Jurassic Spark - Celtics Find Groove Against Raptors

finally

only 7 FGA from Ray Allen. sigh

Celtics finally got a much needed win tonight. It helped that they were playing the Toronto Raptors. What a terrible team which played tonight without Bargnani who is their leading scorer and 2nd leading rebounder. In any case it was nice to see the Celtics come out strong and score points in the 1st quarter. The effort to rebound the ball was solid tonight against a poor Raptor front line.

The Celtics defense effort was solid but Toronto helped out by missing tons of wide open looks from 3 point range. The C’s rotations were often slow in finding the open shooter which they can’t get away with against better teams.

Hard to tell much from one game against a terrible team but it’s a start…

Marquis looks to have nothing left. He can’t hit open outside shots and relies on getting his points inside the lane. Watching him miss countless close in shots over the past couple weeks and showing zero lift when going to the basket is a bad sign.

JO played a great game tonight. He was aggressive on the boards and a force inside. He also took a couple charges and showed lots of energy on both ends.

E’Twaun Moore showed little in his extended minutes. Bricked an open 3, did nothing on offense, struggled in trying to run the sets and couldn’t defend Gary Forbes of all people.

Michael Pietrus was great off the bench. Solid defense and instant offense is a potentially explosive combination.

That guy can be our new Posey but even better.. I knew he would be a big addition but he’s better than I thought.. Our bench can really jell once we have our full guys

ether its he’s not a PG & more of a SG or he just cant play in this league ..had some assist though ,i’d hope to see more of him & really judge if rondo cant play

After going thru the 06-07 season and the recent 5-game skid, I have learned to take any win that is there because it is hard to tell when the next win will come. Granted it was just the lowly Raptor the Celtics beat, but a win is a win.

Hope the C’s can beat a top team before the All-Star break (if there is one this shortened season.), then flip the switch as they did in 2010.

It’s painful watching the Celtics try to finish inside. Even against a weak interior team such as Toronto the C’s floundered on several point blank shots. Ray, Bass and KG failed to finish a few inside opportunities. Not sure if I have ever seen Paul Pierce miss 3 point blank shots in the same game. He played well other than shooting poorly but it’s clearly evident at this point he just doesn’t yet have the lift or explosiveness needed to finish in his customary fashion.

as good as rondo played, he sure took a licking and won’t survive the week no less the season at this rate. jo looked very good with no one threatening him down low.pp played smart with the pass but no lift on the legs- he still has me worried.i apologize to all vets, but comcast drove me crazy with the servicemen interviews- taking the camera and the focus off the game.

Oh yeah, I remember a team like this somewhere in the back of my mind… We have to start putting teams like this away to tune up and get our record in the right direction.

Also I’m still waiting to see Wilcox out there. I agree with Danny and think he can help the team. I always thought he’s capable of being a good role player, I’m interested to see what he can do.

Glad they won. Liked the Pietrus stat line. I am nervous about Rondo since they say he is day-to-day. We all know what that has meant in the past. A win is a win, but at some point they have to beat a team with a pulse.

Now on to the next game until we can defeat a quality team. I might just get lulled into thinking everything is solved. That was what I thought during their 4-game win streak.

… but the play of our key guys.

- KG looked fiercer in this game than he has all season. Good sign. Chest pounding – good sign. Clapping hands, egging opponent on – very good sign. Add this to the word “leaking out” of the locker room that KG is talking about playing on after this year, perhaps as a role player (Ian Thomsen, SI.com), and I think we can start to look forward to much better play from KG. This alone would be great news.

- PP showed a lot of aggression out there. Yeah, it might be confidence gained from knowing he’s playing a bad team… but still, he was out there attacking, and having his way. All good.

- They’re missing fewer shots. This never bothered me, because though it costs games, we know that eventually their shooting touch will come back. It has to. Heck, shooting touch can last till you’re old and gray.

- Defense was strong, aggressive, at times smothering. Even the bench. All good.

- And Rondo was back. Though there was never much doubt about that.

Bottom line: they blew out a bad team, just like they’re supposed to. And there were many positive signs. It’s completely possible that this game will mark the beginning of the rise of the Celtics back into contention.

1. As someone said above, Daniels looked terrible….again. He never had a long distance shot and now can’t do his penetration and make the close-ins. Nor has his defense been good. I"m afraid he’s done.

2. PPierce has no lift. He was able to get penetration down the middle regularly but couldn’t finish them. On most, he couldnt get the ball over the rim.

3. We don’t have a backup Point Guard. When Rondo is on the bench, play stalls. Those on the floor toss the ball around until the 24 sec clock is running out, then whoever is last man out dribbles wildly and futilely and takes a wild shot. Same result whether Bradley, Dooling or Moore.

4. Ray Allen looks done. Yes, he can still shoot, but his defense is not good, his ball handling (and passing) is atrocious and he can’t get past his screens fast enough to get his shot off.

It was nice to see them play a full game and win again. Hopefully it carries over to the next game. The competition resembled an NBDL league team but at this point who cares. We got a win!