Celtics 108, Bulls 80
The Celtics looked pretty crappy in the first quarter and I thought we might be in for a long night. Shots were front rimming, the Celtics were going basket for basket with the Bulls for awhile and they were being sloppy with the ball. But somehow, with the big three only playing around 25 minutes a piece, they turned a pretty ugly first quarter (or, as the Bulls commentators were calling it, an evenly matched first quarter) in to a blow out win. It must be said that the Bulls aren’t in a good place right now, but still. The game gave us all yet another reason to shower effusive praise on Rondo. He went 6 for 13 from the field, and those shot attempts didn’t all come right at the basket. With every game that passes he looks more and more comfortable in his jump shot, and you can tell he’s gaining confidence because his avoidance of the free throw line has significantly diminished. He’s taking it to the basket and initiating contact. He shot four for five from the line… Oh and he dished out 14 assists and grabbed 7 boards- *beaming.* Rondo is the best point guard in the Eastern Conference, sorry naysayers.
The bench held it down and played well. Eddie is a streak shooter, so it is what it is- he’s been having a hard time getting his shot from downtown going, but he’ll keep on putting it up and they’ll start to fall. Even without connecting from downtown, he did a good job of running the offense and protecting the ball. ‘Sheed has been playing in the post more, and I like it. I think he’s still getting in to shape, so there’s no need for him to be launching bombs when he can still have his way down low and get easy baskets against most defenders. He’s also been playing really good defense as of late. TA did not have a repeat stellar performance- but it wasn’t bad, either. We learned that he can not come off the bench as the primary ball handler because in around 12 minutes of play he turned the ball over twice. On the plus side, he played good defense, looked pretty fast and confident on his legs, grabbed two offensive rebounds and had a steal. So the process continues- but as long as he doesn’t try to do too much and his health holds up, I think he’ll be a nice, solid contributor off of the bench. Shelden also got a decent amount of minutes, and I was happy to see that. I like Shelden because there are no frills in his game. He knows his role and never tries to go outside of it. You can count on Shelden to go out and play hard every night. He does all the stuff that’s important but nobody wants to do- like when nobody else on the Celtics felt like rebounding for a couple games there, he was out there crashing the boards and banging bodies on every possession on both ends of the floor and he runs the floor every possession (even if he’s not very fast, the effort is still there). When Marquis and Baby come back, the Celtics will have 7 guys who can come in off the bench and make a difference.
As was aforementioned, I thought the Celtics came out kinda slow against Chicago but got it together and banged out a pretty impressive performance. I don’t think they’re playing to their full potential though. I’ve been reading all these articles saying that the Celtics are playing in “championship form.” I don’t think so. I think this team is a lot better than what they’ve showed us so far, and I think they’re going to continue to get better. They go up against Memphis tonight, and I don’t really care what the Grizzlies record is- I think they’re a formidable opponent. They rolled over Miami last night. Rudy Gay dropped 41 and OJ Mayo can also pile up the points in a hurry. But here’s what worries me the most about them: last night they out rebounded Miami 49-26, grabbing offensive rebounds on almost half of their misses. The Celtics can not allow them to dominate on the boards like that or they’ll be headed towards the same fate as the Heat. Aside from banging the boards, the Celtics have to come out strong- Miami came out tentative last night and got buried. Since Memphis just played last night and their bench is not very deep, the Celtics should exploit that by hitting them with waves of fresh legs… And hopefully Mr. Gay will have cooled off some. This would be a good night for Paul and Eddie to get back on the offensive track.
