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FLCeltsFan
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Perk is a Beast

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News 4/5 Apr 5, 2009 8:57:55 GMT -5

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Post by FLCeltsFan on Apr 5, 2009 8:57:55 GMT -5

www.bostonherald.com/sports/basketball/celtics/view.bg?articleid=1163559&format=text
Celtics center’s game Perk-olates

By Steve Bulpett | Sunday, April 5, 2009 | www.bostonherald.com | Boston Celtics

Photo by Stuart Cahill
If it looks as though Kendrick Perkins [stats] has been trying to make a point lately, well, such looks are not deceiving. With Kevin Garnett on the shelf, Perkins has been trying to show he can walk down the NBA street without his big brother.

“Oh, for sure,” said Perkins, who picked up his 12th double-double of the season in Friday night’s Garden win against the Atlanta Hawks while also tying a career high with seven blocks. “I think sometimes you just want to prove a few things - not toward Kevin, but I’m just talking about proving to other people that, you know, you can do stuff, too. I just feel like right now I’m just trying to prove that I can do a little bit more with Kevin out. When Kevin gets back, that’s just going to make us better.”

When Garnett does return in earnest from his sore right knee, he will get to play with a Perkins far more willing and developed on the offensive end. The center no longer leans on his jump hook the way a tennis player with a weak backhand runs around to meet the ball on his good side. Perkins now takes what the defense gives him, be it a turnaround in the paint or a jumper from the baseline.

“Those are things I had, but I just never really used them,” Perkins said. “I just think each year you’ve got to get better. As a player, I have to improve every year. I just figure that, as much hard work as I’ve put in, I’ve got to start doing it on the court.

“With Kevin out, guys are getting a few more touches on the block, so you feel a little bit more relaxed. You know you have more freedom to go to work.”

The confidence has been gained through sweat, with assistant coach Clifford Ray serving as the drill sergeant to Perkins’ role of grunt.

“He works hours every day with Clifford,” coach Doc Rivers said. “It’s a great example of how you have to wait for young guys. We’ve been working with him, but it just takes time.

“The benefit Perk has is no one’s going to double team him. He can dribble 10 times and no one’s going to help. He’s taking advantage of that now.”

Of course, while Perkins has made himself a threat on the offensive end of the floor, it is his defense that made him the starting center on the reigning NBA champions.

Denver Nuggets coach George Karl was the first to publicly pledge a vote to Perkins for the NBA’s all-defensive team, and others are now taking up the cause.

“He’s tremendous,” Paul Pierce [stats] said. “I mean, for us to be the top defensive field goal team with Perk among the shot block leaders, he definitely gets my vote on the all-defensive team. I can’t think of anybody in the league whose done a better job than he’s done this year. Especially with Kevin being out, he’s doing a great job rebounding, clogging up the middle, blocking shots, getting the offensive rebound.

“So if he doesn’t make the all-defensive team it will be a conspiracy.”

Garnett made first team last year, becoming the first Celtic to be voted on since Kevin McHale made second team in 1989-90. Perkins certainly wants the honor, but he’s not letting it cloud his perspective.

“I just try to go out there and do my job and let the chips fall where they may,” Perkins said. “I really haven’t thought about it. I’ve been hearing a lot of coaches say they would vote me on, which would be a privilege. But I’m just going to go out there and try to finish up the season strong and do my job.

“Hopefully I’ll make it, but that’s not my goal. My goal is to win another ring. Individual goals . . . that’s cool. But when you have bigger goals, you tend to achieve the smaller goals. So I hope that I can make it, but if I don’t it’s no big deal. You know, I’ve still got my eyes on the prize.

“I’m just trying to be the captain on the defense right now. KG’s out and I’m the last line of defense, so I’m just trying to talk and be there for guys.”

FLCeltsFan
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Perk is a Beast

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News 4/5 Apr 5, 2009 9:19:08 GMT -5

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Post by FLCeltsFan on Apr 5, 2009 9:19:08 GMT -5

www.bostonherald.com/sports/basketball/celtics/view.bg?articleid=1163558&format=text
Larry Bird: Ticket will get torn

By Mark Murphy / NBA Notes | Sunday, April 5, 2009 | www.bostonherald.com | Boston Celtics

Photo by AP file
Kevin Garnett recently passed Larry Bird in one particularly alarming category.

With 42,625 career minutes (regular season and playoffs combined), Garnett has now logged more NBA playing time than Bird, who, before injuries ended his career at age 35, had played 41,329 minutes.

This included the almost inconceivable sum of 6,886 playoff minutes. Though Garnett started younger, his time has been more evenly spaced. He has played in only one NBA Finals series, while reaching the conference finals twice.

Bird spent most of his career going deep, and admittedly paid the price physically.

That’s why Garnett’s minutes total and the current deterioration in health has caught the Indiana general manager’s attention.

Those 42,625 career minutes are not something to sniff at. Garnett is now battling a strained knee muscle that has kept him out of 16 games since Feb. 19, and it’s probably not a coincidence.

“KG played more minutes than I did in my career, so there has to be some wear and tear there,” Bird said last week. “It’s going to have an impact. Look at how (Kevin) McHale walks now. You can see that he played on a broken ankle for us in (the 1987 playoffs).”

Though McHale lasted through the 1992-93 season, he was never right again.

Of the original Big Three, only Robert Parish, who discovered the fountain of youth through vegetarianism and martial arts, was unaffected by the passing years.

“But one big thing with Robert was that he never picked up a ball during the summer,” said Bird. “He did a really good job taking care of his body.”

That’s not to say that Garnett, who works out during the offseason in Las Vegas, isn’t diligent.

But after last season, when Garnett played 987 playoff minutes - essentially a third of his career playoff total of 2,990 - the extra stress from 26 playoff games has likely taken a toll.

Bird speaks from experience.

“It was a good problem in my eyes,” he said. “We went to the Finals four years in a row, and we didn’t have any time to recover in the summer.

“Where most guys get four months, we got 2 at the most, and we paid the price for it,” said Bird. “I thought, ‘Wow, I played the equivalent of two extra seasons in that time.’

“I’ll tell you this - there’s a lot of guys who don’t make the playoffs who have lasted a lot longer in the league than we did.”

Garnett, just over a month away from his 33rd birthday, is now at roughly the same age when Bird and McHale’s bodies started to break down.

But physical deterioration is not dictated simply by age, according to Bird. Style of play is one factor. And Garnett is one of the most passionate, driven players in the game.

“I see a lot of players in this league who never take a charge, and never bend over to grab a loose ball, and they seem to stick around a lot longer,” Bird said. “But (Garnett) is a player. He plays hard. He’s very aggressive. It’s gonna catch up with you sooner or later.”

Especially for those, like Garnett, who have spent the better part of 14 seasons averaging nearly 40 minutes per game.

“I just think it’s more the minutes than anything that mounts up,” said Bird. “When you’re young, you don’t ever think you’re gonna get hurt. And when we were healthy we won.”

Had the specter of bad health not settled in before the 1987 Finals, Bird believes the Celtics [team stats] would have raised Banner No. 18, not 17, last October.

“I have no doubt that if we had stayed healthy we would have won one more title than we did,” said Bird. “But everyone was hurt in ’87. But our style was for everyone to just keep going. The Lakers (were hurt) too, but they got through it.”

McHale, Bill Walton (feet and back problems), Parish (a nagging ankle sprain), Dennis Johnson (thumb) and Scott Wedman all had injury issues that season. Bird was at the start of what would later become a debilitating heel issue.

Though coach Doc Rivers now has players with similar ability to play through pain, his concerns over the minutes buildup for Ray Allen, 33, and Paul Pierce [stats], 30, are equally pressing.

As of Thursday Allen had played 37,457 career minutes, with Pierce not far behind at 32,914.

Even as the Celtics have lost hold of perhaps their most important advantages from last season - the best record in the NBA and homecourt advantage throughout the playoffs - Rivers now faces something more important.

He must preserve the aging core of his team.

And though Garnett’s deep competitive streak may go against it, the Celtics forward appears to understand that after a career of unlimited playing time, it’s time to accept less in the short term for a bigger role down the road.

“Absolutely the maturity factor is huge with him,” said Rivers. “Most veteran players start to look at the bigger picture. Most young players are in the now.”

No Bunny for Bynum

Many moons ago the life of a young, rich, fun-loving athlete was easier, including in a city like Los Angeles. But as the Lakers’ Andrew Bynum has discovered, the Playboy Mansion is now a very public place thanks to the Internet.

The 21-year-old center recently attended a pajama party and was photographed carrying a Playmate on his shoulders. Photos of his jubilant moment hit the web.

But there’s more. A video soon appeared of a playful Bynum on the mansion grounds competing with a different Playmate in a hula hoop contest, complete with a transcript of the video’s giggly audio track.

Lakers fans, angry that the young big man apparently hasn’t been devoting every minute of his day to coming back from a torn medial collateral ligament, have lit up talk shows and chat boards throughout Southern California.

“I think there’s a lot being made of this that’s unnecessary,” said Lakers coach Phil Jackson. “This is a 21-year-old guy. He’s been out of basketball for six weeks. He’s got to have some energy and fun. Now, I don’t know if putting a girl on your shoulders is a good idea. But the fact that people are beating him up over that - that’s crazy.”

Playmate-gate, as it has been called, was balanced by the news that Bynum was playing three-on-three basketball with the hope of returning to action on April 12 against Memphis.

Kudos go to Brown

Detroit, with Allen Iverson [stats] the anchor, is sinking. Chicago has exhibited some frailty during the stretch run. Charlotte, which came within one Ray Allen 3-pointer of beating the Lakers and Celtics on successive nights last week, is right there if either the Pistons or Bulls fall out of the eastern conference’s top eight.

Considering the state of the Bobcats at the start of the season, is there any reason Larry Brown doesn’t deserve Coach of the Year honors?

Utah’s Jerry Sloan is certainly as deserving as ever, and Miami’s Eric Spoelstra has placed himself at the head of the discussion, but as usual Brown has amazed the rest of the league with his ability to make chicken salad out of you know what.

“Oh, definitely he deserves it,” Rivers said of Brown’s merit for the award. “They’ve found an identity. At the start of the year I told people that he’s going to give them a way to play, and that’s exactly what he’s done.

“Now they’re dangerous,” he said. “They’ve become that team that nobody is going to want to face in the playoffs. He had them turned around before the trade (for Raja Bell and Boris Diaw), and now that they’ve added these players they’re going right at people.”

FLCeltsFan
EDITOR IN CHIEF

Rabid Celtics Fan

Perk is a Beast

Posts: 25,622

News 4/5 Apr 5, 2009 9:22:46 GMT -5

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Post by FLCeltsFan on Apr 5, 2009 9:22:46 GMT -5

www.boston.com/sports/basketball/celtics/articles/2009/04/05/spring_break_for_celtics?mode=PF
Spring break for Celtics
Team gets a weekend off
By Marc J. Spears, Globe Staff | April 5, 2009

As Celtics coach Doc Rivers departed after completing his postgame press conference Friday night, he smiled before stating what at first seemed like a warning to the media about his team's much-needed two-day hiatus.

"Don't call me. Don't see me," Rivers said after a 104-92 victory over the Hawks at TD Banknorth Garden. "That is what my players are telling me."

It was tough enough that the Celtics had a short summer after winning an NBA title. They also played on the opening night of the season, played on back-to-back nights six times before December, and only Toronto played as many games as they had entering the All-Star break. In addition, the Celtics have been stymied by injuries all season, most notably to Kevin Garnett, currently sidelined with a strained right knee.

But the Celtics' cursing of the schedule-makers has finally come to an end here in April. They are enjoying two days off and two practice days before playing Wednesday against visiting New Jersey. The Celtics will play their first road game since March 27 a week from today at Cleveland; they have only two road games the rest of the regular season.

"We just have a good schedule," Rivers said. "We earned it. Our first month was awful. They're paying us back now."

With five games left before the playoffs, the Celtics will have a chance to get solid rest, practice a lot, and spend time in their own beds. Keep in mind that even more time in Boston is on the horizon since the Celtics have home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

"At this point in my career, I just try to use the rest," said 31-year-old Paul Pierce, the only Celtic who has played in all 77 games. "I'll just take two days off. I think my body needs it.

"That's just growing as a player, getting older, getting smarter and understanding that, hey, we still feel like it's a long season, potentially two more months to play, so it's important to get our rest right now."

Ray Allen, 33, said, "Being able to sit home around the kids and be able to be in our own bed. The hotel bed became my home bed. So I have to readjust.

"It's that time of the year where you have soreness, just aches, the usual body [pains]."

While some Celtics were expecting to relax at home, others planned on still going to the gym.

"It's great I get to stay home, spend some time with my daughter - she turns 1," said Pierce. "We'll have a good birthday party with her."

Rajon Rondo, who has suffered injuries to both ankles of late, said, "I'm glad to get these two days off. I'm going to just chill at home and spend time with my family. That's it."

Celtics relative newcomers Stephon Marbury and Mikki Moore, however, say they will stop in the Waltham practice facility to get in some work on both offdays. Marbury had not played in an NBA regular-season game in over a year before signing with Boston Feb. 27. Moore is still adjusting to the Celtics as a team and Boston as a city since signing as a free agent Feb. 24.

"I'm going to go in and get some work in, keep working on it," Marbury said. "I'm getting there. I don't know how close I am yet."

Said Moore, "It's good for me because I can finally do some things with my family. I have a 6-month-old, so I got to ride around and find stores and find restaurants. So I'm probably going to do that.

"But I'm going to come in anyway. I don't have days off. I am going to come in and get shots up for an hour, hour and a half. I just got to get ready for the playoffs.

"I don't want any doubt from my team or myself. I'm probably the worst critic of myself. I got to continue to get my shots up so I can [shoot] at a high percentage."

Unfortunately for the Celtics, Garnett won't be back practicing when they get back on the court tomorrow. He was slated to return to action next Sunday at Cleveland, but Rivers said he doesn't expect him to return to practice this week, thus putting his return up in the air.

"Hopefully, we can get Kevin back practicing, not this week but right after that," Rivers said.

FLCeltsFan
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Perk is a Beast

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News 4/5 Apr 5, 2009 9:24:14 GMT -5

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Post by FLCeltsFan on Apr 5, 2009 9:24:14 GMT -5

www.metrowestdailynews.com/sports/pros_and_colleges/x551068762/Courtside-View-Celts-Rondo-steadying-aim
Courtside View: Celts' Rondo steadying aim
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By Scott Souza/Daily News staff
MetroWest Daily News
Posted Apr 04, 2009 @ 11:13 PM

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With the shot clock winding down late in the third quarter Friday night, Rajon Rondo wasn't looking for a drive or a dish. He was looking for a jump shot.

He drilled the 3-pointer - one of three long jumpers for the point guard on the night - as part of a 20-point effort in Boston's 104-92 victory over the Hawks.

"He didn't want no pick or nothing," later confirmed Kendrick Perkins. "He just said to clear it out. He had the shot."

It's a shot Rondo almost never would have taken his first two seasons in the league, and probably would have only launched as a last resort earlier this season. But, of late, the one glaring deficiency in the point guard's game has become another weapon in his rapidly developing arsenal.

Since beginning a structured practice shooting routine this season at the "suggestion" of Kevin Garnett, Rondo has shown more confidence in the shot and has knocked it down with increasing regularity. His 50.6 shooting percentage is the best in the league among point guards and on the edge of the top 20 overall. Unlike last season, when his leap from 41.8 percent shooting as a rookie to 49.8 percent his second year was largely due to lay-ups, this year he is doing it from all over the floor.

"He works at it," said C's coach Doc Rivers. "You don't just wake up and do it. He and (assistant coach) Kevin Eastman - they spend hours out there.

"(Garnett) didn't suggest it, he told him to do it. But the work he's done with Eastman has still been great."

Yet, as proficient as Rondo and Glen Davis have gotten at the outside game, Rivers knows come playoff time when one of them drills one of those open jumpers, the opposition will have one reaction.

OK, hot shot. Do it again.

"People don't believe you in the regular season," the coach noted. "I learned that as a player. They don't care how many shots they make now. I guarantee you they'll be wide open in the playoffs."

Davis expects as much.

"Yeah, most definitely," he agreed. "They don't believe in it yet. I've just got to keep working hard and make sure I do what I have to do for my team."

After a very bumpy start to the season, that work has paid off for the undersized power forward. All summer, he was told to focus on the mid-range jumper, yet once the season started he often seemed unsure when to take it. Through the first two months of the year, he was shooting just 36 percent and possessions would grind to a halt when he took a pass on the perimeter.

Over the course of the season, though, Davis has pumped that mark up to 44.1 percent and has now scored 19 or more points in four of his last seven games.

"Something has gotten the pot boiling," he said. "I've been hitting some shots, spreading the floor a little bit. I can't just be a decoy out there."

"Glen, they are absolutely trying to get back out to already," Rivers determined. "The problem with doing that is you have Rondo bearing down on them with pick-and-rolls, and Paul (Pierce) out there too as a threat inside. But I think they have adjusted a little to Glen, so that's why you see him now more pump-faking and driving. He can do both of those things and that's good."

With both Garnett and Leon Powe out of the lineup with injuries, the C's have needed Rondo and Davis to hit those shots to help take the pressure off Pierce and Ray Allen. Even if - and a big "if" that is - Garnett and Powe are healthy for the playoffs, the shots of Rondo and Davis will be instrumental to the C's taking advantage of what defenses choose to give up in order to clamp down on other threats.

As well as he's done with it the second half of the season, that will still likely mean sagging off Rondo to take away his driving and passing options in the paint.

"He's got to do it a lot longer and a lot more consistently for them not to do that," Rivers said. "The bottom line is that they've got to choose something (to give him). He's got great speed and he's got Paul and Ray on the floor. Even when he becomes an above-average shooter, he's still going to get a lot of open shots because of that."

And when the shot is there, the coach urges both Rondo and Davis to pull the trigger almost every time.

"I want them to shoot it," he declared. "I've always wanted them to be able to do that. That's why we have them work on it so much."

FLCeltsFan
EDITOR IN CHIEF

Rabid Celtics Fan

Perk is a Beast

Posts: 25,622

News 4/5 Apr 5, 2009 9:58:12 GMT -5

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