Leon!

In a bizarre happening in Minnesota tonight that occasionally mildly resembled a professional basketball game, the Celtics gutted out/lucked into an 88-86 victory over the up-and-coming Timberwolves. Yeah... this was a wild one. The game ended on a cool-as-ice-water Leon Powe putback after Ray Allen got positively mauled going for a last-second breakaway layup, briefly resulting in one of the worst no-calls you'll ever see. Even right after the win Ray seemed positively incredulous over not being at the line, which was actually kind of amusing to watch. Anyways, Leon came up huge tonight: 16 points on 8-10 shooting to go with 8 rebounds in 27 minutes of work. This kid seems to be seriously putting it together and it's nice to watch. As for the rest of the game... Jesus. Rondo had 12 points and 7 assists and hit a big basket down the stretch, and Pierce and Ray combined for 32 points while shooting a fug 11 for 32. I don't really have much else. Local-kid-made-good Al Jefferson scored 16 for the Wolves. Can I stop talking about this game now? Honestly, aside from the final two minutes--which were genuinely enthralling in a backyard-wrestling sort of way--the highlight was probably KG's pregame introduction, which definitely seemed a little dusty for all involved. The ovation the Minnesota fans gave him was truly phenomenal, as was Garnett's gracious response, replete with a gentlemanly bow... probably one of the classier moments you'll see in sports this year. Get well soon, KG.

Rondisimo!

Nice win against the Clips last night, Rondo was the standout performer as we got to see how much havoc he can create when an opposing team's defense is negligent. An uplifting aspect of Garnett's injury has been getting to see Rajon control the game more. Against Cleveland he perhaps was too brazen at the end of the game, but against the Clips his doggedness at getting to the rim was inspiring. Now all we have to worry about is him getting the shit banged out of him. Cassell whacked him wickedly in the second quarter last night, and unfortunately it was nothing new to see Rondo hit the deck hard. He's a slight guy, and we have to just hope that he is able to sustain.

The strangest aspect of last night's game was that in the fourth quarter Dunleavy and Glenn both left their bench players in for far too long. Dan Dickau played all twelve minutes of the fourth quarter after not playing at all in the previous three quarters. Meanwhile Pierce, Ray and Rondo were on the bench until the final minute. Needless to say I would be going absolutely apeshit if the Celtics had lost this game, because the final six minutes were handled like garbage time - even though the Clippers were always within striking distance. It gave me an eeky feeling. Anyway, onto the great north woods of Minnesota.

WTF: Phoenix Suns Edition

We occasionally like to think of ourselves as not simply a Boston Celtics blog but in fact a warmer, more generally inclusive basketball blog. This is apparently one of those occasions, as I'm finding it difficult to make it through the day without posting some sort of comment on one of the more bizarre sports maneuvers in recent memory: namely, the Phoenix Suns' now-official acquisition of soon-to-be-36-year-old Shaquille O'Neal. The Suns gave up Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks to acquire The Big Fella/The Diesel/Shaq-Fu/Kazaam!, and the general feeling around the League is that Steve Kerr is crazy... crazy like a FOX!!!! No, actually, just crazy. John Hollinger--himself a proud iconoclast--has practically blown a gasket; SI.com's Marty Burns opens his observations with a quote from Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" (he's got his finger on the pulse of young America); and, as usual, FreeDarko provides the most cogent summation, noting that Steve Kerr has cynically turned his back on the dream.

I'm not sure what to make of it. The Suns are a great team with a great coach and a jury-is-still-out GM in Kerr, who's certainly figured out a way to get his name out there if nothing else. Jack McCallum, who probably knows the Suns better than anyone not on their payroll--and apparently better than Steve Kerr--writes that the mood around the Suns' locker room this season has been less than sunny, and let's face it, by all accounts Shawn Marion's a bit of a pouty dick. His numbers are certainly down this year, and maybe the Suns were trying to send a message about chemistry, but that's a pretty unrealistic justification and it's honestly the best I can come up with. It sure as hell isn't a salary dump--Shaq makes $40m over the next two years--and given Shaq's age and rather startling decline in production it's difficult to see how the Suns got "better" through this trade in any conventional sense of that word. Optimistic minds have argued that this move will allow Amare Stoudemire to play more at the 4, his "natural" position, but a good part of me honestly wonders if Stoudemire is better as an undersized center in the Suns' balls-out offense than a conventional power forward in a traditional half-court one, which is clearly what Phoenix is moving towards by acquiring such a resolutely half-court player as O'Neal. Stoudemire's mid-range jumper sucks, and the vast majority of his effectiveness comes from his creating chaos around the basket, which is the sort of thing that a lumbering Shaquille O'Neal will make difficult if not impossible. Much is being made of the "I won't let you down" phone call that Shaq allegedly placed to Steve Nash, but that would have been a hell of a lot more meaningful five years ago, when Shaq's only problem was motivation. The reason Shaquille O'Neal is no longer a dominant player isn't because he doesn't give a shit--although this season he probably doesn't--but rather because he's 35 years old and hasn't exactly spent his career on the Kevin Garnett workout regimen.

I don't know, I for one consider this a sad day. The Phoenix Suns were everything good about basketball for the past few years; last year they should have won it all and instead got jobbed by the refs and the League. There should have been a revolution, and now all we've got is a big middle finger from Steve Kerr, a former Spur, I might add. They've destroyed something beautiful; in the words of Johnny Rotten, ever get the feeling you've been cheated?

I'm Beginning To Miss That KG Guy

We are at the time of season where funky things happen night in and night out, and it is hard to determine if any of it matters in the long run. Or so we expect. Cleveland shot the lights out last night, and for the first time in a while the Celtics decided to let their defense rest. So if anything the only surprise was that the C's were able to hang in there. I attribute much of this to Pierce, who seemed likely to vomit on the court, and still gave a gallant effort in defeat. People hardly give Pierce credit for being incredibly tough. This guy fights back time and time again, which is why I can't agree with The Fox when he criticizes Pierce for being too full of bravado. What makes PP different than contemporary wings like Kobe, Carter and McGrady is his complete workmanlike determination. He might bring you back, but it will not be in the balletic fashion of the aforementioned. Rather it will be through the silt and scrum of tearing through opponents at wild angles and hitting off-kilter shots that seem impossible to drop in. This doesn't make Pierce superior (it might actually imply inferiority), but it truly is what he is. Pierce would not be a king, he would be a knight.

And we already know what LeBron would be. I don't like matching up with the Cavs. I know Mike Brown is often in over his head, and that their offense is adequate at best. But Cleveland is a matchup problem for us, and it goes beyond just James. Without Garnett this is magnified. If you asked me a week ago I would have thought KG would be back by now, but surprisingly he is not. That hardly is an ominous sign, but of course everything changes without him on the floor. The Celtics will be unstable until he returns, but given the time of year I am fully accepting of that...

As for the Marion-Shaq deal I hardly know what what to say yet. My first reaction was utter shock, I see it as being a terrific deal for Miami, and had a vision of Steve Kerr pulling off a mask and Isiah being underneath. But we shall see, nothing is official as of yet.

Pau Continued

A little more on Gasol, because I will just get angry if I think about how much Glenn values Scal. I'm still surprised there was low interest from other teams regarding Gasol. I can understand the hesitation, but sometimes it's worthwhile to pull the trigger. Gasol has had a PER over 20 every year since 2002. He's a big guy, fully capable of playing center when you're in a pinch. There are few like him; he's a poor man's Tim Duncan in the best sense. And he's only 27. So, yes, definitely a team like the Lakers would aggressively grab him. But why weren't more teams at the Grizzlies' auction?

The overriding reason has to be wariness of Pau's salary; including all of this year Gasol is due about $63 million till 2011. That's a serious sum. But he may well be worth it - year after year he has played at an All-Star type level. Now obviously if his current back troubles are more than just a splash in the pond, we should be hesitant. But if Gasol is healthy, I feel as if more teams were foolish in not going after him. Take Minnesota for instance. Yes, they suck. But if they traded Theo's expiring contract, Gomes (or Craig Smith), this year's second rounder, and next year's first rounder that probably could have had Pau. All of a sudden you have a combo of Jefferson and Gasol, which would be offensively devastating. Add to that the top five pick from the upcoming draft and you're seriously onto something. Or take a team like the Wizards. Many of us think that Gilbert does not maximize the potential of that team; which is one reason that the Wizards are performing rather well without him. So why not trade him to Memphis for Gasol? It's not as crazy as it sounds (especially if picks are tossed in to allay the deal.) The Wizards would have a scary front line, and Memphis would have a dynamic star they could resign in the summer. Or turning the circle again, let's looks at the Suns. They could have traded Marion and Atlanta's first rounder for Gasol. Phoenix gets bigger and locks up an All-Star talent for a few more years. Meanwhile Memphis gets a player adept at Iavaroni's system, his cap-friendly contract, and a decent pick.

I'm not saying any of the above suggested trades were necessarily the right trade to make, just implying that there should have been more options for the Grizzlie to sift through. Yes, the Lakers needed to make this trade - but getting Gasol could have significantly helped several other teams in the NBA, and been beneficial to the Grizzlies as well. Clearly trade ideas are a dime a dozen, but it is helpful to do this exercise to realize how common it is for teams to fail in taking calculated risks.

Getting Over Gasol

I don't think I really comprehend the Gasol trade yet. It's huge, with ramifications that send tremors through the league, just like the KG deal. I mean there is so much that can be talked about in terms of this trade. It is amazing that hardly anybody was even discussing Gasol being traded, and then wham! all of sudden there he is in LA. In retrospect it is hard to believe that there was not more speculation surrounding Pau. It now seems obvious that he was the best big-name player available (yes, better than Kidd.) And yeah, the Lakers are scary. Talk about a dynamic team, particularly offensively. Kobe has no excuses now; the next few years will show us if he truly is the best player in the league, as so many (foolishly?) still claim. And the scary thing about this trade is that the Lakers should just get better as time elapses - Kobe and Gasol will still be in their primes as Bynum improves.

Once again we have seen the stunning value of expiring contracts. Apparently there is always a team that is in such desperate straits that they have no choice but to dump its star with getting only questionable value in return (Philly, Minnesota and Memphis all within the course of 13 months.) Who cares about free agency when you can just poach from these desperate teams and get such quality? The NBA is a wild place. And just like in Philadelphia and Minnesota, it is far too early to say that Memphis got swindled - we may not know that for five years. But when you look at the immediacy of the last two blockbusters you cannot help but feel as if the Celtics and Lakers were both amazingly fortuitous. Desperation is an interesting thing in NBA circles, especially in front offices. And last year's villains (Ainge, Kupchak) can all of a sudden be hailed as the most innovative of architects. But we should not be so remiss - sometimes luck plays a larger role than any of us would like to acknowledge.

Western Fore

Last night's game said alot as to who the Celtics are, but I don't think I'm going to write about it right now, saying much of it has already been written. But let me say that was a very good game last night, a nice victory for sure. The most positive acknowledgement I can make from the last week is that the C's are good even without Garnett. Their defense was excellent last night, as it had been for the previous two games minus KG. We have to give massive props to Tommy Thibodeau. Like Jim O'Brien before him, he has this team believing in defense. We have completely missed that in all the previous Glenn years, and as much as we want to give Garnett tremendous credit, I am ready to give huge props to Thibodeau. This guy is not just a good defensive coach, he is a great one.

The undeniable value of Posey was on full display against the Mavs, in my mind he is a darkhorse candidate for sixth man of the year. He has an option to get out of his deal after the season, as does Thibodeau. Yikes. Despite the fact that Posey was clearly the best matchup on Nowitzki, Scal started and played 17 mirthless minutes (0 points, 0 rebounds, 2 assists.) Glenn's cruel joke continues. Meanwhile a 4-5 combo of Posey and Powe is as gutsy as it comes - and also as small. It will be interesting to see if they pair together more, I have been wrong when I doubted those two in the past. Big Baby did not play again.

After watching a well played contest between the Mavs and the C's, the Spurs-Suns game took me slightly aback. In my mind TNT had the four best teams in the NBA on TV last night. While Boston and Dallas looked inspired, the same could not be said for either San Antonio or Phoenix. They just looked grizzled. And there is something to take from this - the season is long, especially for hardened veteran teams. Sometimes you have to just gut it out, that's all you can do. TNT's night cap was all about that, and yes, I still think either the Suns or Spurs will win the Championship in 2008. So praise be to these spunky Celtics, they have done nothing wrong, but they must do more prolonged good to get into the hallows.