You thought the Celtics had it bad, but at least we aren't the Raptors. Or perhaps more ominiously, consider Toronto to be an example of a rebuilding program. Yeesh.
- Celtics starters set the tone with a big 1st quarter and put the game away in the 3rd.
- Rondo did his best "scoring point guard" impression with a big 21 points (but just 2 assists)
- He went down hard on his wrist and left the game after shooting the free throws. No reason for him to return to the game at that point - so hopefully he'll be alright.
- Pietrus was on fire from downtown, hitting 4 threes
- We had an extended JaJuan Johnson sighting - and he looked pretty good this time
Not much else to say about this one. The Celtics needed a win and the Raptors were all to willing to roll over and give up in the 3rd quarter.
God Bless the Raptors
Master Po - January 18, 2012
nice title by the way
Master Po - January 18, 2012
and play JJJ Doc!!! The kid can play!!!
Master Po - January 18, 2012
+1
fordescort - January 18, 2012
It's the will of the people, Doc.......
Ibemebe - January 18, 2012
many thanks
Jeff Clark - January 18, 2012
Great title ! Nicely done JC !
Ibemebe - January 18, 2012
Wow - OKC just lost to Washington
why couldn’t they have saved that stinker of a game for the Celtics?
Jeff Clark - January 18, 2012
LOL, I was thinking the same thing
nanaluvsball - January 18, 2012 via Android app
It just goes to show ...
… um … I dunno … it shows something. I just have no idea what …
Oh never mind …
mmmmm - January 18, 2012
...that this is one crazy season and anything can happen
…and does, and will.
JR99 - January 19, 2012
a win!
finally
nanaluvsball - January 18, 2012 via Android app
Steamer and JJJ ...I like them both
and good to see Avery Bradley partially redeem himself tonight …good lord… I am actually positive
Master Po - January 18, 2012
crazy stat for the Doc critics out there
Gorman flashed it up there – something about the Celtics bench playing the 2nd FEWEST minutes in the league to this point
wow – not doing so well protecting the old veteran legs so far huh?
Jeff Clark - January 18, 2012
Doc's great weakness: his refusal to play his bench.
The bench can’t put themselves in.
no kidding - January 18, 2012
Agree
fordescort - January 18, 2012
totally !!!
agreed !!!
Dantuts - January 18, 2012
+1
It"s like he lost it after 2k8
vgarcia890 - January 18, 2012
In a sense
they can “put themselves in”. By playing and practicing better.
KGHurtYourFeelings - January 19, 2012
maybe if the bench was better they would play more, not much there. there’s Bass, and MP was a great pickup, but that’s it.
forever_green - January 18, 2012 via mobile
A Head Game
I think Doc gets hung up on execution in practice. A head thing. Ob JO in going to better than JJ and Stiemer. But that doesnt help JO when the whistle blows and he cant achieve lift off. Loosen up Doc. Let the young dogs run. Some.
Tenacious D - January 18, 2012
I saw that as well and gasped
He simply has to play the bench more given the schedule over the next few months
McHaleinthepost - January 18, 2012 via iPhone app
Let's be a little fair here
It’s partly a product of the schedule.
In the 5 easy wins AND the blowout loss to NOH, Doc has given the bench plenty of minutes. The problem has been that in the 7 other losses, against good teams, the games ended up being very close late in the games so Doc ended up having to play his starters a lot more in those games, trying to pull out a win.
This is one of those stats that’s going to be misleading in the short term. Check that stat again in 2 weeks after we’ll have added a bunch of games against Toronto, Phoenix, Washington & Cleveland. I expect the share of bench minutes will have climbed by the end of that.
mmmmm - January 19, 2012
Ahhh the voice of reason
Dont use data to debunk a good stat!
jakeshuttlesworth - January 19, 2012 via mobile
I think ...
Greg and JJ look real good out on the court together as a tandem and are potentially very promising players for the C’s future.
fordescort - January 18, 2012
JJJ better end up being awesome
Because Marshon Brooks is lighting it up these days…and rebounding fairly well.
redbridge13 - January 18, 2012
Missed this one, but figured they would take this "must" game
As far as W’s and L’s this is what to expect: They beat lowly teams but lose to better teams….they make the playoffs and 1st round exit. Just sayin’
Surferdad - January 18, 2012
Good to see you around again SD
I miss the ‘old days’…ahhhh you know….
Tom Halzack - January 19, 2012
SEATS FOR SOLDIERS NIGHT
Q1 it was Rondo, five shots, none missed,
Very aggressive, 13 points, not one assist.
JO took a charge and shot the ball,
KG scored—at last, answering Doc’s call.
29 points—best Q1 all season,
Aggressive play and more rhythm part of the reason.
There were minutes for E’Twaun Moore to start Q2,
Pietrus for three, love what he can do.
The Raptors pulled together and started to score,
The Cs ran into trouble running the floor.
KG, Rondo were strong, Pierce right in the mix,
Third time a lead at the half, Cs up six.
One thing guaranteed to light up our place?
KG clapping in a Raptor’s face!
RAY ALLEN FOR THREE, guarding Derozan is tough,
Pietrus another three, showing us good stuff.
RAY ALLEN FOR THREE, he’s had a tough night,
Rondo was fouled hard (flagrant one)—what a fright.
Rondo took his free throws so he could stay in the game,
Then he went into the locker room just the same.
We saw KG’s “shake and bake” to start Q4,
Bradley, Moore and Stiemsma came to the floor.
With a sore wrist in the locker room Rondo stayed,
Interestingly it was Bass with the most minutes played.
Again, Pietrus for three, then Pietrus for three,
The bench kept the lead, loved Bradley’s D.
Cs 23 point win feels like a little bit o’ heaven,
The end of the longest losing streak since April ’07!
One thing about which I have no sense of humor.
Trading our Captain? The Truth? Oh, please, just a rumor.
mycelts - January 18, 2012
nice, keep it up, you have talent.
forever_green - January 18, 2012 via mobile
Thanks. GO GREEN!
mycelts - January 18, 2012
Solid--nice one
McHaleinthepost - January 18, 2012 via iPhone app
Great stuff!
jakeshuttlesworth - January 19, 2012 via mobile
I look forward to your poesy - last line was the best. Keep it up.
lygafe - January 19, 2012
Thats more like it...
though it was just Toronto it was nice to see the C’s get back on track.
I think Rondo and Pierce should get the game ball as they set the tone for the C’s win tonight.
Pietrius looked solid again off the bench which was nice to see.
I enjoyed seeing Moore Bradley , Steimsma and JJ all on the floor tonight at the same time and getting minutes at the end of the game.
I just cant help to think we may be looking at some of the young and promising pieces that will make up part of the C’s future core team.
Scariest part of the night was Rondos fall….man glad it was nothing serious.
fordescort - January 18, 2012
with 5 minutes left
doc inserted JJ, Moore , Bradley, Steimsma. should’ve inserted them earlier. but it was nice to see all of them play. Bradley was aggressive tonight !
Dantuts - January 18, 2012
I would like to see the kids all play more also...
I think a bench unit of Moore, Bradley, Greg, Bass/JJ and Pietrius is a very young, athletic and talented line up which can be utilized by Doc more often to spell the starters and to even replace them in games against young, athletic teams that the C’s starter have a hard time matching up against.
Playing the kids I think can not just help the C’s short term this year, but long term also because if they get minutes this year, it will also hasten there development and better prepare them to be possible future players for the C’s as they seek to rebuild next year.
fordescort - January 18, 2012
Everybody except JJ (& Sasha, who DNP) got well over 12 minutes.
JJ only got 5:49 – but he looked good out there. I liked all the length that he and Stiemsma showed out there – lotta shot blocking potential there.
Bradley made good use of his time, scoring 8 points, an assist, a steal and a rebound in just 12:17.
mmmmm - January 19, 2012
Last night
was the first night I saw potential in JJ, but it still bothers me that he looks so raw, for a 4-year college player.
And let’s remember he was playing against the second unit of a terrible team.
But I had no hope at all for him, and now I’m at least slightly optimistic.
KGHurtYourFeelings - January 19, 2012
One major injury to this team
And da will blow this team up this year mid season
vgarcia890 - January 18, 2012
but again
only 7 FGA from Ray Allen. sigh
Dantuts - January 18, 2012
Ya, that can’t happen against good teams.
It really shouldn’t ever happen.
forever_green - January 18, 2012 via mobile
yeah
sometimes he will be open on the perimeter coming off picks but then just pass it up. He is such a good shot he should just J in folks face sometimes. Dont be afrad to shoot Ray!
ianboyextreme - January 18, 2012
everyone
should be aggressive.. but yeah ray dont pass up a shot !!
Dantuts - January 18, 2012
Yep
By not shooting its giving his defender a chance to relax. I don’t care if he goes 5-14 he should shoot because people respect him enough to guard every shot. Thus opening it up for the rest of the team.
AussieGreen - January 19, 2012
This was largely due to the huge mismatches at PG & up front
Rondo was having his way with Calderon, as usual, and just waltzing to the basket again and again and had no need to do his usual pass out to Ray. Thus Rondo scored more and ended up with just 3 assists.
Like Ray, Pierce also scored very few shots, but ended up dishing 7 assists – a lot to our bigs, who were eating up Toronto. KG & Jermaine combined to shoot 9 of 12 from the field and 5 of 8 from the line while grabbing 14 rebounds in short minutes (KG played 24, JO just 20). Bass dropped another 13 points and even Stiemsma and JJ added another 5. All told, our 4 & 5 positions combined for 41 points, 27 rebounds and 4 blocked shots.
mmmmm - January 19, 2012
those are nice stats
ianboyextreme - January 19, 2012
Told ya so!
That 5 game losing skid ended tonight! Now let’s get that W against Suns, Celtics!
SparzWizard - January 18, 2012
Finally a victory!
Celtics finally got a much needed win tonight. It helped that they were playing the Toronto Raptors. What a terrible team which played tonight without Bargnani who is their leading scorer and 2nd leading rebounder. In any case it was nice to see the Celtics come out strong and score points in the 1st quarter. The effort to rebound the ball was solid tonight against a poor Raptor front line.
The Celtics defense effort was solid but Toronto helped out by missing tons of wide open looks from 3 point range. The C’s rotations were often slow in finding the open shooter which they can’t get away with against better teams.
Hard to tell much from one game against a terrible team but it’s a start…
warnerjohn - January 18, 2012
C's look more comfortable im the court yes i know easy team but is a easy team we won by 20+ points something we havent done
EXER123 - January 18, 2012
you know what
i dont know but i think its more psychological. im thinking maybe when they’re playing good teams, they’re like “oh men , we got to win this. we got to win this”
when playing sub .500 teams, “Lets go there have fun and get the W”..
look how loosen up they’re tonight.
Dantuts - January 18, 2012
maybe good point
EXER123 - January 18, 2012
steamroller great energy not alot of block but contested every shot around him what else can u ask for also showmore confort shooting
EXER123 - January 18, 2012
Good and bad
Marquis looks to have nothing left. He can’t hit open outside shots and relies on getting his points inside the lane. Watching him miss countless close in shots over the past couple weeks and showing zero lift when going to the basket is a bad sign.
JO played a great game tonight. He was aggressive on the boards and a force inside. He also took a couple charges and showed lots of energy on both ends.
E’Twaun Moore showed little in his extended minutes. Bricked an open 3, did nothing on offense, struggled in trying to run the sets and couldn’t defend Gary Forbes of all people.
Michael Pietrus was great off the bench. Solid defense and instant offense is a potentially explosive combination.
warnerjohn - January 18, 2012
JO scoring points
this past 2 games, were badly needed. he said that his role is to defend. but i believe he can still score around 10pts per game. we need those 10pts. he needs to be aggressive on both ends.
him scoring will be an advantage for us.
Dantuts - January 18, 2012
Agree..
JO is a big that can score and the C’s should utilize him on the offensive end of the court and not just on the defensive end.
The C’s are in dire need of points in the paint from there bigs which is currently non existent especially during there 1/2 court offensive setups.
J.O. can help remedy this matter if the C’s seek him more on offense and setup him up in the paint since he does have in the paint scoring skills.
fordescort - January 18, 2012
agree, points in the paint used to be an advantage for C’s, now seems to always be disadvantage. would’nt mind seeing JO post up more and playing inside out.
forever_green - January 18, 2012 via mobile
Love the Pietrus pickup
He plays with passion and is a Factor at both ends of the floor
McHaleinthepost - January 18, 2012 via iPhone app
Quis may have never had anything to begin with
jakeshuttlesworth - January 19, 2012 via mobile
There was a 18-20 ppg starter with Indy
Surferdad - January 19, 2012
Pietrus
That guy can be our new Posey but even better.. I knew he would be a big addition but he’s better than I thought.. Our bench can really jell once we have our full guys
celtz_believer - January 18, 2012 via Android app
+1
He’s been outstanding
McHaleinthepost - January 18, 2012 via iPhone app
+2
fordescort - January 18, 2012
All Positives !!
the C's need it. We need it.Dantuts - January 18, 2012
my take on etwaun
ether its he’s not a PG & more of a SG or he just cant play in this league ..had some assist though ,i’d hope to see more of him & really judge if rondo cant play
stylo617617 - January 18, 2012
dont expect a lot
from a player who only played sparingly. bottom line, doc needs to play the bench often.
Dantuts - January 18, 2012
I actually think etwaan can run the pg position better than dooling. Have dooling and pietrus come in as shooters.
celtz_believer - January 18, 2012 via Android app
I learnt my lesson
After going thru the 06-07 season and the recent 5-game skid, I have learned to take any win that is there because it is hard to tell when the next win will come. Granted it was just the lowly Raptor the Celtics beat, but a win is a win.
Hope the C’s can beat a top team before the All-Star break (if there is one this shortened season.), then flip the switch as they did in 2010.
getthat18now - January 18, 2012
true look at OKC lossing to wizards
EXER123 - January 18, 2012
Yep.
A win is a win and we should always enjoy each and every one – no matter how the rest of the season is going.
mmmmm - January 19, 2012
Struggling to finish inside
It’s painful watching the Celtics try to finish inside. Even against a weak interior team such as Toronto the C’s floundered on several point blank shots. Ray, Bass and KG failed to finish a few inside opportunities. Not sure if I have ever seen Paul Pierce miss 3 point blank shots in the same game. He played well other than shooting poorly but it’s clearly evident at this point he just doesn’t yet have the lift or explosiveness needed to finish in his customary fashion.
warnerjohn - January 18, 2012
he wasnt missing those shots cause they were being contested. He would get by his man than just miss them. Still probably conditioning. Hes probably gassed after the move to get to the basket.
ianboyextreme - January 18, 2012
Most of thus misses by Ray & Paul came early - looked more like poor 'touch'
and not really being ‘gassed’.
This has been happening a lot with the whole team all season and been a big part of our miserable starts to games. We just go through these phases where we just can’t get the ball to bounce down into the hoop. Ray and Paul were kinda like that to start tonight. Fortunately, they didn’t really need to get it going as it was clear Rondo could score on Calderon practically at will and KG, JO & the other bigs also had an easy time of it (see the number I posted up above). I hope they work this recurring problem out of the system soon, before we start playing the tough teams again.
I’d exclude KG’s name from Warner’s post up above. He shot 5 of 7 and also attacked and got to the FT line 6 times – so it’s hard to say he had trouble scoring during his short 24 minutes of play.
mmmmm - January 19, 2012
as good as rondo played, he sure took a licking and won’t survive the week no less the season at this rate. jo looked very good with no one threatening him down low.pp played smart with the pass but no lift on the legs- he still has me worried.i apologize to all vets, but comcast drove me crazy with the servicemen interviews- taking the camera and the focus off the game.
nazzbo - January 18, 2012
yeah that and it just kinda bummed me out
ianboyextreme - January 18, 2012
There was a Celtics sighting tonight
Oh yeah, I remember a team like this somewhere in the back of my mind… We have to start putting teams like this away to tune up and get our record in the right direction.
Also I’m still waiting to see Wilcox out there. I agree with Danny and think he can help the team. I always thought he’s capable of being a good role player, I’m interested to see what he can do.
p-peazy - January 18, 2012
Didn't see the game
Glad they won. Liked the Pietrus stat line. I am nervous about Rondo since they say he is day-to-day. We all know what that has meant in the past. A win is a win, but at some point they have to beat a team with a pulse.
vinnie - January 19, 2012
Whatta pick up pietrus is
We REALLY coulda used a player like him last year in the playoffs
Also i am concerned for rondo. that fall didnt look good.
StarzNBarz - January 19, 2012
We can probably use the word "threatened" when it comes to how we did against Mia last year in May
We take away baby and west and Green from that team but we add: Pietrus, Marquis, Bass, Dooling, Wilcox. I sure as heck would have kept delonte but it sure looks to me like we should be better on paper as Bass is straight up better that Baby and Pietrus is a big upgrade over green. We should be better but I think we just need luck that Dooling and Wilcox and Marquis get a lot better, and Steamer is for real as a shot blocker in the few moments that he gets
wahz - January 19, 2012
Obligatory win
Now on to the next game until we can defeat a quality team. I might just get lulled into thinking everything is solved. That was what I thought during their 4-game win streak.
LarryBird33 - January 19, 2012
The positive is that we won,
the losing streak is over and the negative? Can play like this or better vs elite teams?
TheBigFive - January 19, 2012
The really good news is not the win per se
… but the play of our key guys.
- KG looked fiercer in this game than he has all season. Good sign. Chest pounding – good sign. Clapping hands, egging opponent on – very good sign. Add this to the word “leaking out” of the locker room that KG is talking about playing on after this year, perhaps as a role player (Ian Thomsen, SI.com), and I think we can start to look forward to much better play from KG. This alone would be great news.
- PP showed a lot of aggression out there. Yeah, it might be confidence gained from knowing he’s playing a bad team… but still, he was out there attacking, and having his way. All good.
- They’re missing fewer shots. This never bothered me, because though it costs games, we know that eventually their shooting touch will come back. It has to. Heck, shooting touch can last till you’re old and gray.
- Defense was strong, aggressive, at times smothering. Even the bench. All good.
- And Rondo was back. Though there was never much doubt about that.
Bottom line: they blew out a bad team, just like they’re supposed to. And there were many positive signs. It’s completely possible that this game will mark the beginning of the rise of the Celtics back into contention.
JR99 - January 19, 2012
Its a fool's gold win though...
because the C’s activity against good teams is just ordinary..KG becomes Old, Ray is a turnover machine and PP can’t get a call.
bopna - January 19, 2012
Easy to be brash when you are playing the little sister of the poor
Wake me up when thy beat a team that is alive.
vinnie - January 19, 2012
The bad and ugly
1. As someone said above, Daniels looked terrible….again. He never had a long distance shot and now can’t do his penetration and make the close-ins. Nor has his defense been good. I"m afraid he’s done.
2. PPierce has no lift. He was able to get penetration down the middle regularly but couldn’t finish them. On most, he couldnt get the ball over the rim.
3. We don’t have a backup Point Guard. When Rondo is on the bench, play stalls. Those on the floor toss the ball around until the 24 sec clock is running out, then whoever is last man out dribbles wildly and futilely and takes a wild shot. Same result whether Bradley, Dooling or Moore.
4. Ray Allen looks done. Yes, he can still shoot, but his defense is not good, his ball handling (and passing) is atrocious and he can’t get past his screens fast enough to get his shot off.
Dipper - January 19, 2012
nice
It was nice to see them play a full game and win again. Hopefully it carries over to the next game. The competition resembled an NBDL league team but at this point who cares. We got a win!
CelticsFanNC - January 19, 2012
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