Now We're Talking

They looked like 2008. It was like a different team. If they finish out the season like this I’ll be excited again.

Rasheed played one of his best games as a Celtic.

- Sheed played with full energy. Not sure when I last saw him that active on both D and offensively. If tonight is a true measure, he’s flipping his switch.

- Paul is looking hotter every game. Whew… that was the only real question mark left. If that’s resolved, this team is good to go.

- Thank Danny for not trading away Ray Allen. Again.

But there were problems…

- The funniest, most ridiculous play of the year happened tonight, at about 9:40 of the 2nd quarter. Glen Baby Davis got the ball under the Rockets’ basket. Even though he was surrounded by – not 2, not 3, not 4 but ALL FIVE ROCKETS – Baby did not see fit to pass the ball to any one of the FOUR other open Celtics – no, he decided to “jump”, inasmuch as Davis CAN jump – and try to shoot OVER FIVE GUYS. Turnover, of course. What….An….Idiot.

Add to that Baby’s throw-away TO in Q3 and how he was stuffed (again) in Q4, and I’m a-hatin on Big Baby tonight. (Yeah, I know he got some off. rebounds. So?)

- KG did not look good tonight. He shot ok, but was slow and late on defense, and looked weak jumping. One bad game? Or a true measure of where he is? Hope for the former. But not good.

We played good defence all night, shut down their transition game and got ours going from stops. Guys generally fought hard as well.

Loved the way Rondo focussed on hounding Brooks all game. I hope he realises how much difference that made and keeps doing it against all our opponents. Defence should be his #1 priority.

Ray played great on both ends, scoring well and keeping Martin under control for most of the game. Pierce is almost back to his old self.

Wallace played well, turning down a couple of threes he could have taken, not complaining to the refs and playing hard. Nate came in and was an effective threat. Finley did a good job on Martin for a stretch there while Ray had a much needed break. I recall one play where he totally denied the ball to Martin with great lateral movement. He’s still got some game!

We hit the boards again, Pierce did look good and even had some offensive rebounds.

Can we beat Dallas at the rebounding game? If we do i think we can get another needed win.

We need wins right now, we can knock Atlanta out of the 3rd seed into the 4th seed. I heard that The 4t seed plays Cleveland in the 2nd round and i would like to see us play them later when we are fully healthy and have worked out any remaining bugs

Looked good tonight. Not sure how one could deny that. And sheer played like a consummate pro rather than a jaded millionaire

I meant “sheed” . My damn phone has auto spell check….argh

Defense did a great job on Brooks and Scola after he was hot in the first period. I thinkn this is the best game I have seen Rasheed Wallace play and Pierce was outstanding in the second half. Still a little concerned with KG on defense, as Scola seemed to be schooling him in the first qaurter, but he did a better job after that. The bench was really solid tonight.

Not a complaint, but just a statement: Has there ever been a player like Glen Davis in the NBA? Incredibly effective at getting offensive rebounds, but incredibly ineffective at finishing. He had four shots blocked tonight.

Wish I could watch tomorrow’s game, but I have to go and musci at the high school in which my daughter is appearing.

Celtics out-rebounded Houston…AND won the game!

60 pts. from the big 3. that’s the winning blueprint. the less i see of slo-mo perk on offense the better. a great game by rondo. i was watching finley when he was in and the old geezer was playing very good d. baby hustles-yes- needs to think pass when he gets the board.

Are starting to sound like big babies themselves.

  He is averaging 6 off. rebounds per 48 min., which is darn good. So he gets blocked on some of these. He is also getting points off putbacks on some and fouls on the others, fouls which help get us free throws later in quarters. His energy has been fantastic lately, and it seems to me that is exactly what many here have been complaining for.

real good game !

good game. auspicious beginning. paul’s back! league better watch out.

Good to see a solid win against a pretty decent team.

Celtic fans are so desperate for anything positive to grab hold of, that a hard fought 7 point victory——against a team that has played the entire year without Yao Ming, against a Houston team that will NOT make the playoffs {currently 5 games behind #8 seed Portland}—-is causing Celtic Nation tonight to erupt with dreams of a championship!

Friends, that is precisely how far we have fallen!

DRJ1…we need you to provide us with a medical update/prognosis, as only you can!

Both played well. The post game interview of the Houston guard he said the Cs played inspired shut down D and that they were talking on D. Where do you think that comes from? Starts with KG of course! BBD’s energy was also key, as Ray said, it inspires the team. When Ray is inspired, he hits five 3s. They are all connected and feed off each other. That’s what team ball is. Bottom line is they wanted this game, played 2008 D, and the O followed nicely. (Btw. DRJ, how was BBD supposed to pass the ball surrounded by 5 defenders? If he had tried, you’d have criticized him for that. He’s better off going up with it and getting fouled. They were hammering him a lot with no calls.). Bottom line is the Cs are back to doing what they can do. They turned on the switch. They’re gonna roll now.

I dont live in Boston and so I get to see only the games on cable but I am curious about a few things. One, can anyone say if the C’s right now look to be any better/worse then they were when we started the season at 29-5 or was it 25-5? I know several players have been injured like Paul and KG but it looks lately like both are rounding into at least as good of a condition as they were during the early games, we’ve added Nate and BBD is back and playing well. Daniels may not be playing as well but it just seems to me like with increased health that this team should be coming together at just the right time. Thoughts?

That record was always misleading. They were beating weak teams. The only exceptions were opening night and Xmas day.

The first sign that they couldn`t beat good teams came very early {Nov. 6-20}, when they lost to PHX, ATL, ORL all at home!

They still lose consistently to strong teams.
The only difference is that they now lose occasionally to weak teams…most notably, NJ.

I read many of the comments, negatively slanted, on Sheed’s playing (or not playing) in the post. Well he’s been doing it all year. Occaisionally he get’s three happy, but if one of the accountants out there can review film and show the minutes Sheed plays inside vs outside you’ll see he’s inside way more than out. Also, one of the reasons Sheed was brought here was to spread the floor and bring other bigs away from the basket to open the lane. I think Sheed has done everything asked of him. The one thing I don’t like is that he plays defense more with has hands than feet. He’s doing a great job defensively with great hands and reflexes, but I would like to see him play more with his feet. All said, he’s been a great addition to this team.