I'm not going to blame Doc Rivers for this loss. Rajon Rondo was off, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen struggled from the field and it it were not for a ton of trips to the foul line (39) it would have been a blow out. However, tonight was tailor made for Leon Powe and Eddie House. The Celtics needed something to combat their listless play. And I really believe Powe and House would have helped. Also why did Rivers put Tony Allen in with House and Rondo to close out the half defensively, inadvertently negating a Rondo free throw in the process?

One more thing on Powe. He has great hands. I thought about that several times as P.J. Brown and Glen Davis struggled handling passes in the post. And if you want to know what Powe could bring to the table consider Jason Maxiell's contributions.

Once again I don't want to blame Rivers. Yet a couple of times I wondered if he had wagered on the game. That's about as low as it gets as a fan.

The Celtics offense alternated between over dribbling and over passing. It was difficult to watch.

Celtics fans, myself included, should admit that we would be furious if Detroit shot 39 free throws to Boston's 26. 

Critics of Kevin Garnett point to quarters like tonight's first and wonder why KG refuses to take over offensively. I'm not going down that path again. But it is puzzling.

Boston looked a bit like a team that was content to go home 2-2.

Antonio McDyess and Rip Hamilton are Detroit's top performers right now and it's not even close.

Just a frustrating loss all around. Boston really had an opportunity to look like a serious championship contender. Man it has been a long playoffs.

Arron Afflalo – A rookie out of UCLA, Afflalo may be best known for his collegiate career and announcers stumbling over his last name for some inexplicable reason. To be honest I was a little surprised to see that he played in 75 regular season games (12.9 MPG) and 9 of Detroit’s 11 playoff games thus far. Afflalo entered the Association with the reputation of a defensive stopper that could score as well. Playing 9 minutes per game in the playoffs to this point Afflalo’s statistical contributions have been modest across the board. For what it’s worth he is further along than his former Pac-10 rival Gabe Pruitt. Remember him?

Chauncey Billups – Billups appeared in 3 games against the Orlando Magic but for all intents and purposes was only a factor in 2. Allegedly he is healed and ready to go. Regardless Rajon Rondo should attack the 11th year player and test that hamstring. On the flipside Billups is a match up nightmare for Sam Cassell, Eddie House and Rondo. That’s why I’d like to see the former Celtic work on the defensive end of the court. In closing check out what I wrote about Billups prior to Boston’s first game against Detroit, way back in December:

"On a team full of Celtics killers he might be the number one guy. He's a big point guard that creates all types of match up problems. And we all remember how the Ricktator shipped him out of town after 51 games. But here's my question. Why did it take him so many teams to finally emerge as a player? Billups is not a system guy like Matt Harpring who just had to catch on with the right team. I know his field goal percentages were rough over those first four seasons (39%, 35%, 37%, 34%) and point guards take time to develop. But you're lying if you saw this coming. Finally, Billups is yet another player that was robbed this year. Robbed of the chance to dominate Sebastian Telfair four times a season."

I enjoyed that Telfair joke. And if you click on that old post you’ll notice I recycled the pronunciation point about Afflalo. In closing Billups is supposed to be good friends with Kevin Garnett. Check that best friends. For some reason Tyronn Lue always stands out for me in that story.

Continue reading this post »