Clippers (24-40) at Celtics (46-15) 3/9

[missyP]

Call me crazy but we need size in the center position to scare anyone off (no I am not crying sour grapes on Perk), but just saying we are like a Miami, just with more hall of famers, don't cry, have a point guard, and will make plays in the clutch.
But Kristic isn't going to intimidate opposing team's guards from driving down the lane and making rondo-like passes to their bigs ( read Gordon) for dunks.

[European NBA fan]

Rondo didn't play horrible. Not good, but certainly not that bad. Forced a lot of turnovers, and got steals and rebounds. His "low" number of assists (9 is decent for most point guards) is partly due to KG's and Jeff's very poor shooting tonight.

Rondo's biggest problem is that he plays help defense even when he plays opposite good shooters like Mo. The defense is probably designed that way, and the team should make adjustments if it doesn't work. I guess the reason, they didn't adjust earlier, was that we were getting killed in the paint, too.

I think Rondo's defense will improve when he gets back to playing 38 minutes or under.

What concerns me is how soft we looked in the paint for most of the game.

[Adelaide Celt]

Loss wouldn't be as bad if the teams we're competing with were also dropping games but that hasn't been happening (with the exception of Miami).

There's just something about losing to the Clippers... You all know what I mean

[Megatron]

Rondo didn't play horrible. Not good, but certainly not that bad. Forced a lot of turnovers, and got steals and rebounds. His "low" number of assists (9 is decent for most point guards) is partly due to KG's and Jeff's very poor shooting tonight.

Rondo's biggest problem is that he plays help defense even when he plays opposite good shooters like Mo. The defense is probably designed that way, and the team should make adjustments if it doesn't work. I guess the reason, they didn't adjust earlier, was that we were getting killed in the paint, too.

I think Rondo's defense will improve when he gets back to playing 38 minutes or under.

What concerns me is how soft we looked in the paint for most of the game.

Were soft in the paint because Shaq/JO/Perk are not there.

Our 3 big bad centers that were signed to clog the lane have not played all season basically and its frustrating.

With Shaq, people dont dare stroll through the lane because he will put you on your back and nothing is easy.

When people see Krstic and KG they dont think twice, they immediately charge the lane because KG and Krstic together weight as much as a feather.

We need a big backbone and KG can stay on the sides and jump high.

We have a huge hole in the middle right now and it isnt going to get fixed until Shaq/JO get back.

[Bahku]

Watching the game now, and it's clear that we just started cold and just couldn't hang with the Clippers' 52% shooting.

We had only 9 TOs to their 15, had more steals, more offensive rebounds, and shot better at the line, but we were only 44% for field-goals, and didn't shoot from beyond the arc as well as LA.

I see a lot of good stuff in this game, but we're trying to integrate quite a few new faces right now, and need to give it some time to cook.

I see a lot of over-reaction in the threads, and people with expectations that exceed reality.

It takes a great deal of time and experience for this many new players to learn the system and develop a chemistry with each other ... let's give them a little breathing room!

(We also held Blake Griffin to 12 points for 32 minutes of play ... not bad at all, though we didn't seem to have an answer for Mo Williams).

[Bahku]

We really played great in the late minutes of this game, we just got too far down early on and didn't have enough time to close the gap.

There were some very questionable calls in this one ... I can't believe Dick Bavetta is still allowed to be an Official ... sorry, but the guy's decrepitude has caught up with him, and he's absolutely terrible.

This one doesn't hurt as bad as I thought it would, knowing the score ahead of time ... I saw a lot of good signs from most of the new guys, and I think the integration will be a lot quicker than I originally imagined.

[Drucci]

Very frustrating loss, mostly because it was avoidable and we were at home. The Celtics can only blame themselves for their poor first half and I hate to single out a guy in particular but Rondo is to blame for the loss because all the team played better in the 2nd half (finally defended and made shots basically) while Rondo kept letting Mo Williams (!!) do what he wanted, get wide open 3's and easy drives to the basket. Rondo is so freakin' frustrating when he does that but he did it all night, you could have thought "well now that Mo has torched him he will start to defend" but of course not.

It adds to the injury to see a guy like Mo, who disappears and pees himself in the playoffs, beat you like hell in the regular season because you know he can only shine in regular season games.

Anyway, frustrating loss. We have to rebound quickly because Chicago is right on our heels.

[Fafnir]

If Rondo is getting schooled my Williams, I don't even want to think about the outings Rose will have against us...

Probably no less then 30 points a game.

Rondo is an overrated player.

He isnt consistent.

Rose has scored 18, 20, and 36 against the C's this year.

He also hasn't shot well from the field two out of the three games, and didn't get to the line much the first two games.

Overall he has taken 17, 14, 19 shots. He very well might get around 30 a game, but it will be because of how many shots he takes than anything.

[BballTim]

If Rondo is getting schooled my Williams, I don't even want to think about the outings Rose will have against us...

Probably no less then 30 points a game.

Rondo is an overrated player.

He isnt consistent.

Rose has scored 18, 20, and 36 against the C's this year.

He also hasn't shot well from the field two out of the three games, and didn't get to the line much the first two games.

Overall he has taken 17, 14, 19 shots. He very well might get around 30 a game, but it will be because of how many shots he takes than anything.

  His numbers will probably look the same from last year, and from the playoffs the year before. If he has one good game against Rondo out of three or four it's the only game some people will remember.

[Fafnir]

If Rondo is getting schooled my Williams, I don't even want to think about the outings Rose will have against us...

Probably no less then 30 points a game.

Rondo is an overrated player.

He isnt consistent.

Rose has scored 18, 20, and 36 against the C's this year.

He also hasn't shot well from the field two out of the three games, and didn't get to the line much the first two games.

Overall he has taken 17, 14, 19 shots. He very well might get around 30 a game, but it will be because of how many shots he takes than anything.

  His numbers will probably look the same from last year, and from the playoffs the year before. If he has one good game against Rondo out of three or four it's the only game some people will remember.

The biggest thing is keeping him off the free throw line, got got 15 FTA in the loss to Chicago where he scored 36.

[Donoghus]

If Rondo is getting schooled my Williams, I don't even want to think about the outings Rose will have against us...

Probably no less then 30 points a game.

Rondo is an overrated player.

He isnt consistent.

Rose has scored 18, 20, and 36 against the C's this year.

He also hasn't shot well from the field two out of the three games, and didn't get to the line much the first two games.

Overall he has taken 17, 14, 19 shots. He very well might get around 30 a game, but it will be because of how many shots he takes than anything.

  His numbers will probably look the same from last year, and from the playoffs the year before. If he has one good game against Rondo out of three or four it's the only game some people will remember.

The biggest thing is keeping him off the free throw line, got got 15 FTA in the loss to Chicago where he scored 36.

You nailed it. 

You gotta keep Rose from the line.  When he is penetrating and getting to the line, he kills you.  If you keep on the perimeter, he's a lot less scary. 

The story of than Jan. 6 game (which I was at) was that Rose was pretty much doing whatever he wanted.  He was getting into the lane at will and killed the Celtics.  The C's need to do a much better job to containing himself on the outside. 


In a seven game series, I'm fairly confident the Celtics will find that way to contain him to an extent.