Delonte Leads Celtics in Scoring & Assists as Celtics Drop 9th Straight
Surprisingly, Celtics fans have not stopped cheering for their favorite team. Last night, on the floor of the TD BankNorth Garden, the Celtics played host to the Atlanta Hawks — a team that the Celtics should easily beat on a nightly basis. Opening up an eighteen point lead after one quarter, it looked as though the Celtics would do just that.
Then, disaster struck. The Celtics couldn’t buy a bucket - and Al Jefferson made one misstep, leaving early in the fourth quarter with a sprained ankle. The following paragraph from the Yahoo! Sports Recap says it all:
Atlanta opened the fourth quarter with a 10-0 run and took a 66-62 lead on a Johnson fadeaway jumper with 7:13 remaining in the game. Rajon Rondo sank two free throws 23 seconds later and ended a Celtics drought of 8:20 without a point.
As a team, the Celtics shot just 31% from the floor. Delonte West led the team in points with 18, and assists with 6. Kendrick Perkins and Al Jefferson both enjoyed double-doubles — Perkins’ coming in the first half alone. Still, when guys like Ryan Gomes shoot 1 for 11, Gerald Green shoots 4 for 16 and Allen Ray shoots 0 for 9…. It’s going to be a long, long night for the Celtics and their fans. Last night, was clearly one of those nights.
The Celtics will return to action on Friday night when they visit the Toronto Raptors, the leader in the Atlantic Division.
Celtics Take on the Hawks at the Garden Tonight
Delonte West and the Boston Celtics will be at the TD BankNorth Garden tonight to play host to the Atlanta Hawks. Both teams have had similarly disappointing seasons so far, but the promise and talent on both squads should prove to be very entertaining for fans to watch.
Delonte is coming off a season high 27 points against the Spurs on Monday night, and he’ll be matched up at the point opposite of Royal Ivey. Delonte has averaged 10.2 points per game on the season, but has really stepped in to fill a void as the team’s veteran and scoring presence. Since returning from his back injury, he is averaging 21.6 points and 6.3 assists in his last three games.
For more on tonight’s game, be sure to check out the following game previews:
Finally, if you have some time — check out the great article from Eric Weiss over on CelticsBlog.com discussing “Why We Fight“. Beneath that story, you’ll also find some post-game audio from the Celtics loss on Jan. 22nd.
Delonte is the Game’s Highest Scorer in Close Loss to Spurs
The Boston Celtics truly had no business being in this game — but the group of tough kids C’s fans have learned to appreciate made it worth watching.
The San Antonio Spurs, having won six of their last eight and seventeen straight over the Celtics — opened the game flat footed and were actually trailing by four at the end of the first quarter. Hitting their stride though, the Spurs led by as many as 23 in the third quarter and 77-63 after the period.
Being the kids that they are, the Celtics didn’t know they were supposed to just roll over and accept defeat. The Celtics created a late 13-0 run to make it close, resulting in a frenzied atmosphere in the TD BankNorth Garden. Sadly, inexperience paid it’s toll in the final two minutes of play as the Spurs closed out a nail biter, edging the Celtics by the final score of 93-89.
Delonte West was the game’s leading scorer with 27 points, hitting on 11 of his 17 shot attempts. He also contributed three defensive rebounds, two assists, two steals and one block while committing three turnovers in his 45 minutes of play. Al Jefferson had another great game as well, scoring 26 points and coming down with 14 rebounds. Ryan Gomes followed up his excellent performance on Saturday night against the Wizards with another 20 point performance tonight.
With the loss, the Celtics drop to 12-28 on the year while the Spurs improve to 30-13. The Boston Celtics will return to action again on their home court on Thursday night as they host the 13-25 Atlanta Hawks.
Telfair Drops to Third on the PG Chart, West and Rondo Benefit
Sometimes, nothing feels better than declaring the most annoying words in competitive banter. With that in mind — I have one simple message this morning… I told you so!
All the way back on November 10th, I gave you a number of reasons as to why Delonte should be starting and also discussed why Telfair should be picking up garbage minutes behind Delonte and Rajon…
Putting Delonte on your first unit puts this team in a position to win more games, commit less mistakes, and should open more minutes for Rondo in return. The only competition at the PG spot should be Telfair’s fight to hold the second unit spot with Rajon Rondo showing as much early promise as he already has.
I love it when things play out the way I like them to! Best of all, Doc Rivers has finally given up on trying to save Ainge’s face by playing enough Telfair to make us all sick. The bottom line is that Sebastian Telfair is not what this team needed. In my mind, he was brought in because we were on the cusp of making a trade to send either Telfair or West out. Without a deal on the table — Telfair is useless to this team.
Amazingly, Telfair still doesn’t get the point…
Steve Bulpett gives us insight to how Sebastian feels on the demotion:
(Telfair) “Oh, I’m overly pissed… I’m pissed at myself… I can’t be pissed at nobody else. Me being on the bench now, I can’t possibly see it having to do with anybody besides myself.”
It’s clear some of it has to do with Rondo, who’s cut down on his poor defensive gambles while still maintaining aggressiveness at that end of the floor. Rondo’s still yet to get his shot to go down on a regular basis, but at least he’s taking it when it’s there to keep the defense honest.
Telfair, meanwhile, has had flashes of brilliance running the club this season, but in the last two games off the bench he’s produced four points and four assists in 18 minutes. On the defensive end, Telfair hasn’t looked into it.
“I’ve been here before,” Telfair said. “I’ve just got to figure out the reasons why this happened. Once I figure that out, I’ll be all right. I just have to get myself out of it, and I think that has to start in practice. I think that’s what got me on the bench - practice.
“I’ve got to go into practice and play like it’s a game. I don’t think I’m doing as well as Doc wants me to in practice. That’s one thing I can probably see. Other than that, I’ve just got to continue working. It’s extremely tough. I’ve just got to work myself out of it, and I will.”
Aside from using double negatives and sounding like Iverson discussing practice, the clearer picture is that Telfair offers nothing on the defensive end of the floor. Amazingly, even being demoted to a third stringer having started in 30 games isn’t enough for Telfair to get it.
Since we couldn’t unload Telfair in a deal to land Boozer, Garnett or Iverson (twice) — let’s trade him away with someone else and try to land someone like a disgruntled Pau Gasol.
Tonight, the Celtics are hosting the San Antonio Spurs. While we could all do without watching the game since the outcome is easily predicted — I’m going to tune in for two reasons.
First, I want to see Al Jefferson’s ability to handle Duncan down low. I think we’ve assumed that Jefferson is a nightly double double — and tonight with Oberto and Duncan to contend with, that may be tough. Still, if Al can deliver on a night like tonight — I’ll be very impressed with his improvements and will assume that he can deliver as a 4/5 for the Celtics for years to come.
Second, I want to see how Rondo and West can work the back court against one of the top two or three teams in the league. Dealing with Tony Parker or Manu Ginobili is difficult on their own — but when you need to stop them both, you’ll need to play physical defensively and put pressure on them without being burnt. Delonte may lack the quickness to keep up with these guys, so look for Rondo to pressure more than Delonte. Delonte though offers a shot blocking presence over both of these guys.
Either way, the Celtics will need a big down low to get overly-physical if these guys begin cutting to the basket. Maybe Leon Powe will be the x factor here?
Tonight’s game starts at 7:30PM with the Celtics Tonight pre-game show airing at 7PM on FSN New England. For more on tonight’s game, check out the Celtics.com preview.
Delonte Scores 25 in Return, Looks to do the Same Vs. Wizards
Last night Delonte led the Boston Celtics scoring efforts with his 25 points in 39 minutes of play. Having returned to the lineup having fought off back spasms, Delonte shot 10 for 16 from the floor including 3 for 3 from behind the three point arc. West also added 4 rebounds, 6 assists and 1 steal while committing two turnovers.
Delonte’s return was enough to get the attention of the media as well as head coach Doc Rivers. Shira Springer reported that…
Doc Rivers correctly predicted that “once [Delonte West] gets out on the floor, he’s going all out.” And wisely, Rivers did not limit West’s minutes in his return from a lower back bruise that forced the point guard to miss four games.
With West playing 39 minutes and running the team effectively, the Celtics found themselves engaged in a close game with Sacramento last night at TD Banknorth Garden.
In the same article, Springer also offered comments from Delonte, which were clear indications that West cares more about the team’s performance — rather than his own:
“We’re lacking our sense of urgency down the stretch of games,” said West (25 points, six assists). “We have to have the mentality on the floor to know when we definitely have to get a stop. We don’t have that mentality right now. It’s going to continue to cost us games until we do.”
The Celtics are on the road for the second game of a back to back tonight as they visit the Washington Wizards in an 8PM game. Delonte West will be matched up across from one of the most dynamic scorers in the league in Gilbert Arenas. Washington is 23-16 on the season, but more impressive at home. The Wizards, who have won three straight overall, are 15-3 at Verizon Center — the arena for tonight’s game.
Coverage of tonight’s game on FSN New England begins at 8:00PM ET.