Celtics (23-4) at Magic (16-12) 12/25

[celticinorlando]

Nate was awful. Celtic at full strength will beat the tragic easily. Howard got away with a lot as did turkeyglue. I hate losing to those punks

Nate was taking good open jump shots on many of his misses too. Ugh, just needed a few more shots to go down.
[/quot

So very frustrating.  Need to rebound vs the pacers

[CelticSooner]

Makes me sick. The media will be all over the magic now. Howard is so overrated.

I doubt it. They would be fooling themselves if they think Orlando looked impressive that game.

[Tai]

Yeah, a bad game's a bad game. We've been pulling wins out of our you know what a lot this season. Figures another team would do the same to us at some point. Nelson really held the ball and hit those 3's like he was Kobe? Ugh.

But it'll take more than a game like that to take away the C's lead in the Eastern Conference.

[Bahku]

Defense was great for most of the game ... the offense sucked. Dwight should have fouled out in the third, and we just never took it to him or attacked the basket. I'm not the least bit worried about the Magic, but I don't like the streak ending on Christmas, or the continual stroking of Dwight Coward by the officials. We gave this one away ... they didn't take it.

+1

Back atcha, Buddy!

[Megatron]

It was only a matter of time until injuries caught up with this team. We cant beat everyone when key guys are missing.

Fully healthy, not a team in the league can stop us.

Magic are going to have to make huge ajustments if they want to stand a chance against us come playoff time.

[angryguy77]

La is getting jobed this game. The one time I'd like to see them smash a team and they are gettin game seven in reverse. I feel so dirty for saying that......

[CoachBo]

Definitely just one game. But ... we have to have better point guard play than that. Really wasted a good defensive game.

[Edgar]

With Delonte and Rondo
man... this team is just inane.
Love our Celtics.

Rondo, Delonte, Nate
Ray,   Delonte
Pierce Daniels
KG     JO       BBD
Shaq   PErk

11 players that can see floor on championship series

I put Delonte twice absolutely on purpose.
do yoy realize how BIG and GOOD
emphasis in BIG this team can be
Our backup C today hardly will sniff time at PF

SICK!!

[ChainSmokingLikeDino]

Robinson is a bum. He can't play point guard and is a truly inconsistent outside shooter. He is Eddie House with a less consistent jumper.

This team will struggle offensively until Rondo gets back. Robinson is worthless.

I think you're pushing it a tad. We'll be fine.

TP. A little perspective y'all. It seems for some everything has to be black or white. Shades of grey are much nicer and have the added bonus of corresponding to reality.

Max--you wan't to give back those playoff games Nate won for this team?

Playoff games he won? I recall one really great game. I don't remember him winning multiple playoff games for the C's. Robinson is not a point guard. The offense will be strictly an iso offense until Rondo comes back. He does little to help this team.

I am not real sure why DA wanted him back.

Look, Nate had a bad game today and he negatively effected the outcome of the game. No one can deny that. Where I differ is extrapolating from that the conclusion that he is a bum and worthless. How many games have The Celtics lost since Rondo went down? I've watched Nate a lot, with The Celtics and as I live in NYC for all his years with The Knicks. Is he a pure pure point guard? A true starter in this league? No. But can he play the point, and is he a capable and good guy off the bench? Most definitely.

As I said earlier, you can't look at these things in a vacuum. If Delonte was around for this game, a day when Nate's game was off, The C's would have probably fared better. But it in this game the only other PG option was a rookie who doesn't know the offensive or defensive schemes to play meaningful minutes. So on a day Nate didn't have his game on point he had to stay out there and it hurt the team. But, he has played well since Rondo went out, all wins I believe. There is someone else on this board who insists that Nate is better than Rondo, that is clearly foolish and I have told them so. But it is the inverse of this. These extreme, all or nothing views that seem to not take into account the conditions of the bad or good performance, the injuries, if it was a back to back, travel, etc etc tend to rankle me. Nate ain't Rondo but he ain't a bum either and, today excepted, he has played well when forced into the starting line-up and The C's have continued to win (and not despite him). Ray had a bad game today, these things happen. One need not write off a season for one bad day.

[CrossCL]

very well put Chain. TP'd

[Celtics4ever]

Jermaine O'Neal was a waste of oxygen today, I thought.  Nate played bad too.  With Rondo we'd beaten them though,I wager.

[Tgro]

It was easy to see that this game that we had well in hand and was dominating just came unraveled and it probably jumped the shark about the time Pierce got called for a T. Even though the replays clearly showed he was hacked more than once, he took his frustration too far and let it get the best of him and it affected him the rest of the game and hurt this team.

Nate certainly looked lousy almost the entire game and was hurting us with bad shots. He never shot his way out of it and I wish he hadn't of tried. KG was playing lights out but concerned me with his hand/wrist moment when Turk flagrantly fouled him. He appeared fine afterwords, but his missed FT at the end, really hurt. Shaq just looked like a foul machine out there. Easily one of his worst games as a Celtic. Losing him just seemed to put the game in doubt. Howard improved once Shaq was eliminated. We stopped doing the things that were killing the Magic. We suddenly struggled to get shots to drop and you knew eventually the Magic was going to make a run. That horrible shot by Ray at the end was shocking. The man is so awesome but it's amazing to see how bad he can be when he struggles.

Like it was mentioned before, the good news is we've been in it for every game. No one has blown us out. And the Magic didn't either. I didn't feel like it was so much the Magic beat us as I think the Celtics just beat themselves.

You got the feeling that the streak made us feel like someone was going to step up and save us from failure. We just didn't respond like we normally do. The loss was a good wake up game. When we are on, we are unbeatable. When we are off, anybody can beat us. This game was certainly concerning. But I think we'll be better for it in the end.   

[tenn_smoothie]

what concerns me most are these 17+- point quarters we come up with sometimes - i've always said that this team is vulnerable on the offensive end, despite having one of the top 3 offensive talents to ever play in Boston (Pierce) and one of the top-5 shooters in league history (Allen), they can really look bad on offense at times. this team simply doesn't score a lot of easy baskets and having to work so hard for points eventually wears a team down.

i could have handled a loss today, but not the way this happened - being in control the whole way and then wasting possessions at the end to lose in the last 3 minutes.

maybe this will be a good omen, though. last year, the Celts win this game and leave Orlando feeling very confident, only to struggle the rest of the regular season. maybe this team will take a page from the '86 champs who lost a lead on Christmas Day and then rolled to the title.

[Mike-Dub]

Ugh bahhumbug.

[RAcker]

what concerns me most are these 17+- point quarters we come up with sometimes - i've always said that this team is vulnerable on the offensive end, despite having one of the top 3 offensive talents to ever play in Boston (Pierce) and one of the top-5 shooters in league history (Allen), they can really look bad on offense at times. this team simply doesn't score a lot of easy baskets and having to work so hard for points eventually wears a team down.

i could have handled a loss today, but not the way this happened - being in control the whole way and then wasting possessions at the end to lose in the last 3 minutes.

maybe this will be a good omen, though. last year, the Celts win this game and leave Orlando feeling very confident, only to struggle the rest of the regular season. maybe this team will take a page from the '86 champs who lost a lead on Christmas Day and then rolled to the title.

Settle down, Beavis.  With Rondo the shots come easier.  It just got too stagnant late and costs us.