doing so.

All year long Doc Rivers has been saying it’s not about the individual numbers. So have the players on the team.

That unselfishness led to some very fine numbers tonight.

Boston just notched its 60th win of the year. That hasn’t happened since 1986 when the team went 67-15 on their way to their last Championship.

More incredible, they just tied San Antonio for the greatest one year turnaround in NBA history with a 36 game swing. They are certain to break that record against the weak remaining schedule.

And only 2 more wins are required to guarantee home court throughout the play-offs. That could come in very handy, especially if they make it to the Finals. Boston, now with the 2nd best home record in the league at 33-6, is especially hard to stop with home cooking.

Boston jumped out to an early lead once again and never looked back. They hit their first 4 shots to go up 9-2 and finished the quarter 29-17. Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce led the way with 8 points each. Leon Powe added 5 points and P.J. Brown supplied 4 more and 4 rebounds in just 3 minutes of play in the opening stanza.

It got worse as the Celtics led the previously warm Pacers by 49 -30 at the half. The Pacers could manage just 9 make baskets by the half. The Pacers came in having won 6 of 8 in a move to reach the play-offs. They were 3 games behind Atlanta for the 8th and final spot in the east.

Boston just shut down everything they wanted to do. They also missed some open looks and the return of Jermaine O’Neal, scoring 12 points in 20 minutes in just his second game back, wasn’t able to make this a competitive game.

Garnett led Boston with 20 points and 11 rebounds in 31 minutes. Ray Allen was next with 15 points. Leon Powe played a strong game and finished with 14 points, and 9 rebounds in 23 minutes. Rajon Rondo led the team with 6 assists and 3 steals.

The Boston Celtics clearly are focused and are making these wins against the lower teams look easy and almost effortless. The Pacers never challenged the rest of the way, though both teams were careless with the ball as Boston turned it over 18 times to Indy’s 20. Mike Dunleavy was responsible for 8 TOs by himself.

Dunleavy is having a career year, but it seems to me to be illusory. I don’t think he gets the kind of numbers he is getting with O’Brien anywhere else. He has career highs in points, rebounds, fg%, 3 point fg%, and ft %. Enjoy it Mike, while you can.

On the other hand, Leon Powe seems to be getting more comfortable out there every game. He is doing what he does best, and that is rebounding and scoring around the hoop. He has added a little mid range jumper from time to time, as well. He has averaged 12.2 points and 7 rebounds in just 21.5 minutes over the last 4 games, as Doc is relying on him a little bit more since the Houston game when he scored 21 on 8 of 12 shooting, while playing decent defense.

The quiet story of the game is the low amount of minutes Doc is giving his two new acquisitions, Sam Cassell and P.J. Brown. Tonight, in a blow out, Cassell did not play and Brown played 5 minutes. This would seem to be the time to be doling out PT to get them involved with the teams’ plays and getting them in sync with the rest of the team.

Whether Doc feels it could be costly to the existing team chemistry and certain players’ rhythm, remains to be seen. Cassell in particular would seem to need the time to learn to run the Boston offense. When he has given both new players solid minutes, it hasn’t always worked smoothly. With 7 games left, one would think they would be getting more PT, if they are to be instrumental in the play-offs. That suggests that Coach Rivers is pretty happy with the team as is, and loathe to make wholesale changes – veteran players or not. But we will see.

When the year started this team’s current success would have equated with my wildest dreams. It is now a reality, and what a ride it has been so far. Basketball is being played at such a high level and in such an entertaining fashion on any given evening, so as to make the previous 2 years seem worth it and…. long ago. The quest continues.

Boston’s next game is Saturday at Charlotte.

After defeating the Miami team from the ACC, 88-62, Boston moves on and Miami goes home.

That was a NCAA tourney game, wasn’t it? Well, at least one team looked like a college team.

Oops. That was the Miami Heat, an NBA team, loosely speaking. They were on the receiving end of a record setting defensive game by the league leading Celtics. I might add that Boston played without malice. It actually could have been much, much worse.

The ‘Heat’ were cold (Yes, I liked writing that.) and utterly unprepared to face an NBA juggernaut. The Ron Rothstein coached team ended up setting an NBA record for field goal futility. They managed only 17 made shots for the game – an NBA record since the shot clock came about during the 1950s. I watched a painfully large part of the ‘event’.

The previous low of 18 was by the Chicago Bulls (sans Jordan/Pippin, etc.) on April 10, 1999, ironically, against the Miami Heat. If there is a bright side to the accomplishment, the Bulls were even worse with 18 more attempts (77). Tonight, the Heat managed only 59 attempts for a still dubious .288 FG%.

The NBA record for least attempts is 53, accomplished twice in 1997. No wonder the league made changes in foul calling to create a freer flowing offense. Thank you very much. But it was deja vu all over again for quite abnormal reasons.

It is as much an indictment of Miami’s throwing in the towel on the season and bringing in nameless players on 10 day contracts. Marion is out. Dwayne Wade is out. Chris Quinn is in. After the 2 most experienced players on the team (Davis, Blount) the rest of the team has less than 4 years of NBA experience combined according to the announcers. They can’t possibly expect them to compete like an NBA team. Pat Riley’s absence for college scouting adventures speaks volumes about the situation.

The Heat are now 4-20 since the trade that moved Shaq to the Suns and brought Shawn Marion to South Beach.

So we got what we expected as the Celtics jumped out to a 22-4 lead and took their foot off the pedal for the rest of the game. They were happy to maintain a 20 point lead for the long run, as they worked all 12 active players into the game. The Cs biggest lead was 31.

No starter played more than 25 minutes as Leon Powe led the team with 27 minutes, 17 points, and 13 rebounds (6 offensive). In a game like, I really wonder how helpful it is for anyone on the team to play.

Tony Allen got necessary PT, but the team as a whole played down to the competition. And I will give the Heat players some credit. They did try to play solid defense at times throughout the game. Those combined factors resulted in a poor offensive performance by the Celtics. But really, who cares?

The Celtics scored 88 points on .386% from the field and .259 from the arc. They out rebounded the ‘Blountiful’ Heat 54-31. They gave up just 10 points in the paint and mercifully scored only 38 in the middle themselves. The Heat had 12 assists. The Celtics had 23. Need I go on?

Of note, Doc played Sam Cassell and PJ Brown with 3 starters for a while, in order to get them comfortable playing together.

There were strange line-ups and substitutions in the course of play. At one point, Ray Allen played SF, with Eddie House and Sam Cassell in the back court. If you find out which one was the point guard, let me know. On one possession, it ended up being Ray Allen anyway. Cassell contributed 9 points on 8 attempts, and 2 assists in about 15 minutes

The Celtics toyed with them throughout. Perkins blocked the league’s newest version of Dan Dickau, Chris Quinn, twice. KP had three blocks and 8 rebounds in 24 minutes. Pierce had 10 points, 2 steals and 4 assists. Garnett led the team with 5 assists in just 21:30 minutes while adding 12 points and 8 rebounds. Rajon Rondo provided 8 points, 6 rebounds and 2 assists in 22 minutes.

Glen Davis had a nice hustle put back on a miss by Powe on a fastbreak and folks……that’s a wrap.

What tonight didn’t solve or resolve is any suggestion of rotation for the play-offs. Doc plans to play Tony Allen, PJ Brown, and Sam Cassell more as they head toward the regular season’s finish line. Doc says it is important to get Tony Allen going. The other two are still getting up to speed with their team mates and plays. That means others will have to take a step back in minutes to get that accomplished.

Doc has plenty of options now. The question arises – does he have too many choices? And will he choose the right ones for the right situations? It’s not as easy as it looks. Chemistry can be a fragile thing. As it looks right now, Cassell and Brown may not play as much as I originally thought. The problem is that the other players roles have been pretty well defined at this point and the team is playing very well with the original cast. Inserting Sam and PJ is more of a delicate operation than it looks from a distance.

Still, I think Doc will get it done with this Veterans Administration, and have all hands on deck for an all out assault on capturing the NBA crown. While the rest of the games are largely presupposed wins, it will be the playing time and performances of the rotations that will be of great interest until we hit the play-offs.

With just 5 more wins out of the last 9 games, the Celtics will have accomplished the greatest single year turnaround in the history of the league. That looks like it will most likely happen. For long time Boston Celtic fans, it will be a highly appreciated event.

New Orleans, more than any other American city, is a tale of two cities.

After Hurricane Katrina, it was in a state of complete and total devastation. I had relatives and friends living in the devastated area that was southern Louisiana. They are starting an inexorably slow rebuild there, and still have many problems to overcome. The full time return of the New Orleans Hornets has provided some much needed hope, entertainment and a tremendous feel good distraction for the “city that America forgot”.

On any given night, they can see what could be the best point guard in the NBA running their team, a solid coach, a top rebounding/defending center, an All Star power forward and a team that appears to me to overachieve, especially defensively. They are the 5th best in the league in points allowed at 95.2, though I’m still not quite sure how they do it. They have run out to a 49-22 record, due to the magnificent play of their point guard. They are play-off bound and can make a splash.

They came in on a 5 game winning streak, a recent win over the Celtics at their house, and with the 2nd best road record in the league (22-11).

Throughout the first half, New Orleans was looking very much like they thought they could play with Boston. They had taken over in the 4th quarter in the previous match up in New Orleans and were ahead at the half in Boston with a surprising 60 points to Boston’s 56.

It was simply a tale of two halves.

First half – New Orleans 60 points. Second half – New Orleans 32 points.

By half time I was beginning to wonder what was up. Did this team really have the ability to play with Boston on the Celtic’s home court? Could they win two in a row and in Boston? Did they want the game more? They certainly needed it more considering the dogfight that is taking place in the west over pole positions for the play-offs.

The 2nd half became a message statement to the Hornets recent sting of the Celtics.

Mr. Everything, also known as Paul Pierce, was incredible tonight as he put in yet another superb game with 27 points on only 7 of 11 shots. Paul did what Paul does best and that is get to the line for a perfect 13-13 to go with 9 assists and 6 rebounds. He was turning Bonzi Wells every which way but loose this time around, with a variety of moves including a few drive-shoulder-forward-then-step-back fade aways. He has now made 22 straight foul shots.

As the season has worn on, Pierce has made it a regular habit of drawing the post defenders, then constantly feeding the big men underneath. Tonight, Leon Powe was the main receiver with 12 points on 5-7 shooting while adding 7 rebounds in a strong effort off the bench.

Last night the crowd broke into an MVP, MVP chorus for team captain Paul Pierce. It will never happen, but Paul Pierce’s name should be in the running for MVP. He has been that good this season. He has the whole game working now. A more complete 2-way player with as many offensive skills as Paul has would be hard to find. He is just doing it all, over the course of this season.

Kevin Garnett’s consistency with his shot and defense have made things easier for everyone. Tonight he has 21 points on 9 of 15, with 13 rebounds and yet another game changing 2nd half defensive effort. Excellence every night out is what Kevin gives you.

Rajon Rondo can mark down another strong game against a top NBA point guard. He played Chris Paul mano a mano, scoring 17 points on 8 of 10 shooting, with 4 assists, a steal and blocked CP3 on one drive.

Ray Allen was excellent in support with 12 points in only 27 minutes, splashing two big threes, and playing solid defense.

Tony Allen played solid defense over 20 minutes, at times being asked to guard Chris Paul, adding 6 points on 3-5 shooting and had a beautiful assist on a drive, underneath to Powe.

David West and Chris Paul were both put under wraps by the Celtics’ game altering defense in the pivotal 3rd quarter. The Hornets scored just 15 points to the Celtics 32. CP3 was held to 3 points and 2 assists by Rondo and solid help defense. West had just 4 points in the quarter as Garnett and Perkins shut down the mid range and the middle.

The Celtics shot a blistering .595 and took excellent care of the ball with only 6 turnovers. By the same token, New Orleans had zero steals against them, zero turnovers at the half and finished with 7 TOs for the game. I can’t remember when the last time was that the Celtics hadn’t caused a TO against an opponent by the halftime.

The Celtics’ bench did much better in the 2nd half than the first, led by Powe and Tony Allen.

The Celtics have now beaten every team in the NBA. Only the Utah Jazz had accomplished that feat until tonight.

Sam Cassell played a total of 3 seconds. I’m wondering when the last time that has ever happened to him. 3rd grade maybe?

The rest of the schedule gets decidedly easier for the rest of the season, starting with the Miami D-Leaguers on Sunday. We should see more of Cassell and Brown going forward, as Doc gets them comfortable with the system and the plays.

At this point, it is fine tuning for the play-offs, and going for home court advantage all the way through the play-offs.

82games.com has a ‘Clutch Stats’ page and seems to be keeping it updated fairly regularly.

I just looked at it and thought I would share some Celtic stats and observations from it.

First of all, I don’t completely agree with its very premise – that basic scoring percentages in the final 5 minutes of a game with a team within 5 points of the lead (either ahead or behind) is an accurate way to define clutchness. But it’s close enough to get a good idea of who performs well in a close scenario.

As with all statistics, a little ‘modular’ thinking is required. Every save in baseball is not equal. Neither is every assist in basketball. But they are in the record books. So why not a parameter for clutchness.

I won’t debate the premise. But I will share where the Celtics came out.

Number one in points scored (on a 48 minute basis)? Ray Allen.

It justifies my thinking about Ray’s clutchness for the Cs. He is the most prolific scorer on the team under the criteria. Ray is 52nd overall at 26.2 points. Kevin Garnett is the next Celtic at 21.1, followed by Paul Pierce at 20.2. Overall, not surprising at all.

Because each of these stars have taken turns trying to win at crunch time, none of the three has dominated the scoring, as they might have, if still starring on other teams. But Ray is slightly ahead, as I thought he might be. Ray has had a knack for coming up big at the ends of games.

Lebron James is hands down number one in the league at 60.7 points (per 48) in crunch time. Kobe is number two at 53.5. Neither one surprises for reasons obvious even to a blind man on Mars.

But here is a surprise…

Guess who is a clutch Celtic foul shooter?

One Mister Rajon Rondo. He is shooting 87% from the foul line in these circumstances. While he hasn’t taken a lot, he has made most of those he was asked to. 87% would stand with almost anyone. Johnny Rondo has nerves of steel, and rises to the occasion, it seems.

James Posey has shown to be a clutch foul shooter all year and leads the team is FT accuracy at 88%. While neither Rondo nor Posey take a lot, they have been more than good when they did.

Paul Pierce has quietly upped his foul shooting this season, including crunch time. He is 3rd on the team at 83% in those moments. He seems more focused, and his form even seems more of a crouch this season. He had a recent streak of foul shooting in the low 90s. He once said this season, that he wasn’t sure people noticed that he had improved in this category. Paul, they will now know.

Ray Allen is surprisingly 4th with a pedestrian 78%. Ray is 4th in the league overall (.907), but not so much in the last 5 minutes. That was a little surprising. Far behind is Garnett at 68%.

But who hits their shots with the best accuracy in this situation?

The envelope please…..

“And the winner is….Rajon Rondo. It’s an upset folks!”

That is correct. in 28 games that fit the parameters, Rondo leads the Celtics with a .444%. He is followed by Ray Allen at .431%. Garnett is next at .410%. Posey is far back at .267%, followed by Pierce at a paltry .250%. Who would have thunk it.

One thing – the low-high range for all the Celtic players mentioned here was from 28 to 34 games and from 81 minutes to 134 minutes, so each had a significant enough amount to time to make comparisons with.

The best clutch 3 point accuracy?

Ray Allen at 33%. Posey was next at .308%. Pierce was next at .182%. Needless to say, unless it was Ray Allen shooting, the Celtics haven’t won too many games with 3 point bombing at the end. It also follows Doc’s ‘take it to the hoop’ philosophy, and with those numbers, reinforces his thinking, doesn’t it?

Ray Allen actually is 5th in the league with 3 point attempts at 12.1 (per 48 min.). No other Celtic comes close. Pierce is way down at 4.2 (per 48 min.), and who could blame him with a .182% success rate.

Pierce, not surprisingly, leads the Celtics in foul shot attempts at 11.4 in crunch time.

One more surprise stat.

Guess who leads the Celtics in rebounding in clutch situations at the end of games?

We have a multiple clutch stat winner, folks….

Rajon Rondo at 13.9. Yes, he even beats 7 foot board eater, Kevin Garnett, who gets 13.2 boards in those situations.

One final thought – the only Celtic with a positive plus/minus was James Posey at +9. Every other Celtic is a strong minus. That seems to mean that the other teams are uniformly outscoring the Celtics in those situations. With only 15 losses, that would also suggest that teams were mostly closing in on a Celtic lead.

So young and ‘never nervous’ Rajon Rondo is the top rebounder, top FG%, and 2nd in FT% for each of these stats. While I’m not sure he is who I want taking the last shot or shooting the game winning foul shots for us, when he has been asked to do so, he has responded with great success. He has shown a knack for making big plays all year. Clutch time is no exception. In fact, he has excelled in such moments.

You can take your pick who you want taking the shot in the last few minutes with the game on the line, but for me -

if it’s a three pointer – give me Ray.

if it is a drive to get fouled – give me Pierce. He mostly makes those clutch FTs now.

If it is a mid range or drive to score – give me Garnett.

Oh yeah, if you want the rebound – put Rondo in there. He has come up with big rebounds so often, you almost expect him to find his way to the ball against anyone. Remember that rebound he slid in front of Dirk for? He has an uncanny knack for rebounding.

Some surprising numbers, some not so surprising. The plus-minus numbers would indicate that the Cs need a little work in those close, end of game situations. but with a 56-15 record, I guess there isn’t too much to be concerned about.

And Rondo is quietly answering all critics with his play as he hones his craft.

Well, it did in the second quarter and the entire first half against Amare Stoudamire, who had 22 by the half way mark.

But it was there for the rest of the game and stopped a high power offense from reaching triple digits. At the same time the Celtics went for a size large in points themselves by winning 117-97.

Green fuel stopped solar power. How could the Suns could shoot .559 for the game and not make 100 points? It happened because they were limited to an anemic 68 shots on goal. The Cs had 86 attempts and a solid shot .523. It was also due to 21 Sun turnovers from pressure defense that is the Celtic’s road to success.

Garnett and Pierce carried the team to victory with 30 and 27 points respectively. Garnett was steady all game and Paul had little explosions of scoring. Sometimes I don’t think I appreciate Kevin Garnett enough. Ditto for Paul, as he was vintage Pierce with 9-9 from the line, with 9 of 16 shooting, often against supposed tough defender, Raja Bell.

The other Celtic road to success is points in the paint. Tonight they had over 50 against the former king of the paint and his associates.

After the Celtics went up by 15 in the first quarter, the Suns came back behind Stoudamire, to even things by half time, 57-57.

A 16 point 3rd quarter punctuated by Amare getting shut out, put the Suns in a hole they didn’t have the means to climb out of this evening. They scored just 40 in second half as the Celtics shut the door.

Meanwhile, the Celtics maintained an amped offense with 60 second half points.

Rajon Rondo had an ankle breaking drive and score against Steve Nash that was so bad, Nash was good naturedly razzed shortly after, on the bench, by his own team mates. Rondo played a tremendous game overall, going for 14 points on 7 of 12, with 6 assists and 6 rebounds, while helping to contain the 2 time MVP point guard. Rondo’s growth is amazing.

Unsung heroes of the game include Kendrick Perkins with solid defense and a double double (13 points, 10 boards) and Leon Powe, who drew a critical foul on Shaq with an attempted lay up. James Posey did his best work off the stat page as well, except for 3 steals. Even Eddie House was active on defense, while contributing 6 points in 12 minutes.

Ray Allen had, what seemed to me to be, a quiet 14 points, on 5 of 10 shooting, but dished out 8 assists to lead the team. He epitomizes the team concept on this team as much as anyone, perhaps more.

In a game that meant much more to Phoenix, Boston evened up the season series with a message win at the right time.

Doc had to ratchet down the minutes and Cassell (6 minutes) and Brown (DNP) took the hit. It also keeps some of the previously established chemistry in place.

How the minutes go from here on will be interesting to see. I know for sure that Doc won’t have a 12 man rotation for the play-offs. But who comes in when might be an open question depending on the circumstances of each game.

Doc certainly has some very different options, and skill sets on the bench for different game and match up situations. Will he go traditional, shorten the rotation, make some hard decisions, and sit a few players for the duration? Or will he break new ground in ‘substitution philosophy’ in a record breaking year and have the ‘flavor(s) of the night’ each night, come play-off time?

The Hornets come to town for a rematch and another big game on Friday night.