First Half Analysis
Good first half overall but it is a little unnerving to feel like we controlled the game up to this point and we are still only up 2 points.
- Rondo getting hurt stopped my heart for a second. Glad he was able to come back. Hopefully he doesn't re-injure it and hopefully it won't slow him down too much.
- LeBron had a lot of (seemingly) unforced errors. Blown dunk, sloppy turnovers, etc. But the Celtics also defended him well (so far).
- Our bigs absolutely exposed the Cavs interior defense. Countless layups and easy buckets in the paint. Not to mention rebounds.
- The Cavs strategy of doubling (and even tripling) Pierce is working pretty well so far. They have kept him reasonably quiet and our shooters haven't made them pay with open looks yet.
- Stephon looks like he's really overthinking things way too much. When he gets open looks he's wondering if he should look for the extra pass when he should be focused on the shot.
- Thankfully Joe Smith looks lost and slow.
- One of the highlights was a Marbury drive and dish to Mikki Moore with an emphatic dunk in traffic. Nice to see the new guys step up for one play at least.
- Great defense by the 2nd unit.
- Mo Williams singlehandedly brought them back at the end of the half. Need to find a way to slow him down.
- We also need to find a way to rotate someone out to cover the pick and pop that has been open all game for Big Z.
Second Half Analysis
- Big Baby wasn't looking to hurt anyone - in fact he was going for the ball and Varajao's head got in the way. That said, when you bring your arms down on the neck, they'll call that every time. Technically speaking, I guess it was a Flagrant 2 but King James way, way overreacted and Ray didn't deserve a tech.
- Ray Allen got it going in the 3rd quarter.
- Then Paul and Powe lit it up in the 4th.
- 40 combined points for Powe, Baby, and Perkins. Way to fill in for KG guys (on offense and defense).
- The Celtics really took LeBron off his game. Wonderful gameplan by Tom T.
- We won, so I'm not going to complain about the refs. However, I'm being urged to point out that the Cavs took 38 free throws to our 12.
They played like the Defending Champs tonight folks. What a joy to watch.
Boston | |||||||||||||||
Starters | Min | FG | 3Pt | FT | +/- | Off | Reb | Ast | TO | Stl | BS | BA | PF | Pts | |
R. Allen | G | 36:39 | 6-12 | 2-5 | 3-3 | +12 | 1 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 17 |
R. Rondo | G | 30:11 | 3-8 | 0-1 | 0-0 | +8 | 0 | 2 | 10 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
K. Perkins | C | 39:12 | 5-10 | 0-0 | 0-0 | +2 | 3 | 8 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 10 |
P. Pierce | F | 45:06 | 11-22 | 3-6 | 4-5 | +8 | 0 | 4 | 9 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 29 |
G. Davis | F | 17:07 | 5-8 | 0-0 | 0-1 | +1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 10 |
Bench | Min | FG | 3Pt | FT | +/- | Off | Reb | Ast | TO | Stl | BS | BA | PF | Pts | |
L. Powe | 26:24 | 9-11 | 0-0 | 2-3 | +16 | 3 | 11 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 20 | |
S. Marbury | 15:42 | 1-5 | 0-2 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | |
E. House | 15:22 | 2-4 | 1-2 | 0-0 | +5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | |
M. Moore | 12:36 | 3-3 | 0-0 | 0-0 | +3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 6 | |
J.R. Giddens | 0:50 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
B. Walker | 0:50 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
Totals | 45-83 | 6-16 | 9-12 | 9 | 36 | 31 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 23 | 105 |