1st Quarter Mark of Boston Celtics Season

All the readers of this blog know and hopefully tolerate my constant ramblings of my favorite team in sports: the Boston Celtics.  The 2012-2013 version of the team is not the powerhouse of years past, but I started the season very confident.  In the offseason, the Celtics lost Ray Allen.  Obviously this upset me, and I named my fantasy team Judas Shuttlesworth for the year.  However, we had a great draft including getting Jarred Sullinger late in the first round, which is pretty impressive since he had been projected as a lottery pick just a year ago, but slipped because of injury risks.  Also, they added Jason Terry and Courtney Lee in the backfield, resigned Brandon Bass, and got Uncle Jeff back from his scary heart condition. 

They did not start all that hot and are at approximately .500 winning percentage at the quarter mark of the season.  Unimpressive defense, lack of big men, and falling apart when Kevin Garnett go to the bench are the main gripes I have been hearing.  Rondo was suspended for getting in a pushing match with Kris Humphries and we are still awaiting the return of Avery Bradley.  Pierce has been disappointing this year, but he is likely to improve as the season continues. 

As the new guys get more comfortable, the defense has improved, and the offense has consistently been good, which is a welcome addition.  In the past few years, we had struggled to create baskets, being forced to run Ray off a ton of screens.  I am still cautiously optimistic about the year, but increased competition from the two teams in New York within our Atlantic division may challenge the Celtics winning their fifth straight division championship and being relegated to the wild card.

Rajon Rondo: the Man Made of Rubber

Celtics took Saturday night's game 3 against the Heat at home. The entire core played excellent, Allen was +21 when he was in the game, Pierce scored a bunch, and KG was the mvp, contributing 28 points and nearly 20 boards. Jermaine O'Neal was quietly excellent, I counted at least 4 blocks and a bunch of rebounds, plus his large presence made it difficult for the heat to get to the cup. Shaq was back, and although he was barely making it up and down the court, he is a huge body, and that affects the game. I will take Shaq over Big Baby Glen Davis! D. West hit a key 3, and Jeff Green contributed, and looked like he cared.

The real story of the game though was Rajon Rondo. As Dwayne Wade was falling down, he managed to pull Rondo down with him, and he fell incredibly awkwardly on his left arm. The excruciating fall was replayed gratuitously and burned into our retinas after the 20th time it was shown. He was carried off the court, with a dislocated elbow, and everyone thought the game and the series was over for the Celtics. However, in the 4th, Rondo returned, but his left arm was looking like it weighed 75 lbs. He played through it, purely on adrenaline, scored a bunch of points and contributed for our team. As he was falling, on a steal, he tucked the arm in and rolled over, clearly the thing was injured. He was making one hand passes, and scoring layups, but it was scary. The Heat looked like they didn't want to touch him, which strategically didn't make much sense. You are not going Pau GaSOFT or any other Euro playing like that, fuck yeah America.

Let's see if we can take down Game 4, Go C's!

one more shot of the elbow for the road...

Celtics 0-2

The Celtics have gotten off to a terrible start in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. They lost the first two games to the Heat in Miami and are coming home to play the next 2. I am feeling a lot less confident, but I am certainly not saying that they are drawing dead. The first game on Sunday was awful, the Celtics were down the entire game, and Miami and Wade had their foot on our necks the whole way. Some terrible officiating including the Pierce ejection, and 2 miscalled flagrant fouls (that have since been changed) would have resulted in potentially 7 extra points in Boston's direction.

Game 2 went down last night, and the Celtics looked a lot better, however they were not enough for the Heat. Bosh had a solid game 2, much better than his Sunday performance. KG played bad again, missed a ton of shots, got owned by Wade on a sick crossover move, and got owned again by Lebron at the end of the game going for a layup. Rondo and the bench played pretty well, but lack of significant contributions from the rest of the Big 3 resulted in the L. Lebron seems to have settled into his role as the #2 option for the team, but his amazing skill allows him to take over games at will, which he did in the second half.

Game 3 is going to be insane in Boston, and a win is vital, Shaq being back in the lineup could shake things up. I am looking for a huge game from the entire Celtics roster and hopefully the Heat will struggle like they did during regular season games at the TD Garden. Around the rest of the league, I see no way that the Hawks can actually beat Chicago, but in the West both underdogs are totally live. Memphis is playing some scrappy basketball, and as long as Mike Conley does alright, we could definitely see them knocking off OKC. Lakers should be able to beat Dirk and the Mavs, although Pau and Odom are going to need to get angry to win! Go Bruins!