Coobs Rants On Celtics

I think the biggest frustration for me was the complete lack of outside shooting off the bench, save for Eddie House. and I'm not just talking 3-pointers, I'm talking about any shot a step from the basket and out.

Tony Allen needs to go. His defense (which apparently is his calling card) is made moot by his total inadequacy on the offensive end. He can't shoot a lick, doesn't have a solid enough reputation to draw fouls on a consistent basis, and repeatedly turns the ball over. He is fucking worthless and if he is in the rotation again I think we are in for another long season.

We need someone...ANYONE...to spell both Pierce and Ray. Posey was perfect for that role. Can guard multiple positions and can hit the long ball, especially in clutch situations. I definitely think Skywalker has the skills to play a big role, he just needs to shore up that jumpshot.

Personally, I don't think Giddens should be given a shot before Gabe Pruitt. Here is a guy who has put in 2 long years of benchwarming, but he has a knockdown jumper. I'm tired of these cagey veterans being brought in mid-season who then need to adapt to the Celtics schemes. Gabe has shown glimpses of promise in minimal PT. I don't understand Doc's reluctance to play Gabe, especially during a season when our bench BLEW. Eddie House cannot create his own shot come playoff time, and he can't consistently back-up Ray Ray.

I think our frontcourt is all set (given we resign either BBD or Powe, preferably both) with those 2 and Scals. We could use a true backup center, and ideally I would love to see the Birdman in Celtics green. But backcourt reserves is where we have a glaring weakness that certainly needs to be addressed this offseason.

In Danny We Trust

Coobs Gets Pissed!

Coobs has been a reader of this site for a long time, and he recently went off on a rant that was too good not to share...

Comparing Rondo's play to Howard's is like apples to oranges.

for one, Brad Miller HAD THE BALL and was making a play to TIE THE GAME in the final seconds of OVERTIME. Rondo made a swipe at him/the ball/his head/his cock -- it doesn't matter. He had no shot of blocking the shot, and went for the foul. Look at the replay: Rondo barely misses Miller's right shoulder (the arm with the ball), which had he made contact with, nothing would be made of the whole thing. I can certainly go on more with this but it leads to my next rant...

Howard's play was completely uncalled for. Not only was it in the opening minutes of the game, but it was off a MADE SHOT...aka a DEAD BALL. it's actually pathetic that a guy the size of Howard resorts to throwing elbows at players' heads. look at the size of him -- those things are borderline weapons. if you want bias, how bout the fact that Howard only received a TECHNICAL foul and that's all, with the referee who made the call standing literally 6 feet away. that is the biggest joke of all this. had Howard been tossed as he should have, the Sixers had a great chance to steal that game 5 and then head back home with a chance to close out the series. once again the referee's provide preferential treatment to a star player who has proven nothing (see: Chris Paul) to earn it. oh, other than win a meaningless dunk contest and dub himself with a previously used nickname

FACT: Dwight Howard will never come close to the accomplishments of Shaq. He will never win a ring, let alone 4. Shaq was unstoppable, UNGUARDABLE. Howard doesn't even demand a double-team from some teams. He has close to zero offensive skills other than dunking the ball into the hoop. He is just a chiseled 7 footer who can leap, and that's pretty much it. The only "person" who can be compared to Shaq is Christopher Lambert, because there can only be one Superman//Highlander!

Celtics + Around The NBA

Celtics 89, @ Hornets 77
The Celts fucked around with NO for the first 3 quarters until they finally blew them away in the 4th. Pierce was his usual monster, scoring 30, while the C's got key contributions from KG (another ho-hum 14 and 10), Eddie (8 of his 12 pts in the 4th), Powe (went for 11 and 6, great to see him playing with more confidence) and of course Rondo (11 ast and 8 rebs). Rondo also got the Tommy Award so good call on that one DP. On a darker side, Ray Ray left the game with a hyperextended thumb; X-rays were negative but only an MRI will truly tell what the damage is. Don't expect him to play tomorrow, but I don't mind as long as he rests it over the break. Overall, an uncharacteristically sloppy game by the Celts, with some curious officiating to boot, but they stuck it out and got the W.

@Jazz 113, Lakers 109
Really fun game to watch, made even sweeter with a Lakers' loss. Hackfest '09. Lots of fouls called, but thats Utah's style of basketball. Jazz trailed by 2 at halftime but rode a strong 3rd quarter to gain a lead that stretched to as far as 8 or 9. LA fought back like they always do and actually took the lead 105-104 with 1:30ish left in the 4th following a Kobe 3-pointer. However Kobe's next course of action gave his team the metaphorical "kiss of death." After hitting the shot, a timeout was called and he bounced back to the Laker bench doing his stolen-from-Sam-Cassel "big balls dance." (I know you will appreciate that DP) Needless to say, the Lakers lost, despite Utah nearly handing it to them by missing 9 of 18 free throws in the 4th alone (yikes!). I think I've seen Kobe do his not-so-patented dance at least 3 times, all of which proved premature as the opposing team wound up winning the game. What an ass. He scored 37 but D-Will poured in 31 and 11 assists for the Jazz. They are one team that, once they get healthy (which will be post-allstar game), are a dark horse in a wide open Western Conference.

@Raptors 91, Spurs 89
Just another reason for me to question the Spurs' legitimate chances of challenging the Lakers (or anyone for that matter) in the West. Ginobili drops 32, Parker gives you 22 and Duncan scores 20, and you lose to the fucking Raptors? Where was Matt Bonner you might say? -- 0 pts. Roger Mason? -- 9 pts. Oh and the Raptors were playing without Chris Bosh and Jose Calderon. Again, this is just an embarrassing loss, yet you can't even pin it on their Big 3 because they all played real well. The rest of their team is just straight scrubs.

Nuggets 82, @Magic 73
This game was really not even as close as that final score. I can't for the life of me figure out the Nuggets. One minute they are beating down the likes of the Celtics and now Orlando, the next they are losing to cellar-dwellers. When they are on their game, especially now that they have added Billups, they are more than legit -- they are downright scary. Extremely explosive offensively, and can actually play some physical defense...when they want to. Yet I'm still not sold on them to be able to challenge in the West, even after this win. Maybe it's because I think ORL is regressing before our eyes. Losing J Nelson was just the snowball that will result in the avalanche of them falling from the NBA's elite. Lucky for them there is a significant gap between themselves and the 4th place team in the East. They have no point guard production whatsoever, and that screws up their whole penetrate-and-dish philosophy -- which also nullifies the effectiveness of Howard, as he has little to no space to operate. Melo scored 29 pts with 8 rebs, he's fuckin nasty.

Exciting Night In College BBall

#8 Marquette 71 -- #22 Notre Dame 64

Jerel McNeal put the Golden Eagles on his shoulders and willed them to this impressive road victory. He dropped 27 points whule fellow senior Dominic James chipped in with a juicy stat line of his own: 15 pts, 9 rebs, and 5 asts. Luke Harangody played his usual solid game for the Irish (29 pts and 17 rebs) and once again received an embarrassing lack of help from his teammates. Kyle McAlarney shot just 3-12 FGs (1-6 3pt FG) and basically embodied the lackluster performance of his team in a nutshell. In a broader perspective, this game showed 2 teams going in different directions. ND has lost 4 games in a row, including 2 in a row at home after having won their previous 45. They are 2-5 this year against ranked opponents. Marquette on the other hand has won 10 in a row, and is undefeated in Big East play. A lot of the naysayers claim that MU hasn't beaten any quality opponents yet, but all I have to say to that is you play the games on your schedule. They have a tough upcoming month against the likes of Pitt, Louisville and Syracuse, so to be peaking now is a good sign for this veteran-led team. Personally, I think this game exposed ND as the sham they really are. To be 12-6 (now 12-7) heading into this game and still ranked in the Top 25 is inexcusable. Once again the media's infatuation with all things ND has spilled over from football into the basketball polls. Their schedule doesn't get much easier either, so look for them to fall back into mediocrity where they belong. Which is really a shame only because Harangody is the real deal, and a very fun player to watch. He has a future for sure.

#5 Oklahoma 89 -- Oklahoma St. 81

Don't fuck with Blake Griffin. Seriously. After being held to only 6 first-half points on 4 shot attempts (thanks to some harrassing defense by the Cowboys), B Griff blew up in the 2nd half. He finished with 26 pts and 19 rebs (1 more reb than the entire OSU team!), but his presence goes beyond the stats. He is very demoralizing to play against because he is so dominating down low. Excellent footwork, quickness, great hands and soft touch -- aka impossible to guard. Not to mention that his impressive strength forces inferior big men to eat up fouls as they try to prevent him from scoring easy baskets. This game was great to watch because about 3 minutes into the 2nd half both teams made some mutual agreement to not play defense anymore. OSU reminded me alot of the Phoenix Suns of a few years ago. They literally like to run the "7 seconds or less" offense, and if they haven't launched a 3-pointer within that timeframe, their offense goes into shambles. That being said, I gotta give them credit because they were making some rediculous shots to keep this game close, twice bringing it to within 2 points. But OU showed the grit of a championship caliber team by never surrendering the lead they held all game. Every time OSU got it close, the Sooners would slow it down and dump it back into B Griff. Sure OU is ranked 5th in the nation, but I still feel as though they are being overlooked by the "experts," most likely because they don't play in the Gay-C-C. The Sooners are a team to keep your eye on come tournament time, as they have the best big man in college basketball surrounded by veteran guards. And just to add to Blake Griffin's badass-ness, his older brother Taylor is the other starting F on the team. So fucking cool.

Note: Keep an eye on OSU freshman guard Keiton Page. He averages 10 pts a game coming off the bench, and he had 15 tonight. He is minuscule 5'10'' white guy but he is quick as shit and plays pretty good perimeter defense despite his height. And he hit some ballsy 3-pt bombs to keep the game interesting. Plus, his name is Keiton...I don't know how to even pronounce it.

90 Boston, 80 Magic

The story of this game, plain and simple, was Glen Davis. With Perkins getting into early foul trouble, Big Baby was given the enormous task of having to guard Dwight Howard. So how did Baby respond? Did he flail around offensively trying to draw a foul? Did he commit unnecessary and untimely fouls on the defensive end? As a matter of fact, he did neither. All he did was drop 16 well-earned points (4-4 FTs) and play great, no, STELLAR defense on the best center in the NBA. He just simply out-hustled Howard, and it showed. He was knocking down his mid-range jumper as if he has never missed with it, and he even threw in a couple "little baby" hooks to boot. In almost Davis-like fashion, Howard actually fouled out late in the 4th while setting a moving screen.
That being said, Paul Pierce put the team on his shoulders in the second half and willed them to this 90-80 victory. The Magic just had no answer for Pierce, as down the stretch they could not get any stops when they needed to. KG came up huge in the 4th with a few "big balls" jumpers that broke the spirit of Orlando as they were attempting to complete a comeback. Their main problem was that none of their shots were falling in the first half. Like I said in the preview, they live by the three and die by it, and tonight their family members were signing papers to euthanize them. They hadn't played since last Saturday, and the long layoff was evident as they came out extremely rusty. The C's certainly benefited from being able to rest their starters in last nights triumph over Miami, and it showed. Boston grabbed the lead about midway through the first, let their defense dictate from there, and never looked back. Now they have some much needed days off before their matinee (1pm) home game against Dallas on Sunday. Once again, huge win for the Celts, proving they can beat the Eastern Conference's best, on the road, when they are at full-strength.

Funny stat of the Night: Orlando as a team had 12 offensive rebounds -- Rashard Lewis had 9 of them. He actually had a real solid game he just didn't get the help he needed.

DP's thoughts:
J.J. Reddick only had 6 points. What happened Wilde?

Celtics Vs Magic Preview

Ok well the Celts come into this game riding a 6-game winning streak, where they will be met by an Orlando squad who has pulled off 7 straight wins, arguably against better competition. The Magic took down the Spurs, Lakers (something the Celts couldn't do), and the Nuggets -- all on the road. Quite impressive if you ask me. However, the NBA (and basketball in general) is a game of matchups. Perfect example of this can be found during the NCAA Tournament. An elite conference school with a dominating big man can be nullified by a scrappy mid-major school with excellent shooting guards, and vice versa. But now I'm straying to far from my point.
Basically, I look at Orlando's starting 5, and I see a dominating big man (arguably the best in the league) surrounded by 4 sharp-shooters. For instance, Rashard Lewis, deadly from beyond the arc, is 6'10'' and starts at the traditional Power Forward position, yet plays as if he were 6'6''. Their offense is simply spread the defense out, and feed the ball to Dwight Howard. Defense collapses on him, he kicks it out for a trey. Defense doesn't collapse, he muscles his way to the hoop and/or the foul line (where he is atrocious -- 58% for the year). How do you stop this?
Well, in my mind, there are two ways. The first is that a team that lives by the three, dies by the three. Every shooter has their off-nights (just ask Ray Ray); Orlando is just fortunate that they have so many quality shooters that it's rare for all of them to be cold on the same given night. A catalyst for this, however, is great defense. The Celtics pride themselves on playing great defense, and it is truly fun to watch them on both ends of the court, something I'm not sure a Lakers fan can echo. That being said, they play a very authoritative defense, in that on most nights they can dictate what they want the opposing offense to do. With so many deadly shooters, look for the Celtics to play (forgive the cliche) "in-your-face" defense and force them to put the ball on the floor. This not only takes them out of their ideal game, it draws them into the heart of the scrappy Celtic defense, where assists go to die.
The second means of stopping this explosive style offense is cutting out the core, a la Superman. Now in this case I think the Celtics might be at more than small disadvantage. With Perkins just recently coming off an injury, and having his minutes limited, they are going to be extremely creative in how they attack Howard. If Perk was 100% I don't think he would have a problem containing Howard, but he is not so I digress. Look for alot of Big Baby and Powe combinations, with Garnett leaving his man to help. The Celtics do a great job of rotating and replacing their defense and that will be key to contesting the 3-point onslaught that is bound to occur.
On the offensive end, I look for the Celtics to keep firing on all cylinders. Jameer Nelson is a scorer - not a defender. Rondo should have no problem getting into the lane and creating havoc. If Ray and Paul continue to rain from deep, and if KG can take advantage of having Lewis guard him in the post, I think we can pull this one out. Look for Perk to just take up space and keep Dwight occupied. Also of note, Rondo has been starting to hit his jumper when left unchecked, which is great sign not just for his confidence, but for the fact that his shooting form is miles ahead of where it was even at the beginning of the season. A couple early made shots for him and he should be rolling.
The X-factor for this game will be Hedo Turkoglu. How he plays defensively on PP and how he does offensively will tell alot about the game itself. I really like Turk's game and he is a gritty player, but he can be broken with solid defense and pushing him to work hard defensively. I would probably give Orlando the nod in the bench matchup, but it is hard to guage because the Celtics bench can be so Jeckyl/Hyde. If Eddie brings his stroke from South Beach to Disney World, look out. Big Baby will bring his energy, and Scals and Powe will bring their scrappiness, that much is a given. (Say what you will about Scals, the guy does the most with the least amount of talent. He plays very hard defensively, and runs the offense well. Whether or not his 3-pt percentage is desireable, he can still knock it down and thus forces a big man to play him out there.)

All in all, I foresee a close game throughout, with the Celtics tainting the score in the end via free throws. 101-92 Celtics.
Tommy Award goes to Rondo.

DC Reader Coobs is Pissed

With a rant like this, how couldn't I put it up? Oh yea, and well my hatred for Tony Allen may have led me to release this...

Tony Allen is a fucking turnover machine. I am so frustrated watching him play, because it doesn't matter how much talent or upside the guy might have, he always seems to find a way to fuck up. He does not run smoothly with the offense at all; he catches a pass, ducks his head down, and hopes for the best. And on top of that, he is one of the worst finishers around the rim. He tries to hard to draw a foul and I'm sorry TA, you are not a fucking superstar so you aren't gonna get that fucking call.

Now about the game last night, I almost threw my remote through the screen I was so pissed. The whole first quarter was a rough, old-school style of physical basketball and I was pumped because that's the type of game the Celtics lure teams into playing. Then suddenly in the 2nd quarter whistles are being blown every 15 seconds. I swear there was one possession where the refs made 4 foul calls, 3 of which were off the ball. But yet this was all occurring now on the Celts' defensive end. Now I hate bitching about referees, because what comes around goes around, but it was fucking ridiculous that they changed the whole flow of the game on a whim like that. Not to mention allowing a basket to count when there are SIX FUCKING PLAYERS on the court. Like, seriously? How does that even make any fucking sense? That's right, it doesn't.

Lastly, the Celtics aren't going to get better unless they start playing more selfishly. That's right I said it. I know Rondo is your boy DP and I love him as well, but he needs to stop driving to within 3 feet of the rim and kicking it out to behind the arc. Especially on fast breaks. Just take the ball strong to the hole like EVERY team does against our defense. PP had a great 2nd half last nite but he needs to start playing with a little passion in the beginning of these games. Ray Ray needs to look for his shot more, and not just settle for pull-up 3's. He still has the guile to get a step on his man and lord knows he can drain a jumper from anywhere inside the arc. KG is showing signs of promise by posting up more, but it seems like he only does so when he is pissed at whoever is covering him (a la Lamarcus Aldrige). And on top of that, he seems to want to dish to Perk more than try to finish by himself, which is worthless because Perk's hands are about as coordinated as his feet. He has been improving with getting the ball up quicker but once you stick a man between him and the basket and he starts pulling that turnaround hook shot out of his ass, I start getting pissed. Perk, you are a moose, learn some god damn footwork and take it strong.

Alas, this message is ridiculously long because I am ridiculously pissed about that game last night. I'm not worried about setting records or the season in the long run, but right now I'm fucking livid because these 3 games we have lost were all winnable games that we just fell apart in the 4th quarter. I don't like that sign. Let's face it, our bench sucks. Powe is the only glimmer I see on it, and he is just overmatched down low by size. Eddie, I love you to death, but you don't have to shoot it every time you touch the ball. There might be other people open. Here's to another blowout hopefully on Friday night against the Wiz so I can relocate my sanity.