For starters, Celtics' reserves have struggled Celtics statistics

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 05:00 GMT

Bill Walton's place in history as the last Celtic to win the NBA Sixth Man Award is safe for another season.

Pierce nets 29 as C's upset Mavs on road

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 05:00 GMT

DALLAS - Paul Pierce scored 29 points, Rajon Rondo added 20 points and 10 rebounds, and the Boston Celtics stretched their winning streak to four games with a 102-93 victory over the Dallas Mavericks last night.

For starters, Celtics' reserves have struggled Celtics statistics

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 05:00 GMT

Bill Walton's place in history as the last Celtic to win the NBA Sixth Man Award is safe for another season.

For starters, Celtics' reserves have struggled Celtics statistics

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 05:00 GMT

Bill Walton's place in history as the last Celtic to win the NBA Sixth Man Award is safe for another season.

For starters, Celtics' reserves have struggled Celtics statistics

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 05:00 GMT

Bill Walton's place in history as the last Celtic to win the NBA Sixth Man Award is safe for another season.

Two Straight: C's 102, Mavs 93

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 22:23 GMT

ESPN Recap • Mavs Moneyball • The Two Man Game

Pace: 91 possessions (average)

Offensive Efficiency: 112 points/100 possessions (elite)

Defensive Efficiency: 102 points allowed/100 possessions (league best)

Thumbnail: I recorded this game due to a prior engagement and haven't watched it yet. I'll tell you what, though: I'm damn excited to watch it tomorrow and break it down. Optimism feels good, doesn't it?

Brian Robb will have some analysis soon, but in the meantime, tell me what I should be watching for when I fire up the DVR tomorrow.

Comments from the Other Side - Mavericks 3/20

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 22:22 GMT

Almost forgot to post the comments from the Rockets' so am getting this one up early. Great game tonight. They are playing like the Celtics of old rather than the old Celtics!! Swept the Texas Triangle, just like in the Championship year. Guys are getting healthy and settling back into their roles. Good stuff! Enjoy!

We better win this one. Boston has been pretty crappy of late and the Mavs (if you ignore the one Knicks game) have been playing well of late. If we lose, it will be because we played like we did in the second half of tonight's game.

Boston might been coming around after all. They've won their last two games pretty convincingly-yes, not against great teams..but they've blown them out. This Mavericks team struggles to win against inferior opponents-when was the last blowout they won?
I think Boston wins this one easily

I highly doubt they win easily, if at all. While we haven't blown anybody out, you can't argue that in the last 15 games, we've only failed to do what was necessary for a win once. Boston is still a mere 3-3 in their last 6 games, even with those back to back wins and 8-6 in their last 14. Not exactly world beater material.

Just kick KG in the leg and this team will fall apart. Matt Carroll...there's hope for you yet!

We need to run Boston out the gym. We get two days rest and it will be the 2nd night of a b2b for them. They already are old for the most part and I still think we play best at a quicker pace, let's run these boys.

I just want to see Haywood or Dirk make Big Baby cry, I can't stand him.

As long as Haywood stays out of foul trouble early they won't get much inside, Brendan Haywood>Kendrick Perkins (A.K.A. The Caveman)

We will beat Boston, mark my words unless we lose. Lol

At least after the Celtics get pummeled by Dallas they have a nice episode of Matlock to look forward to in the hotel.

Rasheed Wallace wants "retribution" lmao, now watch him him go 2 of 12 from the field lol

I love how I'm not even worried at all about this game. Honestly, I'd much rather play the Celtics than the T-Wolves at this point...

Doc Rivers is my least favorite coach ever basically. Such an *******.

Celtics are on a roll, so this game should be a tough test. Let's Go Mavs!!!! Crush them!
I hate the Boston Celtics!

Kevin Garnett acting "tough" once again...

Unacceptable, Kidd, Dirk and Dampier versus Rondo and they lose the rebound...

I love how every time we play the Celtics we always seem to end up with more fouls then them all game.

Like the refs so far

Marquis looks so odd in a Celtic uni

Make that Damp! We need to cut this guy!

Trade him for jonas jerebko, our white guy quota is too low

One of the few games in which Barea is not the shortest player

Barea still looks shorter and nate can dunk, unlike JJ

Sheed, if you keep harassing Dirk, he'll put 20 on your sorry ass in the 4th

I'm not sure Rasheed will make it through this game. He's getting visibly frustrated and completely outplayed and he of course loves his T's

Nate Robinson hasn't done anything in the game so far and hes already annoying me.

Be aggressive. No reason to shy away from "fake tough" guys.

Can anyone else just not stand Paul pierce?

pierce, rondo, garnett, perkins, robinson the only person that I like on the Celtics is ray allen

8 off reb's for Boston, 0 for Dallas. Not a good stat.

Nate is the top PG that I never want. He cannot make a game at all.
I am very happy to see he is wearing the Green shirt now.

God Doc Rivers is a such a little baby

I just hate Garnett with a passion. The dude is 33 and still so immature. Maybe he should have gone to college.

Boston is making us look like the softest team to ever play the game of basketball. No toughness.

We should play Barea and Beaubois to exploit how slow they are.

We'll win this one and Garnett is showing himself to be the absolute fool he is.

It's not against the rules to drive the ball on slow, injured and old bigs.

Marquis's hair is AWESOME. Miss him.

KG fouls literally EVERY time down the court. It's a f'ing joke. Every game. He literally puts BOTH arms on his defender. That's an automatic foul. Any other league this POS fouls out in 5 minutes. It amazes me how he gets away with this every game.

Plus all those illegal screens he has been setting throughout his career...pathetic.

He sets at least 10 illegal picks a game and gets called for, if you're lucky, one.

What a flopper pierce is...

I love how sheed comes in the game and we start to go on a run. I bet he's feeling that "retribution" now huh??

Rasheed's plus minus has to be GHASTLY.

Great job by Pierce to draw that charge. Got to give the man props...been a great player in this league for a long time.

Yea I know he's the "enemy" but I have much respect for Pierce's career. A smart basketball player. Rarely makes boneheaded mistakes. Can bring it on both sides of the ball. He's one of the underrated stars in the league. His game isn't pretty but its efficient.

When Pierce gets it down low, and he makes his spin move and it's SO SLOW but it ALWAYS works it just absolutely kills me.

I hate doc rivers, what a crybaby...

If I had a dollar for everytime Doc Rivers complains about a call or a no call I would be extremely wealthy.

Nate is gonna end up killing the Celtics. He is not a point guard at all. He should be playing alongside Rondo not behind him.

Nate Robinson: the guy you never pass to in a pickup game if you ever want to shoot it.

Boston has more losses than anyone in the NBA with a halftime lead, I believe. Just food for thought.

Sometimes I think sheed doesn't know which team his playing for

Ray Allen is still the man.

Could we maybe, you know, guard Ray Allen?

Ray Allen's jumpshot is not even fair. How do you guard something like that where someones release is that fast?

Wallace is terrible. His defense in this half has been laughable. How can Doc let this guy on the court so long. His D on the Dirk three was so funny.

Doc Rivers is the most consistently confused coach in the league

Someone stab Pierce in the face oh wait

The guys who rushed him to the hospital were Derrick and Tony Battie, of all people in the NBA

Rondo is killing us.

Boston with Nate in the 4th... 2pt in 3min
Boston with Rondo in the 4th ... 7pt in 1min

Rondo is owning Kidd.

Put somebody on Rondo. Rivers finally realized Mavs have nobody that can guard him. Especially Kidd.

Boston = tough.
Dallas = fake tough.

Is anyone else just disgusted with the trade? God I wish we had Josh Howard right now.

I'm glad Boston isn't in the west, we wouldn't stand a snowball's chance in hell against them in a best of 7 series

Disappointed. Boston is not that good this year.

They've been injured. They're healthy now.

Sheed got his revenge

[Discuss on CG Forums!]

T-Mobile Recap: Crunch time domination

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 21:43 GMT

Did I jump into my hot tub time machine and land back in 2008?

The Celtics outscored the Mavericks 27-11 over the final 8 minutes of the 4th quarter. Thanks to clutch shooting and suffocating defense, they turned an 82-75 deficit into a 102-93 win.

Rajon Rondo was clutch. He scored 10 of his 20 points (10 rebounds, 5 assists) during that stretch. He went past Jason Kidd and scored in the teeth of the Dallas defense on three successive possessions late in the game.

Paul Pierce (29 points, 10-17 FG, 5 assists) was brilliant, yet again. His 3-pointer with 1:44 left and subsequent steal and assist (to Rondo) were the daggers.

Ray Allen (21 points, 4-8 3FG) was steady all night. Kevin Garnett struggled offensively (8 points on 3-9 FG) but delivered with 9 rebounds, 5 steals and steady defense on Dirk Nowitzki.

The bench (13 total points) nearly cost the team this game. They could not get into an offensive rhythm.

Is this the most impressive (back to back, on the road, against the hottest team in the league) win of the season? Yes it is.

Box Score | Recap

Celtics/Mavericks Game Preview

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 15:19 GMT

Celtics (44-24) at Mavericks (46-22)

Game time: 9pm, American Airlines Arena, Dallas. TV - CSN. Radio - WEEI-AM (850)

Team Leaders

Scoring
Bos: Pierce - 17.9 Mavs: Dirk Nowitzki - 25.0

Rebounding
Bos: Perkins - 7.7 Mavs: Erik Dampier - 8.1

Assists
Bos: Rondo - 9.7 Mavs: Jason Kidd - 9.3

Who'll go off: Ray Allen. He's shooting a torrid 58% from the field (including 3) over the past 5 games. The much bigger Caron Butler might have difficulty chasing Ray around screens.

Who needs to be stopped: Dirk Nowitzki. He torched the Celtics for 37 points in the Mavs 99-90 win in Boston on Jan. 18. Kevin Garnett did not play in the game.

The C's will lose if... They don't replicate the hard-nose defensive effort we saw last night in Houston. It clearly won't be easy. The Mavs can score and they are well rested (last played Wed. night at home).

Miscellany: Rasheed Wallace was fined $35,000 for saying the referees "don't like no tough defense on" Nowitzki. He also said, "There will be retribution." The Mavericks only loss in the last 15 games was a 128-94 blowout at the hands of the Knicks. Jason Terry is playing in his 2nd game since having facial surgery to repair a fractured bone.

Prediction: Celtics 102 - Mavs 100

After the jump, former Mavericks dancer and runner-up in last year's Dancer Madness competition - Jessica.

Comments from the Other Side - Rockets 3/19

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 13:44 GMT

Don't underestimate KG playing post D on Scola In the past games against the c’s, KG has completely owned scola in the defensive post. He uses his long arms to harass him and he knows scola is always going to go right (funny how nobody else knows).

Rajon Rondo is overrated in my opinion. Remember that playoff game against the magic where they rolled the ball in bounds to him near the end of the game to save time? Then around half court, Rafer or somebody dove for it? That was priceless

This game will be one of the toughest ones they’ve had in a while. If the Rockets win, it could send them thru the roof with confidence.

Way to underestimate Kendrick Perkins and Nate Robinson off the bench can be the single most notable reason we might lose this game

Rajon Rondo - the spiritual and "alien appearance" heir to Sam Cassell

Except he can't shoot at all

The .548 shooting would imply otherwise. Seriously, folks, where is this “Rondo is overrated” shit coming from? He’s a fantastic defender, rebounder, and passer, and his only real issue is that he lacks a consistent jumpshot. But when he can finish at the rim as well as most big men, that doesn’t really matter much.

Nba TV? Fantastic, I'll have to go to a bar to watch it now...

Our Big 3 tops Celtics Big 3 and leads us to victory, with rondo struggling from the field.

Must defeat Evil Guys in Green!

If we can stop Robert Parish we have a chance.

Celtics are a .5 team since the all star break. This SHOULD be a win, but with the rockets I don't know..

Give Martin the ball, watch old man Allen try to stay with him.

Run run run. Cannot make this a half court game or else Boston will murder the rockets. let's make it happen boys!

Contain Larry bird and we got this

Anyone notice the weird scheduling.... Two years ago yesterday our historic winning streak was put to end by the Celtics and now this year we take our longest winning streak of the season against the Celtics again? Sadly this year its only 4 games, but this year I think we keep the streak alive.... Man that streak was amazing

Officials: #14 Joe DeRosa, #57 Greg Willard, #40 Leon Wood This gives me hope. No Tony Brothers, Joey Crawford or Dick Bavetta, so I think we're good tonight.

Officials: #14 Joe DeRosa, #57 Greg Willard, #40 Leon Wood

This gives me hope. No Tony Brothers, Joey Crawford or Dick Bavetta, so I think we're good tonight.

Scola is schooling KG lol

Celtics look so slow

Go rockets. Make big baby cry

Celtics playing some great defense. If only we played great defe...wait, we did. 3 years ago.

Either Celtics defense is really good, or the rockets are just horrible offensively.

The Celtics are such a superior defensive team over us.

We just match up so bad with them. They are taller than us in every position.
They miss and miss and rebound and rebound. They don't score much, but they keep us from scoring.

Paul Pierce is a horrible matchup for Trevor Ariza.

Watching a good defensive team like Boston exposes what a average team we are.

Rockets can't get a call for the life of them when it matters.

I have nothing but contempt for these morally bankrupt officials.

Amazing! These thugs are allowed to swat, commit offensive fouls(Ray Allen on Scola), and push, and don't get called for it. Then, when they run into one of our players, we called for a foul.

Rajon Rondo is playing spectacuar defense.

Rondo is doing a great job staying denying brooks the ball and that's got our whole offense discombobulated.

This is about as close to Van Gundy's defense versus Adelman's offense as we could get. Thibodeaux with the awesome job bottling up Brooks and forcing the Rockets to go to something else.

If Houston starts to play some faster ball, Boston won't make it out alive.

There is no question in my mind that our players thought they were going to play against members of the AARP tonite and were just going to outrun the old gizzards to death. Instead, Boston decided to show up and teach these young pulps a lesson.

Completely scouted our backcourt. Damn that Tom Thibodeux!

Chuck Hayes 5-6 FTs means God is on our side tonight!

Are we looking something personal in Martin and Allen

Thank god for FT attempts, keepin' us in the game.

Rondo has that rep as a elite defender that's why he gets to do anything he wants on that end. Pretty much like how Artest bullies guys around.

I usually think Ray Allen is a stand-up guy. But it just goes to show that even the nicest guys can be corrupted on a team full of douchbags.

I wish someone would lay out Allen, I would if I were out there. I hate that guy.

Ray Allen is too good, too classy to hate.

It was intentional, I replayed it numerous times and Nate was looking down at Scola's leg. Nate used his left leg to trip him and then took a step and acted like he was falling too.

Woot! We're in the penalty now. Lots of C's with 4 fouls.

Please let Garnett or Paul foul out.

Foul, more foul calls... Good job, refs.

Wow rockets getting some homecookin tonight... 27 fouls for Boston, only 12 for rox

Celtics getting it done down the stretch while the Rockets wither away.

Oh well....Celtics are just a better team than us.

I hate the Celts, not as much as the Jazz but they are making all their shots and playing good D against us. I don't even think we played that badly, but they just outplayed us. Simple as that.

Just can't leave Garnett that open down the stretch he will get it done more often than not.

Does pierce have to practice acting like a douche at all times or does it just come naturally?

I think it comes naturally. Only a natural douche can drive someone else to stab them 11 times

Oh well, Celtics will get eliminated in the first round.

Pierce is the kind of player you wish bad things upon.

It was a good game against an elite team that played elite.

The Celtics are a better team than us so it wasn't surprising that we lost. But I now hate Ray Allen with a passion for his stunts tonight. And the worst part of it is he got away with his antics without any kind of foul called on him.

Boston Celtics = Rockets streak killer Ended our 22 game win streak and ended brooks consecutive games with a 3 pointer streak

We're still learning to play against a superior defense. Scola and Brooks couldn't get untracked. We'll play better on the rematch.

that's the defense we used to play, Celtics stole our treasure............

They showed up and played tight D this game that's for sure. They also got away with a lot. They are like Utah, the refs know they play rough so they swollow their whistles.

[Discuss on CG Forums!]

Game 68/82: C's (44-24) @ Mavs (46-22)

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 13:30 GMT

Boston at Dallas
9:00 p.m. EST
TD Garden
CSN/WEEI

Opposing viewpoint: The Two Man Game

Offensive Efficiency:

Boston: 107.2 points/100 possessions (14th)

Dallas: 109.0 points/100 possessions (11th)

Defensive Efficiency:

Boston: 102.2 points allowed/100 possessions (1st)

Dallas: 106.6 points allowed/100 possessions (13th)

Probable Dallas Starters:

Caron Butler, Dirk Nowitzki, Brendan Haywood, Jason Kidd, Shawn Marion

Injury Report

Dallas: OUT: Tim Thomas (personal)

Thumbnail: The C's continue their road trip, trying to build on their 3 game winning streak, with the 2nd half of a back to back against the Mavs, winners of 13 of their last 14. While the C's will be coming off of short rest, the Mavs will be playing just their 2nd game in the last week., so they will be just shaking off rust more than anything else.

WHAT THE MAVS DO WELL:

Take Care of the Ball

The Mavericks are a run of the mill offensive team (12th in FG% and 3pt shooting percentage), when you look at their overall shooting numbers, but one thing they take care of the little things quite well when they have the ball and that includes not turning over the ball. They rank 2nd in the league in turnover percentage with no one in their rotation averaging more than 2 a game. A strong contingent of guards with Jason Kidd, J.J Barea, and Jason Terry help a lot in this area. Kidd though, has been struggling with the ball recently, averaging 3.5 turnovers in his last 10 games.

Keeping Opponents off the line

Dallas has been deceptively strong on the defensive end this year and one of the main reasons why is their ability to keep their opponents off the charity stripe. Ranking 5th in the league in fewest Free Throws allowed per FG attempt for their opponent. Given the C’s success in this department offensively (9th in the league) will be very interesting to see what gives tonight.

Shoot Free Throws

Dallas shoots 81 percent from the line, good for tops in the NBA. Given the C's recent foul prone ways as Zach Lowe wrote about last week, it would certainly be in their best interest to be a bit more disciplined in keeping Dallas off he line tonight, as it's evident they will pay for it, if they don't.

WHAT THE MAVS DO POORLY

Offensive Rebounding

Their one major flaw as a team numbers wise, they rank 25th in the league in offensive rebounding percentage. That number could be somewhat misleading with the recent addition of Brendan Haywood, one of the best rebounders in the league, but he and Dampier are really the only guys willing to do any dirty work down low. Defending the glass was a chore against scrappy Houston last night, so the C's should have an easier time this evening.

PLAYER WHO MAKES ME WORRY

Dirk

This doesn't deserve much discussion……it is worth noting however, Dirk is struggling from deep, (for him) in last 10 games, shooting just 33 percent from downtown. Always a tough assignment for KG, but the power forward will be best served to push the German out towards the arc. It will be nice to have KG back for this one, as he missed the team's first meeting this year when Dallas ran the C's out of the Garden in the 2nd half.

PLAYERS WHO DO NOT MAKE ME WORRY

Brendan Haywood

With the reemergence of Perk down low, I don't see Haywood being much a factor tonight, as long as Perk stays disciplined in keeping him off the glass.

WHAT WE WANT TO SEE FROM THE C'S TONIGHT

Paul Pierce staying out of foul trouble

Okay, I'm reaching here, but the guy has been forced to the bench early in the 1st and 3rd quarters in three of his last four games. It hasn't hurt the team thus far, as Pierce has been incredibly efficient when he's been in there, with the additional benefit of having his minutes kept down. However, against an elite opponent like Dallas, the team will need him out there for his standard minutes in order to compete. Pierce needs to splay smart and keep himself in position to stay in the game.

PREDICTION

I'm going to write on this a bit more in-depthly later today, but I just have to say I'm fully back on board with this team right now. They aren't all the way back, but they are well on their way, with all notable signs pointing them in the right direction. Pierce and Allen are clicking, Perk is back doing the little things down low, the bench is building chemistry and providing chemistry, and hell Sheed is even rebounding.

Something finally clicked with this team in the past week in their blowouts at home. Yes, they were inferior opponents, but they found a bit of their swagger and confidence again in those matchups. Everyone seemed to be finally fed up with the inconsistency and this team is putting in the effort, top to bottom, to change it to an extra gear down the stretch, while Doc is pushing the right buttons from the bench, not overextending the key pieces and their minutes, not now anyway.

So what does this all boil down to? I think the C's go on a run here and take the next step in beating an “elite” opponent, for the first time in about a month. Dallas has won 13 of 14, but a lot of those W's have come against the bottom of the league, with the Mavs struggling to get by the likes of New Jersey and Minnesota in a couple of those. Sounds pretty familiar to me.

C's are on a mission right now on this road trip and come into town looking for revenge from the embarrassing Garden loss earlier this year. The Green take care of business and head to Utah looking for a sweep.

Celtics 102, Mavericks 95

Celtics 103, Pacers 88

Enemy Chatter: Don't write the C's off yet

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 13:23 GMT

I often wonder what opposing teams, their beat reporters and bloggers are saying about the Celtics after playing the Celtics. Here's a dose of 'enemy chatter' from Houston.

Pay no heed to the "Boston isn't a title contender" talk. All that ever matters in the playoffs is one's ability to make it to the next round, not whether or not you can beat the best team in the next conference, or even the best team in your own. The Celtics can beat great teams, they just haven't been pulling it off recently, and so the NBA sphere wants to write them off.
So it shouldn't be surprising that the Rockets lost last night. The Celtics can beat great teams, and the Rockets aren't a great team. They're a team with a high-scoring backcourt and some significant defensive issues. The Celtics, on the other hand, boast one of the best point guards in the game, a collection of aging-but-not-dead talent, and (most importantly) the strongest defense in the league, built on the contribution of guys like Rondo, Perkins, and Garnett.
And Boston matches up well against the current Rockets squad. Rondo and, surprisingly, Allen pulled off an excellent defensive game against Brooks and Martin, keeping both from getting off shots for most of the night. Their interior defense was just too strong for Scola and Co. to do much against, though their efforts were generally more effective than those of their backcourt counterparts.

The Dream Shake

People are always in a big hurry to make a call on something... just so they can be able to say they're the first to say it. And saying the Celtics were "done" was an easy thing to have said because (a) they looked done enough for people to just say it and (b) it happened early enough where everyone could rush to do it.

But they're not done. They're playing better. And people are starting to notice.

Though the Celtics have one of the few point guards who can match Aaron Brooks' quickness, Brooks said the challenge is usually not about matching the speed of the opposing point guard or losing that advantage in a matchup with Boston All-Star Rajon Rondo.
“Rondo is extremely quick, but it's not really about how fast the point guard is,” Brooks said. “It's how fast the big guys are because when you come off a screen and roll most of the time it's the big guy. I think that's the key.”

Houston Chronicle

The Celtics have tightened up their defense lately, and that's the key to their win streak. The Celtics have had a tendency to get sloppy on the pick and roll defense in the slump... but they're doing a better job of things now, and it's paying off. In the 3 wins, they've given up 92 ppg while scoring a little more than 107.

Keep playing that good team defense, and the rest will fall right into place.

Photo by Bill Baptist/NBAE via Getty Images

Rondo impresses

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 11:32 GMT

The two years they shared at Kentucky were enough for Rockets center Chuck Hayes to be impressed by Boston's Rajon Rondo, but not enough to expect the improvement to an All-Star point guard. “In college, he was the fastest guy I ever guarded, saw or played with,” Hayes said. “I didn't think he'd be this good. I knew he would be good, but an All-Star? “Man, I am happy for him. I'm impressed how much he's worked on his game. How much he's matured. He gets it. “He gets what it takes.”

Houston Chronicle - Rondo challenges Brooks at point

Did anyone know he'd be this good?

Maybe Danny Ainge did. Maybe he was one of few.

We know now, though.

Celtics Continue Road Trip Against Tough Mavs Team

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 11:31 GMT

at
Boston Celtics (44-24) at Dallas Mavericks (46-22)
Saturday, March 20
9:00 PM ET
Game #69 Road Game #36
TV: CSN-NE, KTXA, NBA LP 757
American Airlines Center

Referees: Ron Garretson, Matt Boland, Kevin Fehr

The Celtics continue their tough stretch of 3 games in 4 nights against a very strong Dallas Mavericks team. The Mavs improved themselves a great deal at the trade deadline when they added Caron Butler, Brendan Haywood and DeShawn Stephenson. All 3 are playing well for their new team.

The Mavericks are in the 3rd spot in the West, battling with Denver, who is half a game ahead of the Mavs, for the second spot. They are just 4 games behind the Lakers and would love to take over that top spot so they are taking every game seriously and playing hard.

The Mavs are a good home team with a 24-10 record and are 9-1 in their last 10 games. The Celtics have been a good road team and are 23-12 on the road and 7-3 in their last 10. This is the second meeting between these two teams with the Mavs winning 99-90 in Boston. After that game, Sheed was fined $35,000 for complaining about the refs favorable treatment of Dirk Nowitski and he vowed retribution for that game.

The Celtics are playing in the second of back to back games after beating a tough Rockets team the night before. Paul Pierce was in foul trouble early and played only 28 minutes. KG played 31 minutes and Ray Allen played 36 minutes so hopefully they will still have some energy for this game. The Celtics defense was great against the Rockets. They withstood a couple of runs by the Rockets and just buckled down and built the lead back up again, both of which are good signs for this team. A win against a Dallas team that has been on fire would go a long way to convince the fans that the Celtics are heading in the right direction.

Probable Starters

PG: Rajon Rondo
SG: Ray Allen
SF: Paul Pierce
PF: Kevin Garnett
C: Kendrick Perkins

Probable Starters

PG: Jason Kidd
SG: Caron Butler
SF: Shawn Marion
PF: Dirk Nowitski
C: Brandon Haywood
Key Matchups
vs
Rajon Rondo vs Jason Kidd
Kidd may be slowing down, but he is still a tough matchup. Rondo has to continue to be aggressive and use his speed to beat Kidd.

vs
Kevin Garnett vs Dirk Nowitski
Dirk is a tough cover since he is a threat from beyond the arc as well as in the paint. KG needs to make Dirk work on both ends of the court. Dirk had 37 points in their win in Boston and KG has to do a better job of defending him in this game.

Honorable Mention
Nate Robinson vs Jason Terry
Terry is a scoring threat off the bench for the Mavs and is averaging almost 17 points per game. Nate will need to play his game and give the Celtics some offense off the bench as well as limiting Terry's scoring threat.

Keys to the Game
Defense When the Celtics play their trademark tough defense, they are very hard to beat. We saw the Celtics customary defense against the Rockets and the question is, can they bring it two nights in a row. They need to get back to consistently playing the tough lock down defense night in and night out.

Rebound The Mavericks are a very good rebounding team and the Celtics need to be aggressive in crashing the boards and going after rebounds. Limiting the Mavs' second chance points will be important.

Limit Turnovers The Celtics still turn the ball over too much and they need to work on taking better care of the ball. A team like the Mavs will make them pay by converting the turnovers into points. Most turnovers are the result of a lack of focus and so the Celtics must also improve their level of focus.

Be Aggressive The Celtics need to be aggressive in going after loose balls and taking the ball to the basket. While the Celtics are good shooters, they shouldn't depend on the outside shot. They need to aggressively take the ball to the hoop as well as be aggressive in going after loose balls and rebounds.

X-Factor
Back to Back
The Celtics are playing in the second of back to back games. Fatigue could be a factor in this one.

[Discuss on CG Forums!]

Saturday Notebook: The Friendly Road, Rondo's D, Baby's Misses and the Curse of Gerald Green

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 09:35 GMT

Happy Saturday. The sun is shining in New York, and that development has reduced me to the human equivalent of the dog who sees his owner picking up the leash for a walk. Outside outside outside outside outside!

• Chris Forsberg at ESPNBoston.com wonders whether we've all been overlooking a major positive sign amid our hand-wringing over the C's inconsistent play:

Road success is often a quality indicator of playoff success. The Celtics put together an NBA-best 31-10 mark on the road during the 2007-08 campaign, the year they brought home banner No. 17. The second-best road team that year? The Los Angeles Lakers, the team that Boston beat in the NBA Finals, had a road mark of 27-14.

Doc wanted none of the road optimism:

“It doesn't mean anything,” said Rivers. “Nothing means nothing, winning on the road or not winning at home, once you get into the playoffs it doesn't matter.”

And then he added this zinger about the reason for the C's success on the road:

“Crowd noise — half of them are deaf right? — they're so old, they can't hear it anyway. So maybe that's an advantage.”

Oh, Doc. You cad.

Forsberg offers one other piece of optimism going into the Dallas game tonight:

But the Celtics' success on the road hasn't been hindered by the grueling back-to-backs this season. The Green improved to 8-4 on the first night of a back-to-back opening on the road with Friday's win (they're 0-3 in those games at home this season) and Boston is 4-3 on the second night of back-to-backs on the road this year.

That's good. But you know what the best thing about the playoffs is? No back-to-backs. More rest means the Celtics might play more often with the energy level they showed last night.

• It seemed obvious to me that the C's were flying around the court early, and the C's—and Rockets—verified that after the game. Here's the Globe's Julian Benbow on Rondo's shut-down D against Aaron Brooks last night:

He didn’t want to hear anything about Brooks after the game. So he made up his mind.

“My mentality, definitely before the game,’’ he said, “was to play defense.’’

Rondo took just five shots, focusing on hounding Brooks the entire night.

They looked like two racecars as Rondo chased Brooks wherever he went, enjoying every minute despite being drained of energy.

You've probably heard this by now, but Brooks had hit at least one three in 39 consecutive games going into last night. That is a Houston franchise record. That record will stand at 39.

• Doc Rivers seems to think Rondo was indeed playing extra-hard on D last night (via the same Globe piece):

“Rondo was tired,’’ coach Doc Rivers said. “I think he wanted to come out at the six-minute mark in the third, which he never does. That’s from chasing Brooks around everywhere.’’

There is no doubt in my mind that Rondo played harder—and smarter—on defense last night than he has in a handful games this year, particularly in a series of games in mid-February when he allowed Andre Miller and Chauncey Billups to beat him cleanly off the dribble and occasionally lost track of them off the ball. The knee-jerk reaction is to howl about Rondo not playing this hard every night.

But that's the NBA. Nobody plays at post-season intensity 82 games per year. Since it's sunny out, I'm taking the more positive route about Rondo's D last night: Rondo knows how to be an elite defender and understands the sorts of careless mistakes he has to remove from his defensive game when the stakes are high. For whatever reason, the personal stakes for Rondo were higher last night. He wanted to shut Brooks down. And so he did. This is the Defensive Rondo we should see during the playoffs—attentive to his man, selective about his helping and wandering for steals, ultra-fast and feisty with screens.

• It's becoming one of the more heated debates among Celtics fans: Is Glen Davis a good offensive rebounder, or is he merely gobbling up offensive rebounds off of his own (very frequent) misses and rejections around the rim? I'd suggest there's a middle ground, but I'll get there in a second. First, the facts:

Right now, Davis has the 2nd-highest offensive rebounding percentage in the entire league, according to Basketball Reference. Put more simply: The numbers suggest Baby is the 2nd-best offensive rebounder in the league.

Doc Rivers addressed this in the Globe (the same Benbow piece linked above) last night in discussing Baby's five offensive boards:

When Glen Davis came into the locker room after pulling down seven rebounds (five on the offensive glass), his teammates had a nickname for him.

“They’re in there calling him Moses Malone,’’ Rivers said, “because he got five offensive rebounds. Four of them were his own misses.’’

Davis is obviously getting a lot of boards off of his own misses. Baby misses a ton of shots at the rim. According to Hoopdata, Davis is hitting just 53.2 percent of his shots at the basket. That's an improvement from where Baby was a month ago (about 49 percent), but it's still one of the very worst marks in the league for a big man.

According to 82games, opponents this season have blocked about 28 percent of Baby's inside shot attempts. That's not just bad. That's historically bad.

So there's some accidental stat-padding going on with Baby's insane offensive rebounding numbers. He's not the 2nd-best offensive rebounder in the NBA, even if the stats say he is.

But here's the middle ground I spoke about before:

1) Baby is the best offensive rebounder the Celtics have—by far—and a decent chunk of his ORBs come after shots from the other four C's on the court. How many? I don't know, and I don't think that number exists;

2) Even if Baby is rebounding a ton of his own misses, this isn't just a sign of his failure as a finisher. It has benefits for the team.

Cue Doc (via the Globe):

“He just couldn’t get anything to go down for him. But it created fouls, it created second shots for us. So that was good. I think his energy over the last couple of weeks has been terrific.’’

Among Celtic regulars, only Paul Pierce attempts more foul shots per minute than Big Baby. And the rest of the C's big men don't draw a lot of fouls or bang on the inside for offensive rebounds. Leon Powe was great at both of those things. He plays for Cleveland. Rasheed Wallace doesn't do either of those things. He now plays for Boston.

What Baby is doing inside isn't ideal, but I'd argue that it's a net plus for the team. That said, he has to finish better inside, and his stats in that area are crawling up. Let's hope the crawl continues.

• Nate Robinson let Doc Rivers have it after his University of Washington team beat Doc's alma mater (Marquette) in the first round of the NCAA tourney (via the Herald's Mark Murphy):

“He had the whole bus chanting, ‘Marquette (expletive), Marquette (expletive),’ ” Rivers said. “I just had to sit and take it. To the victors go the spoils.”

Stupid question: Is the expletive there “sucks”? The Herald can't print “sucks”? It could be something worse, I guess, but “sucks” seems to be the most natural fit given the sentence structure.

• Also via the Herald: Doc is introducing more complex plays to the new guys, and he wants KG and Pierce to spend some time playing with a portion of the second unit:

It’s one sign that the reserves, with Nate Robinson and Michael Finley now part of the mix, are ready for the plan to get a little more complex.

“We’re trying to add stuff half the time,” Rivers said. “But the more we can put in, the more we can keep Paul (Pierce) and Kevin (Garnett) out there with (the second unit). We haven’t been able to keep them in with those guys as much because of it.

“So we’re trying to put in all of Paul’s plays and all of Kevin’s, and that way we can combine these guys more.”

Very interesting, and definitely something to monitor over the last dozen or so games of the regular season.

• Perk's still confident about breaking Cedric Maxwell's franchise record for field-goal percentage in a season (via this Herald story):

“I’ll get it,” he said of the shooting percentage title.

Max's record (set in 1980) is 60.9 percent. Perk is currently at 60.7 percent, meaning he's fallen behind Max for the first time in a long, long time.

• Jay King at Celtics Town wonders if we've the last of Boston's favorite grossly overpaid bench-warmer.

• Finally, it seems that no matter how many years pass, we're always going to be writing about Gerald Green. In a piece about David Lee, SI's Ian Thomsen interviews Doc Rivers, who claims he lobbied for the C's to draft Lee in 2005:

Rivers was a fan of Lee's and begged the Celtics to acquire him in the 2005 draft. “It's the one I stuck my chest out about because I was in the minority in the draft room that night,” said Rivers. “But I had the advantage of being in Florida and I'd seen him, and my oldest son had played in a ton of pickup games with him and he said, ‘All I know about David Lee is every time I play a pickup game, his team wins.‘

Now, the key word there might be “acquire,” because the C's were picking 18th, and there wasn't a personnel guy in the league who would have picked David Lee 18th. (He went 30th to the Knicks in what probably goes down as the best value pick in that draft, though Indy deserves credit for snagging Danny Granger at #17. Deron Williams and Chris Paul, selected #3 and #4, are clearly the best players from that draft).

Perhaps Doc was lobbying for the C's to work a deal with New York? Or trade down into the mid-20s and nab Lee?

Instead, the C's selected Gerald Green, an object of ridicule at this year's Sloan Sports conference in Boston.

On that note: OUTSIDE OUTSIDE OUTSIDE OUTSIDE OUTSIDE!

Other Celtics Newspaper Links

For starters, Celtics' reserves have struggled Celtics statistics

Pierce nets 29 as C's upset Mavs on road

For starters, Celtics' reserves have struggled Celtics statistics

For starters, Celtics' reserves have struggled Celtics statistics

For starters, Celtics' reserves have struggled Celtics statistics

Two Straight: C's 102, Mavs 93

Comments from the Other Side - Mavericks 3/20

T-Mobile Recap: Crunch time domination

Celtics/Mavericks Game Preview

Comments from the Other Side - Rockets 3/19

Game 68/82: C's (44-24) @ Mavs (46-22)

Enemy Chatter: Don't write the C's off yet

Rondo impresses

Celtics Continue Road Trip Against Tough Mavs Team

Saturday Notebook: The Friendly Road, Rondo's D, Baby's Misses and the Curse of Gerald Green