Celtics Win an Ugly Game Against the Nuggets
by Fafnir on Dec 8, 2010 9:57 PM EST
in Boston Celtics Games
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The Boston Celtics starters shot out to a big lead in the first quarter, 35 - 21. Unfortunately a five man bench unit was unable to sustain the starters strong effort and allowed J.R. Smith and Ty Lawson to shoot the Nuggets back into the game. The Denver Nuggets closed to within one point before the starters pushed it back to 7 at the half.
In the second half the Celtics slowly but surely pulled away ending the third quarter up 11 points and eventually building it to 20 point lead in the fourth quarter. After that the game went into garbage time with some late fireworks between Glen Davis and Nene being the only thing of note.
A solid win for the Celtics over a Nuggets team that was without their best player, Carmelo Anthony, who missed the game with a knee injury.
- This was an ugly game despite being a fairly easy Celtic win. Both teams turned it over a lot, 18 for the Nuggets and 19 for the Celtics. Both teams also fouled a lot, 28 team fouls for the Nuggets and 17 team fouls for the Celtics.
- I can't help but think George Karl hurt his team by going small to start the second half with a line up of Ty Lawson, Chauncey Billups, Arron Afflalo, Al Harrington, and Nene. That unit got them back into the game in the second quarter, but they were unable to do much against the Celtics starters. Then
- The Nuggets bench kept them in the game outscoring the Celtics bench by 47 - 30 at the end, the margin was even bigger in the first half as the Boston bench scored most of their points in the second half.
- Speaking of the bench, Glen Davis added three more offensive fouls to his league leading total. I believe that gets him to 27 for the year.
- Kevin Garnett had a superb night putting up 17 points and 9 rebound on nearly perfect shooting. (8-9 FGA and 1-1 from the line)
- Ray (28 points) and Paul (17 points) were also efficient with their shooting going a combined 15 - 28 from the field and getting to the stripe 13 times.
- Another quiet game from Rondo, with a brief scare when he was tripped and briefly left the game to stretch his left calf. Of course even with a quiet night Rondo piled up a typical 13 assists.
- This is was a game the Celtics should have won at home against a team missing their biggest offensive threat. The winning streak is up to 8 games now, and Philly is up tomorrow on TNT at 8:00 EST.
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most of the game despite a lot of sloppy play from the C’s. There was one rebound KG had tonight where he went up and kind of double clutched with the ball, and it reminded me of when Sheed did that last year and accidentally put it in the goal for the other team. Good times with Rasheed Wallace.
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.
8 in a row and counting...
C’s took care of business tonight beating a good Denver ball club tonight that was playing with out Carmelo.
Ray gets the game ball with his strong offensive performance.
The bench did blow another big lead the starters built which is a concern.
The good news is the C’s rebuilt the lead in the 2nd half again and eventually won the game.
Considering all the injuries C’s deserve credit for this nice 8 game win streak and especially the mental motivation and energy they have showed to win them.
is Rondo already 100%?
if it was a close game, he would’ve logged 40 mins. again..
i think he should rest some more.. unless Doc’s chasing 70…
Agree
They should shut him down a couple of games to get him fully healed….the win streak may be at risk but Rondos long term health is more important then any win streak.
There isn’t really a fully healed with a muscle injury that comes with rest. It wouldn’t surprise me if we don’t see Rondo play against the Pistons or the Nets or the other weak teams on the schedule as an easy way to rest him. But rather than shutting him down for a stretch where the C’s might lose games and put a lot of extra miles on Robinsons tires. They can do what they did tonight. Where he gets a long rest coming into the game, and then when the blowout has arrived pull him out.
He knows not his own strength that hath not met adversity.
My Top 5 Observations
1.) Delonte West had a great looking tie and jacket…my boy
2.) The defense of Paul Pierce is amazingly good – he takes pride in it
3.) Rondo looked slow and tired tonight
4.) Big Baby Davis got “hair -butted” and he takes so many charges I hope he does not get brain damage.
1.) I still think Nate is not that great……
I love this team…we are 14-1 when we lead at the end of the 3rd Quarter….. late game meltdowns have re-frozen….
Is it Soup Yet?
Here's a minor observation. Semih Erden is getting better at not picking up so many fouls.
At the start of the season, Erden was picking up fouls like a magnet. But he’s been making progress, and seems to be slowing down his rate of fouling considerably. As a result, his minutes are slowly creeping up. In the absence of Jermaine, let alone Perkins, Erden’s improvement is probably a significant plus for Shaq.
I know a lot of the analysts disliked his 3 point attempt that was there in transition in the 3rd quarter. But honestly, if a good shooter has a chance to take his shot from a spot where he’s good, I’m okay with that. I would have preferred to see him cycle us into a higher percentage look. But I’m betting if he took 2 more of those, same spot, same situation, same movement, he hits em. It’s like with Allen, I’m never gonna be sad about him taking a catch and shoot three from that left side.
He knows not his own strength that hath not met adversity.
i just don’t like seeing rondo out there hobbling on one leg. he looks like he’s one step away from really getting hurt. his defense was not so hot to put it nicely. doc also waited way too long to put in luke, wafer and bradley. the starters played very smoothly-kg,ray, shaq,pp and the big baby off the bench. quissy has the sore thumb again-wasn’t it his thumb that has messed up his last 2 years?
I thought his defense was fine
He did a good job on Billups and Lawson for most of the game. If anything he just wasn’t aggressive offensively and he also forced more passes than usual.
it kinda hurts to see von wafer playing like von wafer...
possible to put bradley alongside nate?
by friedgreentomatoes on Dec 8, 2010 10:19 PM EST reply actions
bradley should play!
there’s really no use playing wafer… i don’t think he will EVER improve!
… and rondo should rest!
I was hoping to watch Bradley guard Ty Lawson, to see if he could stay in front of him. (Nate sure couldn't.)
Bradley may actually have been guarding Lawson at the end of the game, but I’m not sure. ESPN was spending too much time hyping its next game and showing long close-ups of guys laughing on the bench. It became rather hard to follow what was happening on the court.
yes bradley was standing before lawson for that 1 min stretch
he also forced JR Smith(?) to miss a layup (didn’t even hit the rim). I was really hoping to see bradley driving to the rim and show him atheletism, but wafer would either attemp long 3s or just overdribble, while bradley was wide open.
by friedgreentomatoes on Dec 8, 2010 11:42 PM EST up reply actions
Wafer is really really pressing to show he should get to stay around. Would it surprise any of us to hear that he would be the first guy off the roster? You can see it when he’s playing he’s trying to prove he belongs. Which is a shame because if he did a little less of that I think he and the 2nd unit in general would look a lot better.
He knows not his own strength that hath not met adversity.
When was Melo scratched from the lineup?
He was listed as a starter in the preview.
The first assist
That first assist from Rondo to Allen was amazing. I had no idea where he was going with that pass. I thought it was a turnover the second it left his hands but it hit Ray right where he wants to catch it. I think Rondo made he no-look pass over his sholder south his left hand as well. Simply amazing.
by Jon Niednagel on Dec 8, 2010 11:37 PM EST via mobile reply actions
Damn iPhone. Meant to say with his left hand.
by Jon Niednagel on Dec 8, 2010 11:39 PM EST via mobile reply actions
Solid win...
A solid win against a team playing the 2nd night of a back to back and missing it’s best player. The starters were once again dominant with the bench being terrible in the first half. Doc even admitted that he shouldn’t have put in 5 bench players at once because they just aren’t capable of playing well enough to keep leads.
The starters were great for the most part especially Ray. Pierce has played well but is really struggling with his 3 point shot over the last few games. He is missing wide open looks that he normally hits.
Big Baby was solid as was Semih. Marquis had trouble staying with JR Smith in the first half and once again contributed nothing offensively. It would be nice to see him able to hit shots outside of 2 feet but his jump shot is terrible. Von Wafer looked lost out there on defense and fumbled the ball away when trying to drive to the basket.
Overall a good win at home to keep the win streak going. It will be interesting to see how the Celtics play tomorrow on the 2nd night of back to back games. The C’s tend to struggle in these games but playing a bad 76er team should make it easier…
Anyone see KG talking to George Karl about his Charlie V comments?
I was watching ESPN and they showed KG talking to Karl explaining his Charlie V comments and how it was taken out of context. And of course Karl being the class act he is, basically says it’s all good.
I can’t stand people giving people KG shit all the time. Yes he is intense and yes he does talk trash during games but the fact that he took time to go to Karl and talk about what happened even though he didn’t have to shows that he isn’t a complete douchebag. KG is a fierce competitor and a class act.
Ok I’m done ranting.
How do you know what he said?
by KY Celts fan on Dec 9, 2010 12:27 AM EST via mobile up reply actions
Wafer less
Does anybody think Wafer looked like a fool out there tonight? When he had the ball he ran plays for himselft, made two horrible turnovers, had a shoot first mentality and didn’t run the offense when he had the ball early in the clock; I sure he didn’t warm a place in Doc’s heart…..I bet he doesn’t play against the 6ers…..
Von Wafer
Is a big distraction for the celtics…
If nothing is worth dying for, then nothing is worth living for.
~Chuck Coleson
Uhm
On his 40% field goal%, his 14% 3-point percentage, his bickering with teammates and clear lack of intensity or impetus. The simple fact is that the celtics could have used a forward like Stephen Lasme to greater advantage, even with rondo bein’ a lil’ under the “weather.” Von Wafer is 5.5 minutes of absolute trash.
If nothing is worth dying for, then nothing is worth living for.
~Chuck Coleson
Eucharist
Lasme is broke with the Maine Red Claws. However, Tiny Gallon is doing great….so great his teammates are expecting ‘the phone to ring" for him. Tiny sounds a bit like a slightly taller version of BBD. So, like BBD, it might take him a couple of years before he could really contribute…..but since I don’t expect BBD to be here next year, I’d like to see Tony get a few minutes up with the big team.
Everytime I begin to like M Daniels, he has a dog game. One where his attitude seems to be “I have the ball, the ball is mine and I’m gonna shoot it”.
good to get another win
Nice to see, but 2nd unit still hurting us most of the time . wafer is weak and should be clipped as soon as a diffent player becomes avalible . with delonte out, I would like to see quis move over to 2 spot and the celts pick up a back up three for pierce and drop wafer. just have to be patient and wait for the right oppurtunity
stinky farts and distracted by big tits
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