Once Again, Big Comeback Just Falls Short

Ray, KG and rondo will be on fumes tomorrow night and Wilcox likely won’t play

Rondo played a very good game tonight but again made a terrible decision in crunch time. Celtics were down 3 with the ball and Rondo makes a horrible pass while 3 Heat players were back on defense instead of setting the offense and maybe getting the red hot Ray Allen a shot. Rondo then played poor defense by gambling and leaving Norris Cole wide open to seal the victory. For Rondo to be the true leader of this team he has to be smarter down the stretch instead of always going for the big play…

I do think the Heat were just toying with us in the 3rd quarter, and even toward the end. Why? TV ratings? The spread? Doesn’t matter. At every point in this game, it felt like the Heat could turn it on with a ferocity for which our guys have no answer. Cs never had a chance.

And I think there is no team in the league that can beat the Heat 4 out of 7 games… unless either Lebron or Wade goes down. So in that sense, it comes down to health, as always. But all things being equal, everyone fully healthy, the Heat are just better that everybody else. Including, obviously, the Celtics.

Cole’s a pro. We didn’t defend him at all down the stretch. Can’t do that in this league.

The zone was great, went to it late. Have to have better decisions from veterans down the stretch – to run a set rather than force the ball into a turnover and to get out on Cole rather than reach. Warnerjohn is absolutely right.

Keep hearing how great Jermaine O’Neal is feeling this season. I guess it’s easy to feel great when you come out and do nothing offensively while providing zero defensive presence and go back to sitting on the bench. Giving him the full MLE for two years will go down as one of the worst moves in the Danny Ainge era.

KG might as well have been suspended for tonight’s game as he played a soft and invisible game offensively. Most times he got the ball KG showed no intent on scoring, instead just passing the ball right back to Rondo. Shocked to see KG so passive early with Pierce out and knowing the Celtics would need his scoring tonight. Doc tried to get KG involved early in the 3rd and 4th quarters but instead he missed open shots while also getting burnt on defense. It would be nice to see KG do more than take jump shots, play matador interior defense and try to tip rebounds instead of grabbing them.

Really looking forward to tomorrow night especially with JO and KG. It will be interesting to see if they can provide anything positive on a back to back after playing so poorly tonight. Celtics will definitely need much more from these two big men if they have any hopes of contending this season.

Sucks to lose to the Heat but, It was fun to watch the Celts keep crawling back. I like the attitude of our bench players, they really gave us the spark tonight. Bass was solid again and Dooling shot out of his mind. I like the idea of Dooling, Allen, and Pierce on the floor together when Rondo has to rest. They should start Bass instead of O’neil tomorrow. If this is as good as O’Neil is going to get we are in trouble…

the c’s made a game of it. the grouping of kg,rr,ra, dooling and bass was really good. we could play offense with them but they penetrated to the hoop at will at too many times. cole is good but a punk and was playing to the cameras and gesticulating way too much= showboat. oneal looks slow and doc has to play some of his players. red would have had loscutoff put a knee or elbow into cole. the c’s are not gead. they can beat this made for tv team, tho miami is real good and athletic.

69 points in the first half with 39 in the second quarter alone is D league quality defense. It was painful to watch KG, JO and the veterans show little effort defensively and instead allowing Miami to get wide open shots with no resistance. Switching to the zone turned out to be a great move but isn’t a long term solution. With another game on tap tomorrow there isn’t much time to regroup. Hopefully at some point the Celtics will decide to play defense from the beginning of the game which should be a given with the veteran leaders they have on the floor…

Celtics made a frantic push but again tonight it was nowhere near enough to pull out the victory. Once again the Celtics were terrible in crunch time on both ends of the court. This game was obviously different as it wasn’t the Celtics blowing another lead but trying to make a miraculous comeback. What is the same though is that this Celtic team once again failed to execute in the last 2 minutes of the game.

Failure to get the key stops, turnovers, poor shots – the same mixture that has been present over the past couple seasons. It’s nice to see the Celtics fight and make a game of it but for whatever reason this team often struggles to close out games strongly. It’s shocking to watch this team go from playing top level basketball to an ineffective, disorganized and incompetent team late in games. With a great coach and veteran leaders with tons of late game experience, the Celtics have got to finish games in better fashion to have any chance of success this season.

Liked the zone defence, really lacked inside presence.

The highlight of tonight was seeing him solidly contribute.

All those points in the paint, dunks and put-backs are killing us. We need someone who can at least change shots and intimidate. JO in his limited time has produced nothing. In the limited time he has played, I thought he would be more productive. Heck even a rookie is not intimidated in venturing in the paint against the Cs. First order of the game should be to establish that the paint is off limits.

but I still believe in our chances for a championship. yesterday it was bass, and today’s game it’s dooling. GO C’s!

plus it keeps our bigs fresher. kg is not the guy he once was and JO is a shell of the player he once was. bradley looks like a bust but it’s hard to know for sure since he rarely gets meaningful minutes. I hope to see moore and johnson tomorrow.

KG can score. He needs to be more aggressive!
JO needs to play better defense and give us 8-10 points a game.
Pierce comes back healthy and takes over.
MP plays lockdown defense and scores.
Dooling and Bass continue to score. Marquis, score more, foul a lot less.
Rondo, keep attacking, keep scoring; make better decisions especially in crunch time.
I believe this team can compete and surprise some people. We are missing some key elements that I’m hoping get addresed throughout the season.
DA, please help this team by getting us a solid center – one who can rebound and block.

I mean he looked bad tonight on everything. Missed rotations, no offensive capabilities, Moore can’t possibly be worse than Avery. I’d still rather have Nate Robinson than Avery, but hopefully once Pierce and Pietrus get involved we won’t need to go deeper than Dooling at the point.

you watch these magnificent athletes run up and down the floor and then you watch bavetta chug along. come on stern let him collect his social security check and stop allowing your refs make a farce out of this league. bavetta did not cost the c’s the game=miami won fair and square. old man time has caught up with him. stern really is as antiquated as bavetta and i just can’t stand to see these fogeys unable to give up control when their time is long past.

Guys are scoring with ease right in front of him. Half the time I didnt even see him with a hand up. I hope that was a fluke and not the norm this season for our defensive leader.

I agree with all your points but I do believe Pierce’s offensive and defensive presence in the game would more than make up for an 8 point swing. We can’t let our record get too bad, but I’m not discouraged by these losses either.
Also, Pietrus can give a lot more pop to a game than Pavlovic, so I’m looking forward to seeing him out there.
If we can get and stay healthy I think we’re right in the mix.

Who forgot who they were. Celtics are a Defensive team with threats inside and outside the paint. They allowed the heat to dictate who they were when they need to be the dictators. Celtics need to get back to defense, slow up these “fast” teams, and shove it down there throats. Celtics is a beast that need to get going. luckily its a long season.

How come our guys dont box out!!! I was taught that as a kid! Surely pros should automatically box out! There was either 1 green jersey surrounded by 3 white jerseys going for a rebound or there werent any green jerseys in sight, but still 3 white ones.

get a big lead, let Rondo get some rest. Give the rookies some time and let Dooling and Bass get used with the system

I feel like the first half our player werent even in the game. They didnt have the usual spunk. KG was kinda restrained (maybe due to all the heat hes been getting). 2nd half Ray decided to pick it up. And Dooling and Bass played solid games if we even had Air France maybe we could have pulled that one off. The refs werent helping either. They should put an age limit on the refs. Seriously. But all in all were 0-2 Pierce our Mr. 4th quarter hasnt played a single game. No reason to panic yet.

and that’s no guarantee, even against the Hornets… second game of a back-to-back on the road. against a team that’s not supposed to be very good. sounds like a classic trap game from last year

I figured we’d lose and here we were down 3 with moments to go with no PP, no Pietrus, no Wilcox and we are on the road. Im thinking dang man we are going to be awesome, look at Bass, see how Ray is, Rondo is fine, Kg can play d and nothing else but we know that and his d is great. Dooling is good like I thought and the lineup with KG, PP, Bass, Ray, Rondo or Dooling will be awesome…we have a chance, a good chance we just went deep agaoinst the favorites at 85% strength

Maybe they are saving all the calls in favor of the Celtics for the playoffs?

J0.

How bad could the Steamer be to be worse than that performance?

C’mon Doc, let’s see what he’s got.

This is just our post Christmas slump. Sucks the lockout skipped all the games the Celts play well in.

No Paul, no Pietrus yet, no Wilcox and yet we are hanging on with the beast teams. I really see some good stuff even if we lost 2 straight games. Bass looks pretty good. KG was a bit missing but he’ll be back. I can’t really say we are in trouble after two games, against two really good teams. When everybody gets to play, we will be good.

And Doc should let JO play post. I know he regressed already due to age and injuries but the dude has some serious post moves. WE HAVE NO POST THREAT. He’s just using him as a screener. Give him some post plays.

Yep definately this guys a troll

And whats your point exactly? What do you wish to gain here?

The truth didnt even play. Whats so hard to accept about that?

So you can tell all that by 2 games with out the franchise player playing? Hmmmm…. You may be the next GM if you can forecast the future like this. Maybe you can retire from trolling

I saw a team that had a total Of 8 players make it to the 2nd round against a more athletic crop of teams.

Yes, the C’s are 0-2. Yes, they have not played Celtics basketball for 48 minutes. But no, Celtics fan! You should not give up on your team. Please!
The past two games, it is quite evident that the Celtics were looking for a player to generate offense through. That is why things WILL change when PP gets back. Not only can he generate his own offense, but he can score and get his teammates involved more. He is also a better defender than Quis and Pav.
Moving on; there is MP. I am not sure what to exactly expect, but I am hoping he gives us solid defense and a scoring punch. Between PP and MP, the outcome of the past two games could have been different. I think it is very fair to say that between both players, we could have gotten at least 10 points. That’s enough to have won the Knicks and heat game.
Our bench will be A-ok. I think once the rotations are set, players will jell with one another and slide into their roles. Dooling and Bass will score. Marquis will chip in some more points. Wilcox will rebound. MP will defend and score.. We’ll be okay.
Honestly, the only player I am not sure about is Avery Bradely. Maybe we move him if he keeps blowing his chances? As far as Rookies, doc will find a way to get them going. Let us all have some patience and loyalty.

Ok so whats your big plan rebounds. I still dont see any points you want to raise. The celtics suck is that it? Why dont you start rooting for the heat then.

Im gonna stop feeding you now. Go back to the Heat/Clippers blog where you belong.

How come we always give the opponents plus points from 1st to 3rd quarter? We’re a slow starter team, Doc should change that bad mentality. From jump start until end of game the team should be piling up and protecting a big lead and not playing catch up (again and again!)!

Btw, KG should have had choke Cole’s throat at the end!

Rondo played a very good game tonight but again made a terrible decision in crunch time. Celtics were down 3 with the ball and Rondo makes a horrible pass while 3 Heat players were back on defense instead of setting the offense and maybe getting the red hot Ray Allen a shot. Rondo then played poor defense by gambling and leaving Norris Cole wide open to seal the victory.

I guess stuff like this is why Ainge was trying to trade him for Chris Paul this summer…

I have already conceeded that fact, the only way they drop is if they lose LBJ or Wade for a good chunk of the regular season, but they ain’t droppin below 2 seed…

I will just stay away from a first round meeting with them or its gonna be a first round exit with or without Pierce.

when Marquis was our low post option and repeatedly was blocked, frustrated or knocked down. Missing in action: JO and KG. KG made some of his patented outside shots at the start of the game but just as in the playoffs, seemed unwilling or unable to use his height and skill advantage down low. And if the best we can hope out of JO is that he doesn’t get injured, then I think we desperately need to look over whatever cast off’ centers are available. JO was not intimidating on defense and is a liability on offense.

Positives: Ray Allen continues to prove that his DNA is made of something different than the rest of us. Rondo, although intimidated by the swarming defense, still put up good numbers and for whatever reason, I don’t cringe quite as much when he steps to the foul line or goes for a jumper. And kudos to Doc for his second half defensive game plan.

I admit I had to turn the sound down on this game half-way through the first quarter. When the TNT announcers proclaimed a 10-0 start and a championship for the Heat, I felt like throwing my shoe through the screen. But I suppose it’s better than last year when the Heat were declared champions before they ever stepped on the court. At least the “media” waited one game to declare it. The NBA media continues to suck.

It has been a while since the C’s lost the first 2 games of the season, so it is natural fans ain’t feeling easy about it. This game continued to show :

1) The Celtics need a true, legit center. Actually the need was there since Shaq was injured last season. They badly need one now if they want to go anywhere.

2) No one in the present roster, not even Rondo, KG or Ray, can carry this team against a contender.

3) The Perkins trade gave us nothing … zero.

4) The Celtics will probably end up the worst (or among the worst) rebounding team, D and/or O.

Hope they can find and flip that switch in time.

So funny reading all the negative comments on KG and JO.
These guys have played 2 games since last years playoffs- where they were both Beasts.

We are a better team than last year. Few kinks to iron out but our bench is going to be much better.

Do all the doomsday commenters here even remember that Pierce hasn’t played yet? Or Pietrus? Wilcox was out aswell? We had Bass as the only big off the bench because of this.0-2 in very close games against two of our toughest competitors at the start of the season and as usual, clowns are saying it’s over before it’s began.

Again, the anti-KG comments are so funny.
Voted as top 25 NBA just one month ago and is own fanbase are calling for his scalping.
Ungrateful, impatient, hypocritical dawgs every last one of you.

Minutes. We are wearing guys out in te first two games! No steimsma, Moore, or jjj. How do we know what we have if not played? How can they ever gel? How can our starters stay fresh? Really been questioning the coaching phiosophy the last two years.

that were interested in Erik Dampier?!
any remarks