Celtics Take on Portland Tonight
The Boston Celtics will play a 7:30PM game tonight at home against the Portland Trailblazers. Coming off a 26 point blowout of the Indiana Pacers, the Celtics (2-6) hope to start a winning streak against the Blazers who come in with a 4-5 record.
The Portland Trailblazers are a team that entered the lottery last year with what was expected as the first pick — but picked fourth following the lottery itself. The team also learned earlier this week that Darius Miles is out for the season following surgery on his right knee.
The Celtics will be forced to play a bit smaller ball without the help of Al Jefferson, Michael Olowokandi, and likely Theo Ratliff. Olowokandi is now suffering from strained abdominal muscles.
Unfortunately, I don’t think I’m going to be able to catch the game tonight in real time… So the site will probably be a bit slow to update following the conclusion of the game.
For more game coverage, please check in with CelticsBlog.com. They have a game thread and game preview available for us all to enjoy…
Celtics Handle Business, Blowout Pacers by 26
It’s fun when the Celtics win a game… Especially when that win is a blowout against an Eastern Conference team with a winning record. Tonight, the Celtics easily took care of business beating the Indiana Pacers by a final score of 114-88.
Leading the Celtics scoring efforts was captain Paul Pierce with 32 points, but many Celtics played very well tonight. Every member of the team who was dressed played, and played early. In particular, I was impressed with the efforts of Kendrick Perkins with his 12 points, 8 rebounds and 4 blocks. Ryan Gomes had another double double night which was also a great, great effort.
Delonte West struggled to find a groove from the shooting guard spot on the floor with his one for five shooting performance creating just two points. Still, his efforts allowed Boston to build a lead through the second half with his five rebounds, three assists and three steals. The Celtics had four players scoring in double digits… Pierce with 32, Szczerbiak with 20, and Gomes and Perkins each with 12.
My Keys to the Win…
• Outscored Indiana in every quarter, in particular the third quarter when they outscored Indiana by 12. That helps to kill any game plan that Indiana could have had coming out of the locker room.
• The Celtics played aggressive defense — 10 Steals, 7 Blocks, and had solid fouls throughout, holding Indiana to 38% shooting.
• Celtics (finally) won the turnover battle (+1)
• Solid time distribution for everyone. Everyone that dressed played, and Pierce played 32 minutes vs. his 42 minutes in the Orlando loss.
• Offensive boards… Celtics had 13 offensive boards compared to the Pacers 6.
• Great ball movement throughout the game, especially with the smaller lineups. In tonight’s game there was more than one guy on the offensive end of the floor moving without the ball and I don’t remember seeing that much before at all.
• Finally — I’ve been on Pierce ’s case about being the cause for some losses. Tonight I’ll eat my words and give him his props… he played very well and made very few mistakes for the C’s tonight.
The Celtics return to action on Friday night to play the Blazers in Boston at 7:30PM.
Celtics Take on Pacers at the Garden
Tonight at 7:30PM on the floor of the TD BankNorth Garden, Delonte West and the Boston Celtics will take on Jermaine O’Neal and the Indiana Pacers. The Celtics head into action with a league-worst 1-6 record while the Pacers come in with a 4-3 record. Last year the Celtics won three of the four games between these two teams.
Links for the Game…
• Game Preview on CelticsBlog.com
• Game Preview on NBA.com
• Yahoo! Sports Game Preview
• Game Thread on Our Discussion Board
Links Worth Reading…
• Bill Simmons: Goodbye Doc, hello Greg?
Celtics Fail to Close Out, Lose to Magic 92-89
While Jameer Nelson got the start, Delonte West had to play off the bench. Still, tonight was a night for the former St. Joes’ teammates to reunite and compete against rather than alongside one another. In the end it was Jameer Nelson and the Orlando Magic who got the last laugh as well as the win, 92-89. Nelson led the Magic with his 24 point effort.
For the Celtics, captain Paul Pierce led the scoring efforts with 21 points despite his 6 for 20 shooting performance. Pierce also contributed five turnovers, one of which allowed the Magic to regain the lead with little more than two minutes on the clock.
Another young Celtics player stepped up when Leon Powe (Tommy Award Winner!) made his first appearance. Ryan Gomes and Brian Scalabrine both picked up a pair of fouls each early in the first quarter — and that unlocked the door for Powe to make his entry. On the night Powe played 25 minutes with 7 rebounds, 2 blocks and 10 points.
Delonte West played a very good game making his first three shots on the night including a three pointer. He finished he night playing 27 minutes while coming away with 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal and 13 points.
For more thoughts of mine on this loss, in particular Pierce’s inability to perform at critical junctures — please see the game thread over in the discussion board.
Feeling Ill, Celtics Look Forward to Home Cooking
The 4-3 Orlando Magic will travel to Boston to take on the 1-5 Celtics at the TD BankNorth Garden. Grant Hill (16.2 points per game) will bring Dwight Howard (12.6 rebs. per game) and his teammates to take on a Celtics team that has struggled out of the gates for consistency.
Quick Notes & Links…
• If playing PG, Delonte will match up against former SJU Hawk teammate Jameer Nelson
• Theo is out, Wally gets the start
• Comprehensive Game Preview from HRB at CelticsBlog.com
• Jeff Clark at CB posted a great Mini-Rant
Saturday night’s loss to the Cavs — in which the Celtics blew a 25 point lead in the second half — was a clear detriment to the team. Following the game many players were outspoken about the loss…
“We just stopped attacking,” Boston coach Doc Rivers said. “We attacked for three quarters, then we stopped. We stopped playing. You can’t do that. You have to play through the clock and we didn’t.”
“It definitely hurts,” said Pierce after a team-high 19 points to go with nine rebounds. “We played about as good as we could play for three quarters. They just kept being aggressive, and it just seemed like we waited for the time to run out instead of punching back there in the fourth quarter. We played passive for that whole fourth quarter. We thought a 16-point lead was good enough, but it wasn’t.”
“I can’t sleep after that,” said Sebastian Telfair. “I’m (ticked) off right now.”
…Here’s hoping that the sour taste in the mouth of Celtics players and management is motivation enough to defend their home court tonight and pull out a gutsy win.