Preview: Celtics vs Timberwolves in London

Celtics will win by 10. Some will say it is just exhibition but on many levels like you say it is much more than that. I’ve got the game TIVO’d and I look forward to this as much as I would one of the first regular season games when the score counts.

3rd key matchup: Danny vs Kevin

In their first exhibition game the Timberwolves ran a typical Celtics’ style offense and defense. Except for Foye, the Timberwolves started Blount, Gomes, Ricky Davis and Jefferson (essentially an all Celtics’ team).

As far as knowing each other’s system, perhaps the benefit goes to the Celtics with three starters knowing what the Timberwolves will be doing (KG and Ray Allen excepted). As for the “Wolves” knowing what the Celtics will be doing…with the “Triple Threat” everything has changed, including the style of play. That was evident in the first game (which the Wolves no doubt already previewed).

As for efficiency, what the Wolves are presently doing didn’t work for the Celtics and (because the personnel haven’t changed much) won’t work for the Wolves.

I look for an early “bow-out” with the Celtics using more substitutions than game one (a far more challenging contest). Should the Wolves get real hot shooting (due to our fledgling defensive effort) the game could be interesting. Look for Ray Allen to snap back out of his shooting “funk”.

“A good coach will take that information and design a defense to stop it. Coaching will once again be crucial in this matchup.”

Well I think a team with the “Big 3” can win a preseason game against the Wolves without the “crucial” coaching. If coaching is crucial, the Celtics are doomed. ;D

it’s the celtics vs. the celtics- it can’t be better than that. since it’s preseason in london i don’t care who wins. it’s the matchups that count. i want perk to slam skippy, and i want rondo to control the tempo, and yes, make a jumper or so, within the flow. then, noone getting hurt. also let’s see the newer players like batista. i think wallace can outplay scal but scal will play more.too bad.

My only regret is that Kevin Garnett played somewhere else all these years. What a competitive, fun to watch/listen to character!

I could care less who wins. Would like to see some of the Uruguayan and a little more Big Baby and Wallace. And of course Rondo. A knockdown of Blount would be fun.

Funny post, Bankshot. Funny, but true.

I also don’t think the Blount/Perk matchup is a mismatch. It may be the only game Blount is motivated to play until the next game between the teams in Minny.

Moskqq, I watched the first Twolves exhibition game and they definitely weren’t playing Rivers’ defense. All 5 players weren’t out of position when the opponent’s shot went up every time.

This is going to be a competitive game. I believe the Twolves are going to be a lot more competitive team than people think this season.

KG vs Big AL?….It’s a no-win situation for Celtics fan, unless of course KG outplays Big AL leaving no-reasonable-doubt. We’ll see Big AL do his thing and think of what it’d have been while watching KG do his thing and reminding ourselves that we have a small window to win #17.

…today is a good day to play EBatista

Someone is getting injured in this game …

So are they not webcasting the preseason games like they did last year? I was really hoping to catch some of today’s game online…..

Except by “last year” I actually meant “this past Summer League”, but it appears that I’m a bit of a dunce today…

I’m seeing a lot of The Clash references with the Cs being in London. Now let me hear from all of you young pups. How many of you actually had the opportunity to see The Clash in concert? I did. Harvard Square 1979.

we definitely believe that^^ is a expected preseason game….

It will be great to see AJ, BG and GG. I would like them to do well. It would be also good to see KG, PP and RA play about 25 mins a game in pre-season. It is a long season and they are great pros. This is a good opportunity to see the last 7 players on the bench playing significant minutes in pre-season. This will help the Celtics make correct decisions with the players they should keep. Will the bench players execute plays offensively without turning the ball over and rotate on defense in a game situation.

I could care less about the size of our window. I’m enjoying the moment.

I assume there are a lot of Laker haters here so please check out the LA Times article about KG. It made my day and sure makes Ainge look pretty good.

As delicious as the KG/Big Al and Blount/Perkins matchups sound to us fans, I wonder it this is really the way the C’s will matchup on D. From what we have been reading about which of the other teams’ 2 bigs KG and Perk will cover in terms of the type of player, i.e., that Perk would take the bulkier big of the 2 to take the heat off of Garnett having to bang so much on D, couldn’t that potentially be Al in this matchup? Blount is far leaner and plays away from the hoop as we all know too well. He would seem a more ideal match for KG, and Perk has the strength to fight Al for deep post position, as well as having an idea or two about what Al will try to do in the post. I am sure these 2 battled in Waltham on more than one occasion. Who knows, maybe we will get the KG/Al matchup we crave since they were the centerpieces of the deal and we all want to see who matches up better mano-a-mano, but outside of the history and intrigue of this situation we are close to, based on type of game, Perk would be a more logical guy to cover Big Al, freeing KG from this heavy load on the defensive end. However they choose to match, it sure is going to be fun to watch!

Large James, how about a link.

Bob, why can’t I log into the chat? I keep getting the error connecting to the server message. Could this have to do with me being overseas.

All others, anyone able to access the NBA audio link? I keep getting some reg season game between the Wolves and Grizz

Sherif don’t like it

Ray Allen is looking good, real good.

A little less Umberto and little more FT practice is in order.

I’m not missing any of the young former Celtics. Cs appear to be on their way to a 10 pt win, early 3rdQ.

Pretty unimpressive effort. Pierce should have stayed home and Garnett kept turning the ball over. Fortunately, Ray Allen shot like Ray Allen and Perkins had a strong game. Batista was ok. Pruitt looked awful for the second straight game.

But the worst performance was Randy Foye, who didn’t do a single thing. He was actually outplayed by Telfair. The Wolves are in deep do do if they have to go with Telfair and Jaric at the point.

This was funny, both Ray Allen and Ricky Davis were on fire. Bottle that up and pour some of that on the regular season.

Celtics are doing the right thing, come out and win these exhibition games. Can you imagine the uproar if we lost to the Raptors by 12 and got edged by the T-wolves?

I’m going to live and die with the Big 3 this season. I will be interested on your analysis of the game too Jeff, keep up the good work.

In this case, exhibition does matter, get off to the good start and set a tone for a 58W season.

58 win season under Rivers? Are you kidding? Should be a little over 50 if you combine the regular season, the preseason and the first round of the playoffs.

In all the late game excitement the arrival of Baby Davis seemed to settle the Celtics. He certainly has excellent poise and court presence. His passing ablity and court vision has helped his teammates play better too. I look for him to crack the top 8-9 man rotation by midyear is he continues to progress.

Jeff, your prediction about Perk feasting on dishes to score uncontested layups was “on cue”. So also was I correct in predicting that when he does attract defensive pressure, even on dunks he’s vulnerable to being blocked. There are times when a quick one hand slashing dunk is far preferable to a “wind-up” two handed dunk.

The value of the “triple threat” was in evidence today as Ray Allen, unlike his Saturday performance, literally carried the team. I wonder if House was asked to function as a PG to set up others because he wasn’t looking for his shot today.

Gabe Pruit continues to be a deer blinded by headlights…or so it seemed. He could only look to pass the ball around the perimeter (like a hot potato) and certainly has yet to show that he can disrupt defenses with penetration. He too passed up shooting opportunities.

Batista has shown enough court presence and familiarity around the basket to warrant retention. He will play better with more NBA experience. He seems to have a high energy motor and the dedication to succeed. He’ll have to learn to master “fake” moves toward the basket to thwart sky-walking athletic freaks bent on blocking his shots. Too bad Jefferson’s gone, he could have taught Batista the art.

I do think we win 58W with or without Rivers due to the Big 3. If we fired Rivers and hired Coach A, B, or C; we will be looking back saying great move in getting this new coach. The Big 3 will make Doc look like a genius.

One downside that should have been addressed by the coaching staff was the over-reliance on Tony Allen as the “go-to” guy. Today Tony couldn’t hit the side of a barn door with his errant shots. Instead of defering to others (as Ray Allen eventually did last Saturday) Tony still tried to carry the load. He too should have recognized that there were 4 other players on the court. Even the inside was sealed to his penetration but he still bulled his way to TO’s. A PG mentality is not one of Tony’s attributes!

The main difference between the 2006-7 and 07-08 Celtics:

Two years ago Danny had his man crush on Sebastian Telfair, this summer it was KG.

Don’t be too critical of KG. Perhaps he should have realized that he was being heavily defended and not tried to do too much. The Wolves did a good job of keeping KG away from the boards and collapsing on him whenever he got the ball. KG will have time to adjust to playing with a new team and not always feel like he has to single-handedly carry the team. Ditto for Pierce and Ray Allen, but in their case I think the adjustments will come sooner.

What you saw today will happen all season long. Ray Allen on fire tonight, next game maybe it is Pierce, the next game maybe KG. Even if one or two are off, there is still an All Star to pick up the pieces and ride his coat tails. We are in for a fun year.

Even two years ago when it was Pierce and the Pups, on off nights Pierce still had the ability to take the rock to the rim and get 15 FT a game to keep us in games. If the whole team has an off game, Pierce will do that to give us a winning chance.

There are so many ways these Celtics will beat teams, I’m ready for the opening tip when games count. NBA pick your poison.

Yep, Ray Allen sssuuuree looked over the hill today! Just awful! You could tell that those ankles were bothering him and about to blow at any second! He’s just not he same Ray Allen . . .wow, what was Danny thinking trading for that 11-14, 5-8 3pt, 28 pts in 27 minutes over-the-hill veteran?

It’s impossible for Rivers to look like a genius. It’s also impossible for Rivers to preside over a 58 win team…Regardless of the roster. He’ll lose several games himself.

None of the big 3 are point guards. The only PG the team has can’t play 48MPG and probably won’t play 30. The team appears to be a mess without him on the court. Rivers does not have the ability to adjust to a zone….Let alone adjust to a press without a PG.

It was interesting to see Theo Ratliff starting, playing some 17 minutes, and doing a reasonable job on defense. The announcers wondered if Minnesota was going out of its way to market his contract.

LOL at iowa. People will always find something to complain about I guess. Why don’t you think Rondo will play 30 minutes? House has been decent in the backup PG role in terms of his ballhandling. Doc hasn’t really done a single questionable thing in the two preseason games. At least let him screw up before you nail him. IMO, it’s going to be really difficult to screw up when you have a GREAT starting 5 with a pretty good balance of offense-defense. You have two solid vets in House and Posey off the bench to add stability. You have a big potential weapon off the bench if TA gets healthy. And finally you have 4-5 options at the PF-C positions off the bench. The team is stacked.

Let me just mention that the Doc coached team of GP, Ricky, Pierce, Raef, Blount, and .3 of Antoine won 45 games. This roster owns that roster. I think Doc will be fine.

On Doc, I have not been a big supporter of his in the past several years but I give him this:

1) he is liked by his players and it seems like he has gained the confidence and respect of Pierce,

2) with 3 All Stars you don’t want to micromanage every detail and I don’t think that will be a problem Doc has or may ever have
 3) to a certain extent a lot of what happens out there is going to be directed by the Big 3 and I think the Big 3 will make Doc or coach X look like a genius this year.

 4) we hired a defensive assistant specialist and that will pay dividends along with KG’s great D and boards

 5) Clifford Ray is one of the best big man coaches and he will tutor Perk all year which will shine on Doc too,

 6) this line up is set and except for figuring out the bench which is what much of preseason is all about, there isn’t a lot that a coach can screw up as in the past several years with rotations.

If you put me on the back of Secretariat, I am going to look like one great jockey. The Big 3 horses are taken Doc for a ride.