- The Rockets had 45 free throws after 3 quarters. That's insane.

- Tommy Heinsohn is pushing Gabe Pruitt aggressively right now. I'm not ready to buy.

- The Bill Walker era could go a lot of different ways. Off the top of my head:

1. Guy who plays way too hard and gets injured as a result. Think Delonte West in Boston.
2. D-League stud.
3. Loose cannon.
4. Contributing role player.
5. Garbage time, highlight reel machine.
6. Overly excited, to the point that it's a little weird, end of the bench guy.
7. League leader in chest bumps.
8. Some combination of the previous 7 suggestions.

- "Classic Leon." - Tommy Heinsohn after Powe grabbed a rebound, tried to rip off Chuck Hayes' arm, and then got to the line. I still think Powe needs to be around a little longer and play more to have classic moments. But I was terrified of Powe at that moment.

- From my preview earlier today -

"If Patrick O'Bryant continues to impress and emerges as the back up center, Davis will be in a bind. He needs to approach these games with a sense of urgency. He's in a contract year, is competing for time with Leon Powe, behind KG of all people, and does not appear to be in peak condition. Furthermore, Powe gets buckets, is incredibly intense, and is also in a contract year. Davis could be relegated to the bench."

Davis must of read it as he responded with a solid effort. At the same time, even Tommy admitted that Davis was "huffing and puffing."

- One of the bigger stories in Boston's preseason has to be the 16 players the Celtics have on the roster right now. Who will get voted off the island? Barring a trade or Brian Scalabrine falling out of favor, Darius Miles and Sam Cassell (from a skill  level) appear to be the most vulnerable. Regular visitors know I don't think Cassell has much left in the tank. I also worry about his shot selection. On top of that Miles made a few nice plays in limited action. Yet, I'm coming around on Cassell a bit. His constant yapping might be an asset. I wish I could do a better job of articulating what I mean. Also Miles is the only one without a guarantee. One more point.

- I wouldn't call Patrick O'Bryant a stiff. Note to self - talk to Golden State Warriors fans about him. Get reactions.

- I liked how O'Bryant, Eddie House, Pruitt, Powe, and Miles played together.

- Given the fact that he played in the Olympics, I was surprised to see Luis Scola get so much time.

- Shane Battier is a tool. That doesn't mean I dislike him. Although I am worried that people might not be saying "tool" anymore. I should check on that.

Even though I figured out pretty quickly that Boston's financial commitments and his status as a restricted free agent made it impossible to bring Delonte West back, I still hoped it would happen. In fact it's similar to the way I used to hope Gerald Green would put it all together. And now that West is officially back in the fold for Cleveland the dream is dead. Congrats to West. I wish him well on an individual level. Hopefully he'll shoot some sweet promos for the Cavs.

Delonte West Hanger Commercial (via TonyAllen06)

A while back I wrote a post about brining Delonte West back into the fold. At the time I  thought there was a 0% chance. Well it turns out that the Celtics expressed some interest. Of course nothing materialized. Hat tip to CelticsBlog and Red's Army. Not sure why I didn't touch on that earlier.

Of course the bigger concern is the fact that the 15th anniversary of Reggie Lewis' death has come and gone. I'll send you to Red's Army or Loy's Place because for once I'm speechless.

Finally I haven't had much to say about the Paul Pierce Spanish interview that exploded on the scene over the last day or so. I was naive enough to think it wasn't a big deal and also touched upon it back on the 26th. I still don't care.

As I mentioned earlier Eddie House and Tony Allen appear to be back in the fold for two more seasons. With their imminent signings I thought it would be interesting to dive into the archives and look at some posts I wrote about them in the past year. There was a profile of House. Other than that he was mentioned in parts of numerous other posts. He's a role player in that regard. And yet Allen received way more attention. And he was somewhere between the 10th and 12th man. Still that attention was not without reason. At the start of the 2007 season I was incredibly focused on 7 young players - Tony Allen, Ryan Gomes, Gerald Green, Al Jefferson, Kendrick Perkins, Rajon Rondo, and Delonte West. They developed as follows:

Gomes - solid role player, traded
Green - talented enigma who will probably never get it, traded
Jefferson - double-double guy, traded
Perk - defensive beast
Rondo - defensive stalwart, rapidly improving, potential star
West - solid third guard, starting point guard with LeBron, traded

That leaves Allen who unlike the other six did not either get traded or develop significantly. In fact outside of possibly Green, Allen easily regressed the most, due in large part to that epic knee injury.  And yet I continue to pull for him. Check out the following posts:

Player Profile
2007 Season Recap
The Road Back
A Random Post detailing his possessions against the hated Bulls.

If you're too lazy to read those posts, and quite frankly I don't blame you, you can still enjoy two of my favorite exchanges from the 2007 season:

Tommy Heinsohn and Mike Gorman reacting to Allen's season ending knee injury:

"Dire straits. Dire straits. You know where dire straits is?" - Heinsohn

"Africa?" - Gorman when he finally got a word in.

"Just south of frustration." - Heinsohn

I still have no idea what that means.

And...

Allen's response to his mother when she complained about Brian Scalabrine driving them to the hospital. "This this is better than an ambulance. This is Scal!" - Tony Allen

I should have mentioned this earlier: The NBA recently set the salary cap for the the 2009 season at $58.68 million. The luxury tax threshold is $71.15 million. This is important when you consider the money Boston currently has earmarked for nine players. In fact that makes my recent Delonte West idea even more ludicrous than it was when I posted it. The Celtics ownership is going to take a substantial hit to just fill out the rest of the roster. On top of that there is still the James Posey questions, which as of now is unresolved. Not much to do now outside of remember what a wise man once said,

"Now we play the waiting game...Ah, the waiting game sucks. Let's play Hungry Hungry Hippos!" - Homer Simpson

via images.funagain.com

I expected James Posey to opt out of his contract and he did yesterday.  That same article reveals some other Boston Celtics related free agent news:
"One move was made last night when the franchise failed to make Tony Allen a qualifying offer, thus making the guard an unrestricted free agent, according to his agent, Mike Higgins." - Marc J. Spears
This interested me for three reasons:

1. As Spears noted the Celtics sent some strong signals once they drafted and traded for J.R. Giddens and Bill Walker respectively.

2. I find "the the franchise failed to make Tony Allen a qualifying offer" wording funny as if it was accidental. It's not like the time Terrell Owens' camp messed up his impending free agency. Although that appears to be the industry standard.

Continue reading this post »

In looking at Boston's current roster/salaries as well as its needs a few things become obvious. For starters the Celtics have a ton of money committed already and therefore do not have a lot of money to bring free agents into the fold. In addition to that the Celtics must decide what they will do with their own free agents, most notably James Posey once he exercises his player option. Furthermore, given its financial situation Boston will not be in the running for high profile names. Not only could the Celtics not pay such a player, but they would also have to fit that star in with Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett, and Paul Pierce who have already spoken a great deal about their sacrifices to the team. Another star, more sacrifices. Still it would be nice if Boston acquired a reliable ball handler. Enter Delonte West. As I see it there are several problems with this scenario:

1. West is a restricted free agent. He worked his way into the starting point guard role in Cleveland, showing some promise in the process. One can assume he would be even more comfortable after a full training camp. Meanwhile, I can't imagine the Cavaliers would let him walk to a conference rival unless the offer sheet were too ridiculous to match. And given Boston's aforementioned financial obligations that is unlikely. In fact this point alone probably renders the rest of this post meaningless. And yet I will forge ahead.

2. Why would West go from being a starting point guard, with LeBron James no less, to Rajon Rondo's back up? In fact word on the street is that West wants to return to Cleveland:

"The qualifying offer to West is worth $2.76 million. West also wants to return to the team. His agent, Noah Croom, said the Cavs have indicated to him that they want to re-sign West." - Bob Finnan

3. He hates the Mass. Pike and I don't blame him. The tolls are ridiculous.

4. Boston's owners don't like controversy. Remember how quickly they acted after Sebastian Telfair was arrested? And even though this was not West behaving badly and it was not a major story, it could hurt his cause.

Having said all that I still think it's worth exploring the possibility of West returning. He can handle the ball, is a defensive upgrade over Sam Cassell and Eddie House, blocks shots surprisingly well for his size, is a better than average shooter, and arguably the funniest player in the NBA. Of course that last one does not matter. Regardless, even if the climate around the Celtics has changed dramatically I'd still like to see West pick up where he left off in terms of marketing:

Delonte West Hanger Commercial (via TonyAllen06)

The 2004 Patriots are my favorite team of New England’s run. Don’t get me wrong I loved the 2001 squad. But in 2004 Tom Brady had emerged, Corey Dillon was a beast, the defense was stifling at times, and the Pats only lost twice. Just a great season. However, for me it all comes down to the playoff game against the Colts. It was the year that seemingly everyone picked Indianapolis to get over the hump, something that seemed even more likely with Richard Seymour and Ty Law unable to play. Meanwhile, Peyton Manning won the MVP and started his ridiculous run of appearing in an ad during every single commercial break of football games. More on that later. You may also recall that Mike Vanderjagt said New England was “ripe for the picking” in the lead up to the game. Come game time it was a cold, snowy day in Foxborough and the Patriots dominated from start to finish with brilliant defense. They rushed 3, dropped 8 into coverage, beat receivers up at the line, and seemed a step quicker all day. The highlight? You could go with the crowd chanting, “Cut that meat!” in honor of one of Manning’s numerous ads. However, let’s stick with the play on the field. With time winding down in the first half the Colts put together a bit of a drive. It ended emphatically when Peyton Manning went to Dominic Rhodes. Tedy Bruschi stopped him for a two-yard loss and went a step further by ripping the ball out of Rhodes’ hands. Not only did it show the huge difference in aggression between the squads that day, but it also doubled as a “this game is freaking over” moment. I bring this up mainly because I immediately thought of Bruschi’s play when Rajon Rondo ripped the ball out of Lamar Odom’s hands. There were a lot of great plays - KG's and 1, House and Posey going on an 11-0 run, Tony Allen's reverse ally oop, Glen Davis inexplicably dunking, Pierce's drives and assists, a statement block by Perk, Ray Allen raining down 3s, and more. But Rondo's numerous steals in general and the one on Odom in particular were big time. In fact it was a huge night for Rondo – 21 points, 7 rebounds, 8 assists, and 6 steals. He had as many offensive rebounds (2) as all of the Lakers combined. On top of that Rondo had 2 more steals than LA and did it all with one turnover. In honor of Rondo’s stellar play I’m going to post the Rajon Rondo movie. For the record I made this in the midst of the disaster that was last season. And I recognize that it’s way too long and has numerous other flaws as well. Granted I can’t bring myself to watch it again. It’s painful. But it has its moments. I maintain that the broken glass and Delonte West wire hanger scenes are fantastic. This is for a limited time only. Enjoy after the jump…

Continue reading this post »

I went and shot around after this game and the adrenaline carried me for about 15 minutes. I'm a mediocre shooter at best. And I hit at least two three pointers from 30 feet. I was throwing in deep baseball shots and all sorts of fall aways as well. Then I crashed back down the earth. I was spent. How can a basketball game take that much out of a person watching at home? If I were at the game I would have stumbled out of there in a daze.

Paul Pierce had one of the biggest games of his career. He shot 56% from the floor and 91% from the line. On top of that he had 5 boards, 4 assists and 2 steals. And those assists don't account for the two times he got Leon Powe to the line. He was dialed in and even called the final 3 minutes the toughest 3 minutes of his life. Keep in mind the fact that he was brutally stabbed once and almost died. I'm assuming he's completely blocked that out. He also took advantage of the shooter's role and then some.

Eddie House had 4 points, 1 rebound, 1 assist, 1 steal and a turnover in just under 15 minutes of time. Yet he led the team in +/- (+13). And the hustle play where he dove to save a ball going out of bounds, passing it directly to Posey in the process, was downright awesome.

P.J. Brown had 10 points (4-4 from the field), 6 rebounds and some hard fouls in 20 minutes of time. He also hit arguably the biggest jumper in the game.

In related news is anyone else as completely and utterly confused by Doc Rivers' substitution patterns, or lack thereof, as I am? For example Glen Davis had one big game on the road in Detroit. Will he be the first big off the bench?

Home court matters.

I was going to run a "Witness LeBron going home" style post or something along those lines if the Celtics won. But I have to give him credit. He's a remarkable basketball player. If he improves his post game, does not have to work as hard on offense and ever gets the right assortment of teammates around him he won't be seeing too many more game 7s. He's that good.

I swear James Posey did a solid job on LeBron earlier in the series. That was not the case tonight. He couldn't stay in front of him.

I'm a little nervous about how hard Boston had to work in this one.

For all the talk about the officials I think it's safe to say those things even out over time.

Home court matters.

Jeff Van Gundy may get bored in blow out games. And his attempts at humor are painful at times. But when he's dialed in I learn a lot. He straight up knows the game of basketball.

Delonte West missed a huge shot that could have tied it. And his 6 turnovers take some luster off of his 15 points and 5 assists. Still today provided indisputable proof that there is plenty of fight in West. He was one of the players that was not afraid. 

Nice job by House, Pierce and Ray Allen, as they went a combined 6-6 from the line down the stretch.

Let's talk Pistons tomorrow. Until then enjoy it...

via d.yimg.com

Ray Allen

It’s important to remember that Kevin Garnett never seriously considered going to Boston until Ray Allen joined the Celtics. On top of that KG’s lukewarm feelings for Wally Szczerbiak are so well known that I don’t even feel compelled to cite a source. However, out of respect for Buzz Bissinger I will. Not once. But twice. Still I do wonder  if the Celtics would be better with Delonte West and Szczerbiak. Obviously it’s a moot point. But it’s something I’ve thought about. Can you tell Boston lost game 6?

Paul Pierce

Three stats stand out from Pierce’s game 6 line: He finished 5-15 from the field, 4-4 from the line and turned the ball over six times. That’s too many turnovers and not enough free throws. Also the sooner Pierce accepts that he is not a real rival to LeBron James (who is?) the better. I’ve always thought Pierce’s ability to hit some mid range jumpers to keep teams honest and drive to the hoop were his biggest strengths. And the latter often leads to free throws.

Kevin Garnett

I listened to Max and Grande’s call of this one for the first three quarters because of work. As you can imagine I was not that productive. And I was interested by Grande’s take on Kevin Garnett’s playing time. Apparently KG gets so fired up that Doc Rivers can’t play him for an entire quarter. In fact Rivers has gone out of his way to manage KG’s minutes from day one. I immediately thought, “Wait isn’t it his 13th season? Shouldn’t he have figured that out by now?” I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: nobody associated with the Celtics, outside of Lucky who needs this team to play well to score, has more riding on this season than Garnett. He is the best player on Boston’s roster. Hands down. And when he misses a four-foot shot late or gets whistled for a travel, his critics are bound to circle like vultures. That’s not my intention. It’s hard to blame the series on him when everyone else has been inconsistent. Has KG even had a bad game yet? Regardless he needs a 25+ points, 15+ rebounds game on Sunday.