Boston Celtics: The Big Green Machine

When a jump ball is the key play, you know you've just watched an ugly game.

After destroying their Atlantic Division rival Philadelphia 76ers at home, the Celtics took to the road and headed to the chilly north to take on the Minnesota Timberwolves. In what was billed as Al Jefferson against his former Boston Celtic squad and Kevin Garnett’s return to the franchise he carried for 12 seasons, it looked as like it was going to be the Oleksiy Pecherov show in route to a Minnesota win. Fortunately, that didn’t happen as the Boston Celtics held on to secure a 92-90 win.

The one shining star for the Celtics I saw last night (only caught the 2nd have) was Rajon Rondo. Yes, he benefited from some questionable defensive decisions by Minnesota as well as some great passing from Kevin Garnett, but he asserted himself in the third quarter, where he scored the majority of his team-high 18 points. He was also all over the place on defense, jumping passing lanes and finishing for uncontested fast break layups.

The Celtics’ defense, which is still the best in the league, had an off-night as they allowed the Timberwolves to shoot 52% from the floor as a team with Pecherov scoring a career-high 24 points on nine of 14 shooting. Al Jefferson had a good offensive game with 18 points, but was limited to only four rebounds and seemed to just be out-sized by both Kendrick Perkins and Rasheed Wallace. Their length really seemed to help them both defend him and keep him off of the glass.

The one reason, in my mind, why this game was so close was the shooting of the Boston Celtics. Shooting 44.6% from the floor (37-83) and a miserable 5-19 from three, they just didn’t have the fire power to run away with this game. They dominated the points in the paint category, but when it came to open jumpers, nobody on the team was knocking them down with any consistency. Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, Rasheed Wallace, Kevin Garnett, Eddie House… You name a player on the Celtics’ roster, he most likely wasn’t going to hit two consecutive jumpers in a row last night.

Being arguably the best team in the league will mean the Celtics will get their opponent’s best game night in and night out. If we head out on the road and shoot like we did last night, we’re going to need to find ways to win, which we did last night. That’s the sign of a championship team. That’s what we are seeing with this Boston Celtics squad.

Pierce's 21, Rasheed's 20 points off bench pace C's offense.

Another game, another blow out and I enjoyed every minute of it. The team came out very sloppy and fell behind 10-4 to start the game and ended up coming back and taking a two-point lead after the first quarter. The second team really took this game and put Philadelphia away in the 2nd period. Rasheed Wallace, Eddie House and Marquis Daniels all went to work in the quarter and allowed the Celtics to take an 8-point lead into the half. ‘Sheed and House were draining threes while Daniels went to work on Jason Kapono, who had no chance to stop him whatsoever.

The third quarter allowed the Celtics to extend the lead to 15 points, but it could have been so much more. The defense was stifling all game, holding the 76ers to just 36.2% shooting on the night, but watching the Celtics on offense in the third period was downright ugly at times. They were turning the ball over on almost every other possession (or so it seemed) and that’s what kept them from really blowing them out earlier than they did.

One huge number that stood out was the Celtics’ bench scoring 62 points. Philadelphia’s bench, on the other hand, only chipped in for 25 points. This is going to be how this team wins a bunch of games this season. Even when the starters come out and don’t exactly play well, you have faith that this bench will not only even the game up against the opposing bench, but they can easily take the game over.

One game after Rondo’s big extension, he only had five assists, but he played a great game. He was all over the place on defense, hitting the glass (even if it didn’t result in his own rebound) and knocked down a nice jumper, which he is definitely showing a grown confidence in. With five assists, he led the team in that category as the team amassed 27 assists on their 41 baskets over the course of the game. The 27 assists are nice, but the 17 turnovers have got to be tuned down a bit.

What it comes down to is that when you’re winning so convincingly, this is the time to nit-pick on the problems. When your team is high, you’ve got to knock them down a bit in practice and point out their deficiencies. Doc voiced his displeasure in the post-game press conference about the turnovers and the sloppy play in the third quarter. He also went on to say that he called a timeout because it just wasn’t a close game and wanted to keep it somewhat respectable and organized.

Other than the turnovers, there are absolutely no complaints from me on how this game was played by the Boston Celtics. They continue to steamroll any and every team that is put in front of them. Tomorrow night, they will be on the road again at Minnesota to visit our old friend, Al Jefferson. In what should be an easy win, let’s hope we can allow our starters to rest for the entire fourth quarter again to be ready for yet another back-to-back starting Friday night at home against the Suns.

Another win for the Boston Celtics. It looked like going into the half that the Celtics had a chance to run away with it, but Chris Paul just wouldn’t let it happen. It took a total team effort to secure this win, and that’s exactly what happened. The entire starting five contributed exactly how you would imagine them on a nightly basis and Rasheed came off the bench to chip in 12 points. Here’s a few notes from the game:

• Chris Paul is the quickest & fastest player in the league
• Paul Pierce can still carry a team offensively
• Rajon Rondo thinks he belongs in CP3’s elite group of point guards and was willing to fight him for it
• Rasheed Wallace’s threes may actually energize the crowd more than Eddie House’s
• Peja Stojakovic can still stroke it.
• Kevin Garnett looks fresh and springy, while his jumper is still smooth as ever
• Chris Paul showed in the 3rd quarter alone that, if he wanted, could average 30 points a game
• The Celtics’ big men were just too much for the Hornets (38 points combined for Garnett, Perkins and Rasheed)
• Kendrick Perkins will benefit greatly from that 8-foot jumper he’s developed
• Ray Allen punished Devin Brown and Chris Paul in the post in the 2nd quarter

We’ve run our record to 4-0 and look very good doing so. With an off day tomorrow, we head on the road for a back-to-back at Philadelphia and then at Minnesota. Thursday is a travel day to come home to take on the Phoenix Suns at home Friday, only to head back on the road to New Jersey for a game Saturday night. Four games in five nights will test this team’s stamina. Hopefully we can manage a blowout in one of those games to preserve some of the elder statesmen’s legs.