Big plays in 4th propel Celts over 76ers
by Jimmy Toscano on Nov 25, 2009 11:57 PM EST
in Boston Celtics Games
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PrintIt took three quarters for someone on the Celtics to show up and help out Paul Pierce, but finally Rajon Rondo decided to be that player. Paul Pierce finished the game with 27 points, six rebounds, and six assists, but none of those stats are as important as the one charge that he took late in the game. Rajon Rondo ended with 10 points, four rebounds, seven assists, and two steals, one of which came at a key point late in the game. Eight of Rondo's points came in the fourth quarter, as the Celtics defeated the Philadelphia 76ers, 113-110.
With Pierce holding the ball at the top of the key, Kevin Garnett came to set a pick on his defender. Pierce, dribbling to the right, drew both defenders leaving Garnett open- exactly the same play that won the game for the Celtics against the Knicks on Sunday. This time, however, Garnett found Rajon Rondo cutting to the basket. Rondo received the ball under the hoop and continued to dribble through the paint as the shot clock wound down. It was a Rajon Rondo baseline turn around fade away jumper as the shot clock expired to put the Celtics ahead by four with 9.6 seconds to play, and after exchanging numerous fouls, the Celtics escaped with a victory.
After tonight's performance, according to Doc Rivers, all Pierce has to do tomorrow is cook Thanksgiving dinner and he will have officially done it all.
"He's been MVP to me," said Rivers. "Not only just with his play, but all over. He's doing everything you ask him to do. He's guarding guys, he's rebounding, he's making shots, he's taking charges, I mean, I don't know what else."
Kevin Garnett is quick to point out that it was Pierce who carried this team to victory tonight.
"...I really think tonight's game was Paul Pierce's will on the game," Garnett said. "I thought he and Rondo actually made the bigger impacts. When you look at all the big shots that were made, it was Paul Pierce making the play for a teammate. I thought Rondo got in there, took over the game for about a nice little stretch where he gave us some momentum but tonight was all P. Pierce. He's the truth man. He took charges. When we needed a bucket, he got buckets."
Again though, the fact that it took Rondo until the fourth quarter to show any signs of life is still an issue. You can credit his performance to the fact that the Sixers were shying away from him too much, or that the Celtics used a smaller lineup filled with shooters.
"[Rondo] has a gear," Rivers said. We would like him in that gear a little bit more, obviously, but he picks and chooses and sometimes in the right way.
Pierce thinks that the jumper that Rondo hit late in the game can give him a real confidence boost.
"Usually shots like that does give a player confidence," Pierce said after the game. "I remember my first game winner that I made, back when I was first-second year in the league, I just felt like I could do it all the time in the game. It just gave me a lot of confidence in those situations, so hopefully it could do the same for Rondo."
"It was a big shot," said Rasheed Wallace, who had eight points on the night and shot 2-6 from beyond the arc. "Even though that wasn't the drawn up play, but still to have the confidence in your teammates knowing that they can hit shots. That's something that you need down the stretch. Because lets say this was a playoff game and it came to him hitting that shot. We're not sitting there ‘oh, is he going to make it?' no we got the confidence in him that he is going to make it."
The saying goes "live by the three, die by the three", and recently the Celtics have been doing a little bit of both. They almost died by it tonight, shooting 7-27 from behind the arc while playing poor perimeter defense on the 76ers, allowing them to go 13-20 from three.
The defense was poor tonight for the majority of the game, aside from a couple key plays in the fourth. The Celtics played the Sixers earlier in the season at Philadelphia allowing them to score only 74 points in a 105-74 blowout. Tonight was the total opposite of that defensive effort. Too often were players on the Sixers wide open taking shots, and making the Celtics pay by hitting them.
Kendrick Perkins once again let foul trouble end his night early. Perk was having success early on in the game, finishing with 12 points and eight rebounds in only 22 minutes. He picked up his fourth foul in the third quarter and only played one more second for the remainder of the game.
The last two games have been nail biters, but the important thing is that the Celtics are ending up on the winning end.
"I think this is a game that we needed," Wallace said. To come down to the wire, last possession or two and to come out to a victory, I see it as a big victory for us morally."
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Agree with Doc 100 percent
Paul Pierce has been far and away the MVP on this team and the way he has played to date, would deserve a starting slot on the All Star team.
Pierce is definitely bringing it
At times it seems like he’s the only player on the court for the Cetlics who is truly giving it his all out there.
celtics lodge
seeks like the second unit is composed of bricklayers led by grandmason rasheed. what is wrong with these guys? should doc play jr giddens more? or should kg take extended rest periods once bbd comes back?
argghhhhhh, i cant believe i missed this game, worked, bartended night before thanksgiving, worked my touche off, no family tomorrow, looked forward to this game tonight and my dvr wont play it. aperently because I wathced the beginning and hit stop it stopped not just he play (because I wanted to start from beginning later) but stopped the recording. everytime i tried to play it went to the delete screen . no playing, argghhhhhh.
i'll have to watch the replay however..
I could be off base on this but, it seems to me that RR runs the team as long as KG is on th bench…as sooon as KG is back Rondo seems to hand the leadership over to Garnnett and the game slows down..Rondo needs to push the play no matter who’s on the court with him…although itt might be hard for RR to do with KG sceaming constantly…..which means Doc needs to step up….much in the same way Paul did last night…good read JimmyT…
A troubling win
A back to back for Philly, in our house, they are missing 3 of their top six players and we need an All World game from Pierce to pull it out. Can’t say enough about Pierce. All while covering Iguodala, their best player. What a Champ!
I’d put some of this poor play on Doc. So Perkins sat with 4 fouls after playing very well. HEY DOC, HE GETS 6. Ray was again struggling to cover Kapono. Doc has impressed both young guys that playing defense is how they get in the game. HEY DOC, PUT GIDDENS ON KAPONO. He couldn’t do worse. HEY DOC, Rasheed “spreading the floor” and clunking 3s is getting old. PUT IN A TWIN POST PLAY AND MAKE HIM STAY THERE. Rondo’s defense was La-Di-Da for most of the game, making it too easy for Philly. HEY DOC, Put Hudson’s 120% hustle on Holliday and see if that works. If not what have you blown, 5 minutes? Is Sheldon Williams not allowed to play in 2nd halfs of close games? KG just does not have his wind yet. Look at him, he’s gassed.
The game was entertaining and so was the Knicks game and that’s what the NBA exists for, to entertain us. But us Celtics junkies aren’t buying what we’re seeing. Yes its a long season but we should be nailing weak teams to the wall.
Yes rondo goes for steals, but hes also among the best ball pressure defenders in the league, if not the best…why people rip on his defense when noone else in the starting lineup other then perkins can defend a chair is beyond me.
Lester Hudson is a 24 yr old rookie picked 50+ in the draft, stop already
Lester's going to be a revelation by the year's end.
And he won’t be a surprise to the Celtics brass.
on Celts look-old topic.
like what Doc said after the lost to Magic, “we’re going to win games still, but we’re not going to win against good teams.” and that is the Trend, sad to say.
We are winning BUT i think and most of us think we can do Better than that, definitely!
so i keep guessing what are we missing, are we really old and cant keep up with athletic younger teams? are we simply having a rough game, or we’re not working hard?
i rem. what Perks said. about sloppy practices..
"As a team, we haven’t had the perfect execution for practice. We just gotta get back on the right track.’’
I enjoyed this ball game, I know people are whining and crying, and i find that unfortunate
this team needs to make gradual improvements and strides, its not going to happen all at once..
As far as it being a crappy 76er team…yeah thats true, but its also a team that got unexpected lights out shooting from willie green and jason kapono, and great all around play from Iguodola, and this is also a team with PRIDE people, and they remember what we did to them at home a few weeks back.
Yeah, we gotta play better.. I enjoyed watching Pierce play basketball last night, and certainly rondo in spurts.. I also enjoyed the rondo/eddie/pierce/marquis/sheed lineup doc through out there.
KG and Ray look terrible on defense and are struggling with their roles offensively…weird
Fair assessment
I enjoyed the second half (all I got to see).
This team will just take some time to learn to win. The Big 3 of 2 years ago are not the Big 3 of today, mainly because KG isn’t all the way back.
Couple that with some personnel changes and it will take time for these guys to play well together. As much as ‘Sheed can be a pain for opponents, you can’t play alongside him in the same way you play alongside Perk. And Rondo and Perk are growing into their own.
Bottom line is we now have more “marquee” players and fewer complementary players, so the on court rhythm is more difficult to establish. But I’m confident it will happen.
by Thruthelookingglass on Nov 26, 2009 9:19 AM EST up reply actions
was there a lack of D of the celtics part or where the 76ers jsut shooting out of there mind last night? I can’t watch the game, and just by looking at the box score the starting 5 put some big numbers offensively and I would think the C’s would win easily when you have 27, 19, 18 points from the big 3 and 12 and 10 points from perk and rondo.
Didn't see much
But what I did see is the Sixers getting open shots (end of Q3). The perimeter seems to be a real problem, I don’t get it. BTW JimmyT Love your write ups.
Does KG Have Emphysema?
That’s what it looks like out there. I’ve never seen so much huffing and puffing. Maybe they really do need Glenn Davis back.
The offense was fine, thanks largely to Pierce. The defense was terrible. Kapono is one of the best shooters in the league, but not particularly fast. Don’t they have anyone who can stay with him?
Part of the problem is that they played zone for most of the second half, to stop the penetration of Drue Holiday and others, and to help with the rebounding. Kapono will eat up a zone.
But it wasn’t just Kapono. They couldn’t stay with Willie Green, either.
Samuel Dalembert said something to make Joey Crawford angry midway through the third quarter. Craford T’ed him up, and after that, Dalembert got called for every little thing and was ineffective. That helped the Celtics win the game in the 4th quarter.
Similar to the idiotic flagrant on Curry in the Knicks game
That was another ref-assisted win for the Celtics, due mostly to some key no-calls in regulation but also in part to the opponent’s stupidity.
I don’t agree with Title 18 that the celtics finish below .500, but KG and Ray’s games are way below where they need to be at this point, hope things improve!
by nba is the worst on Nov 26, 2009 11:53 AM EST up reply actions
Assuming no roster moves take place....
The Celtics will finish below .500
I`m serious...
Teams generally decline in phases.
Phase 1 : They can no longer beat good teams
Phase 2 : They barely beat average-to-poor teams
Phase 3 : They lose to average-to-poor teams
Boston is now in Phase 2
That is a bet I'd be willing to make with you if you are actually serious. Easy money.
This team will without-a-doubt finish above .500 and seeing the division they are in, will be no lower than the 3 seed.
Follow me @jimmy_toscano
by Jimmy Toscano on Nov 26, 2009 11:51 AM EST up reply actions
They could easily be 8-7 right now!!!
The wins against Phil—NY—Minn all came very close to being losses.
None of the 4 games they lost did they “deserve” to win.
Paul Pierce is all they have going for them right now.
They`ll play 5 games next week {4 on the road}…4 losses would not shock me.
They are vulnerable, and they`re the team every opponent wants to beat!
No DRJ1 complaints about the officiating?
This is the third win by the Celtics in a two-or three-point win where the ft attempts advantage ended up being the difference. 13 more attempts will usually do the trick in a close game.
At least Crawford threw a couple of T’s on the visitors this time. Does anyone know if the league rescinded the ridiculous T’s on Perk and Doc from the previous Crawford game?
by nba is the worst on Nov 26, 2009 11:40 AM EST reply actions
Things I am NOT thankful for in last nights game
1.) Rondo playing as if he has bi- PO- lar energy disease. Play at high energy more consistently or……. GO SIT DOWN.
2.) Rondo not taking open layups – if you are scared you will miss the layup and have to show you suck at FT’s have to go the free line then either improve your FT shooting ASAP!!!!…… or GO SIT DOWN.
3.) Joey Crawford – I am NOT thankful for him……GO SIT DOWN and retire already
4.) Sheed never EVER being in the paint – if your three point shot is not working (and trust me – it isn’t) then mix it up like a real veteran would and should. Post yourself up in the paint, or at least come close to the paint for perhaps an offensive rebound …….if you can’t do either of those then……… GO SIT DOWN
5.) Too many three’s ….it’s an insidious diasease
other than that…..I am thankful for the win….not overjoyed…but thankful
Is it Soup Yet?
Rondo...
Do you at least enjoy seeing Rondo drive to the hoop…realizes there is traffic…rather than shoot and run the risk of having to shoot FT`s….KICKS THE BALL OUT 47 FEET TO MID-COURT?!?!
A telling stat line
Sheldon Williams’ stat line for the 76ers game:
Minutes: 6
Off. Reb: 2
Tot. Reb: 4
Wow – talk about rebounding efficiency! Perk was also good with 5/8 in 23 minutes. The most efficient for Phil was Dalembert with 4/9 in 28 minutes.
I wouldn’t mind seeing a few more minutes of Shelden when playing these young, athletic teams. I also would like Sheed staying deep in the post more.
We should be doing much better on Off. Reb than we have been considering our crappy FG% of late.
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