Celtics Pull Away to Top Knicks

by Greg Payne on Oct 16, 2010 10:19 PM EDT in Boston Celtics Games

The Boston Celtics moved to 6-1 in preseason action with a 97-84 victory over the New York Knicks in Hartford, Connecticut.

Full disclosure: I'm going to brag about Kevin Garnett for the next 300 words or so, so feel free to sit back and enjoy or hit the jump for some other game notes.

Kevin Garnett played by far his best preseason game tonight, posting 20 points on 9-11 shooting, four rebounds, and one block (looked more like three to me). While Boston's defense in the first quarter was somewhat slack (30 points for the Knicks on 60 percent shooting), Garnett was dominant offensively, scoring 11 of his 20 points on 5-6 shooting. His first bucket was perhaps the most encouraging one - an aggressive slam dunk off of a Rajon Rondo touch pass. But he wasn't done. He connected on a jump shot as the shot clock was expiring at the 9:32 mark of the first frame, abused Anthony Randolph with power dribbles in the paint which led to short jump hooks, and scored inside off of a Shaquille O'Neal feed after Shaq drew a double team.
Later in the third quarter, Garnett took another feed from Shaq underneath and hung in the air as he converted a difficult up and under on the left side. At the 7:32 mark of the third, Garnett scored inside and drew a foul on Ronny Turiaf, and Garnett's reaction was the best part of the play. He let out one of his classic primal yells and punched the air - a great sign that he's feeling great. The emotion is always key with Garnett. He followed that play up with some great defense on Wilson Chandler towards the end of the third. Chandler had the ball on the left wing with KG in front of him, and Garnett bent down and started clapping his hands, egging Chandler on. We've all seen it before, but it never gets old. Chandler drove, got past Garnett, but Garnett recovered and swatted Chandler's shot out of bounds from behind.
Garnett looked fantastic, physically. He was moving well on defense (he also appeared to block Randolph twice), wasn't shying away from contact on offense, and got up the floor ahead of the defense on a number of occasions. On the second block on Randolph, Garnett turned and sprinted up the floor, beat the majority of the New York defense, and took a pass from Rondo, which he turned into a left-handed layup. Doc Rivers stressed in training camp that Garnett looked explosive again, and tonight he did indeed. One caveat worth noting (before I get too ahead of myself): The majority of Garnett's points came against Randolph, who's 21 years old and not known for his defense, but the fact that Garnett was exploiting the matchup and not shying away from contact was huge.

Garnett and Shaq worked inside together very well tonight. Their interior passing was impressive, as Garnett scored on two assists from Shaq, and Shaq scored on an assist from KG.

The injury bug's sticking with this team, as Jermaine O'Neal (hand) and Marquis Daniels (right shoulder) sat out tonight. Nate Robinson played and scored 13 points (on 4-14 shooting), but was apparently bothered by a sore right shoulder as well. I'll have a full injury report tomorrow, updating everyone on each player's status.

The Rondo-Ray Allen-Paul Pierce-Kevin Garnett-Glen Davis quintet was effective in the second half of the third quarter. When Davis entered the game with 5:58 to go in the third, the C's were trailing 63-55, and when Garnett checked out with 1:25 left in the third, the Celtics led, 71-68. This was a lineup Doc had been waiting to play, but its unveiling was delayed due to various players sitting out of certain games.

While Davis didn't shoot particularly well from the field (4-11), he did shoot eight free throws, making seven of them.

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Comments

Nuff' said!

Sure, there was other good things that happened during this game, and the entire preseason thus far, but, KG’s play so far has been absolutely amazing. He doesn’t just look good, he looks REALLY good. I am completely stoked!

by KG's Knee on Oct 16, 2010 10:09 PM EDT reply actions

The way KG has played thus far I may have to change my screen name.

Maybe “KG’s BAAAAAACK”, or something like that.

by KG's Knee on Oct 16, 2010 10:12 PM EDT up reply actions

loving it

he keeps this up all year and it’s going to make a diffence for us. nice having his hustle, mobility back this year

"Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die."

im gonna be all up on you like a spider monkey!

i can just see delonte west winning a game of poker against lebron, throwing down the cards he yells, "who's your daddy!"...."oh, sorry man"

by remembering9ergods on Oct 16, 2010 10:58 PM EDT up reply actions

KG looks good

KG looks good to where he will be a major factor for the team this year. I’m hoping he’ll have the fire to motivate the team to play hard every night but I’ll be happy if he just stays healthy and motivates himself to play hard and focussed

by slamtheking on Oct 16, 2010 10:18 PM EDT reply actions

As most have posted already...

the big story tonight and this preseason is how well KG has looked.

Lets hope he has just as healthy and effective regular and post season as he did preseason.

Speaking of injury’s ..its been frustrating seeing the team suffer all these minor injuries in the preseason which has prevented Doc from being able to utilize a full and healthy unit.

Hopefully the 5 days off between the end of the preseason and the start of the regular season everybody can get healthy and the C’s will have a healthy and full roster of players ready to go on opening night.

by fordescort on Oct 16, 2010 10:32 PM EDT reply actions

Lol at D’Antoni preaching no fouls, Gallinari telling Mosgov right defense and NY being the stat city. Very fitting for the KNICKS, 0 defense, fill in stat sheets team = Good luck next year.

Looked like Celtics were just toying with them and when the Celtics buckled down on defense, saw that 10 point lead Knicks had disappear in 2 mins. They can only chuck so much 3’s before they start missing.

and really great to see KG bouncing around today. 20 points, only played 1st and 3rd qrtr.

by Grared Tailgate on Oct 16, 2010 10:47 PM EDT reply actions

Another nice write up, Greg!

You’ve always been good, but I think your writing style has grown and matured over this last year.

I totally concur that KG was the story tonight. In the game thread, my one-word discription was simply the word: awesome.

KG & Shaq are presenting a real dilemma to opposing teams and the Knicks really struggled. Basically, they tried to double whomever of those two had the ball but could not stop them from passing to each other. That is brutal in the paint.

One play that I thought was telling about this synergy was one where Pierce took a long jumper that rattled around before bouncing down. Shaq was being doubled and couldn’t get a good grab at the rebound but it came down and bounced into KG’s hands with Shaq downlow right next to him under the hoop. And here is the part I just loved: Shaq immediately just started backing up, pushing his man and part of another out of the way, clearing a ton of room for KG to go up for the easy 2 pts. Totally selfless and ‘heads up’ teamwork.

by mmmmm on Oct 16, 2010 10:56 PM EDT reply actions

Much appreciated, mmmmm

Did what we saw between KG and Shaq tonight change your mind at all on who should be starting at center?

by Greg Payne on Oct 16, 2010 11:52 PM EDT up reply actions

not really

because i also loved the way kg & JO played defense together the other night!

by mmmmm on Oct 17, 2010 2:41 AM EDT up reply actions

getting excited

i know it’s just preseason and not teh best teams but there has been some good things happening.

the bench plays great as a unit, we could sub the entire bench in and i wouldnt be to worried against most teams.

von wafer has finally started shooting the last few games an is red hot. he’s storming late for that 15th spot but may be to late.

rondo, erden and baby are all hitting their FT’s at this point, knock on wood.

erden who is a career 59% FT shooter in europe is at 77%

rondo a 63% career FT shooter is shooting 74%

then there is big baby glen a career 70% FT shooter who has made 30 of 36 FT’s, 83%

marquis daniels who said he spent the entire offseason learning how to shot 3’s and shooting 3’s has made 4 of the 5 he’s taken. making him even more valuable. the more shooters we have the better.

as a team we have hit 40 of 93 three pointers. a good clip at 43%

we’ve put up 53 steals and 40 blocks in these 7 preseason games too. not to shabby i must say.

all positives, that if they keep up will make us a very hard team to deal with. i must admit, im liking what im seeing so far

"Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die."

im gonna be all up on you like a spider monkey!

i can just see delonte west winning a game of poker against lebron, throwing down the cards he yells, "who's your daddy!"...."oh, sorry man"

by remembering9ergods on Oct 16, 2010 10:58 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs

I like especially how you point out that .....

the C’s have had 53 steals and 40 blocks so far this preseason, as its a sign the defensive intensity has been stepped up a notch this year.

by fordescort on Oct 16, 2010 11:07 PM EDT up reply actions

+1

I was worried with the off season additions that perhaps we were transitioning away from defense and more to the offense, good to see it isn’t so.

by GreenPhilly on Oct 16, 2010 11:35 PM EDT up reply actions

it's great to see KG doing so well

Hopefully, he can have the resiliency and strength to keep it up all season.

Even funnier,was when Wade said " I feel sorry for whoever has to guard us". Uh, I'm pretty sure there is a defense right here in Boston that specializes in punking teams just like yours Dwyane. Nobody scores on us easily.

by letsgoblue86 on Oct 16, 2010 11:01 PM EDT reply actions

+1

"The idea is not to block every shot. The idea is to make your opponent believe that you might block every shot." - Bill Russell

by Marjun Raposon on Oct 16, 2010 11:34 PM EDT up reply actions

Great Job Greg

Especially on a quiet Saturday night.

I agree about the Shaq synergy with KG and the starters. He fits in well, can finish around the hoop better than Perkins, and is an underrated passer.

Good to see Davis getting to the line and making his FT’s. That’s what we need from him. I’m still a bit skeptical of a lineup with him as the Center, but I think that’s where he fits best anyway :)

by TomHamilton30 on Oct 16, 2010 11:28 PM EDT reply actions

Thanks, Tom

I’m really interested in what’s going to happen once Perk comes back. What happens to Davis?

by Greg Payne on Oct 16, 2010 11:53 PM EDT up reply actions

I think we'll still see Davis

Just less of him. I honestly believe that Doc will start Perkins again, no matter how well Shaq or Jermaine are doing.

And we all know how much Doc loves his veterans, so Davis will be taking a bit of a backseat regardless of his output. What the Celtics will need off the bench is good ball movement, and I think Shaq contributes to this (so long as Rondo is still playing most of the bench PG minutes).

by TomHamilton30 on Oct 17, 2010 12:27 AM EDT up reply actions

+1

I think also (and hope) Doc starts Perk ASAP once he gets back.

Its nice to get excited about Shaq , Jermaine and Erden adding mega depth at the center position for us, but lets not forget about Perk.

Perk is the defensive and rebounding backbone to the starting unit (when healthy) and has complemented KG so well since the arrival of the big 3 that we should not tinker with the starting line.

Basically if it aint broke the C’s do not need to fix it is what I am saying to tinkering with the starting unit.

Now on the other hand if Perk is slow to heal (with his knee problem) then I guess then the starting line up would be broken and then would need to be fixed (with either Shaq or Jermaine having to start) …lol.

by fordescort on Oct 17, 2010 12:45 AM EDT up reply actions

Agree Greg...

it will be very interesting to see what happens to Davis when Perk comes back.

With Perk – Shaq (and Erden probably also) going to just about take up all the minutes at center that will mean Jermaine will probably see most of his minutes at the power forward position.

If KG plays 30 minutes a game that will leave 18 minutes for Jermaine and Baby to play behind KG.

I assume both Jermaine and Baby will be platooning the back up power forward position and who plays will depend ALOT on matchups and opponents…but it will no doubt cause less overall playing time this year for Baby.

So it will be then be interesting to see then if how Baby reacts to playing less minutes this year compared to other previous years.

This extra depth is great to have since we are a old team and need the insurance (especially after we saw the C’s probably lose the finals last year due to a lack of depth),but it will at times be a juggling act this year at times for Doc to balance the minutes and keep all the players happy.

But its a problem I think he likes to have.

by fordescort on Oct 17, 2010 12:34 AM EDT up reply actions

Final 15!

…When exactly does a team select the official 15 guys for the season? Just after the last preseason game?

by japsuki on Oct 17, 2010 1:25 AM EDT reply actions

Does anyone have a link to the highlights of this game?

Thanks in advance!

by nba is the worst on Oct 17, 2010 9:28 AM EDT reply actions

They're on celtics.com.

by clover on Oct 17, 2010 10:29 AM EDT up reply actions

not only is KG in good health

he’s also in good spirits, noticed how much fun he’s having joking around with Shaq in the sidelines during the game, Shaq is not only an equal to KG, he’s someone KG can look up to cause Shaq’s accomplished more. That helps to keep KG in balance and keeps him from getting too intense. He can loosen up a little and have fun with Shaq and J.O. around.

by Banner 18 on Oct 17, 2010 11:47 AM EDT reply actions

I think there's some truth to that. KG, Ray and Rondo are all intense personalities in a way that I could see adding to the other players' stress.

Shaq and the new Nate are probably good medicine, in counterbalance, for the whole team.

by clover on Oct 17, 2010 12:53 PM EDT up reply actions

erdun is not the scorer he was in the first exhibion game, but hustles and does little harm and some good when he’s in. he will get some minutes right away. they might need wafer more than they need lasme but lasme shows life and commitment out there.

by nazzbo on Oct 17, 2010 12:59 PM EDT reply actions