A Daily Babble Production

By definition, this is not an easy piece to write.  That's because it will be the final edition of the Daily Babble to come your way for the foreseeable future.

I received an offer from the National Basketball Association for temporary employment this summer, and I have accepted what I consider an opportunity I can't pass up.  For the next couple of months, I will be working in the league office, completing a myriad of tasks for the NBA's marketing communications department.  I'm thrilled to have the chance to expand my understanding of the league's operations and sports media relations, and I'm looking forward to meeting any number of new people and engaging in a set of new experiences in the time to come.  Thanks to Heather Roberts, Michael Bass and Adam Silver at the NBA for helping make this possible.

I'm proud to say the offer from the league came about largely as a result of the work I have done since arriving at CelticsBlog nearly a year and a half ago.  However, while working for the Association, I will be unable to continue writing for a team-oriented site such as this one.

At this point, I expect to be with the NBA through early August. As WFAN's Eddie Scozzare once told me, there are no guarantees in this life, and I have no idea what the next couple of months will hold for me on a personal level.  But as it stands now, I have no reason to doubt that I will return to my role as your humble Daily Babbler here at CelticsBlog during the latter portion of the offseason's dog days.

But as long as I've got your attention one last time for now, if you wouldn't mind, please indulge me for just a few more minutes for some scrambled thoughts as I offer you my temporary farewell.

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A Daily Babble Production

Over a three-day span in the final week of February, Danny Ainge added the last two pieces to the roster with which the Celtics attempted to defend their title this spring.  One of them caused me great internal tumult beforehand, and the other struck me as most likely to make a marginal positive impact rather than one significant enough to merit his round-the-clock news cycle among Celtics fans in the week leading up his acquisition.  With free agency impending for both of them, it's time for an evaluation of the respective green tenures of Mikki Moore and Stephon Marbury.

In Moore's defense, the Celtics signed him with the expectation that he would be the fifth or sixth big man (depending on Brian Scalabrine's role) if the team reached full health for the stretch run, which it never did.  The various injuries to Kevin Garnett, Leon Powe, Glen Davis and Scalabrine forced Moore into a more expanded role than projected, and averaging 19 minutes in 24 regular season games no doubt accentuated his flaws.

But the blame deflection disclaimer ends there, and it doesn't change the fact that Mikki Moore is a subpar NBA player who did not do a good job as a Celtic this season.  Rewind for a moment to February.  In his writing at FanHouse, top-of-the-line Kings blogger Tom Ziller offered us a scouting report before Mikki came to town:

Moore has springs in his legs, but he does not block shots (6'6 Francisco Garcia had more per-minute last season). He can do three things well: take charges (though he'll also rack up a ton of fouls trying to get those), hit the elbow jumper and finish at the rim, provided the ball is handed off to him within five feet of the basket and there are no defenders within 10 feet.

While TZ drew the ire of Celts fans by referencing Mark Blount (whose effort level is nowhere near Mikki's), albeit strictly in terms of rebound rate (where the two are comparable over the courses of their careers), his assertions about Moore proved spot on.

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A Daily Babble Production

In an Eastern Conference Finals series that has thus far made me look every bit the idiot I so often am, the latest installment provided a cherry on top: Rafer Alston submitting a huge performance in yet another victory for the Orlando Magic.

As our archives demonstrate, I have made no secret of my distaste for Alston's game, and I have berated him at just about every turn in this postseason.  While one night won't turn me into the president of his fan club, it seems the least I can do is omit the usual preface of laying out my case for not liking Alston's game.  Because the Magic's 116-114 overtime win in Tuesday's Game 4 came on a night that belonged to him as much as anyone.

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A Daily Babble Production

The Denver Nuggets head back to Los Angeles having evened the Western Conference Finals at two games apiece, and they have their bench to thank for that.

When Denver took over last night's Game 4, Carmelo Anthony had yet to make a field goal.  Chauncey Billups spent a five-minute stretch on the bench.  But an energetic unit featuring four reserves set the tone for the rest of the game by stretching a three-point first quarter lead as high as 15.  Though the Nuggets took a seven-point lead into recess, the Lakers spent the rest of the evening playing catch-up.

It began with J.R. Smith, who is known for his ability to do three things: shoot, shoot and shoot.  He got around to doing some of that, but he got himself space on the floor by attacking the rim and demonstrating surprising passing vision early on.  Three times in the first six minutes of the second quarter, Smith set up dunks for his teammates.  He opened the period by forcing Pau Gasol to help on his drive in the middle of the lane and lofting the ball to a cutting Chris Andersen for an open finish.  He followed this four minutes later by penetrating through the middle again and flicking a picture-perfect no-look pass to Nene for a slam.  Two possessions after that, Smith drove right, drew more help and dished to Nene for another flush.

After indicating himself a threat to find the open man, Smith had that much easier a time finding space later in the quarter.  A ball-fake, one-dribble move at the three-point line freed him to can an open jumper from 20 feet.  Another drive to the basket resulted in an acrobatic lay-up in traffic.  Smith finished with nine points in the period en route to 24 for the game, but the renowned gunner really made an impression as a distributor on this night.

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A Daily Babble Production

Given that LeBron James has never been confused for Ray Allen at the free throw line, I wouldn't call what happened in the fourth quarter in Orlando last night a full-fledged role reversal.  But it had that feeling.

With the Cleveland Cavaliers trailing by six points and a shade outside of four and a half minutes to play in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals, James drove to the basket and was fouled in the act of shooting.  Two shots.  Clang.  Clang.

On LeBron's second miss, Anderson Varejao committed a foul trying to take the rebound away from Dwight Howard.  With the Cavs in the penalty, the notoriously inaccurate (albeit not on this night) Howard headed to the line for two shots of his own.  I wouldn't describe them as "swish and swish," but the results were just as good.  Eight-point game.

Less than two and a half minutes later, after the Cavaliers had cut the deficit to four, the situation repeated itself in reverse order.

Howard drew a shooting foul from Zydrunas Ilgauskas.  Again, not swish and swish, but good and good.  Just as effective as swish and swish.

At the other end, the Cavs lucked out when the Magic tipped the rebound of a missed three-pointer out of bounds.  Shortly after the ensuing rebound, Bron drew a tick-tack foul from Mickael Pietrus coming around a screen outside the top of the circles.  Penalty situation, two shots.  Miss.  Miss.  Orlando ball, leading by six, less than two minutes to play.

There are a lot of reasons why the Magic left Amway Arena late Sunday night with a 99-89 win, and most of the ones on the Cleveland end had little to do with LeBron James.  But with the game's outcome hanging in the balance in the fourth quarter, each team's respective star contributed to an eight-point swing.  The 60 percent career free throw shooter made four biggies (and 14 of his 19 attempts for the night) right around the time the man who shot a career high 78 percent this season missed four of his own en route to an 18-for-24 performance.

As promised, the Cavaliers hacked Dwight Howard all night long, and he got the job done at the stripe.  In the meantime, the league's best player missed as many free throws in the fourth quarter alone as Howard did for the game.  In a series that has shown itself to be far more of a competition than some idiots (read: me) predicted, that can make all the difference.

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A Daily Babble Production

In the likely event that you haven't spent the last 36 hours ensconced under a rock, you don't need me to tell you that a certain 32.8 percent career three-point shooter happened to convert a catch-and-shoot with one second left from two steps beyond the arc to win a rather important playoff basketball game on Friday night.

If you did happen to play the rock card this weekend, well, that's a nutshell version of how Game 2 of Magic-Cavs ended. Among other things, the unabridged version features some intrigue surrounding the Cavs blowing a 23-point lead at home and Hedo Turkoglu hitting a big shot to put the Magic ahead by two with one second to play.  Rather compelling stuff.

Besides the general insanity of how great LeBron James is, three other thoughts struck me first after a game for the ages:

• "Hey, Craig, man, we just couldn't afford to go down 0-2 in this series going into Orlando.  Once again, Orlando kept their composure being down and made a run, and uh, that's just a great shot, man.  You know, we gotta get ready for Game 3.  That's a great shot, but we got a lot to clean up."  That would be LeBron's answer verbatim to the impeccably dressed Craig Sager's question about how he kept his composure in the final second and what type of shot he expected to get.  High comedy on a number of levels.  Something about the way he made the "0-2" comment would have tempted me to follow up, "So you decided to make the shot because you lost the opener?  Am I to take it you mail it in on this possession if that doesn't happen?"  Add this to the list of reasons we have professionals with restraint instead of wiseacre Celtics fans on the sidelines at NBA games.  Further, in one 17-second answer to the first postgame question, this man referred to his own shot as "great" twice.  And was absolutely right in doing so.  I thoroughly enjoyed this exchange.  Thank you, Messrs. Sager and James.
  

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A Daily Babble Production

[Note: We're going with the originally planned Saturday Babble because we're still in complete shock over the end of Magic-Cavs, Round 2.  There will be thoughts forthcoming over the next couple of days on a series that grows curiouser and curiouser by the second.]

Ron Artest has engaged in his share of reprehensible behavior on and off the basketball court.  He also plays as hard as anyone in the league, does a fantastic job at the defensive end and has his moments with the ball in his hands as well.

But love him or hate him, it's hard to deny Ron-Ron one title: As he spent the last month reminding us, the man gives the most consistently dynamic interviews of any player in the league.

I chatted last week with Detroit Bad Boys' Matt Watson, and we agreed that eventually, someone needs to devote a blog to a cause along the lines of Things Ron Artest Actually Said On the Record.  As Matt says, Artest has no filter and knows no cliche.

In lieu of actually starting that site, but in the interest of doing my part to help the cause and to have some Saturday morning fun, we submit to you a collection of Crazy Pills Artest's memorable moments at the mic for the 2009 playoffs alone:

The Best He's Played Against (04.29.09)

Not only does Artest list Brandon Roy as the best player he's played against, he reasserts it when Craig Sager brings up LeBron James and Kobe Bryant and then takes a backhanded stab at Roy's defense also. 

Bonus: shouting out the formerly best opponent, a buddy from Queensbridge who got incarcerated during his teenage years.

Double-bonus: potshots at Charles Barkley.

(via batkins1823)

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A Daily Babble Production

Though the Lakers fell to the Nuggets last night to cede homecourt advantage in the Western Conference Finals, it was a member of the purple and gold who caught my eye with his wise play at the offensive end.

It has been evident for some time that Trevor Ariza can defend, hustle all over the floor and use his leaping ability and speed to make himself a finisher.  His shooting odyssey remains a mystery.

Prior to this postseason, nothing about Ariza marked him a potent outside shooter.  He shoots a shade less than 30 percent for his career behind the three-point line and never averaged so much as an attempt per game in any of his first four seasons.  This year, with an increased focus on making himself an outside threat, Ariza took 2.3 treys per game but hit 31.9 percent of them.  That doesn't scream sharp-shooter.  He didn't shoot as well as 35 percent from deep in any full calendar month for the 2008-09 campaign, and he finished the regular season with a miserable 3-for-16 mark across eight April contests.

But the playoffs have brought out a brand-new Ariza from behind the line.  He entered Game 2 against Denver checking in at 21-for-44 (47.7 percent) on threes in 13 playoff games.  With opponents focused on limiting Kobe Bryant's penetration and the Lakers' huge front line's opportunities inside, Ariza continued to get open looks from the outside and somehow started hitting them with far greater proficiency than ever before.  His confidence rose, too, as evidenced by his increase to launching 3.4 attempts per game in the postseason.

This brings us to last night, when the Nuggets started taking a more aggressive approach defensively after Ariza knocked down his first three-pointer in the first five minutes of the game.

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A Daily Babble Production

In evaluating the 2008-09 version of the Boston Celtics, it's worth remembering that this team didn't just have to defend a championship.  It had to follow up a season that came straight out of a storybook.

During the few times that the 2007-08 Celtics ran into adversity - mostly during those first two playoff rounds when they couldn't win a road game and had to go the distance to advance - I wondered a lot about how important it was for that team to win a championship.  Not a team during this star trio era but that particular group that season.  The thought came about because of the realization of just how hard it would be to follow up the sort of season that Celtics had enjoyed.

Last year's team wasn't merely great.  It was a great team that had just about everything go right, both inside and outside of its control.  From day one straight through the final romp of the Lakers on June 17, the stars, the role players and the coaching staff jelled as though they had played together for years.  There was not a single extensive chemistry or attitude problem that became publicly known over the course of the season.  No questions arose about effort levels because this team literally played harder than everybody else close to every single time out.

The 2007-08 Celtics won 66 regular season games and for the most part dominated those games.  They won 21 contests by margins of at least 20 points.  They posted an average point differential of plus-10.3 points per game.  Exactly zero other teams posted positive double-digit differentials over the decade prior.  All six games against the three Texas teams resulted in wins.  These are not normal occurrences. 

It didn't hurt that the Celtics enjoyed nearly impeccable health last season.  While Kevin Garnett went down for a couple of weeks, it happened at the perfect time (during the 'dead air' lull of mid-January into February), and he still played more than 70 games.  In fact, each of the Celtics' top eight players in average minutes played at least 70 games last season.  With the exception of the couple-week run without Garnett, this team was never without a single key rotation player for an extended period of time.

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A Daily Babble Production

Eastern Conference Finals: (1) Cleveland Cavaliers vs. (3) Orlando Magic

Congratulations to the Orlando Magic for knocking off our beloved then-defending champion Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Semifinals.  The Magic were only clearly outplayed in one game out of seven and earned the right to take on the Cleveland Cavaliers for the chance to represent the East in the 2009 NBA Finals.

But all signs point to this Orlando team finding itself in a situation over the next two weeks in which it is simply outclassed.

It wasn't by some accident that the Cavaliers won 66 games with an average margin of victory of nearly nine points per, or that they blew through the first two rounds of the playoffs without losing a game.  My understanding is that it has something to do with the fact that they are really, really good.

This begins of course with the league's top performer and newly crowned Most Valuable Player, LeBron James.  In case James' 28-7-7 regular season production wasn't enough, he averaged nearly a 33-10-7 over the first two rounds and did so on an incredibly efficient 64.4 percent true shooting.  Like most teams, the Magic don't have a defender singularly capable of doing much to prevent LBJ from getting to the lane or the foul line at will.  The fact that he is knocking down more than 36 percent of his threes in the postseason (including a 13-for-27 effort against Atlanta) is downright terrifying.  If James can continue to make defenses pay for pushing him to shoot from the outside (the only area from which they can afford to give him a shot at this point), there won't be much the Magic can do to stop him.

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A Daily Babble Production

Western Conference Finals: (1) Los Angeles Lakers vs. (2) Denver Nuggets

When the 2009 Western Conference Finals begin tonight at the Staples Center, they will include a team that I predicted would miss the playoffs back at season's start.

Seems like as good a time as ever for my Denver Nuggets-related mea culpa: In short, I said the Nuggets wouldn't be able to defend well after the loss of Marcus Camby and that they had too many knuckleheads to be effective in the long term, no matter how much offensive firepower those knuckleheads provided.

In fairness to me, the Nuggets made a drastic change to alter the course of their season in trading Allen Iverson for Chauncey Billups three games into the season.  But I still can't claim to have really comprehended at the time just how much of a difference the removal of one distraction and addition of the 2004 Finals MVP would make.

Billups returned to his hometown team and immediately took over as its leader.  The results were mind-blowing: Between the insertions of a defensive-minded point guard and the contributions of back-from-cancer center Nene Hilario, the Nuggets didn't miss a beat defensively, finishing eighth in defensive efficiency during the regular season.  It didn't hurt that with Billups setting the tone, Carmelo Anthony played with more intensity than ever before at that end.  Kenyon Martin and free agent signee Chris Andersen added rugged play on the interior as well, and Dahntay Jones helped out on the perimeter.

At the offensive end, the Nuggets continued to do plenty of running (sixth in the league in pace) and plenty of scoring (seventh in offensive efficiency).  It really is amazing just how much it means to have a sound decision-maker controlling the basketball.  Billups kept the ball moving and made sure Melo, Nene, J.R. Smith and others got their touches and buckets while making his share of big shots as well.

Credit George Karl for keeping his players on the same page all season and managing to make it through a year with Melo, Smith, Martin and Andersen with surprisingly few distractions.  Credit Billups for reshaping this team's personality, and score one for Mark Warkentien in the front office for pulling the trigger on the deal that brought him to town.  Finally, credit the rest of the crew for buying in throughout the season.

So that's my long-belated bit of lovin' for this Nuggets team.  The Nugs have earned it with a 54-win regular season, consistent effort at both ends of the floor and two rounds of playoff performances in which they absolutely dismantled New Orleans and Dallas.

But it seems to me that their pleasant surprise of a season has no more than two weeks remaining.

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A Daily Babble Production

Good morning, Celtics fans.  Feel free to add one more to your growing list of people to blame for the misery we endured last night: me.

From Sunday morning's Ten Truths About the Orlando Magic:

7.  Hedo Turkoglu is a fine offensive player mired in a two-rounds-long shooting slump.

Premature indeed.  Make that one round and six games (with a temporary exemption in the middle for his buzzer-beater to win Game 4 of the first round in Philadelphia).

That's because after averaging 14.8 points on a miserable 50.3 percent true shooting in the first six games of the conference semifinals, Hedo Turkoglu strolled in and murdered our beloved Celtics in Game 7 on their home floor last night.

He canned open three-pointers when the defense didn't rotate quickly enough.  He took another step behind the line and banged a deeper three-pointer when a defender did come out to challenge him outside.  When the Celtics did move him off the line, Turkoglu feasted on one-and-two-dribble pull-ups.  Those included a fantastic rim-rattling jumper from just beyond the right elbow with Paul Pierce practically inside his jersey.

When the Celtics collapsed on Turkoglu as he drove, he kicked the ball out and found teammates waiting to knock down open jumpers.  He passed up decent looks on the outside to make the extra pass to get a teammate an even better look, doing his part to contribute to Orlando's great ball movement for the evening.

If all that wasn't enough, it was Turkoglu who extinguished the 2008-09 Celtics' final gasp for air.  After the Celtics scored five in a row to cut the Magic's lead to 12 and force a timeout with 4:20 to play, Turkoglu responded with a contested top-of-the-circles three and a left-wing jumper on consecutive possessions to nail the coffin shut in Orlando's 101-82 win.

The box score line - 9-for-12 from the field, 4-for-5 on threes, 3-for-3 foul shooting, 25 points, 12 assists, plus-27 - tells the story rather accurately this time around: Hedo Turkoglu dominated Game 7 of Celtics-Magic.

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A Daily Babble Production

One of the bonuses of the NBA playoffs for fans is getting to know each playoff opponent more intimately than we did during the regular season.  Even for those who monitor the entire league over the breadth of the year, watching one's beloved team spend consecutive weeks focusing on playing and preparing for one squad (and thus reading, watching and perhaps even writing hours worth of speculative analysis) offers a new level of familiarity with the enemy du jour.

Tonight, for the fourth time in six series over the past two postseasons, the Celtics will take that relationship to its maximum length as they enter a decisive seventh game.  As we noted in a similar situation 15 days ago with the Chicago Bulls, by the time midnight comes around in the East, emotions, knee-jerkiness and revisionist history are all likely to be running hot no matter the outcome of tonight's contest.  So as we did with the Bulls in the first round, we present you today with ten parting thoughts on the team the Celtics will meet for the final time in the 2008-09 campaign tonight, the Orlando Magic:

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A Daily Babble Production

The first half of Game 6 of Celtics-Magic made me think there was a shot at having a three-day weekend to rest before making a visit to Cleveland on Monday night.  The second half proved analogous to watching a train wreck happen in slow motion.  We covered the Celtics' disastrously poor ball movement yesterday.  On we go to the rest of the ups and downs of Thursday's 83-75 loss:

• Much as it kills me to say this, Rafer Alston came up big down the stretch.  He picked off Paul pierce's forced pass to Rajon Rondo at the left elbow and then drained an open three at the other end to finish the play and put the Magic up two with four minutes left.  I'm happy to let him take big shots and fairly confident he won't make them most of the time, but he knocked down that one and then a runner in the lane to extend the lead to three in the final two minutes.  Well done.
• My proclamations of J.J. Redick snapping out of his shooting slump have been about as spot-on as my continued predictions of the Ray Allen blow-up game (which I still believe is coming).  Mark the former Duke star down for 3-for-25 over the last four games after an 0-for-7 showing in Game 6.  He even missed a free throw, his first brick of the postseason, after knocking down 81 of 93 regular season attempts.  Yeesh.

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A Daily Babble Production

In the process of jumping out to their biggest lead of Game 6 against the Magic, the Celtics sowed the seeds for the late-game demise that would give this series one more day of life.

When Stan Van Gundy called timeout four minutes into the second half of what would eventually be an 83-75 Orlando victory, the Celtics had extended a one-point recess lead to eight, and they would make it 10 shortly thereafter.  This sounds good.

But it happened primarily because the Magic clanged their first four free throws of the quarter, and Rashard Lewis and J.J. Redick missed on reasonable looks at the basket (a three and a lay-up attempt respectively) as the cold hosts went the first five minutes of the third quarter without a point.

What went on while the Celtics were extending the lead wasn't as promising as the scoreboard indicated.  Let's review the first six offensive possessions of the second half:

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A Daily Babble Production

Dwight Howard is an effective offensive player with significant holes in his game.

Howard set off a mini-firestorm by calling out coach Stan Van Gundy for not getting him enough touches down the stretch of the Magic's Game 5 fourth-quarter collapse against the Celtics.  ESPN's John Hollinger did a fine job of calling out Howard in turn for abusing the phrase "dominant player."  He couldn't be more right.

Howard's flaws at the offensive end are many.  The five-year vet still doesn't have much in the way of touch around the rim.  Unless he is dunking, he doesn't look smooth or comfortable finishing, even baby hooks and box jumpers.

Away from the bucket, he really runs into trouble.  Though he has abnormal speed for a man his size, Howard has yet to develop a face-up game away from the basket to utilize that quickness.  He isn't a threat to catch the ball several feet from the hoop and swoop by his man.  D12 also has nothing in the way of a mid-range arsenal, ala the 15-footer that Al Jefferson has been working on over the past couple of seasons.  Only 155 of his 979 field-goal attempts for the season came from much outside the restricted area.  The running hook he employs from the middle of the paint can hardly be considered a viable scoring threat.

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A Daily Babble Production

The Celtics' 92-88 Game 5 win over the Orlando Magic didn't feature a lot of pretty basketball.  The good guys' basket seemed to be roughly the size of a keyhole for most of the contest.  The fouls and jumping at head-fakes on both sides weren't attractive.  The Magic's offensive execution (aided by a suddenly awakened Celtics defense) down the stretch was downright grisly. 

With each new win in the 2009 playoffs for a Celtics team playing without its Hall-of-Famer-to-be defensive leader as well as a key reserve big man, this group gives us more reason to be proud of the size of its heart and level of its determination.  That makes it all the more fitting that the Celtics clinched this game thanks in no small part to the way they fought for loose balls in the waning moments.

Rebounding a basketball is a test of will.  It's about using one's body against another's to fight for the best position possible and then chasing down the orange sphere as it comes off the rim.  Rebounding is work.

More than at any other point, with one minute remaining in Game 5, the Celtics went to work.

After Rafer Alston missed a three-pointer with the Celtics ahead by one, Rajon Rondo outraced two blue jerseys to the left corner, tracked the ball down and had the presence of mind to heave it off Dwight Howard and out of bounds before stepping off the court himself.  This gave the Celtics their first possession with the lead since midway through the first quarter.

The Celtics followed that Rondo save with a putrid possession that ended with Rondo flinging up a three-pointer from a step behind the line as the shot clock expired.  Whether the ball actually hit the rim remains up for debate, but when it came down, it was Kendrick Perkins who found himself positioned all alone under the basket to corral the board as the buzzer sounded. This gave the Celtics a chance to retain possession while the referees debated overturning the initial call of a shot clock violation.  They did.  Celtics ball.

Another 24 seconds of unproductive ball control later, Ray Allen got off a rushed turnaround that hit the rim without question.  While Dwight Howard failed to adequately box out, Perk rushed in from the right block and back-tapped the ball out to the perimeter.  Paul Pierce tracked it down outside the three-point circle and drew the Magic's final foul to give.

Despite two horrendous sets with the ball, two offensive rebounds allowed the Celtics to manage to get from the one-minute mark to resetting with the shot clock off and a one-point lead while never relinquishing possession.  As a result, the Magic would not get another possession with the Celtics' leading by less than three.

Finally, with Dwight Howard shooting his second free throw after making the first to cut the lead to two, the Infuriated Infant took care of business.  Without any timeouts, the Magic needed an intentional miss and a putback to tie the game in the final five seconds.  Glen Davis came across the lane to clear out Marcin Gortat and another blue shirt as he secured the rebound and drew a foul.  Two shots later, the Celts led by four and were headed to a 3-2 series lead.

With the game on the line, the green refused to be denied the basketball.  Or the win.

Ugly feels awfully good right about now.

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A Daily Babble Production

Though the Terrifying Toddler's last-second heroics and season-long development earned the nod as order of the day at the Daily Babble on Monday, Game 4 of Celtics-Magic left plenty more to discuss.  Let's get right to it.

• Rajon Rondo continues to look electric at times and baffling at others.  The 6-foot-1 wisp dominated the glass again with 14 rebounds, and he finished with a sneaky 21 points, getting in the lane for a few of his hallmark scoop righty lay-ups on the left side and even hitting a few jumpers.  But he also took at least four jumpers with nine seconds or more remaining on the shot clock, which isn't the type of shot selection this team needs. 
  
• At the defensive end, while the Magic's point guards combined for a putrid shooting night, I still don't understand Rondo's issues with regard to keeping his man in front of him.  On one particularly disgusting play, Rondo simply watched as Anthony Johnson blew by him, settling for swiping at the ball from behind and missing, which led to a Johnson lay-in  Rondo has more of an excuse for the following play (another Johnson lay-up) because he was screened, though he certainly didn't kill himself trying to get around the pick.  The first one, however, was downright awful defense.  I normally wouldn't nitpick quite so much about one play, but this is something we're seeing with regularity of late.
• Loved watching the Captain aaaaaaaand The Truth heat up midway through and then run the offense in the third quarter.  Before he picked up his fourth foul at the 4:16 mark of the third, the Celtics had scored on seven of their previous nine possessions, totaling 15 points in that span.  The captain hit a couple of vintage PP wing jumpers (including a step-back, draw-contact, knock-it-down bucket against Hedo Turkoglu), hit a three from the parking lot and made several good passes.  His best read of the game didn't even result in a Celtics bucket: From outside the circles out near the right wing, Pierce skipped an overhead pass across the floor to an open Ray Allen in the left corner after watching Allen drift behind a screen.  Ray didn't hit the shot, but it was a good look and an unselfish decision from the guy who had scored six of the Celts' last eight points at the time.
• Eh, perhaps that pass to Ray was only Pierce's second best.  He found some oversized toddler off a screen roll late in the game.  That worked out rather well.
  

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A Daily Babble Production

That loss to the Lakers paid its biggest dividend yet last night in Orlando.

Back on February 5, the Celtics suffered perhaps their most painful loss of the regular season, a 110-109 overtime decision to the purple and gold.  In that game, the Nasty Newborn shot just 1-for-8 from the field, missing six of his seven shots outside the paint.  Four of those attempts came in the final 90 seconds of the fourth quarter and beyond.

Glen Davis was on the court that late in the game due to Kevin Garnett fouling out and what some considered Doc Rivers' curious decision to go away from Leon Powe, who had played effectively off the bench that night.  Baby missing jumper after jumper proved a sight for sore eyes.

But as I wrote three days later, there was a method to the coaching decision, and it offered a major sign for encouragement. 

Early this season, there was hardly a shot I wanted to see less from the Celtics than Big Baby Davis shooting a mid-range jumper (save for perhaps Perk from 40 feet).  He came out shooting to start the 2008-09 campaign and shooting badly at that.  At one particularly low point before the turn of the calendar, Davis had posted an effective field goal mark of less than 24 percent on his jumpers for the season.  I complained that he was forcing shots that he didn't need to be taking on this team and was hurting the productivity of the bench in the process. 

Oh, what little I knew about what was to come.

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Boxed Out: A weekly look at statistical oddities around the NBA

We've finally reached the point in the season at which the calendar thins out just a bit too much to make goofing around with box scores grounds for a full-length feature each week.  So we present to you today the 2008-09 regular season's final edition of Boxed Out.

Dwight Howard, Monday at Boston: 6-for-12 from the field, 4-for-5 foul shooting, 16 points, 22 rebounds, 3 blocks

And he really didn't dominate that night.  Scary thought.

Lamar Odom, Monday versus Houston: 4-for-8 from the field, 1-for-6 foul shooting, 9 points, 5 rebounds

As LO goes, so go the Lakers?

Joe Smith, Tuesday versus Atlanta: 20 minutes, 0-for-4 from the field, 0 points, 2 rebounds, 3 fouls, plus-20

That's known as being in a good situation.

Nene, Tuesday versus Dallas: 8-for-12 from the field, 9-for-13 foul shooting, 25 points, 8 rebounds

Had his own personal playoff coming-out party early in this series.

Eddie House, Wednesday versus Orlando: 11-for-14 from the field, 4-for-4 on threes, 5-for-6 foul shooting, 31 points

Eddie Mansion.  Eddie Money.  Celtics win.

Carl Landry, Wednesday at LA Lakers: 7-for-9 from the field, 7-for-13 foul shooting, 21 points, 10 rebounds, 0 ejections

Not being ejected might have been the real achievement in this particular game.

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A Daily Babble Production

The heretofore unsung key to the Boston Celtics' first championship in 22 years did not play a minute in the 2008 playoffs.  In fact, her career resume features a total of zero NBA games played.

But to slightly edit something Michael Lewis wrote about the Rockets' Shane Battier earlier this season, when Mama Weinman watches the Celtics, they seem to acquire some magical ability to win.

To my knowledge, Mother of Son of The Guru only watched the Celts twice back in 2006-07, attending a win in New York in November and then a miserable loss to the Clippers in December of that campaign.  While .500 isn't championship-level basketball, it's a world better than the .288 clip at which the Celts played when not under the watchful eye of MoSoTG in that miserable 24-58 season.

Fast forward to last season.  With the Celtics fielding a more competent cast on the court, Mama Weinman began to really bring her A-game from the living room.

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A Daily Babble Production

The Boston Celtics put on a reprehensible defensive display last night in Orlando.

The numbers are ugly enough: The Celts allowed the Magic to shoot 59 percent from the field and 50 percent from the three-point while sending the home folks to the foul line 36 times.  But this went beyond good execution and shooting from the Magic (who deserve plenty of credit on those two fronts) in Orlando's 117-96 Game 3 victory.

On every imaginable defensive concept, the Celtics appeared clueless.  Guards - in particular one point guard heralded for his defense - did not keep ball-handlers in front of them.  Bigs were forced to decide between a rock and a hard place on penetrate-and-kick sets and often chose standing in the middle.  For as good as he has been of late, Brian Scalabrine found himself entirely over-matched by both Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu for the night.  Nobody could avoid picking up silly fouls.

I can't remember the last game when I walked away thinking about so many specific plays standing out as utter defensive embarrassments.  These were the sorts of moments that epitomized the Celtics' night at that end of the floor:

With nine seconds remaining in the first half, Eddie House hits a three to cut the Magic lead to 10.  Rajon Rondo proceeds to let Tyronn Lue - playing his first minute of the postseason - take an unobstructed path to just outside the left elbow for a wide-open 20-footer to end the half.

Early in the second half, Dwight Howard extends the Orlando lead to 15 with an uncontested dunk from the left block.  This happens because Kendrick Perkins leaves Howard to commit to stopping Anthony Johnson's penetration through the middle of the lane.  The replay shows that happens because rather than playing defense with his feet, Rondo allows Johnson to beat him and settles for swiping for a steal from behind and hanging his center out to dry in the process.

In the opening minute of the fourth quarter, the Infuriated Infant picks up his fourth foul on an acrobatic Hedo Turkoglu lay-in and lands in a heap on top of Turkoglu.  This is facilitated by Turkoglu blowing past Paul Pierce at the right elbow.

The Infant sloughs off Rashard Lewis in the left corner on penetration by an Orlando guard.  Problem is, Glen Davis gives Lewis enough space that he won't be able to get back and contest a shot effectively while also only going halfway on his commitment to stopping the ball.  Lewis makes an easy catch and drains a three.

After the Celtics cut a 20-point deficit down to eight, Kendrick Perkins gives the Magic two foul shots and an extra possession with an away-from-the-ball elbow up high on Mickael Pietrus.  Flagrant foul.

Ray Allen allows Courtney Lee 15 feet of space in the right corner and stands and watches as Lee drains an open three.

All of those plays don't even include the aforementioned manhandling of Scal, who just couldn't stay with Lewis and couldn't keep Turkoglu from shooting over him.

Those moments were the standout lowlights, but the Celtics submitted a nearly wire-to-wire awful defensive performance.  That needs to not happen again on Sunday.

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A Daily Babble Production

With Rafer Alston suspended for his slap to Eddie House's head and Courtney Lee expected to return from a sinus fracture, the Celtics will see a rather different Magic team than they did earlier in the week as their series with Orlando shifts to Amway Arena tonight.

My longtime personal distaste for Alston's game led me to joke on Thursday about whether a suspension would even benefit the Celts.  But given the better-than-I-expected job Alston did upon stepping in at midseason for the Magic, it would be a bit disingenuous to suggest that the suspension shouldn't make the green's task of reclaiming homecourt advantage with a road win at least a bit easier.

But that doesn't mean it will be a cake walk.  In addition to the omnipresent concerns posed by Dwight Howard, Rashard Lewis, Hedo Turkoglu and the rest of the incumbent presences on the floor for Orlando, Johnson and Lee both merit attention as well.

At the offensive end, Johnson adds another body that the Celtics will have to stay near on the perimeter.  While he shoots just 35.7 percent from deep for his career compared to Alston's 35.4, Johnson has shot the ball particularly well from the outsside over the last two seasons (45.2 percent last year, 39.1 this year) while Alston has struggled (35.1 percent last season, 33.8 for the 2008-09 season, 31.7 percent with Orlando).  Johnson has made only five of 16 tries in this postseason so far, but that's a fairly small sample size.  Whereas I've advocated allowing and perhaps even encouraging Alston to bomb away from the outside, Johnson standing alone on the perimeter makes me leery.

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A Daily Babble Production

Sometimes, it's this simple: When point guards penetrate with their heads up, big men screen and roll and shooters drift to open spaces, good looks start coming with regularity.  When they do, it's no shock that baskets tend to follow.

While Eddie House stole the show with his 31 points on red-hot 11-for-14 shooting, the Celtics' 60 percent true shooting as a team in last night's 112-94 Game 2 rout of the Magic came courtesy of cohesive offensive play from the Celtics as a unit throughout the evening.

As has been proven time and again to be the case with this team, it began with Rajon Rondo, who asserted himself from the start.  Rondo took advantage of his speed edge over Rafer Alston and Anthony Johnson and went to the paint with abandon, forcing help from Orlando's interior defenders.  While I could do without some of the floater business in traffic and a couple of earlier-in-the-shot-clock-than-necessary jumpers from him, Raj for the most struck the balance between attacking and maintaining patience.  He took the ball to the lane aggressively but also let the floor open up for him, waiting for the second defender to get just close enough to him to be fully committed before dumping the ball off inside or swinging it back out for a three.

The bigs, Kendrick Perkins and the Infuriated Infant in particular, did exactly what was needed to both help the outside shooters and make themselves available for easy looks inside.  Perk and Large Baby screened hard and for the most part legally enough (the Celts totaled just two offensive fouls for the night) both on the ball and off, and they rolled off those picks into beelines for the bucket.  On several occasions in the first half, Dwight Howard or a Magic forward stepped up to stop penetration only to watch as Perk or Davis cruised in to make a catch for an uncontested lay-up or dunk.

On the perimeter, the shooters found the holes.  As much deserved credit as Eddie House gets for his quick release shot, I can't help but reiterate that he is one of the best around at drifting.  He moves fluidly off the ball into pockets in the defense along the wings and in the corners, and he is especially good at fading off screens to catch a cross-court pass for a three.  On the rare occasion that Eddie wasn't knocking down yet another shot, Brian Scalabrine found his own spots around the perimeter for two threes and a foot-on-the-line two on four field-goal attempts.

Meanwhile, Ray Allen holds an annual battle with Rip Hamilton for what should be called the Reggie Miller Memorial Award, given to the guard who does the best job of moving without the ball.  On one play in the second quarter, Allen sprinted from the right corner to the right wing, only to find that he hadn't shaken J.J. Redick.  The rest of the play seemed to develop in slow motion on my television set.  Allen casually jogged back down toward the corner as Perk headed over to set his large frame just below the wing.  Without warning, Allen put on a burst and raced back toward the top, running right off Perk's hip and leaving Redick in for what I would imagine was some unpleasant contact.  As Ray curled, Rondo's chest pass arrived in his hands for a three-pointer in rhythm, just the type of look the Celtics will happily take any time.  Count it.

The patience remained throughout, as the Celtics constantly seemed willing to make the extra pass.  When the Magic pressured Allen off the three-point line, he left his feet for an elbow jumper but realized he had an open Rondo opposite him on the right wing as he did.  He dished the ball, cut through the lane, got the rock back and laid it in.  When Reggie Miller criticized Stephon Marbury for not taking a relatively open three-pointer on another set in the second quarter, I found it hard to hammer Steph, since he passed the ball off to Ray for an even more open look.  Allen missed, but again, the Celts will live with that shot.

Not every shot was perfect (nor is it fair to expect that to be the case), and it didn't hurt the scoring cause that Kendrick Perkins had a couple of no-no-yes "operator" shots fall as well.  But particularly on a night when they played without go-to guy Paul Pierce through much of the first three quarters thanks to foul trouble, the Celtics' crisp ball movement played an integral role in preventing any doubts about Game 2's outcome.

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A Daily Babble Production

Clarification: In the event that the Magic and Celtics can avoid the eruption of complete chaos on the New Garden floor tonight, nobody will actually be fighting Dwight Howard.  The rhyming nature of fight-a-Dwight just makes it fun to write.  I am wondering, however, if Doc Rivers will look to send Dwight Howard to the foul line more often in Game 2, particularly through the use of Mikki Moore.

I wrote heading into the series on Monday that I expected to see an expanded role for Mikki Moore against Orlando over his minutes last round versus the Bulls simply out of the necessity caused by Howard's presence.  The Celtics have only four available players who possess something even close to the size or style needed to play Howard for even short stretches: Kendrick Perkins, the Infuriated Infant, Brian Scalabrine and Moore.  As the worst defender (and overall player) of the bunch, Moore is the last option of those four - but he remains an option with six fouls to give.  Against the player who led the league in free throw attempts over each of the last two seasons and is currently doing the same this postseason, the Celtics will need all the bodies they can use.

Monday night's game presented a couple of situations that may prove more the exception than the rule for this series.  Kendrick Perkins, who defended D-12 well, did a fine job of staying out of foul trouble.  He picked up only three for the game, which allowed him to stay on the floor for 36 minutes.  The Celtics also avoided foul trouble from a team standpoint for the most part.  They did not wind up in the penalty in the first quarter, didn't pick up their fourth team foul until the final 10 seconds of the third quarter and didn't use their last foul to give until the final minute of the fourth quarter.

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A Daily Babble Production

Last night's second round opener between the Magic and Celtics featured a lot that didn't make me happy.  But in addition to leaving Applebee's (the only restaurant around here with tabletop audio) peeved about a 95-90 loss and the host of reasons it happened, I walked away thrilled yet again with the play of one Brian Scalabrine.

It's hard to believe that a year ago, this guy's best asset appeared to be his knack for the wildly entertaining celebratory press conference after earning a DNP-CD.  It's nearly as hard to believe that three weeks ago, he continued to suffer the effects of post-concussion syndrome.  Yet Scal gave the Celtics his third consecutive big effort off the bench last night, and this one was the best of the bunch.

The beginning of the Celtics' run to turn a 28-point rout back into a basketball game coincided with Scalabrine's arrival on the floor with eight and a half minutes to play in the third quarter.  This was not accidental.  After he had trouble defending Rashard Lewis in the first half, Scalabrine was assigned to guard Hedo Turkoglu for much of his second half stint.  He responded by doing the best job playing defense with his feet that I can remember from him.

When the Magic began featuring Turkoglu as the point forward (and thus primary ball-handler), Scalabrine picked him up before halfcourt and ragged him all the way up the floor.  He stayed low in his defensive stance and slid his feet exactly the way coaches teach their players at every level of this game across the globe.  Defying his quickness deficiencies, Scal kept Turkoglu in front of him but managed to stay close enough to prevent him from using his hallmark jab-step-and-back move to create space on the perimeter.  The Magic forward made exactly one field-goal over the game's final 20 minutes and just four trips to the line (he only converted one of those free throws).  The redhead deserves plenty of credit for that as well as for doing a better job on Lewis the second time around.

At the other end, Scal did his part to help stretch the floor for his team.  In the first half, he ball-faked in the right corner and drove to the bucket for an awkward looking floater that fell in.  He posted eight more points in the fourth quarter, when he nailed two threes off kickouts and then drew a foul on an up-fake with his foot on the three-point line.

The redhead wrapped up Hedo Turkoglu to prevent a fast break, grabbed an offensive rebound and fought for position on another before realizing that the ball was headed out of bounds off an Orlando player.  That's savvy basketball.

Scal's play was far from perfect, as he committed a dopey turnover and a bad foul to allow Dwight Howard a three-point play on an offensive rebound late in the game.  Again, his lack of quickness or ball-handling ability are still realities of his play.  We're still a long way from me being able to say that he makes me forget about the fellow who waltzed down to Mardi Gras in New Orleans last summer.  But the fact that the Celtics rolled up a plus-22 differential with him in the game last night was more than incidental correlation. 

Brian Scalabrine is doing a heckuva job for a final-eight playoff team right now, and that's no joke.

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A Daily Babble Production

With Sunday afternoon's double-header featuring the Hawks shellacking the Heat and the Nuggets putting down the Mavericks, the 2009 NBA Playoffs officially made their transition from round one to two.  This, of course, means we're due for another round of misguided predictions (though six for eight in the first round actually topped last year's five correct guesses).  To the conference semifinal matchups we go...

Western Conference

(2) Denver Nuggets vs. (6) Dallas Mavericks

Both of these squads come off decisive first-round victories.  The Mavs took out a depleted Spurs team that could never seem to get more than two guys playing well at once, and the Nuggets annihilated a Hornets squad that appeared to quit midway through the series. 

There has been some talk about Denver being a good match-up for the Mavs because Chauncey Billups plays a physical style that won't prove as poisonous to the Dallas defense as matching up with speedier guards did during the season.  While Jason Kidd did plenty of good work for the Mavs this season, his advancing age and declining body played a role in the fact that fleet-footed penetrating guards such as Chris Paul, Tony Parker, Rajon Rondo and Devin Harris shredded the Mavs this year.  Conventional wisdom says that Billups's reliance on strength, his post-up game and savvy play on the perimeter should offer Kidd a better chance to defend him simply by returning the physicality and thus avoiding a track meet.

Here's the problem with this line of thinking: Billups isn't just playing his style well right now; he's running the point as effectively as any guard in the league.  He torched the Hornets for 65.5 percent shooting from beyond the arc and a bonkers 73.6 percent true shooting mark en route to 22 points and more than seven assists per game.  While the Mavs kept him in check on Sunday (2-for-8 shooting, six assists, four turnovers), that's more likely to be the exception than the rule.  Billups still has enough speed to get in the lane and be effective there, and if he remains hot from the outside, the Mavs won't be able to afford giving him any space on the perimeter.

On the flip side, Billups has the advantage of playing with the man at the center of one of the developing unsung stories of the playoffs: Dahntay Jones.  Jones' stout defensive play allowed the Nuggets to cross-match throughout the New Orleans series to prevent Billups from having to spend energy chasing Chris Paul around.  That option will likely be available to Denver again if George Karl wants to keep Billups off Kidd. 

The rest of these two teams' lineups create several equally compelling match-ups: Having a healthy Josh Howard made a huge difference for the Mavs in round one, as he posted a 62 percent true shooting while averaging nearly 19 points per game.  He is also one of the few players in the league with the physique to offer Carmelo Anthony significant trouble, but Melo blew up at the end of Game 1 with 14 fourth-quarter points.  Howard is the better defender of the two, but the guess here is that Melo's elite-level offensive game is too much.

We'll see an interesting clash of finesse and brute force as Dirk Nowitzki battles Kenyon Martin at the four, and both teams have conscience-free bench bombers in Jason Terry and J.R. Smith.

With all the firepower involved on both sides, this is going to come down to which team makes the stronger commitment to the defensive end.  The Nuggets have done it all year, finishing eighth in defensive efficiency (Dallas was 17th), and Billups' leadership along with the emergence of Nene and Jones, increased effort from Anthony and the addition of reserve Chris Andersen have all played big roles in that department.  The Nuggets took all four games from Dallas this season and strangled New Orleans in round one, and I've got little reason to believe they won't take care of business again this time around.

The pick: Nuggets in six

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Boxed Out: A weekly look at statistical oddities around the NBA

The New Orleans Hornets and Philadelphia 76ers humiliated themselves in front of their fan bases this week.  They earned the anti-hero roles for this week's Boxed Out.

Zaza Pachulia, Monday at Miami: 12 points, 18 rebounds, plus-20

High on the list of players who annoy me for no real reason.  Doesn't change the fact that this was a fine performance off the bench.

James Jones, Monday versus Atlanta: 4-for-5 from the field, 3-for-4 on threes, 8-for-9 foul shooting, 19 points

That includes two four-point plays in a span of 11 seconds.

New Orleans Hornets, Monday versus Denver: 17 made field goals, 23 personal fouls, 27 turnovers

This team came as close as possible to not doing a single thing right in an epic 58-point home loss.  Way to quit on your coach, your fans and yourselves.  Ty Chandler led the Hornets with a minus-16, and Rasual Butler's minus-18 was the only other plus-minus rating better than minus-20 on the squad.

Lamar Odom, Monday versus Utah: 10-for-15 from the field, 26 points, 15 rebounds

He dominated that series.

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