Rut row Reorge….
Even George Jetson’s dog Astro would be worried about the Celtics after yet another post-Christmas loss for the C’s, this time against the hated New York Knicks. While panic has not yet set in, there appears to be plenty to be concerned about as the C’s were not able to execute offensively or compete defensively against the lowly Knicks, who only used seven men this evening.
The sidelight to this game was the ongoing discussion regarding the need to improve the Celtics bench and in particular the signing of possible free agent-to-be Knick guard Stephon Marbury. Celtics Pride host, and Lynn Daily Item columnist, Patrick Gilroy joined the show to weigh in on the recent run of poor play and his feelings about how to get things on the right track. Gilroy is a fan of Starbury becoming a Celtic, and believes Steph will fill the team’s biggest need which is a consistent, veteran scoring threat off the bench. Of course the conversation soon turned to the other major need which is a veteran big man and Gilroy got the opportunity to put a pitch in for his old binky, Antoine Walker. This led into Gilroy telling the story about how when he was interning for the Celtics in the late 90’s, Antoine Walker would give a $100 bill to a ballboy to bring back 3 double cheeseburgers from McDonalds across the street and then let the ball boy keep the change.
The Celtics will face the New York Knicks on Sunday night at 6pm and immediately following the game Jon and Justin will take to their laptops and provide immediate postgame reaction. Of course, there is much to talk about from the events of this week with the free agent big man pool dwindling and reports from ESPN.com that Stephon Marbury will join the Celtics this season. We welcome Patrick Gilroy of the Celtics Pride Radio Network and the Daily Item of Lynn who wrote on January 1st about Doc Rivers wanting to get Garnett some much needed rest and also chimed in on the Starbury rumors:
Not unlike last season it appears that Danny Ainge will be playing the field, and scouring the clearance racks looking for late season and playoff help. While most people feel that the Celtics are in need of length and size there are increasing whispers that the Celtics are in desperate need of a legitimate scoring punch off the bench. With a Stephon Marbury buyout just a week or two away, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a Garnett/Marbury reunion sooner than later.
After all Ainge has not shied away from other malcontents like Ricky Davis, Mark Blount, and Gary Payton.
Stephon Marbury is being bantered about as a candidate for employment as a back-up point guard for the Boston Celtics (see ESPN.com). Today, Marc Stein of ESPN looked at all the angles from the Celtics, Knicks and Marbury’s viewpoints in the Marbury FAQ in the Daily Dime. CSL Blog’s own Jon Duke also went into the dichotomy of the situation in We Want Steph Not Staph.
It is really hard to sit on the fence on this one, as you like to have principles as a basketball fan, and you want to like sportsmanship in your players. In your heart you know that you want your team to win the right way. So when it comes to this Marbury acquisition talk, I’m being clear, I’d rather stick a knitting needle in my eye than have an egomaniac like Marbury in the locker room.
The Celtics take an easy win from the Wizards, 108-83. Jack Jemsek, CSL Staff Writer, joins Justin Poulin to break down the game and sift through the overwhelming success to find meaningful trends. Patrick O’Bryant got just under 6 minutes of play and Doc employed a new rotation for the bench that had positive results (like most everything in this blowout).
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I read the news today… oh boy
Celtics fans everywhere had this John Lennon line running through their heads after ESPN’s Marc Stein reported this morning that not only will Stephon Marbury get bought out by the New York Knicks, but that he will sign with the Celtics after clearing waivers. On this news most Celtics fans come in on one of two sides the matter:
"OH BOY!" - Excited to see a multitime All Star and self proclaimed "Best Point Guard in the NBA" join a talented, successful franchise with plenty of veteran leadership to go around
"Ohhhh Boy." (insert eye roll here) - Apoplectic at the idea that one of the most divisive and cancerous talents in the NBA is going to join what has been a successful team and blow the whole thing up.
From those of you who read my latest thoughts on the bench’s malaise, I put myself in the "OH BOY!" category. Usually I am an "if it ain’t broke…" kind of guy, leave well enough alone because what we got is well positioned for success, but the cracks are evident and while they may not be fatal, I see other contenders in position to make bigger moves than the Celtics are capable of. Cleveland, specifically, is playing great ball and has a number of excellent chips available on the trading block that could bring in players the calibur of Vince Carter or Shawn Marion. The Celtics do not have that luxury, so signing players off of contract buyouts is their best path to shore up areas of weakness and as I noted earlier this week a veteran scoring presence off the bench is chief among those needs.
There has been panic on the parquet resulting from the Celtics recent 1-3 west coast road trip over the holidays, with the bench and rotations being labeled as the biggest culprits. Attention was being drawn to these issues before the road trip, precipitated by the fact that the bench seemed to lose outrageous leads developed by the Celtics starters. The Boston Globe Dec. 25th article prior to the headline tilt against the Lakers, entitled Celtics Find Bench Is Giving Way had this to say:
“The bench started the season as the Celtics’ bailout plan. They inherited double-digit deficits in seven of the first 10 games and in most cases they found a way to right the ship as the starters were finding their way.Over the past month, they’ve come into games with double-digit leads and let them slip away. The second unit’s top job is to protect a lead. It’s something those players have struggled with over the past few weeks.”
Celtics Stuff Live arrives to the party a day late, but not a penny short of a dollar with this Postgame Podcap rehashing the Celtics loss to the Portland Trailblazers, 91-86. Paul Pierce played a good game, but that seemed to fall into the hands of Nate McMillan’s strategy and the Celtics interior defense struggled once again. Portland’s long athletic line-up gave the C’s some difficulty, especially with hot shooting Steve Blake running amock in the post and knocking down mid-range jumpers and key three point attempts. The officials certainly did their best to garner some attentiont, essentially penalizing the Celtics a point when the Trailblazers put forth 6 players at the end of the first half, not to mention a rather curious technical foul on Kevin Eastman. Jusint Poulin is joined by Kevin Henkin, CSL Staff Writer, for all the overreaction and chicken little nonsense that is the essence of being a die-hard Celtics fan.
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Certainly there are other areas to gripe about, notably the difficulty in guarding SIX men at one point Tuesday night, but the bench is giving a bit more heartburn than necessary just a week after these Celtics looked like one of the greatest of all time. Instead, the C’s have made "Marky Mark" Heisler sit in his cubicle and nod knowingly while the candles of his Kobe Bryant Shrine flicker in the dark Los Angeles night. While the bench’s recent inability to perform has nothing to do their height, or lackthereof, the absence of a veteran presence has made their play inconsistent at best. Therefore it is time to roll up the sleeves and help old friends Doc and Danny out of their mess… lord knows if they need a blogger’s help, they would look first in this direction.
Seemingly on the turn of a dime, euphoria has given way to angst, panic and paranoia. In matter of days, when it comes to public perception, the Celtics have morphed from invincible world-beaters to a deeply flawed squad anchored by a trio of geezers on the downside of their careers.
The Celtics squash the losing streak with a convincing win over the Kings. Many Celtics players enjoyed the match-ups they had against an inferior Sacramento club, especially KG and Kendirck Perkins. This allowed the bench to get a good amount of run and outpaced the Kings bench with Eddie House leading the way with 15 points. Gabe Pruitt played the fourth quarter and the Notorious POB did his best to stick it to the CSL guys who criticized him in the pregame show. Jon Duke and Justin Poulin break it all down and revel in the feel good win.
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Thanks for the coal Santa.
The Celtics, after winning 19 games in a row, have now dropped their last two contests and the panic mongers were out in force on the most recent edition of Celtics Stuff Live. Broadcasting live prior to Sunday’s meeting with the Sacramento Kings, Jon and Justin ran down their thoughts following the loss to the ESPN Lakers and the Warriors Friday night and engaged in a particularly interesting conversation regarding the role of poor officiating in determining the outcome of a game. It should come as no surprise that this discussion was spurred on by a call from longtime CSL caller, the Sexy Scotsman.
In the first hour, John Karalis of "Red’s Army" came back on the show after a long absence that should only be described as a disfiguring car accident or perhaps alien abduction, but nevertheless John was back and it was great to have him on the CSL airwaves. Justin, Jon, and John chatted about the two game losing streak and potential causes for the uncharacteristic pair of losses. John has some big things in store for "Red’s Army" in 2009, so stay tuned…
In the second hour, the "Voice of the Celtics", Sean Grande, checked in with the show from courtside at the ARCO Arena in Sacramento and reported in Dickerson-style that Kendrick Perkins will play tonight and give his bum left shoulder a test. Further along in the second half of the show, Justin highlighted a story written by Mark Heisler of the LA Times calling the Celtics the "worst 27-4 team ever". Needless to say that got Jon and Justin’s blood boiling and became the catalyst for a sweet rant on Kobe Bryant who Jon called the "Brett Favre of basketball".
Join us for a special pregame edition of Celtics Stuff Live on Sunday night from 7-9pm. Joining us will be CSL favorite Sean Grande and a guest whose absence has been too long rom the show, John Karalis from Red’s Army. Of course, there will be plenty of discussion around the Celtics first losing streak, not to mention the debacle on Christmas Day and the communication on the court as of late, as well as Kendrick Perkin’s absence illuminating the need for a big man addition prior to the playoffs.
Here’s John’s reaction reaction to laast night’s game:
A quick glance of the box score reveals some alarming stats: 23 turnovers, 31 fouls, Ray Allen’s 7 points and 6 fouls, and KG’s 4 rebounds. On the bright side, Rajon Rondo nearly had his second triple double - 11 pts, 10 reb and 9 assists.
For some reason, the Celtics have trouble in Golden St. They’ve lost 5 straight there.
Don’t sweat the back-to-back losses. Last year in mid-January, the 29-3 Celtics lost 3-out-of-4 games (to the Wizards twice and Bobcats) after a big win in Detroit.
We’ll see you all Sunday night as the Celtics hope to put a stop to the skid against the Sacramento Kings.
The children were all nestled in front of the TV
in hopes of seeing yet another win over LA for the C’s.
Disappointment struck the Celtic faithful as the Los Angeles Lakers attempted to avenge the listless and embarrassing loss in Game 6 of the 2008 NBA Finals. The Lakers did prevail in their first contest with the Celtics on Christmas Day and while the prognosticators and pundits will take result of the game as proof of a healthy rivalry, or worse the superiority of the Lakers, what struck me was something else. Sure, my first thought was that the NBA wanted to put a lump of coal in the stockings of Celtics fans everywhere due to an abysmal officiating performance by Derek Richardson, but no, it wasn’t even the "Heinsohn Approach" to looking back at tough games.
It was the %@#%@^! confetti.
Seriously? Confetti? After a regular season game? I know franchises with thinner history books can go over the top with their postgame celebrations, but the vaunted Los Angeles Lakers are blowing their wad over "one out of 82"? Sure, the Lakers are the same franchise who when under the ownership of Jack Kent Cooke put victory balloons in the rafters in anticipation of a Game 7 victory in the 1969 NBA Finals. But with the bugaboo of beating the Celtics finally off their backs (and yes, we are still trying to live down 1985), is this Lakers franchise this shallow that confetti is necessary after beating the C’s?
The Boston Celtics have their 19-game winning streak snapped like a Slim Jim by the Lakers of all teams, 92-83. For this day anyway, the National pundit’s love for the Lakers is justified and Celtics fans everywhere are anxiously awaiting the rematch on February 5th. Rondo got into early foul trouble with some questionable calls in an otherwise loosely officiated game. Kevin Garnett had an incredible night offensively going 11-14 from the field for 22 points and three of the newly patented Rondo to KG baseline alley-oop. Seventeen turnovers and 23% shooting from beyond the arc hurt the Celtics in the end as well as some rather confident play from Pau Gasol who attacked the basket in the final minutes working the two man game with Kobe Bryant. Eric Weiss and Thomas Halzack join your host Justin Poulin to discuss the first match-up of the season against last year’s NBA FInals opponent.
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Another day, another record. Lately, the Boston Celtics seem to be sending out more records than a special offer from the BMG Music Service. The Celtics win their 19th straight and set an NBA record for a start to the season improving to 27-2 with a 110-91 victory over the 76ers. The Celtics show no signs of looking past their opponent to the game on Christmas day against the Lakers and finish off the 76ers with relative ease playing the bench almost entirely in the 4th quarter. CSL Stafff Writer Kevin Henkin joins your host Justin Poulin to break down the game and preview the highly touted match-up only 2 days away in Los Angeles.
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