Shaq's big night takes the Celtics past the Bobcats

Just saw the results on yahoo online box score. Good win to go into next week. That’s the diff between the C’s and Heat; the C’s do more with less.

Boy did we need a good game from the Diesel going into tonight and boy did he deliver.

Ray continues to be the hottest shooter on the planet.

Rondo really gets up when there is an opposing stud PG. Great job of running the show and keeping all the starters involved. Shaq, Ray & Paul all scored 19+ and he put 18 of his own in the bucket.

Ditto what wisco87 said about the bench. I think the bench used up an excess of their karma in the Kings game and just didn’t have much tonight.

Although Daniels looked smooth again. Is he like a cat, prowling around out there? I swear I don’t think I’ve ever seen any guy as skinny as he is who looks that at easy twisting and curving through bodies under the basket.

Nice win today. Can’t wait for Monday

After a listless first half the Celtics turned it on and took control in the second half.

Shaq obviously was outstanding on both ends tonight. Ray was hitting his shots and really should have gotten more looks. Rondo was a great floor general tonight offensively and grabbed key rebounds. He still needs to work on defending off screens though as too often he goes around and tries for the quick steal, which left Augustin open several times for jumpers or drives in the lane.

The Bobcats hung around mostly due to their offensive rebounding, they got multiple chances on several possessions as the Celtics were trying to pull away. It seems like Luke is the only Celtic who at least tries to box out and hustle for the rebound even though he doesn’t get to many of them. Love the hustle and energy of Luke just not sure how successful he will be in the NBA. He is too slow to defend athletic forwards and too small to be inside. One of his biggest assets is supposed to be his shooting but most nights he isn’t even close on his wide open attempts.

A note on Big Baby, he was solid tonight and passed up long jumpers a couple times which was nice to see. It’s weird though because lately he appears to be playing with zero emotion. Doc must have talked to him because he never seems to smile or get excited, however he also isn’t complaining about fouls as often either so I guess it’s a trade off.

Overall a gutty win against an improved Charlotte team. C’s finally get 2 days off to get ready for Orlando. Hopefully KG will be ready…

for the huge daddy….making 10 of 12 field goals and doing perfectly from the free throw line…….hack a shaq anyone??? hmmmm

Great game for the big guy and Rondo had things totally under control tonight. Nice effort, and they won despite the fact that the Bobcats spent the entire game at the foul line. Ray was on fire and if Pierce was not in foul trouble he probably would have had 30.

Over the last few weeks, Ray has been shooting ridiculous numbers.

So far in the month of January, his overall FG% is 60.6%.

Even more ridiculous, during that time his 3PT% is 70%!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, that’s right. Ray is shooting even better from beyond the arc than within it!

I guess he can just feel it as he gets closer and closer to Reggie’s mark.

For the season, Ray is shooting 47% from 3PT land. For guys who’ve launch 150+ from beyond the arc, only Bibby has a higher %. Ray might pass him soon if he keeps up his current pace.

You’ve got game. Just keep practicing and continue to get in better shape. I’m sorry Boston doesn’t have good Turkish food (Turkish food is awesome) but just keep your head in the game and listen to Doc. Do not listen to the negative reports about you. You are doing well.

… but the proof he provided tonight that he CAN put in this kind of performance, when called upon. The Cs may well need him to do this again before the playoffs are over this year. It’s great to know he’s got it in him.

Of course, we needed Shaq to do this because the refs were just terrible tonight, again. I do NOT believe (as some do) that the refs have it in for the Cs. But man, it sure feels that way sometimes. (Maybe that’s because they tend to give the shaft to good teams more often than bad ones?) Cs got loaded up with fouls in the first 3 periods — many of them bad calls (including at least 2 each on Semih and Shaq). But the refs partly/sorta evened it out in the last 5-6 minutes by turning on the Cats for a change. Is this REALLY the best the NBA can do??

Most amazing thing about the game: How Ray was able to score 19, including 4-6 from deep, EVEN THOUGH the Bobcats had a clear game plan to hang on him like stink on manure… to the point where the refs COULD have called a foul on almost every possesion. Ray is super-hot now. Please Ray, PLEASE do this in the spring too. You’ll still have motivation: you’ll be shooting to put that 3-point record so far out of reach, it’ll NEVER be broken, ever.

God game by the big guy, TG Davis stop shooting from outside, good W, now let’s beat Orlando.

This was an heroic performance by Shaq. All he had to do was say he couldn’t play because of fatique or physical problems and Doc would have given him the night off. In Shaq’s post-game interview with Dickerson he said that Doc told him to just point at him and he’d take him out for a rest.

Shaq, knowing the situation, instead played 35 good minutes. At times he looked tired, but he stayed in. At times he beat younger players down the floor.

With other teams Shaq often didn’t play at the end of games and rarely received the ball if he did. Now the opposite is happening. The relationship between Doc and Shaq shows what talking and listening can do for a team. This started before Shaq signed and was the reason given by Shaq that he chose to come here. I think Shaq is enjoying the game more than ever with this team.

As an aside, it looks like JO won’t help us surgery or not.

Perk is going to be put under the gun when he returns. But it takes a year or so to recover from his injury. Perk and Doc and Ed Lacerte will need to be real careful. It looks like Perk and Shaq will be our two Centers at season’s end. Semih didn’t look good last nite and I thought he didn’t move well because of his groin injury. I think he can help the team, but they also need to let that injury heal. Semih also seems to be a warrior.