News 4/5

[FLCeltsFan]

www.bostonherald.com/sports/basketball/celtics/view.bg?articleid=1085159&format=text

A father’s calling
Pierce may be out tonight

By Mark Murphy / Celtics Notebook | Saturday, April 5, 2008 | www.bostonherald.com | Boston Celtics

Photo by Matthew West (file)
Paul Pierce’s availability for tonight’s game in Charlotte is questionable, as the Celtics [team stats] captain is on the verge of becoming a new father.

Pierce was with his fiancee, Julie Landrum, as she underwent an induced delivery yesterday. He did not accompany the rest of the team on its flight to Charlotte last night.

Pierce is the only Celtic who has played in all 75 of the team’s games this season.

Eddie House has played in the next most at 74.

He would join a long list of teammates who have become fathers the last six months, including James Posey, Leon Powe, Rajon Rondo [stats], Brian Scalabrine and Kendrick Perkins [stats].

Turnaround shot

A victory tonight would give the Celtics a 37-win improvement from last season’s 24-win team, and thus, the largest turnaround in league history.

They are currently tied at 36 with the 1997-98 Spurs who, buoyed by the addition of Tim Duncan, won the NBA title a year later.

The Celtics also would win their 61st game of the season.

Though the team is not putting much stock in such numbers, there is also some quiet appreciation of what they mean.

“To win that many is a great accomplishment,” P.J. Brown said. “There’s something about getting 60 wins in this league that makes it a little extra special. It’s something that makes people take notice.

“I only attained that once when I was in Miami,” Brown said of the 1996-97 Heat, who won the Atlantic Division title with a 61-21 record. “It looks like this team is going to surpass that.”

Veteran presence

Like Sam Cassell, Brown’s time in the lineup has fluctuated.

But even when he’s not playing, he is providing invaluable guidance to the player who has kept him on the bench - Powe.

“P.J.’s phenomenal,” coach Doc Rivers said. “And he will play. But even if he doesn’t, if every team could have a P.J. Brown in your locker room, it’s to your benefit.

“He’s been great. He’s been great for Perk, he’s been great for ‘Baby’ (Glen Davis), and you can tell that they listen to him. He’s just been great. He’s a great pro.”

To the point

Someone asked Indiana coach Jim O’Brien earlier this week if he could see Rondo reaching the level of New Orleans’ Chris Paul or Utah’s Deron Williams - the two young point guards who represent the wave of the future in NBA playmakers.

O’Brien squinted and said, “I think that’s a stretch.”

That, however, doesn’t mean he unappreciates Rondo’s development.

“He’s a helluva basketball player and a helluva point guard,” O’Brien said. “To me, the Celtics play harder than anyone else in the league defensively, and a lot of that starts at the point guard.”

[FLCeltsFan]

www.boston.com/sports/basketball/celtics/extras/celtics_blog/2008/04/pierce_at_home.html

Pierce at home
Email|Link|Comments (0) Posted by Reid Laymance, Globe Staff April 4, 2008 04:03 PM
Julian Benbow chimes in with this update on Paul Pierce:

With his fiancée Julie Landrum expecting to be induced into labor, Pierce did not make the team flight to Charlotte this afternoon.

The Celtics left for Charlotte a little after 3 p.m., but Pierce and Landrum are waiting on the birth of their first child and team spokesman Jeff Twiss said, “He elected not to take the flight for obvious reasons.”

Missing the flight doesn’t necessarily mean he’s out for tomorrow, Twiss said. There’s the chance he could take a flight to Charlotte tomorrow in time for the 7 p.m. start.

But if he did choose to skip game, it would be the first game he’s missed all season. It would also mean a five-day vacation, with off days yesterday and today as well as Sunday and Monday.

The Celtics are a win (and a Detroit loss) away from clinching home court. Charlotte is 28-47 going into a road game tonight against Toronto.

“He could be out tomorrow he could not be out tomorrow,” Twiss said. “I guess we’ll know a little bit more as the day progresses.”

[FLCeltsFan]

www.boston.com/sports/basketball/celtics/extras/celtics_blog/2008/04/its_a_girl.html

It's a girl
Email|Link|Comments (0) Posted by Marc J. Spears, Globe Staff April 4, 2008 09:58 PM
Paul Pierce and his fiancee Julie Landrum had their baby girl at 5:40 p.m. today. Prianna Lee weighed in at seven pounds and 14 ounces.

Kendrick Perkins, James Posey, Rajon Rondo, Brian Scalabrine and Leon Powe have also fathered children over the last year.

Kevin Garnett's wife, Brandi is currently pregnant.

[FLCeltsFan]

www.boston.com/sports/basketball/celtics/articles/2008/04/05/its_a_case_of_tunnel_vision_for_posey?mode=PF
It's a case of tunnel vision for Posey
Posey's only focus is on the playoffs
By Julian Benbow, Globe Staff | April 5, 2008

There's a point in a conversation with Celtics forward James Posey when he stops looking at you and starts looking at the next two months.

He's talking playoffs these days, which to him is infinitely more exciting than anything else basketball has to offer.

Posey hoisted the Larry O'Brien trophy with Shaquille O'Neal and Dwyane Wade in Miami in 2006. The year before that, he helped turn the Memphis Grizzlies from a perennial doormat into one of the Western Conference's top eight.

So when he starts thinking about the playoffs again, the conversation stops and he goes through the itinerary in his mind. He has to know everything.

"Everybody on the roster," he said. "How many times a week they eat eggs for breakfast, how many times they might go to the corner store."

Everything helps, he said.

Posey has been to the playoffs every year since 2004. Before Sam Cassell brought his two championships into the locker room, Posey was the only player on the Celtics' roster with championship experience.

"He's a champion," Rajon Rondo said of Posey. "He knows what it takes to win. He's been through situations. He's been through a lot of adversity, as well. He's a great leader. He's a great veteran guy to have on your team."

But he still treats every postseason like it's his first, and last. Alonzo Mourning taught him that in Miami, and Posey plans on passing that along in Boston.

Posey is known for saying things like: "We've got tickets" when Kevin "Big Ticket" Garnett scores, "You can't handle the Truth" when Paul Pierce gets on the board, and "It's time for the Perk-olator" when Kendrick Perkins hits a shot. But he's saving Mourning's nugget.

"When the time is right," Posey said.

For now, he'll let his past speak for itself, and not just the championship season in Miami, but those years in Memphis, too.

In 2004, when the Grizzlies earned the sixth seed in the playoffs, Posey was their leader in steals, No. 2 scorer, and No. 3 rebounder. "We never could have won 50 games and got in the playoffs and be in the top six teams in the [conference] if I did not have James Posey," said Hubie Brown, who coached the Grizzlies at the time.

Brown, now an analyst for ABC and ESPN, remembers Posey doing the same things for his team he now does for the Celtics, particularly the 3-point shooting

Posey seemingly takes a million of them after every practice. "Not a million," he said, "but it's a routine." Set shots, in transition, from all around the arc, so when the game comes, it's second nature.

"He did it consistently for us and from there to Miami, where they needed that type of shooting," Brown said. "He is also doing that in Boston. When you have guys that are double-teamed like the Big Three, off the move like [in Memphis] where we had [Pau] Gasol, and in Miami where they had Shaq and Wade, a James Posey is a godsend for you because he can make that crucial shot with the clock going down."

Posey doesn't appear to have the quickest feet. But Brown said he can defend anyone from a point guard to a power forward.

"Plus, he's a tough guy, a tough kid, and will rebound the ball for you when the game is on the line," said Brown.

Posey is on the books for $3.2 million this season with a player option for $3.4 million next season. He won't talk about a contract extension until after the season, which is also the philosophy of executive director of basketball operations Danny Ainge.

Conversations with Posey only go so far these days. He's all about focusing.

The year the Grizzlies won 50 games, they ended the regular season with four straight losses, albeit against the Lakers, Suns, Mavericks, and the Timberwolves, and were swept by San Antonio in the first round.

When the Heat won it all in 2006, they came into the playoffs on a three-game losing streak, letting the Bulls, Hawks, and Celtics steal wins.

Posey said the difference was focus.

"That Miami team," he said, "we didn't start playing good basketball until around March. We weren't as focused until then going into the end of the regular season, into the playoffs. This [Celtics] team has been focused since Day 1."

And there aren't many days left until the playoffs.

"I'm feeling it a little bit," Posey said. "That's what it's about. Getting in your zone. Getting prepared. Ain't no hesitation. Ain't no second-guessing. Nothing. Just know what you've got to do. It's hard to explain, you've just got to be in it."

Pierce will miss tonight's game against the Bobcats because he and his fiancée, Julie Landrum, welcomed a baby girl yesterday at 5:40 p.m. Prianna Lee weighed in at 7 pounds 14 ounces.

It'll be the first game Pierce has missed all season. The Celtics need a win (or a Detroit loss) to clinch home court throughout the playoffs.