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Post by FLCeltsFan on Dec 26, 2007 20:00:20 GMT -5
 at  Boston Celtics (23-3) at Sonics (8-20)
Thursday, December 27
10:30 PM ET
Game #27, Road Game #12
TV: RTV, TNT
Sirius 123
Key Arena   Probable Starters      PG: Rajon Rondo SG: Ray Allen SF: Paul Pierce PF: Kevin Garnett C: Kendrick Perkins Off the Bench: Eddie House, Brian Scalabrine, James Posey, Tony Allen, Big Baby Davis, Scot Pollard, Leon Powe Key off the Bench James Posey InjuriesNone        PG: Earl Watson SG: Kevin Durant SF: Damien Wilkins PF: Chris Wilcox C: Kurt Thomas Off the Bench Wally Szczerbiak, Nick Collison, Luke Ridnour, Jeff Green, Delonte West, Mickael Gelabale Key off the Bench  Wally Szczerbiak Injuries Johan Petro, Elbow hyper-extension, game time decision Robert Swift, Knee contusion, day to day Delonte West, Plantar fasciitis, game time decision Keys to the Game:Crash the boards. The Sonics are 3rd in the league in defensive rebounding with 32.96 per game and 4th in rebounding overall with 44.5. The Celtics need to take that advantage away by aggressively going after rebounds on both ends. Energy. The Celtics will be playing in the second of back to back games and will need to come out with energy and sustain that energy for 4 quarters. The Sonics are going to be fired up to beat the Celtics and they must match that intensity. Defense. The Celtics are on the road playing in the second of back to back games and when teams are fatigued, the defense is the first to suffer because it takes energy and committment. The Celtics must keep their defensive intensity up even though they are fatigued. Game Notes: This will be an emotional game with Ray Allen returning to Seattle and Delonte and Wally facing their former team. Delonte has been battling plantar fasciitis but did play 2:46 in the Sonics last game so he may be available for this game. Wally has been averaging 19 points coming off the bench. Over the last 5 games, the Sonics bench has outscored their opponents' benches 46-32. Durant has scored in double figures in 25 of their 27 games and leads all rookies with 19.9 ppg. Delonte needs just 5 points to reach 2000 points for his career. Last season, these two teams split the series 1-1. Ray Allen averaged 18.5 points and 5.5 rebounds against the Celtics last season. The Sonics are 5-5 in their last 10 games and are 4-9 at home. |
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Post by The Eye of the Q is upon you! on Dec 27, 2007 12:56:18 GMT -5
Sonics are weak defensively but like to play higher scoring games. We have to keep the ball moving and move without the ball and play strong defense to get the transition game going. I look for a big offensive output and a blowout to get the deep bench in late.
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Post by eddietours on Dec 27, 2007 13:08:08 GMT -5
hopefully the Cs don't get too bored
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Post by DERRENMATTS on Dec 27, 2007 15:35:01 GMT -5
I don't know what happened to Luke Ridnour, but he's not getting much playing time. If they want to get rid of him, Ainge should look into getting Ridnour and Robert Swift in a deal. I'm no longer such a big Ridnour fan as I once was (I wanted him a whole lot more than Marcus Banks in the '03 draft), but he's still a better PG than Eddie House.
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Post by birdie on Dec 27, 2007 17:57:04 GMT -5
we must take this at least with 30 points
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Post by FLCeltsFan on Dec 27, 2007 22:43:43 GMT -5
The Mavs/Cavs game going long... I hope they don't start the Celtics game till it is over but we will probably miss the first part of the game while this one ends. I hate it when that happens
Since this is on national tv (TNT) I wasn't planning on doing a play by play but if anyone can't get TNT let me know and I will go ahead and do the play by play anyway.
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Post by Roadrunner on Dec 27, 2007 22:58:48 GMT -5
Durant will take the majority of the shots, and be under 40% for the night.
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Post by CelticsLoyalist on Dec 28, 2007 1:21:19 GMT -5
Glad we were able to get the bench into it which is what opened things up for P2. Not really a solid win because we were off offensively for a quite a stretch, but we only had 5 turnovers which is a season low.
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Post by DERRENMATTS on Dec 28, 2007 14:44:08 GMT -5
Man, why do we make it so tough playing against average teams? We looked terrible at certain parts of the game.
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Post by runrondo on Dec 28, 2007 16:15:12 GMT -5
^Well it was a the second game of a back to back during the holidays so i take it they didn't have their minds set totally on this game agaisnt a below average team..Plus, who knew Delonte and Wally would play like superstars agaisnt their former team...Our defense at times looked poor though we did a decent job...but our offense wasn't moving the ball and we got lucky Pierce got hot..
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Post by DERRENMATTS on Dec 28, 2007 16:23:58 GMT -5
That's the thing, we should never play to the level of our competition. We should be playing our game despite who our opponent is.
I think we are struggling to know when to speed it up and when to slow it down. For the most part, we are a halfcourt offense, and we haven't been pushing the ball as much as we had been earlier in the season. We've got to do a better job of pushing the ball when opportunities arise.
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Post by mev17 on Dec 30, 2007 0:38:53 GMT -5
House really hit some shots for us in the fourth! Nice to see a big contribution from one of our reserves. I would have liked to have seen Big Baby get some PT as well. We weren't at our best, but still stayed in the game and controlled the fourth quarter. Overall, not a terrible effort.
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