News 3/13

[FLCeltsFan]

forum.connpost.com/celticscentral/2008/03/boston_crushes_seattle_for_10t.html#comments

Boston Crushes Seattle for 10th Straight
Call them the Green Crush. It was almost boring to see how easy this win was. Almost.


I still enjoy watching the high level of ball this team is playing to dismantle their opponents.


The Boston Celtics just defeated the extra-young and lowly Seattle Supersonics, who were not super, and any sonics heard were the Celtics getting to the rim and scoring at will. The Celtics pumped up the volume to a 37 point lead before coasting home with a 111-82 win at home for their 10th straight win.


After putting together 3 different nine game streaks this year, the team now has the longest Celtic winning streak since the Bird-led 1985-86 season when they won 14 straight. It was also the team's 51st win this year and put Doc Rivers at an even .500 (324-324) for his coaching career.


Paul Pierce scored all of his 14 points in the first quarter when Seattle tried to keep up with the Beantown Ballers. He did most of his damage the old fashioned Paul Pierce way, on drives to the middle, shooting an efficient 6-9. After that, Pierce turned into a passing forward, taking just 2 shots the rest of the way, while finishing with 11 assists for a dub-dub. Pierce was stellar in his 26 minutes tonight.


Boston shot .542 while scoring 34 first quarter points to Seattle's 24. Ray Allen added 6 and Rondo and Leon Powe contributed 4 points each. The lead ballooned to 20 in the 2nd quarter, all but deciding this contest. The Celtics were hitting at a smooth and deadly .553 clip by half time. Without much effort, the lead ballooned to 37 points before the team coasted home with the win.


Along the way, every eligible Celtic player played and scored and played at least 10 minutes. Seattle emptied its bench too, as 24 different players played tonight. 'Summer league in March' time.


Games against bottom feeders will be like this for the rest of the year. Each type of team is playing for vastly different reasons as one looks at play-off seeding, the other at lottery seeding.


This allowed Doc Rivers to rest his starters more and team high minutes went to James Posey at 26:24, as he scored 10 points, grabbed 5 boards, and added 4 assists.


The Celtics defense was just too much for this young, offensive minded team, as the Men in Green took turns turning off the hot player, from Kevin Durant to Earl Watson, and keeping the clamps on Jeff Green and Chris Wilcox. In an aberration, Johan Petro took team high honors in attempts with 15, making 6 for 12 ineffectual points.


Sam Cassell and P.J. Brown got solid minutes as they work to get comfortable with their new team. Rajon Rondo did not have one of his better games. He got 2 quick fouls, played 16 minutes total, with 2 assists and 6 points, even missing a couple of lay-ups on the same play.


Eddie House was perfect from the field with a 5-5 night and 11 points in 17:26, adding solid defense on Earl Watson, adding 5 assists, 4 rebounds and 2 steals in one of his best performances in a while.


Kendrick Perkins was solid as usual in 22 minutes but failed to get at least 10 rebounds for the first time in 6 games. He had 5 boards and 5 points in an abbreviated evening.


Kevin Garnett tie with Ray Allen for team lead in scoring with 18, as his jumper was going once again. Allen has been a groove from downtown for about 12 games now and is getting hotter. He was silk with a precision-like 8 of 10 this evening, with 2-3 from beyond the arc. He is 11-17 for 65% over his last three games from the three point line.


Boston's bench scored 50 of the team's points and grabbed 26 of the team's 46 rebounds with solid contributions from everyone. Tony Allen led the team in rebounding with 7.


The team is just controlling games, breaking the will of opponents and doing it early. Philadelphia tried to compete in the 2nd half the other night but was dismissed anyway. The Sixers defeated the Pistons tonight. This Celtic domination is reminiscent of the 1980's teams.


Next up will be a more worthy opponent and one with revenge as a motive. Utah, 4th best in the west, at 43-23, comes to Boston on Friday. They have the league's best home record and only 3 home losses this year. One of those three losses is courtesy of the Celtics.

[FLCeltsFan]

www.patriotledger.com/sports/x1261097470

Celtics Notebook
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By Jim Fenton
ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER
Posted Mar 13, 2008 @ 03:30 AM

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BOSTON — His best contribution to the postgame press conference was poking fun at the Kevin Garnett bobblehead doll.

“Get back on defense,” said Paul Pierce as he talked to the doll while sitting next to Garnett. “Rebound the ball.”

Garnett wanted no part of the comedy act and wanted his Boston Celtics teammate to put the doll away, prompting Pierce to say, “I knew we couldn’t lose when I saw that.”

While Pierce had his sense of humor working afterwards, he had different phases of his game going to help the Celtics take care of the Seattle SuperSonics, 111-82, Wednesday night at the TD Banknorth Garden.

Pierce was a scoring machine in the first quarter, hitting six of his first seven shots to score 14 points as the Celtics broke into a lead that would never be threatened.

The rest of the game, Pierce turned into a distributor, finishing with 11 assists that was one shy of a season high. He did not score another point after the first quarter, taking only two shots in the last 15 minutes he was on the floor.

Pierce went on the offensive early to get the Celtics into a groove, driving to the basket against the inexperienced Jeff Green.

“After the first couple of possessions, when Kevin brought us to the huddle, he said, ‘Let’s pick it up,’ and I just wanted to be more aggressive and set the tone for this game,” said Pierce. “This was the type of game coach said that he didn’t have no great speech for us.

“It’s a game we should win, so let’s go out and take care of business. After those first couple of minutes, we did and put the game away pretty much in the first half.”

Pierce took Green, a rookie from Georgetown, to school in the early going by getting past him for easy inside baskets, just part of his bag of tricks.

“He’s a professional scorer,” said Coach Doc Rivers. “He’s always been one. He’s an amazing guy to watch as a coach.

“As an opposing coach, it didn’t look there was any speed that he was putting into it. Half the time, it didn’t look like he was cutting hard, yet he was always open. It frustrated the hell out of you as an opposing coach.

“When you get next to him, you see it’s all about timing and cuts and angles and he does an amazing job at it.”

Pierce had seven of his assists in less than 10 minutes during the third quarter when the Celtics stretched a 20-point halftime lead to 32. Boston finished with 31 assists on 45 field goals.

“It’s our emphasis every night, make the extra pass and be unselfish,” said Pierce. “That’s pretty much the makeup of this team. We like to share the ball, like being on the court with one another. It gets contagious after a while.

“We swing the ball, you see a guy knock down a shot. We love when the other guy makes a shot and it makes you feel good.”

Pollard has surgery:
Reserve center Scot Pollard underwent season-ending ankle surgery Tuesday in Indiana.

Pollard struggled with an ankle ailment since training camp and attempted to play through it all season. “He was trying to delay surgery,” said Rivers. “He hurt his ankle because he came in and was playing with the guys early (in September), which is something he didn’t have to do and he did.

“Everything he did was the right thing. It’s just one of those years where he got injured and things just didn’t work out for him. As a coach, and I think his teammates understand what he tried to do for the team. I think it was great.”

One more at home:
The Celtics host the Utah Jazz Friday night, then hit the road for five games in eight nights. The busy schedule means Boston’s next practice won’t be until a week from Friday in Dallas. “That’s the tough part of about this league,” said Rivers. “It’s a long time, but there’s no way around it. You need legs.” … Brian Scalabrine was on the inactive list for a second straight game to make room for Sam Cassell on the roster. Cassell was able to play 14 minutes because of the blowout and had six points.