Celtics Beat LA (Without Kobe)

The key point is: THE CELTICS PLAYED A GREAT GAME. Everybody was on, everybody played with passion and focus. Well, Rasheed didn’t have a very good game… but it wasn’t for lack of effort this time. Just a bad game. It happens. Otherwise, this felt like a TURNING POINT for this team. They’re finally SERIOUS about winning, playing hard, and that INCLUDES KG, who looked pretty damn good out there.

Don’t forget: this was only KG’s 12th game since coming back. He’s allowed a few more than that to get back in shape.

All in all, a very heartening night. Things are looking very good right now. Just wanted to make this point clear before all the negativists come out (complaining about lost leads, offensive lapses, and whatnot).

We deserved this.

Marquis Daniels was as useful as… oh well.

Wow what a difference having that weight off his shoulders meant to his game

Was soooooo awful. What a waste of a rotation. Please bench him until he decides to play D. lol at TNT for saying he is a great defender.

I just witnessed? Sure there was no Kobe, and sure we almost blew another 4th qtr lead, but Kg looked great tonight. Hope he can keep it up.

Sheed played terrible and KG’s jumper was off but Ray was awesome for 3/4 of the game and Rondo and Perk had good games too so overall I will take a win over the Lakers anyday.

we won that stretch 7-2.

Wow. That was toughing it out in every sense.

I’ll be has a a pig in…..well, you know the rest, with this win.

They beat us last year when KG was out. Now we returned the favor when they didn’t have Kobe. So sort of even out.

But again, scoring just 11 points in the 4th Q was just ….. (I couldn’t find the word to describe it.)

Ray was great.

Very nie game tonight.. very good (no jumper, but very good defense)

When Nate plays, we won’t have such a drop off between starters and bench.

I forget on who though??

Garnett went up strong more than a few times, and seemed more energized than any game this calendar year. Wouldn’t it be nice if that were the new normal? He is still front-rimming most of his jumpshots, so the legs aren’t where we’d like them to be.

Missed the start of the game. Perk seemed to sit a lot of the first half, but not with foul trouble. Doc sending a message? If so, it was received – his second half was his best since maybe Christmas. Looked focused and determined and got the job done on the boards.

Best of all – the whole team kept their intensity all game (even when the bench was giving the game away). Sheed and Quis sucked and Baby wasn’t all that effective but cradle to grave effort given by all.

Nitpicks -

Why so allergic to Ray down the stretch? They were covering him well but it’s not like he needs five seconds to get a good shot off. Overall, didn’t love the plays called down the stretch. Not sure who to pin that on. Doc seemed to want to let them play, but you’ve got to get better looks earlier in the shot clock at least some of the time.

Pierce not hitting the 18-footer. Again. Decline or injury. You decide.

Also, I think it’s irrelevant that Kobe didn’t play. We very well might have won this game even if he did.

Two ugly/pretty wins. Let’s see if they’ve got anything left in the tank tomorrow night.

I can see how the guys play very hard tonite.

Atleast he kept his cool!

we barely beat an LA team without kobe. however, a few good things…one, most importantly, kg moved around really well tonight. that’s as good as he has looked since the injury. some have argued his knee was fine, but he needed to get his legs under him, hence the dragging his leg issue. well, maybe that’s correct. let’s see how he moves the next few games. if kg is close to healthy, we can beat anyone. two, we couldn’t buy a shot at times…but we got good looks on a lot of them. i’d imagine a few more of them would have dropped in most cases, which would have given us a more comfortable win. three, our bench gave us very little at all – i think nate will help the bench significantly. he scores like eddie, but isn’t one-dimensional. and four, we played some fine defense.

Still love watching Rondo play. He’s got a creative flare to his passes that is (dare I say it?) reminiscent of Magic.

Watching the game i thought that his passing reminded me of Lebron, so thats basically the same thing. Rondo, Lebron and Magic all have a habit of passing so nicely you could make a highlight package just out of their assists. I used to really dislike Rondo but he’s grown on me. He’s now my second favorite celtic..

Cavs lost and Boston won which is usually bad, but if Boston win = Lakers loss it’s all good. I still go for any east team that plays the lakers.

And I’m guessing most of you guys are now pleased you didn’t trade Ray?

Ok, I’ve made it clear that I think this was a great game. But man, when Perk got KG’s tip off a jump ball at about 5:50 in Q4… and the proceeded to LET IT BOUNCE OUT OF BOUNDS RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM… I thought “Ok, so now Perk is the new TA”. Damn, that was just ridiculous.

All’s forgiven, of course, because overall Perk played a great game. (But jesZUSS, that was stupid.)

http://www.nba.com/2010/news/02/19/celtics.trade/

Less than enthusiastic response from the C’s on the Robinson trade. Well, from Rondo.

The second leg of a back-to-back, against an uprising team in Portland. How will those old bodies respond? Can Ray stay hot? And will Nate make his Celtics debute?

I live in LA, and as I was walking to my car after watching the game at a pizza joint, a Lakers fan spotted my Beat LA shirt and helpfully pointed out that the Lakers only lost by one, without Kobe.

LA’s nearly as good without Kobe as with him. They’re different, to be sure, but a team that revolves around Gasol and Odom and Bynum and Artest is still a very good one. Look what they did in their previous four: Convincing wins in (Roy-less) Portland and Utah, and comfortable victories against San Antonio and Golden State — with no Bynum against the Blazers, Jazz, and Spurs. Without Kobe, the Lakers are still probably the second-best team in the West, Granted, the fourth quarter is Kobe’s domain and there probably haven’t been too many seven-minute stretches over the years where the Lakers have managed just two points with Kobe on the floor, but if you consider the free throw discrepancy, the terrible game by ‘sheed, the general ineffectiveness of the bench as a whole, and the absence of Eddie and Nate, and it’s just wrong to read too much into the “without Kobe” aspect of this win.

I looked over all of these comments and saw only one or maybe two giving Perk props. Man, did we watch the same game. Perk played with more fire and passion then anyone in the game! He played excellent D, rebounded the ball and flat out stuck it L.A. at some key times. It’s just amazing to me how much this guys game is taken for granted. Or, maybe it’s just that I played center and watch that position more. Anyway, great win for us. Discount it if you want but this is the best we have looked in a while. Sure, it didnt last the entire game but it’s much better then the last 25 games.

why Doc keeps calling for the Pierce iso play each time we had the ball for the last few minutes of the game. Because it nearly cost us the game. Why take the ball out of Rondo’s hand when he creates the best opportunities for the other 4. Is this supposed to be our bread and butter play???

When Paul holds the ball at the top of the three point line dribbling aimlessly, with the shot clock winding down, one of four things almost always happen.
1.) Paul fumbles the ball which leads to a steal and easy bucket for the other team. 2.) Paul gets doubled and then passes off to another teammate who heaves a poor shot from the perimeter. 3.) Paul drives the lane and more often than not puts up a off balance layup or gets his shot blocked. 4.) Some type of turnover (ball thrown out of bounds, illegal screen, 24 sec violation, etc).

I just don’t understand why this play keeps getting called during the stretch of close games because most of the time it has failed miserably. Don’t get me wrong I loved the win tonight but I think Doc needs to come up with better options than this. While Doc is not the one on the floor I do think he needs to be held accountable for the play calling during these offensive droughts. If we don’t stop being so predictable in these situations I truly find it hard to believe we make a deep run in the playoffs.

If a “win” ever translated into mediocrity this was it. Daniels with a line that would have shamed even Scalabrine. Beaten on the boards. When was the last time Odom got 14 rebounds. If Bryant had played, the Celtics would have been drubbed. Garnett, at least for this year, is finished. And not to forget Wallace’s pathetic display.

sheed should not get the tech.foul he was just fighting to get position and he was as aggressive as pau.if any it should be double tech.he had a off night .still good win.and he will be more then ready for portland since he didnt play much in this game

I am so upset! I was expecting huge lead at the end of the game. It seems the Celtics can’t dominate the Lakers without Kobe Bryant. How come? Come on guys play your balls.

For sure Kendrick Perkins would be season’s MVP! MVP! MVP!

oh and how sweet to see nuggets sweeping cavs this year and i think melo is better then bron.good work

so we beat the fakers. good. the fakers are way more athletic than we are even without kobe. ray was huge on top of huge. perk finally woke up and came out of his cave. the effort was there and we do rely way too much on pp at the end of games. how about rondo’s 5 steals ( and many tipped passes ). artest looks like a super pickup for the fakers. now to the hot tubs. doc had them practicing and going to shootarounds which seemed to make a positive influence, but this team is so old and fragile that their energy seems to have to be doled out carefully in small doses. hope ta is alright.

The trio formerly known as the Big 3 was 0-10 in the fourth quarter and went 1-17 in the fourth quarter this year against the Lakers. Not pretty.

I couldn’t believe Bynum wasn’t playing late in the game. He was a dominating presence all night in the paint.
The C’s effort on defense was the best I can remember in a long time.

Hats off to Sheed, he pushed, shoved and banged Gasol all night.

Perk did well shutting Gasol down at the end.

It looked like LA could have used KryptoNate in the 4th quarter.

Great effort by the C’s

The Celtics match up well against the Lakers. For starters, the Lakers have no one who can handle Rondo. Fisher and Farmar are not up to the task. Even if the Lakers have Kobe I think the Celtics could eke out a win in a 7 game series.

The Celtics’ problem is that they probably won’t get far enough in the playoffs to face the Lakers. Laker fans should stop worrying about the Celtics and start worrying about Dallas and Denver, in their own conference, plus Cleveland and Atlanta in the EC. All four of those teams are better than the Celtics.

Its funny how everyone said injuries to the celtics wasnt an excuse. But today comes…“the lakers only loss to the celtics because they didnt have Kobe”. Please. Kobe was injured, but the c’s have had injured players all year, so it’s no excuse. We won and that’s all.

I love what post-it note said up above a few posts too.

How sweet is a Lakers defeat?

RAY RAY CAME TO PLAY! I’ll be saying that a lot for the rest of the year, followed by, I told you Ray needed to stay.

And wait, is there hope for KG? He looked pretty great last night. It must just tear up all your dis-believers and faithless, to see KG proving you wrong.

Next stop Portland. And, if we win, can you not put (without Brandon Roy)… I’m sure none of the other blogs were putting (without KG or PP) when they beat us. How bout’ a rally call instead!

that brings the best out in Perk. Love it.

Lakers fan here. There was no Kobe, which is huge. Plus the Lakers played a horrible game, especially at the end. The Garnett shot should have been a 24 second shot clock violation, and no one tipped the ball so it should have been ball out to the Lakers. Instead they somehow gave it to the Celtics, and Perkins had a put back. That said, the Lakers still lost at home.

The question is, can the Celtics win a 7 game series with Kobe healthy and playing? That i highly doubt. I don’t think the Celtics have the talent level to beat either the Cavs, Lakers or Nuggets (yes, i said Nuggets who i think are the third best team in the NBA). The big three have aged too much to be effective against high caliber competition.