Daily Links 11/30

Nice article by Don Casey on nba.com, but there are two keys to beating Miami. The first, as Casey points out, is to beat Shaq up the floor. But the second is to turn Dwayne Wade into a jump shooter. If you let Wade get to the rim you are toast, because he will shoot 20 free throws. You must stay in front of him. You definitely go below the pick with a player like Wade.

A third key, I suppose, is to encourage Ricky Davis to shoot every time he touches the ball. That will take Miami out of its offense more effectively than anything the Celtics might do defensively.

McHale has himself a player. After thirteen games, AlJeff is averaging 21 points, 11 boards. The things that separate Garnett from AlJeff are Garnett’s ability pass from anywhere on the court, leadership abilities, and defensive intensity.

BTW,Isiah is the biggest horse’s behind in the NBA.

Every Celtic fan needs to read the article: “Red on Russell vs Bird”. It’s what the Celtics are all about. In one of the stories where Red told Russ he was going to be hard on him in practice and to just ignore him (Red). This was Red’s trick to motivate the other players. Many years ago I saw an interview with Red, Russ and one or two other Celtics. Red told that story and Russ responded by telling Red he was ready to kill him after awhile. Russ said that he (Russ) gave Red an “unlimited budget and that Red had gone over it”. All this with Russ’s great laugh. We don’t seem to have these great stories any more.

The Lex Nihil Novi piece on Russell and Bird was an interesting read.