Yes! You've got to believe it's still out there people. The guys can't take beating Philly tonight for granted, it's true. But it would be awful if they played mopey and just let it all go because Avery just got shut down and they believed they couldn't win it all. Our team still has the guys to beat Miami. The Rondo/AB backcourt was so great against Miami, but they're not going to have Bosh now. Kevin and Bass upfront are going to be tough for Miami to deal with. Paul and Mike on Lebron is as good as most anybody else can put out there. Rondo is in much better shape in terms of battle damage this year than last year, even before the take down. Miami relies on Wade and Lebron to score more than ever before and that makes them vulnerable. They CAN beat Miami. And then what? Then you're in the finals. Anything is possible. Somebody from the East has to play for a title this year. And if this is the end of the era, I hope at least they go out PLAYING for a championship. So here comes Philly. I don't think they should be able to beat this Celtics squad unless the C's don't play like they are capable of playing. If these Celtics play like they are capable of playing and Philly wins anyway, then so be it. I can live with that. Play with pride and let the ball decide. I believe the ball will want to see if Miami really deserves a trip to the finals this year. They've got to show the ball that they're the team for the job.

Lol so I did. What are you, Serbian or something? Said Vujacic, meant Pavlovic, gee how could that happen. Relax fella. 'Crossed wires' aka 'brain farts' happen all the time on the internet. Don't act like your own brain farts don't smell. I mean come on, if that's the dumbest thing you've ever read, you really need to read more. I'll top that myself once a week, and even just looking here, there's plenty more to choose from.

This is a Marty McFly moment. The Sixers are taunting Paul to play tonight. Look at how Tony Battie is subtly pressuring Paul and pushing his buttons, trying to make it seem like it's a given that Paul has to play. You can't do something stupid just because they called you chicken. They know that a Paul Pierce with no lift and a step slow on D is actually A LOT better for them than dealing with Pietrus and Vujacic splitting minutes. Pietrus and Vujacic are good vets who can handle pressure. This is exactly what the C's got them for. Splitting minutes should even give them an edge over Iduodala they can work with; they can try running him ragged for a game or two. The correct answer is for Paul to sit out tonight, and the Sixers know it. Paul playing hurt is probably the biggest thing the Sixers have going for them now. It's the main thing that is giving the Sixers a real chance to advance. Play Pietrus and Vujacic and sit Paul and go for it. If they can get the win, do it again on Friday. Paul playing hurt is pumping up the confidence of the Sixers. It feeds into their general athleticism advantage. It's giving them a chance to win when they really shouldn't have one. The opposite is also probably true. Sit Paul and there's a fair chance you'll see them deflate tonight. Paul should buy a suit and smile and cheer lead and relax and enjoy the game. The Sixers will know that their playoff chances are fading. Last bit of series logic: If Paul doesn't play and they lose, the C's are down 2-1 and it's not that big a deal. Paul comes back Friday, they get the win, and they are tied 2-2. If Paul plays and they lose, it's the same situation only Paul hasn't given the knee a chance to rest. Sit back and relax, Paul. Let your team handle this one for you.

This seriously changed my dinner plans; made a burger and put chicken on it. Mike is a genius.

This is a huge opportunity really. They have a chance to devastate the Hawks and take command of this series. How would the Hawks respond to losing at home with our best guy sidelined? CRUSH 'EM! Beat the Hawks on their home floor, without Rondo, then go back to Boston and finish the job one home game at a time.

In a hole? Not at all. Road team only has to win one game on the other team's floor. They aren't in a hole unless/until they lose a game at home. You run them out of your building, and then you've at least got a shot to TCB in a game 7.

I hope Doc noticed Rose and Shumpert going down and is re-considering the idea of using an ~8 man rotation, at least early on. But it's a really tough call. There's probably no better way to manage fatigue and get your guys rest than to sweep a team or at least get out in 5. But on the other hand, the most dangerous time for injuries is probably late in a game when a worn down guy has played most of the minutes already.

Is it even the kind of thing where rest is going to help? If it is, then yeah I'd be fine with trying to, as much as possible, get by the Hawks without him. Even without Rose, Chicago might be the toughest matchup between the C's and #18. If it's not...it's going to be a tough playoffs for Ray.

Strange way of doing things. Why didn't they just make the rule to give the division leader no lower than 5th, if that's what it actually is? Why have everybody display Philly and then the C's at 4th all along, when some of the time they were actually 5th? What was the point in saying they were 4th whenever they weren't actually 4th? Is this really some sort of silly transition? Slowly brainwashing the NBA fanbase to accept a playoff structure without division leaders mattering anymore? When has the NBA ever cared about doing things gradually like that? I mean this isn't even an on-court, game rules and mechanics type thing.

I think they mu$t really want a Heat v$ Knick$ $erie$. Not $ure why though. Mu$t be the Miami weather or $omething.

What year do you think this is? Maybe check a calendar and see how long you've been asleep? The past few weeks, LA is a bunch of under performing whiners and sleepwalkers. The C's left their game at the hotel and almost won on chutzpah.

Eh I'm about as pleased with a loss as one can get. C's forgot to bring everything but guts and almost got 'em, and LA has only lost twice so far on their home floor this year.

Lol right on greebeand I so came over here to flame Wojo too heh. And go RedsArmy, this awesome commercial being the top story right now is just too perfect. In Wojo's defense...I think it's not really about him being dumb. He's just a guy that gets handed a lot of insider tips because he'll help GMs push their agendas. The agenda here? Teams want Paul. Same old story. They put his name out there in the rumors to try and create a rift. It is weirdly like when a hot popular chick dates some hot popular dude in high school. Lots of people want to date one or the other, and so it really is an issue that people try to start all kinds of crazy shite to try and break them up. Wojo pushing it today probably means somebody specific wants Paul, but they also don't want to give the C's anything for him. Thus, they try to create some 'relationship drama' to maybe get the C's to let him go for much less. I'm surprised people still bother in that if it didn't work in 06-07, why would it work now?

I don't think calls like that are about blown judgements and bad attempts to be a good referee. I expect things are just going to keep getting worse at least until the wicked witch of the league office goes away. After that, who knows.

I don't think Doc does that stuff much. He calls out Rondo when he wants to call out Rondo. Statistically, Rondo is our best defender. Rondo isn't perfect of course. But recently, teams have been exploiting Ray more. They demand more of him on defense to slow him down on offense. And wasn't Ray also out for a lot of the winning stretch when Rondo was out? Ray has seemed to cheat father time more than Paul and Kevin have, but Father Time is catching up with Ray as well, and it's on his defensive duties where you're most likely to see it. I'll tell you who DOES talk about a guy while pretending to talk about the team in general. Danny. And he's right to do it because he's a GM and naming a specific guy affects his job and the player in a very different way than the coach doing it.

Mavericks have always put up a high regular season winning percentage. How do you explain losing that series to Golden State? The stat sheet can not disprove the existence of intangibles. Intangibles exist, it's crazy to doubt that. When you play poorly it shows up on a stat sheet. When you play well it shows up on a stat sheet. But the stat sheet can't tell you why the game happened the way it did. To disagree on the existence and importance of 'the intangibles' is to go against all the great players and coaches. Red and Russ in particular always put a lot of emphasis on them, and who else would you listen to?

Seriously? I can think of a few words... made up, garbage, trolling, clickbait, slow news day, don't hold your breath and last but not least... heyell nawwwwww

I think a key part of the magic trick was playing some guys who have barely played so far, and playing them for big minutes. And then the guys that have been playing...it was like they played up to that energy level. Kevin and Paul and JO and Bass played their guts out. Trade who? No thank you! Two days rest is just not the normal 'two days rest' this year. We're only one month in and most of the league looks run down already. This schedule is bonkers, and it's not just 'old teams' like the C's having trouble. Even Miami can't play the way they'd like to every night, it's just too much sprinting with too little rest. Maybe the league will temporarily expand the rosters? 15 active, 18 contracts? I don't know what else they could do other than cancel games and I doubt they'd do that.

What the heck just happened?

3rd quarter... Upside is it forces Doc to play guys who are young and healthy and not worn down. So even though they are inexperienced, the way people look around the league right now, it could work out. Also the Magic just didn't get all pumped up for this game like they would have in the recent past. I guess we'll see if they turn it on, or if the C's can run away with this one. Fun + ugly = ? Fungly?

I don't see why any of these teams would rather have our older guy than their younger guy. The main attractive thing about Pierce is his 4th quarter play. But none of them are so close that just switching Pierce for the guy listed should (on paper) get them a ring this year or next year. And after that, it's pretty obvious that you'd rather have the younger guy. Like why would Atlanta get better by ditching Josh Smith for Pierce? That's a 4/5 for a 3? Is it because Josh Smith has been a name we've been hearing in rumors for a couple years now? I think it all means that Danny's "Bird trades" would have had to have been done about two years ago. It seems more believable to me that great deals would have been out there back then. Anyways, this year, we're not going to contend if we trade Pierce. And yet even if Paul has a great year overall, the Celtic's aren't necessarily going to contend. So at this point, trading Paul before we try other approaches still doesn't make any sense to me. ... Ray's ankle sprain got me looking around and thinking... Look at what the schedule is doing to every team, not just us. The NBA made a schedule that has no respect for the limits of the human body. It was always a challenging schedule, but they've really gone too far this year. So there is even more reason just to try to survive till the playoffs. I mean, it's a little scary in that Doc would have to go against his usual tendency not to play the bench much...but if he can adapt, and we can get our roster to the playoffs more or less in tact, then who knows who will or won't be available for other teams.

Uh ok but why would Indiana do it now? They are big on Paul George as well. I think so long as Pierce is not back to his old self, even a team that was in better financial shape wouldn't risk offering a nice young player for him. Pierce at least has to get back to his old self or nobody is going to offer anything other than stuff like expiring contracts and low draft picks. Right now, teams want to get Pierce for next to nothing, and think maybe they can because the Celtics would just want to avoid paying him for another ~1.7 seasons. I also don't get it in that I don't think the Pacers are so close that Pierce gets them over the hump to a title this year, even if he was in good form already, especially if they have to give up Paul George to get him.

Yeah but look at the deals he referred to. They were pretty awesome deals actually. If stuff like that is out there, it will happen. But I'd be pretty surprised if even ONE deal that good was out there now. The league is a higher stakes game now.

There's no reason to trade Pierce like that during this season. If a deal like that is to be made, it'd happen in the summer, probably on or around draft day if a pick is a major part of any deal.

Good news: you can launch NBA.com's TV companion even after the game to see the shot charts. Bad news: Gortat's first quarter was almost entirely in the paint, and of the ~4 shots that weren't, they were maybe like one step out of the paint. So you know, semantics aside, he did the damage pretty close to the basket.