St. Patrick's Day Miracle

what can we say? Jefferson, PP, West, Oden/Durant…that is some core. Add in Tony who we just CAN’T forget was better than West, Gomes, Perk, RONDO, Powe….well its enough for a title….we also have the Wally piece and can add a vet free agent. We can win a titel next year if we ignite or two years if we grow more slowly

one of the most enjoyable games of the year (except for the giving up the lead part). I still can’t help but smile about this win.

I could care less if we win another game all year. Today’s win just tells me that next year the league will finally see the return of the Celtics.

holy crap: we are so loaded, I forgot about Gerald….well I have thought all along we were close and we are just ridiculous now as these guys pan out…

so how did Al do against Duncan…:>) how about them apples1

Great win by the Celtics. Beating a team that has three extra players on the court all night made this win 1000 times better.

Great win, Jeff you couldn’t have written it any more perfect. I never thought we would put up 2 great games back to back against 2 of the best teams in the league. We’re back baby, watch out.
This team deserved it, I’m especially happy for PP.

Spurs blogger (see other article) asked for it and he got it. He’ll probably not learn that he shouldn’t tempt the fates, but he did and they came though. Thanks for the help.

Lot of factors Spurs blogger (other article) converged to create some good Celtic karma and he just added to that mix along with some terrific play by the Celts. A really good Texas trip that points to the good stuff beginning to happen for this team and some of the green talent of this Green team beginning to blossom. Jeff is right that this is an important win for the team and the value of learning to win this kind of game will payoff in the not too distant future.

That is a great photograph, Jeff. Did you notice Timmy talking to Rajon during free throws? He even went out of his way to say a few words to him after the game was over. I mention it because Tim isn’t exactly a chatty guy. He usually minds his own business out there, so him talking to a rookie point guard kind of sticks out. I think that he likes the kid.

Spurs Shmers… HELL YEAH!

Wow, how good does this feel.

We have waited a long, long, long time for this.

Great to see Big Al keep on keeping on, Paul is still “The Truth” and Rajon ?? Are you kiddding me, 14 rebounds !!!!!!! Now that is nasty, this kid’s upside is just plain awesome.

I love this team more and more by the day and if God can smile on us and give us a top two pick, then look out.

Love the winning, love the winning.

Stick that in your pipe Bill Simmons, this is what the players say to tanking.

Go the Green, this is one of the highlights of the decade so far.

Cheers

Aussie

ok, new strategy.. lets beat dallas, cleveland, detroit and miami in coming games.. but lets loose to the bad teams so we can still get Durant

:P

I’m sorry, but the San Antonio “curse” has no significance beyond being a weird statistic. It isn’t like this is some team that has blocked the Celtics path to the Finals or something. It’s simply a tale of two franchises, one of which has won three NBA titles during the "streak,’ the other which has become a league laughingstock. If people want to pretend this is a big step, go ahead, but next season, unless we get Oden, I’d still rather be the Spurs.

Gee, I thought it would be the worst thing ever for this team to lose. How does it feel now?
So can we stop the tank talk now?

That’s an amazing picture. If Jefferson had been making a badass face and had his hands on his hips it would have been perfect. It’ll just have to settle for amazing.

We beat a good team, and now we are on the verge of greatness? I agree with George. This team has been the joke of the NBA for quite a while. We won an insignificant GAME. Let’s win a few playoff series, and then we can talk about Rondo and West being good players. None of these guys have won a thing (except Pierce). We are so starved for any hope that Jeff turns a meaningless win into a sign of the second coming. It’s NOT. Going deep into the playoffs IS.

Aussie said:
Go the Green, this is one of the highlights of the decade so far.

Have we sunk so low? That beating a good team in a meaningless game is a highlight of the decade? The Celtics of old used to beat good teams with regularity — it was expected. I want THOSE days back.

Yes it was a meaingless game, but it does say something about this team. I was at the game (I live in San Antonio) and have to say I felt all game long that the talent edge actually went to Boston in this game. Al and Pierce are two bonafide top-shelf scorers in this league, and Rondo, though flawed, gives this team an athleticism advantage even against the likes of Tony Parker, one of the fastest points in the league. West, Perkins, Green, they’re all growing up, all of these guys can play — I honestly believe we have enough bullets now to beat most teams. The Spurs played hard and still lost, although they made some uncharacteristic mistakes and obviously would still beat us most nights. But now that Al is for real, and Pierce is back, we’re just a different team. That inside-out combo makes us very tough to defend. All we really lack right now is shooting from the 1 spot and interior defense. An Oden, Horford or even a Noah would radically transform this team I think — just a little more bulk and a little more length and we’re going to be too tough for most teams. A big 4 with range playing alongside Al (Durant or Jianlian?) would make us a tremendous scoring team but I think our defense would still be a weakness… either way I love the talent on the club and I think it’s all starting to pay off.

And the miracle is we did it without Veal. If only the missus would keep having kids.

Sweeeeeet Lucky!!!!!!! :)

The value of young legs can’t be overlooked, especially when TO’s are held in check in crunch time.

Fire Danny! Fire Doc! No Defense! No offense! Where oh where was Scal when we needed to check the MVP from Dallas? The value of Scal was most apparent by his absence. He’s been defensively under-rated all season! Wasn’t he listed as one of Danny’s biggest mistakes?

I’m most pleased with the developing chemistry, ball and player movement as well as increased trust deep into the roster (ala Allan Ray, Gerald Green etc.).

Agree with Don. Durant would be awesome, he would make our offense ridiculous. Defense could still be an issue though. Last nght you saw what makes the Spurs great. Duncan. His interior defense is the heart of why they lead the league almost every year in fewest points allowed. Oden could bring that for us. Put Oden in the middle with an improving Al at the four and Rondo and Tony on the perimeter. Wow!

Oden’s immaturity was apparent with his 5th foul…shoving a player off the court as in retaliation…especially with so much at stake. If he keeps that “little boy” attitude he’ll never become the “money” player most experts project. Contrast his immaturity with that of Duncan and you begin to understand that he has a long way to go to become a dominant leader!

I dont hold much stock in curses, but the Spurs (and Mavs) have been a hurdle the club couldnt clear for a long time. Playing them toe to toe and chin to chin on BACK TO BACK nights speaks well for the development of these Celtics. Huzzahs are in order, or as a famous correspodnent says, “hiiie a-five.”

The Spurs have also managed to drop home contests to the Bucks and Bobcats this season, so they may be suffering from a little ADD. The sad part is the Celtics may be playing well enough to take them out of a top two pick. If I was a betting man, I’d wager that the Jordan Bobcats will win the lottery and the Grizzlies will get the #2 slot.

it might not mean anything statistically, but it means something symbolically. the c’s have had a lot of players come in and out of here the past few years and none could come close to beating these guys. sure, the spurs didn’t respect us last night. did they respect us in any of the other games we lost to them? no, and we still couldn’t beat them. not even close, on most occasions. so it’s okay to be a little bit elated over this one.

 this team is not the team that lost 18 straight. if the season was starting over today we’d be in the playoff mix.

That was a great win because the Spurs were all out in the 4th Qtr. They weren’t mailing it in. Pierce was it. The shot over Bowen was amazing and taking the charge on Ginobili sealed the game. The big question was why did Doc put Gerald in at the end on Ginobili and keep Rondo on the bench. Gerald was clueless on D (in Dallas too but was scoring there). Gerald will develop. I’m a fan of his but that was a coaching mistake and Pierce saved the day.

all part of the drill…Danny messed up and wasted 2 yrs by bringing O’B&Walker back…tried to have his cake and eat it to-did not work…this team with a healthy Pierce is a 43-45 win team and the same roster would improve in yrs to come but a nice pick/FA/trade could vault us up in a hurry toward 50 …every player has improved ,albeit Telfair was not good after we got Rondo,played hard and wants to be here…we’re in perfect position for longterm success and the win last nite is a sign of things to come

Wildblue…my guess is that b/c the spurs were doubling using Rondo’s man. Gerald and Ray’s shooting ability force Spurs defenders to stay out higher. This allowed Pierce to have the one on ones with Bowen. If Rondo had been on the floor, Parker probably would have doubled PP. Also, since Bowen was out on the floor, Rondo’s defense was not as badly needed, b/c the C’s could gamble off of him a little, which they did. This led to Bowen putting it on the floor, his turnover and Green’s dunk.

I see the logic in this, but it was still a gamble on Doc’s part. Besides, GG will learn from being on the floor in such situations.

Just a great win…Period!
Would I have taken a 2-3 point loss?…Readily.
Once it went final, I don’t think Charlotte (as in Tank-City Carolina) didn’t score another point in their game)…
With that win, we are still four wins short of our nearest competitor in the draft (except of course, Memphis who won also last night, begrudgingly!)
If, perchance, we allow that win to take us out of the 2nd most ping-pong balls, it would be bad business and could put Duncan on a par with Babe Ruth!
Lawrence Ferlinghetti once wrote something like, “The world’s a great place to be born into/ if you don’t mind bombs bursting in your upturned faces/…For me, this is no time to prove just how good a team we can be…It is a time for "Tinkering” and seeing how our lesser played players fit into the big scheme, and then moving forward…Stay the course: no tanking…no trying to drop below Memphis, but no charging passed Charlotte or Milwaukee either…Walk softly in order to acquire the big stick…I wish I were sure of this philosophy…I am not.

It was a good win. Shows that we do have some talent. Doc did his best to tank this game at the start of the 4th quarter. But I think Doc got caught up in the excitement that we had a chance to win. Little Rondo in the 4th quarter. Of course, it Doc had Scal available we would have lost for sure.

Did you see how dominating Dunken was in the middle during the 4th qtr. That’s what we still need.
The H—- with veterans (Scal & Wally), we need talent added to this mix, another gifted Big Man.

Got to love the team ball being played.

The win wasn’t a miracle. They held the Spurs to one basket in the last 5 1/2 minutes of the game. They won the game with good defense, which tends to be the result of hard work, not miracles.

Look, it’s easy to overstate the significance of this game, but it’s also wrong to be too cynical and say “ho-hum, this was just another game.” Clearly this was not a meaningless win. It takes quality wins for a young team to come together and believe in itself, and it especially takes quality wins for a guy like Paul Pierce (for whom this was certainly NOT just another game) to have faith in his young teammates and to trust in the team concept. The momentum has been building towards a win like this for awhile. I think people are excited because we see a core that is making major strides on a game-to-game basis, that works hard and is likeable, that (most of the time) plays an exciting brand of basketball, that is dynamic (traditional post player who can dominate inside, do-it-all point guard who finds the open man, slam dunk champion with unlimited offensive potential, etc.), and that can only improve from here.

What people are realizing is that this season of horrors is not so horrible because the team is improving and coming together day by day. If we just get a little luck in the draft and stay healthy, I don’t think it is unreasonable to expect big things in the near future, which of course is what we all want (I suppose; although sometimes I think that some posters prefer the team to be bad).

I was cringing midway through the fourth quarter when San Antonio made their push. The disparity between the refs calling blocks on grey jerseys and fouls on green jerseys was staggering. I can’t stand the superstar foul/no foul preference calls- Big Al got swallowed up underneath what, Duncan, Ginobili and Finley and there was no whistle, but when Big Al stands still with his hands straight up while Duncan barrels into his chest he gets called for a foul. It was absurd.

Speaking of absurd…
The NBA lottery is like David Stern’s personal fate-making deus ex machina. Until the ping-pong balls are drawn on national television surrounded by reputable third-party election fraud watchdogs and certified as legitimate, I haven’t seen any reason to assume that there is any corelation between the win-loss ranking percentages and the actual draft order that they trot out. The whole thing just reeks of a dog and pony show. Tank schmank. Winning games- especially tough road games versus legitimate teams- is the only absolutely sure-fire way to improve an NBA team when all is said and done.

Anyway, I wasn’t intending to rant about this. I’m proud of those guys, cause whether or not the Spurs respected the Celts coming into this game, whether or not they took them seriously, the Celts outplayed a top-tier Spurs squad and beat them at home despite the stilted officiating. You have to expect that the Spurs (and every other team in the NBA) will have a little bit more respect for the Celts next time they play. Great win, stuff the lottery.

Brick actually made a comment w/o ripping Doc….lol…Musta been the good feelings from a St Patty’s Day party….

Great picture, Jeff! That is a picture of… The Untouchables. ;D

Yes- love that picture. i wouldn’t call this a miralce (how about battle?) but I found myself staying up after the game just to see the highlights on SportsCenter which I haven’t done in a long time (partly because the C’s have been so bad, but also because SC is pretty horrible these days).

Resiliency is the area I feel the C’s, as a team, have improved the most in. I really, honestly feel Doc has done a great job this year.

a great game. the difference between winning now and losing to san antone all those years- we finally have a 20-10 guy down low, who may not match duncan, but surely can somewhat neutralize what tim does, opening up room for the others to shine, which is what pp did. gee, we didn’t miss the great scal defense. 14 rebounds from the point guard- did we ever even get 10 from scal?

It was an important win also because at some point, being competitive is not a lofty enogh goal for the young players. They need to learn first hand what it takes to beat a top tier team. The next step is consistency.

I dont care if we win the rest of our games and play ourselves out of the lottery I love this team

I agree with what was said as a negative about Oden. We haven’t seen enough of him frankly and we have seen a lot of Noah.There are Noah haters here but see what happened again in his big game play: he never missed a shot in his last game and was just EVERWHERE on d. He is going to be a GREAT fit on our team. Id do prefer Oden and then Durant but if things happene and DA drafts Noah I am thinking we might all be shocked how perfectly he fits. He is smart on the coart and if Fla wins it again we are going to get one seasoned winner. I worry about getting Wright. I think of the those 4 he has the highest odds of being a bust. We can’t afford to get a high pick and get a bust

and those of you who are saying this didn’t matter: on back to back nights, and on the road, we just played perhaps the two best teams in the league even. And guess what? Tony is out, PP is playing hurt, Perk is playing hurt, Wally is out, and these additional players of ours are going to get better: Green, and Al and Rondo Further guess what? We are going to get a great player in the draft. We have a good chance to be the best team in the league in 2 years

untouchables? any of them goes for Durant….in a NY Minute…he’s the goods

Motown said:
  untouchables? any of them goes for Durant….in a NY Minute…he’s the goods

No they don’t because if we get Durant, it will be because we drafted him, not because we traded for him.

But!!!! my point is if we get the 3rd pick i’d trade one to move up to get Durant…i hope you are right though…i’d give up the 3rd pick and any 2 guys EXCEPT BOTH!!!! AL&Pierce….any other 2 and the pick if needed…the kid is the goods,a top 10 NBA guy today-Mar 18th 2007

THIS win…..better than aspirin!

When Rondo gets jumper, he’s going to be a triple-double threat nightly. One of the underlooked dimensons of our backcourt — Rondo, D-West, and Pierce — is that they’re all excellent rebounders for their size.

And let’s not forget who DIDN’T contribute to the win: Theo, Wally, and Scal. That’s three expensive pieces of dead wood we need to get rid off to become a legit contender.

the Bucks have won twice this year against San Antonio. Guess we’ll be fighting them for the Eastern Conference championship next season.

In this case one Win does a season make.
On another subject: Not only was Scalibrine absent but so was Gomes. It seems as if Doc expletive on the draft has given the team a new mamtra. you can see it in their walk et al even when losing. you can tell they just want to work hard all game long ewvery game. we will win a few more games this year and the draft as well.

I think we know where we stand if we were to start the season over now. With PP and Big Al, the Celts have a 35-45 win team. Even though last night was more than great, reality is that every now and then PP can win the game solely based on his great shooting and scoring. We still need a top 2 pick, and we need Allen, Rondo, West, Green, Gomes, and Perk to be at least 20% better. Then we will be contenders. And a new coach of course.

Beating a Spurs team that as one poster said had “ADD” is a window on the future? Please. This team has two valuable pieces, period: PP and AJ. Allen is out of the league if he isn’t playing for the Celts. West, Rondo, Gomes and Perk are role players are best. West isn’t a point guard and is not big enough to play 2. Rondo can’t shoot. At all. Gomes is undersized and can be made a liability at any point in the game by a simple substitution. Perk is a stiff. I really, really, really wish everyone would come back to planet Earth and soberly evaluate the talent we have. It is not a good team. And we have a horrible coach, a GM who can’t make trades that improve the team, and an owner who is more concerned with presentation and the bottom line than winning. Unless things change dramatically this off-season, prepare to be at the bottom of the barrel next year.

I should add one thing to the above comment: GG is an unknown quantity at this point. Athleticism that is off the scale, for sure, but that and a $1.75 will buy you a cup of Joe at Dunkin Donuts. He can shoot, but he really isn’t a great ball handler. I don’t think he will be a star, but he will be a special player off the bench at some point in his career — one of those pieces that helps you win championships.

Total brain-fart 2 comments ago — I meant to say Allan Ray is out of the league if not playing for the Celts, not Tony Allen.

greenkite, you may want to compare Gerald’s numbers over this season to Rip Hamilton’s first year in the league or Joe Johnson’s first two — which is more than fair since Gerald was a high schooler and those guys played college ball. Anyway, the numbers are nearly identical.

Success doesn’t happen overnight — look at Big Al. For a 21 year-old to be shooting 40% from 3 is AMAZING. At the absolute worst, he’s gonna be Dale Ellis.

Regarding Oden. He is a freshman. Duncan played four years in college. Sometimes we forget that. But I don’t think that foul was flagrant. I can’t worry about where we finish. The odds on the lottery are based on 1000 combinations. If you drew it 1000 times Memphis would have the best shot. But they only draw it once and even though Memphis will have the most ping pongs, usually the worst team does not win. I see improvement in our youngs. Plus even if we end up picking 3rd or 4th, a Julian Wright or Noah can really help this team.

That photo says volumes. And Duncan heaping praise on Jefferson is significant. Tim just doesn’t say much, ever.

As far as Duncan V. Oden, it’s not a content. Duncan was a 4 yr player coming from a high profile school in a (if I remember correctly) very competitive conference. Oden is only part of the way there. I do think he’ll be a player, but there will be a learning curve.

Remember Duncan came to a team with DRob in All Star form (coming off an injured year) and a roster of solid vet role players. He just needed to fit in. Oden, being much greener (heh) will be asked to do more.

Reggie Lewis can finally rest in peace…

People on this site overreact to anything positive on this team. I still remember the Brandon Hunter 20 rebound game a few years ago and everyone proclaiming we were “set” with the big man of the future. You people make me laugh on a consistent basis….thank you.