This was a good loss for the Celtics

[zerophase]

You heard it from me first. This was a good lost for the Celtics the same way the first lost to Detroit was last year.

The Celtics have been on a streak but haven't been playing the best basketball of late. The skill disparity in the NBA is just too great between the top teams and the lottery teams.

No mater what the Celtics say about getting better, stuff has been very sloppy as of late and it wasn't been an issue because they keep winning. This wasn't the first game there were just careless turnovers (passing to a spot where no one is) and single Celtics heroics. Whats up with Ray playing with the second unit but then having no one on the 2nd unit even turn their head to look to pass it to him? Then there are the contested 3 point shots Ray tries to take, the late rotations, weak bench front line, TA looking like he charges every time he goes to the foul line but getting the benefit of the call, House trying to be Reggie taking fade away threes? ...the list goes on.

This game humbles the Celtics to get better, and more precise with their playing.

...and now I'm done.

[QuinielaBox]

I agree it motivates the Celtics to improve their quality of play. There were a lot of plays left out there at both ends. They played like they had too much turkey at the hotel buffet line for brunch.

[TheReaLPuba]

I dunno if there is such a thing as a "good loss" but I don't think Doc and the C's wanted to win this one as much as the Lakers did.

The Lakers played their lineup like it was a playoff game and the C's did not.

Both Paul and KG should have been in the game earlier in the 4th when it was still a tie game....C's could have pushed their brief lead of 2 points into two possession if they had their starters out there!

[jdub1660]

To me this game proved 2 things...The Lakers ARE better this year...AND our bench is way too weak. Tony Allen, the leader of the bench squad, had a couple of good plays, but still made room for mistakes in crunch time by missing an open layup(contested from behind) and trying to shoot a 3 in the 4th. Ray Allen too disappointed me by relying only on his 3 point shot, which wasn't falling tonight. He got blocked by Pau, and had an awful fadeaway into a double team FLAT shot that had no chance. When he was driving in, he did great. KG was awesome, as was Pierce, but neither were on the court long enough when it counted. NO, a win wouldn't give the Celts a ring again, but it gives the Lakers another chip on their shoulder and another W in their win column towards home court advantage where the Celts had a hard time at...
The latest rumor is Mutumbo going back to Houston...I hope it's wrong b/c we could use him. Stackhouse would be a nice acquisition if he could be bought out.   

[NoraG1]

To me this game proved 2 things...The Lakers ARE better this year...AND our bench is way too weak. Tony Allen, the leader of the bench squad, had a couple of good plays, but still made room for mistakes in crunch time by missing an open layup(contested from behind) and trying to shoot a 3 in the 4th. Ray Allen too disappointed me by relying only on his 3 point shot, which wasn't falling tonight. He got blocked by Pau, and had an awful fadeaway into a double team FLAT shot that had no chance. When he was driving in, he did great. KG was awesome, as was Pierce, but neither were on the court long enough when it counted. NO, a win wouldn't give the Celts a ring again, but it gives the Lakers another chip on their shoulder and another W in their win column towards home court advantage where the Celts had a hard time at...
The latest rumor is Mutumbo going back to Houston...I hope it's wrong b/c we could use him. Stackhouse would be a nice acquisition if he could be bought out.   

Celtics still have home court advantage so far...and a home game against the Lakers. I don't recall Lakers doing to well at the Garden last year.  They still won't win a 7 game series against the Celtics imo. I am more worried about the Cavs. They may have talent but I just don't see them as better, Lakers played about as best as they could and still could not pull away from the Celtics for the most part. Lakers wanted the win more the Lakers have talked about this game for at least a month beforehand if not the whole season so far.

[BrickJames]

Rondo sucked this game.  That's why we lost.   He couldn't deal with Kobe guarding him, and the rest followed.

It's really that simple.

[tenn_smoothie]

we sure need somebody to replace the two players we lost - one of which should be here - how obvious can it be that danny screwed up letting posey go (i keep saying that losing posey is a replay of losing paul silas in '77).

can someone please tell me what all the griping was about and what ray allen was so upset about - i had the sound off because i cannot take the blare of those network morons.

[Redz]

I dunno if there is such a thing as a "good loss" but I don't think Doc and the C's wanted to win this one as much as the Lakers did.

The Lakers played their lineup like it was a playoff game and the C's did not.

Both Paul and KG should have been in the game earlier in the 4th when it was still a tie game....C's could have pushed their brief lead of 2 points into two possession if they had their starters out there!

I agree with this, but give the Lakers credit, they made the plays down the stretch.  The loss doesn't concern me.  The C's were right there against on eof the league's best and I don't feel like they played very well.  Lakers D was working hard.

Listen, I'll take the C's winning 90% of their games through 30.

[BrickJames]

we sure need somebody to replace the two players we lost - one of which should be here - how obvious can it be that danny screwed up letting posey go (i keep saying that losing posey is a replay of losing paul silas in '77).

can someone please tell me what all the griping was about and what ray allen was so upset about - i had the sound off because i cannot take the blare of those network morons.

maybe pierce pushing him around (literally) like he was a little kid...

but the truth shall set us free 

[TitleMaster]

i keep saying that losing posey is a replay of losing paul silas in '77

Huh? You do recall that Cowens had quit upon the Silas trade? And when he'd returned, later that year, he lost interest in the game.

I don't think Posey is anywhere near where Silas was, during the 70s. Silas was a rebounding machine, at a clip of 0.5 boards per minute of play, and his hustle and defense shutdown the likes of both the Knicks and the Bucks frontline. If it were Silas leaving, our current Celts wouldn't be 26-3 but more like 19-12. Where losing Posey hurts us is in games like these where as a unit, we didn't bring our 'A' game to the court. That's where having a guy, who can get the ball out of Kobe's hands, for half the time, can keep us in the game longer with others playing at less than their potential.

[guava_wrench]

To me this game proved 2 things...The Lakers ARE better this year...AND our bench is way too weak. Tony Allen, the leader of the bench squad, had a couple of good plays, but still made room for mistakes in crunch time by missing an open layup(contested from behind) and trying to shoot a 3 in the 4th. Ray Allen too disappointed me by relying only on his 3 point shot, which wasn't falling tonight. He got blocked by Pau, and had an awful fadeaway into a double team FLAT shot that had no chance. When he was driving in, he did great. KG was awesome, as was Pierce, but neither were on the court long enough when it counted. NO, a win wouldn't give the Celts a ring again, but it gives the Lakers another chip on their shoulder and another W in their win column towards home court advantage where the Celts had a hard time at...
The latest rumor is Mutumbo going back to Houston...I hope it's wrong b/c we could use him. Stackhouse would be a nice acquisition if he could be bought out.   

So I imagine you felt the lakers were better than us last year when we lost game 3? Or when we were down 24 in game 4? Or when we lost game 5?

The reactions people are having are silly. It seems clear to me that people have started posting what they already concluded before the game, and using this game as some flimsy support, though we were ahead in this game with a few minutes to go.

What is really silly about these comments is that the starters lost the game in the 4th, not the bench!

We will lose to other teams too this year. It is ridiculous to view individual games as authoritative declarations of the team's ability.

I think the most significant revelation of this game is that Rondo's development still leaves us exposed against the lakers until he can either hit jumpers, or finish with the shotblockers waiting for him. The offense seemed directionless at the end of the game, and this seemed partly caused by Rondo not being effective after a stretch of games where we relied on him so much.

[USG]

I would say this game suggests the Celtics are better.

We were away. The refs killed us. We played much worse than usual (a lot of stupid turnovers/chucking/no hustle). None of these will be constants--especially in a 7-game series--and despite the one constant of the bad bench (though that could change with an addition or change or two)--the Celtics were tied with minutes to go.

We lost 2/3 in LA in the Finals. Losing one during the regular season while playing bad is no huge deal so long as it doesn't effect home court--and this is assuming we have LA coming out of the West if Boston even makes it to the Finals.

[greenhead85]

A good loss. Maybe.
A learning process, I believe - for this season.
PP and Doc came up with very diplomatic statements. Yeah, diplomatic.
It's a Christmas game, so even if the refs were killing us (Rondo on offensive foul while driving without even hitting anybody (NO REPLAY SHOWN), TA called for offensive foul on a fastbreak when he sidestepped to avoid Fisher who obviously moved sideways without establishing position, TA's time out call when he went down was instead called for jumpball, PP called for a silly (questionable!)foul right after that jump ball, Perk without getting a foul on him when he got body-bumped by Ariza on the fastbreak, PP called for travelling on the right quarter court on the 2nd quarter when Boston was about to turn the tide in our favor, double foul on Ray Allen and Fisher under Boston's basket when it was obvious that there's no way Fisher can outrebound or outmaneuver this trying hard non-All Star, etc) the Celts still showed they are no pushovers. Let the Los Angeles fans celebrate their Christmas in December. Let us celebrate ours in June.
To me, that was a game taken away from us by the game officials. One thing the game revealed is our desperate need for a big man - a shotblocker in the mold of Mutombo.
They just raised the ante of the game. LAL will have to deal with that (and the pressure to win it again) when they meet us again this season.

[Michael Anthony]

Rondo had 12 assists and only 2 turnovers, so lets not hand this on him. He was a little timid because of the bs fouls (The dunk, and the Vujacic steal). Allen had a bad shooting night, going 3-11 from deep, but played solid d and a lot of minutes. Pierce and Garnett played really well, and Perkins did a fantastic job on Bynum.

Three things hurt us - turnovers, three point shooting, and our bench (thier play and thier use). Why is Jackson able to insert 1 or 2 bench players at a time, while Doc can only play 3 or more?

[crownsy]

we sure need somebody to replace the two players we lost - one of which should be here - how obvious can it be that danny screwed up letting posey go (i keep saying that losing posey is a replay of losing paul silas in '77).

can someone please tell me what all the griping was about and what ray allen was so upset about - i had the sound off because i cannot take the blare of those network morons.

maybe pierce pushing him around (literally) like he was a little kid...

but the truth shall set us free 

you realize the gripping was between rondo and ray right? pierce did nothing but the correct thing, he shoved ray out of the little gripping fest between him and rondo to play defense on his man, since rondo and ray had chosen half court DURING A PLAY to have thier discussion.

Paul was only involved in that he broke it up and got the team into a defensive set, so why are you trying to insinuate he did anything?