Celtics Shrink On Road Again, Lose 108-84
Aaron Gettings
2 Comments
The highlight of tonight's contest between the Boston Celtics and the Cleveland Cavaliers happened during the halftime show. ESPN ran about 3 minutes of a conversation between Bill Russell and Kevin Garnett. I'm not ashamed to admit the ol' eyes got a little watery. Bill told KG, with tears developing in his own eyes, how proud of Garnett he was, and told him that he believes KG will win 1 or 2 rings before he retires, but if he doesn't, Bill said he'd share one of his championships with Garnett. KG sat there, virtually speechless, and we're going to try to find a clip of that to share with you.
Other than that, tonight was a bloody disaster. Boston came out flat... once again. The bench wasn't able to rescue anybody this time. We were porous on defense, embarrassing on offense and I have no confidence that we'll be able to make any road game even competitive from here on out. Thank God for home court advantage!
The Celtics came out in the first, missed a couple of easy baskets, and Cleveland immediately grabbed the momentum-reigns and never looked back. After the first quarter, Boston was down 32-13 -- we let the Cavs shoot 65% from the field, and at one point the score was 16-6, with Ben Wallace having as many points as the entire Celtics team. It was that kind of night. Boston made a couple runs to cut down the lead, rattling off 10 straight points in the 2nd and 7 straight in the 3rd, but both times we let Cleveland regain control with some easy 3 point shots.
We're not going to dwell too much on tonight's performance. With the exception of Garnett and Posey, the
entire Celtics team was sub-par. To paint a picture of the type of night it was, Boston didn't attempt a single free-throw until there was 3 and 1/2 minutes left in the first half. To close out the 2nd quarter, Perkins airballed a 7 foot jumpshot, and in the third he actually attempted a 15 foot turnaround jumper while being covered by Ben Wallace (look at the picture if you think I'm making that up). Delonte West played "Rover", wreaking absolute havoc on our offense. Rondo had zero confidence in his jumpshot in the first half (he knocked down a couple in the second), effectively allowing Cleveland to ignore him. Cleveland shot 54% from the field, 53% from downtown, dished 29 assists and only committed 10 turnovers. West dominated Rondo, scoring 21 points and 7 assists (on 7-11 shooting with 4 3's), to Rondo's 7 points (on 3-10), 1 rebound and 0 assists.
MVC: We're giving co-MVC tonight to KG and Posey. The only two Celtics who came to play. Garnett finished with 17 points (8-13 shooting) with 9 boards. Posey had 11 points with 3 3's. Neither was spectacular, but they hurt Boston the least...
In keeping with my post-loss venting sessions, there are a couple things I want to touch on. First, the officiating was atrocious tonight. Now, I'm in no way blaming the loss on the refs. We blew it by playing terrible basketball, but were this a close game, my blame may lie on the striped shirts. I'm not sure what our guys need to do to get to the foul line, but they're getting roughed up out there and not getting any calls. Second, it looks like we're going to get at least one Oscar-worthy performance from LeBron per game. 
Tonight it happened on a flagrant foul on Posey. LeBron was driving, Posey reached out to stop him -- obviously going for the foul, but he did go for the ball -- LeBron happened to drop his head and shoulders (as he usually does) and Posey grazed LeBron's neck with his hand. The way LeBron dropped and rolled on the ground clutching his neck, you'd think he just had a run-in with the Boston Strangler. Of course, once he made his point he jumped to his feet as if nothing had happened. His act (and Varejao's just as bad) is getting old, quick. The man is 6'9" 250. Act like it. My favorite part about all the LeBron acting is his new Vitamin Water commercial where he plays the defense attorney. At the end of the commercial, as he proves his case, he says, "Besides, dude's fakin'". Yes you are, LeBron. Yes you are.
Lastly, we're going to dispense some amateur, outsider advice for Doc. Number one, there's no reason that ice-cold Ray Allen should have 1 fewer field goal attempt than KG -- more importantly, there's no reason that
KG should've only taken 13 shots. Tonight he was all we had -- get him the ball. Second, try throwing Eddie House out there. If the Cavs are going to let Delonte West roam around and disrupt our offense, replace Rondo with House and let's make them pay. There's a reason that we have Eddie -- for situations exactly like this. That'll keep West where he should be (and where we know where he is) and let the rest of the offense function as it should. Third, let's mix it up for Game 4. We haven't won on the road yet -- let's try something else. Sit Perk and start Posey -- or bring Ray off the bench. Our defense is clearly better when Posey is on the court. The only downside is matching up with Big Z, but Zydrunas is killing us no matter what we do, we don't have the height to deal properly with him. At least with Posey out there we can cut down on the perimeter attacks and ensure LeBron is kept in check.
That's all I have for you tonight. I'm still confident we're moving on to the next round -- mainly because we kept LeBron in check for 3 straight games now (he was 5-16 tonight if you were wondering) and we seem invincible at home -- but it sure would be nice to win an away game.
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Reader Comments (2)
I can't wait to see more of the Russell/Garnett interview by the way. That was great stuff!