Posted by r1zzo23 on February 26, 2009
Post from February 26, 2009…
Last night, the Celtics sleep-walked into the Staples Center. Half the time, the court is dawned in the glorious purple and gold of the Lakers. But this trip, the red and blue of the Clippers were out, along with some Hollywood stars. These stars are usually at the Lakers game, but this night, they came to see the Celtics play. Unfortunately, the Green didn’t put on any performance worth watching.
Watching the pre-game show on FSN New England, Donny Marshall pointed out a great point that couldn’t be stressed enough: do not just show up to play! The Celtics needed to grind out another game and just give three more hours of their best basketball before they could return home. Doc agreed with Donny, but he doesn’t play point guard in the league any more. Ultimately, it was up to Rondo to push the tempo last night, and that didn’t happen.
The Celtics allowed the Clippers to not only hang around, but to lead for a lot of the game. This is where the, in my opinion, the absence of Kevin Garnett was detrimental to the team. After being on the road since the All-Star Game, the team was tired and just wanted to get home. Plus, it’s easy to look at the schedule, see the Clippers and then take it easier than you would most other teams. If KG were on the court, I don’t think he would have allowed that to happen. I don’t think he would have allowed Zach Randolph to go for 30 against arguably the best defenses in the league. The energy would have been there right from the opening tip and the Celtics wouldn’t have gotten fooled into playing at the Clippers’ pace.
Thing is, Kevin Garnett wasn’t available and the Celtics did sleep walk into and out of last night’s game, with a loss no less. Celtics need to beat the Clippers, even without Kevin Garnett, if they want to claim the coveted #1 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs this season. Hopefully, thi slip up won’t happen again for the rest of this season.
Posted in 2009, Game Analysis, Players | Leave a Comment »
Posted by r1zzo23 on February 26, 2009
Post from February 26, 2009…
There’s skepticism floating around that after Marbury officially signs tomorrow (Friday) morning with the Celtics that he will play tomorrow night at the TD Banknorth Garden against the hobbled Indiana Pacers.
No Danny Granger. No Mike Dunleavy Jr. No problem? Not so fast. We just lost to the Los Angeles Clippers, arguably the worst franchise in sports history. We will not have Kevin Garnett’s services. Brian Scalabrine is still having his neck injury examined. Paul Pierce gave us a scare last night with his thumb, but it shouldn’t be that big of a deal. Gabe Pruitt just got arrested for suspicion of a DUI.
With that all said, I think this should be a comfortable win for the Celtics. The big sticking point is that the Celtics will be returning to Boston for the first time since before the NBA All-Star Game. The fans will pack the house and be as loud as ever, looking to start a new winning streak.
Assuming Gabe Pruitt is out of the lineup for tomorrow night’s game, I think that means that Stephon Marbury has to play. I wouldn’t mind seeing Marbury on the floor with Eddie House and the other backups. Hopefully Marbury will be able to give the bench a spark of scoring and consistent point guard play that we have been lacking. A lineup of Marbury, House, Ray Allen or Paul Pierce, Leon Powe and Mikki Moore would be exciting to watch.
Posted in 2009, Players | 1 Comment »
Posted by r1zzo23 on February 26, 2009
Post from February 26, 2009…
From RealGM.com:
Gabe Pruitt of the Boston Celtics was arrested early Thursday morning in the Los Angeles area on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol, celebrity gossip web site TMZ.com reported.The Celtics were in town to play the Clippers Wednesday night.
A search of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department web site found that someone with Pruitt’s exact name and birthday was arrested at 3:07 a.m. and booked at 5:57 a.m. Bail was set at $5,000.
I’m pretty disappointed in Gabe about this, but there are two reasons I could give for this happening. One, Pruitt was born in LA and played his college ball at USC, so this is a homecoming for him. I asked why weren’t the Celtics on a plane home after that game since they’ve been on the road for over two weeks now. I’m sure captain Paul Pierce wanted to spend a night in his home town of Los Angeles as well, so the Celtics stayed the night.
Lastly, I think the foregone conclusion of the Celtics signing Stephon Marbury may be a downer to Gabe. He was beginning to play some decent minutes game in and game out, but now with Marbury coming, his minutes could be all but gone. Personally, I don’t think that will happen, nor do I think it should effect Gabe in any way, but you never know with these athletes nowadays.
My buddy told me this was the curse of Stephon Marbury rearing its ugly head already. First KG gets hurt, then we got a scare with Paul Pierce last night, we lost to the Clippers and now this. Personally, I think he’s just a hater.
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