Somewhere in Lincoln, MA, Paul Pierce is very pissed off.
Last time the Celtics found themselves skidding, the catch saying was “how Rondo goes, so go the Celtics.” We wanted Rondo to take it to the basket, to not be afraid to shoot the ball, and to come out and play with consistency. He’s pretty much turned that corner. He’s there. So how is it possible for the Celtics to come up short when Rondo goes for 30 points and 15 assists? Against the Warriors. After losing to the Clippers the night before. We were all caught off guard when Paul Pierce went down with a knee infection- but after beating the Magic without him, this back to back against the Clippers and the Warriors was the NBA schedule God’s gift to the Celtics. And they come up 0 for 2. To add insult to injury, Rondo tweaked his hamstring and Baby, playing in only his third game of the season, sprained an ankle and left the arena wearing a boot, unable to walk on the foot. So for now, I’m going to say this: As Perk goes, so go the Celtics.
Rondo had a phenomenal game Christmas Day, dazzling on national TV while making Jameer Nelson look pretty sub-par. He almost played the complete game, going for seventeen points, thirteen rebounds and eight assists. But my Dad and I agreed- as much as Rondo left his stamp on that game, Perk was also a huge difference maker. His numbers pretty much sucked- four personal fouls (racking up two in the first minutes of the game), four rebounds and six points, but his impact was huge. As was aforementioned, Perk got in to foul trouble early, but he remained composed and he made Dwight Howard have a bad game. Superman played forty plus minutes… Forty plus long minutes of pouting and brick after brick. He went one for seven and was so disjointed offensively that he fell off his defensive game a little bit. Kendrick Perkins presence in that game was ubiquitous because in only twenty minutes of play he managed to throw DH off his game for forty eight minutes by playing physical, lock-down defense when he was on the floor. Looking at the box score after the game, I was surprised that Perk only played twenty minutes, because it seemed like so much more. So where has the beat-you-down- the-floor-every-time, offensively versatile, defense beast, and double-double machine Kendrick Perkins gone?
He wasn’t in LA against the Clippers. Chris Kaman ran laps around Perk all game, scoring at will while Perk turned the ball over four times, and only scored 9 points and grabbed 6 rebounds. And as for his performance in Oakland last night- he got off to a great start. The first quarter was pretty solid and played great defense, contesting every shot that went up- and the Celtics got off to a fast start, racing off to an 18 point lead. His game went downhill after the first and he ended up with 4 turnovers, 8 points and another technical in the fourth quarter (I’m not too mad about the technical. Yes- he has too many, but those refs were AWFUL. The Celtics were whistled for all kinds of ticky tack fouls and got nothing in return. I’m on to you, David Stern). The Celtics need solid, thirty plus minute performances from Perk, like the ones he was putting up for the majority of the season. He was doing a great job of staying out of foul trouble and on the floor. He was playing clamp down defense to the point where nobody wanted to come in the paint against the Celtics, and was a threat on the offensive end, both in scoring and really seeing the floor and passing the ball well. When he plays like that, it eases some of the load off of the other four starters and makes the starting five that much harder to defend against. And to top it all off, it all looked completely effortless. He was the unsung hero of the team. With Baby, Paul and Marquis out, the team needs those kinds of performances from him that much more. Can the real Kendrick Perkins please, please, please be sure to show up in Phoenix?
This is not to say that Perk is the only one who’s been off his game the past two nights- everyone has. Literally every guy in green has had their moments of complete and utter wack-ness in the past forty eight hours. I won’t even get in to Rasheed missing that dunk. Speaking of Rasheed- am I the only one who’s noticed that sometimes he shoots three pointers like they’re free throws, heaving it up and not jumping? It tends to go in at a higher percentage when he actually elevates on the shot. Oh fatigue. These are hard times- and a lot of unfortunate things came to a head at once during this two game skid- mainly jetlag, young competition and heavy minutes for everyone because Paul and Marquis are out. These are not excuses. At the end of the day, both games were completely winnable and got away.
I thought that with Paul and Marquis out, we would have gotten the chance to see a little bit of Bill Walker and JR Giddens. Wouldn’t it have been a good time? They’re young, crazy athletic and rested. During the long winter days of December, couldn’t the Celtics have used that kind of help? And isn’t that what the Clippers and Warriors needed to be hit with? At least for a short spurt? Plus I’m just really curious to see what’s there.
