celtics afterthoughts – 2009/2010 inaugural edition

Posted on | October 28, 2009 | Comments

Paul Pierce puts the game away Celtics 95, Cavs 89

Where to start, where to start… Well, first of all, HELL TO THE YEAH! I’m not gonna lie. I wanted this win bad. Probably more than I should have, in fact. It’s only the first game of the season and I really should pace myself. I think the reason I wanted the Celtics to win this game so badly was because I still had that horrible image in my mind of that game last season with LeBron, Delonte and company clowning around on the bench during a blowout against the Cs in the Q. I was also quite sure if I saw or heard Rick Astley, I was going to throw the remote control so hard through the TV, it was going to land in Timbuktu. I really like my TV, so phew… dodged a bullet on that one.

The game started out rough. The “Celtics look old” and “It’s going to be a long season, Boston” tweets were making me want to cut a bitch. The piss poor defense was giving me Nam flashbacks of the brutal Christmas season stretch last season when they lost all those games out in Cali. And then. And then… and THEN — They crawled back up out of that hole and clawed their way into the game. It started with the bench and then like RIT on a crisp white t-shirt, it seeped its way through the whole team and suddenly the Celtics not only caught up, but had the lead and never looked back.

Make no mistake, LeBron looked phenomenal on the defense end. He was holding a block party and the Celtics were helpless to stop it. Whether it was a speedy gonzalez Rondo layup or a finesse-style (slowish) Ray Allen layup, LeBron was there and having none of it. I’m not a LeBron fan, but it was impossible to watch those plays and not appreciate their beauty. On the offense though, he took too many low percentage shots. When he makes them, he looks great, but he didn’t make enough of them. Yes, I know the box score disagrees with me, but I don’t care. I stand by that statement. I think he takes too many long bombs and doesn’t trust his teammates enough. Bottom line, the Cavs just have a lot of work to do to be a championship-caliber team. Shaq looked like old Shaq in the first quarter, but after that, not so much. I’m not buying the “things would have been different if Delonte had played” excuse either. Maybe, things would have been different if Glen Davis had been there too. So what? Yes, I realize Delonte is their starting 2 guard and BBD is a luxury backup for us, but still… If we can’t blame KG being out for losing Game 7 in the playoffs to Orlando, then Cleveland can’t use this excuse here. It’s weak sauce.

This was a great win and I’m happy about it, but this game left me with plenty of questions about the Celtics and the kind of work they need to do to return to championship form too.

Paul Pierce was his clutch self as always and I love him for that, but who else is going to step up in crunch time?
The slow starts, turnovers and mental errors continue from last season. Have to clean that up.
Rondo needs to play every opposing point guard like he plays Chris Paul. Step it up, kid. Prove you’re worth max money every night and maybe you’ll get it.

ps. Shout out to my boy, Craig Sager. I’ve missed you boo.