Celtics Blog

Australian Cop Might Be Fired for Party Trick Involving His Pierced Penis

2010-07-14T09:10:00.001-05:00

Australian police Sergeant Andrew Lawrance might lose his job after offending his boss when he attached a bottle opener to his penis piercing and opened a beer with it at a police Christmas party. What a way to get canned.

Apparently Lawrance told a group of his colleagues and their wives about his piercing at the party and they asked to see it, so he went to an empty bathroom stall, attached the opener, and returned to demonstrate his patented way to pop open a brewski. This was way back in 2008, but Lawrance had to testify about the incident in front of a police commission this week after his boss took offense to the trick, even though he didn't see it.

Strangely enough, this wasn't the first time Lawrance got in trouble for his little "trick," and he even got counseling after doing the same thing several years ago. Some people just never learn! Lawrance thinks losing his job over the incident would be "harsh," but don't worry about him too much: He already has a part-time job. Working in a bottle shop. No lie! I really hope he comes to America and goes to some crappy party where a guy pulls out his tiny junk piercing and then Lawrance steps up, gets all Crocodile Dundee, and goes, "That's not a dick piercing. Now this is a dick piercing."

What Type of Nerd Are You?

2010-03-18T04:11:00.001-05:00

All the nerds are in one place this week at SXSW, but, let's face it, we all have a little bit of nerd in us. These days geekdom is large and diverse enough for everyone. Where do you fit in?

There are certain things that all geeks have in common: an intense interest in a very specialized field, fervent enthusiasm for a set of hobbies, a group of other people who share their obsessions, and probably a little bit of social awkwardness. Sure, there are people who fit these stereotypes exactly, but there are enough permutations and substrata of each of these categories that there has to be some leeway. And some people combine traits and interests from a number of these worlds into one big ball of übernerd. But deep down inside, you know which way your dilithium crystal crumbles. Embrace it! Enjoy it! Nerds have already taken over Hollywood. One day they'll conquer the globe!

Sci-Fi Geek

Description: The most influential of the bunch when it comes to pop culture, this group has pretty much taken over the entertainment business. They love anything related to comic books, superheros, galaxies far far away, fantasy worlds, alien invasions, or Sigourney Weaver in space. Without them, blockbusters wouldn't have monster opening weekends, Fringe would have no viewers, and Batman would have no fans. Not only do they obsessively collect the books, DVDs, and figurines related to their favorite titles, they often dress up in their costumes in the hopes of becoming the characters themselves.
Substrata: Comic Nerds, Trekkers, LAIR revelers
Gathering Place: San Diego Comic Con
Knows Way Too Much Useless Information About: The life and many deaths of Jean Grey
Eagerly Anticipating: Iron Man 2

Tech Nerds

Description: These are the power players in the business world because they have the most money. This is the guy who needs the latest gadget, can configure your computer in a snap, and actually bothers to read the instruction manual that comes with a digital camera. He probably has at least a little knowledge of computer programming, optimizes his web browser to do absolutely everything for him but fix his fancy coffee, and could probably take over the whole world with nothing but an iPhone and a maniacal laugh. Whether he's a Mac or a PC, he is all nerd.
Substrata: Computer geeks, Cell phone wizards, Hackers
Gathering Place: Apple Keynote
Knows Way Too Much Useless Information About: Google Chrome
Eagerly Anticipating: Hello! iPads come out April 3!

Mad Scientists

Description: You can't mess with the original. These are the chemists, engineers, physicists and other general crazies who are more comfortable in the controlled confines of the lab than in the messy, messy real world. However, they are responsible for the food we eat, the cars we drive, and the drugs we take—even sometimes the illegal ones. Without them, we'd still be using stone wheels and struggling to start a campfire with a flint. They are our saviors, but total bores at dinner parties.
Substrata: Mathematicians, Pharmacologists, Bio Researchers
Gathering Place: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting
Knows Way Too Much Useless Information About: You wouldn't even understand it if we told you. Idiot.
Eagerly Anticipating: When the Large Hadron Collider finally works

Music Snobs

Description: They think they're cooler than you, but they're just as geeky as all the other castes. Rather than just being a hipster into the newest and hottest bands and changing their tastes according to the zeitgeist, this person is also a fiendish collector of a certain genre of music. Whether it's late American bluegrass, German opera, early East Coast hip-hop, or Baltimore booty house, they have a finely tuned and exhaustive collection and scoff at anyone who never heard of whichever undiscovered "genius" they're researching.
Substrata: Pick a genre, from disco to classical guitar, and it has its own snob
Gathering Place: Coachella
Knows Way Too Much Useless Information About: Where to find original vinyl
Eagerly Anticipating: Sex

The Wonk

Description: This nerd has decided to use his brilliant mind for evil, not good, and gotten into the political game. He has been in more legislative bodies than female ones, and knows all the key players in all of them. There is not one minute detail of parliamentary procedure, voting district, or legislative record that he has overlooked. He lunches with lobbyists, suppers with strategists, and drinks with demagogues. They keep Meet the Press in business and fall asleep with the CNN crawl running through their little heads.
Substrata: All that matters is Republican or Democrat. Got that, Nader?
Gathering Place: K Street
Knows Way Too Much Useless Information About: The losing vice presidential candidates of the 20th century. Estes Kefauver, anyone?
Eagerly Anticipating: June 8th, of course. It's the midterm primary election in 10 states!

Gamers

Description: These are the people who live and die by video games of course. They play interactive Halo with strangers online, twist and twirl Mario on screen until their retinas bleed, and engage in strange Pokemon battles on our roof. They have a special place in their entertainment console for their Playstation, Wii, XBox, Game Cube, Classic NES, rescued Sega Genesis, and thrift store Atari. When not in front of a TV they play on hand-held devices in the car and on the subway. No, video games aren't just for kids anymore. The kids grew up and became nerds.
Substrata: Based mostly on which genre they like best: sports games, platformers, role playing, and the like
Gathering Place: E3 Expo
Knows Way Too Much Useless Information About: Cheat codes for Dante's Inferno
Eagerly Anticipating: It's going to be a long wait until Halo Reach this fall.

Gay Geek

Description: This guy can fall into any of the other classifications listed here, but is also gay. He's too nerdy for mainstream gay culture and too gay for mainstream nerd culture, so he is all alone except for the other lost souls he meets over the internet who share an interest in the games, comics, slashfic, and other goodies created just for them. There are some nerdy categories specific to gay culture, but many homosexuals have an affinity for sci-fi.
Substrata: Gaymers, Show Queens, Madonna Maniacs, Grindr Gurus, LGBT Activists
Gathering Place: Manhunt
Knows Way Too Much Useless Information About: Shirtless scenes on Battlestar Galactica
Eagerly Anticipating: The next Fanboy of the Month

Sports Fanatic

Description: Many might not consider this rabid sort of sports fan a nerd, but he displays all the traditional behavior of one. He has minute statistics memorized, he dresses funny for special events, he probably hasn't scored in a long time, and he doesn't engage in the thing that he loves most in the world. The wins and losses of his favorite team mean more to him than anything and can affect his mood for days. More than just a casual viewer, don't dare ask this guy, "How about them Yankees?" unless you want to hear a rant about how the managerial Kremlinology of the team has adversely affected ERAs, RBIs, and designated hitters in alternating away games.
Substrata: Football fanatics, Statistics junkies, Cheeseheads
Gathering Place: Tailgate parties
Knows Way Too Much Useless Information About: Fantasy sports league drafting
Eagerly Anticipating: Opening day of Major League Baseball

You Can Buy the Shoes from SATC, But Not the Book

2008-06-11T03:48:00.001-05:00

Remember the book that plays a major role between Carrie and Big in the Sex and the City movie, Love Letters of Great Men? It's not a real book! They just invented it for the movie. (Much to the dismay of booksellers—they're been swamped with requests.)

Defeated Britney Spears Tells Us Where She'd Like to Be Buried

2008-06-11T03:46:00.001-05:00

Poor, deep-fried, wistful tiny car driver (and, I suppose, musician) Britney Spears has chosen her burial plot. It's located in the bittersweetly named Hollywood Forever Cemetery. After hearing about Marilyn Monroe picking her own grave site, the singer wanted to follow suit and "when Britney saw Rudolph Valentino's grave at the cemetery she shrieked and said she wanted one." Though, she doesn't plan on going there anytime soon. "I'm going to live so I want to be brought to the Forever Cemetery when I'm 101," she said, with devastating optimism, to a pal. We like to imagine that the service, before she is entombed in Hollywood Forever, will consist of mournful piano renditions of her hit songs like "I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman" and "Lucky," while her two sons, wearing sailor costumes, slowly waltz.

Hiatus

2004-01-21T01:25:00.000-05:00

Stating the obvious here, I'm not doing much with the site these days. Until further notice, get your fix from the FSNE site with Bruce Allen's "Banner Headlines", Obey the Truth, and the other links. I didn't see the game tonight, but winning in Miami is nice--the Heat's been better since getting people healthy.

Half-Way to... 40 Wins?

2004-01-15T01:41:00.000-05:00

The Celtics have now completed half their regular season schedule at 20-21. I ominously noted in my last post that the win in Houston wouldn't mean anything if the Celtics turned around and lost to the Rockets at home later in the week--and that's exactly what they just did.

I actually fell asleep watching the game, which is just as well given how it turned out, but it leaves me without much to say. The box score reveals how different this was from the Sunday game. Pierce had an amazing 4 points on 1-10 shooting, compared with 27 Sunday. Yao Ming, held to 6 points Sunday, had a 21-15 evening, with 19 in the first half, and he shot 10-14. The Celtics shot 36 percent, compared with 47 percent Sunday. Vin Baker registered his second DNP-CD since coming back to the team last night in Milwaukee following his three-game suspension. Clarence Weatherspoon similarly registered a DNP-CD for the Rockets, making me wonder why Houston traded Moochie Norris for a guy they aren't playing.

I caught just a bit of the Milwaukee game Tuesday, which was similarly dispiriting. I wonder if Ricky Davis was having Cleveland flashbacks as he scored a lot and his team played no defense?

As my nap suggests, I'm a tad overworked at the moment, but more regular and hyperactive blogging should be resuming shortly.

20-19!

2004-01-12T01:26:00.000-05:00

The Celtics went over the .500 mark finally with a 97-93 win in Houston tonight. The victory was the team's third straight and first in Texas in a very long time. They may finally be turning the corner with the new personnel feeling comfortable, though Pierce provided a reality check in Sunday's Globe when he said, "I see it as probably around the All-Star break when we're really going to start coming together."

Jiri Welsch and Walter McCarty had 21 each to complement Pierce's 27. Jiri was a blistering 7-8 shooting, 3-3 from three, and Walter hit 5-10 from beyond the arc.

Houston came in a highly touted defensive team, and Boston's 47% shooting came against the club leading the league in defensive field-goal percentage. The Rockets aren't so good on offense, as they often hoisted shots at the end of the clock after being very slow to run their sets. Yao Ming also was a non-factor with just six points in 23 minutes--he didn't play in the fourth.

It's a nice road win and all, but it won't mean much unless the Celtics can beat Houston again at home on Wednesday night. Hopefully we can start carrying over our strong play on the road (10-8, 6-1 at Western teams) to the home games.

Think, Then Speak

2004-01-10T15:51:00.000-05:00

ESPN's "NBA Shootaround" show seems to be full of inane comments from the panel that are calibrated just to get people riled up, not to actually be correct. Case in point: last night they brought up Ricky Davis's dissing of Cleveland in advance of the Cavs' first visit to the Fleet since the trade. Bill Lame-beer (not exactly unbiased toward the Celtics, one would think), seizing on Davis's comment that Boston is a much better team, then said the funny part was that the Cavs might have a better record than the Celtics come year end. Excuse me?

The Celtics pummeled the Cavs 107-82 last night. LeBron James had 19 points in 43 minutes and looked terrible doing it. Paul Silas kept him on the floor to the bitter end either to punish him or, as he said afterward, to try to let him find himself. Meanwhile, the Celtics had six guys in double figures, including Pierce's 30-12-8 performance. Davis, obviously pumped to stick it to his old team, put in 16. Brandon Hunter made his NBA debut with two points in seven minutes.

Hunter is getting the playing time now that the Celtics are rather thin across the front line. LaFrentz, attending his first game since knee surgery, is out for the year (even though he told Willie May--the "modern-day Edward R. Murrow" in the words of Peter Stringer--he could recuperate before season's end in an interview last night, don't bet on it). Vin Baker's status is also up in the air, with Vin slated to return from a three-game suspension Tuesday night in Milwaukee (before that we play in Houston Sunday night at 8:30). Chris Mihm and Mark Blount started at the 4 and 5 for the second consecutive game, now that Jim O'Brien seems to have figured out that playing Walter McCarty big minutes at power forward isn't going to work.

The game also marked the return of Tony Battie, Eric Williams and Kedrick Brown (Doc Holliday must have been happy to see KB back in town). Battie had a strong 10 point-13 rebound night, while Williams and Brown, both of whom started, were pretty quiet.

Michael McClellan has a good take on Davis over at Celtics Nation.

Also, this letter to the Globe indicates I was somewhat correct to view Peter May's column earlier this week on Baker as unduly harsh:

To claim, as May does, that this relapse means that the Celtics can no longer "trust" Baker, since it violates the agreement they had made that he would not drink, is absurd. It presupposes that trust can only be maintained in a "perfect" recovery, which is false. There are very few recoveries that are perfect. The key factors in whether Baker--or anyone else--succeeds in his recovery from alcoholism are the degree of insight he has into his condition, how committed he is to getting better, and what positive steps he is willing to continue to take.

Anyone who believes that a relapse somehow changes everything--that the Celtics are now forced into some kind of momentous decision--is misunderstanding the natural history of the disease and the perseverance and commitment required to manage it.

ROBERT J. PETRELLA, MD

Pierce was fined $7,500 for throwing the ball in the stands during the Orlando game Wednesday night.

The upcoming schedule: at Houston Sunday 8:30, at Milwaukee Tuesday 8:00, vs. Houston Wednesday 7:00. That last one is Asian-American night at the Fleet, on account of Yao Ming.

Boston 101, Orlando 93

2004-01-08T01:35:00.000-05:00

Tonight's game was a nice rebound from the dreadful loss to Detroit on Monday. The C's got much better inside play with scoring in the paint and strong board work. I really liked what we saw from Chris Mihm in his extended minutes with Baker now out for a few games with his booze suspension. The only negative came with some frustrating calls in the third, leading Pierce to lose his cool and throw the ball the length of the court to protest a traveling call. It was highly uncharacteristic of him to show such a temper.

I'll leave my remarks to that since it's ungodly late. Just one more thing: isn't it cold of Peter May to be writing about how the C's can get out of Baker's contract on the morning after we get the bad news? Jeez, how about an ounce of compassion?

Unfortunately, I Saw This One Coming

2004-01-07T00:47:00.000-05:00

Vin Baker has been suspended three games for violating his rehab program's conditions. Sunday I wrote the following:

The lineup continues to be in flux. Vin Baker has been replaced in the starting lineup by Walter McCarty, a move that O'Brien says is to get more "mobility" on the floor. Baker was scoreless in 11 minutes last night. I commented on his plight yesterday, which continues to be a problem for the Celtics. The big fear is that he starts hitting the bottle again (could that be behind his decline already?).

I certainly hope not, and I guess it's possible he's violated the program without that meaning that he's going out on benders every night. Still, with his play falling off so precipitously, one has to wonder.

Marbury a Knick

2004-01-06T01:24:00.000-05:00

Good move by Zeke in New York to shake things up. He adds a legit star to build excitement and sell tix. I like Marbury, who isn't selfish as he used to be--he's second in the league in assists, helping out my fantasy team. Phoenix dumped him for salary reasons, and going back home to NYC may help him since he's wanted to play there.

Now that the Knicks have moved Ward and Eisley, the trade where they picked up Moochie Norris last week makes a lot more sense too.

Call me crazy, but I think the Knicks have a shot at the eighth slot, not that it'll take more than 40 wins to get there.

Not Exactly a Well-Oiled Machine

2004-01-06T01:21:00.000-05:00

The Celtics lost to Detroit 78-68 Monday night (get it, Pistons, not well-oiled?). The offense continues to look atrocious. I'm not doing stats tonight, I'm sure they're terrible.

Tom Heinsohn made a good comment on the broadcast about how putting Walter McCarty in the lineup made them much more of a perimeter team. Dammit, here are the stats after all. Vin Baker was scoreless in seven minutes. He had no shots, rebounds, fouls, nothing. The guys who played, meanwhile, were busy jacking up 34 threes, hitting only nine of them--yikes. It's like Antoine Walker is back in town and having a string of very bad games.

Remember back a week or two ago when McCarty was hitting threes and the C's were winning? I warned it was fool's gold, and it looks like I was right. Too bad Jim O'Brien has decided to go with this lineup. Walter needs to be a complementary bench player at most, otherwise we're not going to be a good team.

Also, remember this?

Danny Ainge can think of one way to immediately take some of the scoring burden off Paul Pierce [news].

Acknowledging that Baker's scoring has been on the decline, the director of basketball operations suggested yesterday that Baker's low post talents are not being utilized enough.

"I feel Vin Baker is being neglected in our offense, and right now we're also getting nothing out of the small forward position,'' Ainge said yesterday, after learning the captain of his team spoke out for the second time in a week.

At the time, people thought it notable that Ainge was publicly questioning O'Brien. Since that time I think Ainge has become less talkative with the media, a result of taking heat in the wake of the Davis trade, being booed on Cedric Maxwell Night, and the rumors that he and Obie don't get along. So don't expect Ainge to speak out on the Baker situation, but he must be pissed that Vin is riding the pine, right?

The silver lining to the game was the defense that kept the Celtics in the contest late. After tying it at 65, Detroit closed with a 13-3 run. We can't shoot this terribly every night, at least.

We need things to get on track for an upcoming pair of home games with Orlando Wednesday and Cleveland Friday. Those should be wins.

We'll Take It

2004-01-04T12:24:00.000-05:00

Even when you score nine points in the second quarter and the game is an ugly display only slightly resembling quality basketball, a victory counts. The Celtics played a putrid first half but were able to step up in the final 24 minutes to get the win.

The lineup continues to be in flux. Vin Baker has been replaced in the starting lineup by Walter McCarty, a move that O'Brien says is to get more "mobility" on the floor. Baker was scoreless in 11 minutes last night. I commented on his plight yesterday, which continues to be a problem for the Celtics. The big fear is that he starts hitting the bottle again (could that be behind his decline already?).

Unhappy with the first half, O'Brien started the thrid period with Marcus Banks and Ricky Davis, hoping for a spark. He got it, as the Celtics put together a run to end the period down by just a single point. Then in the fourth, Mike James returned to the floor and put up 14 points, while Pierce also managed to find the scoring touch after struggling earlier with his shot. Pierce finished with 33 and James 18. Boston held its own on the glass (Bulls 49-48 edge) and outshot Chicago, 36.8% to 33.3 %. I told you it was ugly. (box score)

The Bulls looked pretty bad, I must say, unable to take advantage of the Celtics' struggles. Only Jamal Crawford scored in double figures for them and the team was 1-16 on threes.

But let's forget about the disorganized mess that is the present and take a long view along with Peter May, who writes that it's too early to tell if Danny Ainge's moves are paying off. After surveying the personnel moves of the past year, May concludes:

So, there you have it. Ainge has improved the team's talent, which he said he'd do. He has made the Celtics more athletic and younger. He has demanded the team play a certain way, which O'Brien is endeavoring to do. Yes, Ainge's apparent ambivalence about the team this season can be a bit disconcerting, especially to the coaches. You have to wonder: If and when Ainge ever gets the team he wants, how many around right now will be around to enjoy it?

At least the wait-and-see attitude is refreshing compared to the mindless pessimism of Dan Shaughnessy.

Three home games this week: Detroit Monday, Orlando Wednesday, Cleveland Friday. These are games we need, so let's hope we start to put it all together.

Shaughnessy Pessimism

2004-01-03T15:54:00.000-05:00

Dan Shaughnessy has an overly pessimistic article on the Celtics today:

In the cold, dry, colorless Celtic winter of 2003-04, we speak of the golden days of 2002 as if they were part of the Bird-Parish-McHale era. The mere sight of [Indiana's Kenny] Anderson practically kindles memories of Sam Jones and Frank Ramsey.

The Celtics of 2002 are all gone except for Paul Pierce, Walter McCarty, and Mark Blount. That's right. In the name of progress -- moving back so you can move forward -- the Celtics have been blown up since they came within two wins of making it to the NBA Finals.

Now a visitor, Anderson went across the hall to commiserate with Pierce before last night's game...

They are a sub-.500 team treading water in the great middle of the NBA's deep sea of mediocrity. They are a unit too dependent on one scorer, too often willing to stand and watch Pierce perform. The second-half rebounding last night was pathetic (Indiana had a 12-2 edge on the offensive glass after intermission and took 20 more shots than the Celtics). Players are still getting to know one another, and O'Brien is figuring out a way to integrate Davis into the program...

Like it or not, living in the present is the only way to go. Antoine Walker is not walking through that door, folks. Eric Williams, Tony Battie, and Kenny Anderson are not walking through that door.

No more talk of missing persons. No more talking about 2002 like it was a banner year. These are your Boston Celtics. Get used to nights like last night.

Geez, talk about overstating the importance of one loss. Fine, not re-signing Rogers was a bad move, but now we've got new ownership and Ainge making personnel moves. The team with Walker, Battie, Williams et al wasn't going back to the Conference Finals. Shaughnessy admits the Celtics are still putting the pieces together after a trade, so why end the column "Get used to nights like last night"? Isn't there the chance the players will become more comfortable over time and O'Brien will find the right combinations to put on the floor--perhaps like what happened after the Walker trade and the team, following a struggle the first month of the season, went on a five-game winning streak?

Shaughnessy's pessimism schtick is tired (especially with regard to his bogus "curse" load of crap about the Red Sox). As I've written before, we need to have a little bit of patience while the team gets itself together. But there's definitely talent here, which means there could be playoff success in the future for them. And by the way, what would happen if the season ended today, Dan? The Celtics would be the East's seventh seed, hardly a disaster.

I admit, last night's game was bad, especially considering the Celtics went from leading by 15 in the second quarter to trailing by 19 with a few minutes remaining. The offense bogged down when they kept trying to get the ball to Pierce way out high with Artest hounding him. Boston actually shot over 50 percent on the night but took 20 fewer shots than Indiana. Being outrebounded by a 47-34 margin doesn't help. (box score)

Artest was the star of the game, finished with five steals to go with his 28 points, and he even pulled down Pierce's shorts on one play. The refs didn't see, Pierce hiked up his pants quickly, ran off a screen, and nailed a three in Artest's face. Expect to see the clip of Artest pantsing Pierce over and over on highlight and blooper reels. Even though this one was kinda funny, it also shows how Artest continues to be a thug of a player who thrives on intimidation. It's unfortunate, in a way, because Artest is so skilled he really doesn't need to pull that crap. His hands are amazingly quick reaching in for steals.

Jermaine O'Neal also continues to be someone no one on Boston has a chance of guarding. He had about the quietest 21-13 possible. Reggie Miller sucked for three quarters but then finally drained a few threes in the fourth quarter. People are going a little overboard by saying it was "shades of the old Reggie" though, since he was 4-12 on threes for the game, which is nothing special. If you take 12 threes, you'll probably score a decent amount.

We saw some good intensity from Mihm and Davis, I thought, who are hopefully getting more accustomed to being in Boston. Mike James had another strong start offensively that he couldn't maintain, as did Jiri Welsch, who scored all 14 of his points in the first half. The big problem remains Vin Baker, who had another weak outing with six points and one rebound. Remember when he scored 20 a few times early this year? I fear he's hit a wall in the comeback.

Tonight the Celtics have a back-to-back in Chicago. Fortunately Pierce only played 29 minutes last night, a season low, which means he could be fresh tonight. See Bulls Blog for more on Chicago, a team that's been hard hit by injuries but still managed to beat the Celtics at the Fleet in November.

B Diddy!

2003-12-31T18:27:00.000-05:00

Sorry, Kevin Frazier seized the keyboard and wrote that headline. I prefer calling him "Chrysler LeBaron." By any name, Baron Davis is very good and the prime reason New Orleans beat Boston in this afternoon's New Year's Eve matinee at the Fleet, 96-94. He scored 29, including some sick moves and jumpers with Welsch in his face, to go with 10 assists.

Pierce (4-16) and our Davis (3-12) shot terribly for Boston, which was also key. Mike James had the stroke going early (or so I hear, since I didn't see the first half) but then he got in foul trouble, which turned out to be big. McCarty had a hot stretch in the third quarter but then missed some big shots late in the fourth. When we're relying on Walter to hit a bunch of threes, though, we're bound to lose more than we win. Don't get too caught up in the fool's gold of his recent shooting.

I'll give some credit to the C's big guys, who held their own down low with the Hornets' strong front-line players. Mihm and Blount especially showed good toughness, and Boston outrebounded New Orleans 42-40. Baker didn't play in the fourth quarter, oddly enough, even though he had eight boards prior to that. Having McCarty defend bigger guys didn't hurt us too much, at least, and the Baker playing time issue is one to watch.

Here's the box score. The Hornets will need to shoot free throws better than 20-32 if they want to be a real playoff contender. I'll be very interested to see how the team fares with Jamal Mashburn slated to return some time early in the new year.

Ever since the five-game win streak and the trade, the Celtics have been back and forth with a win followed by a loss. They missed another shot to go over .500 today, and they're now 15-16, 8-9 at home. There's a chance to make some hay with a schedule upcoming featuring lots of East opponents and home games. Indiana comes Friday night, they're at Chicago Saturday night, then Detroit comes in Monday. It's time for things to start coming together with the substitution pattern and players' comfort levels with one another. They better get more offense than just Walter for three.

Golden on the West Coast

2003-12-30T01:23:00.000-05:00

The Celtics won two of three on the trip, and they're now 4-1 out West on the season. Throw out the Lakers game--if they're going to get blown out one time, it may as well come at LA. I think they pressed against the Lakers because they felt they had to play the perfect game to win, and that led to them missing some shots and opportunities to stay close. Tonight at Golden State the shots were falling again and the C's got back to winning.

The game began with a torrid offensive pace that trailed off in the second half. Boston built a nice lead late in the third quarter which allowed them to go into a big offensive drought in the fourth and still hold on to win. The Warriors cut the lead down to two with a few minutes left, but Boston managed some hoops and Golden State missed on late possessions to help seal the win.

The key shot was clearly McCarty's three that put them up by five with 3:10 to go. They never looked back after that. Walter got the start tonight to try to match up better, and he ended up scoring 16, one of six C's in double figures.

Here's a box score for you stat hounds. Once again the Celtics were outrebounded, 53-43, a continuing problem.

We're back to .500 at 16-16 now, an even 8-8 both at home and away. The next chance to get back to a winning record comes Wednesday afternoon in a New Year's Eve matinee at the Fleet against New Orleans. This week is seemingly designed to make life difficult for diehard fans who work for a living, featuring back-to-back late West coast games and a weekday afternoon contest. Hopefully I'll get off and see the Hornets game.

A final note from Sunday night in LA is that for a dispiriting game, FSNE made watching enjoyable nonetheless with the quirky Donnie Wahlberg joining Mike and Tommy for a good stretch at the microphones. Speaking of microphones, Fox must have had them turned up behind the baskets because we could hear a good bit of the C's and Lakers talking with the refs on the telecast. Peter Stringer notes some of the Ricky Davis trash talking. For instance, Davis asked "Are they gonna cry all night?" as he stepped up for free throws one time. "Go back to Cleveland," retorted a Laker. Also in the second quarter, Pierce was pleading to a ref that he was in the act of shooting when fouled near the hoop: "What else was I gonna do?" he asked. Gary Payton squealed his case, "No he wasn't [shooting]!" Payton won the argument.

Revenge in the Valley of the Sun, Lakers Preview

2003-12-27T01:08:00.000-05:00

Remember this? The Celtics took revenge for their shocking home loss to Phoenix earlier this month with a 104-102 road victory Friday night. Three weeks ago at the Fleet Center, Boston built a 29-point lead in the third quarter only to see Phoenix come all the way back to win. Tonight, the Suns built a 17-point advantage in the third, which Boston cut with the help of a 16-0 run late in the period. The Celtics then managed to grab a lead in the fourth and hang on for the win.

In a frenetic final minute, Paul Pierce was called for a phantom loose-ball foul, allowing Stephon Marbury to tie the game at 99. Mike James then hit a three, only to see Penny Hardaway hit a three himself to tie the contest again. Boston didn't take a timeout, instead advancing the ball to Pierce, who threw a sharp cross-court pass to Ricky Davis for a jumper that gave the C's their margin of victory with two seconds remaining. Pierce recorded his eleventh assist of the night on the play, to go along with his 27 points and 7 rebounds. (box score)

The Celtics looked like they were still suffering a hangover from their dreadful Tuesday loss in Atlanta when they played a poor first half, trailing 56-45 at the break. The team was having trouble with their spacing on offense, their passes weren't crisp, and they had to settle for too many jumpers. When Walter McCarty three-point shots are the staple of the offense, you know things aren't going right.

O'Brien was also shuffling the lineup tonight as he again seeks the right rotation of players following the recent trade. We'll have to have patience as this all shakes out once again, just as it did during the first month of the season, but O'Brien may have hit on something in the second half.

Walter McCarty started at center to match up with the small lineup Phoenix has adopted with the absence of Amare Stoudemire (who suffered an ankle sprain in Boston). McCarty finished with 20 points, mostly in the first half, shooting 5-7 on threes and logging 42 minutes--amazing considering the DNPs he was racking up earlier this year. Chris Mihm hardly played in the first half, as O'Brien went to Jumaine Jones off the bench instead.

In the second half, however, O'Brien did not play Vin Baker at all, citing defensive concerns in his postgame press remarks (Baker finished with zero points in 13 minutes). Mark Blount started the half and ended up scoring 16 on the night. Mihm also saw more extended action when he was on the floor for the big 16-0 run. Marcus Banks was the point guard for most of the second half, which O'Brien attributed to Mike James being hobbled by a sore ankle. Banks contributed 10 points and pushed the pace to get the run going before fouling out late. Ricky Davis, still finding his way defensively, came up with 14 points in 22 minutes, including the game-winner and a sweet fast-break alley-oop from Pierce.

This is still going to be the way things go for a while yet, as O'Brien tries out different lineups and substitution patterns. Baker and Jiri Welsch both struggled tonight while some others flourished, and things definitely remain in flux. Turnovers were relatively high at 19, and the Suns had a 42-33 rebounding edge even with Stoudemire not playing. Fortunately Boston was able to shoot 51.5 percent, 50 percent (10-20) on threes.

Next up is the Lakers Sunday night at 9:30 Eastern time. LA is struggling, having lost four of six, most recently Christmas night to Houston. I didn't see much of the game so I can't comment on Al Michaels' ABC debut, though I did see that the network has some cool new animation and a new theme song done by friggin' Justin Timberlake (were no rappers available?). At least ABC appears to have demoted Bill Walton, who called the Cavs-Magic Christmas afternoon game on ESPN.

The other Christmas TV highlight was the Kobe interview at halftime, in which he admitted being distracted from games at times by his legal problems. I couldn't help but notice that Vanessa Bryant was seated courtside wearing a rather revealing top that exposed her shoulders. Think she might be on the market for another guy if Kobe's convicted? Such concerns may be another reason for Kobe being distracted.

So anyway, we're going to LA where we'll get the Boston press take on all of the Laker storylines. Karl Malone isn't going to play due to a knee sprain, which means LA only will have one big guy we'll have trouble with. Unfortunately, that guy is Shaq, who can go for 40 and 20 on Boston any time he pleases--I'm fearful we may see Kendrick Perkins playing hack-a-Shaq. Hopefully that won't play out and we'll get a good reading on where the Celtics are at from the challenge on Sunday night.

Classy, Latrell

2003-12-23T23:42:00.000-05:00

Latrell Sprewell returned to face his former team, the New York Knicks, Tuesday night and he decided to spread some holiday cheer:

It started as relatively harmless jabbering with James L. Dolan, the Madison Square Garden chairman, who defamed and traded him, but by the end of a long night of drama and good basketball, Latrell Sprewell turned his angst against the Knicks' bench.

After sinking a critical 3-pointer with 1 minute 14 seconds remaining that keyed the Minnesota Timberwolves' 98-92 victory last night, Sprewell walked aggressively in front of Dolan, who was seated courtside about 10 feet away, and began flexing and yelling expletives.

Then he turned toward the Knicks' bench and directed his venom at the assistant coach Lon Kruger, cursing him and screaming vile phrases while staring at him. Kruger had apparently said something to Sprewell.

One fan, sitting behind the Knicks' bench, screamed, "Hey, Sprewell, there are kids here." But that did not stop the former Knick.

Sprewell also yelled, "Get a win," to Kruger.

With 30 seconds left, Sprewell received a technical foul, but his rude behavior that did nothing to calm the fans' love for him. When Sprewell, who also cursed at Kruger as the teams were leaving the floor, made his final exit, hundreds of fans stayed and cheered him.

Dolan, who criticized Sprewell's character earlier this season, simply smiled and laughed while Sprewell released.

"Somebody said to me that he proved me right; he doesn't belong on our team," Dolan said after the game.

By the way, I'm just going to pretend that the Atlanta game didn't happen for now. Maybe I'll come to grips with it over the holiday.

Atlanta Preview, Homestand Review

2003-12-23T10:49:00.000-05:00

Tonight the Celtics are in Atlanta to face the Hawks and good seats are still available. What do you know?

Atlanta is terrible, so this game qualifies as a must-win. I also would put Sunday's 87-84 victory over Philly in that category. The Celtics really needed to beat the Sixers at home with Allen Iverson out, and they did just barely.

The Sixers game showed yet again that the Celtics struggle against the press, a reminder that the problem that showed up in previous games with Phoenix and Seattle hasn't entirely been solved. Boston really had trouble with Philly's pressing defense in the second quarter and had an awful period offensively. I still don't understand why we don't see more teams press the C's.

On the whole this was a heart-stopping homestand worthy of the town that has the Red Sox and Patriots too. The Dallas, Utah and Philadelphia games all came down to last possessions, with Boston pulling out two of the three, not bad for a team that has been shaken up by a trade in the past week.

One notable thing from the Mavs and Jazz games is that Vin Baker was not on the floor late in the game, partly because Nowitzki and Kirilenko are two of the quicker 4's in the league. But both yesterday's Globe Notebook and today's Herald Notebook mention that Baker is still battling to get himself back in top physical condition and playing tough defense. Baker was in for the late-game situation against the slower, smaller Sixers Sunday evening, recording a double-double.

After the Hawks, it's off to Phoenix for a game the night after Christmas, also known as Friday. Tip is 9:00. On the holiday itself ESPN has a LeBron-TMac matchup in the afternoon followed by the ABC evening doubleheader of Mavs-Kings and Lakers-Rockets. The last game will be the debut of the Al Michaels-Doc Rivers broadcast team on ABC, which should be a nice upgrade from Bill Walton (who I'm afraid may have the Sacramento game).

After Phoenix, Boston has a back-to-back at the Lakers and Warriors Sunday and Monday nights. Karl Malone may be out of the LA game since he has a sprained knee.

Blogging may be light as I am not working this week and hence not tetered to my computer but rather to family. Chappy Chanukah, Merry Christmas, Bountiful Kwanzaa, etc. and enjoy the games.

Bryant's Revenge

2003-12-20T11:40:00.000-05:00

Kobe hit the game-winner over the Nuggets last night after arriving back in LA late from his pre-trial hearing in Colorado. Considering how much agony Colorado's legal system is putting him through, it must have felt nice to beat that state's pro hoops team.

Dallas/Utah

2003-12-19T16:29:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the lack of reaction to the Mavs win on Wednesday. It was a thrilling comeback win for Boston over Antoine Walker's Dallas squad, as you probably know, 105-103. Walker had an awful night in his return to town, shooting only 3-of-14 for 7 points (0-for-6 on threes, including a miss of the potential game-winner at the buzzer). It was nice to see him get a standing ovation, though, which was well-deserved.

Jiri Welsch stuck it to his former (briefly) team with a career-high 21 points. Walter McCarty came through with 18 points, including a few huge threes late, in a starting role to match up defensively with Dirk Nowitzki (30 points). Pierce had a 25-11-7 and hit the game-winner over 'Toine with 20 seconds left.

Not to put a damper on the excitement of the win, but there were plenty of flaws in the Celtics game Wednesday night too. They relied heavily on the three-point shot, which, as we have learned the past few years, can be a risky strategy. They also were awful on the defensive glass, allowing Danny Fortson to morph into Dennis Rodman in the third quarter. Tom Heinsohn was complaining about the free-throw disparity, which I feel was caused by the Celtics shooting too many jumpers on offense and committing too many fouls on defense. Dallas played badly and was ready to be taken--they are now 3-9 on the road following another loss last night at Minnesota. The C's barely pulled it off.

It's impossible to gauge anything important about the trade from one game. Davis showed his incredible athletic ability by flushing home a tipped alley-oop pass from Pierce late in the first quarter. I wonder how much longer he'll be coming off the bench. Mihm got in for limited minutes only because others had foul trouble, and he looked really aggressive fighting for rebounds. I look forward to seeing him get more playing time. Stewart didn't play, and I doubt he will much in the future.

In short, I say this was a nice win, but not worth overreacting about. We'll know much more about how the trade has affected the team in a few weeks.

Tonight Andrei Kirilenko and his hideous hairdo visit the Fleet. Tip is 7:30. Boston beat the Jazz in Salt Lake City earlier this month and Utah, while 13-12 overall, is only 2-9 on the road. The Celtics haven't swept a season series from the Jazz since 1987-88. Let's hope the milestones keep occurring in the wake of Jim O'Brien's first coaching win against a team from Texas on Wednesday.

Dissing the Atlantic Division

2003-12-18T23:46:00.000-05:00

Friday's Washington Post has an article about how no one respects the Atlantic Division. Meanwhile the Celtics are 6-3 against the vaunted Western Conference this season.

Walton on 'Toine

2003-12-17T16:51:00.000-05:00

Bill Walton defends Danny Ainge in the war of words with Antoine Walker. At least he reminds people he and Ainge were teammates, which could make him a little biased.

Walton is calling the game for ESPN with Mike Breen. Normally I would listen to the national broadcasters when given the alternative in order to hear what the rest of the country thinks of the Celtics, but both Walton and Breen are awful, so I'll be sticking with Mike and Tommy on FSNE. Maybe the ESPN studio people will have interesting comments during pregame and halftime.

The Dallas game is at 8, in case you somehow forgot. It's only the most anticipated game of the season.

More Davis + Thoughts on 'Toine

2003-12-17T00:45:00.000-05:00

First, a few more trade-related links. Baltimaher of Sports Frog mocks Danny Ainge for putting stock in "brain type" testing to evaluate players, as apparently was the case with Ricky Davis. Also via Sports Frog, I found the Marty Burns breakdown of the deal on SI.com:

This deal is very similar to the recent Chicago-Toronto trade. The Celtics, like the Raptors, wanted to find some help for their Lone Ranger superstar so they can make a playoff run in the wide-open East. The Cavs, like the Bulls, wanted to improve their defense and get rid of a guy who was clashing with the coach. In that sense, both teams got what they wanted. Boston GM Danny Ainge clearly was feeling the heat for his earlier trade of Antoine Walker. With this move, he essentially has made it Davis and LaFrentz for Walker, Williams and Battie. On paper, it now looks a whole lot more even. However, Williams and Battie were a big part of Dick Harter's team defense in Boston. Also, it remains to be seen how well Davis and Pierce coexist on the perimeter. The Celtics definitely will score more points, but will they lose their defensive identity?

Right, defense--I knew we were forgetting about something when we made this trade.

OK, I'm through analyzing the deal until we actually get to see the new guys play a game.

Tomorrow morning's papers should have a ton on Antoine Walker's return to Boston with the Mavs. My position on the move was that it was reasonable given the fact that the team had gone as far as it could with Antoine as a major piece and that there wasn't going to be an agreement on a new contract after this year anyway. In light of those things, I thought getting something for Walker and shaking up the roster a bit was a good idea.

I like Welsch from what we've seen so far. Getting LaFrentz can be second-guessed now that he's out the year, but it wasn't a terrible downgrade, even though he'll never put up Walker's numbers. The first-round pick is useless since it's Dallas, and the team also gained some cap room, which they've now largely used up in the Ricky Davis deal, so they may not be a player in free agency next summer after all. Plus I've written before that I think Mike James is giving the team just as much as Tony Delk did.

At the same time, I will always have fond memories of Antoine Walker's career with the Celtics. He really gave everything he had all the time, and his emotion (which Ainge contends was stifling the team) was an important catalyst to the team's success--see Game 4, 2002 Eastern Conference Finals for exhibit A. Yes, he could be childish at times, taunting opponents and making the refs hate him with his constant complaining, but at root the guy was passionate and desperately wanted to win. You don't see that in every NBA player. I was even a fan of the wiggle.

One of my favorite sports memories will remain a game I attended in spring 1999 against the Miami Heat. Walker hit an off-balance, running three-pointer at the buzzer (or with 0.2 seconds left, I think) to win the game. The Fleet Center went crazy, and Walker got up on a scorer's table and pumped his fist to the crowd. Where I was sitting there was pandemonium--I was slapping fives with people in my section who I didn't even know.

There were other big shots too, including a crazy banked three to beat the Lakers in LA and another triple to send a game in New York to OT, that stick out in my memory. These were baskets that were crucially important to the team's psyche because they helped the Celtics get over the hump and start believing again that they could be a winning franchise after a long playoff drought.

It's often the case that the guys who bring a franchise back to respectability don't get to be around when that franchise finally wins a championship. I think that's true in the Walker case, and if Boston manages to hoist banner 17 in the next few years, Antoine will have been a major part of it.

Big News Day, Ainge-O'Brien Rift?

2003-12-16T11:37:00.000-05:00

Too much stuff to cover, go read Bruce Allen on FSNE for everything. Celtics.com has video of the Maxwell ceremony from last night along with the news that Pierce won NBA player of the week last week. And no one really noticed that Raef LaFrentz had his season-ending surgery yesterday with so much else filling the news.

The important story is that Danny Ainge is continuing his wheeling and dealing and that Jim O'Brien doesn't seem happy. Michael Gee is pretty negative on the trade:

Previous "championship driven'' Celts management only succeeded in driving the team into ruin because they couldn't wait to blow it up and start over. Why has Ainge chosen to follow their example so quickly? When he became boss last May, weren't there speeches about patience, the long haul and a slow but steady process of improvement?

Look, if Ainge thinks the Celts must take quite a few steps back to go forward, it's his duty to act on that perception. But his first two big deals bear a real scent of desperate improvisation. OK, the Antoine trade didn't work! Move to Plan B, stat!

If the 2003-04 Celtics season is an ongoing lab experiment, it's OK by me. But I don't pay to watch Professor Ainge's thesis in action. Those who do may have a different opinion.

A ticket-holder who's told the Celts still need to step back may well say, "Fine, Danny. You just call me when you think they're ready to step forward. Until then, I'll spend this $75 a night on a more practical entertainment buy like Glenlivet.''

The people in Iraq need a government that can deliver them some peace and quiet for a change. So do the Celtics.

I don't think I would go quite that far in denouncing Ainge since Davis is undoubtedly a talent, but I agree he's seeming kinda hasty with the moves. There are now only four Celtics left over from the time Ainge took over as Director of Basketball Operations earlier this year (Pierce, Blount, McCarty, Baker).

Peter May also makes clear today that the coaching staff is upset (Jim O'Brien sounded non-plussed in the pregame press conference announcing the deal last night and then abruptly left hsi postgame remarks without taking questions). May:

The long-term view Ainge holds sees no Williams here next year anyway, because Williams was in the final year of his contract. But why automatically count Williams out? He has been one of O'Brien's favorites. Battie, like Williams, played hurt and was a big factor in turning the Celtics from laughingstock to playoff team. But Battie also has been on the block for a while.

O'Brien diplomatically deferred to Ainge--"he has the final authority"--but he sounded like a losing politician congratulating the winner on election night. O'Brien may have been torn about the Walker deal. There was no such feeling on this one. "We're losing three guys, two veterans in Eric Williams and Tony Battie, and it's very painful."

May notes that the Celtics, despite flaws, looked like they had a decent shot at winning the Atlantic Division before the trade. Ainge clearly doesn't care about what happens this season. He OKed the LaFrentz surgery too, against the wishes of the coaches who thought he could play limited minutes and help the C's win some games.

The potential rift between Ainge and O'Brien is definitely something to look for the rest of the year. Considering O'Brien took Boston to the playoffs the last two years and got the most out of those teams, I will be siding with the coach until further notice.

Blowout, Max and More Trade Talk

2003-12-16T01:48:00.000-05:00

No discussion of tonight's game, a 116-95 loss at home to Minnesota. The C's were shorthanded because of the trade and Pierce played with a bad left leg in a sleeve (he suffered a calf bruise Saturday in Cleveland and may not have played if the team had had a full complement of other guys). Still, Pierce nearly pulled off a triple-double (one board shy) despite a bad shooting night. The team was flat from the start. Congrats to rookie Kendrick Perkins on scoring his first 7 NBA points in garbage time.

The Cedric Maxwell number retirement ceremony was held at halftime. Max took a bit of ribbing from emcee Tom Heinsohn and Red Auerbach, who made a short speech on the occasion. Maxwell made sure everyone knew he felt he had waited an unjust amount of time before receiveing the honor from the franchise. Danny Ainge, when introduced as a member of the '84 championship team attending the ceremony, was booed by the Fleet fans, a sign of how unpopular his trades have been.

On the Davis front, Marc Stein offers up the "good for both sides" analysis of the deal. He says Pierce needs scoring help, and the other two Cavs were included as big man help now that LaFrentz is done for the year--a Boston demand that led Cleveland to extract Kedrick Brown instead of Walter McCarty. This strikes me as silly, considering we gave up Battie in the deal, who is a more proven big guy than Mihm and Stewart (who, I guess, has the nickname "Yogi" after all).

Stein believes Davis can handle being second fiddle to Pierce better than he handled that role with LeBron. I also learned during the game that Pierce and Davis have played together in an LA summer league and know each other pretty well, so I guess the front office determined the chemistry wasn't a concern.

I remain curious about Jiri Welsch and Mike James, one of whom will have to go to the bench now (Davis may come off the bench Wednesday as he gets acclimated?).

Doc Holliday of Obey the Truth is sad to see Kedrick leave town. Tim Kraus of End of the Bench thinks the Cavs gave Davis away. That may be the national perspective, though how would you like such a volatile, potentially cancerous guy coming to your team?

Other fun fact: on the night Maxwell's #31 goes to the rafters, the Celtics trade for Davis, who wears #31. He'll now have to change.

I remain a skeptic on the deal. The Antoine Circus comes to the Fleet Wednesday at 8, along with the new players from Cleveland, all on national TV--should be quite a show.

Ricky Davis!?!?

2003-12-15T17:06:00.000-05:00

ESPN reports the Celtics are dealing Eric Williams, Tony Battie and Kedrick Brown to Cleveland for Ricky Davis, Chris Mihm and Michael Stewart.

I don't like the deal because Davis is a bad apple who wasn't getting along with Paul Silas. He's a selfish player, as evidenced by his idiotic intentional miss on his own basket last year when he was close to getting a triple double.

Mihm has been hurt the last few years and has been coming on this season. I view him and Battie as relatively even, given their injury histories. Battie may be the better defender and Mihm the better scorer, though I'm not entirely sure.

I know nothing about Stewart.

Kedrick wasn't going to get a chance in Boston with Jiri Welsch having assumed the starting job and become the golden boy in Jim O'Brien's eyes--but what happens to Jiri now, with Pierce and Davis the presumptive starters at the 2 and 3? Does he get moved to the starting point guard slot?

Eric Williams has been having a very good year, but he's 31 and probably was in his final year as a Celtic anyway. His strong play so far this season may have increased his trade value enough so that he could bring in a Ricky Davis (Davis's acting up made it hard for the Cavs to get equal value too, I'm sure).

No word yet on who will be available for tonight's game, when the trade becomes official or gets announced, etc. This really just happened.

Boston.com calls Stewart "Yogi" right now. Oops.

What's up with always trading with the Cavs? Recall that the Jumaine Jones swap for Bruno Sundov and JR Bremer happened over the summer with Cleveland too.

On paper the players switching teams don't look all that different in talent level, with the exception that Davis is clearly the most talented. How he will mesh with Pierce is the obvious key to the whole thing.

Don't forget it's Cedric Maxwell night as the Celtics take on Minnesota at 7. Max's number gets retired in an extended 19-minute halftime ceremony and I'm sure the game broadcast will have much more on the trade. We're tied for first in the Atlantic Division now as we aim for a sixth win in a row, which also begs the question: why make another big move when everything seems to be coming together?

Not So Cavalier: A Serious Challenge from the Cavs

2003-12-14T01:30:00.000-05:00

The Celtics pulled out a 105-98 win in Cleveland tonight behind Paul Pierce's season-high 41 points. The Celtics captain added 9 boards, 6 assists and 4 steals in outdueling LeBron James, who led the Cavs with a career-high 37 (box score).

Cleveland dropped to an unimpressive 6-17 on the year, but I wouldn't be surprised to see them start winning a bit more. They certainly are good on the glass, as they outrebounded Boston 50-32 and they lead the league in team rebounding. If LeBron can consistently hit outside jumpers like he did tonight, the league had better watch out.

This is the Celtics fifth straight win and they kept rolling on offense, breaking the 100-point mark for a sixth straight game. Problem spots, though, besides rebounding, are that the offense slowed down in the second half a bit after the C's put up 59 in the opening two quarters, plus the scoring balance wasn't really there, with Pierce dominating. But hey, they won the back end of a back-to-back on the road, so the W is all that matters.

Kendrick Perkins, just activated now that LaFrentz is gone for the year, saw his first minute of NBA action at the end of the first half, tipping an offensive rebound that Vin Baker converted for a three-point play. Walter McCarty, who I thought might be the recipient of the LaFrentz minutes, had a DNP. Again Marcus Banks was limited, logging four minutes only because of Jiri Welsch's foul trouble. Jumaine Jones made a 6-minute cameo in the first half and didn't score.

Pierce and James were the story (Darius Miles and Carlos Boozer also were strong for the Cavs), as they dueled, trading baskets at one point in the late third quarter, during which both reached 30 points. Paul banged his leg on the floor diving for a loose ball with a few minutes to go and had to gut out the final few minutes. After a bogus call when Pierce was knocked over by Boozer within the final minute, giving the ball to the Cavs out of bounds, Pierce came back with a big steal on another late Cleveland possession, robbing James for a breakaway and converting a free throw to put the game out of reach.

Funny bit from the ESPN game summary about Cleveland:

Silas has banned rap music in the Cavs' locker room right before games. "I can't stand that stuff," Silas said. "Those guys need to concentrate on the game."

Way to connect with the kids, coach.

The Celtics have a big week coming up. Not only do they face major Western conference tests at home when they host Minnesota Monday night at 7 and Dallas Wednesday night at 8 (late start for ESPN national TV) but also the returns of former Celtics stars.

Monday night, the Celtics will retire #31 Cedric Maxwell's jersey in a halftime ceremony. Maxwell was the 1981 NBA Finals MVP and left Boston when I was still a toddler, so my only first-hand knowledge of Max comes from his time the last few seasons as an irreverent color commentator on the radio. I've seen the footage of Maxwell's Celtics days, though, and watched a bit on ESPN Classic, but that's not the same. Anyway, he seems like a good guy and what the team accomplished while he was a major cog speaks for itself.

One interesting parallel I see between Maxwell and Antoine Walker, who comes back to Boston for the national TV stage Wednesday, is that both left town under rather acrimonious circumstances. Here's a bit from Peter May's book "The Last Banner" on Max's departure:

"Max gave so much to the team," [M.L.] Carr said. "He was the MVP of the playoffs. He led us to the promised land in Game 7 of '84. To see him go out the way he did, it really wasn't that good. But I understand why. Max, to a certain degree, brought a lot of it on himself, because he would say nonchalantly, 'That's it, boys, let's close the books.' I think it got under Larry's skin that he wasn't serious. And Red felt he lay down on him. I just wish that all that could be forgiven and forgotten because there are two banners up there that he was a big part of. He took the best offensive player night in and night out. He was a pretty good 'other' player. I know Red isn't going to go back on that [not retiring Maxwell's number]. But in a real sense, I wish he would. Red has been bitter about a lot of situations a lot of the time. Even though Max did some things wrong at the end, you don't just say, 'He was a bad boy, a bad kid.' We should really respond to the fact that he is a big reason why two banners are up there."

Well, M.L. will get his wish Monday night. It should be interesting to see if Red Auerbach plays any role in the ceremony or if the circumstances of Maxwell leaving town even come up in what is said. I'm expecting plentiful Sunday paper coverage of this all in the morning.

Toronto, Tendinitis, 'Toine

2003-12-13T16:14:00.000-05:00

Wow, those Toronto Raptors sure can hit the three, huh? The Celtics won anyway, 114-111, despite another outside shooting display from the Canadians. International waters, indeed. (box score)

I did not see the game, so I'll be spare in my words. As expected it was an excellent contest between possibly the two hottest teams in the East, so far as I can tell (of all the games to have to miss...). Pierce's 33 bested Carter's 35 in what must have been a great duel. An encouraging sign is the Celtics' ability to hold off an opponent's late charge, something they have had trouble doing several times as recently as the Phoenix catastrophe last Friday night.

Boston now has a four-game winning streak going since that debacle, which may turn out to be the turning point in the season. They have scored 100+ points in five straight, amazing considering how they struggled to score in the early part of the year (only now the defense has deteriorated a bit too). The team is 11-12, a game behind division-leading Philly (12-11) and a half-game back of Jersey (11-11). The Celtics can get to .500 with a win in Cleveland tonight against LeBron and crew.

The bad news of the day is that Raef LaFrentz will have knee surgery Monday due to his persistent tendinitis and be lost for the year. This costs the team size and versatility on offense since the other big guys can't go outside as effectively for the pick-and-pop plays. It also opens the door for other people like Walter McCarty to get more playing time in the frontcourt. I don't think it hurts the Celtics that much now, especially since this winning streak has come with LaFrentz only playing very limited minutes anyway. It could hurt at points during the season, however, if the C's lose another big guy for a few games (say, if Battie's knee acts up again). There also are likely to be a few games where LaFrentz could be a good option to kickstart the offense once the scoring comes back down to earth from this streak.

I noted last week that criticism of the Antoine trade could reach a crescendo if Raef is lost for the year, and now that's come to pass. (Here's the full Walker-Ainge story from Friday, part of which I posted from an ESPN excerpt late Thursday night.) Obviously the Celtics did not get equal value in the trade for this season, but there was an understanding of the LaFrentz knee situation before the deal was completed too.

And to restate this again, Antoine was not going to sign an extension with the Celtics after the season, so the team decided to get something for him while they could, rather than just let him leave. Welsch looks like he could be a good player, and LaFrentz will be serviceable too for the next several years he's under contract. The late first-round pick will not be much, though the team also assures us there will be a free-agent signing in the offseason too made possible by the Walker deal. Mike James looks like he's just as good as Delk was, and he makes less money. In short, it will take a while to evaluate the full impact this trade makes on the Celtics, who weren't going anywhere this season with Walker anyway.

The criticism being made of Ainge beyond the wisdom of the deal itself was that he made inappropriate comments about not liking aspects of Walker's game and character. This is the Ainge criticism I agree with. It doesn't excuse Antoine's childish response either, but a GM shouldn't be slamming his players on their way out the door. The fact that Ainge said some critical things about Walker as a TV analyst doesn't excuse him making similar criticisms from his post as Celtics personnel man a year or two later. It was unprofessional of Danny to say Walker's vocal style was stifling the team and to rip on the way he played.

Meanwhile, the rest of the league definitely sees Walker as a boon to Dallas, if last night's Mavs-Lakers game is any indication (I saw the second half). Don Nelson had some taped remarks saying Walker has been the best player Dallas has had all season, and the announcers went on and on about Antoine's versatility and passing skill. Jim Gray's postgame interview with Walker surprisingly didn't broach the topic of Ainge at all. Knowing Jim Gray's affinity for controversy, I was shocked he didn't bring it up--maybe ESPN covered the story earlier on. I know it's tough to watch 'Toine go for a 27-10-7 in LA on national TV, but we need to keep proper perspective too on the overall rationale for the deal.

Antoine on Ainge

2003-12-12T00:53:00.000-05:00

Tell us how you really feel, Antoine:

"Danny wanted to get rid of me," Walker told The Globe. "If you look at the trade, I think he really felt like I wouldn't mesh with these guys in Dallas. Me, personally, I think he was really trying to set my career back a little bit. If you really look at what I got traded for, it's got to be the biggest difference [in talent] in history. Usually, an All-Star gets traded for an All-Star. And you gave away Tony Delk, a proven scorer in this league...

"I can't understand it, unless he was trying to put me in a situation where he didn't want me to succeed," Walker told the paper. "Obviously, he's going to ship me West. That's obvious. He didn't think individually I'd shine in Dallas, maybe team-wise. But if I'm putting up minimum numbers and I'm just an average player with this team, he can live with that because he knows that's what he's going to get in return anyways, with Raef [LaFrentz]."

The timing is interesting, given how Antoine has been putting up good numbers for the Mavs and LaFrentz isn't producing much as he struggles with a knee injury. Seems like an opportune moment to kick Ainge while he's down, and when the Globe gave 'Toine the opportunity, he didn't hesitate. We'll see the full context of the remarks in tomorrow's Globe I guess.

Due to family obligations I'll be missing the Raptors-Celtics showdown tomorrow night unfortunately. It should be a good one considering both teams are on rolls, so go tune in those of you lucky enough to be able to do so.

All-Star Voting

2003-12-11T20:12:00.000-05:00

NBA.com says Vince Carter, Ben Wallace and Kobe Bryant lead the pack so far.

Phoenix Redo

2003-12-11T01:04:00.000-05:00

The Seattle game Wednesday was eerily similar to the Phoenix game from Friday night, only this time there was a happy ending. The Celtics had a blowout going, leading by as many as 33 during the middle of the third period, but Seattle roared back to cut the lead to 10 points with 6 minutes remaining. Fortunately, the C's righted the ship and were able to win with reasonable comfort in the final minutes. Still, the press Seattle went to confused the hell out of the Celtics just as the Suns used a press successfully Friday. We'll be in trouble if we face a team that goes to a press before falling behind by thirty points in one of these games (hint to opposition).

Paul Pierce was a monster with 36 points, 14 rebounds and 4 blocks. He started slow and then hit eight consecutive shots in the second quarter. Mike James had a career-high 24, and Jiri Welsch added 17 before spraining his ankle in the third quarter. Welsch is really coming on, having apparently supplanted Marcus Banks in the backup point guard role as well as starting at the 3 (Banks only got in 4 minutes in a blowout--he's definitely been dropped down in the rotation). Indications after the game were that the injury to Welsch wasn't serious, fortunately. Baker played though he was slowed by continuing effects of flu and LaFrentz (9 minutes) got some rest for his painful knee in the blowout. Tony Battie picked up the slack with 13.

The stat of the game has to be the Celtics shooting 57.7% (box score).

Since the game was so crazy with the ebb and flow, I can't really judge Seattle. They really lack any sort of interior presence on either end, with no center to speak of and Radmanovic and Lewis jacking up lots of threes. The Celtics could take the ball right to the hoop without much trouble and the missed jumpers by Seattle set up good fast break opportunities. Maybe getting back Ray Allen (projected for around New Year's) will stabilize the team.

The next game will come Friday night at home against the hot Toronto Raptors who are riding a five-game win streak. With the Celtics now on a three-game uptick of their own, the game should be a good one.

Seattle and Baker

2003-12-10T15:53:00.000-05:00

Mark Murphy shares Nate McMillan's recollections of not being able to get through to Vin Baker back when Baker was a Sonic. Some guys just need a change of scenery, he claims, adding he never realized Vin's troubles were from drinking.

Last year when Seattle visited Boston, Baker missed the game with a mysterious illness--fainting spells and dizziness were cited officially. Can we now retroactively go back and declare that Baker missed the game due to drunkenness? I mean, the teammates and coaching staff that saw him follow that downward spiral were coming to town, he felt humiliated, and so he hit the bottle--certainly sounds plausible, right? I'm happy Vin has been able to get his life back together and return to playing well, and so far he's been vaery frank about acknowledging his problems. So why not come clean on this specific incident?

Peter May writes that the Celtics say Baker will definitely play tonight, despite missing time recently with the flu. And it was "heart palpitations" cited last season, my bad.

Anyway, other than the Baker storyline, I'll be watching tonight to see what's up with this Ronald Murray guy everyone has been talking about and to see if the Celtics can crack 100 points for a fourth straight game. The long wait for a first 100+ outing seems distant these days.

Sports Filter Two-Fer

2003-12-10T00:39:00.000-05:00

This post not only has a good Kirilenko hairdo picture in comments but also links to Karl Malone Is a Menace, a web site with added relevance after last week's Malone elbow to Steve Nash's face.

Raef LaFrentz may be sidelined for season

2003-12-09T21:04:00.000-05:00

The worries are coming closer to reality on this front.

Another follow up is that I was in the doctor's waiting room this afternoon reading Sports Illustrated and I saw an article on none other than the Utah Jazz. I learned that Andrei Kirilenko has a Russian pop diva wife and that he dances ridiculously in the background of her music video. The "AK-47" nickname is campy fun too. Kirilenko reminds me of the time I was watching the three-point contest in 2000 at a college common room and the people there were making fun of Dirk Nowitzki's appearance because no one knew who the hell he was back then. Andrei will have to become one of my new favorite players.

Sweet Music

2003-12-09T14:07:00.000-05:00

Against the Jazz, that is, a 102-80 blowout win last night. (box score) The Celtics built a big lead and for once held on to it in coasting to a victory. It's nice to finally win both ends of a back-to-back, after winning the first and dropping the second three times before last night. It's also nice to have the defense looking sturdy after giving up 100+ points in four of five previous games.

The Jazz looked pretty bad, which makes me wonder how they managed to win 10 of 11 home games prior to last night. To be fair, they had played the previous night in LA, but so had the C's in Denver. In any case, count me as a skeptic on Utah who says they will miss the playoffs.

Mike James had 18 points and 9 assists while Eric Williams had another strong night with 19 off the bench. Pierce only had 14 points and got some rest late, playing only 30 minutes total. It's good to rest him when there's a chance to do so.

The change in the tone of newspaper coverage is remarkable from just a few days ago. Shira Springer's notebook, for example, notes that the Celtics now have five guys averaging double figures and that Jim O'Brien seems to be settling on his rotation.

It's interesting that Marcus Banks got a DNP-CD last night as Jiri Welsch ran the point when Mike James was out of the lineup. I would've thought Banks would have at least played in garbage time. Banks didn't play during the second half in Denver either after getting schooled by Earl Boykins in the first. Ainge apparently wants Banks to be the PG of the future and it'll be interesting to see if tension between Ainge and O'Brien develops over this. There have already been some signs of tension in the relationship during the losing (such as Ainge's Baker remarks).

Ainge made the trip last night, by the way, probably to hang out with his Mormon pals. Vin Baker missed the game with the flu and Raef LaFrentz started for him, playing 18 minutes due to his continuing knee pain (he played just 13 in Denver). He was wincing as he ran and jumped last night--something to keep your eye on.

Congratulations to the Orlando Magic on avoiding the disgrace of losing 20 games in a row. They are only 9 games out in the Atlantic (the Celtics are 2).

Next game is Wednesday night at home against Seattle before Friday night's home date with Toronto and a game at Cleveland Saturday.

Kirilenko

2003-12-09T12:05:00.000-05:00

Not enough time to write a good post on the Utah game now. I did find Andrei Kirilenko's web site, however, while searching for a good photo of his crazy hairdo. On the site's bulletin board I saw an insightful comment with the subject line "Boston Celtics" and thought I would share:

Bezvolie i nasmeshka nad bolelchikom v matche s Boston Celtics! A mezdu prochim stavka na vashy professionalism i samootdachu dlya nekotorikh lyudei byla, k sozaleniyu, otchen visoka. Vas by ponialy, esli by daze pri porazenii byl obnaruzen khotya by namyok na staranie ily sportivnuyu zlost'. No ne bylo i etogo... Bud' proklyaty i Vy i Vasha kOMANDA!

Zivyte, urodi.

Ah, that crazy global NBA! David Stern just loves it. I actually would be interested to know what Russian fans thought of the game, etc. Can anyone translate?

Denver/Utah

2003-12-08T17:29:00.000-05:00

Exciting 116-111 win last night in Denver thanks to all the offense. The Celtics built a 16-point lead in the second quarter and, of course, blew the lead when Denver tied the game in the fourth quarter. But after Carmelo Anthony tied it a second time at 96, the C's ran off nine points in a row. The best thing they did all night was respond strong when they were pushed in the final period.

Lots of good scoring numbers for individuals, of course, since the team got 116. (box score) Pierce had 33 with 10 assists, Eric Williams 21 and Jiri Welsch a high with the Celtics of 19 points. Baker left the game at halftime because he was getting sick with flu. Walter McCarty got the extra minutes in the second half and responded pretty well.

This all came after a bit of a travel ordeal getting to Denver because of the snow. The team originally planned to go on Saturday but couldn't leave until yesterday, arriving a few hours before the tip.

This also came on the heels of a rather sobering Sunday Globe section in which Danny Ainge preached patience with this team and Red Auerbach took a few moments away from playing canasta (as Bill Simmons would say) to demonstrate that even senile people can see the Celtics have been having big problems.

Today we learn that LaFrentz is going to keep trying to play despite the knee pain. If he ends up missing time, expect the growing criticism of the Walker deal to reach a crescendo.

We visit the Jazz tonight for another 9:00 tip. Utah is somehow 10-1 at home despite losing Malone and Stockton. Hopefully they'll be tired too since they played at the Lakers last night.

Celts #23 on ESPN

2003-12-08T16:16:00.000-05:00

Marc Stein drops the Celtics to 23rd in teh latest ESPN.com power rankings, right behind the Bulls and Clippers. They deserve to drop after the Phoenix loss, though last night's Denver win was big.

Good God, What a Horror Show

2003-12-06T15:55:00.000-05:00

Boston 62, Phoenix 36 -- Halftime.
Phoenix 110, Boston 106 -- Final.

The Celtics blew out the Phoenix Suns last night, and then they went on to lose the game anyway, putting an exclamation point on their tendency to lose second-half leads. Boston has dropped a few games in which they played very strong first halves and built advantages, particularly the two Knicks games, but this is a whole different level.

Phoenix went to a press in the second half that totally threw off the Celtics game. The Suns outscored Boston 74-44 in the second half, more than doubling their offensive output from the first two quarters. They did it all without Amare Stoudemire, who sprained his ankle in the second quarter. Ironically, Stoudemire hurt himself landing on Paul Pierce's foot, which is funny since Stoudemire knocked Pierce out of the game when the teams met in Boston last year (this was maybe the first intelligent thing I've heard Willie Maye say from the sidelines all year). Yes, all Paul Pierce wanted for Christmas 2002 was his two front teeth, remember?

Anyway, the stud for the Suns was Stephon Marbury, who exploded for 27 points in the second half, including back-to-back cold-blooded threes late in the fourth quarter that put the Suns ahead for good. At least that helped my fantasy team.

The bottom line is that this is just a devastating loss for the Celtics. Shira Springer's game summary notes that Paul Pierce left quickly before reporters could ask him questions last night, perhaps because he was concerned about making harsh criticisms of teammates while he was upset. Peter May, meanwhile, offers up a "this could get ugly" column in which he calls on Jim O'Brien to inspire his players before this becomes an unredeemable losing campaign.

As if that weren't enough, both papers serve up side stories about how Joe Johnson has become a pretty good NBA player and the Celtics may have made a mistake trading him away. Here's the Herald version in the interest of balancing my citations of the two papers.

As I search for a silver lining here, this is all I can come up with: no Celtic player was seriously injured last night. That's about the best I can do.

The team supposedly changed up the travel plan to leave for Denver this morning in advance of the real heavy snow Boston is getting as I type this. They should be OK getting there for tomorrow night's contest with the Nuggets. That game now becomes especially important because we'll learn a lot about how resilient this team is from how they come out in that game. Will they be sulking and demoralized? Or will they have more determination than before?

The character test comes at 9pm Eastern time tomorrow.

Phoenix Preview

2003-12-05T16:57:00.000-05:00

A few quick notes on the Suns. They seem to be in just as much disarray as the Celtics, with rumors circulating that coach Frank Johnson may be the next guy to get fired. The Suns have disappointed so far this year with a 7-10 mark putting them at the bottom of the Pacific Division. Stephon Marbury hasn't been the problem at least--he's doing very nicely for my fantasy team.

After the Phoenix game, the Celts hit the road for a quick Western trip to visit a pair of overachieving clubs, Denver (Sunday, 9pm) and Utah (Monday, 9pm). Shira Springer writes in the Globe today that the schedule is about to get much harder, which is very bad news, considering how we've struggled versus some subpar teams.

I also blipped over Jim O'Brien's statement the other day that Battie and LaFrentz, both of whom I noted are battling knee problems, won't be able to practice all season--they'll just play in games he says. This is really bad news for a team trying to get comfortable playing together in a new system.

Finally, the Suns' visit reminds me of last year when Phoenix came to the Fleet and Amare Stoudemire made a hard foul on Pierce, causing Paul to chip his teeth falling to the floor. A similar dental problem came about last night when Karl "Elbows" Malone threw one into the face of Steve Nash, who was playing tight defense after Malone had grabbed a defensive board. Nash, who had been single-handedly preventing a Lakers' blowout for the depleted Nowitzki-less Mavs, suffered a cut lip and loosened tooth as he hit the deck.

Malone got a technical but wasn't thrown out of the game, which was ridiculous. He's done this multiple times before too, including one time I recall that he broke the nose of a guy defending him in the post. The fact is that Karl Malone is a cheap-shot artist that I don't respect (John Stockton, despite the short-shorts and choir-boy appearance, was a dirty player too). That's why I hope he never gets his championship or the all-time scoring title. (Mark Cuban says Malone should be suspended.)

Ironically, the Suns come to town just as the Boston area is about to be buried by a big snow storm. It may be a challenge for the team to get to Denver by Sunday night.

Lots of threes add up to 7-11

2003-12-04T00:47:00.000-05:00

The Celtics played reasonably well Wednesday night in Toronto. Unfortunately, the Raptors shot 17-24 on threes, which basically makes it impossible to beat them or any team.

On the positive end, though, the loss puts the Celtics record at 7-11, which reminds me of my favorite convenience store. Seriously though, the C's outrebounded Toronto and shot over 50 percent. You can't ask for much more than that. (box score)

This was a Raptors team that was last in the league in scoring before the trade that brought them Jalen Rose, Donyell Marshall and Lonny Baxter in exchange for Antonio Davis and Chris Jeffries. Now they score 95 and 105 in back-to-back wins against Philly and Boston--Raptor fans must be rather pumped. They are tough to defend with a lot of guys who can score the ball in their starting lineup. Their only weakness is going to be how thin they are along the front line with Marshall and Chris Bosh playing the 4 and 5 slots. Bosh was impressive with 16 and 8, especially considering he is a stick figure physically. Once he fills out, he should be awesome.

A Celtics sidelight to the game was Paul Pierce narrowly missing a triple-double, finishing with 23, 9 and 9. He could have gotten there had he not been pulled for the last few minutes of garbage time. Tony Battie did not make the trip due to the flu.

Lest you despair, we are only 1.5 games out in the pathetic Atlantic Division (the Sixers lead at 9-10). New Jersey matched Boston by losing at home to Memphis tonight, dropping the Nets to an identical 7-11 mark.

ADDENDUM: I forgot to write that the Raptors sent Jerome Williams to the Bulls too. You knew that anyway, as did I.

As the Shamrock Turns

2003-12-03T13:39:00.000-05:00

First Pierce speaks out, now Danny Ainge is leveling some criticism at the team:

"I feel Vin Baker is being neglected in our offense, and right now we're also getting nothing out of the small forward position," Ainge said yesterday, after learning the captain of his team spoke out for the second time in a week.

"All of these small forwards we have are capable of producing something, and they haven't. There's a lot more to be heard of from them than what we're getting, and it's a matter of the whole team stepping up. But we should be getting the ball more to Vin."

I was listening to WEEI for a bit this morning and this topic came up. Dale and Neumy pointed out that this is really the first criticism of Jim O'Brien anyone has made, unnamed as the coach may have been in Ainge's comments.

I don't like the way things are headed with the team. Of course they're losing games, but also I don't like the atmosphere that is growing, with everyone criticizing everyone else in the press so much. It's no secret things aren't going well, guys, I just don't feel airing dirty laundry in public is such a great idea all the time. It all becomes a soap opera.

Meanwhile, Ainge's remarks on Baker not being used enough come at the same time that we get reports that Baker is battling a sore knee, which might be another explanation for Vin's lessened production these last few games. Shira Springer also notes that Battie (bad knee and flu) and LaFrentz (knee) did not practice yesterday and Raef will be a game-time decision in Toronto tonight, so we may be thin in the post. The good news is that Toronto may be tired from playing in Philly last night.

A Blazers Rite of Passage

2003-12-02T15:35:00.000-05:00

Zach Randolph was arrested for DUI early Tuesday.

Pierce Calls Out Teammates--Again

2003-12-02T13:19:00.000-05:00

Another bad Monday night loss at home (96-89 to Memphis), another Paul Pierce tongue-lashing:

"Too many times we get stagnant on offense," he said. "A lot of times guys depend on me to make a play. They shouldn't depend on me so much. I know I carry a heavy load, but there's more they can do.

"A lot of stuff has to come from each individual. Everyone knows what has to be done--rebounding, hustle plays--and we're not doing it. It's not that we're not playing hard. Everyone has to play tough mentally. We're too inconsistent right now."

I understand Pierce being upset but I also wonder how helpful this is. He made his comments about the team being soft just a week ago, and the Celtics went on to win two straight games after that, though they have now dropped another two. I don't know if another kick in the butt is going to do anything to improve play in the short term. Everyone is frustrated, and I fear that Pierce may upset some of his teammates by repeatedly taking them to task with his comments in the media.

It's important to remember that Pierce in the past has been criticized for being tough on teammates who weren't playing as well as he'd like. He has a reputation for getting on the role players, and such divisiveness probably could do more damage to the club's cohesion right now.

If Pierce keeps throwing down the gauntlet every week, he risks not just alienating others in the locker room but also being ignored. It's the kind of thing that should be done only occasionally, not on a weekly basis.

I find it rather ironic that Gus Martins opens his Herald article today, "Careful that his salvos might become redundant, Celtics captain Paul Pierce last night said he planned to limit the severity with which he confronts his teammates." If he's so concerned about redundancy, he should refrain from making such remarks as frequently as he has thus far.

Then there's the fact that Pierce fouled out with 3:58 remaining and didn't record an assist all night. Pierce deserves some of the blame too, even though he did score 26. The game was decided by a Memphis run in the fourth quarter, helped along by a six-minute field-goal drought for the Celtics.

Kedrick Brown and Juamine Jones got DNP-CDs again, and Walter McCarty had a 10-minute cameo. Jiri Welsh logged 31 minutes and is pretty clearly the small forward Jim O'Brien has decided to go with now. This raises questions about exactly why the Celtics picked up Brown's contract for next year during training camp and made a point of trading for Jones (supposedly he was coveted by Ainge) in the offseason. We knew coming into the year that there would be a logjam at small forward, it just wasn't expected that Welsch would emerge so soon as a starter.

Toronto is the next stop for the Celtics express, so go check out Raptor Blog for insight on the upcoming foes. The Raptors completed a trade for Jalen Rose over the weekend, and there is analysis here and from the other end on Bulls Blog.

I also want to put in a plug for RickBrunson.com, a satirical fan site devoted to Raptors bench warmer Rick Brunson. It's very well done--almost too well done, one might say.

Celtics Beat

2003-12-01T22:45:00.000-05:00

Celtics.com sent me an email today introducing the new team newsletter, Celtics Beat. You can sign up for it at the web site by submitting your email address in the form on the left side of the page.

The first edition included a "weekly preview" including a scouting report on the Grizzlies, a "weekly rewind" covering stats and roster news from recent games and links to buy tickets to upcoming home games and to vote for the Celtics on the All-Star ballot. The content is solid and the graphics are pretty good. As a marketing tool, Celtics Beat makes sense--they sent one to me because I have bought tickets online in the past, after all, and their hope is that I'll keep coming to games.

We're #22

2003-12-01T16:32:00.000-05:00

Both SI and ESPN rank the Celtics the 22nd best team in the NBA in their latest power rankings. I can't really argue with the teams listed ahead of us, especially since New York has beaten the Celtics the last two weeks. Still, we're one game out of first in the Atlantic behind 9-9 Philadelphia and tied at 7-9 with the Nets.

Tonight we face a 7-8 Memphis team that the Celtics beat on a late Mike James basket Halloween night. The Grizz are coming off a 2OT win at Cleveland Saturday night, which featured a 37-point effort from Pau Gasol. That same evening the C's dropped the back end of a home-and-home with Milwaukee, 100-94, the first time Boston has given up 100 points in a game this year (and Jiri Welsch committed a pointless foul with a few seconds left to give the Bucks two more free throws and kill the streak--why, Jiri?).

I wasn't too upset with the Bucks loss, perhaps because both Milwaukee games were so much more entertaining than the Celtics games that came before them. In the fourth quarter Milwaukee was really rotating the ball perfectly, which makes me wonder whether their familiarity with the Celtics from seven quarters of playing them gave the Bucks an edge in being able to figure out how the Celtics would be rotating on defense. That said, the Bucks still had to knock down shots, which they did. The Celtics shot well too for the second straight night, they just couldn't get enough stops.

I found a few interesting NBA nuggets in the New York Times Sunday sports section, of all places. The first is that only four Eastern Conference coaches remain that were with their teams last year--Jim O'Brien, Byron Scott, Don Chaney and Terry Stotts (who was Atlanta's interim for only part of last season, after all). That means 11 teams have now changed their head coach during the offseason or early this season. Randy Ayers, Eddie Jordan, Stan Van Gundy, Johnny Davis, Rick Carlisle, Larry Brown, Tim Floyd, Kevin O'Neill, Terry Porter, Scott Skiles and Paul Silas are all new to their positions. Skiles makes his debut on the Bulls bench tonight, and O'Brien and Scott are the longest-tenured guys in the conference, both now in their fourth seasons.

Another thing that jumped out at me in the Times is how American rookies are outperforming the foreigners this year. Nine of the top ten rookies in points, rebounding and assists are from the US, and perhaps the best foreign rook, Zarko Cabarkapa of Phoenix, is now out 6-8 weeks with a broken wrist sustained from a hard foul last week by Danny Fortson.

Finally, a glaring trend many people have noticed is that there are three East teams above .500 and three Western teams below .500. At this pace, the eigth slot in the East will sport a 38-44 record, and the eight-hole out West will have to get to 46-36 (the print edition I read said 47-35 and 35-47--strange). Anyway here's the link.

The West's dominance continued last night with the Lakers pounding the Pacers and the Kings handling the Nets.

After Memphis tonight, the C's go to Toronto Wednesday night for a 7:00 contest, followed by a return home to face Phoenix Friday at 7:30. Then we have an abbreviated trip west to Denver and Utah next Sunday and Monday nights.

The Bucks Stop Here

2003-11-29T09:53:00.000-05:00

What an original title for a post regarding a game with the Milwaukee Bucks!

Anyway, the Celtics broke the 100-point barrier for the first time last night in a 106-96 home win against Milwaukee. (box score) I've been watching the FSNE postgame this season and after every game they read the same old copy about how one of the sponsors makes a donation to charity every time the Celtics score 100 points. Until last night, the sponsor hadn't had to make a single charity contribution all year, which was getting rather pathetic.

Fortunately, the team hasn't given up 100 points yet this season either--the Celtics hadn't gone this long without scoring 100 or yielding 100 since the 1950s. The ESPN game recap reports the following: "Boston's point total ended the longest season-opening streak of a team not being involved in a 100-point game in NBA history at 14. The longest overall streak is 18 by the Miami Heat during the 1988-89 season." I really hope we get to see offense like last night for the rest of the season because it was far more enjoyable to watch.

The other big statistical story is that Paul Pierce recorded his third career triple double with 26, 10 and 10. He picked up where he left off Wednesday night in Orlando, despite suffering a stinger early in the game and missing a few minutes of action. Pierce is definitely looking more comfortable on the floor ever since he went off on the team for being soft Monday night following the New York loss.

The C's shooting was a tremendous 52.6 percent compared to the Bucks 41.5 percent. Boston also outrebounded Milwaukee 48-40. Turnovers were high at 22, but Milwaukee couldn't take advantage, turning them into only 15 points; the Celtics got 18 points off Milwaukee's 16 turnovers.

Raef LaFrentz returned and gave the Celtics a lift with 14 points off the bench in spite of being a little out of game shape from missing a few weeks. The others in double figures, Marcus Banks (11, outplayed TJ Ford in the rookie point matchup) and Eric Williams (13) also came off the bench. O'Brien went with Williams and Jiri Welsch almost exclusively as his small forwards, handing Kedrick Brown and Jumaine Jones DNP-CDs as he may be setting the rotation. I would expect them to play tonight, though, on the second leg of a back-to-back. Vin Baker had a quiet 8 points and 3 rebounds last night.

Overall the game was very positive as the Celtics may be finding their bearings on offense finally. Tonight we get to play a game against an exciting opponent the... Milwaukee Bucks. Why is the schedule like this again? (Memphis follows Monday night at home) In any case, let's make this 100-point thing a habit, not a rare occurrence. After all, it's for charity, right?

Spurs-Lakers

2003-11-29T09:28:00.000-05:00

Matt correctly points out in comments that the Spurs-Lakers game last night wasn't their first of the year. I actually watched their first meeting in San Antonio that went to OT even though Duncan and Parker were out, and somehow I forgot that game, which is probably the best of the season so far. Call it a turkey brain cramp.

Then last night in LA, now that the Spurs actually had Duncan and Parker available, San Antonio gets blown out by the Lakers. The game was pretty dull, with Shaq doing very little in his return and Karl Malone putting up a Pierce-like triple-double. I noticed that Kobe Bryant has also been attending the Jason Kidd school of public relations, with his wife and toddler courtside to greet daddy as he goes in for halftime. Soon Vanessa Bryant will have a job with Extra!

Chinese Basketball

2003-11-28T10:21:00.000-05:00

I read Peter Hessler's article about Yao Ming (not online) in the New Yorker and came across this lovely passage about basketball fans in Chongqing, an interior province:

If a player shoots an air ball, the fans shout "yangwei"; in the Sichuan dialect, it means "impotent." To encourage the home team, they chant "xiongqi" ("erection").

Let's Be Thankful for Orlando

2003-11-28T10:13:00.000-05:00

Nothing helps a team break a losing streak like playing a team on an even worse losing streak. The Orlando win was still far from perfect, and it did take Paul Pierce getting hot late and McGrady fouling out with three minutes left for the Celtics to win by just two points, but we'll take it. Here's Orlando Magic Fan on the game.

As I mentioned earlier in the week, the home-and-home with the Milwaukee Bucks these next two nights could be more difficult than anticipated. The Bucks are playing pretty well at 7-7, 6-2 against East teams. With the Big Three all gone, experts expected a losing year for Milwaukee, but rookie TJ Ford has been pretty good at the point and the young lineup seems to be holding its own under new coach Terry Porter.

Raef LaFrentz should make his return tonight from his knee tendinitis. NBA fans will also want to tune to ESPN at 10:30 for the Lakers-Spurs game, their first meeting since the playoffs last year.

I hope everyone had an enjoyable Thanksgiving.

Softies

2003-11-26T01:39:00.000-05:00

The big news of the off day was that Paul Pierce called the Celtics "one of the more soft teams in the league" following the Knicks loss on Monday night. The frustration over the inability to maintain leads is coming out in player comments, and Jim O'Brien said at practice Tuesday he wasn't bothered by any of the harsh things Pierce had to say.

Thankfully (get it!), the Celtics have a chance to get back on track Wednesday night against a 1-13 Orlando team that hasn't won since opening night. McGrady missed Monday's Magic loss with the flu. He'll probably play Wednesday in O-Town, though he may not be 100%. The Celtics really need a win.

A back-to-back home-and-home with Milwaukee follows on Friday and Saturday nights. The Bucks are somehow 6-2 against the East following their home win over Philly Tuesday night.

The New Yorker has a long article on Yao Ming in this week's issue. The web site only has this interview with the author, but check out the article itself if you can get your hands on an issue. I may post a bit of it if I find time and energy.

Ick

2003-11-25T00:46:00.000-05:00

I fell asleep on the couch tonight during halftime, with the Celtics up 51-41, and I woke up late in the third quarter. What did I miss? The Celtics were outscored 34-12 in the third, turning a 10-point lead into a 12-point deficit while Paul Pierce sat on the bench with foul trouble. (New York won, 94-88)

This game was just sickening, so I'm not analyzing it. Bob Lobel's sports report did not show any video of the game, he just played an audio clip of "I've fallen and I can't get up." The FSNE postgame featured Greg Dickerson and Mike Gorman agreeing that their mothers told them not to say anything when they don't have anything nice to say--and that from the reliably over-optimistic local TV outlet.

Here's the box score if you insist on inspecting this disaster more closely. Did I mention both Allan Houston and Keith Van Horn were out for the Knicks? Oh, but I forgot, New York still had the immortal Shandon Anderson available to score his 28 points.

Did I mention that this is the second consecutive Monday night on which the Celtics have blown a double-digit halftime lead against the lowly Knicks? Or that this is Boston's fourth loss in a row? Or that we still haven't seen the Celtics or their opponent score 100 points in a game this season (please!)?

New York still didn't have Antonio McDyess, despite newspaper reports last week that he might be active by tonight. No matter, the ossifying Dikembe Mutombo came up with 13 and 12, including a dunk in the final minute to fend off the C's comeback attempt.

I never posted after the Philly loss from Friday night. That game was far better than this because the C's at least battled down the stretch and were an open McCarty three from winning. Pierce was hot, hitting a few ridiculous threes late, and the fourth quarter execution, while still lacking, was better. Tonight erased that progress, unfortunately. The only guy who really played well was Vin Baker (16 points, 12 boards, 5 blocks), though he struggled at the line (6-12).

In other random notes, Jiri Welsch got the start at small forward as O'Brien continues to pull lineups out of a hat. Red Sox GM Theo Epstein was also spotted courtside with potential free-agent acqusition Keith Foulke, the Oakland A's relief pitcher. On a night like this, I almost wished it were baseball season again (almost--and I'm willing to bet the papers harp on the Epstein-Foulke presence in their game summaries tomorrow).

Mourning, Cartwright Depart

2003-11-24T13:06:00.000-05:00

ESPN is reporting both that Alonzo Mourning is retiring because he needs a kidney transplant and that Bill Cartwright has been fired by the Chicago Bulls.

The Mourning story is unfortunate for him but also no surprise given his history of medical problems. The Nets seemed too optimistic when they signed him to a 4-year, $20-million deal in the offseason, and the critics on that count have now been proven correct. With a retirement, the team should get some financial relief from the league, but this was still a highly questionable move. Losing Mourning doesn't hurt the Nets too much on the floor since Alonzo wasn't playing many minutes (he average 8 points and 2 rebounds for them off the bench). New Jersey has Jason Collins and Aaron Williams, so they should be fine at center. This development also makes Kenyon Martin look extra classy with his comments at Nets practice last week about Mourning's kidney problems, which provoked an angry response from 'Zo, who had to be restrained by teammates (story).

The Cartwright firing isn't a shock either, given how much the media have been discussing the possibility he would get axed. The Bulls were talked about as a playoff contender in preseason but they're 4-10 thus far. They have had lots of injuries, certainly, while also having some turmoil and some observers questioning the team's effort. The last straw came on the current Chicago trip out west, which has included a loss Friday night at the Lakers when LA came back in the fourth quarter after losing Shaq to injury. The Bulls were blown out in Sacramento last night. Cartwright joins Doc Rivers as the second Eastern Conference coach within a week to lose his job while his team is losing games on a western swing--do the front offices expect these teams to actually win on these trips to save the coach's job?

Joe Nets Fan and Bulls Blog are likely to have more on these stories once the respective authors can get to their keyboards.

In Case You Haven't Seen It Yet

2003-11-21T16:24:00.000-05:00

Bill Simmons describes his NBA fantasy draft.

Philly Preview

2003-11-21T12:35:00.000-05:00

The Sixers, tonight's opponent in a 7:00 start, are leading the weak Atlantic Division right now with a 6-6 record. Todd Zolecki of the Philly Inquirer runs down the injuries, which seems to be the big theme with the team right now:

The Sixers, who somehow hold a half-game lead over Boston, New Jersey and Washington in the Atlantic Division despite a 6-6 record, certainly have been shorthanded lately. It looks as if they will be again tonight against the Boston Celtics at the Wachovia Center. Iverson (bruised right knee) and Coleman (bruised left knee) did not practice yesterday. Dalembert had an MRI on his strained left hamstring, which he injured Wednesday in a victory over Toronto. The test revealed no damage and Dalembert caught the end of practice. Greg Buckner, who is on the injured list, practiced with his strained left hamstring. Robinson practiced with his sprained left ankle, but he did not sound too optimistic about playing tonight.

How did the Sixers win in Toronto the other night, giving the Raptors their first home loss? Marc Jackson had 23 points, Aaron McKie 21, Eric Snow 18 to go with 8 assists and Kenny Thomas chipped in 12 points and 13 boards.

I remember going to watch warmups before a Celtics-Sixers first-round playoff game in April '02 and thinking, hey, that guy running drills with Raja Bell is the guy who used to coach at Ohio State. So that's what happened to him. Now, with the offseason departure of Larry Brown, the unassuming Randy Ayers is the head man in Philly. We'll see if he learned anything from Brown these past few seasons on how to win games even while the locker room resembles a MASH unit.

I saw part of their game a week ago when they beat San Antonio at home despite being undermanned. I don't think they can pull such wins off forever, which hopefully bodes well for the Celtics tonight, but I would never count out the gritty Sixers either. They are a team I respect a lot for how hard they play.

On another note, I was misled by the Boston Globe into thinking Paul Pierce would be on Wheel of Fortune last night. He'll actually be on tonight, according to today's Globe.

The Globe also keeps harping on the bad rebounding versus New Orleans and citing a 50-31 disadvantage on the glass Wednesday night. As you may recall, I reported the deficit as 66-41. The difference is that I counted the team rebounds, 16 for the Hornets and ten for the Celtics. The shooting that night was 26-64 by Boston and 30-82 by New Orleans. That totals 146 shots, 90 of which were missed. Hence there must be 90 rebounds total to be had, right? The Globe's numbers add to 81 and mine add to 107. Something is amiss here. Stat gurus, please fill me in on the counting of rebounds if you're so inclined.

However you add it up, the Celtics rebounding is a problem, and Peter May has a good discussion of the issue.

Day Off

2003-11-20T17:27:00.000-05:00

No game tonight. Watch Spurs-Mavs at 7:30 on TNT to get last night's awful display of "basketball" out of your system.

Of course, I call for Jim O'Brien to put Eric Williams in the starting lineup, and what do I see in the Globe today? O'Brien is already touting Williams for the sixth man award. Considering how little offense we're getting from the first unit these days, I stand by putting Williams in a starting role, rather than discussing postseason awards. I know, I initially agreed with Kedrick Brown starting at the beginning of the season. Looks like I was wrong there--hasn't been the first time.

The Globe Notebook also reports that Paul Pierce will be on Wheel of Fortune tonight, which airs at 6:00 in Boston, so people probably won't read this until that's past. I still think Heinsohn may be on Best Damn Sports Show tonight too, but don't quote me.

Anyway, what you can do is vote for your NBA All-Stars here. I'll post something about the Philadelphia 76ers, tomorrow night's opponent, either late tonight or tomorrow morning.

Nothing New Vs. New Orleans

2003-11-19T23:42:00.000-05:00

The Celtics lost again, 81-73 to the Hornets in a home game tonight (box score). The stats really jump out in this one. Boston shot 26-64 to 30-82 for New Orleans. Shooting 18 fewer times than the opponent is a good way to hold them to 36.6 percent shooting and still lose. Boston had 23 turnovers and 41 rebounds to 66 for New Orleans, accounting for the disparity in shots.

The Hornets didn't look too good on the second night of a back-to-back and Baron Davis was limited to just 17 points, but they managed to defeat the Celtics anyway because of the edge in controlling the ball and Boston's continued offensive woes. A troubling trend I'm noticing is that the other team's big guys have good rebounding nights against us. Eddy Curry had 13 boards last week, Kurt Thomas had 17 Monday night, and tonight Jamaal Magloire has 12 (7 offensive) and PJ Brown 16 (9 offensive). Overall the Celtics have done a decent job in rebounding statistically in the games so far, but the overall numbers are somewhat deceiving because they are not as good on their own defensive board, often giving up second-chance hoops (New Orleans lived off put-backs tonight).

The other continuing storyline is Paul Pierce and his lack of comfort in the offense. Pierce did very little in the first half, totaling three points at the break. He shot pretty well in the second half to get to 23 points, but he still turned the ball over 5 times and struggled to get the ball against pressure and get rid of it crisply when doubled. No one else really had any sort of offense going tonight either, which didn't help.

"Running" is not a cure-all. It's obvious that the team should push the ball for easy hoops when the opportunity is there, as should any team, but that doesn't change the fact that they will have to have some effective half-court sets to rely on if they want to be a consistent winner.

While I'm giving the coaches advice, I'll ask: when is Jim O'Brien going to stop playing around with the rotation and give Eric Williams the starting small forward job? He certainly has done a lot more than Kedrick Brown, Jumaine Jones or Walter McCarty and he deserves the starting role. He played 27 minutes tonight anyway, which is basically a starter's amount.

In all, this was not an enjoyable game to watch--I was having flashbacks to games against Pat Riley's Miami Heat a few years ago. No one could get much offense, and now I see in the ESPN recap end notes the following: "Through the first 11 games, Boston has not been involved in a game when one team scored 100 points--the longest such streak for the Celtics since the start of the 1953-54 season." I'll have to start a running tab on how long it takes until we see a C's game when someone hits the century mark.

Here's hoping it comes in the next game at Philly Friday night, a game in which the Sixers may be without Allen Iverson, who sat out of the team's win tonight at Toronto.

Chrysler LeBaron

2003-11-19T16:55:00.000-05:00

MVP candidate Baron Davis leads the New Orleans Hornets into the FleetCenter tonight to face the Celtics. Davis missed a triple-double by one rebound last night in the Hornets win at New Jersey, in which he scored 25.

The guy has just been on fire so far this year--you may remember him torching the Celtics for 37 on November 1. If he's hitting more circus shots tonight, winning will be difficult. At least New Orleans is on a back-to-back in Boston this time whereas the roles were reversed earlier this month.

The Hornets are 8-3, a half-game behind Indiana for the top record in the East despite not having Jamal Mashburn, who is out injured probably until January. I caught a few minutes on ESPN last night discussing who will be the leader of the team when Mash comes back, an issue the Hornets may have to deal with later.

For now, New Orleans has to be happy to have a healthy Baron Davis, unlike last year. They also have this final season as a chance to get to the NBA Finals before they move to the West and become a longshot again.

(On that note Bulls Blog has been amusing the last few days with its harping on the fact that Chicago hasn't won a game on a West coast trip the last four years, a combined 0-28 including last night's defeat in Phoenix.)

Realignment

2003-11-19T16:45:00.000-05:00

I never got around to mentioning this when the realignment plans of the NBA were announced last week. The NBA will become a 30-team league next season with the entry of the expansion Charlotte Bobcats. There will then be six divisions of five teams apiece, with New Orleans moving to the Western Conference.

The Celtics will still be in the Atlantic Division along with New York, New Jersey, Toronto and Philadelphia. I like the realignment because I find the current uneven number of teams per conference mildly distressing. Rather than getting medication for my condition, I'll just be able to wait until next season for a fix.

Remembering Len Bias

2003-11-19T00:12:00.000-05:00

I don't have any memory of Len Bias personally because I was five years old in 1986. I have heard numerous stories, though, and I'm learning more as I read newspaper coverage relating to the fact that Tuesday would have been his 40th birthday.

Bias was drafted second overall by Boston in the 1986 NBA Draft. He died from a drug overdose soon thereafter, however, and never played a game for the Celtics. Who knows how long the Celtics' 1980s greatness could have been extended had they not suffered the untimely loss of this young star (not to mention Reggie Lewis in 1993).

Bob Ryan has a long article on the subject in the Tuesday Boston Globe and Michael Wilbon of the Washington Post, who covered Bias as a Maryland star, also reflects on the birthday in the Wednesday Washington Post. Bill Simmons wrote the column "Haunted by Len Bias" in 2001.

Doc Rivers Fired

2003-11-18T13:48:00.000-05:00

The Magic have put an end to the rumors and fired Doc Rivers. Orlando won their first game of the season but the team has lost ten straight since then.

I'm not all that tuned in to what's happening down at Disney, but I don't think this really fixes much. Orlando has been McGrady and spare parts for a few years now, and when McGrady struggles and some of the better of those spare parts are out with injuries, the team will lose, period.

Rivers was until recently heralded as one of the top young coaches in the league, even winning coach of the year a few seasons back. Maybe the guy got stale in that locker room, who knows, but I think a much bigger part of the Magic's trouble stems from Grant Hill being on the payroll for big money while he remains out with his foot/ankle ailment. Until Hill is off the books (or miraculously healed), the Magic are a first-round loser at best. Rivers did pretty well to get them even that far these past few years.

Losing to the Knicks

2003-11-18T10:49:00.000-05:00

Just my luck, I'm out of town for the LeBron game Friday night that the Celtics win, then I'm back home last night to see the debacle at Madison Square Garden. In case you were lucky enough to watch only the first half, which the Celtics dominated, then I should break to you the bad news that they blew a big lead and lost 89-86.

Boston had won eight in a row against New York. Prior to that, there was a long stretch when New York had a streak against Boston. It seems like this series goes in streaks, but hopefully the Celtics can reverse this thing next week when the Knicks come to town on Monday night.

The story, as it has been with several losses so far, was that the Celtics couldn't get good offense down the stretch. The Knicks doubled Pierce and he didn't do a good enough job of passing the ball out to set up other people. He still looks indecisive about when to shoot or pass.

The "up-tempo" game deserted them when it mattered. once again. Check out the score by quarters: 28, 26, 18, 14. You know my mantra by now: they need to work more on half-court offense.

Boston was outrebounded 53-44, despite having a big rebounding edge in the first half. The 11 turnovers were an improvement, at least (box score).

For some upbeat news, read the Herald notebook today about how Vin Baker handled the New York media scrutiny and went out to have a 20-point, 8-board night. The Globe notebook has info on Tony Battie's knee issues and reports that Antonio McDyess will probably be playing for the Knicks at the Fleet next week.

New York is a strange team. Sometimes they look old and slow and awful. Sometimes they look pretty good. Allan Houston seems to have benefited from the departure of Latrell Sprewell, now that he has a lock on that position. He is a damn good shooter. Van Horn, as usual, plays well in spurts. Mutombo, as has been the case the last few years, is done--Michael Doleac played the end of the game for the Knicks. Kurt Thomas had 17 rebounds and was more than the Celtics could handle on the glass. When McDyess comes back, the Knicks should sacrifice the size and send Mutombo to the bench, not Thomas.

Lest we worry to much about losing to this team, remember they played well against Indiana at the Garden on Saturday, pulling ahead with a 24-0 run in the third quarter (sound familiar?) and losing eventually by one. They also defeated Sacramento there earlier in the year.

Frank Williams was having some problems with his shorts nearly falling down, as Mike Gorman pointed out. Tom Heinsohn kept calling Othella Harrington "Othello" like the Shakespeare character. Gorman added during a promo that fans should watch Best Damn Sports Show on Thursday, though he wouldn't say why. I think Heinsohn will be a guest that night, and I expect he'll take some ribbing over "I love Waltah!" and his other energetic exclamations.

Marcus Banks looked good off the bench with six assists and some nice defensive plays, especially in the second quarter Boston run. Eric Williams also had a strong 17 points off the bench. Jumaine Jones, starting a second straight game as Jim O'Brien gives him a look, was scoreless in 15 minutes.

Other things I missed while away are that Jiri Welsch played backup point on Friday night. O'Brien says he'll do this from time to time. Raef LaFrentz is also on the injured list with knee tendinitis. He missed his second game of at least five last night.

New Orleans comes to town on Wednesday, then we're at Philadelphia Friday night.

LeBron Comes to Town

2003-11-14T02:09:00.000-05:00

Get ready for the hype machine to kick into gear tomorrow. The Globe and Herald will have big articles on the kid and FSNE will focus on James too. Maybe Boston sports radio will stop talking about the Parcells-Belichick matchup tomorrow for a few minutes even.

There's lotsa LeBron coverage on the web, as you may already know. The Cleveland Plain-Dealer is running a LeBron Watch page on their site, for example, and ESPN also has a LeBron Line that allows instant statistical comparisons of LeBron with other rookies through the years. Celtics.com is pumping up "The Truth vs. King James" for good measure.

Sadly I'll be out of town for the game and the rest of the weekend. The next Celtics game is Monday night against the Knicks. Expect the next post from me on Monday also.

The Christies

2003-11-14T01:48:00.000-05:00

Fascinating Sacramento Bee article detailing the married life of the whipped Doug Christie. (via End of the Bench)

Bob Ryan and Me

2003-11-13T20:18:00.000-05:00

We both use the word "stinkbomb" to describe last night's game. Freaky.

Letdown Time

2003-11-13T00:54:00.000-05:00

Last night I wrote this at the end of my post about the win at Indiana:

The Celtics have a quick turnaround, facing the Bulls Wednesday night at the Fleet. Hopefully the fatigue and emotion of a big road win don't produce a letdown versus Chicago.

So I've made a few inaccurate predictions before, but this one, unfortunately, turned out to be spot on. The Celtics, who had given a strong effort in every game up to this point, submitted a stinkbomb for the home crowd against Chicago on Wednesday evening.

The obvious excuse is fatigue. Even so, the TV announcers said the team registered zero fast break points. What happened to that "up tempo" style we keep hearing about? I don't know how valid the fatigue issue is anyway, now that the team is playing ten guys.

To give the Bulls some credit, they took away the easy shots and made the Celtics beat them from the perimeter. Other than Mike James, the Celtics couldn't shoot well enough to win. James was 6-11 on threes, while the team as a whole went 8-27. That's 2-16 for everyone else, and that falls to 0-10 when we exclude Pierce's 2-6. The C's shot 33 percent overall. (box score)

Shooting that many threes is not the game plan any more this year, or so we've been told, but when the defense gets back and can set up a sagging zone, there's not really much of an alternative to hoisting up jumpers. The Celtics don't have anyone who is known as a good perimeter shooter either, with the possible exception of LaFrentz, who has been struggling with his shot thus far.

Bad as the offense was tonight, the team actually scored more points than it did against the Pacers. Obviously, the offense isn't clicking as of yet. Certainly, taking opportunities to push the ball is part of the answer. The other important part is the half-court, though, and I expect we may see other teams try to force the Celtics to shoot jumpers after Chicago's success tonight.

The other negative is Paul Pierce's continued struggle. He shot only 4-15 tonight in scoring 14 points, though to his credit he continued to contribute in other ways with 8 assists and 7 rebounds. Pierce also had 7 more turnovers to add to his league lead in that category. He seems to be really careless when he's handling the ball in traffic and loses the handle quite a bit. The indecision over how to get other people involved and when to go for his own shot probably has a lot to do with this. Again the solution is to work more on getting good shots in the half court and getting everyone comfortable (along with telling Pierce to be more careful with his dribble--not that the turnovers are killing my fantasy team or anything).

The silver lining of the game is that the team as a whole had only 12 turnovers, so people other than Pierce took good care of the ball.

The bottom line is that this was a game the Celtics should have had. You have to beat a Chicago team that's short-handed at home if you want to be a playoff contender. I know, the Bulls had plenty of preseason buzz, but they are in a bit of disarray now with Tyson Chandler out the last few games and Kirk Hinrich inexplicably starting ahead of Jamal Crawford. They lost to Denver at home in their previous game on Monday.

Just like in the last few seasons, the Celtics lost a game to a Chicago team they should've beaten.

Deja Vu

2003-11-12T01:27:00.000-05:00

The 78-76 win in Indiana tonight reminded me a lot of the first-round playoff series the Celtics and Pacers played this past spring. The first half clearly demonstrated that Indiana has a lot of talent and that no one on Boston can stop Jermaine O'Neal. But then Indiana inexplicably fell apart while a gutty Celtics team pulled out a win.

I was fearful that with Larry Bird and Rick Carlisle now in town the Pacers would get their act together this season. I remember watching the playoff games and marveling at how Isiah Thomas had no fixed rotation of players. Some games guys would get big minutes, the next they would hardly play. Remember when Tim Hardaway came out of nowhere to hit big shots in Game 5 (also the last time the Celtics visited Conseco before tonight and somehow didn't score a point in overtime)? Or how Jonathan Bender and Ron Mercer made random appearances in a few games?

Well, I thought that would all get fixed now that people who ostensibly know what they're doing are running the team. As it turns out, the Pacers are still looking for the best way to use their people, and to be fair so are several teams at this early point in the year, including the Celtics. I think point guard remains a weakness for them. Kenny Anderson is serviceable but getting on in years, and Anthony Johnson is now the backup while Jamaal Tinsley sits in the doghouse. They didn't get shots for people, and Mike James outplayed them tonight. The Pacers also miss Brad Miller at center, another big guy who would take some attention away from O'Neal. Jeff Foster and Scot Pollard play hard but aren't the offensive talents Miller was. Indiana needs to find a way to get Al Harrington more minutes too, though moving him into the starting lineup as the power forward with O'Neal at center may make them a bit small.

The obvious turning point in the game was when O'Neal got his fourth foul and had to sit for most of the third quarter. We learned how much Indiana relies on O'Neal for scoring when their offense sputtered the rest of the way, registering only 14 points in both the third and fourth periods. Ron Artest (8 points) and Reggie Miller (7) did not pick up the slack.

As in the Sacramento game, the defense of the Celtics was the story. Boston scored in the teens three of four quarters and still managed to win because, while their offense is not yet clicking, the team seems to be putting it all together on the defensive end. Indiana committed 20 turnovers and Boston, despite facing a deep rebounding deficit in the first half, managed to outrebound the Pacers for the game, 44-42.

The other big encouraging sign was the team's ability to hold on for a close win down the stretch. Of course, defense was mostly responsible, but how big was Vin Baker coming up with the game-winning shot to put Boston ahead with 20 seconds remaining? I've been hammering the point that the C's need some half-court offense they can turn to in crunch time, and they may have a semblance of that now. This, along with the defensive improvement, is what they were missing in the losses to New Orleans, Detroit and New Jersey.

I'm liking the resilience of the team. It looked like they might get blown out in the first half but they fought back hard, a great sign of character. Also, kudos to Paul Pierce, who, despite a relatively quiet night scoring, dished out nine assists, including the beauty to Baker for the game winner. The contrast with Pierce trying to do everything himself in the fourth quarter Friday against New Jersey is clear, and for the better.

The Celtics have a quick turnaround, facing the Bulls Wednesday night at the Fleet. Hopefully the fatigue and emotion of a big road win don't produce a letdown versus Chicago. Word is that there are still some seats for Friday night's LeBron fest too, if you're in the area.

Joe Forte Update

2003-11-11T14:11:00.000-05:00

He had his assault charges dropped. Why did we waste a pick on this guy again?

Larry Bird Interview

2003-11-11T10:47:00.000-05:00

Larry Bird, who now calls the shots in the front office for tonight's opponent, the Indiana Pacers, has an interview in today's Globe. He likes Antoine Walker a lot, he says, but acknowledges Walker made too much money and that the trade may have been justified based on team chemistry. He also has good words for Paul Pierce and Vin Baker, and he has interesting thought on the Pacers' need to get a younger version of Reggie Miller who can consistently knock down threes.

Regicide

2003-11-10T12:49:00.000-05:00

Sorry, I was trying to come up with a pun on Kings that wasn't totally overdone. Anyway...

The Celtics 91-82 win over Sacramento was a nice win over a playoff-caliber opponent. It was a very strange game, one that saw Sacramento start out absolutely on fire offensively and then completely lose it.

I don't mean to put a damper on everyone's excitement at beating a Western contender, but this isn't as good a Kings team as we've seen in the last few years, and I don't just mean Chris Webber being out. Their depth isn't what it used to be, with the losses of Jim Jackson, Hedo Turkoglu, Scot Pollard, Keon Clark, et al. Their second unit isn't that threatening any more, aside from Bobby Jackson. Tony Massenburg played 22 minutes, after all (box score). Plus the Kings are now just 3-3, including a loss to the Knicks on Friday before they came to town. They will be in the playoffs, but I wouldn't be surprised if they are a lower seed than in previous years that perhaps loses in the first round--how strong Webber comes back will be critical.

Regardless of how far Sacramento has fallen, a win is always nice after three losses. The Celtics' rebounding was strong (52-42 Boston edge), indicative of the Celtics' appearing more physical than the Kings. The papers (Herald, Globe) both applaud the strong defensive effort, which resulted in six blocks.

Both Notebook columns (Globe, Herald) also note the return of Eric Williams who, despite knee soreness, gave the Celtics a boost with 12 points and six boards off the bench. Jim O'Brien (as the sage FSNE broadcasters discussed) shortened his rotation a bit for the game, giving Jumaine Jones and Walter McCarty DNPs as the team continues to search for the right combinations of players.

Vin Baker had a very strong night with 18 points and 13 rebounds. Brad Miller really couldn't handle Baker on the block. Paul Pierce, by contrast, had an off night with just 17 points on the heels of his disappointing performance in the fourth quarter against Jersey on Friday. It was a good sign that Pierce only played 35 minutes, though, as O'Brien has talked about the need to get Pierce more rest during the course of games and doing so didn't hurt the team at all. The fact that Paul Pierce can struggle in a game the team still wins is important for the confidence of everyone.

The thing I still want to see is how the Celtics handle a late-game situation when things are tighter. They were fortunate last night to be playing with a lead coming down the stretch. That won't always be the case, of course, and the real test will come when they're in a nip-and-tuck affair in the closing minutes and Pierce is being swarmed by defenders.

One additional footnote is that the Celtics 2002 second-round draft choice Darius Songaila made his FleetCenter debut last night as a Sacramento King. He had one point in six minutes. I was surprised that Songaila couldn't get a roster spot with the Celtics but could with the Kings, arguably the deepest team in the league the last few years, but now that I've seen the new Sacramento bench in action, it makes some more sense. (Could the Celtics actually be deeper than the Kings!?)

This week the Celtics have a rematch with their first-round playoff opponents in Indiana Tuesday night, followed by home games with Chicago Wednesday and the first Boston visit by LeBron's Cavs on Friday.

New Jersey Wins... Again

2003-11-08T12:05:00.000-05:00

The Globe and Herald have plentiful C's coverage today on account of the Nets visit last night, a 94-87 Jersey win. Paul Pierce taking too much on himself is pointed out both by Steve Bulpett's game summary and Peter May's column. See Joe Nets Fan for the perspective on the other side. He highlights the career night (19 points, 13 rebounds) for Jason Collins.

Not to beat a dead horse here, but the Celtics' focus on "running" has cost them down the stretch. We saw this for a fourth straight game last night. The coaching staff, while encouraging fast breaks when they are there, should also focus on how to get other players good shots in half-court sets. Otherwise Pierce will continue to be blanketed in fourth quarters. Boston scored just 17 points total in the final period last night, after they had put together a strong 17-2 run in the third to get back into it.

Peter Stringer of Boston Sports Blog saw the game in person and attributes the fourth-quarter demise to the Antoine Walker trade. I disagree, based on the fact that the same sort of problem existed last spring in the playoffs when Walker was on the team. The Celtics just need to have confidence in people other than Pierce. When he's surrounded, others must be open, right? Opponents will clamp down on Pierce until others step up late in games. No "up-tempo" scheme can solve this. (There are several other good reasons to have moved Walker, which I'll cover at length another time.)

Both papers' Notebook articles (Globe, Herald) report that Tony Battie was inserted in the starting lineup last night with Mark Blount coming off the bench. O'Brien downplayed the move, saying Blount was a good matchup for Alonzo Mourning off the Nets' bench and that the starting five remains open to changes.

A bright spot amid the loss was the solid play of Kedrick Brown (career-high 18 points, including even a few jumpers), Blount (12) and Marcus Banks (11). Banks played the entire fourth quarter and made some very nice offensive plays that have to make fans excited about his progress. The Herald notes O'Brien's confidence in the kid. New Jersey's Kidd--Jason--meanwhile had a strong game with 19 points, 10 boards and seven assists, so the PG defense couldn't do much to slow him down either. Banks' quickness did seem to give Kidd some trouble at least (leading Tom Heinsohn to make the ridiculous statement "Jason Kidd is not a good defensive player"), but let's not get too excited here. Remember the first New Jersey game at the Fleet last year? The Celtics won and afterward there was discussion that the strength and athleticism of Shammond Williams might be the C's answer to Kidd's dominance. We know how that turned out. One game does not make a career, and Banks will have some future setbacks at least.

Aside to Fox Sports New England: Your announcers spend half the game complaining about officiating and half the game complaining about passes that aren't made to players that aren't actually open anyway. How about getting viewers some actual analysis of the game, so that they aren't tempted to listen to Grandy and Max in their living rooms?

The flip side of Brown and Banks having strong games was that we saw very little of Jumaine Jones and Mike James.

Rebounding and turnover problems reared their ugly heads again, not to the degree of the Detroit game, but still at a level of concern. The C's actually outrebounded New Jersey 43-41 while yielding 16 offensive boards and a bunch of second-chance points. Clearly defensive rebounding needs to be more of a focus. The 16 Boston turnovers were magnified because of a few breakaway dunks in the closing minutes by Kerry Kittles. (box score)

Finally, I want to declare my whole-hearted agreement with Michael Holley's Globe column today about the ugly underpinnings of the Celtics-Nets "rivalry." The treatment that some Fleet patrons directed toward the Kidds in the '02 playoffs was a disgrace to Boston sports. Byron Scott's comments this past spring about race relations in Boston were similarly contemptible. I hope the future games between these teams can focus on what happens on the court.

Nets Preview

2003-11-07T17:51:00.000-05:00

OK, it's less than two hours to go before the game, but I want to be on record prior to the tip. The pattern emerging in previous posts is that I'm somewhat skeptical of the much-discussed "running"/"up-tempo" style the Celtics are trying to implement. I blamed their lack of focus on half-court offense for their troubles in the fourth quarter of the last three road games.

Well, tonight the C's face a New Jersey team that is the two-time defending Eastern Conference champ largely because they are a very good running team. Are we sure we want to force a fast pace to the game? Aren't the Nets better at that style than we are?

Then we get the Kings for a rare Sunday 6pm start at the Fleet in the next game. I think the Patriots bye week has something to do with the scheduling, and if you get NBA TV (neither do I) you can watch their broadcast and see what out-of-town announcers have to say about the Celtics. But getting back to the style of play, do we want to run against Sacramento? This is another team that is devastating on the break. They have Mike Bibby and Bobby Jackson at point guard, while we have Mike James and Marcus Banks. There's an article in today's Globe about the Celtics' guard envy, by the way.

I'm not predicting a pair of losses this weekend, I'm just saying that it's questionable whether the Celtics should be actively trying to force a tempo to the game that puts them at a disadvantage to the opponent. Fortunately, the Nets are playing badly, having lost two in a row at home without Kenyon Martin, who is also out tonight with a sprained ankle. Chris Webber, of course, is out until December for the Kings following knee surgery too. I'm pleased we have a better chance to win with these absences on the other teams, though I'm a bit disappointed too that we won't get a chance to see how Vin Baker performs against some top power forwards (especially Martin, a C's nemesis who ate Antoine Walker for lunch last spring in the playoffs).

On that front, just a few quick notes. Walker had 14 points, 17 boards and nine turnovers in the Dallas loss to Toronto last night. The Mavs seriously miss the injured Steve Nash as they put up only 71 points, their lowest output since '97. Scoring is down across the league, in fact, so much so that the Celtics were actually leading the East in scoring average before the Detroit game. Another former Celtic, Kenny Anderson, looked pretty good for Indiana last night in their win over the Nets (yes, NJ has a back-to-back, which also helps us tonight). Kenny is now the starting PG for the Pacers, having displaced Jamaal Tinsley. That's another guard the Celtics could really use (to go along with Chauncey Billups and David Wesley) yet got rid of in the past.

I'll start doing an "around the league" column next week to break up the monotony of my Celtics hyper-analysis a bit. And I'll try to limit my complaints about our point guards to a reasonable level. I realize these guys are young and learning. They also are likely to cost us some games, so that's what we'll have to live with.

Dee-Troit Basketball!

2003-11-06T00:45:00.000-05:00

Man, the PA guy in Detroit is seriously obnoxious. His screaming every time the ball goes out of bounds is especially bothersome when the Celtics lose, as they did tonight, 96-88. (box score)

This one was a lot like the loss in New Orleans. The Celtics offense got bogged down in the second half--after scoring 54 in the first half, they put up 34 points after the break. Turnovers were a problem again (21 of them), though we did see some improvement against the press as they broke it successfully for a few baskets. Rebounding was more of a problem, however, as the Pistons came up with 21 offensive boards, a few of which led to important scores down the stretch. Point guard also continues to be a weak spot on the team defensively, as Chauncey Billups--another ghost of the Pitino era--became the second straight PG to torch Boston with his 27 points, most of which came in the second half. I'm a bit concerned about facing Jason Kidd on Friday.

On an individual front, Marcus Banks did look better than he has so far with 11 points and 6-7 at the line. He somehow managed zero assists, though, and he's still not looking so great running the offense. Jumaine Jones (4 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals) did make his Celtics debut off the bench, contrary to the Herald's report that he was unlikely to play. He got limited minutes (18) as O'Brien tries to ease him back from his injury, but Jones did get some big minutes in the fourth quarter. That was because Kedrick Brown had another weak game (4 points, 1 rebound in just 11 minutes). I see the bench in Brown's future once Jones gets his legs back. Also of note was that O'Brien used Jiri Welsch (5 points in 15 minutes) more off the bench, and he made a few plays. Baker had a strong night with 20 points, despite not having that many touches in the post. Pierce had 20 points and 10 assists, finishing three boards shy of a triple double.

Tom Heinsohn was complaining a lot about the officiating, but he does that every game so I just tune him out. It gets kind of embarrassing, I think. Still, Detroit had 32 free throws to Boston's 17--make of it what you will. Detroit also shot 8-18 from three compared with 2-13 for Boston.

The disturbing trend I'm starting to see emerge in these last three road games is that the Celtics have trouble finishing games. They nearly blew a 10-point lead in the last few minutes at Memphis, then they went on to lose close games late in New Orleans and Detroit. The up-tempo running style of play that everyone is talking about seems to work pretty well when the Celtics try it earlier on in the game, but what about late in a close game when each possession is critical and you have to grind out points? Then it doesn't really work so well. Even if they don't want to be a half-court offensive team, the Celtics need to have more of a semblance of a half-court offense that they can rely on down the stretch.

Then we could have more success putting obnoxious announcers in their place. The New Jersey Nets visit the Fleet Friday night, and we'll see if the Celtics can have a better performance in these areas when they face a good team at home.

Detroit Preview

2003-11-05T15:35:00.000-05:00

Guess what? There's an actual game tonight! Jumaine Jones probably won't play as he has only had two days of practice since returning from his hamstring injury. This means Kedrick Brown will have to play big minutes tonight, and he's been struggling. Eric Williams will be out another 5-10 days with his knee problem.

Also struggling has been rookie point guard Marcus Banks, who is featured in today's Herald. The main Globe article focuses on the Celtics much-discussed running game and efforts to implement it effectively.

The Pistons will pose problems with their defensive pressure on the point guards. They saw what New Orleans did disrupting the Boston offense on Saturday and I expect them to try to copy it. O'Brien apparently had the team work on breaking the press in practice, so let's hope we see progress in this area.

The reason for optimism is that Detroit really has no one who can guard Paul Pierce. In the past they've always put Michael Curry on Pierce, and now even Curry is gone(to Toronto). Rip Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince are not going to stop Pierce, nor will Bob Sura, the Pistons' new man off the bench. If Detroit doubles Pierce, we'll need to see good ball rotation for open shots.

Don't expect to see Darko Milicic play much either unless it's a blowout. The #2 overall pick has played one minute in three games thus far for Detroit. Meanwhile, the #1 and #3 picks, LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony, square off for the first time as pros in the Cavs-Nuggets game at 8 on ESPN. Bill Simmons advanced the popular view that Carmelo is better than Darko in his NBA preview, predicting that Pistons fans will regret the move for a long time:

Here's a team that made the Eastern Finals last spring, then found itself with major cap space and the No. 2 pick this summer ... so they fired their coach, overpaid Hamilton, gave a washed-up Elden Campbell two years for $8 million, imported Bobby Sura from Golden State (huh?), then passed up Carmelo for Darko. Maybe they're still a contender in the East, but Joe Dumars could have locked this conference up for the next six to eight years. Now their long-term future hinges on Darko, the lefty teenager who will rack up DNPs and listen to everyone gripe about Carmelo for the foreseeable future. Not the best situation for a fledgling big man in a new country.

The firing of Rick Carlisle seemed pretty bizarre to me. The move said that the East Finals isn't good enough, basically putting tons of pressure on this year's team and new coach Larry Brown to make the Finals. Let's hope they start cracking tonight.

Ticket Auction

2003-11-04T21:39:00.000-05:00

Here are the details on how to bid for the tickets GM Chris Wallace is auctioning for charity.

Bulls Booed off the Court

2003-11-04T12:15:00.000-05:00

My counterparts from Chicago who run Bulls Blog claim, "There's plenty of room on the bandwagon." It's no wonder after this effort last night.

Small Forwards Update

2003-11-04T12:11:00.000-05:00

Peter May has the injury news on both Jumaine Jones and Eric Williams in the Globe today. The Herald covers the same topic in separate articles on Jones and Williams. One thing I'm starting to realize is how similar the Globe and Herald are in their daily C's coverage.

Jones went through his first practice with the team yesterday and may play a few minutes in tomorrow night's game at Detroit. He missed all of training camp and the preseason as well as the first three games of the regular season, so expect to see some rust.

Meanwhile, Eric Williams got relatively good MRI news. His knee injury isn't serious. It's just a bruise and it should keep him out perhaps another week.

Both papers also mention that Bob Cousy is auctioning off a bunch of his memorabilia and Chris Wallace is auctioning his game tickets for charity. If you've got some extra cash sitting around, go for it.

The Celtics strong start has them moving up to number 11 in the ESPN power rankings and number 15 according to SI.

Beaten on the Bayou

2003-11-02T12:53:00.000-05:00

Last night's 97-90 loss in New Orleans was the result of several things. (Globe summary, Herald summary, box score)

For one, Baron Davis hit some absolutely ridiculous shots on his way to 37 points. David Wesley--the ghost of Rick Pitino's bad personnel moves--made some good plays too.

The Celtics were also on the second night of back-to-back games on the road. The Hornets pressed to take advantage of the fatigue factor, and it worked, getting the Celtics out of rhythm. When the Celtics were moving the ball up the floor unimpeded during much of the first and third quarters, they got good shots and scored at a brisk pace. The second and fourth quarters were very different. The C's scoring by quarters--33, 15, 31, 11--is astonishing.

The pressure was too much for rookie point guard Marcus Banks to handle. Banks played only ten minutes, all in the first half, and hit his only shot of the night. Jiri Welsch looked decent in his ten minutes, and I think we may see him handling the ball more coming off the bench while Banks learns.

O'Brien went to the bench early, realizing fatigue would be an issue. Still, Pierce ended up playing 45 minutes and the absence of Eric Williams loomed large, as Shira Springer notes. He will have an MRI today following the hyperextension of his right knee he suffered in the first two games. In Williams' absence, Kedrick Brown continued to struggle, scoring just four points, both on transition hoops in the third (one was a cool alley-oop, at least). Brown seems unable to get anything in the half-court offense so far. Raef LaFrentz provided a lift off the bench with 17 points, but 13 of those came in a first quarter spurt. Vin Baker followed up his 24-point outing in Memphis with a quiet eight points.

The rotation is still being worked out by O'Brien and the Celtics have yet to come up with a solid way to defeat the obvious strategies teams will employ against them--namely denying Paul Pierce the ball aggressively and pressuring the C's inexperienced guards taking it up the floor. That simple plan worked for New Orleans last night, and others will be certain to copy it. The silver lining from last night is that despite all the flaws, the Celtics were a few big shots down the stretch away from winning the game. They managed to hang in, a good omen for the future once some of these things get straightened out.

This coming week we may see the return of Jumaine Jones from his hamstring injury. He's expected to begin practicing with the Celtics and, if that goes well he may get into a game. The next game is Wednesday night at Detroit, followed by a home game versus New Jersey on Friday. These games should be a good measuring stick for where the new-look Celtics stand with regard to the East's best.

Two more Memphis Tidbits

2003-11-01T12:49:00.000-05:00

Both the Globe and Herald covered the same two sidelight to the Celtics' Memphis visit last night. The first was Jerry West's positive comments about Danny Ainge's bold trade of Antoine Walker. The second was BC alum Troy Bell's new home on the Memphis bench (he had a DNP and is behind Jason Williams and Earl Watson as a point guard on the roster, which makes me wonder why the Grizz wanted him). The Globe notes both in its Notebook while the Herald covers West and Bell separately.

Bruce Allen's Celtics Blog

2003-11-01T12:41:00.000-05:00

Bruce Allen of Boston Sports Media Watch is writing a new blog at Fox Sports New England's site that compiles the links to lots of the Celtics stories that are appearing in the press.

Mike James Comes Up Big in Memphis

2003-11-01T12:32:00.000-05:00

After Paul Pierce fouled out last night with ten seconds left and Pau Gasol tied the game at 91 with two free throws, I was concerned. Who was going to take the shot for the Celtics, and what would they do for offense if the game went to overtime? This was the first time I found myself wishing we still had Antoine on the team because, say what you will about Walker, he had the confidence in himself to take and make big shots with the game on the line.

Now we know that Mike James has the same thing. James made a beautiful dribble move on Jason Williams and stuck a jumper with a hand in his face to give the C's a 93-91 win (box score). A close victory in Memphis is the kind of win the Celtics need to be a playoff team and it should boost morale and confidence for everyone. Considering they were up 90-80 with four minutes to go, this could've been a disastrous collapse. Instead, it's a boost.

Pierce had 23 before fouling out on a ticky-tack call that was nothing compared with the beatings he took from Memphis players all night. Vin Baker also looked strong, coming up with 24 points and 8 boards in passing his first road test with flying colors. James finished with 16 points after being held scoreless in the first half.

The bad news was plentiful too. The Grizzlies' aggressive defense stunned the C's in the first half. The Celtics got things together in the second but then nearly collapsed down the stretch. Kedrick Brown had four early points but then didn't score the rest of the way. Eric Williams hyperextended his knee and is day-to-day. Walter McCarty ended up playing the 3 on the big final possession because of the Williams/Brown circumstance, plus he's a veteran who wouldn't be psyched out by the moment. Marcus Banks continues to look confused with what he's doing at the point, which only does more to solidify James' hold on the starting job. Raef LaFrentz mysteriously didn't play the last few minutes when the team could've used his offense (Tony Battie finished the game at center after Mark Blount fouled out). And the free throw shooting (22-33) was poor, with Baker (4-7) and Banks (1-4) the prime culprits. This is a reason the team may have been wary to go to Baker in key spots late.

In the end, a win's a win. The Celtics remain a work in progress, but if they can fix some of these things they should be a contending team in the East. The game with the Grizzlies was much like the C's trips to Memphis both of the last two years, which were also tight victories, so they are on similar ground to what those teams have done.

Memphis Game Preview

2003-10-31T15:51:00.000-05:00

Here's the Bill Simmons Eastern Conference preview. I'll just let Bill describe tonight's opponent, the Memphis Grizzlies, from his West preview of a few days ago:

8. Memphis Grizzlies
(I'm sorry ... I can't resist.)

"Okay, you're Hubie Brown. You have an underrated point guard in Jason Williams, a guy who LED THE LEAGUE in assists-to-turnover ratio. He can push the ball and create scoring opportunities for his teammates. You have athletic bodies in Lorenzen Wright and Stromile Swift, two guys with TREMENDOUS upside potential who can rebound and finish. You have a seven-footer with some upside in Jake Tsakalidis. You have two guys who love doing the Little Things in James Posey and Shane Battier. You have two terrific shooters in Mike Miller and Wesley Person, guys who can EXTEND THE DEFENSE and create space for Pau Gasol. And in Gasol, you have a horse who commands double teams and scores two ways, either FACING THE BASKET or with his BACK to the basket.

"Now, you know your team is gonna come to play every ... single ... night. You're deep, you can run, and you can defend. And Gasol gives you a GENUINE OFFENSIVE OPTION at crunch-time, someone who is ready to take his game to the next level. You also know that, if you are close in February, Jerry West will make a move to PUSH YOU over the top. You aren't even thinking regular season upside anymore ... you are thinking PLAYOFF upside."

Yes, the inimitable Hubie Brown will be pacing the sideline tonight in Memphis as he tries to mold his collection of promising young players into a cohesive, winning team. In the East they would have a shot at the playoffs. In the West, they don't. It should be interesting to see how some of the new/young players respond to playing on the road. Can Vin Baker deal with the pressure and distractions of not having the crowd behind him as he did at the Fleet on Wednesday?

Papers Roundup

2003-10-31T10:53:00.000-05:00

The Herald's Mark Murphy gives Mark Blount some well-deserved attention. The Globe's Shira Springer offers a glimpse into the statistics the coaching staff looks at.

LeBron Watch

2003-10-31T10:35:00.000-05:00

Cleveland.com has all you could ever want on the #1 pick at their LeBron Watch page. Night #2 of the James era was another impressive game statistically (21 points, 12 boards, 8 assists), but he did have a lot more turnovers too in a loss at Phoenix. And what was up with the ugly new orange Suns uniforms that just say "PHX" on the front? I'm sick of teams always changing logos and jerseys to try to generate more money in merchandising. (How 'bout those hideous Mavs silver duds from opening night? Mark Cuban has already canned them.)

More Simmons

2003-10-30T20:34:00.000-05:00

Part two of his West preview. The East preview is coming tomorrow.

Simmons West Preview

2003-10-30T10:31:00.000-05:00

Here.

The Season Opener

2003-10-30T10:28:00.000-05:00

There was much to like in last night's 98-75 win over Miami. Still, the Celtics beat a Heat team without Caron Butler and Lamar Odom, so we shouldn't overreact.

Pierce was solid. Vin Baker looks like he'll be able to contribute down low, and I was impressed he didn't lose his composure when he had a few stupid fouls called on him. Mark Blount was very impressive with four blocks and five assists. Williams, Battie and LaFrentz provided a nice spark off the bench.

The only downsides were that Kedrick Brown looked tight in his first game as the starter and that Marcus Banks seems to have plenty more to learn about running the point. Fortunately the team has depth and these guys should be able to be brought along without hurting the Celtics too much. Kedrick just needs to calm down and play like he did in preseason. Banks has great physical skills and will need to get better at making passes on the break, as Bob Cousy pointed out on FSNE last night.

The new FleetCenter announcer Eddie Palladino did a good job, I thought, showing enthusiasm without grating either. And I want to correct my mistake that the new Lucky, Damon Blust, is not wearing a full costume, as the C's mascot has in past years, but rather cheering the team on with his own face and limbs visible.

Mark Murphy has info on the Celtics new white sneakers they will be wearing at home games.

Bob Ryan also has a nice column up on Vin Baker's return.

The team has a back-to-back on the road Friday and Saturday nights in Memphis and New Orleans.

Bremer

2003-10-30T10:05:00.000-05:00

Lost in the excitement of LeBron James' debut last night (and he deserved the hype with 25 points and 9 assists) was JR Bremer's solid start with the Cavs (box score). Bremer had 20 points shooting 6-for-9 on threes, including a triple that briefly gave Cleveland a lead on Sacramento early in the fourth period before they went on to lose to the Kings. JR always seemed like a decent guy and I'm happy to see he's doing well with his new team.

LeBron's Debut

2003-10-29T17:21:00.000-05:00

The debut of the much-hyped Cleveland Cavs rookie is tonight at Sacramento. ESPN has coverage at 10:30.

New Announcer

2003-10-29T16:46:00.000-05:00

Eddie Palladino makes his dedbut as the stadium announcer for Celtics home games tonight. I hope he's classy and not an annoying screamer like the people who announce at some other arenas in the NBA.

By the way, tix are still available for the game if the spirit moves you to head downtown.

UPDATE: The new occupant of the Lucky the Leprechaun costume is also profiled on celtics.com.

Miami Game Preview

2003-10-29T16:43:00.000-05:00

Opening night is at 7 tonight at the Fleet. The Miami Heat are in town and they have major injury problems. Dwayne Wade, the rookie slasher they plan to play at point guard, had 18 last night in Philly but he hurt his hip in the second half. It's uncertain whether he'll play or how effective he'll be. Lamar Odom, the big free-agent acquisition for Miami this offseason, sprained his ankle last night too and is likely out. The Heat already have Caron Butler on the shelf for a month after knee surgery. That leaves Eddie Jones as the only real scoring threat Miami has left. The team scored 74 points last night too.

Basically the Celtics have to win this game. Strange things can happen--like when Boston blew the home opener to Chicago last season, and the Bulls didn't win another road game for months after that--but it's most likely that the C's will be pumped up and win handily.

C's Ticket Sales Up

2003-10-29T16:34:00.000-05:00

In the Globe today.

Walker's Dallas Debut

2003-10-29T16:27:00.000-05:00

Antoine had 19 points in the Mavericks 109-93 loss at LA last night. He and Nowitzki co-led the team in scoring, and Walker was 5-of-6 on threes to go with 7 boards and an assist in 33 minutes. Dallas looked really bad, not just defensively but also on offense. Even though 'Toine hit a bunch of threes, I doubt Don Nelson wants him shooting so many.

Antawn Jamison is much too good of a player to be coming off the bench too. I don't know how the Mavericks will be able to keep everyone happy with so many guys who score and do little else. The Lakers, on the other hand, looked very strong, even without Kobe. Malone and Payton haven't missed a beat in switching teams.

TV Games

2003-10-28T16:52:00.000-05:00

The season opens tonight with two games on TNT, and NBA.com has all the TV details for the week. The Turner studio crew of Charles, Kenny, Ernie and Magic will be doing a one-hour season preview at 7:00, followed by Suns-Spurs (San Antonio gets championship rings beforehand) and Mavs-Lakers (debuts for Malone, Payton, Walker, Jamison with new teams). Yahoo's game preview notes that Kobe probably won't play tonight. (And what's up with the new Kobe-Shaq feud? I thought Kobe would try to keep a low profile given that he'll soon be on trial for rape, but no, he lashes out at Shaq being out of shape and says he's played with lots of injuries in the past, etc. Very bizarre.)

Ozersky Prediction

2003-10-28T16:42:00.000-05:00

48 wins says Josh Ozersky at Hoops World in an article on the upcoming Celtics season. He has some good comments on trade rumors and national media reaction to the Antoine deal.

Depth

2003-10-28T16:30:00.000-05:00

Shira Springer has the optimistic view of the Celtics' increased depth, writing that it should allow the team to play a more up-tempo style. Steve Bulpett likens the Celtics to the Pistons of the last two years:

I think the Celtics will be better in the regular season than expected because they'll be able to throw some heavy depth at people. (Detroit did that the last couple of years but faltered in the playoffs because there are tighter rotations with more rest between games and people like Jon Barry went back to being people like Jon Barry.) Therefore, the critical factor for whether the Celts truly improve and can make a dent in the postseason will be how well they can develop people.

The Starting Lineup

2003-10-28T16:23:00.000-05:00

For tomorrow night's opener hosting Miami, the Celtics will start Mike James at point guard, Paul Pierce at shooting guard, Kedrick Brown at small forward, Vin Baker at power forward and Mark Blount at center. We already knew about James, Pierce and Baker before Jim O'Brien announced Brown and Blount yesterday. The lineup is hardly set in stone, with changes likely during the course of the year.

Choosing Brown over Eric Williams is a tough call, especially given how good defensively Williams has been the last few years and the scoring he's shown in preseason. I think it's the right move though. Brown has tons of potential and it's time to see what he can do. Apparently he's very strong defensively as well. Williams is more of an inside player at the 3, which the Celtics had more use for back when they had Antoine Walker as 4 playing a lot on the perimeter. Now that the Celtics will have more traditional power forwards playing down low, they need more of a slashing, athletic small forward in the mold of Kedrick Brown. Eric Williams will be a good anchor for the second unit.

The center and point guard spots are the ones most likely to see changes. Raef LaFrentz will probably become a starter in a few weeks once he becomes comfortable with the Celtics' system. Blount has been called the best center defender in camp by O'Brien, and Tony Battie continues to recover from offseason knee surgery by playing limited minutes. I doubt Battie will return to the starting lineup--there have been lots of trade rumors involving him lately. At the point, Mike James may lose the starting job in midseason if Marcus Banks shows that he's ready to take over the reigns.

I will be interested to see how O'Brien juggles minutes for the guys coming off the bench. Jumaine Jones and Walter McCarty also should get some time off the bench, with Jones even a possible starter down the road (Ainge is really high on him). The team has a real logjam at the 3 that O'Brien will have to deal with. I'm also curious how much of an opportunity Jiri Welsch will get to play and in what role. Finally, the big question for the season is whether Vin Baker will continue to make the positive contributions he's made during the preseason or regress to his old ways. If he's good, the Celtics should have the size and depth to be a playoff contender.

Bank of America Center

2003-10-28T16:04:00.000-05:00

In the wake of Bank of America buying Fleet, the head of BoA says he'd like to change the name of the arena from FleetCenter to Bank of America Center. I think this is definitely a worse name--Fleet, despite being a corporate name, had a nice, crisp, one-syllable feel. Bank of America Center is a pain to say and sounds kind of silly.

NBA Previews

2003-10-27T00:47:00.000-05:00

For now check this post on my other blog, Dimmy Karras, which links to several online NBA preview articles.