Blog Archives

In today’s episode of Celticscast…

The Starting 5

• *C’s end the Rockets 22 game win streak
• *Who was the hero: Pierce, Powe or KG?
• *Monday Night C’s Sneak Past Spurs
• *It Happened to be St. Patrick’s Day
• *Ray Allen and Tony Allen hurt

Plus…

• *We take a look at the bracket because…how can you not?.
• *We give you our top 10 upsets to look for from our brackets
• *The Heat look worse and worse every day

And…

• *We weigh in briefly on the KG/Glen Taylor episode as well as looking forward to the Mavs and Hornets games coming up.

All this and more just a click away on Celticscast! Remember to send us an email at hosts@celticscast.com to be a part of the show.

The C’s had a bone to pick yesterday with the Rockets - maybe not a personal one, but a national one. The idea that the Rockets were the best team in the NBA because of their status on top of the Western Conference and historic 22-game win streak wasn’t good enough. The Celtics needed to prove it wrong. In my eyes here were the keys:

1. The last 2 minutes of the first half: the Celtics turned Houston over several times and flew into the locker room tied instead of down 5 like they were just 100 seconds prior.

2. Kevin Garnett getting the ball on the post: KG’s been playing well from the outside recently with a 20-foot J that just won’t miss. The Spurs went after him and proved it’s tough for anybody to make a jump shot from anywhere with a hand in your face. So Doc and the Gang put Garnett on the block (mostly on the left side) against Luis Scola and he dominated in the third quarter to break the game open.

3. Leon Powe: The Celtics Agent Zero played mostly when Dikembe Mutombo was out which surely helped his numbers (21 pts. in 20 minutes) compared to Perk’s (6 pts. in 20 minutes) but because of Houston’s thin bench in the middle, Leon took over and led the Celtics out of a grinding first half of play with momentum.

4. The defense: It was tremendous, giving up very few open jump shots which plagued the C’s in the first quarter at San Antonio. It also held McGrady to just 8 points (!).

Chris and I will be back Thursday to break it down and look forward to Dallas and New Orleans. Until then, Go C’s!

I’ll take the heat for one of these…I was wrong about Bruce Bowen’s suspension.  Clearly, as you all saw, he was not suspended for last night’s game, instead it was the Detroit game on Friday.  That game snapped his 500 game streak for consecutive games played.  At least he ended on a nice round number.  Tayshaun Prince is the new active “iron-man” at 339 straight games played…in case you were curious.

As for the other misstep, it was downplaying Ray Allen’s injury.  Andrew and I both agree this may be a case of Doc being extra cautious, but he was “50/50″ for last night, didn’t play, and now it seems will not play tonight either.  Sans Allen, the C’s take on the Rockets…should be a good one.  Stay tuned for daily updates to Celticscast.com and a new episode on Thursday.

Go C’s!

93-91 Celtics at San Antonio: Make it two straight: two straight on the roadtrip, two straight against the Spurs this year, two straight W’s without Ray Allen and two straight wins on St. Patrick’s Day at San Antonio. Some quick thoughts:

KG threw the ball away up two with 4.5 seconds left and ‘Big Shot Bob’ missed an impossible fall away three with two guys in his face from 27 feet out on the right wing. Two things Kevin: A: call a timeout, please! or B: run the baseline! After Parker’s made hoop run the baseline and at the veerrry least throw it 60 feet so that the Spurs can’t get a good look.

Very interesting to see Doc’s substitution patterns at point guard down the stretch. Cassell played it out all the way and was joined by House for most of the way until Rondo checked in with about 1:15 left. Incidentally, Cassell hit a 22 footer and a huge 3 to give the C’s the lead with 48 seconds left, House hit a clutch 3 while in (his only FG) and Rondo came up with a big offensive rebound with the Celts up two with 15 seconds left.

The Spurs did a great job at stepping out and preventing Garnett from having open 20 foot jump shots. the numbers: 7-15 FG, 21 pts, 8 reb. but only 2 assists because there was a guy in his face. Conversely, the C’s defense was much much more solid after the first quarter. I think SA had as many open jumpers in the first that they did the rest of the game.

James Posey became what Tony Allen was supposed to be when TA started: a good defender and a guy to move the offense. Allen did neither and the Celts were down 20 in the first half. And yet Celtics win. Other online commentary from this game: celticsblog.com, greenbandwagon.com and Pounding the Rock (spurs blog).

Cheers!

In today’s episode of Celticscast…

The Starting 5

• *C’s easiliy handle the Bucks to start roadtrip
• *They do it without Ray Allen because…
• *he hurt himself in the loss to the Jazz the night before
• *Deron Williams a star in the making tears up Celts
• *C’s clinch Atlantic Division to celebrate St. Patty’s Day

Plus…

• *We look at the next four games on the Texas Three-Step (plus New Orleans).
• *The Nuggets score 160+ points is just one of the hot-button issues Around the NBA
• *We look at our mailbag - shoot us an email at hosts@celticscast.com for anything you’d like to hear on the show or about the Celts/NBA/other topic.

And…

• *A special performance from the way-back machine of the Celtics Rap (if you can call it that). It’s after the second block of the show - you can’t miss this.

All this and more just a click away on Celticscast! Remember to give us a call at 617-934-0268 or email at hosts@celticscast.com and be a part of the show.

Apparently episode #41 has been held up somewhere on the internet and despite being uploaded to our website - it’s still not there. We apologize for the delay, it’s frustrating because there was a lot of punch to that show headed into the weekend - but hopefully things are up and working again for our next show to recap the pair of games.

Speaking of game 2 of the weekend pair (since we won’t focus on that worst deficit of the season right now), this was what the Celtics needed headed into a murderous week of opponents - an easy victory. Ray Allen didn’t play, but if it was a playoff game, methinks he would have. Yet, the Bucks showed very little fight after the first quarter and the C’s did what they do best - put them away. A maximum of 27 minutes for any of the starters (Posey’s 29 mins were the most of any player). Also, Sam Cassell was the first off the bench today replacing Rondo and immediately had an impact - a good sign against a bad team, now let’s see if he can do it later this trip. San Antonio up next Monday, then the Rockets, then Mavs, then Hornets - should be exciting. Many are making a big deal about Rondo’s matchups (Tony Parker, Rafer Alston, JKidd and then CP3 Chris Paul), but this shows just how important Cassell will be this week to give Rondo a break and keep the intensity up.

Also, anybody hoping that if somehow Illinois and Georgia both make the tourney that they both get thrown into the playoff game? It would only be fair I think…

Cheers!

In today’s episode of Celticscast…

The Starting 5

• *C’s smoke the SuperSonics
• *Everyone gets at least 13 minutes of PT
• *Sixers also can’t match up with Celts
• *Who would you like to see Boston face in 1st Rd.?
• *Possible Division Clincher tonite

Plus…

• *We peruse a plethora of emails from all over the world. Send us your thoughts at hosts@celticscast.com. We’d love to hear them.
• *We look at 10 reasons why we love recording the show in the friendly confines of 1510 the Zone
• *LeBron’s doing something no athlete has ever done before - it has something to do with the magazine cover on our page.

And…

• *Marc J. Spears of the Globe stops by for a chat looking at Paul Pierce’s legacy, the new additions to the lineup and other news and notes.

All this and more just a click away on Celticscast!