khandor’s sports blog

Craig Kwasniewski [The Association], a die-hard LA Lakers fan and season-ticket holder, smacks one a clear country mile, when reviewing the precise reasons why the Boston Celtics SHOULD simply “stay the course” with their latter-day version of the Big Three:

Celtics Should Keep Ray Allen for One Last Ride with The Big Three

I think it’s insane to break up The Big Three so soon after hanging banner 17.  Shouldn’t they be allowed to give it one last shot together?  Shouldn’t we consider that this might be a rough patch in a long season?  Why break up a good thing so quickly, did you not forget the 22-year championship drought?

Anyway, here are a few reasons why the C’s should keep Ray Allen and give The Big Three one last chance at a title:

The long regular season. Relax Boston… I know it’s cold and miserable back east and the long winter is getting to you but you really need to be reminded how The Association works.  The NBA regular season is a very long 82-games over six months. Mix in preseason and hopefully a long postseason and you’re looking at a 8 or 9 month season. Veteran teams always seem to hit a lull somewhere between Christmas and Easter. It’s impossible to bring playoff efforts when your key players are in their 30’s… it’s just not possible (and the ones that did, like the Pat Riley Heat teams in the late 90’s collapsed in a heap by playoff time).  Just ride out this rough patch, usually teams find their second wind around March Madness.

Don’t be so quick to blow up the Big Three.  Counting playoffs The Big Three era has lasted about 2 1/2 seasons for a total of 253 games.  Actually that sounds like a good number of games… a good run at legitimate title contention, right?  Not really when you consider that the C’s were last legit contenders when Bird retired in 1992.  That’s 15 seasons with 6 brief postseason appearances (and only one conference championship appearance in 2001-02 with the Jim O’Brien chuck-and-duck era) for a grand total of 1,275 games.  Suddenly 253 games doesn’t sound like a lot does it?  Maybe you might want to remember the long drought before sending off a future hall-of-fame guard for a quick fix.

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In the judgment of yours truly, Craig’s take is 100% on the money.

Although Ubuntu! may not have enough left in the tank this season to be able to actually win-it-all, again … with the Lakers, Magic and Cavaliers being as strong as they are right now … it sure as heck DESERVES THE OPPORTUNITY TO TRY, at least, ONE MORE TIME, even bloodied and battered.

Simple put … that’s THE RIGHT STUFF of which True Champions are made, whether or not they, in fact, succeed on the court together.

Despite winning the 2007-2008 NBA Championship, there are certain many? individuals, who are highly active in the on-line hoops community, that consistently attempt to put down the effectiveness of Doc Rivers’ coaching.

In reality, however …

What Doc keeps doing, repeatedly, is simply knocking ‘em outside the yard … with coaching expertise like this:

Example 1, via specific play design

Example 2, via specific verbal communication with his players

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Rivers won’t go with flow

They were words spoken when a team loses a game it should have won, and after blowing an 11-point halftime lead to the Magic yesterday at home, someone in the Celtics’ locker room said them.

“We’re better than Orlando.’’

For the benefit of those who may not have read it yet …

Can Toronto Build a Winner Around Bosh
When we put the entire picture together, it doesn’t look too good for fans of Toronto.  The Raptors will still employ the services of Calderon and Bosh, and these players produced about 21 wins last year.  And it’s possible that Turkoglu, Jack, Evans, and Johnson can contribute another 15 wins.  After these players, though, who else is going to produce significant quantity of wins?  And if no one else produces much, how will Bosh believe that the Raptors are building a contender?

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is a first-rate take by David Berri on the Raptors’ current situation.

Since his arrival in the NBA, 6 seasons ago, Chris Bosh has firmly established himself as one of the very best Big Men in the League … with an individual game that’s unique, as an under-sized Center, and in need of support from a group of talented teammates. Unfortunately, what has also happened during this same time-frame, repeatedly, is that the team’s ownership group [i.e. MLSE] and upper management have demonstrated an inability to make sound basketball-related decisions around him, based on an over-riding Plan of Attack geared toward the building of a championship-winning calibre team in Toronto, through the proper acquisition and retention of Top Notch NBA talent, which includes executives, coaches, support staff and players.

Understanding exactly what the Boston Celtics actually did 3 summers ago to transform their team into a legitimate title contender:

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1. Retain the services of a very good and already-proven NBA head coach;
2. Hold onto their already-established franchise player [i.e. Paul Pierce];
3. Trade an upcoming top draft pick for a 2nd established franchise player [i.e. Ray Allen];
4. Include their younger burgeoning talent [i.e. i. Al Jefferson, ii. Ryan Gomes, and iii. Sebastien Telfair] in a major trade for a 3rd “stud” player [i.e. The Big Ticket];
5. Keep a bedrock player like Kendrick Perkins [C], as a building block for their future team;
6. Draft another young stud at the PG position [i.e. Rajon Rondo], who other teams over-looked/under-valued; and, then,
7. Filled out the remainder of its roster with very serviceable players with great attitudes who were committed to winning a championship above all else.

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means that all is NOT lost for the Raptors, as long as they begin to identify accurately what their actual strengths and weaknesses are, relative to their competition.

What “regular Raptors fans” need to do is spend some more time figuring out who on their team fits properly into the corresponding roles of Wyc Grousbeck [i.e. MLSE?], Danny Ainge [i.e. Bryan Colangelo?], Doc Rivers [i.e. Jay Triano?], Paul Pierce [i.e. Chris Bosh!] and Ray Allen [?], Kevin Garnett [?], and Al Jefferson [i.e. Andrea Bargnani!!!], etc., and less time putting down the 5th best player in the brief history of the team [i.e. CB4] and his designated running mate [i.e. El Matador].

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PS. Those who think that Danny Ainge [GM] was operating without an over-riding Plan of Attack, based on his Basketball Acumen, simply do not know how the NBA actually works, or how a team needs to go about building a championship-winning organization, at the highest level of competition.

When it comes to evaluating the effectiveness of NBA players properly, here’s an all-time great [i.e. insightful] quote from Glenn [Doc] Rivers yesterday:

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Rondo aims for an A in ‘D’

re: How an astute NBA observer might expect the first part of the schedule to unfold for the Raptors this year

Game 17 – at Boston [Fri Nov 27]

When healthy, this group of Celtics is too much for the Raptors to handle, with the only match-up advantage, in Toronto’s favour, deep on the bench.

Since the baseline 2005-2006 season …

these two teams have, in fact, gone in opposite directions in the Atlantic Division, with the Celtics re-asserting themselves as the dominant organization in the EC, on the whole, and the Raptors sinking back towards the bottom of the standings.

In sharp contrast to a large percentage of other Raptors fans, unfortunately, yours truly does not see this situation changing in the immediate future, given the different ways in which these two organizations operate.

Raptors expected W-L Record: L, 6-11

For the Celtics, it was another victory to savor
The Celtics never had a pass in this series, never an out because Garnett was gone. No one expects them to win a title without Garnett, but the burden of defending a Celtics championship wouldn’t have allowed for a title defense to have vanquished so soon.

The Bulls were magnificent in this series. Derrick Rose is going to be a superstar and should Ben Gordon re-sign and Luol Deng rediscover his game, the Bulls promise to be an Eastern Conference contender for years. The Bulls’ young legs pushed the Celtics to the brink and beyond, pushed Rivers to unconventional and uncomfortable lineups.

When it was late, and the Celtics were fighting to hold back the Bulls one final time, Rivers turned to a smaller, scoring offense to close out the series. So, there was Rajon Rondo and Ray Allen and Eddie House playing small ball. With the way that Rose, Gordon, John Salmons and Kirk Hinrich spread the floor and scored with such ease on the Celtics, Rivers had no choice. That’s how it goes in Game 7: Survive and advance.

“That was against almost every fiber in my body,” Rivers said. “That was tough for me. We’re a defensive team, and to put Eddie and all the guards on the floor … I don’t like it. I just don’t like it, but I just felt we couldn’t get stops, that we had to score.”

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Countless times over the last 2 seasons, these eyes have read in different places on-line that someone or the other happens to think that Glenn ‘Doc’ Rivers is not a Top Notch NBA head coach.

Well … you know what?

That opinion just happens to be WRONG.

The Celtics would NOT have won the 2007-2008 NBA Championship were it not for the coaching expertise of Doc Rivers and it says here that the exact same thing amplies, in this instance, to their 1st Round series this year. 

When a coach has the insight to recognize what Doc Rivers did in last night’s game and then the courage to follow his instincts … in the blink of an eye … and those instincts turn out to be Right, rather than wrong … it makes all the difference in the world for his team.

This was one terrific series!

Yesterday’s action finished with the following results:

W-L: 2-2/.500
Units: -1.08

which are slightly better than Day 1 but not where they need to be … just yet. 

Overall, after Day 2:

W-L: 3-4/.429
Units: -3.37

Hopefully, the news will continue to get better today. :-) 

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Mon Apr 20 2009

Game 1 - 2/Celtics vs 7/Bulls

As was said here two days ago … the strength of Derrick Rose’s individual game is a giant neutralizer of one Rajon Rondo for the defending champs. How Doc Rivers copes with this reality will be a key in this evening’s Game 2 of this series. It’s one thing knowing that your emotional center-piece is not going to be you your line-up in the playoffs and another thing altogether, lacing them up and taking the court without him, at the front of the line, wearing #5. The Celtics should be much better prepared for this evening’s tilt, from this standpoint alone. There is no Superman coming in from the Wings to save them. If they’re going to get to Round 2, they will a far better performance from both Jesus Shuttlesworth and Da Truth. Keep your eyes peeled, as well, for Bill Walker, as he presents one of the few options on the Celtics’ bench that can increase their size and athleticism at the Wings when Pierce and/or Allen-R need to rest. Can the Baby Bulls [i.e. Rose, Noah & Thomas-Ty] possibly perform as they did on Saturday afternoon, for a second consecutive game in the playoffs? 41-41/.500 suggests that it’s a stretch to think it likely. Expect the C’s to start much better this evening; then, ride the emotion of their home crowd through the balance of the 2nd half. The Bulls are young at key positions, and it will be difficult for them to maintain their concentration for 96 consecutive minutes, in enemy territory, with the champs at the ready and staring at 0-2.

Chicago +8.5/-102
BOSTON -8.5/-106
Call: BOSTON [1 unit]

Game 2 - 3/SPURS vs 6/Mavericks

Everything about the San Antonio organization says that they will find a way to square this series, somehow, this evening. But, 6.5 points is a lot to give up … without Manu Ginobili, completely, and Tim Duncan being far from 100%. Can Coach Popovich pull another rabbit from his hat? You bet, he can … especially if he goes retro with the deployment of his troops in this series, i.e. MAIN PLAYERS: Parker + Finley + Bowen + Oberto + Duncan; KEY SUBS: Mason, Hill, Udoka, Gooden & Thomas. Matt Bonner has had a good season, and has provided the Spurs with solid points production from the #4/PF spot beside the Big Fundamental … but, that will do them no good in this series when what they NEED is to DRAMATICALLY IMPROVE THEIR REBOUNDING, at positions #2/OG, #3/SF, and most importantly #4/PF. The Mavericks are a veteran outfit that many have a tendency to forget were good enough to put up 67 wins just two seasons ago and lost in the NBA Finals, to D-Wade & Co., the year before that. Dallas matches up exceptionally well with their opponent in this series [especially, given the absence of Ginobili, and Pops' questionable decisions to start Mason and give only reduced minutes to the Karate Kid]. Even if they go down to defeat this evening, Dallas should have the know-how to keep it close until the final minute of the 4th period.

Dallas +6/-105
SAN ANTONIO -6/-105
Call: Dallas [2 unit]

It truly pains this corner of the blogosphere to have to read a report like this today …

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Garnett out, could miss all of the playoffs
The Big Three is down to Two.

Celtics star Kevin Garnett, the centerpiece of Boston’s 2008 championship and a key to its hopes of a repeat, could miss the playoffs because of a knee injury that has limited him to four games over the final two months of the season.

Celtics coach Doc Rivers said Thursday that Garnett will not be ready for Game 1 against the Chicago Bulls and possibly won’t be back at all.

“It’s not official that he’s out for the entire playoffs, but it’s official as far as I’m concerned,” Rivers said before practice at the team’s workout facility. “I just don’t see how. I hope I’m wrong, but I just don’t see it.”

Garnett has been the Celtics’ inspirational leader since joining them in a 2007 trade that completed the new Big Three and propelled the franchise to its record 17th NBA title. He averaged 15.8 and 8.5 rebounds per game for the defending champions this season.

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after what was first written in this space on Wed Mar 25:

Kevin Garnett should NOT be playing right now for the Celtics

Somebody with the Boston Celtics organization SHOULD have been astute enough to see back then what was really going on with this young man’s knee injury and should have taken the necessary steps to prevent him from returning to the court prematurely.

His presence will be missed by all those who love the game.

Garnett to miss at least next 4 games
Kevin Garnett will miss at least the next four games with a sore right knee and may return for the final three games of the Boston Celtics’ regular season.

The emotional leader and defensive star of the defending NBA champions has missed 15 of the last 19 games, including the last two. The Celtics hope the rest will help him get healthy for the playoffs.

Coach Doc Rivers said after practice Tuesday that the team would be “shutting down” Garnett for most of the remaining seven regular season games because of continued soreness in the knee, first injured Feb. 19 at Utah.

“After watching him move today, we’re just going to shut him down,” Rivers said. “It probably won’t be for the year. He’ll probably play by the end, last couple of games, or last three games. It’s just not progressing the way we anticipated it would progress.”

The Celtics began the day in third place in the Eastern Conference, five games behind Cleveland and percentage points behind Orlando. They resume play Wednesday night at home against Charlotte.

Garnett missed 13 games, then played sparingly in the next four in which he averaged 9 points and 16.5 minutes. He sat out the last two games, both wins, Friday night at Atlanta and Sunday against Oklahoma City.

“We assumed we were going to practice him, and right now, we’re not even going to do that,” Rivers said. “We’re going to shut him down until the soreness goes away and the swelling goes away and then we bring him back up.”

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Related:

Kevin Garnett should NOT be playing right now for the Celtics

This is what was written in this space last week [Mar 25], re: the state of Kevin Garnett’s injured right knee:

Kevin Garnett should NOT be playing right now for the Celtics

If you look at KG’s Game Log you will see that he has NOT played a minute since the game against the Magic during which that blog entry was written.

This is what Doc Rivers had to say about the situation on Fri Mar 27.

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Well …

It’s now Mon Mar 30 and this is what these eyes observed last night in the NBA:

Tuned in to last night’s San Antonio/New Orleans match-up …

Spurs 47, HORNETS 43 … at the beginning of the 3rd quarter

… and was absolutely shocked to see what was on the screen,

i.e. The Big Fundamental, wearing a protective sleeve/brace on each of his knees, limping, hobbling, basically immobile and, in general, dragging himself around the court, in a futile effort to propel the Spurs to a victory in this game.

After watching Tim Duncan play earlier this season … when he was not wearing these two sleeves and was not hobbling and not hopping about in this way … in comparison with his performance last night, this trained eye will say CATEGORICALLY that Tim Duncan should NOT be allowed to play basketball right now, given the current state of his knees, as he is only doing further damage to himself and the Spurs’ long term hopes of regaining the NBA Championship this season.

Tim Duncan is injured RIGHT NOW and it’s amazing to these eyes that the Spurs are even allowing him to step on the court, under these conditions.

Gregg Popovich, RC Buford & Co. really NEED to get him off the court RIGHT NOW … if they  know what’s good for them and him, on a long term basis.

Tim Duncan IS NOT MOVING PROPERLY, at all.