Not There Yet
I’m eating a big bowl of crow right now. Chauncey Billups (28 pts, 8 assts) absolutely killed the Celtics tonight. With all due respect to Rajon Rondo, who disappeared after a solid first half, Billups lived up to his Mr. Big Shot nickname. He abused anyone and everyone the Celtics threw at him in the 2nd half. And then with 1.7 left in a tie game, he made Tony Allen look like an idiot (Wanna bet how many times Doc Rivers said “Don’t foul” during that final timeout?). The C’s played a horrible 2nd half and thanks to two 3s by Eddie House and Ray Allen (FYI, I think the ankle is just fine) in the final minute, they nearly stole this one. For the record, I don’t have a problem with Paul Pierce’s shot selection. It was a decent look. This loss hurts because now we have to listen to the national media say I-told-you-the-Celtics-weren’t-ready-to-play-with-the-big-boys.
Hi All:
In my opinion Perkins is the Celtics only problem in the paint…. He has a bad habit of putting the ball on the floor in fruitless attempts to fake out players. Kendrick misses way too many easy buckets in the paint. Scott Pollard and Brian Scalabrine should have gotten more minutes we needed their experiences especially Pollard…. Doc why changed what was working in the 1st half? Once we slowed the game down in the 2nd half we started to play Detroit game and that why they won. Finally, Tony Allen really needs to stop playing for a contract next year and keep his damn mind in the games at hand. Hell of a game, Detroit deserved the win….Celtics will be backkkkkkk….
This was a good game tonight. I think a lot of Rondo’s easy drives to the rack had to do with Billups not respecting his jumpshot by playing 3-4 feet off of him, but the time Billups reacted to the drive, Rondo was in full speed mode to the rack.
Overall good game, both teams flexed their muscles a little bit at each other.. Pierce will not always shoot this poorly, but then again Allen won’t always hit those “you gotta be kidding me” 3s he was throwing up either so…
better luck next time I guess.
yeah yeah.
the celtics didnt deserve to be close at the end and the pistons didnt deserve to be close in the fourth. the 3s killed us, but what are you going to do. I agree that part of the problem was that we got off our game in the second half offensively (for the love of god run the ball).
we should have played better and i hate this excuse but the refs… holy shit. i think when we had that 7-9 point lead in the third, we were about to do the usual and pull it out to 20 and refs went ridiculous. i swear it was because the nba wanted a close game for national tv. no excuses though.
at least it will be nice to have the nation off our dicks for a little while.
and as all the pistons fans pointed out…this is just the regular season. i’ve heard posey can play pretty dirty in the midwest come playoffs. i think no question it will be pistons-celtics in the East final.
I’m a Pistons fan, but I want to tell you Celtics fans that you don’t have much to worry about because of this loss. Seriously, this one could have went either way. Sure, the Celtics made some clutch mistakes, but they made some clutch shots too. Let’s face it- this is an Eastern Confrence caliber match up, and if the games then are as tight as they were tonight then it’s going to be a heck of a fun playoff season.
Congrats on playing so well, better luck next time.
Droopy is an asshole. Talk shit about the D now. Thats 9 in a row, 14 out of 15. Get used to it.
Could not believe Doc waited so long to bring Tony Allen into the game. When Rondo went to sit with 4 fouls, House came in and could not get the ball up the floor. House also was abused by Billups. Bringing Tony in earlier probably would have helped a lot. Everyone will try to trap House from now on.
This was simply two very evenly matched teams that played a good game. Play 10 of those and most of them go down to the wire. Their experience won out this time.
Good Call Leslie perkins should never ever touch the ball post!!!!!he has the same offensive game as Mark West (old suns player) there are the same player….. and Mark never touched the ball in the post….just Garbage buckets and open dunks…… That what Perk needs to do!!!! I mean he looked like A C Earl…..C’s looked good though tough loss
A tip for the Celtics fans: You do not want to give Scalabrine more minutes, honestly you should cut him. The last thing need on the court in big games is that Ginger. I say that with the best intentions. I’d rather see you guys be successful than the cavs or the bulls.
Somebody made a comment on this site yesterday that Rondo had the advantage over Chauncey & that Chauncey didn’t earn his nickname “Mr. Big Shot”, that reader ate thier words, thankfully. Rondo did suprise me though in the first half.
Great game, see you again in January
Mistakes:
Free throws
Doc getting T’d up
Doc not putting Tony Allen on Billups sooner
Not enough rebounding
Perk bringing the ball down to his knees every time he gets it
Poor perimeter defense
We came out flat in the second half, but thanks to some big shots, we stayed in it. Great shooting and great intensity by Rondo in the first half, and KG and Ray were big last night. Pierce shot like shit, but he took Prince out of the game. The refs were absolutely horrible. They were blowing a lot of calls, and it looked like they would call a lot of cheap make up calls. Celtics should have won last night but they shot themselves in the foot. Doc should have given the last shot to Ray instead of Paul. I hate to admit it, but Billups was abusing anybody covering him. Celtics better learn from this game if they expect to win a championship.
On the plus side, thank you Doc for not playing Scal. He’s so bad at basketball. Just a heads up to Ainge, we can let Scal go–Pollard can be our token white guy.
One aspect of this game that is getting lost is something Bill just brought up: We came out flat in the 3rd quarter.
The C’s have OWNED the 3rd quarter so far this season…. but last night was different. It’s weird. I wonder why.
[...] - Red’s Army says Boston is not there yet [...]
that’s the national media for ya, not ready to play with the big boys?
i’m a pistons fan… and they showed up and played with the big boys. I don’t think either team really gained a lot other than some experience, they were just feeling each other out. I’d still expect the rest of their games to be slug fest just like this, hopefully, very deep in the playoffs.
HONESTLY
The line that separates these two teams is slim and it’ll probably be a 6-7 game series if they go up against each other in the playoffs with a lot of battered bodies.
Does anyone else feel just a little old school after last night?
As long as there’s no fights like in the bad ol’ days - remember that Dice and KG got a bit scruffy last year. I’d rather see these guys ball than brawl.
yo AZ fuck you.. if it wasnt for you guys being inhuman from behind the 3 your not even in the game going into the fourth. i give the pisstons credit though they held it together in the fourth to get the W… oh yea did i say yo AZ fuck you