Bucks (9-10) at Celtics (16-4) 12/8

[Drucci]

TP's for everyone! Gutsy win, 8 in a row, lovin' it.

A quick recap :

The positives :

- Rondo was absolutely awesome. Aggressive, speedy, confident, dishing, stealing, you name it. He seemed confident when he shooted freebies or took his shot. He took over in the 4th! Keep it up Rajon, too bad you were 1 rebound shy from a triple double (and 5 steals shy from a quadruple double!).

- KG is unstoppable and has been for like two weeks. Plus, he is very effective in limited minutes so it's all good.

- Perkins and Pierce had solid games, as Ray.

- Great defensive plays when needed (at the end of the game).

- Sheed was great on both ends.

- TA was OK.

Negatives :

- The lack of rebounding obviously.

- House was awful. Didn't hit a shot and didn't set up any kind of offense (expected though). Made up with some defensive efforts though.

- The unability to keep the lead and the habit to go away from what works (paint > beyond the arc).

- Lack of production and cohesion from the bench. If it wasn't for Sheed's great night, we would have been in deep trouble. Reminded me of last year's bench.

- Ray didn't get enough touches, and without any frequency, i.e he couldn't get in a rythm and was not involved on offense. Didn't prevent him from hiting the dagger trey though.

Resume : Marquis, we miss you. You're the core of the 2nd unit. Heal well and come back soon (wuthout rushing your injury).

[nickagneta]

Loved the play of the starters and once again Sheed showed he's right now the only guy giving this team anything off the bench.

[QuinielaBox]

4th Qtr

Milwaukee - 0 2 0 0 2 0 3 2 0 2 - 11
Boston    - 0 2 2 3 0 3 0 0 2 0 - 12

Sheed got a couple of Treys - Rondo carried the team.
Long way to go here.

Milwaukee - 2 2 0 0 0 0 2 1 0 0 0 -    7
Boston    - 2 1 2 1 2 0 2 3 0 0 2 0 - 15

Boston 22 possestions, 27 points (1.23 ppp)
Milwaukee 21 possestions, 18 points (0.86 ppp)

Rondo replaced by House at 3:09 (Bos 91, Mil 86)
Ray Allen hit a 3 at 1:59 (Bos 96, Mil 88)
Another Rebound lost at 1:48
KG put the final nail in the coffin to 39 seconds
We just won our 8th straight and now get back out on the road where we are strong

The Celtics made enough plays down the stretch to hold off a game Milwaukee squad playing without veteran Micheal Redd.

POG 1. KG
    2. Rondo
    3. Bogut
    4. Delfino and Jennings.

In the post game interview with Rasheed Wallace, he understands that rebounding needs work. KG is improving, just balling. He made his remark on the "Ball Don't Lie" (Sexy Scottishes Christmas Gift)

[drza44]

When KG is in the zone like this and Rondo is on as well the Cs have two absolutely killer 4th quarter offensive sets.  That Rondo/KG side repetitive pick-and-roll pretty much collapsed the whole Bucks defense and led to buckets on about 6 straight possessions.

Then, the KG/Pierce middle pick-and-roll has been money for awhile and the one time they ran it there at the end showed it was still money.

[Brickowski]

They played well enough to win.  I wasn't impressed.

[butterbeanlove]

TP's for everyone! Gutsy win, 8 in a row, lovin' it.

A quick recap :

The positives :

- Rondo was absolutely awesome. Aggressive, speedy, confident, dishing, stealing, you name it. He seemed confident when he shooted freebies or took his shot. He took over in the 4th! Keep it up Rajon, too bad you were 1 rebound shy from a triple double (and 5 steals shy from a quadruple double!).

- KG is unstoppable and has been for like two weeks. Plus, he is very effective in limited minutes so it's all good.

- Perkins and Pierce had solid games, as Ray.

- Great defensive plays when needed (at the end of the game).

- Sheed was great on both ends.

- TA was OK.

Negatives :

- The lack of rebounding obviously.

- House was awful. Didn't hit a shot and didn't set up any kind of offense (expected though). Made up with some defensive efforts though.

- The unability to keep the lead and the habit to go away from what works (paint > beyond the arc).

- Lack of production and cohesion from the bench. If it wasn't for Sheed's great night, we would have been in deep trouble. Reminded me of last year's bench.

- Ray didn't get enough touches, and without any frequency, i.e he couldn't get in a rythm and was not involved on offense. Didn't prevent him from hiting the dagger trey though.

Resume : Marquis, we miss you. You're the core of the 2nd unit. Heal well and come back soon (wuthout rushing your injury).

Agreed on pretty much everything here. Rondo wasn't good Rondo, he was GREAT RONDO.

And Jennings does not impress me at all. An undersized, shoot-first PG who was undressed by Rondo. He'll get his points against the dregs of NBA PG's. His best-case worst-case is somewhere between a rich man's David Rivers and a poor man's Speedy Claxton.

[QuinielaBox]

It has been a pattern when the C's are playing their lethargic game that they threaten to take it and then let up.  7 points leads evaporate.  This is solvable, but they really need to keep the intensity up until the game is won.  Cannot keep letting these lesser teams feel like they can win.

There is a lot of competitive basketball being played out there. Memphis tied with Cleveland with 6 minutes left. Sac at New Orleans lead by 1 after 3. Charlotte knocked off Denver. Nets lead in CHi by 10 after 3.

This has been a pattern for the Cs for many a year now.  It is stress inducing.

Although, when the Cs were a struggling team, I distinctively remember the false hope that we would hold on to when we "stuck with" the visiting good team for 3 quarters before the visiting good team woke up and dominated in the 4th.  

In other words, I don't think "playing down to the competition" (with all due respect to the Bucks and other sub .500 teams) is something that only plagues the Cs, I think it plagues all good teams, and is something to watch out for...

My take on this is that there is more parity out there than I originally thought. I thought there were 8 strong teams out there and then there were the other 22. Teams like Memphis, Sacremento, and even Phoenix and Miami have surprised me.

[CelticG1]

Wasn't that much of an impressive win but i will say this. 1. I never felt like the Bucks had a chance of winning the game. 2. I was very very confident when our starters were playing. 3. We were basically on auto-pilot and came away with a relatively easy win.

[LarBrd33]

Thoughts:

Last time KG had three 20 point games in a row was during the 2008 Eastern Conference Finals.

Jennings shot under 40% again...  Every game that goes by, Tyreke Evans seems more and more like the probable ROY choice.

Rondo seemed to just "decide" to score in the 4th quarter.  This is the 2nd game in a row where it seems he has just "decided" to score in one quarter.   I imagine if Rondo and Jennings had their roles reversed, Rondo would also have no trouble averaging an inefficient 20 points per game. 

[nickagneta]

Thoughts:

Last time KG had three 20 point games in a row was during the 2008 Eastern Conference Finals.

Jennings shot under 40% again... 

Rondo seemed to just "decide" to score in the 4th quarter.  This is the 2nd game in a row where it seems he has just "decided" to score in the 4th quarter.   I imagine if Rondo and Jennings had their roles reversed, Rondo would also have no trouble averaging an inefficient 20 points per game. 

Thing is Rondo might be an efficient 20 PPG scorer on a bad team as there are very few teams in the league that have the ability to completely shut him out of a bunch of easy layups every game.

[LarBrd33]

Thoughts:

Last time KG had three 20 point games in a row was during the 2008 Eastern Conference Finals.

Jennings shot under 40% again... 

Rondo seemed to just "decide" to score in the 4th quarter.  This is the 2nd game in a row where it seems he has just "decided" to score in the 4th quarter.   I imagine if Rondo and Jennings had their roles reversed, Rondo would also have no trouble averaging an inefficient 20 points per game. 

Thing is Rondo might be an efficient 20 PPG scorer on a bad team as there are very few teams in the league that have the ability to completely shut him out of a bunch of easy layups every game.

That's what I'm saying.  If Rondo had Jenning's role... he could just jack up a bunch of bricks and hope some of them fell...and make most of his points driving to the hoop.   He too would average 20 points... probably shooting 41% or so.

[j804]

TP's for everyone! Gutsy win, 8 in a row, lovin' it.

A quick recap :

The positives :

- Rondo was absolutely awesome. Aggressive, speedy, confident, dishing, stealing, you name it. He seemed confident when he shooted freebies or took his shot. He took over in the 4th! Keep it up Rajon, too bad you were 1 rebound shy from a triple double (and 5 steals shy from a quadruple double!).

- KG is unstoppable and has been for like two weeks. Plus, he is very effective in limited minutes so it's all good.

- Perkins and Pierce had solid games, as Ray.

- Great defensive plays when needed (at the end of the game).

- Sheed was great on both ends.

- TA was OK.

Negatives :

- The lack of rebounding obviously.

- House was awful. Didn't hit a shot and didn't set up any kind of offense (expected though). Made up with some defensive efforts though.

- The unability to keep the lead and the habit to go away from what works (paint > beyond the arc).

- Lack of production and cohesion from the bench. If it wasn't for Sheed's great night, we would have been in deep trouble. Reminded me of last year's bench.

- Ray didn't get enough touches, and without any frequency, i.e he couldn't get in a rythm and was not involved on offense. Didn't prevent him from hiting the dagger trey though.

Resume : Marquis, we miss you. You're the core of the 2nd unit. Heal well and come back soon (wuthout rushing your injury).

Yup, actually talked with Marquis over PSN on ps3 and played a game with him NBA 2K10 online said he's coming along. Of course I let him be the C's he plays with them exactly like they play it was pretty cool/hilarious. LOL

[Drucci]

TP's for everyone! Gutsy win, 8 in a row, lovin' it.

A quick recap :

The positives :

- Rondo was absolutely awesome. Aggressive, speedy, confident, dishing, stealing, you name it. He seemed confident when he shooted freebies or took his shot. He took over in the 4th! Keep it up Rajon, too bad you were 1 rebound shy from a triple double (and 5 steals shy from a quadruple double!).

- KG is unstoppable and has been for like two weeks. Plus, he is very effective in limited minutes so it's all good.

- Perkins and Pierce had solid games, as Ray.

- Great defensive plays when needed (at the end of the game).

- Sheed was great on both ends.

- TA was OK.

Negatives :

- The lack of rebounding obviously.

- House was awful. Didn't hit a shot and didn't set up any kind of offense (expected though). Made up with some defensive efforts though.

- The unability to keep the lead and the habit to go away from what works (paint > beyond the arc).

- Lack of production and cohesion from the bench. If it wasn't for Sheed's great night, we would have been in deep trouble. Reminded me of last year's bench.

- Ray didn't get enough touches, and without any frequency, i.e he couldn't get in a rythm and was not involved on offense. Didn't prevent him from hiting the dagger trey though.

Resume : Marquis, we miss you. You're the core of the 2nd unit. Heal well and come back soon (wuthout rushing your injury).

Yup, actually talked with Marquis over PSN on ps3 and played a game with him NBA 2K10 online said he's coming along. Of course I let him be the C's he plays with them exactly like they play it was pretty cool/hilarious. LOL

Wow, it must be fun to launch a 2K10 game and play against Marquis Daniels! I guess you enjoyed it, he seems like a pretty cool and fun guy.