Celtics (0-0) at Rockets (0-0) 10/7

[mzepol]

And just like that, game's over.

[cool breeze]

[lighthouse]

I'm not mad about losing like a normally would be because I think we accomplished what we wanted to..and thats seeing how diff groupings work together. KG looked Solid, same for Sheed. Pierce and Ray seemed like themselves. Good stuff.

its cool keeping up with other fans on here during the game. See you guys next time

[Thruthelookingglass]

Just came to check in and see how many (other) crazy fans were blogging the exhibition game.     I can feel the excitement for the season oozing through my screen!  WTG CBloggers!

[bello_man09]

good game..Kg played...got to see sheed out there..Daniels looked really good..

[gar]

What's up with the Rebounding. With Yao out the Rockets are pretty undersized. Sweetney was not rebounding at all.

Rebounding and free throws are going to win or loose a lot of games.

[clover]

Can anyone who saw the game tell me whom other than Giddens was Hudson paired with, and how that looked?  Did he look like he knew what he was doing on team D?  How much and how well was he running the offense?  Thanks.

[bello_man09]

What's up with the Rebounding. With Yao out the Rockets are pretty undersized. Sweetney was not rebounding at all.

Rebounding and free throws are going to win or loose a lot of games.

I know its pre season but we were out rebounded pretty bad..i thought williams was suppose to be a  decent on the boards. 

[Roy Hobbs]

What's up with the Rebounding. With Yao out the Rockets are pretty undersized. Sweetney was not rebounding at all.

Rebounding and free throws are going to win or loose a lot of games.

I know its pre season but we were out rebounded pretty bad..i thought williams was suppose to be a  decent on the boards. 

It's hard to tell just from a box score, but was Williams really the biggest culprit in terms of poor rebounding?  5 boards in 18 minutes isn't bad; he tied for the team lead in boards.

[Reggie's Ghost]

So close.

Looking forward to overanalyzing KGs limp, how he plays on the court with Sheed, Rondo's elbow, how Daniels does, how slim Baby looks, whether Giddens plays, and what all this Lester Hudson talk is about.

Cheers to a new season folks!

KG did indeed look limp free, jump shot looked smooth as ever, but he struggled to get up there at certain points.  Looks good, about %80.  Sheed spent most of his time bombing threes (most of which went in), but his solid, aggressive defense was a surprise.  In general, the bench struck me as very solid defensively, with Marquise showing that herky jerky style of his looked great in the lane (won player of the game, and Doc mentioned his playing the best of anyone today).

Between Rondo's new jumper and Baby's new bod, both looked uncomfortable and struggled almost throughout.  I also became a fan of Lester Hudson, a scrappy bulldog PG with a hard nosed style of play.  He passed well and got up for this preseason game, which I always enjoy.  Giddens played well defensively, and disappeared on offense (no surprises there).  He's a step below Walker in my mind if Bill can come back healthy.

Solid preseason game, so far my thoughts are to hold onto Hudson and cut Sweetney (too out of shape) and let Giddens and Walker duke it out for the 12th man role.

I for one am enjoying the replacement refs, who will clearly be holding players to rules that have been long forgotten by NBA refs in the last decade: palming, 3 seconds, traveling and line violations are back, seemingly regardless of who you are.  If you ask me, it's good for the authenticity of the game, and anything's better than last years official ref squads.

You know your in trouble when you've already had your fill of Greg Dickerson, Gary Tanguay and Donnie Marshall...

[Atzar]

I thought Giddens was excellent on defense in the first half, but he was a nonfactor in the second half.  He didn't really get any touches through the whole game.

I wouldn't write him off quite yet though.  If he can be consistent with the defense he showed in the first half, he could be valuable.  I think he actually is big enough to handle many of the 3's in the league. 

Lester looked good, and if he keeps playing like he did tonight then there should be no danger of him getting cut.

[BudweiserCeltic]

I thought Giddens was excellent on defense in the first half, but he was a nonfactor in the second half.  He didn't really get any touches through the whole game.

I wouldn't write him off quite yet though.  If he can be consistent with the defense he showed in the first half, he could be valuable.  I think he actually is big enough to handle many of the 3's in the league. 

Lester looked good, and if he keeps playing like he did tonight then there should be no danger of him getting cut.

Seems like Hudson was aggressive, which is good. Was he a ballhog though? 9 free-throws in 20 minutes seems like a lot... though Rondo got 8 himself.

His +/- was awful. From what I saw in the scoreboard, Giddens had a pretty good +/- in the first half, but it went away in the 2nd half. Hard to say what was the reason without watching the game, but a unit of Hudson/Giddens/Scal/Williams/Sweetney doesn't seem like a good one. Seems also like he didn't get any touches.

I would've liked to see a House/Giddens/Daniels/Baby/Sheed unit though. Some Hudson in there too.

[Rondo_is_better]

I never like to lose. Even in preseason it irks me.

KG's elevation looked like the one thing missing from his game. I hope he gets it back.

How can you miss 20+ free throws? God.

[RAcker]

We obviously only ran a handful of sets the entire game on offense and played guys that will never even sniff the floor in the regular season for heavy minutes including down the stretch.

Do I hate to lose?  Absolutely.  But Doc was not coaching this one to win.  He was coaching it in preparation to win. 

Doc kept the big 3's minutes very low and made sure that at least for a few minutes he had both Marquis and Sheed in there with them.  He then proceeded to play everyone in every crazy type of lineup you could imagine just to see how guys interacted on the floor while the Rockets played guys like Brooks much longer.

Overall, the game had zero flow as the replacement refs called everything they saw including traveling, simultaneous lane violations, hooking, hand checking, etc.  I'm not saying they did a bad job, because 95% of what they called was real.  But please, can we go back to swallowing the whistles just a little more if the ticky tack stuff doesn't harm anyone?

I'm honestly just glad to see that the starting 5 are looking healthy and that we have 4 off the bench that will be a huge improvement over what we had last year.

[Tai]

I thought Giddens was excellent on defense in the first half, but he was a nonfactor in the second half.  He didn't really get any touches through the whole game.

I wouldn't write him off quite yet though.  If he can be consistent with the defense he showed in the first half, he could be valuable.  I think he actually is big enough to handle many of the 3's in the league. 

Lester looked good, and if he keeps playing like he did tonight then there should be no danger of him getting cut.

Seems like Hudson was aggressive, which is good. Was he a ballhog though? 9 free-throws in 20 minutes seems like a lot... though Rondo got 8 himself.

His +/- was awful. From what I saw in the scoreboard, Giddens had a pretty good +/- in the first half, but it went away in the 2nd half. Hard to say what was the reason without watching the game, but a unit of Hudson/Giddens/Scal/Williams/Sweetney doesn't seem like a good one. Seems also like he didn't get any touches.

I would've liked to see a House/Giddens/Daniels/Baby/Sheed unit though. Some Hudson in there too.

With all due respect, I don't think any lineup with Sweetney seems like a good one defensively. Now hey, I didn't get to watch the game, but a lot of people seem to think he's too fat to play defense.

Hudson? I dunno, he got a +/- of -11, worst on the Celtics that game, but people seemed to be saying he did a lot of things right, like being aggressive and working on D. I'll just assume Hudson did well out there.

Oh yeah, and let's not miss 20 FT's in regular season games. Please?