Everybody knows Paul Pierce can score.  His reputation in the NBA is that of a tenacious scorer, capable of tormenting defenders and taking over offensively for stretches, using his combination of size and grace to muscle or slash his way into the lane or to the rim or to create space for his silky smooth mid-range jumper.  Unfortunately for Pierce, this is all he's been known as, and for several years he has been seen as only a ball-hogging chucker who couldn't defend anyone, more focused on padding his stats on an irrelevant team than winning games.  While this characterization seems fitting enough given the performances of him and his team for the past few seasons, this season Pierce has shown to the world what dedicated Celtics fans have known for years, that Pierce is a well rounded and versatile player on both ends of the floor, both willing and able to do whatever it takes to get his team a win.

Continue reading "The Complete Truth"

It's only been two days of blogging here at Boston Celtics News, but already I'm going to stray away from the Celtics in order to address a pressing question about my other hometown team, the Portland Trail Blazers.  The question, posed to me last night at the bar by none other than Wizard Whitebread, was "what do you think the Blazers should draft this year?"  It's something that I've been thinking about for a while now, but I haven't really been able to come up with an answer that completely satisfies me.

The answer to the Wizard's question isn't as simple as most "draft needs" questions are because the Blazers have been playing all season without one of the two central players on their roster, center and 2007 number one overall pick, Greg Oden.  Because they're playing as an incomplete unit without a player who is going to greatly impact the game on both ends of the floor, it's all but impossible to accurately evaluate the team's needs.  Who knows how the Blazers will play individually and as a team with Oden on the floor? It's not that everything we see the Blazers do this year is useless as a measuring stick more the future, but evaluations of the performance of the team and individual players this season must be taken with a grain of salt.

Continue reading "The Oden Dilemma"

The Celtics handled their business tonight.  They beat the Indianna Pacers in convincing fashion tonight, becoming the first NBA team this season to reach the 60 win plateau.  The Celtics played an excellent team game on both ends, stifling the Pacers, the NBA's 3rd highest scoring team, and holding them to a mere 77 points.  Garnett led the way for the Celtics with 20 points and 11 rebounds and Leon Powe sparkled off of the bench, contributing 14 points and 9 rebounds on an energetic 5 of 8 shooting performance.

The most interesting and uplifting part of tonight's game was watching Jermaine O'Neal play in limited action.  It feels like the first time in forever that I've seen O'Neal on the court, and although he's not yet completely back to form, he showed some flashes of his old self tonight against Boston's league leading defense.  O'Neal had 12 points in 20 minutes off of the bench on 3 of 6 shooting, adding 3 rebounds and one resounding block. 

Continue reading "Ball Movement and Returning to Form"

It's been reported that Paul Pierce has been icing his knees lately and wouldn't mind a rest.  While this may seem troubling to Celtics fans, it's actually just a nice means for me to explain for the 365,872 time why it is soooooo nice to play in the Eastern Conference of the NBA.

While nine superb basketball teams are sweating out the last two weeks of the season in the tightest playoff race we've ever seen in the NBA, the Boston Celtics will be resting and tuning up for the playoffs.  While I'll admit that there's nothing like playing two weeks of playoff basketball just to get into the playoffs to tune your squad up and focus them mentally, I still think that the Celtics have a huge advantage and will be the most prepared to make a championship run come playoff time.

Continue reading "God Bless the "Leastern" Conference"

Yesterday, I wrote about the Celtics easy schedule heading into their likely first round match up with the Atlanta Hawks.  Today, after watching Cleveland lose to Larry Hughes and Ben Gordon and the Chicago Bulls (the only reason they even get a nod is because of Noah's last second defense on King James, otherwise I'd feel fine about disavowing their existence), I'm just itching to unnecessarily criticize the Cavs and explain to my massive audience (there's at least four of you by now, right?) why I'm salivating at the mere thought of a second round playoff match-up with Cleveland.

Though almost every sportswriter has written at least one column about how nobody in their right mind wants to play LeBron James in the Eastern Conference Playoffs this year, I say bring 'em on! You may think that I'm drinking some funny Kool-Aid here, or that I'm writing this in a closed room with an open bottle of toxic glue or something, but trust me, I'm just a little ragged from our wonderful adventure to Union Jack's last night (thanks to Linds, Raymond and Wizard Whitebread for providing the inspiration, motivation, and all thos e singles, by the way).  I digress, but there's plenty of good reasons why the Celtics want to see Cleveland coming to Boston in the second round this year.

Continue reading "I Swear I'm Not Crazy..."

No NBA yesterday, instead I had to settle for March Madness, boo hoo.  It was a great game, and despite the loss I still think that Derrick Rose is the best player in college right now and should be the no. 1 overall pick in the upcoming NBA draft.  He's incredibly athletic, has a great sense of the game, a high basketball IQ and most importantly is, by all accounts, an excellent leader and teammate.  Michael "Beastly" is incredible as well, I just think Rose's ability to make his teammates better and his upside are tremendous.  Also, Chris Douglas Roberts and Mario Chalmers were amazing, to put it mildly.

In other news, I was attempting to write an enlightening post that went more in depth into the potential Boston/Cleveland Playoff match-up using lots of comparative statistics (still awake? anyone? Bueller?), but Mozilla freaked out on me and I lost all my work.  Yay.  So, the moral of the story is, I'm doing everything in Word from now on.  How sad is that?  I'm choosing to trust my valuable insights and work with a Microsoft product over you, Mozilla (take that!).  That's also why I didn't post anything yesterday.  By the way, I am so sorry to have left you, my vast and still growing audience (What are there now, five of you, six, seven even?  Maybe to greedy?  Let's stick with five) in such anticipation of my next nugget of wisdom for so long.

Continue reading "A Pu-Pu Platter of Coming Attractions"

You can't spell "Los Andgeles" without a 'd.'  Oh wait, yes you can!  "Los Angeles," see?  No 'd,' there you have it (Look what my college degree gets me!).  Maybe that's why the Los Angeles Lakers (no "d" there either!) don't play it very well.  I don't even need to back that statement up, either (but fear not, I'm going to!).  The proof is in the pudding, and by pudding I mean last night's loss to the Trail Blazers in Portland.

Now, you might be attempting to chastise me right now for only using last night's game as an indicator of LA's 'd'eficiency (har-har), but remember, I can't hear you (no comments thus far, anyhow).  Besides, boys and girls, you should know by now that I've got the stats to back it up (I'm good for it, I swear!).  What's that you say?  Stop fooling around and get on with it?  Right, here we go.

Continue reading "There's No 'D' in Los Angeles"

First of all, today Gilbert Arenas totally backed up my assertion that the Cavs (despite LeBron James) are ripe for the picking in the Playoffs.  I was openly questioning my sanity then, and now I suppose that I should feel a bit vindicated, since I've been backed up by an superstar player.  The only problem is that Gilbert Arenas himself is certifiably nuts, and so I think I actually feel worse about my mental health, but better about my NBA IQ.  Now, on to business. 

Well, the NBA regular season is finally winding down, at least in the East.  Unlike the West, where the standings and playoff seedings change hourly, the Eastern Conference Playoff match-ups are pretty much locked in.  The Celtics have already completed the greatest single season turnaround in the history of the Association, and have rejuvinated the Franchise and rekindled the city's love for basketball.  The Celtics have been doing everything right this year, and they have an NBA best 64 wins as proof that this has been the case.

Continue reading "Not to Beat a Dead Horse..."

Don't blame me for this, it's just that time of year.  Sadly, the Celtics are still in cruise control and I have to do something to fill the void between now and Saturday.  So, for lack of anything better to write about, I suppose I'll put my two bits in about the various award races going on in the NBA.  If I eventually tail off and stop writing mid-sentence, it's because I'm just as bored with the subject as you'll be (actually, if you stick with it longer than I do, I'll be impressed!).  And I suppose it is the popular question du-jour, so let's get down to it.

For this season, I think that the best way to determine the winner of the MVP is to put four names (Garnett, Kobe, Chris Paul, and LeBron) into a hat and just pick one.  I think that one could make an equally strong case for any of those four players for a variety of different and deserving reasons.  Absent drawing one at random, I'm leaning slightly towards Chris Paul, though I expect Kobe to win it and I understand why.  

Continue reading "Award Tour"

Seeing as its the first day of the NBA Playoffs, I'm going to be doing a bit of live blogging and writing throughout the course of the day.  This way you'll be able to follow my flip-flopping analysis throughout the flow of the games.  As usual, however, I was not out of bed in time to catch the start of the first game, so although I know you're dying to hear my take on the first quarter of the Wizards-Cavs game, you'll just have to settle for the last three.  Without further ado, here goes.

Wow, within 30 seconds of turning on the Washington/Cleveland game, I feel like I've already seen the best they have to offer.  Some good Cavs defense combined with sloppy play by the Wizards (no way!) leads to a turnover and a fastbreak opportunity for LeBron & Co.  The play ends with Daniel Gibson throwing a horrible lob that seems waaaaaaay to high for anyone to go get, and of course, LeBron James taking flight and throwing it down in jaw dropping fashion that illicited a huge "ooooooooooh" from the crowd.  Check Sports Center later, you will see it, I promise.  As the Wizards execute their next possession, LeBron gets the block, proving once again that he is the Cleveland Cavaliers.  James is doing it all, and making his teammates look especially good in the process.  In other words, business as usual in Cleveland. 

Continue reading "Playoff Extravaganza Part One: Wizards vs. LeBron James"

If you don't know what the scoop is for today, I suggest you take a look at my first post from today (the one before this post about the Wizards/Cavs).  For anyone who says that San Antonio plays boring basketball, I refer you to this game.  The atmosphere is intense, and the level of play couldn't be higher.  It's overtime, Suns up by 3 butStoudemire has just fouled out.  San Antonio has the ball with 12.6 left on the clock, and after Phoenix blankets Manu Ginobili, he finds Tim Duncan who just drilled the game tying 3-pointer (his first of the season) with three seconds to go (Mike D'Antoni's  facial expression was priceless).  This season's NBA playoffs are already surpassing all expectations, as we are now headed to double overtime in just the second game (LeBron's throw-down in the first game was also unreal) of this year's playoffs.

Continue reading "Playoff Extravaganza Part Two: Suns v. Spurs"

Sucks to the site server man, I've been getting blocked (like Scalabrine) by the website and unable to post for a few days.  I'm sorry, and it angers me more than it does you I'm sure.  Anyhow, here is my lovely post, it's not even stale yet! 

First, so y’all don’t think I’m just hopping on this bandwagon, read my first ever post on Boston Celtics News here.  The writing was on the wall then, and now it's as plain as day.  Last night, Rajon Rondo turned in a great performance that showed how far he’s come this year and flashes of the potential of future of his game.

Rondo was a key contributor for the Celtics on Sunday and made a huge impact on both ends of the floor, providing perhaps the best stat line (at least the most well-rounded) of the night for the Celtics.  Rondo scored 15 points on 6 of 9 shooting from the field, dished out nine assists (with no turnovers!), grabbed six rebounds and added two steals to fill out the stat sheet.  Rondo was part of an all around dominating effort by the Celtics who turned the screws on the Hawks with lockdown defense that fueled their offensive production.

Continue reading "Rondo On a Roll, Plus Superstars Shining Bright"

Somebody pinch me, I must be dreaming.  It seems as though the Atlanta Hawks lost their scripts for games 3 and 4 of this first round series against my beloved Boston Celtics, and are ad-libbing some kind of horrible nightmare that currently has the series headed back to Boston tied at two games apiece.  I guess they didn't fully read the lay-down-and-die directive that the media handed them and decided to spice things up a bit.  Kudos to them, but I'm not sweating yet (and not just because it's still goddamned cold here in Portland).

First of all, the Hawks have played just about as well as they possibly can in their two home games, making the Celtics look sluggish and a bit old with their overwhelming athleticism on both ends of the floor.  Joe Johnson and Josh Smith have played out of their mind, particularly down the stretch of last night's win in Atlanta, and Josh Childress and Al Horford have also been making solid contributions on offense and defense as well. 

Continue reading "Should I be Worried Yet?"