Thoughts on a rainy Monday
Friday afternoon, in a very unfortunate series of events, I erroneously boarded a train to Philadelphia instead of to Boston, so I missed the return of KG and the first win in four games for the Celtics. So, since I didn’t see the game, I’m unable to make any real commentary on it. A lot of people have said the win wasn’t great because they Celtics needed overtime to put the shorthanded Blazers away. Even without seeing the game, I can say that the Celtics are a much better team than the way they played on Friday. I’m sure that if I had been watching and I saw Ray missing everything he put up (except when it really mattered), I would have known we were going to be in for a long night. Big ups to Tony Allen for stepping in after Paul Pierce fouled out and holding things down. At the end of the day, what this team needed was a win, and they got it. That’s all that really matters. That being said, what they need to do is continue to win. Duh. And they especially need to win at home, because they’ve been giving games away in Boston. They have an opportunity to protect the home court tonight against the Clippers. Once upon a time last season, the Clippers were an automatic win. That’s no longer the case, as the Clippers have already defeated the Celtics (it should be noted that KG played but was hurting and Paul didn’t play. But a loss is a loss) once this season and have also come out with wins against the Lakers, Nuggets and Grizzlies (yes, I think the Grizzlies are really good). They also almost beat Cleveland, losing by one point… if only that mattered. Anyways, a couple of keys to this game:
1) Minimize the effectiveness of Baron Davis and Chris Kaman. Luckily for the Celtics, Davis and Kaman will be defended by two of the Celtics best defenders for the majority of the game, in Rondo and Perk respectively. Baron Davis is a bigger guy than Rondo, and he’s not going to play nice and hang around the perimeter. He can score from outside, but he’s also skilled at taking the ball to the rim. What Rondo gives up to Davis in size, he makes up for in speed and athletic ability. It’s important for Rondo to stay in front of Davis and force him to stay outside, and not to try and get 10 steals… even though he could, because he’s ill like that. You may remember that Baron Davis is the one who scored at the buzzer to lift the Clippers over the Celtics last time. Not again. Stay in front of him.
Chris Kaman ran circles around Perk last time these teams met up, dropping 27, while Perk only managed to put up nine. To be fair Perk shot four for five that night, so the Celtics should make an effort to get him more offensively involved tonight. If the Celtics take it inside consistently and make Kaman work on both ends of the floor, it will do a lot to slow him down offensively. KG played during the last match up, but it was his last game before getting pulled from the lineup and he was not himself. Needless to say, an active KG will put further pressure on Kaman.
2) Win the battle of the boards. This is less of a specific to this game; it’s more so applicable to all of their games. They’ve been getting squashed on the boards and second chance points are a killer, especially for a team like the Celtics, who exert so much energy on defense. The Celtics actually out rebounded the Clippers last time, but Marcus Camby wasn’t playing and he makes a huge difference. Last night he had 20 rebounds. The Clippers had 33 in total last time they played the Celtics. Instead of taking off down the floor once they see a shot goes up, as has been their practice as of late, guys need to stay home and secure the rebound.
With a really tough stretch coming up against ATL, Orlando and the Lakers, I hope the Celtics will find a way to get a nice, comfortable win tonight.
Lastly, an unrelated aside: Marquis Daniels has had his cast removed and has been practicing. Yay! His return will be huge because he’s a steady presence and does a little bit of everything. He will improve the play of Eddie House, handle the ball in the second unit and lessen minutes for Ray. It was originally said that he wasn’t going to return until after the all star break, which is around Valentines Day, but now they said he might be activated by February 10. Let’s not rush.
