Celtics (23-21) at Hawks (26-19) 3/19

[FLCeltsFan]

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Boston Celtics (23-21) at Atlanta Hawks (26-19)
Monday, March 19
7:30 PM ET
Game #45,  Road Game #21
TV:   CSNNE, SNET1, SPSO, NBA-LP 754/755
Radio:  WEEI,  WCNN
Philips Arena 



Probable Starters
  PG: Rajon Rondo 13.4 PPG, 10.3 APG,  1.6 SPG

SG: Ray Allen 14.7 PPG, 2.5 APG, .459 3P%

  SF:   Paul Pierce   18.4 PPG, 4.7 RPG, 5.1 APG

  PF:  Brandon Bass   11.9 PPG,  5.8 RPG, 0.9 BPG

C:   Kevin Garnett    15.2 PPG,  8.2 RPG,  1.1 BPG

Boston Bench Mob
Greg Stiemsma
Mickael Pietrus
Avery Bradley
JaJuan Johnson
E'Twaun Moore
Keyon Dooling
Sasha Pavlovic
Marquis Daniels

Injured
Chris Wilcox  (heart)  out
Jermaine O'Neal (wrist)  out





Probable Starters
  PG Jeff Teague 12.2 PPG  4.9 APG   1.8 SPG

  SG Kirk Hinrich 6.0 PPG  2.6 APG  .3.3 3P%   

  SF  Joe Johnson  18.6 PPG  3.4 RPG 3.8 APG

  PF Josh Smith  17.9 PPG  9.5 RPG  2.0 BPG 

C Zaza Pachulia  7.3 PPG 7.3 RPG  0.5 BPG

Reserves
Tracy McGrady
Ivan Johnson
Jason Collins
Jerry Stackhouse
Erick Dampier
Jannero Pargo   

Injuries
Willie Green (back) questionable
Vladimir Radmanovic (back) out
Al Horford (Pectoral)  out
Marvin Williams (hip)  out 

Team Connections
Josh Smith and Rajon Rondo both attended Oak Hill Academy…
Doc Rivers played for Atlanta from 1983-91
Rivers also holds the Hawks record for most assists in a career as a Hawk (3,866)
Celtics Assistant Coach Armond Hill played for the Hawks from 1976-80 and also during the 1983-84 season
Joe Johnson was originally drafted by the Celtics with the 10th pick in the 2001 draft
Hawks Assistant Coach Lester Conner was an Assistant Coach with the Celtics from 1998-2004
Paul Pierce and Kirk Hinrich both attended Kansas University
Tracy McGrady played for Doc Rivers in Orlando from 2000-04
Jannero Pargo and Brandon Bass were teammates in New Orleans during the 2006-07 season
Erick Dampier and Brandon Bass were teammates in Dallas from the 2007-09.

Key Matchups
  vs 
Brandon Bass vs Josh Smith
Smith is a very athletic and quick power forward and will be a tough matchup for Bass.   Brandon must box out and keep Smith off the boards along with slowing him down on offense. 

  vs 
Paul Pierce vs Joe Johnson
Joe Johnson  is athletic and quick and can score in bunches.  Pierce is stronger though and should be able to keep Johnson in check on the defensive end.  He should also use his strength to get his shot off past Johnson.   

Honorable Mention
Ray Allen vs Kirk Hinrich
Ray should be able to beat Hinrich through screens to get open. Also Hinrich isn't as much of an offensive threat as he was at one time and so Ray should be able to defend him well.    I expect a big game from Ray. 

Game Notes
The Celtics continue their road trip with the first of 3 games against the Atlanta Hawks.  With the Hawks sitting in 6th place in the East, 2.5 games ahead of the Celtics, this game takes on increased importance for the Celtics.  A win moves them to within 1.5 games of the 6th spot, while a lost drops them to 3.5 games back.  The Celtics are also 1.5 games behind Philly for the Atlantic division lead and the 4th spot in the standings.   With the Sixers playing in Charlotte, they are almost certain to get a win and the Celtics need this win to keep pace. 

In spite of playing in the 6th game of an 8 game road trip, the Celtics had Sunday off while the Hawks played in Cleveland on Sunday.  The Hawks have won their last two while the Celtics have lost their last two.  Let's hope both streaks end with this game.   The Hawks are a good home team with a 13-6 record at Phillips Arena.  The Celtics, on the other hand have struggled on the road, winning just 7 and losing 13.    Both teams are 6-4 in their last 10 games. 

This is a big game with playoff seeding implications.  The Celtics must come out focused and not dig a hole that they have to spend the rest of the game digging out of.  Hopefully they will show more effort and desire than they did in their last 2 games and play Celtic basketball. 

Keys to the Game
Defense - This is the key to every game and to winning a championship this year.  The Hawks are a good 3 point shooting team as well as having the ability to get to the basket and so the Celtics must defend both the perimeter and the paint.  In their last two losses, the Celtics have allowed way too many easy baskets.  They have to get back to consistently playing the swarming team defense that we have seen in spurts this season.

Rebound -  The Celtics have been giving up too many rebounds.  With Pachulia and Smith inside, if the Celtics don't box out and get the defensive boards, the Hawks will get second chance baskets.  If the Celtics don't grab the offensive boards, the Hawks will get out on the break for easy baskets.    The Hawks aren't a great rebounding team (25th, 41.1 rpg) but they are better than the Celtics (30th, 38.1 rpg).  The Celtics have been out rebounded by large margins in recent games and they must put out a better effort on the boards. 

Run the Offense -  In the last two losses, there was way too much dribbling and standing around.  They have gotten away from moving the ball and the passing that makes them so tough to guard.  They have to run the offense and move the ball and find the open man.  They must get away from walking the ball up the floor and then one player dribbling while looking for an opening and then settling for a tough shot. 

Be Aggressive - The Celtics must be the more aggressive team.  They have to be aggressive in going to the basket.  Driving into the paint will give them a basket or free throws or the opportunity to kick it out to an open teammate.  They can't just settle for jumpers.  They also must be aggressive in going after loose balls and rebounds.  It has been so frustrating to watch Celtics stand there and watch an opponent dive for a loose ball or run past them for a rebound.  They can't let the Hawks out hustle them. 

Odd Fact
The team's named was shortened from Blackhawks to Hawks upon moving to Milwaukee from the Tri-Cities region where the Blackhawk war took place in 1831.

X-Factors
Road Weary and Standings
This is the Celtics 6th game on an 8 game road trip.  They have been on the road for awhile but did have Sunday off while the Hawks played in Cleveland on Sunday.  Hopefully the Celtics can find the energy to finish this road trip off with some wins.  Every game now is important but this game his big as a win will move the Celtics to within 1.5 games of Atlanta for the 6th spot, and a loss moves them 3.5 back.  Will the Celtics realize the importance of this game in the standings and give it their best effort?  If they do, they should get the win. 

[Who]

Brandon Bass has to step up. He has been dreadful these past two games.

Jason Thompson and Kenneth Faried have combined for 31 rebounds in the past two games against the Celtics (many of which came against Bass) with Bass only collecting 3 rebounds of his own in the same time (1 against Sac, 2 against Den).

That is 3 rebounds in 60 minutes playing time. One every 20 minutes. Absolutely pathetic.

[thestackshow]

Brandon Bass has to step up. He has been dreadful these past two games.

Jason Thompson and Kenneth Faried have combined for 31 rebounds in the past two games against the Celtics (many of which came against Bass) with Bass only collecting 3 rebounds of his own in the same time (1 against Sac, 2 against Den).

That is 3 rebounds in 60 minutes playing time. One every 20 minutes. Absolutely pathetic.

Man that number makes me cringe. Our rebounding is horrible, I dont get it, I really dont. Why is this team so bad on the boards? Do we have a "never box anyone out" philosophy?

I can understand not going after offensive rebounds, but as soon as the opponent jacks up a shot, everyone on our team should find their guys and box them out and get the rebound.

[jdz101]

Brandon Bass has to step up. He has been dreadful these past two games.

Jason Thompson and Kenneth Faried have combined for 31 rebounds in the past two games against the Celtics (many of which came against Bass) with Bass only collecting 3 rebounds of his own in the same time (1 against Sac, 2 against Den).

That is 3 rebounds in 60 minutes playing time. One every 20 minutes. Absolutely pathetic.

Man that number makes me cringe. Our rebounding is horrible, I dont get it, I really dont. Why is this team so bad on the boards? Do we have a "never box anyone out" philosophy?

I can understand not going after offensive rebounds, but as soon as the opponent jacks up a shot, everyone on our team should find their guys and box them out and get the rebound.

No basketball fan should understand the fact that our team doesn't get offensive glass. This team AS A WHOLE EACH GAME averages 8 offensive boards. Heck, those are just the ones that fall into our arms by dumb luck or get tipped out. Kevin Love walks onto a court after a back to back on one leg and pulls down 6-8 on the offensive glass. It's not like you are doing rocket science... Taj Gibson and joakim Noah aren't basketball innovators...it's the simple matter of making the effort to get position and grabbing the ball after it comes down. You don't have to be Dwight Howard to do it. Luis scola gets his fair share.

All it is with the Celtics is a lack of effort and a lack of focus on that area of the game. And it's unbelievably frustrating to the point of me hardly being able to watch games anymore. The easiet way to score dunks and layups is just abandoned by this team.

[theswitch]

Brandon Bass has to step up. He has been dreadful these past two games.

Jason Thompson and Kenneth Faried have combined for 31 rebounds in the past two games against the Celtics (many of which came against Bass) with Bass only collecting 3 rebounds of his own in the same time (1 against Sac, 2 against Den).

That is 3 rebounds in 60 minutes playing time. One every 20 minutes. Absolutely pathetic.

Man that number makes me cringe. Our rebounding is horrible, I dont get it, I really dont. Why is this team so bad on the boards? Do we have a "never box anyone out" philosophy?

I can understand not going after offensive rebounds, but as soon as the opponent jacks up a shot, everyone on our team should find their guys and box them out and get the rebound.

No basketball fan should understand the fact that our team doesn't get offensive glass. This team AS A WHOLE EACH GAME averages 8 offensive boards. Heck, those are just the ones that fall into our arms by dumb luck or get tipped out. Kevin Love walks onto a court after a back to back on one leg and pulls down 6-8 on the offensive glass. It's not like you are doing rocket science... Taj Gibson and joakim Noah aren't basketball innovators...it's the simple matter of making the effort to get position and grabbing the ball after it comes down. You don't have to be Dwight Howard to do it. Luis scola gets his fair share.

All it is with the Celtics is a lack of effort and a lack of focus on that area of the game. And it's unbelievably frustrating to the point of me hardly being able to watch games anymore. The easiet way to score dunks and layups is just abandoned by this team.

Well the offensive rebounds part is a piece of the defensive strategy. That has nothing to do with talent or effort, they just clearly have no interest in them. You can debate the merit of the strategy, but Doc's philosophy is that if you go after offensive boards and don't get them, then you're going to be out of position on defense and you'll give up easy points. If you send 2-3 guys at the rebound against Miami and you don't get it, then before you know it Lebron has the ball and he, Wade and Bosh have a fast break.

Running back on defense once a shot goes up is part of Doc's system to control the tempo, set up the defense and limit the opponent's offense. I'm not sure I always agree with it, but that's why that happens.

[MBunge]

Man that number makes me cringe. Our rebounding is horrible, I dont get it, I really dont. Why is this team so bad on the boards? Do we have a "never box anyone out" philosophy?

Some of it is effort and age with KG, Ray and Paul.  However, it's also clear that the rebounding issue has a lot to do with Boston's offensive and defensive schemes.  When you constantly see one or zero Celtics in the lane when a shot is missed, that's because they're being coached to NOT hit the offensive glass.  The empasis is entirely on spacing the floor properly and getting back on defense.  It's frustrating to watch but Boston had been successful with that approach.

On the defensive boards, however, the problem is much more severe.  If you're not going to hit the offensive glass and you're not going to run, it becomes essential that you dominate the defensive boards.  Boston's defensive rotations are continually putting guys in bad rebounding positions and the team doesn't have the size, youth or athleticism to overcome that anymore.  Teams are really taking it to Boston in this area and Doc simply refuses to acknowledge that something has to be done about it.

Mike

[Employee8]

The Men in Green are not happy.  As a matter of fact, they are ANGRY.  Angrier than Angry Birds.  They were embarrassed by a guy whose name could have been mistaken for a mechanical engineer or a graduate student in the halls of MIT who think that basketball is an open competition where wins occur when correct angles of the ball trajectories are required with appropriate velocity to ensure that the pressure inside a ball complies with the hardness of the aluminum of the rim so as to sink straight down into a net when making contact and questions why people get so emotional when this event does not occur.

The Captain is angry as well.  The squad that left Denver with a whimper has grown into a ferocious green ball that has been fed with nothing but red meat and anger.  They are foaming at the mouth and is ready to move to a different type of fare, chicken.  Chicken wings may have been banned from the Red Sox clubhouse but they are in HIGH demand among the Green Monsters!  The Hawks (aka Tasty Chicken Meat) are a shell of their "athletic" selves from 2008 and will prove to be a flop in their own nest.  Fueled by a sense of urgency and a desire to dig into Atlanta's famous chicken wing joings shortly after the game, the Celtics will outrebound and outhustle the birds.  Chalk this up as a Celtics victory tonight.

[apc]

I predict a win.
whos with me?
anyone???

[celticslove]

let's break the L streak tonight guys!

[letsgoblue86]

The Hawks' bench is pretty bad, I hope we can take advantage of that.

[Marcus13]

Lord knows we need this bounce-back win.

Go C's!

[ACF]

TP. Go Celtics!

[FLCeltsFan]

Official Report

Bill Spooner

Over the past 22 seasons, veteran official Bill Spooner has worked 1,234 regular season games, and 79 NBA playoff games. He officiated his first two Finals games during the 2010-11 season. In addition to his NBA experience, Spooner has seven years of collegiate officiating experience. He also has eight years of high school officiating experience in his home state of California. Spooner is the ref who failed to call Kobe's elbow to the throat of Ron Artest a couple years back, even though he was the ref in position to call it. Artest's complaints resulted in his ejection but nothing was called on Kobe in the game. The league later admitted their error and assessed Kobe a flagrant 1 for the elbow. But that didn't help Houston who had to play without Artest the rest of the game. The Celtics are 2-1 this season and 6-4 in their last 10 games with Spooner while the Hawks are 1-0 this season and 4-6 in their last 10. The loss was in Dallas where the Celtics took 32 free throws to 25 for the Mavs and the officiating was pretty bad both ways. In the 2 losses, the Celtics shot 51 free throws to 39 for their opponents. Spooner is somewhat of a homer ref with a home W/L record this season of 17-12.

Kane Fitzgerald

This is Fitzgerald's 3rd season in the NBA as a referee. Fitzgerald has officiated 123 games in his two seasons as an NBA official. Fitzgerald started refereeing at the age of 18 at the high school level in New Jersey. He also refereed NCAA Division I basketball for two years. He has professional experience in the D-League for four years and the WNBA for two years. You may remember him from last season when he gave KG a very quick pair of technicals (from about 30 feet away) and tossed him in the 2nd quarter of the Celtics 104-101 win over the Knicks (in which Amare scored 30). In another outing last season with the Celtics, the loss to the Bobcats in Charlotte, he tossed Stephen Jackson after 2 quick questionable T's. His quickness with the T dates back to his days in the D-league where he was close to the top in calling technical fouls there as well. The Celtics are 1-0 this seasion and 7-3 in their last 10 games with Fitzgerald and the Hawks are also 1-0 this season and 7-3 in their last 8 games over the past 2 seasons with Fitzgerald. Another homer ref, his home W/L record is 25-11 this season.

Derek Richardson

Richardson has officiated 860 regular season games and one playoff game, as well as the 2003 NBA Rookie Game in Atlanta, during his 14 seasons as an NBA official. Prior to joining the NBA, Richardson spent eight years officiating in the CBA, including the 1996 CBA All-Star game and two games of the 1996 CBA Finals. Richardson played basketball at Los Angeles Southwest College and earned an Associate of Arts degree in Criminal Justice. Richardson is known for being inconsistent with his calls, especially on charge/block calls. The Celtics 1-1 this season and are 7-3 over their last 10 games with Richardson. The Hawks are 2-0 this season and 5-5 over their last 10 games with Richardson as a ref. Not affected by the home crowd, his home W/L record is 14-18.

[thestackshow]

I hope Rondo is interested in playing basketball tonight.

[theswitch]

I hope Rondo is interested in playing basketball tonight.

I wonder if Rondo looks at his statline after games and says, "well, I wasn't the problem." With the amount of shooters on this team, Rondo can get 12-15 assists in his sleep. He got 16 against Denver, 12 against Sacramento and 14 against Golden State. His rebound totals were 5, 3, 6 - all pretty solid for a point guard. I feel like Rondo might look at the numbers and justify his own performance based on those assist numbers.