SBNation.com User Blog: evansclinchy

The Great Unanswerable Question: What Does The Future Hold For These Celtics?

evansclinchy — Sat, 04 May 2013 03:39:47 -0000

All right, simple question -- what now? Where do we go from here?

Just kidding. That's not a simple question at all. Not in the slightest. The Celtics have a long, difficult summer of soul-searching ahead of them. They were just eliminated from the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs in six games, and there are legitimate questions about what this team and its two aging leaders have left for the future.

Will Paul Pierce retire this summer? Will Kevin Garnett? Will Doc Rivers be back to coach Pierce, KG and the rest of the guys? Right now, we have a lot of questions and not many answers. Here's what the guys had to say tonight, in the wake of their season-ending 88-80 loss at the hands of the New York Knicks.

Pierce on his future: "I definitely expect to be playing next year."

Pierce on the team's future: "That's up to Danny [Ainge] now. I have no idea. It's a decision for the management. Who knows what the future will bring? I've been here 15 years, and I've seen a lot of changes every single year. I'm sure there are going to be a lot of changes here."

Garnett on his future: "I haven't really thought about it, to be honest with you. I'm still kind of digesting. Doc pulled Paul and me aside and all three of us agreed to talk later. We just had a big game, a tough loss, especially at home. There's a different day for that conversation."

Garnett on what will influence his decision: "One of the big reasons I came here was because of Paul. I want to always be able to help the team, not only physically but from a skill level standpoint, but I'd be lying if I said Paul didn't play into it as a factor. But it's too soon for that conversation for me right now."

Doc on Garnett: "Kevin limped into the playoffs and then played, and he was unbelievable. He's as tough of a guy and as tough of a competitor as I've ever been around. He was rebounding and just doing everything for this team. I really didn't want him to go out that way on our court. I just didn't want it. Obviously we lost to a better team, but for him in particular, I just didn't want him to go out that way. But he's a winner. He's the best I've seen."

Doc on Pierce: "He's one of the greatest Celtics to ever play. He's done so much for this franchise, Paul has. We live in a time when guys are changing teams like socks, and Paul has chosen to stay here throughout his career when clearly, he had every right to leave. I have so much respect for him for that. When I first got here, we were really rebuilding. I remember telling him we were going to change our team, and things wouldn't go well for a year or two. And they didn't, but Paul never wavered. I give him an amazing amount of respect. He wanted to get it done here. I hope he's remembered for that. And I hope he comes back. But I just don't know anything right now."

Doc on his own future: "I don't know that right now. I can't make that decision. I'm under contract, but we'll see. I honestly can't think about that right now. I don't know. I [reevaluate] every year. If I had to tell you right now? I'm coming back. But I need to detox and then we'll find that out later."

Jeff Green on the team as a whole: "If I had a wish, everybody would be back and healthy. The way we started. Everybody healthy. Oh, man. We battled all season with injuries, guys getting hurt, guys being in and out of the lineup. A lot of adversity we played through. But if I had one wish for next year, it's everybody back and healthy, we have our full roster."

There you have it. Take a few minutes and look it over. Read, reread, digest, process.

Now what do you think? What does the future hold for this team?

Prideful Celtics Refuse To Lose Game 4, Live To Fight Another Day

evansclinchy — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 18:24:04 -0000

They told us this Celtic team was dead.

They told us these C's had no fight left in them after months of trying to persevere without Rajon Rondo. They said the end of the Kevin Garnett era was inevitable, and it was coming sooner rather than later. They dismissed the notion that this team had the never-say-die spirit of Kevin Millar and the "Cowboy Up" Red Sox of nine years ago.

That's what the skeptics said about these Celtics. And let's be honest -- they were probably right. But at least for one beautiful Sunday afternoon, the C's showed some life before the TD Garden crowd, surviving to fight another day against the New York Knicks in the Eastern Conference playoffs. They may only be prolonging the inevitable, but for now, Boston is still alive.

"This is a big one for us, obviously," said Jeff Green, who contributed 26 points and six rebounds to the Celtics' dramatic overtime win. "Now we have nothing to lose. All the pressure's on them to win a game. We're just going to keep doing what we're doing."

The Celtics strolled into the TD Garden this morning remarkably cool and collected for a team that was facing elimination after three straight losses. This group has been through a lot of adversity together -- never a 3-0 deficit, mind you, but adversity nonetheless -- and they know how to respond. Most teams on the brink of death look either totally demoralized or they look psyched out, too emotionally worked up to focus. The Celtics were neither.

The C's played a comfortable pace to open the game, moving the ball with ease and finding makable shots. Avery Bradley, Paul Pierce and Jeff Green all connected on smooth jumpers in the opening minutes, and before long Boston had burst to an 18-9 lead. That edge became 42-28 after a long New York drought in the second quarter, and 59-39 when Jeff Green connected on a 3 from the left corner with 9:25 left in the third.

This lead never felt comfortable, though, and it wasn't. Raymond Felton singlehandedly outscored the Celtics in the third quarter, and New York came roaring back, tying the game late and forcing overtime. It wasn't until Jason Terry caught fire, rattling off nine points in the game's final 1:31, that the Celtics prevailed.

It was a breakout game for Terry, who ironically was removed from the starting lineup this morning and gave his best performance of the playoffs to date, scoring 18 points on an efficient 7-for-10 shooting clip. Terry's been on the losing end of plenty of playoff battles in his career, and he didn't want to go down without a fight today.

"This is the first time we really came out with fire in our eyes," Terry said. "I guess that's because it's elimination. Every game from here on out is Game 7 for us."

In Game 3 of this series, Terry made headlines by taking a hard elbow to the face from J.R. Smith, leading to the Knicks guard's suspension for Game 4. On Sunday, though, he stole the show in his own right.

"Who knows? Maybe that elbow changed events for all of us," speculated coach Doc Rivers. "Jason was definitely angry that it happened. He let his teammates know it, both yesterday and today. As I've said before, he's just a fighter. He's one of those guys you want around your team."

The Celtics won this game for a lot of reasons, not just Terry's clutch shots. They won because Pierce and Green shouldered the burden of impossibly heavy minutes (50 for the former, 48 for the latter) and both emerged with big scoring outbreaks for a team that desperately needed them. They won because Kevin Garnett gave another Herculean performance in the paint, muscling up against Tyson Chandler and willing his way to another 17 rebounds. It also didn't hurt that Brandon Bass gave his best defensive effort of the season against Carmelo Anthony.

"We want to survive and continue to play," Garnett said. "That's what it is. This is the position we've put ourselves in. If we want to continue to play, we've got to continue to work. It's all out right now.

"Today we fought for another day," he added. "We'll do the same Wednesday."

How long can this Celtic team keep fighting? Perhaps not too much longer. But they have too much pride to go down easy.

Celtics Looking Brutally Outclassed By Knicks, Nearing Elimination

evansclinchy — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 04:43:52 -0000

Even in this position, overmatched and outclassed and pretty much utterly humiliated after three not-even-close losses against the asecendent New York Knicks, Kevin Garnett is still good or an inspirational quote or two. If you've been watching The Big Ticket throughout his six years here, you've come to expect some quality quipping from the man. It's what he does.

Tonight was no different.

"I'm going to play 'til it's over," Garnett said tonight, looking ahead to a Game 4 showdown with the Knicks on Sunday that may very well be his season finale. "I'm not easily broken. That's always been my mentality, and it probably always will be. I've been to the bottom before. I know what it is. I'm a fighter at the end of the day."

It's true -- Garnett has been to the bottom before, or at least mighty close to it. No doubt, he still remembers the spring of 2007, when his Minnesota Timberwolves closed out the season with seven straight losses and finished 32-50, 13th place in the Western Conference, hopelessly removed from contention. At that moment, he was beaten down and irrelevant, wondering if his career was going to waste in the Twin Cities.

The Wolves traded him to Boston that summer, he won a championship right away, and he's since rattled off five more playoff seasons with a Celtic nucleus of Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, Rajon Rondo and Doc Rivers. No matter what happens from here on out, he's accomplished a lot in Boston, and no one can take that away from him.

So Garnett has some perspective when he looks back on the Celtics' dismal performance this spring. But let's be honest: This still hurts.

The Celtics got completely wiped out by the Knicks in Game 3 tonight, falling behind early thanks to yet another absolutely dreadful offensive half (31 points in quarters one and two). They lost by a 90-76 final that wasn't nearly as close as the final score indicated, a game that had most of the TD Garden faithful walking out midway through the fourth quarter.

The Knicks are outplaying Boston in every aspect of the game. For Garnett, who's always been prideful, that's a difficult pill to swallow.

"When a team's making shots and executing and playing very well, that can kill your spirit," he admitted. "If you gaven't been here and you haven't been experienced playoff play and learned to understand it, those are times you have to band together, you have to take some punches. Tonight we took some, but we didn't really give any back. When we messed up, they made us pay for it. Good teams are going to do that."

The Knicks have certainly earned the Celtics' respect in these last three games. But they've done more than that -- they've utterly shocked the C's. Floored them. The Celtics are a confident group, and they came into this series expecting a competitive grudge match with their New York rivals, No. 7 seed be damned. The idea of being swept never crossed their minds.

But the Knicks, led by 96 points from Carmelo Anthony and an incredibly stifling defense, have exposed Boston in every conceivable way. Since January 7, the infamous night that Garnett's Celtics beat Anthony's Knicks and KG invoked breakfast cereals in similes, New York has won six straight meetings with Boston by a combined 74 points.

"I'm definitely surprised," Paul Pierce said. "I thought we were a team that matched up well with the Knicks. I thought we played them pretty well throughout the season, but we lost a couple close ones. I didn't expect us to come in like this. I thought this would probably be a long series, given the way we matched up. I really am surprised that we're down 0-3 right now."

The Celtics can say whatever they want. They can make excuses about officials, they can point out they're missing Rajon Rondo, they can say it's a fluky matter of shots rimming in and out. They can use any spin they choose. But the bottom line is they're down 3-0, and they'd have to make NBA history to survive from here to round two.

"When you're down 3-0, it's a simple message: You've got to win the next one," Doc Rivers said. "It's that simple. That's where it starts."

Rivers admits that his team lost a little bit of its competitive spirit late in this game. They were making countless mistakes, and the Knicks were capitalizing on every one of them without fail, and you could see it in the Celtics' body language that they lacked the fortitude to mount a comeback.

They'll sleep that sentiment off, at least partially. But they'll be back in this building Sunday morning, and it remains to be seen whether they'll be able to muster the confidence to win one game, let alone four.

We've never seen the Celtics quite like this. They appear to be in way over their heads.

At this point, there's absolutely zero reason to believe the Celtics can overcome the deficit facing them. But for what it's worth, they're going to try.

"That's what it is," Garnett said. "It's all out. Nothing left but to leave it out there on the floor. That's where we're at."

That attitude is pretty much all they have left.

Down 2-0, Are The Celtics Dead In Round One? Of Course Not

evansclinchy — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 04:12:57 -0000

By now you probably already know the numbers, and you're well aware that from the Celtics' perspective, they're not pretty. The old adage that "a series doesn't start until the home team loses" is complete poppycock -- a series is very, very much underway by the time one team's up 2-0, and in fact, it's darned close to over.

In NBA history, only 15 teams have ever come back from an 0-2 deficit to win a playoff series. Oklahoma City roared back against the once-unbeatable Spurs in the West finals last spring to become the 15th; the Celtics tried to be the 16th against Miami in the East, even going up 3-2 at one point, but ultimately fell short.

It doesn't matter whether you're at home, on the road or on Neptune. Coming back from 0-2 is insanely tough.

So are the Celtics dead, then? They might have one foot in the grave already (and probably a sprained ankle attached to it), but the C's are returning home to the TD Garden for Game 3 tonight, and with a win, they can make this a series again.

It's hard to be optimistic, given how dreadfully the first two games of this series went, but let's dig deep. Here are 10 reasons the Celtics aren't quite done.

1. This is the Knicks we're talking about.
The Knicks still haven't won a playoff series, nor have they won a single playoff game on the road, since May 21, 2000. Yes, 2000. The No. 1 song in America was "Maria Maria" by Santana; the No. 1 movie was Dinosaur. Yeah, I know -- it's a totally different team now, the Knicks have evolved a million times over in the last 13 years, and it's silly to compare anyone to anyone across eras like that. But it's the Knicks. I don't care if the irrationally confident guy chucking jumpers is J.R. Smith or Latrell Sprewell, I'm going to be a little queasy either way. This team has always been unpredictable. They could plow the Celtics over the next two games, or they could choke.

2. Regression to the mean is a thing.
The Celtics went 7-for-36 from the field in the second half of Game 2. I'll grant you that part of that is terrible shot selection, and part of it is the Knicks' defense as well. But c'mon. Seven of 36? Part of it's fluky, too. I mean, look at this shot chart. The C's were cold from every single spot on the floor. This will not keep up in Games 3 and 4. It's basic probability.

3. Can Carmelo keep this up?
Carmelo Anthony is a high-volume shooter. The Knicks live with him and die with him. Lately, they've been doing much more living. But Melo has been known to occasionally put up a stinker or two when a good defensive team like the Celtics clamps down. For reference, here are Melo's four shooting clips in the Knicks' four-game series against the C's in 2011: 10-for-24, 4-for-16, 14-for-30, 5-for-18. In other words, two competent games and two awful ones. Melo may be hot right now, but he does have a habit of shooting his teams out of postseason games, and he may be overdue for such a performance this year.

4. The Celtics will improve their ball movement.
The C's aren't stupid. They know that with a rotation of five starters, three extra shooting guards and basically nothing else, they need jump shots to survive. They know that means ball movement is crucial. They know that they're averaging 16 team assists per game so far in this series, and that the average in today's NBA is just over 22. They know to make adjustments in that department going forward. Paul Pierce already has 13 assists in this series, but he needs to do even more as a playmaker. Avery Bradley, Jason Terry and the rest of the C's perimeter players will keep it moving as well.

5. Kevin Garnett can be better, and he will.
KG's been close to a non-factor so far in this series. He had eight points and four rebounds in Game 1, getting outplayed by Kenyon Martin; he got in foul trouble in Game 2, rendering him even worse. Hip injury or not, KG is too prideful to go out like this. He's going to give a better effort in Games 3 and 4 even if it kills him. Which, you know, it might.

6. Paul Pierce will make adjustments against Raymond Felton.
It's become the biggest story of this series, X's and O's-wise: The Celtics' big lineup and the Knicks' small lineup have converged such that the 6-foot-1 Felton is guarding the 6-foot-7 Pierce, and the C's have overreacted to the mismatch. It's natural to go to Pierce, but Boston is going to him every single time, and it's created a predictability problem that's made life very easy for the Knicks defensively. Pierce will be smarter in Game 3, figuring out when he can shoot without being contested and when he can pass without turning it over. The balancing act takes time.

7. Jason Terry has been here before.
I've never been big on intangibles like experience, but I do think it means a little something that of all those teams who have overcome 0-2 deficits, one included a current Celtic -- Terry was a member of the 2005 Mavericks team that came back to eliminate Houston in the first round. Terry was a big part of it, going off for 32 points in a pivotal Game 4 win on 11-of-18 shooting, 6-of-8 from long distance. Terry knows not to get frazzled with his team trailing early. He's had a rocky debut season in Boston, but he also has the savvy to keep his head in the game mentally. His shots might start falling.

8. Brandon Bass is still an untapped resource.
Bass is shooting 4-for-8 from the field this season and 2-for-2 from the line. Percentage-wise, that's pretty solid, but the Celtics haven't been going to him. He's even had some favorable matchups in this series, often finding himself up against Kenyon Martin (too old, too slow) or Carmelo (quick, and physically tough, but he's easily screened and Bass is also long enough to shoot over him). Why not more Bass? His usage rate is currently at a meager 6.0, slotting him 146th in the postseason. He's sandwiched between guys like Ekpe Udoh and -- get this -- Courtney Lee. The C's need more Bass than that. Once they realize it, they'll be a more potent team offensively.

9. Doc Rivers isn't going down like this.
Doc didn't get fined $25,000 for griping about officials just on a whim. He made a calculated move, knowing it was worth the hefty penalty if he could game the officials a little bit and give his team a leg up in Games 3 and 4. He's too motivated and too crafty to go down without a fight, and that's exactly the kind of coach you want on your side in a time of need. Doc might not be having a great series tactically, but he's a proven motivator who's going to stick with this team when times get tough.

10. This is the Knicks we're talking about.
Again, it's the Knicks. They're creaky and fragile. Their knees are gimpy and their feet are falling off. Jason Kidd has been in the league since 1981. Marcus Camby has an AARP card. Kurt Thomas is an actual fossil, disguised as a human being wearing a basketball uniform.

I'm not saying they can't win a playoff series. But it still does seem a bit far-fetched, and I'm not willing to believe it until I officially see it. Until further notice, the Celtics are still alive, still fighting for the right to advance in these Eastern Conference playoffs.

Celtics Lose To Nets, Have 4 Games Left To Find Playoff Identity

evansclinchy — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 04:25:59 -0000

In case anyone noticed or cared, the Celtics lost again tonight at the TD Garden, 101-93 to the Brooklyn Nets, their ninth loss in 13 contests. If your mind was elsewhere, it's hard to blame you -- the Celtics' were too.

This game never really felt in doubt. The Celtics started strong, building an early lead on a barrage of 3-pointers from Paul Pierce and Jeff Green, but a 13-2 Nets run toward the end of the first quarter buried the C's, who never mounted the resolve to fight back. They lacked the effort to rotate on defense and keep Deron Williams and Joe Johnson from finding open looks; they also lacked the aggression to attack the basket on offense, as evidenced by their zero free throw attempts in the first half.

They may also have lacked the mental wherewithal to care.

Which isn't to say the Celtics have lost interest in this season -- far from it. But it doesn't look like their focus is on the game at hand anymore.

"It felt like that tonight," coach Doc Rivers admitted after the loss. "I told our team that I really felt like we'd been talking too much about stuff, and not enough about Brooklyn. That was on me. I told them that after the game."

With four games left in the regular season, we've reached a crucial turning point. The postseason is about a week and a half away, and it's unclear how the Celtics plan to prepare for it. Do they relax before the playoffs, focusing on rest and health, disregarding wins and losses between now and next weekend? Or do they kick their effort up a notch, readying themselves for the high-octane style of April basketball?

Pierce has one answer.

"We've got to raise our intensity at this point of the season," the captain said. "We've got to start prepping our mindset, our game plan, everything we try to do for the playoffs. This was a step back."

The Brooklyn loss was certainly a step back. If finding a playoff rhythm is the goal, then this game accomplished nothing. Green and Brandon Bass, the supporting players around the recently returned Kevin Garnett, did little to establish their new roles; Avery Bradley spent more time battling foul trouble than guarding Deron Williams; and oh, yeah, the bench gave them pretty much nothing.

If the Celtics are going to figure out their postseason identity, they need to start by playing well these last four games before playoff time.

"I think we're focusing too much on the playoffs that aren't here yet," Garnett said. "I think we need to focus and lock in on these games that we have left, putting our energy and effort behind that. I think we're stressing too much on the future, and the future's not here yet. We need to take this one game at a time, then start to prepare for whatever's after this."

Or... there's the other option. They can rest guys.

As luck would have it, the Celtics' last four games are two back-to-backs. They play on the road against Miami and Orlando this Friday and Saturday, then home against Indiana and at Toronto on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week. It's a mix of two hard games and two very winnable ones. What's the strategy here -- do they go all out to win the easy ones, and punt the losses to East titans? Or on the flip side, do they ease up against the doormats, and make their push to beat the Heat and Pacers?

Pierce isn't touching that question with a 10-foot pole.

"I'm going to leave that up to the coaches," he said. "I think practice time is good for us; I think playing together is good for us. But you know, that's up to the coaching staff and what they see, best preparing us for going forward into the playoffs."

In any event, the Celtics don't have much time to figure everything out. Four games is four games. In the grand scheme of the long NBA slog, it's the blink of an eye.

Will four games be enough?

"We're going to find out," said an ominous Garnett.

Indeed we are. And soon.

Celtics Looking To Find Cohesion Again With Kevin Garnett Back On Board

evansclinchy — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 02:49:38 -0000

For the first time in what felt like years, the Celtics walked away with an easy victory this evening at the TD Garden, a much-needed one for a team that's two weeks away from postseason basketball and looking for a little spark. And while no one factor jumped off the stat sheet as the obvious difference-maker in this victory, a 107-96 waltz past the Washington Wizards, the C's head coach was more than happy to gush about one big thing fueling the win.

"It's Kevin," Doc Rivers said. "He shows them the way. He talks. It's so many things. It's not just that he's on the floor guarding guys -- it's his talk, it's his presence. And teams don't really want to post him up, whereas when they look at our other guys, they want to post up. It's a lot of things."

"Kevin," in case you're an alien visiting the planet Earth for the first time and have never seen a basketball game, would be Kevin Garnett, the 18-year veteran manning the middle for the Celtics. For the first time since March 22, the big man was back in the lineup for Boston, and his presence was an immediate lift for a Celtics team that needed one.

His numbers were impressive by no means. KG finished with just 12 points and six rebounds in 24 minutes of play, and while his shooting line (6-of-9) looked efficient, the three misses were particularly ugly. One was an airball he launched from just six inches away from the rim. His individual performance didn't stand out. But with Garnett in the lineup, the Celtics became more of a cohesive unit, moving the ball on offense and moving themselves on D.

There are still kinks to be worked out, obviously, but there are still five games left for the Celtics to do so. So far, everything is going according to schedule with Garnett and the Celtics.

"I thought he was really good," Rivers said of KG. "Really good. I thought his rhythm was good early. I was surprised at how well he was running. I noticed that yesterday in practice -- we did all fast-break stuff, and I was just doing it for him so he didn't blow his lungs out. Tonight, I was surprised how well he was running. So that was good. We played him what, 24 minutes? You couldn't script that better. That was perfect."

With Garnett off the floor these last two weeks, the Celtics struggled to find an identity -- hell, they struggled even to find a starting lineup that worked. They tried going small with Jeff Green replacing KG straight-up; they tried Jason Terry on the wing with Green, then Jordan Crawford; they tried putting Green and Paul Pierce on the perimeter and going big with Chris Wilcox; they tried putting Courtney Lee in the starting five, then out of it, then in, then out, then back in again. In short, they tried a lot of things.

Now they're working on yet another new five-man unit, one that features KG as the center and the Green/Pierce combo at the two and three. This unit has precious little time to find playoff rhythm.

KG himself, though, has no problem with that.

"It doesn't matter what lineup is on the floor as long as we're playing the right way," Garnett said after his first game back. "That's all my concern is. I just want to make sure we're sharing the ball, playing as a team, giving it up for each other, playing defensively, being one voice, one sound. Those are the things that are most important."

The Celtics don't have much time to figure out all of KG's concerns. Just five games remain -- home against Brooklyn, at Miami and Orlando, then home again against Indiana and finishing the season at Toronto -- and that's all she wrote.

But now that the captain is back, the Celtics are becoming optimistic that they can put it all together.

"It's good to have Kevin healthy finally," Pierce said. "We're starting to come along. We're going to need these next [five] games coming into the playoffs, no matter who we play. Right now's the time for us to start trying to hit our stride."

This team has always had lofty goals. Whether it's the 66-win juggernaut it was in 2008 or the playoff bottom-feeder it is now, this group always has the same aspiration -- it's banner or bust. Even when the odds look near-impossible, the Celtics set their sights high.

We're two weeks away from finding out whether the C's have even a puncher's chance. Garnett, for one, remains confident.

"I've always felt good," he said. "I know what I have in here. I know who's willing to fight, who's not going to lay down. I'll take a bunch of fighters over some skill people any day."

Six Games Until Playoff Time, And Celtics Still Lack Late-Season Urgency

evansclinchy — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 15:06:38 -0000

Tonight, once again, the Celtics lost a very winnable game against a lesser opponent, and once again, their head coach had to sit and listen to questions about how his team was losing control of its playoff destiny. What few weeks ago was a mad dash for a top playoff seed is now looking for a desperate grasp at No. 7 in the East.

In March, there was talk of home-court advantage. Now it's simply a matter of staying out of the bottom playoff seed and dodging Miami. Doc Rivers is sick of being asked about scoreboard-watching. Yes, he knows the goal from here is to avoid the Heat, but he doesn't care to talk about it.

"I'm not that dumb," Rivers sighed. "I'm not the brightest guy, but come on."

Would the Celtics like to dodge Miami? Sure.

"Of course we would," he said. "If we play them, we'll be ready, yeah. But of course we would. You'd love to avoid them, but listen. But no matter who we play, we're going to play a tough team. It's going to be New York, or Indiana, or Miami. There's no cakewalks for us. It's going to be hard."

It's hard to believe that we're two weeks away from the start of the playoffs, because right now, we're watching a team that's nowhere near ready. The C's have lost eight of their last 11 games, they're stumbling against the Cleveland and Minnesotas of the world, and they don't appear to have the urgency of a team that's approaching playoff time.

Kevin Garnett is still out, nursing an inflamed left ankle as he has for the last two weeks. Paul Pierce sat out against the Cavs for the second time this week, nursing an ankle injury of his own. Avery Bradley got hit on the collarbone by Kyrie Irving midway through this one, and he spent a good chunk of the game in the locker room, slowly nursing his injury rather than fighting through it.

None of these injuries are serious ones. All three Celtic stars have what you'd call "If it was a playoff game, I'd play"-type ailments. But right now, they're sitting and waiting.

"I wanted Paul to play tonight, but he couldn't," Rivers insisted. "Honestly, I would have played him if I could have."

But why play him? At this point in the season, the Celtics are content to rest their guys and gradually crawl toward the playoffs. Winning and losing become secondary.

The first time the C's rested Pierce, when the team faced the Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday night, you could visibly see them letting their guard down. That yielded a 110-point offensive explosion for the Wolves and a swift defeat for Boston.

This effort, no matter what Rivers says, really wasn't much better. The C's let Tristan Thompson dominate them for 29 points and 17 rebounds, they executed poorly on offense, and they got consistently outhustled. Predictably, that meant another loss.

"I thought when we played Minnesota, we didn't have an expectation to win the game," Rivers said. "I really thought that before the Minnesota game. I just thought our guys thought, 'Let's show up and see what happens, and maybe we win.' I thought at least tonight, even with all those guys out, they thought they could win. They were disappointed when they didn't. So that was good."

Disappointment is one thing, but stepping up and playing is another. Right now, the Celtics' rhetoric sounds fairly empty, and their actions aren't saying much.

Things will obviously change once Garnett is back and Pierce is playing every night. But the C's might want to hurry up and make that happen soon. They're six games away from the end of the season, and they need to find a playoff rhythm before it's too late.

"We've just got to keep grinding it out," Jason Terry said. "With numbers down the way they are, it's always tough, especially when you get into a tight game and you're without guys like Kevin and Paul Pierce, guys who are your closers. That's always tough on you, but it is what it is. Hopefully we get those guys back here soon, and all that will be over with."

Like Rivers, Terry is aware of the Celtics' position in the standings. But like Rivers, he doesn't see the point in rambling at great length about it. What's more important than the Celtics' record is their style of play.

"If you fall to the eight seed, it means you've been losing," Terry said. "We want to go into the playoffs on a winning note, feeling good about ourselves and our game. Regardless of who we play, we have to be healthy mentally and physically going into the playoffs."

That's for sure.

If the Celtics want to have their act together for Game 1 -- in New York, or Indiana, or wherever else it may be -- they need to refocus soon. If not, it'll be a long summer.

Jeff Green, Brandon Bass Continue Growing In Kevin Garnett's Absence

evansclinchy — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 04:26:19 -0000

It's hard to draw any conclusions -- good or bad, honestly -- from the way these last couple of weeks have unfolded for the Celtics. They're an entirely different team without Kevin Garnett on the floor, with a completely different style of play on both ends.

The Celtics clinched a playoff spot tonight, beating the Detroit Pistons 98-93 at home while Philadelphia surprisingly lost to bottom-feeding Charlotte, ensuring they will be in the hunt for an Eastern Conference title for the sixth consecutive year this spring. But the team that sealed the deal at the TD Garden tonight bears no resemblance to the team that will tip off the postseason later this month. So on the surface, they didn't really get much out of this one.

Then again, their captain disagrees.

"There's a lot of value in getting some other guys some playing time and some confidence going into the playoffs," Paul Pierce said postgame. "The playoffs is a totally different game -- it's nothing like the regular season -- but at least these guys can go out there, get their feet wet, see some shots go in, rebound the ball and gain some experience while they're out there."

First and foremost among the guys getting their feet wet, obviously, has been Jeff Green. The Celtics' newest wing scoring dynamo had another huge effort against the Pistons, going off for 34 points on 13-of-19 shooting, and perhaps most notable was his fourth-quarter explosion of 11 consecutive Celtic points.

Last time Green had a breakout game, against the Heat two weeks ago, he scored 43 points in the first three quarters and zero in the fourth. This time, he stepped up in crunch time, including a dagger 3 that put the game out of reach with 45 seconds to play.

Whether it's because Garnett's missing or not, there's no denying that Green has had a serious impact.

"I just think he's playing now," coach Doc Rivers said. "I don't think he worries anymore about who's on the floor with him or anything like that. I do think that takes time, though, when you're playing with Paul and Kevin, and [Rajon] Rondo earlier in the year. I think that's hard. You see those three guys, and you tend to think, 'Should I be aggressive?'"

There's no question anymore. Green was the man for the Celtics down the stretch in this one. It shouldn't have been this hard for the C's to beat the hapless Pistons, but it was, and it was Green who kept them afloat offensively when it mattered. Two months ago, this never would have happened, but Green has grown substantially during that time, learning to play alongside Pierce rather than hide behind him.

"I don't try to take over games," Green said. "That's why we've got The Truth. I'm just playing off of him. We're looking for each other, and we're being aggressive together. If it's in my hands, then I'm going to try to make a play, but if it's in his hands, then he'll make one."

The other guy who's seen an increased role is Brandon Bass, who's had to become the Celtics' defensive anchor without KG around. Bass was charged with guarding either Greg Monroe or Andre Drummond for most of the night, handling a workload that ordinarily would have fallen heavily on Garnett. Bass got killed on the glass, as did all of his teammates, but he still showed the initiative to play a greater role on both ends, which is promising heading into the playoffs.

"You know, hell, maybe the blessing is without Kevin, we've removed his security blanket," Rivers said of Bass. "Now he has to be the talker on defense. Now he has to do the little things. It's great -- he was actually upset with someone early in the game because they were in the wrong position. I was thinking, 'Wow, that's really new.' And it's really nice. It's good. Maybe it's a blessing."

The next step is reintegrating Garnett in time for the playoffs. There are now just seven games remaining before the end of the regular season -- precious little time for the Celtics to figure things out.

The hope is that once KG is back, the Celtics' supporting players keep contributing at a high level.

"If he was here, I'd still continue to be aggressive," Green insisted. "He'd tell you that too. Everybody has to step up -- we have to do it as a team as long as he's out. We've just got to continue to build on what we have. We all have to be aggressive, and I'm just doing my part."

"At the end of the day, we all have roles," Bass added. "Everybody's just trying to play their roles to a T. When Kevin inserts himself back in, we're just going to keep rolling."

Celtics Show A Little Life Without Kevin Garnett

evansclinchy — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 04:45:40 -0000

Three nights ago, after the Celtics took on the New York Knicks without Kevin Garnett on Tuesday night at the TD Garden, Paul Pierce addressed the media and said there would be no excuses for the team's performance in Garnett's temporary absence.

"This is what it is," Pierce said. "This is what it's going to have to be out here. We can't look over our shoulders and wait for Kevin to be back tomorrow, or Courtney Lee, or our regular starters. The guys that are filling their roles have to be ready to step up and play expanded roles. They have an opportunity."

Those words rang hollow on Tuesday night. The Celtics had just an ugly one to the Knicks, 100-85, getting absolutely wrecked by J.R. Smith and Carmelo Anthony. There were no opportunities in that game -- it was just a vast chasm of KG-less hopelessness.

It took a couple nights, but eventually the Celtics were able to clarify what Pierce meant on Tuesday. In a decisive 118-107 victory over the Atlanta Hawks tonight, it began to show through.

True, Pierce himself was dominant, putting up a triple-double with 20 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists. But this win was an unexpectedly well-rounded team effort -- Jeff Green and Jason Terry each outdid Pierce in the scoring column, and Shavlik Randolph came out of absolutely nowhere to throw down nine points and 13 rebounds.

Randolph was the story of the night. It was by far his best performance in the NBA since returning from China a month ago, and it provided a glimmer of hope that the Celtics might be OK without Garnett after all.

"He does what he does," coach Doc Rivers said of Randolph. "He's proven that he can rebound, and he mixes it up. He's been put in that position, and he's doing it. I'm really, really happy for him.

"I thought he gave us so much energy. When you see the bench get up and jump around for a rebounder, that's really impressive. Then I thought he did a lot of good things when he got it, too -- some of the times he put it back up, and a lot of the times he threw it back out. I just thought he did a lot of good things. I'm really happy for him."

The thing about this particular effort, though, was that it wasn't just one guy. Randolph was tremendous, to be sure, but Green made 11-of-20 shot attempts including 3-of-5 threes, and Terry was similarly efficient with 7-of-10 shooting and 5-of-7 from long distance.

The key to this game wasn't any one player getting his numbers. The Celtics won with unselfishness and smart ball movement -- they passed when it was right to pass and shot when it was right to shoot. It sounds simple, but it's a technique that's failed the Celtics countless times this season.

When the C's offense clicks, it's hard to stop.

"It's tough," Green said. "You never know who's going to get it going what game. You've just got to go with the flow of the game, and whoever has it going, you've got to feed him. Tonight JET had it going and we fed him the ball, and when he's got it going, it's tough for the defense to pack the paint when we've got a guy who can shoot the 3."

"Ball movement and execution," added Terry. "When we didn't have it, we lost six in a row. It's a glaring fact -- when we don't move the ball, we're not a good team. It doesn't allow us to get our defense set -- it allows other teams to get out in transition and run on us. With the numbers we have, without KG, we have to take good shots. We have to execute and make sure we get what we want every time."

All season long, this team has been finding a way. They lost Rajon Rondo, they lost Jared Sullinger, and so on and so forth. With each loss, they adapted and moved on.

Without Garnett, this team realistically has zero chance of making a peep in the Eastern Conference playoffs. But at least for one night, it showed a little bit of life, and there's something to be said for that.

When Will The Celtics Admit They Desperately Need Kevin Garnett?

evansclinchy — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 03:55:18 -0000

The Celtics milled around the TD Garden locker room and endured the abuse of a throng of nosy reporters. They listened to question after question about the factors that contributed to tonight's loss, 100-85 to the visiting New York Knicks, and they clearly weren't enjoying it.

Jeff Green stood in the center of the room, surrounded by microphones, being peppered with leading questions about the team's underperformance. He barely listened, seemingly more interested in adjusting his earring than doing another losing interview. He deflected the inquiries with a series of one-word answers.

Jeff, can you sense that all this losing is because of the injuries?

"No."

Does it seem like this team is feeling sorry for itself?

"No."

Maybe it's a matter of confidence?

"No."

Green wasn't alone -- even if deep down they all knew the truth, no one on the Celtics wanted to talk about the real reasons behind this team's five-game losing streak. A Celtic team that was already without Rajon Rondo, Jared Sullinger and Leandro Barbosa is now battling injuries to Kevin Garnett and Courtney Lee as well, and the team just isn't the same.

Tonight's Celtics had basically a seven-man rotation. They had Green jumping for the opening tip. They had Jordan Crawford starting at the two-guard and playing 41 minutes despite having no clue how to play Celtic defense. (His man, J.R. Smith, scored 32 points in 34 minutes, shooting 13-of-24.)

At times like these, it should be OK to admit that the injuries are getting to you. It seems like the obvious response, so why fight it?

Unfortunately, this team is fighting it.

"I think you guys have been around me long enough," said Doc Rivers, rejecting the Garnett question. "Kevin's not playing, so I don't worry about it. I really don't. I told our guys we didn't play well tonight, but I'm not going to go back and think, 'Oh my gosh, we've got two more weeks of this.' That's not how it works in this league. That's not how it should work in this league. Somebody else just has to play better. A lot of guys do -- it's not going to be one. We were pretty bad tonight, but Kevin had nothing to do with that. We were just bad."

At least part of that statement holds true. I mean, there's no arguing with the bad part. These Celtics managed to outshoot the Knicks, 45 percent to 43, and yet still lose by 15. It was a combination of poor rebounding (the Knicks grabbed 15 offensive boards, leading to a 29-6 blowout in second-chance points) and turnovers (20, leading to 17 more Knicks points).

"That kills us," Rivers said. "Especially now. Listen, if you're not going to rebound, and then you're going to turn the ball over, you're just saying you're going to lose the game. That's what it was tonight."

But the other thing Rivers said? The part about Garnett's absence not being a factor?

Not so sure about that one.

Look, we've seen this team win without Rondo. They did plenty of that right after their All-Star point guard went down. To a lesser extent, we've seen them do all right without Paul Pierce. But without Garnett, this Celtic team lacks a purpose. They're without their anchor on defense, and underratedly, they're without a guy who's functioned as a point center on offense. Everything on this team runs through Garnett, on both ends, and when he's gone, the difference is night and day.

Green had a statistically brilliant game without KG on the floor, putting up 19 points, 10 rebounds and six assists in 39 minutes. Pierce was solid as well, needing only 10 shot attempts to compile a 16-6-6 stat line. But two guys putting up numbers isn't enough -- the Celtics as a team look lost, and there are no solutions beyond waiting on their Hall of Fame big man's ankle to heal.

"Injuries are going to be injuries," Pierce said. "We're not going to have control over that. They happen the way they happen, so you've got to deal with it. It's been like that all season long, and it seems like it just gets worse and worse, but we can't feel sorry for ourselves. We've got a job to do -- we've got to go out there and compete every night and figure it out."

That, they do. This loss dropped the Celtics to 36-34 on the season, 2 1/2 games behind Chicago and Atlanta for the No. 5 seed in the Eastern Conference, just 1 1/2 up on Milwaukee for the eighth spot. If this losing skid keeps up, the Celtics might find themselves in the dreaded bottom seed in the East playoffs, staring down a possible South Beach sweep at the hands of the unbeatable Heat.

That's how high the stakes are right now. The Celtics' season may depend on how they can pull through these next couple of weeks without Kevin Garnett, and so far, there's little reason to be optimistic.

"The decision we're making with Kevin is the right one," Rivers insisted. "But we still want to win games. And we're not going to let one game say that we're not going to win any more games. It's just silly to me that anyone would think that way."

Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. But actions speak louder than words, and Boston's only action since March 16 has been to underperform.

If the Celtics want to silence all the pessimistic questions in that locker room, there's only one thing they can do.

Start winning.

Celtics Waste Jeff Green's Career Night With Crushing Loss To Heat

evansclinchy — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 05:17:35 -0000

If you told the typical NBA player that he'd just played the game of his life -- compiling 43 points on 14-of-21 shooting, plus seven rebounds, four blocks, two assists and two steals, and all on national TV against the league's best team, no less -- he'd probably be pretty thrilled.

Jeff Green is not the typical NBA player.

Of course he isn't. He spent four years overshadowed by Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, four months being panned for forcing Kendrick Perkins out of Boston, and then a year recovering from life-threatening surgery. He's 26 years old, six years into a career that began with a No. 5 overall pick, and he's still trying to find himself in the pros. Of course, on the one night it looks like he's finally arrived as an NBA star, LeBron James and the Miami Heat ruin his night and rally for an 18-4 fourth-quarter run, burying the C's with absolutely perfect execution down the stretch.

When all the dust had settled, here's what Green had to say about the best individual game of his career:

"It doesn't matter. We lost. It sucks."

Yeah, that's about it.

Green was absolutely fantastic despite the Celtics' 105-103 loss at the TD Garden. He attacked the basket at every single opportunity, driving into crowds of two or three defenders only to finish at the rim and draw the foul to boot. His efficiency was off the charts -- with 43 points on just 21 attempts, his performance made high-volume shooters like Kobe Bryant and Carmelo Anthony look like chumps. And yet it was all for naught.

His teammates were impressed nonetheless.

"You wonder what he ate that morning," Paul Pierce said. "Or whatever he did that day. He needs to keep doing it, because it worked tonight, obviously."

"Jeff was terrific," said coach Doc Rivers. "I thought he played well the entire night. He attacked. You know what I loved about Jeff? I thought the first two, three minutes of the game, he was struggling. He missed a free throw, missed a couple of shots. The old Jeff may have gone away -- but he actually just kept going and kept going. That’s all we talked about."

This was Green's coming-out party -- with no Kevin Garnett on the floor, the Celtics' $9 million man had to take the floor with the starters and play 40 minutes. The burden was his to contribute more, and contribute more he did. But it still wasn't enough against the Heat, as LeBron and Dwyane Wade overpowered the Celtics down the stretch.

Perhaps even in defeat, the Celtics can learn something from taking the NBA's best team, now a winner of 23 straight games, to the final possession.

"I told our guys -- that was our first playoff game," Rivers said. "I was really looking forward to the game because I didn’t know how a lot of guys were going to react. Besides not winning the game, we passed the test."

With the real playoffs still one month away, the Celtics got in a great rehearsal run against the Heat tonight. It wasn't a win, but it was a fantastic performance for a role player who needed one, and it was a learning experience for a team that could use one once in a while.

"Overall, I'll take the game," Rivers said. "It was a fantastic game. I just don’t like losing."

Dwyane Wade: Yes, I Hate The Celtics

evansclinchy — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 23:56:28 -0000

When Dwyane Wade was asked prior to tonight's game between the Celtics and Miami Heat whether Boston was his most hated NBA team, his answer was instantaneous. He didn't think, he didn't pause to clear his throat, he didn't even breathe. His response was an unflinching, unblinking, unmistakable "yes."

But it wasn't because of any kind of personal animosity against Kevin Garnett or Paul Pierce or anyone else. Rather, this was about history.

"Playoffs," Wade said. "Battles. I don't have this history with other teams like I have with the Celtics. Seems like every year we've been booked to play them in the playoffs in some way -- first round, second round, Eastern Conference finals. Doesn't matter where it's been -- games are always tough."

Wade's right. These two teams met in the first round in 2010 for the last series of the pre-LeBron James era; Boston won that one in five. The two teams met again the following year, in round two; this time the Heat won in five. Then in 2012, the Heat won a thrilling Eastern Conference finals, coming from behind to win Games 6 and 7.

Three series, 17 games. Nine wins and eight losses for Wade and the Heat. This rivalry has seen an epic 46-point Wade game, the Rajon Rondo "elbow game" of 2011 and LeBron's complete evisceration of the C's in Game 6 last spring. It's seen technicals, ejections, late-game heroics and countless boos from crowds both in the Hub and down in South Beach.

Wade says that through it all, he's developed a healthy level of respect for the Celtics.

"There's a respect, no doubt about it," he said. "I respect those guys, and I'm sure they respect us as well. But there's respect when you see those guys later. When you play those guys, there's a dislike there.

"I like Doc Rivers," Wade added with a smile. "He's a Marquette guy. But I like him after the games, not before."

Celtics Make Up For Charlotte Debacle, Cruise Past Raptors

evansclinchy — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 04:25:48 -0000

The Celtics were without their captain Tuesday night in Charlotte -- it was the first night of a back-to-back and he was nursing a handful of nagging injuries, so Paul Pierce agreed to take the night off as the C's took on the lowly Bobcats. Against a team that was 13-50 and riding a double-digit losing streak, they figured they could get by without him.

Of course, they were wrong. Pierce watched from the sidelines as his team got thumped by the NBA's doormats, 100-74, and he could hardly believe his eyes.

"That just wasn't our team," Pierce said. "I was looking at that team and I was looking around, wondering where I was at. I must have been in someone else's locker room. That wasn't a team I recognized."

Less than 24 hours later, the Celtics were back in Boston to host the Toronto Raptors, and they needed this one. A lot. They'd abruptly ended their five-game winning streak with two losses in three days, and they were starting to feel a shot at a high playoff seed slip away.

Their response was an emphatic one. The Celtics exploded for a season-high 112 points, including 58 off the bench, and cruised to a blowout victory over the Raptors, 112-88, at the TD Garden. Things were sluggish midway through the first half, and the Raps briefly reclaimed the lead, but the outcome still never seemed in doubt. The C's weren't going to be denied this time.

"I was expecting the kind of effort that you saw tonight," said Pierce, who returned to drop 15 points on only six shot attempts. "A team that was pissed at the way we played. Motivated. You could feel the mood on the plane last night. They were going to come out and show something tonight. We knew it was going to come."

"We came out and threw the first punch tonight," Courtney Lee added. "We were definitely frustrated and upset with ourselves after the game. But we knew we had another one the next day that we could get, so we just switched our focus onto that."

They switched a lot of things. After shooting just 40.9 percent in the ugly Charlotte loss, the Celtics turned things around and shot 51.3 percent against Toronto. They were outrebounded 48-29 by the Bobcats; against the Raps, they crashed the glass with ferocity and finished up 40-34. On Tuesday night, they were sluggish and unwilling to attack the basket; on Wednesday, they gleefully shared the ball and found good looks with ease.

It's a long season, and there will be good nights intermixed with bad ones all the time. But for the Celtics at this point in the year, these quick recoveries are vital. We're in the home stretch, with the C's angling for playoff position against a large clump of mid-level teams, and these wins all count big-time.

This team loves to talk the talk about how "every game matters." If they really mean it, they need to step up during weeks like this and walk the walk, proving they can bring the same effort against the Charlottes and Torontos that they do against the Miamis and OKCs.

One win doesn't prove anything, but it is a small step toward this Celtic team gaining a little perspective.

"I've been in this league a long time," Kevin Garnett said. "I know nights like [Tuesday] are going to happen. It's how you bounce back, how you rebound from those nights that counts. I thought tonight we came out with an edge. We have to continue to play like that for the duration of these last 18 games. Tonight I thought we were aggressive, we were the firm ones, we were the ones coming out attacking. That's something we have to do consistently, coming out and playing every night."

Easier said than done. But at least now, the Celtics are trying.

Celtics' Doc Rivers On Patriots' Wes Welker: 'We Lost Ray The Same Way'

evansclinchy — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 23:17:05 -0000

Doc Rivers has been coaching the Celtics for nine years, which means that for nine years, he's been a member of the Boston coaching fraternity alongside Patriots head honcho Bill Belichick. That being the case, Rivers sympathized with Belichick today upon hearing the news that the Pats had lost free agent Wes Welker to the Denver Broncos.

How could he not? Rivers recently lost a high-profile free agent of his own in Ray Allen, so he knows as well as anyone the difficulties of keeping a team together.

"It's hard to do it," Rivers said tonight. "We lost Ray, it feels like, the same way they lost Wes. You wanted him, and you did everything you could, and yet somehow they go somewhere else. Just like we wanted Ray to stay, I know they wanted to keep Wes to stay. Sometimes it just doesn't work out."

The situation is a little different with Welker, money-wise at least. Allen received a lowball offer from the Miami Heat, financially speaking -- for cap reasons, Pat Riley was only able to offer Allen two years at $6 million, while the Celtics offered twice that.

In the Welker scenario, the Patriots were the ones doing the lowballing, offering less than the two years and $12 million that the wideout got from Denver.

Regardless, Rivers argued, the challenges of maintaining team chemistry are just too tough once the offseason rolls around.

"There's too many other people involved," the Celtics' coach said. "Once everyone's signed, it's just the coaches and the players, and no one can get in the way. But once you get into free agency, a lot of other people get involved, and it's outside of winning and losing. I guess that's why they call it free agency."

Celtics Persevere To Win Another Wild One Against Hawks

evansclinchy — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 06:03:04 -0000

To fully appreciate what the Celtics pulled off tonight, you need to place it within the proper context, looking at how it fits into the ridiculous roller-coaster ride that is the 2012-13 season.

The first time the C's faced the Atlanta Hawks, it was Jan. 5 and they were reeling from a terrible West Coast road trip. They got down 19 in the second quarter, they charged back in the second half, and they eventually won 89-81 behind 26 points from Paul Pierce, 17 in the third quarter. They were 16-17.

The second time, it was Jan. 25. The Celtics got up 27 early, but then Rajon Rondo tore his ACL, Kyle Korver buried them in a blizzard of 3-pointers, two overtimes transpired, and the Hawks eventually won 123-111. It was Boston's sixth straight loss. They were 20-23, without their best player for the rest of the season (though they didn't know it yet), and facing the very real possibility of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2007.

Then tonight.

Again it was a wild one. Again the lead swung back and forth uncontrollably -- the Celtics somehow went from tied (28-28 in the second quarter) to up 10 (41-31 later in the second) to tied again (45-45, still the second) to up 10 again (80-70 in the fourth quarter) to tied again (92-92 with a minute and a half to play). Then they went to overtime, then they fell behind by four, and then came consecutive 3's by Jeff Green, Pierce and Jason Terry to unbelievably steal the win. It was the Celtics' ninth straight home win and fifth straight overall victory. Now they're 34-27 -- and forget about the playoffs themselves, their sights are now set on home court in the first round.

There's something about this team, man. This just always happens.

"I'm really proud of our guys," coach Doc Rivers gushed afterward. "I thought we competed all night. We made some mistakes defensively -- we lost guys when we shouldn't have, we switched when we shouldn't have. But those are all things we can work on, so I can live with all of those. I just thought we played with the right spirit."

They played with the spirit of a team that desperately needs every win it can get. Considering that six weeks ago, the Celtics' season was practically over, it's pretty amazing that here they are now, seven games over .500 and celebrating wins over a murderers' row of playoff teams.

"We're working hard," Kevin Garnett said. "We haven't gave in to the [one expletive] [another expletive] critics. We're working hard. We're grinding. We're showing our character. Our coach is a grinder himself, and his team is just that. We're not looking for any handouts or sympathy or anything. We don't expect anybody to give us nothing. We're going out and working hard for everything we're getting."

The Celtics' three duels with the Hawks this year have been epic. These two teams have a history -- they went to seven games against each other in the 2008 playoffs, then six last spring. They may well face each other again this year (four-five matchup, anyone?). They've had dramatic games, chippy games, shootout games, ugly games. They've had it all.

Playing East playoff foes tends to bring out the best in these Celtics, especially late in the year. And late this year, look what they've done -- they've beaten Chicago, they've beaten Indy and they've beaten Atlanta, all within the last few weeks.

"I don't think it does anything as far as what we're going to do in the playoffs," Rivers maintained. "I always look at the regular season as its own entity. The playoffs are the playoffs -- guys have more rest, they have more time to prepare for you, they're looking forward to you, whereas in the regular season, you just play.

"But it just tells our guys what we already believe," he added. "Which is, we'll play anybody."

Will they ever.

Celtics Contain Stephen Curry, Hold Off Warriors With Staunch Defensive Effort

evansclinchy — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 05:40:34 -0000

Predictably, tonight's festivities began with the TD Garden absolutely abuzz about the recent exploits of Stephen Curry. When you explode for 38 points on the road against the best defensive team in the NBA, then follow that up with 54, on 28 shots, on the second night of a back-to-back ... yeah, that generally tends to turn a few heads.

Curry was the talk of the town as the Golden State Warriors rolled into Boston tonight. All the media, all the fans, all the Celtics -- everyone was raving about him.

"I think even if Curry had had six points, we'd have been really focused on Curry tonight," Celtics Doc Rivers quipped. "He's a great player."

But a funny thing happened on the way to Curry's third consecutive big scoring night -- the Celtics decided to make him work.

The pesky little guy still got his 25, to be sure. The way he's been playing lately, that's pretty much his bare minimum. But the Celtics hounded Curry all night long -- pressured him for the ball, got physical with him, forced him into inefficient shots. They did everything in their power to keep the Warriors' fourth-year guard from totally lighting them up. And it was enough, as the C's held Curry to 6-of-22 shooting and Golden State to a 34 percent clip overall. They turned a 60-60 tie ballgame into a runaway in the second half, waltzing to victory by a 94-86 final.

It began with slowing Curry, and everything else flowed from there.

"He's a very good player," said Avery Bradley, the guard charged with containing Curry for most of the night. "I just tried to make everything hard on him tonight. Tried to wear him down."

If that sounds like an understated, clichéd quote, there's a reason: This was an understated, clichéd game. The Celtics have accumulated countless wins like this over the last six years. They grinded, they executed, they played tough D when they had to, and they pulled out a win. Victories like this haven't been exceptional in this era. They've been the norm.

Time and time again, the Celtics have proven that they won't be beaten by a single player. No matter how well he's shooting.

"We should talk about Steph, because he's been phenomenal," Rivers said. "But I told our guys -- if Steph has 54 and we win, I'm taking that tonight. We have to guard everyone else. That's the key."

"We talked a lot about Steph, but they have a lot of really good players," agreed Paul Pierce. "David Lee was their only All-Star. You've got a top pick in [Harrison] Barnes, and you've got [Klay Thompson] who's coming into his own as a two-guard in this league. I think we did a good job of focusing not only on Curry, but on all of them, getting into them, making it hard on them. I thought Avery did a good job of wearing down Curry, but I thought everybody did a good job of wearing down everybody."

Bradley got into foul trouble early, however; shortly after that, Courtney Lee found himself in hot water with the refs as well. The Celtics were down to virtually zero guard depth, and they were tasked with stopping the NBA's hottest-shooting guard. So call it desperation, call it what you will, but whatever the reason, the Celtics decided to go zone.

"Zoning them, with all that shooting," Rivers mused. "My thought was, 'How many times are they ever zoned?' I just thought they shoot the ball so well, I don't think they've been zoned all that much. I think [assistant coach Kevin Eastman] looked it up, and it was 70 minutes all year. So we just went with it, and it worked."

Whether playing man or zone, whether emphasizing Curry or Klay Thompson or whomever else, the Celtics' defense did indeed work, as it pretty consistently has over the last month. The Warriors brought a dynamic scorer, but the C's brought a team effort, and it was enough.

Terrence Williams Excited To Have Job Security In Boston

evansclinchy — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 00:08:41 -0000

How did Terrence Williams know he was going to be a Celtic for the rest of this season?

Easy -- he found out exactly the same way everyone else did.

"It didn't really set in until I saw it on Twitter," Williams said before tonight's game against the Golden State Warriors. "I was like, 'How does Twitter know?' But you know, Twitter knows everything. So when I read it, I was like, 'OK, now it's really true.'"

Williams said his agent had been in talks with the Celtics all along, and once a deal was put on the table today, he wanted to get it done quickly. The 25-year-old swingman had been eyeing the Celtics as a potential landing spot for his return to the NBA since last summer, and after a brief stint in China, he was thrilled to officially make a comeback in the League.

"It feels great," Williams said. "I was here in the summer, and I worked out here for two weeks, trying to be in this position that I'm in today."

Celtics coach Doc Rivers recalls watching Williams' workouts in Boston last summer. At the time, he never envisioned the youngster playing for this year's Celtics -- he had a deep roster overflowing with talented guards, and Williams wasn't really on his radar. But now that Williams has left the Guangdong Southern Tigers and landed in Boston, Rivers already has a feel for how he fits.

"Just from pickup games, just watching the way he's played, you really felt in those situations that he's more point than two," Rivers said. "I don't think he's ever going to be a great scorer in our league, but he can be a great playmaker."

Williams' time in Guandong was short-lived -- he left the States in November, and he came back in February. He enjoyed his experience, though he admitted it was hard at times. He didn't know the language, he had only one American teammate, and he had to endure a lot of seven-hour bus trips through regions with subzero climates.

That said, he doesn't regret a second of it.

"I went because I needed a fresh start to find myself," Williams explained. "Not in terms of playing, I know how to play the game, but just my head. I needed to clear my head, and there's no better place than China. When you go over there, you have to think every day because you're alone so much."

Now Williams is back, and he's ready to be an NBA player again -- a few months older but a lot wiser. He's added a little perspective.

"It helped me a lot," Williams said of the China experience. "It helped with my sense of how I look at things and how professional I will be. It put me in a great situation. You couldn't write a better story than how this happened for me."

'Just One Of Those Games': Celtics Survive Ugly One Against Bulls

evansclinchy — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 05:16:37 -0000

Technically, it's still Wednesday, and All-Star Weekend doesn't start for another, oh, 36 hours or so. But judging from the level of play in the Celtics' tilt tonight with the visiting Chicago Bulls, there were a handful of guys who already left on vacation, if not physically then at least in spirit.

In other words: Woof, this was an ugly one.

"Doc gave me the opportunity to take the night off," Kevin Garnett mused postgame. "I should have [expletive] took it."

Yeah, it was that kind of game. No one looked like they wanted to be there, but by golly, they're being paid millions to play a kids' game, so they found the fortitude to slog through 48 whole minutes.

There were turnovers, there were blown defensive assignments, there was CLANG after CLANG after CLANG on the TD Garden rims. Eventually, the Celtics scampered away with a win, 71-69 to finish an 8-1 stretch going into the break. But they weren't proud of it.

"I just thought it was one of those games," C's coach Doc Rivers said. "As we know, the last game before break is always a strange game. You got half the guys tired, you've got a group of guys that are already in the Dominican Republic, and then you have the young guys. You could see it on both sides."

The Celtics started incredibly strong, getting out to a 20-9 lead with just over three minutes to play in the first quarter. They looked untouchable. Then it all fell apart -- four points in the last three minutes of the first quarter, 11 in the entire second, then a measly 8 in the third. It was the Celtics' worst offensive stretch in years -- nay, decades.

"I've never been a part of something like that," Jason Terry laughed. "I'm from the Western Conference. We score 9 in one minute."

In a weird sort of way, this may have been the Celtics' most impressive win of all. Because despite their absolutely abysmal offense, the C's stayed in the game, and with relentless defensive pressure led by guard Avery Bradley, they eventually managed to turn things around going into the fourth.

"You win games on the defensive end, and that's what we did tonight," Bradley said. "We tried to make everything hard for their guards. I just tried to get them out of their offense, tried to speed them up. Everybody played great team defense tonight."

In the end it wasn't Bradley, but rather Terry of all people making the defensive play of the night. With the Bulls down two and needing a putback off a missed free throw to save the game, they got the ball to Marco Belinelli in the final seconds with a chance for buzzer-beating heroics. Belinelli, who beat the Celtics in the final seconds a month ago, had the chance to do it again, but this time Terry blocked his game-tying shot and the Celtics held on for the win.

"It was a situation similar to last time," Terry said. "The clock's winding down, and it just ends up in this guy's hands. But fortunately, I'd been thinking about it the last two weeks. Watched that game tonight before this game, and if it came down to that again, I told myself I was going to get the stop at all costs."

Indeed he did, and as a result, the Celtics survive. But there's no doubt that the Celtics, despite winning eight of their last nine games and positioning themselves for an upward surge in the East standings, are desperate for this upcoming All-Star break.

"It's coming at the right time," Paul Pierce said. "There's just so many things going on over the last couple weeks for us, mentally and physically. I think this is the perfect time for a break, especially with the injuries we have."

There you have it. The C's are 28-24, looking stronger than they have at any point this season, but a break will do them nothing but good.

Then again, you could argue their break already began yesterday.

Jared Sullinger 'Feeling A Lot Better' Two Weeks After Surgery

evansclinchy — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 00:00:57 -0000

Addressing the media for the first time since back surgery cut his rookie season short on Feb. 1, Celtics forward Jared Sullinger said he has recovered nicely over the last two weeks.

"I'm feeling a lot better," Sullinger said before tonight's game against Chicago. "No pain. Just taking it slow."

Sullinger explained that his back had been a concern since college -- the former Ohio State Buckeye first encountered the injury during a November 2011 game against Duke. He said the back hadn't been bothering him recently, but he always knew the pain might resurface later on.

"I didn't think it was going to come this fast," he said. "Maybe two or three years down the line. But that's what the NBA season does to you. It's a long season, and you're going to have knick-knack injuries. My knick-knack injury led to surgery. I'd rather have it now than later. It was a relief to get it over with."

Sullinger said he suffered excruciating pain the morning after his final game, a Jan. 30 win over Sacramento, to the point where he could hardly walk. He's feeling much better two weeks later, but he's still not doing much in the way of physical activity.

"I can sit at a 120-degree angle in a reclining chair, that's about it," he said. "It's been really different. I actually haven't done anything besides Twitter and playing video games. Catching up on movies, too. That's about it."

The good news, though? Sullinger definitely feels ready to return for the start of the 2013-14 season, and the prospects for his long-term health are all good.

"No long-term limitations," he said. "I should be good for the rest of my life."

Kevin Garnett Says It All After 3OT Win Over Nuggets: 'Man, This Was A Dope Game'

evansclinchy — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 04:41:01 -0000

Does it get any better than this?

If so, I sure haven't seen it in a long while.

Forget the Celtics and their "Can they still win without Rajon Rondo?" identity crisis. Forget the Denver Nuggets and their no-All-Stars, chips-on-their-shoulders success story. Tonight wasn't about over-arching season-long storylines -- tonight was just two great teams, trading blows like heavyweights, overtime after overtime after overtime, 63 minutes in all.

It wasn't perfect by any means -- both Boston and Denver were plagued by blown open looks, sloppy turnovers and missed opportunities -- but it was compelling drama, driven by two teams who absolutely refused to lose. The Nuggets, winners of nine straight games, and the Celtics, winners of six, dueled to the death. Ultimately, the C's wouldn't be denied.

"[Kevin Garnett] looked at everybody and said, 'We are not going to lose this game,'" Avery Bradley said. "We told him, 'We know.'"

KG was eventually proven right by a 118-114 final in triple overtime. They tried to win it in regulation, but Denver's Ty Lawson dashed those hopes by attacking the rim for a driving layup in the final seconds. They tried to win it in the first OT, but Kenneth Faried and JaVale McGee were overpowering and the C's played from behind. They tried to win in the second OT -- that didn't work, either, as Boston fell behind again and needed a desperation Paul Pierce 3-pointer to stay alive.

It wasn't until the third and final overtime that the Celtics prevailed, led by Pierce, Garnett and the much-beleaguered Jason Terry.

"Triple OGs," Terry dubbed Boston's three veterans. "I'll take experience over youth and athleticism any day. When it's a big game, when it's playoffs, when it's the NBA Finals, you've got to have guys that have been there before. If there's a game to be won and you've got us three guys on the floor, you've got a good chance to win it."

Cliche? Maybe. But on this particular night, the C's vets really were the difference.

Terry himself was both a blessing and a curse for the Celtics -- he missed six consecutive 3s late in the game, but he managed to come through in the third overtime, propelling the C's to victory with both a late trey and a key steal against Andre Miller. No matter how many shots he missed, he wouldn't be deterred.

"Jason in the huddle was like, 'Man, we're missing some wide-open looks,'" Pierce said. "Then he was telling me, 'I'm making this next one.' So there was a situation where I drove the lane and I thought I had a shot, but they collapsed on me. Then I saw Jason wide open, and I knew it was going in. I saw the confidence in his eyes, and I knew he'd been there many a time."

"No question," Terry concurred. "I told him, and I told anyone else willing to listen. That's just my motto. That's just how I've been."

As for Pierce, he was the Celtics' MVP. His numbers -- 27 points, 14 rebounds and 14 assists -- spoke for themselves, but perhaps even more notable was the huge 3-pointer he hit at the conclusion of the second overtime, tying the game at 107 and keeping the Celtics alive.

"The original play was Pierce coming off the pick-and-roll, and if he can get a 3 off, get it, and if not, JET," coach Doc Rivers said. "Then it was broken, and Paul just made a play. That's what great players do. I would love to tell you that I had something to do with it, but I was just sitting there like the fans, praying, 'Please, Lord, make a shot.'"

Rivers' prayers were answered. Among Pierce, Terry, Garnett and a smattering of minor contributors, the Celtics had just enough to eke out a great win over a great team.

"That's what we've been doing since we've lost Rondo," said Garnett, who by the way had 20 points and 18 rebounds. "Just playing basketball really hard, putting forth the Grade A effort. This was the NBA at its best. Man, this was a dope game."

That it was, Kevin. That it was. And the seven-game winning streak is fairly dope as well.

Kevin Garnett Makes His Mark On History With 25,000th Career Point

evansclinchy — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 05:07:53 -0000

Tonight's TD Garden showdown between the Celtics and the publicized-to-death Los Angeles Lakers already had enough storylines to begin with.

You had the Celtics, rattling off win after win without Rajon Rondo. The Lakers, struggling to stay in the playoff picture without Pau Gasol, desperately begging Dwight Howard to play through pain. The C's had won five games in a row; the Lakers, six out of seven.

Turns out the outcome was never in question, as Boston built a massive lead in the second quarter and never looked back, amassing a lead as big as 32 before ultimately waltzing off with a 116-95 final.

But enough about the outcome of the game itself. Tonight was about one guy -- ironically, the ultimate team guy, the one guy who never makes it about himself alone.

Here's to Kevin Garnett, whose second-quarter turnaround jumper over the Lakers' Earl Clark gave him 25,000 points in his NBA career. Here's to history.

"I hadn't even noticed," Garnett said afterward. "I think someone said it to me in passing last night, and it kind of went in one ear and out the other."

Typical player cliche, right? And with 99 percent of NBA personnel, you'd call B.S. Of course he noticed. It's only human nature. Paul Pierce said two seasons ago when he eclipsed 20,000 that every player pays attention to their numbers -- they always know when they're one assist or one rebound away from a triple-double, he said. Ray Allen expressed similar sentiments when he broke Reggie Miller's 3-point record in 2011. Selflessness is the ideal, but deep down, every player is cognizant of his own numbers.

With Garnett? He might genuinely be disinterested. But for a milestone like 25K -- one that only 15 other players in league history have reached, including only one active (none other than Kobe Bryant) -- he was at least able to fake it a little.

"To all the coaches and ex-players and current players and systems and organizations that I've played for, I'm more than honored," Garnett said. "Without the systems and coaches and players that put you in position to score the basketball, none of this would have been possible. I try to keep my body up and the pieces together, but so, so many components go into these individual awards, so I just want to say that I'm more than honored."

No one really noticed Garnett's milestone shot when it happened. It was in the flow of the game -- he made the bucket in a nice fluid motion off an assist from Leandro Barbosa, then quickly and quietly made his way down the floor to rebound a Jodie Meeks miss on the other end. For a historic moment, it sure was unheralded.

It wasn't until a timeout three minutes later that the Celtics' P.A. announcer finally acknowledged Garnett's feat, giving his teammates and fans a chance to honor him.

"Kevin has so many accomplishments in this league," said Paul Pierce, who could be seen congratulating Garnett in the team huddle during the timeout. "He's one of the greatest players of all time. Whether it's his scoring, his steals, his rebounds, he's just a remarkable player. I'm happy I've had an opportunity to spend some time with him, on and off the court, share some of these moments with him.

"He's a special player. Not everybody gets a chance to play with a once-in-a-generation player, just to be in the locker room with him, talking, seeing his work each and every day, seeing how he's gotten to this point. It's been a wonderful ride."

What's truly remarkable is that for most of his career, KG has been known mostly for his defense, not for his O. And yet still, he's on an exclusive list to which many, many great players would kill for admission. Larry Bird, Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, David Robinson and Clyde Drexler are among the Hall of Fame guys who never reached 25K. And yet Garnett, the defensive stalwart of this era in Boston, did offensively what none of them could.

"He's a great offensive player," coach Doc Rivers said. "But he's so good defensively that you rarely hear about Kevin being a great offensive player. That just tells you how good he is overall. He's a great passer, he's a great rebounder, he's a great offensive player. I don't know what else there is."

"Kevin was a pretty spectacular offensive player for a large part of his career," said the Lakers' Steve Nash. "He's a good defender, obviously, and especially the last few years, he's really prided himself on that. But he was a tremendous offensive player, and he still can score."

With this individual accolade behind him, though, Garnett can now turn his attention back to his team. The Celtics are rolling now, with six consecutive wins sans Rondo, and they're looking to reassert their authority as a force to be reckoned with in the Eastern Conference. With the trade deadline two weeks away, there's no better time for a revival.

"I don't know what Danny [Ainge] and upper management have up their sleeves as far as making this team better," Garnett said. "But we as players can only control us. Right now, we're in a rhythm. We're moving the ball, like I've said. I hate to sound like a broken record, but we are. We're continuing to consolidate the ball, everybody touching the ball, playing with a lot of confidence, and playing together on both ends. That's important right now."

KG hates to admit it, but his individual accolades are important too. This night belongs to him.

Rajon Who? Post-Rondo Celtics Are 4-0 And Still Improving

evansclinchy — Sun, 03 Feb 2013 22:59:48 -0000

How do you explain the 4-0 week the Celtics have had, bookended by statement wins over title-contending teams? Are they winning because they're a better team without Rajon Rondo, or are they playing harder to compensate for their departed All-Star?

Ask the Celtics themselves, and their answer is... well, in a word, it's "meh." The C's care not for your reductive storylines.

"To tell you the truth, I didn't even know what we'd won in a row," Kevin Garnett said, quickly rejecting the "winning streak" hype. "I just knew we'd been moving the basketball, playing hard as crap, and playing together since we'd lost those two lead guys. But thank you for that information."

These Celtics have always been a confident bunch. For as long as they've had Garnett and Paul Pierce leading the way, they've never bothered with scoreboard-watching or excuse-making. They just keep trucking along. If winning streaks happen, they happen, but they've never been a focus.

More importantly, these C's are concerned with the long-term process of learning to play without Rondo and Jared Sullinger -- a process with which, as shown by today's 106-104 victory over the West titan L.A. Clippers, they are becoming increasingly comfortable.

"It's been a transition," Garnett said. "But we're seeing how it's starting to settle in. Guys are knowing they're going to play, and they're being prepared for that. It's a transition. I don't know where we are in that, but we're going to take it one game at a time and continue to consolidate that responsibility through everybody.

Just as it was in the Celtics' double-OT win over Miami a week ago, it was a complete team effort that helped the C's topple the Clips today. Paul Pierce was again the star, pouring in 22 points including a game-winning dagger on his team's final possession, but he got by with a little help from his friends in this one. Surprisingly, the C's were led by in rebounds (8) by Brandon Bass, and in assists (6) by Jason Terry. There's a sentence you never would have read a week ago.

No doubt, the Celtics are finding different ways to win. That's not a coachspeak cliche -- it's reality, and it's been an ongoing process for the team this past week.

"We have to make pace," coach Doc Rivers said. "We have to go zone and man and try to keep teams off balance. We're switching now. We're doing a lot of different stuff on defense just to create confusion, and hopefully they can't find a matchup. That's what we're trying to do."

This win over the Clips wasn't perfect -- not by a long shot. Boston let a 19-point halftime lead wither down to three in the second half, in fact, and they appeared to be in serious danger of choking this one away late. It was Atlanta all over again, it seemed.

The reasons for the letup were typical Celtic reasons -- fatigue, laziness, weak shot selection, and a general mental haze that allowed the Clippers to creep back into the game. Which is alarming, because there's very little room for error given the team's current personnel.

"We can't be that way anymore," Rivers said. "We just can't. We can't play that way. We won the game, we beat a heck of a team, and I'm very happy with that. But in my mind, we can be better, much better than we were today."

The Celtics won't be letting up now. They've won four straight games, but they're still a lowly eighth in the Eastern Conference, and there's still work to be done. The C's have the Raptors and then the Lakers coming up in the days ahead, and they need to continue executing.

"We've just got to keep doing it," said Avery Bradley. "Don't take steps back. Don't let this four-game winning streak make us get lazy. We have to continue to get better, and that's what we'll do. Doc won't let us slack at all."

"We've still got our goals in the same place," Pierce said. "Ours don't change. Maybe you guys' change, but ours don't."

Paul Pierce, Celtics Persevere Through Injuries To Win Third Straight

evansclinchy — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 04:10:45 -0000

The perfect storm of injuries continued to thunder down on the Celtics today with Jared Sullinger joining teammate Rajon Rondo on the sidelines thanks to a season-ending back injury, but the C's refused to be deterred. Another night, another decisive victory, the team's third straight. Again, the outcome was never in doubt, and Boston coasted to a 97-84 victory on the TD Garden floor.

Does it help that the opponent was lowly Orlando, 14-32 on the season, the Celtics' second cupcake matchup in as many games? Yeah, sure. But regardless of the team in the other locker room, it was good for the C's morale just to prove they're not dead yet. Two of their key players are gone and not walking through that door, but the rest of them fight on.

"We have a job to do still," Paul Pierce said. "We can't look at this and say it's time to stop playing. All of us have responsibilities as NBA players to show up and play as hard as we can in practice and in the games, and try to win as many games as possible. The goal still hasn't changed. We've just got to keep guys in line with what we're trying to accomplish around here. Don't use injuries as an excuse, and just move on."

Pierce in particular is plowing forward. Recognizing that his team lacked its leading assist man (Rondo) and its leading per-minute rebounder (Sullinger), the captain stepped up and gave his team a little bit of help in each area. Pierce finished with a near-triple double -- 14 points, 11 rebounds, seven assists -- giving him three straight games with double-digit boards.

"He's our rebounder," coach Doc Rivers said of Pierce. "He's one of them. He has to be. I mean, he literally has to be a rebounder for us."

He's got to be a lot of things. Playing a little bit of power forward, a little bit of point forward, a little bit of a wing scorer, and everywhere in between, Pierce fueled the Celtics. There was no Rondo and no Sullinger, but the captain channeled a little bit of both of them.

"I'm just trying to play to my abilities," he said. "I'm capable of doing a little bit of everything. Just trying to give the game what it needs, regardless of whether it's playing in Rondo's role, or Sully's role as a rebounder. I'm just trying to fill the needs. Whatever this ballclub needs."

Pierce led by example, but a lot of his teammates contributed as well. Jeff Green came off the bench for an explosive 17 points, highlighted by a couple of memorable dunks; Kevin Garnett turned in a tidy 14 and 10 with three steals; and Jason Terry continued to climb out of his recent slump, kicking in 12 points on 4-of-8 shooting.

"I told y'all when Rondo went down that everyone would have to pick up the load," Garnett said. "Now that it's Jared? Even more. Jared was a great rebounder for us, a great facilitator, but now guys are getting opportunities, and like I said with Rondo, it's going to fall on the backs of everybody. I thought tonight was a perfect example of that."

"One of the things we talked about before the game is don't try to be different," Rivers said. "Just do what you do, do what we've asked you to do, don't do anything more. Just play each game as a single game. We've got to have that type of focus for us to be a good team now."

The Celtics haven't proven much yet. Beating the Kings and Magic, both at home, won't impress anyone; we won't really know what this team's made of until the Clippers, Lakers and Nuggets put them to test in the week ahead. But for now, the C's are treading water, making a statement that they're not dead yet.

"We don't back up," Rivers said. "We just keep moving forward. That's the way we've got to approach it."

Doc, Danny: Don't Hold Your Breath On More Minutes For Fab Melo

evansclinchy — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 00:30:04 -0000

With the recent injuries to Rajon Rondo and Jared Sullinger, the Celtics have moved rookie center Fab Melo onto the active roster, recalling him from the Maine Red Claws of the D-League. But the C's brass were quick to clarify tonight that Melo's presence doesn't necessarily imply heavy minutes for the youngster right away.

"I don't think you have to worry about that," coach Doc Rivers said with a laugh when asked about the prospect of overusing the rookie Melo. "You try to give him as much as he can handle. You do try to put him in situations like when he's on the floor, Kevin [Garnett] is on the floor with him, to help him."

While today's news of the season-ending back injury to Sullinger does mean more minutes to go around, they might not be Melo's. The Celtics are in an awkward position depth-wise, as their bench already included two backup centers (Chris Wilcox, Jason Collins) and no real power forwards behind Sullinger.

Considering the C's have vowed to embrace the small-ball approach without Sully around, it's difficult to see where Melo fits in.

"There's not a ton of opportunities for Fab to play right now," executive Danny Ainge said. "The center spot is probably our deepest spot, with KG and Wilcox and Collins playing, all healthy. So I don't know. We'll see how he progresses. We still want him to play, so we may be sending him up and down this year."

Doc Rivers: Celtics Will 'Have To Play Differently' Without Jared Sullinger

evansclinchy — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 00:15:24 -0000

For the second time this week, the Celtics have suffered a season-ending injury to a key player, and for the second time this week, they'll have to fight through the adversity and play on. Another game awaits, as the C's face the Orlando Magic at the TD Garden tonight.

"I told the team after shootaround that our goals haven't changed," coach Doc Rivers said. "We will have to play differently again. We're still working on what we may have to do, but I think we definitely have to be a small-ball team. We'll start big as usual with Brandon [Bass] and Kevin [Garnett], but then after that, we're just have to put our five best players on the floor. We'll have to be creative."

Rivers said that with Sullinger missing and the C's lacking for a backup power forward behind Bass, he'll have to rely on Paul Pierce and Jeff Green to slide into the four-spot. Both players will have to rebound more, filling the void left by Sullinger and his 5.9 boards per game.

"He was playing great," the coach said. "The good news is now we know he can play. He's a very good player, and in the long run, this will make him healthier."

With both Sullinger and Rajon Rondo on the shelf, the depleted Celtics look ahead to Orlando tonight, and the mighty L.A. Clippers on Sunday. There's no time to sit and sulk.

"It's tough because I feel like we still are a good team," said team executive Danny Ainge. "It's a tough blow. We'll just have to find a different way to win."

"Like Doc's said, everybody else can write us off, but the guys in here, we can't write each other off," said Courtney Lee. "We've got to go out there, continue to fight, continue to play for each other, play hard."

Avery Bradley, Courtney Lee Lead Celtics Boldly Into Post-Rondo Era

evansclinchy — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 04:50:14 -0000

If there's one thing that's become crystal clear in the 72-plus hours since the news broke of Rajon Rondo's season-ending injury, it's this: There will be no quick fixes in the post-Rondo era. There's no magic elixir that cures a torn ACL overnight, and there's no All-Star caliber point guard sitting on the waiver wire, waiting to save the day. No -- if the Celtics are going to remain competitive without their superstar, it's going to be a slow and gradual process.

But man. For one shining evening at the TD Garden, it sure looked like that process was moving along just fine.

Seven Celtics had multiple assists tonight, but none had more than five, as a complete team effort was enough to topple the visiting Sacramento Kings, 99-81. The C's didn't have Rondo, but they had cohesion and poise on the offensive end. They made 13 consecutive field goal attempts in the second quarter to build a massive lead, and they never relinquished it. From there, it was smooth sailing.

"It's hard to replace Rondo, but we just have to use teamwork," Avery Bradley said. "Everybody passes the ball. Everybody makes plays for each other. Rondo made it easy for everybody, so now we have to make it easier as a team, getting the ball to our playmakers. The ball moved a lot tonight, and everybody played well."

"The chemistry, it's about repetition, just doing it over and over again," coach Doc Rivers said. "Keeping it simple, really. Every time we tried to dance with the ball or do too much with the ball, we turned the ball over and took a bad shot. That's all I talked about before the game -- if you're guarded, pass it. If you're open and it's your shot, shoot it; if not, pass it. That's all I wanted them to do, and I thought they did a great job of it tonight."

By moving Courtney Lee into the starting five to replace Rondo, Rivers has built a dynamic duo of starting guards. Lee and Bradley run up and down the floor together; they play relentless ball-hawking defense together. Together, the two of them have learned to control the tempo of a game.

"We definitely complement each other on the defensive end and the offensive end," Bradley said. "We're both able to bring the ball up, and on defense, when I'm pressuring a guy and I get tired, Courtney pressures him. He compliments me a lot. He's a great player, a great teammate."

With Bradley and Lee in the fold together, the Celtics have an amazing one-two punch running up and down the floor. All the talk when Bradley returned from injury was about Rondo finally having a "running partner" to add a transition element to Boston's game -- but as it turns out, the Celtics' running game this season will stem not from Bradley and Rondo, but from Bradley and Lee.

"That's one of the things me and Courtney told each other before the game," Bradley said. "We said, 'Get it and go.' That's what we were doing -- we were literally getting it and passing it, pushing it up the floor. That's how we have to play. It's hard to play a team like that. Miami plays like that, a lot of teams play like that. That's how we have to play."

It's only been three days, but the Celtics have already forged for themselves a new identity for the post-Rajon Rondo portion of this season. They defend like pitbulls, they run, they move the ball, and their energetic defense fuels their energetic offense, play after play. No one guy can replace Rondo, but as a team, the C's can come together.

"Everybody's going to have expanded roles," Paul Pierce said. "A little more ball-handling out of Courtney Lee, a little bit more ball-handling out of myself, more out of Avery, Jason Terry. A lot of guys have a little bit more responsiblities now, and they've got to be responsible with it. Everybody played the right way -- no one felt like they had to take all the shots tonight, we all moved the ball. That's how we have to play for the rest of the season."

It starts with a win over lowly Sacramento. We'll see where it goes from there.

Celtics Unveiling Point Guard By Committee Without Rajon Rondo

evansclinchy — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 23:59:10 -0000

When the Celtics host the Sacramento Kings at the TD Garden tonight, they'll be doing it with Rajon Rondo nowhere to be seen. With their All-Star point guard sidelined by a torn ACL, the C's now look ahead to the challenge of playing without their fallen floor general.

"We understand that we don't have him," coach Doc Rivers said. "It's another challenge, and I think everybody will be up for it."

Without Rondo and his league-leading 11.1 assists per game, the offense will look a little different. The C's aren't looking for a "replacement," per se. There's no replacing Rondo -- no journeyman point guard sitting on the free-agency scrap heap with the court vision and playmaking brilliance of the C's superstar. Instead, the team will look for a collective effort. Playmaking by committee.

"It's got to be our ball movement," Rivers said. "We don't have a guy anymore that's talented enough to hold the ball and create plays with his eyes and orchestrate. That's just not who we are anymore. So when you don't have a shot and you can't make a play, you have to make a quicker decision to move the ball. That's it. It's just that simple."

The Celtics' starting guards going forward will be Courtney Lee and Avery Bradley, neither of whom is typically billed as a point guard. And at least for now, neither one of them will assume that role on a full-time basis.

"It doesn't matter," Lee said. "Either one of us is going to be the point guard. We worked on it in practice -- Avery started off running the plays, but then in transition, if I get the rebound, I'll be able to run the plays and whatnot. It's the same thing with Paul [Pierce], too. You can look at all of us as point guards."

So the C's have zero point guards in their lineup, but in a way, they have five. Take that for what it's worth.

Celtics Try To Maintain Optimism After Dropping Fifth Straight To Knicks

evansclinchy — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 06:01:50 -0000

Considering the gloom and doom that surrounded the third game in their current losing streak, the mood following loss number five for the Celtics really wasn't that bad. As teams on five-game losing streaks go, these C's are relatively calm and collected, keeping things in perspective with half a long season still to go.

Yes, Boston lost for the fifth time in nine days tonight against the visiting New York Knicks. Yes, this game was marred by all of the Celtics' usual problems -- ugly turnovers, bad shot selection, the general offensive malaise that's turned them into a below-average team on that end of the floor this season.

But the Celtics are taking this one in stride. Despite trailing by double digits late, they eventually took the Knicks, one of the NBA's elite teams this season, down to the very last possession. They saw some positives despite coming up in the end, an 89-86 final.

"This was a hard-played game tonight," coach Doc Rivers said. "This was a playoff-type game. Baskets were hard to come by; guys were flying out at each other. This was the way the playoffs look. If I saw that effort every night, I'd be very happy."

The Celtics shot just 40.8 percent on the night; they held the Knicks to even worse, at 38.6 percent. Each team forced the other to settle for jump shots time and time again, and most of them rimmed out.

The C's defense was strong tonight, forcing New York's Carmelo Anthony to take 28 shots to finish with his 28 points and holding J.R. Smith to a miserable 3-of-16 shooting clip. A couple weeks ago, the offense was strong. The Celtics are still looking to put the two together.

"I really liked the effort," Paul Pierce said of the close loss. "I liked the way we competed tonight. But we've got to do it night in and night out. Our offense definitely has to get better. There’s nights where our offense is really letting us down when we put this type of effort on defense in."

"It's frustrating to lose when you give effort," Rivers said. "You've got to keep convincing your guys that if you play that way every night, you're going to make more shots than that, and you're going to win a lot of games. Right now, they're just sitting there thinking, 'We lost.' But they know it. They know that with that effort, they're going to win most nights."

This five-game skid has been taxing for the Celtics. Not all the losses have been close games with good teams -- after a 15-point blowout at Detroit four days ago, Rivers was threatening to make big changes, to send guys packing. Now, the Celtics still aren't winning, but they remain optimistic.

"I like our group," said Rajon Rondo. "I like our guys. We have a talented group of guys, guys that listen.

"But right now, we're not getting it done. It's like night and day -- we won six in a row, we were firing on all cylinders, but right now we don't have all five guys playing well for 48 minutes at a time. We've just got to pick it up, collectively as a team and individually as well."

It's a long season. The Celtics may be 20-22 at the moment, but they began last year 15-17 as well, and things turned out OK.

For the Celtics, who hopped on a plane to Atlanta tonight, it's full speed ahead.

"We've just got to keep going at this thing," said Kevin Garnett. "We definitely don't point fingers around here. We're going to keep working as a group."

Celtics Rediscovering Identity Over Five-Game Winning Streak

evansclinchy — Sat, 12 Jan 2013 05:13:12 -0000

There's something fundamentally different about these Celtics. Watching them now, it's difficult to believe they're the same team who, just nine days ago, sat at 14-17, outside the East playoff picture and looking in. That group was battered, bruised and disillusioned; this team has won five consecutive games, against good teams, and rather convincingly at that.

The Jan. 11 Celtics are nothing like the Jan. 2 club. This team has spirit. They have competitiveness. They have -- at long last -- an identity.

Sure, "identity" is usually a useless, insipid buzzword in sports. It's revisionism -- good teams have identity because they're good and bad teams lack it because they're bad. But with this Celtic team, the term has a very specific meaning. It means everyone has an established role -- the starters are the starters, the bench guys are the bench guys, and each player does the job he was planning to do all along this season.

The chain reaction began a week ago, when Avery Bradley made his second appearance of the season and Brandon Bass started alongside him for the first time, reuniting the starting five that had carried the Celtics to the Eastern Conference finals last season. That unit played its game -- methodical pace, hard-nosed defense, fundamental unselfish team basketball -- and in turn, the second unit came into its own.

Courtney Lee and Jason Terry are now full-time reserves; Jared Sullinger and Jeff Green are chugging along with them. Each player fits beautifully into his assigned place, and each player has contributed nicely to the Celtics' winning streak.

The C's have now won five straight games, largely thanks to an exciting, rejuvenating young guard. Ironically, win No. 5 came tonight against the Houston Rockets and Jeremy Lin, who knows all about winning streaks fueled by exciting, rejuvenating young guards.

"Avery's return has helped," Doc Rivers said after this latest win, 103-91 over Lin and the visiting Rockets. "The second unit is the second unit now. JET's not in the first unit, or Courtney. It's pretty solidified who the second unit is. Now when we practice, that group's always together."

Together, that second unit has found a rhythm. Lee played suffocating defense on James Harden off the bench tonight, helping the Celtics to become the first team to hold Harden under 25 points since... well, the Celtics, who also accomplished the feat on Dec. 14. Meanwhile Green gave the team energy and explosiveness, including a pair of thunderous dunks that helped the C's to a double-digit lead in the second quarter. Sullinger chipped in 14 points and 11 rebounds, the second consecutive double-double for the inspired rookie.

"We've been working on it for the longest time," Sullinger said of the second unit's flow. "We've finally got it going now. I think Avery really put everybody back where they need to be. We've got Courtney coming off the bench now, we've got Jason coming off the bench now. Now everyone's back to the roles that they're used to."

As a matter of fact, it was the bench guys who saved the Celtics' bacon in this one. The C's let up a 10-0 Houston run early; a flurry of misses from Rajon Rondo, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett led to a big Rockets lead. It wasn't until Rivers yanked the starters and leaned heavily on Sullinger and Lee that things began to turn.

"Our bench was huge," Rivers said. "Our bench tonight, that's what saved the game for us. At the end of the first and through most of the second quarter, we left them out there. They're just playing so free, so together. They're defending -- that's the big difference, they're defending now. When they get stops, they can run, and there's no ball pressure that can be put on them without having a quote-unquote 'point guard' on the floor. They've been really good."

"The bench is helping us," agreed Garnett. "The bench is keeping us all in rhythm. The bench is saving us. Everybody who's coming off the bench is giving us great minutes. The combination of Courtney Lee and Avery is a hell of a combination. It's hard to beat us now."

It sure is. Not only have these Celtics won five straight games, but with their next two being Charlotte and New Orleans, both at home and both fully rested, they're likely headed for seven straight.

Nine days ago, this team was reeling; now, they've got their sights set on a return to the East's elite.

"We're just playing hard," Sullinger said. "We're in a groove right now."

Avery Bradley Bolsters Celtics' Defense In Decisive Win Over Pacers

evansclinchy — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 04:40:59 -0000

The Celtics entered tonight's game against the Indiana Pacers at the TD Garden winless since Christmas, desperate for any signs of life they could find, any way possible of ending the four-game losing skid that had dropped them under .500 on the season.

What they found was the perfect cure -- a breakout game for defensive stud Avery Bradley, and with it, a ripple effect through the entire team defensively.

The result? A blowout win over a strong Indy ballclub, a 94-75 smackdown that was never in doubt from the second quarter on.

"It's funny," coach Doc Rivers mused postgame. "Avery was 3-for-11, but he may have been the most valuable player tonight. His defensive pressure on the ball made them take so much time to get into their sets. And when they got into their sets, it wasn't in the right spot. They had to throw it to places they didn't want to. It allowed our entire defense to be dominant."

Were they ever. The Pacers' 75 points were a season low for any Celtic opponent, and even reaching 75 required a sudden burst of offense in garbage time. With seven minutes to go, the Celtics' lead was a laughable 81-59 -- it was only after Rajon Rondo and Paul Pierce were on the bench and Kevin Garnett was ejected that Indy could make the score even respectable.

The defensive domination began with Bradley. The Celtics had been struggling for weeks to find their rhythm defensively, and they needed a shakeup. Bradley, who finally returned Wednesday after a long road back from double shoulder surgery, was a breath of fresh air. He applied constant full-court pressure on the Pacers' primary ball handler, play after play after play, and he wouldn't relent. His aggression freed Rondo up to focus his energy elsewhere, and it made everyone else's job easier in turn.

"I think it's important because Rondo doesn't have the guard the ball up and down the floor every single time," Rivers said. "Point guard is hard. You've got to guard the ball, then you've got to bring it up the floor under pressure. When you've got another guy and you can say, 'You guard the ball, and I'll just run back,' that gives you a lot of juice. It helps. And I think it really helps Rondo."

"That's what I try to bring every night," Bradley said of his ball pressure. "I try to bring that intensity on the defensive end. I know that's my role, to bring the energy when I come into the game. I try to make it hard on the opponent every single night. I just try to make it hard on them, and that's what I did tonight."

Bradley isn't a finished product yet. Not two games in. He's basically only scoring on wide-open transition opportunities -- his aggressive midrange game isn't there yet, and his much-ballyhooed corner 3-point shot is still rusty as well. He's still a non-factor for the most part on offense, forcing Rondo to step up and carry even more of the workload than usual on that end.

But his D? That's game-changing. He only had one steal, one block and one defensive rebound, but his pressure on the Pacers' ball handlers was stat-defyingly brilliant, and it made everyone around him better. It also left everyone in the Boston locker room praising him.

"It just means I'm taking steps forward," Bradley said of his teammates' support. "I've just got to continue to get better and better."

With that attitude, you've got to like his chances. And maybe, just maybe, you could say he's got this Celtic team moving in the right direction.