Here’s what I’m thinking about for this series:
-For the Celtics, the key is Rondo. It’s as simple as that. For the last couple of years, the Celtics have torched the Cavs’ defense when Rondo’s aggressive and getting layups out on the fast break.
-Remember that the Celtics haven’t lost a playoff series KG has played in for them. This is a confident team that won the whole thing in 2008. And they want this series.
-We’ll see how long MB goes with Shaq. I’d love to see Varejao get going in this game.
-Hopefully the elbow’s alright. We’ll find out today.
-Sorry I’ve been running around too much for a proper preview, but here’s an open thread. See you after the game.
For God’s sake don’t let Ray get hot.
Good god Reggie Miller is the worst.
ray won’t make more than 2 threes.
He shot 19/32 for the last 4 games of the Miami series. Be afraid. Be very afraid of Ray Allen.
Words can’t express how saddened I am by the fact that Z played 6 minutes in the 1st quarter, and HIckson played 0.
Hickson should not be playing while Lebron is on the bench
Agree RJ. Not really sure what Mike Brown is doing with that rotation. Play Z instead of Hickson, and then play Hickson when LeBron is out. MORE OF THAT PLEASE!!!!
Wow. We are in trouble folks. One half to figure it out. Mo Williams completely passive. Jamison isn’t seeing any of the ball. Varejao invisible yet again. Not good.
Is anyone guarding Rondo or do we have a frozen figure to act like a defender…one of the worst halves ever…no defense…no boxing out….missing easy layups…looking like we are going through the motions…and we are doing this at home! thats the worst….if this was at Boston we’d be down by at least 20…Varajao still getting abused…and Shaq doing nothing but committing fouls…nice!
The boxing out seems to disappear when Varejao enters the game. At least when Shaq is the game Boston was 1 and done.
STill, 2 of those 3 on shaq were terrible. The offensive foul yet again was bad, and his block on Rondo was bad. If that was a smaller guy who blocked, rondo would have ran into him, not fell, and no call. But because it’s shaq Rondo hits the brick wall and goes down, and it’s suddenly a foul.
Why aren’t we playing small and speeding up the game like Charles barkely has been saying all year long?
Well, unless some small guard on the Cavs suddenly becomes a good defender, this is going to happen. Rondo can’t be stopped. Either they put LeBron on him, or suddenly hope Rondo starts sucking.
And still Jamison hasn’t seen ANY of the ball.
Yeah, change it up! Take a chance, put Bassy in there, give Powe some minutes get Gibson in there, anything that gets us some scoring!
I would just settle for passing Jamison the ball once in a while on offense.
Celtics commit a foul over the limit, with 2:37 left in the 3rd, Cavs down 3, and Reggie Miller thinks it is important that the Cavs get a chance to score without time running off the clock…
So glad Mo remembered that he’s good at basketball! First time I’ve ever seen him dunk.
I heard someone say Hickson has good hands…better hands, maybe, but thats to much too soon.
that was also Reggie Miller…
Yea, Reggie said one of the great things about Hickson is his good hands. Yikes. That goes to show he watches next to no game tape before commentating games. Cause, I mean…wow.
Still though, Hickson is going to have to get this + more minutes for the rest of the playoffs. SImply can’t play Z anymore (cept maybe that fateful day against the Lakers…but let’s not get that far ahead).
He also says during EVERY broadcast that Anthony Parker was the Cavs’ most important acquisition since last season.
Hickson should play the last 8 minutes of the first quarter, after Shaq picks up 3 fouls.
This was a very lucky win
This was not a lucky win. Cavs coasting and still wom fairly easy.
I agree RJ. That was something Brown tried, and I’m happy to note seemed liek he realized didn’t work. Hopefully next game, that is HIckson coming in and not Z. Hickson gives them problems.
On the BOston side, KEEP PLAYING RASHEED WALLACE BABY. Just like a Z sighting was great news for Boston fans, everytime Wallace came in the game I was happy.
Now, I’m not that upset with this win for one reason. Our worst quarter was the 1st, were we missed a crazy number of easy buckets. Lebron missed two bunnies, Varejao did too, and so did Shaq. Jamison missed a normally easy runner. Those shots wont go like that next game.
YeaH BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LET’S GO!!!!!!!
Also, our bench came through tonight, and that was again w/o much Varejao. Hickson and West played pretty well, especially Hickson. Barkley is right when he says we should run, because when it gets to the bench, the difference in the two teams really shows up.
Oh,and lol and Doc Rivers calling an iso and then pick and rollfor Paul Pierce latein the game with LeBron on him. Sorry, but you gotta go other places at the end of hte game.
One of the announcers (not sure if it was Miller) said that the 2 Cavs 3′s were by Mo and Moon at one point. Mo didn’t make a 3 that game…
Cavs won that at 80/90%. This should be an easy series if/when they turn it up a notch.
The Celts present one problem, and here is betting that Rondo won’t go like 12-13 from the line again this series. At least I hope not.
FOr the next game, the fans should chant as loud as possible “PLAY RASHEED WALLACE!!!”
Barkley just said “best player the Celtics got is Mike Brown.”
Hey, give Mike Brown credit. He tried Ilgauskus, realized after 6 minutes it wouldn’t work ,and went to HIckson instead. From here on it I expect Hickson to get 17-20 minutes a game. Something we would not have seen from brown last year.
No, I think MB did a good job in the second half, just thought it was a funny obnoxious comment from Barkley. But I am surprised MB doesn’t realize what seems to be pretty obvious — that Hickson can be very effective with Lebron on the floor and is not (at least not yet) a very effective player when Lebron is not on the floor. I realize Hickson did a decent job in the 2nd quarter tonight but I am not comfortable with that in general. If his game is developing, that is fantastic, but I would rather wait for next year to explore that.
The only thing I love more than Mo’s dunk is the fact Paul Pierce was the one getting the facial. That quarter was really the first time Mo imposed his will on a postseason game — hopefully this will boost his confidence going forward. I wonder, though, if in Game 2 they’ll just go ahead and have AP guard Rondo from the opening tip.
Can’t blame Mike for giving Z some run in the first half of the first game of the series — gotta show him some respect. He just better not do it again, though.
Shaq post-game interview with the TNT crew was HILARIOUS.
Paul Pierce is utterly helpless against Lebron now. His best play was flopping on Lebron’s spin move in the post, which worked once in the first half, but not when he tried it again late in the game.
A few thoughts from the bench…
1) Shaq. Yes, it is true we score more and look flashier when we go small and fast. However, unless this is a lineup we plan on using in the next series, I have to suggest that it is wise to keep Shaq playing and working into a routine with the other starters. We got him for Orlando but that doesn’t mean we can get away with keeping him in mothballs until then.
2) Hickson is a good energy guy and I like his long term upside. However, he doesn’t have good hands, he is still taking shots from more than 3 feet away when he hasn’t yet had time to really develop those shots. To the second point first, yes he started hitting some of them in the latter part of the season. To that I say, great, work on it in the off season and come into next year trying to grow into being a shooter, but the postseason is not the time to be working on it. He’s a dunker, tip-in guy and a very short range shooter and he needs to stick with what he does best offensively. Dribbling and shots from 10+ feet away are not his strong suits and if he keeps doing that I’m all for keeping his butt in contact with pine. Back to the first point. I agree that he works well with LeBron in the game and don’t mind some of those matchups when plays are being called in that direction but just giving him minutes for the sake of giving him minutes because we like his energy is a folly in my book. He doesn’t have the good hands and will often fumble passes to him in the paint. Personally I’d like to see Powe or Z getting the burn when LeBron is sitting.
3) Good things from this game. It was nice to see Mo showing what he’s got and being aggressive. I think that the addition of Jamison really took the pressure off of him and some players need that until they are comfortable in the postseason. It is likely doubly helpful after last year. Also, did you guys see the play run for Shaq where he was the last one getting back on offense and LeBron had to hold the ball and everyone waited for him, then a quick pass while he’s headed straight for the rim and no Celtic responded? For me that rated up there with Z’s fast break from earlier in the year.
4) As much as it pains me to say this, I agree with Barkley’s comments at the end of the game. Rivers is a moron if he’s telling his key players that it is okay to foul out by the half or 3rd quarter. While I’m sure he wants that kind of energy, he doesn’t have the bench for them to take stupid fouls and hope to face off squarely against the Cavs in the long run. And speaking of fouls, the refs really need to start calling some of that BS that Garnet was pulling with Jamison off the ball.
All in all while I was disapointed with the early game effort I never felt we were out of the game or really even threatened all that much. We just couldn’t get alot of those early shots to go in but I knew it would even out in due time. We also committed alot of stupid turnovers and that’s what helped the Celtics get to an early lead, but I was always confident that we’d take advantage when the tide turned as it were. This team has alot more balance and alot more options to go to than last year. We also have lockerroom experience provided by Shaq among others.
MB doesnt have to give the same minutes every game…I would rather have him give Z a solid 20 minutes in one game and none in 3 other games than have him get 4-6 minutes in every game…It’s impossible to get in a rhythm playing 5 minutes and getting 1 shot a game.
Hickson was 5-7 from the field and wasn’t getting completely desroyed on the pick and roll. If he takes a single jumper a game and misses, I’m ok with it. The rest is more than Z is going to give us guys. Who here still sees Z take a jumper, and think it’s going in? I know longer have any confidence his little 15-17 footer is going in. Would rather have HIckson in there flying at the rim.
KG is a little girl. Did anyone else see him flop on defense after Antawn stopped him?
KG and Pierce both have been reduced to flopping. The big difference (besides our overall talent) between this year and ’08 is simple. Paul Pierce is going to be thoroughly destroyed by LeBron James and has absolutely no shot at playing him even for single game, let alone a whole series like he did in ’08 (probably the best stretch of games for Pierce in his career).
Howeer, Rondo is about 5x better at this point, the only reason this series is going to be competitive from game to game. Give these celtics the Rondo from ’08, and look out it’s a whitewash.
How to know your team has arrived: If all of the people who aren’t fans of your team immediately start claiming that everything is a conspiracy and the whole world is out to help only your team. In this case, every Boston fan from here to the end of the Earth is crying about the refs. Imo, the game was pretty well-officated. You can NEVER go on the boxscore of who got fouls and who didn’t to determine how a game was ref’d. Shaq had two terrible fouls called on him early and Rondo had a terrible offensive foul called him later (the charge Mo took that wasn’t really a charge). Other than that, I can’t think of any god awful calls at all. But yet, every fan from ehre to California is balming the league for helping the Cavs so they can get their dream matchup of Cavs Lakers. It means your team has arrived.
Right. There were a lot of Boston fouls early, but that was because they were fouling. Can’t think of any fouls early that were all that controversial. I assumed that was their gameplan.
Yea…the offensive foul on Shaq was bad. The one on Rondo was bad. After that, what? I mean, if you complain about officiating thisgame, then you should probably give up on basketball in general, cause it only gets worse from here.
The offensive foul on shaq was bad. But there was a charge called on Rondo that was bad also. The officiating was even. Boston Fans are crybabies. So glad Cleveland fans don’t cry about refs – testament to the organization.
Rondo was easily the best player on the court during the first half and even the start of the third. Hopefully having Parker on him early next game will prevent that. He was simply abusing the Cavs.
As for the officiating, I thought the Cavs got the benefit of the doubt on a lot of reach-ins, but I don’t think either side has a lot to complain about. Doc Rivers was even dismissive of officiating as a concern.
Tom clearly hates to read my posts.
Rondo, a career 60% (lower probably, not looking it up though) FT shooter went 12-14 from the line. It simply will not happen again. These things average out.
Still, by far and away the best player on the court for the celtics.
And I haven’t given any credit, cause his numbers still don’t look good, but I actually felt Varejao’s presence on the court tonight. He had an impact on the game, which is more than eh did against Chicago.