For the past 2 years the NBA implemented a game of HORSE to kick off All Star Saturday Night. Although it seemed kind of weird at first, I got used to it and started to really like it (especially considering Rondo was in it last year). I thought it was a good way to ease into the main events.. Kind of an "appetizer" if you will.

In case you haven't heard, they have canned this part of the weekend so there will be no game of HORSE. Instead we will have to sit there and listen to Chuck talk a bunch of nonsense for probably an hour (haven't looked at the schedule).

Some people may not have liked it, and it may not have been a widely viewed part of the weekend, but I think had they just made the appropriate steps they could have made it into something good. Lets think about the guys they have had: Kevin Durant, O.J. Mayo, Joe Johnson, Rajon Rondo, and Omri Casspi. How many of those guys talk alot? None. It's a pretty quiet event. They need guys out there who are going to trash talk and say funny things otherwise it will get boring!

How about this group of guys playing  a game of HORSE:

Dwight Howard
Steve Nash
Nate Robinson

Nate sticking a 3 and watching Howard would be fun to watch. Plus they'd all be yapping the entire time. Sounds fun to me! But, unfortunately it looks like it's all gone. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted. Hopefully they will bring it back in the future..

So far everyone is dead set on the Miami Heat playing in the Eastern Conference Finals and it is split about 50/50 on who would win that series: The Celtics or the Heat? To that I say, "Hold it a minute!"

Bold Prediction: The Eastern Conference Finals will be a matchup between the two teams who had an epic first round series 2 years ago: Boston Celtics vs. Chicago Bulls..

I believe the Celtics WILL finish the season with the best record in the Eastern Conference and they will have homecourt through atleast the ECF. Sitting in 3rd place is the Chicago Bulls who I believe will be flip flopping with the Heat for the rest of the way for 2nd and 3rd place in the East. This will match these two teams up in the 2nd round and I am convinced the Bulls can pull it off.

So far this season the two teams have only played each other once and the Bulls won that game by 3 points. This season Chicago has yet to have their entire team together at full strength and once that happens they will be a very strong team. Key word there is a strong TEAM, not a strong few players. The concept of team is something the Heat have clearly struggled when playing against this year. They are 0-3 against the Celtics, 0-2 against the Mav and again 0-1 against the Bulls (all of which play good team basketball). Their only big win this year was on Christmas against the struggling Lakers.

The Bulls wil have both the height and a point guard which are both very weak areas for the Heat. Rose will expose the Heat in the same way Rondo does, and Noah will be a wrecking house against Miami.

It's going to happen.. Just watch. 2 years ago I said the team that could beat the Cavs in the playoffs was the  Magic and they did just that. Put simply- there are teams who have strong players 1-9 that are way better than 2 stars and 1 good player.

So all this wondering we are doing about how the Celtics and Heat will match up in the playoffs will quite possibly be a non factor when May comes around.

I know it seems so very long ago, but last year at this point we were suffering through a Celtics season. Every night was a disaster, and every game was another reason why we should give up on any hopes of them doing anything in the playoffs. Well this year is different (so far.. I'm not about to jinx anything)..

The Celtics had a big lead early, but that was quickly evaporated by the half as the Nets and Celtics went into halftime tied at 46. In the blink of an eye New Jersey had an 8 point lead to start the 3rd quarter. What do you think last years team would have done? The correct answer is: Let that 8 point lead grow into 10..12..14.. and eventually way too great of a margin to overcome no matter how weak the opponent was.

Things aren't the same, though. Instead, the Celtics nipped it in the butt before it could get out of hand. After starting the 3rd quarter off on the wrong foot, they quickly corrected themselves and had the game tied with 2:30 left in the 3rd. Again, last year they would have waited until late in the fourth to start playing Celtics ball and by that time it was too late and they could only make the game CLOSE.

So then in the 4th quarter the C's took off and ended up winning the game by 14 points. I get it.. That's not the way we would like them to play, but against the Nets what really can we expect? They have no reason to continue playing how they did in the 1st quarter. It bores them and thats a valid excuse.

I am simply happy that they are giving it an effort to pay very close attention to their record and how important it is. Last year the lack of homecourt really came back to bite them in the rear end and they are making sure to not let the same thing happen again. By doing that they are making sure they win the games they are supposed to win (for the most part). It's much more fun to watch and oh so much LESS stressful.

After tonights game Shaq has missed the past 6 games. This rest can be coupled with the fact that the All Star break is coming up and make you say, "Yeah.. That's just what he needs! That's some good rest right there!" And I agree, but I disagree. I think the real guy the Celtics need, and the guy who will surely help them get a championship, is the Shaq we saw during the preseason and early in the regular season.

So when I say Shaq needs some serious rest, I mean SERIOUS rest. I'm talking leave this dude out of the lineup (for the most part) until late March or early April. With that I want him to play a few home games here and there, and maybe one road game in Philadelphia or something, but other than that let him sit in the locker room!

This may seem ludicrous but you have to understand the immense differece in capabilities it is from what he was doing when he was completely healthy and where he has been over the past month. Of course it is always impossible for me to find a youtube video of the post moves I want to show to explain what I mean, but maybe you remember? He caught the pass probably 15 feet from the basket, made a move to the baseline, got past his defender and finished with an "and 1". Could he do that now? Not a chance.

The initial signing of Shaq wasn't for the regular season.. It was completely based around how he could help in the playoffs. With that being said, the team should be focused on prepping him for that period of time. It seems every time he comes back he is hit with some nagging injury. I say, keep him active by bringing him into a game every now and then, and then really ramp him up once the end of the season nears to get him ready for the playoffs.

With Perk back we can make this happen a little easier. I say don't play games with Shaq.. Afterall, the guy we saw during the preseason and start of the regular season will be one heck of a guy to have coming off the bench! It's good to think outside the box sometimes, so hopefully Doc will do the same. It only seems like the right thing to do. The C's can win without him now, but will certainly need the 100% Shaq in the postseason.

This year Ray Allen is shooting the ball with unbelievable accuracy. It's one thing for a guy to shoot as many 3's as Eddie House did back in the day and to make 44.4% of them; it's quite another for Ray to shoot as many as he does and to make 45.6% of them. In 2008-09 Eddie put up 340 attempts when he had his best year shooting from behind the arc. At his current rate, Ray Allen is on pace to shoot 407 threes.

So can he keep up with this percentage? At some point as the season goes along he has to slow down at least a little bit, right? Well, it's not so much the end of the season that I am worried about as it is the postseason.

The "Law of Averages" states that any event will even itself out over time to get back to normal. Although this isn't necessarily a "random" event as he has control over his shot, you notice how this stuff tends to work in sports. Unreal rates are never attained once a larger sample has been reached. An easy example is throughout the course of a game. After the first quarter a team may score 39 points and that would put them on pace to score 156 points. How often does that happen? Never.

You can't help but wonder if Ray is going to go super cold down the stretch to get himself back to his normal average. It's a scary thought and hopefully an inaccurate thought. Hopefully he is just on a roll this year and unlike in his past, 45.6% is his NEW true average.

If the Celtics go on and win tonight at home against the New Jersey Nets, they will head into the All Star break with a record of 40-14. That will be good for the 2nd best record in the league, and top in the Eastern Conference.

The plus side: That is a very good record to have considering all of the injuries they have had to battle through. On the flip side of the All Star break they will have Perkins and West in the lineup (two very key players that had very minimal roles in the Celtics current record). Also, in these 54 games, all games against the Lakers are gone, all games against the Magic are gone, and 3 out of 4 games against the Miami Heat are gone.

The negative side: The Celtics have played 30 of those 54 games at home (after tonight). That means they have 6 road games to make up, or 17 of their remaining 28 games will be on the road, or 61% of their remaining games will be on the road (depending on how you want to look at it). Those include games against: San Antonio, Miami, Denver, Utah, Chicago and New Orleans (nevermind the games against the Clippers and Warriors that always seem to give the Celtics fits). Can the additions make up for this and give the Celtics the much needed boost they will need to keep up with this 74% win percentage?

Another negative is that.. I hate to say it but... Doesn't one of the Big 3 have to get injured at some point here? I mean, they are in their mid 30's. Can we really expect them all to stay relatively healthy for the entire season? We'll have to see.

Either way, I can't complain with 40-14 at the break. 74% win percentage would mean they would finish the season with 61 wins. 21-7 the rest of the way (again, assuming a victory tonight against the Nets)?? That is definitely possible, but I would be looking for something more along the lines of probably 18-10 or so to finish the season with a 58-24 record. Anything greater than that is just icing on the cake!

When you go to a Celtics game you will see a lot of signs and you will hear a lot of yelling. Although some of it is supportive of the team, some of it is also bashing the opponents (I know.. Shocking, right?).. Well before opening night LeBron James said that Boston was one of the toughest places to play because of all the talking the fans do. In a recent article on how the Heat get booed and such at every road game, I took these bits with a sense of pride:

Dealing with hecklers is a part of life in the NBA, of course. Boston and Philadelphia were mentioned by players as particularly challenging venues for crowd interaction.

 

“Boston is one of the hardest places to play, but it’s one of the funnest places to play because that energy, going on the road, it’s a different feel,” Milwaukee Bucks forward Jon Brockman said. “Sometimes, you can flip that negative energy around and use it in your favor.”

Although I don't know the relevance of Jon freakin' Brockman (the guy barely plays), it's still a respect thing to how the Garden crowds treat the other team. It may be bad during the regular season, but it really ramps up once the postseason starts!

 

Coming into this year we knew there would be a lot of injuries the Celtics would have to deal with. It really wasn't much of a surprise last Thursday when the C's had 9 guys dressed and ready to play in the 3rd quarter against the Lakers. That's just how it's going to be. The problem will be making sure there isn't 9 guys suited and ready to play in late April through June! If there is one thing that is a surprise, however, it is the age of the guys who are being injured.

Players who have missed games this year: Marquis Daniels (3), Semih Erden (+/-10), Kevin Garnett (9), Jermaine O'Neal (35), Shaquille O'Neal (17), Kendrick Perkins (43), Rajon Rondo (10), Delonte West (38 [due to injury not including suspension]). 5 of those 8 are under the age of 30. At the same token, 104 of the 165 games (63%) missed have been by players under the age of 30.

Granted we kind of knew Perkins would miss a ton of games coming into the season, but I bet even with that no one expected the young guys to miss more games than the old guys. You would expect Paul Pierce to miss some games and Ray Allen to miss some, but that's not the case. Those two have stayed very healthy (especially Ray), and KG has remained relatively healthy as well.

So it's kind of weird. You go into the season EXPECTING injuries to the Big 3 and instead you wind up with injuries to all the young guns. It's not really a bad thing, though, because Perk is back and should stay back, Delonte is coming back tomorrow and will hopefully remain back, if rested Shaq should be fine for the playoffs, and heck we may even get Marquis back for the playoffs. So long as what we thought would happen at the beginning of the season continues to not happen we should be all set!

Be sure to read the plan for Gino's Jungle...

The earth as we knew it was about to end this past Thursday after the Celtics lost at home to the Lakers. That was the teams 3rd loss in 4 games, 2 of which were at home and the one road loss was against the sub .500 Charlotte Bobcats. Some people even went so far as to take the step in saying, "See! We need some changes before the trade deadline! This team doesn't have a chance this year.. Too many injuries!" To which I said, "Calm it."

4 days later everything is right back where it belongs. In fact, it is even better than where it belongs. Going into Thursday's game the Celtics had a 1 game lead on the Miami Heat and a 3 game lead on the Los Angeles Lakers. The loss created a tie against the Heat (in the loss column) and only a 2 game lead on the Lakers (again, in the loss column). Things weren't quite as comfortable as they had been for the majority of the season.

Well in a lucky draw the Celtics got the chance to face the Heat yesterday, and the Lakers had to continue their road trip. A win against the Heat would put the C's up not 1 game but 2 games.. Check. A loss for the Lakers would put them back down 3 games (to where it was before Thursday night)... Check. Heck the Lakers even flopped tonight in a game against the Bobcats so they currently sit FOUR games behind the C's.

It's amazing what a few days can do. From "Oh no! We are going to die!" to, "Ahhhh.. The life!" Be prepared for more ups and downs, though. The season isn't nearly over. Just next time when it does hopefully we can all take a step back and look at what's really going on and how good this team is when it is a full roster!

I dont know what it is about the Miami Heat, but for whatever reason they simply can not beat the Boston Celtics. Whether it be the Dwyane Wade led Heat, or the Wade / James led Heat, they can't seem to figure out how to beat the C's home or away.

The Celtics have won 4 in a row against the Heat leading back to last years playoffs. Overall the C's were 7-1 against them last year with their single loss coming in game 4 of the 1st round of the playoffs. In 08-09 the Celtics were 3-1 against them, and in 07-08 we swept Miami in the regular season series 4-0. Overall that makes the Heat a combined 2-17  in the past 4 seasons against the good guys.

What is it? I have no idea. I think it may have a little something to do with a team being better than a couple (or one) superstar, but I still don't know if that explains only 2 wins in 19 tries. Heck the Wizards have way more wins over the Celtics in the past 4 seasons and they have been terrible.

Either way, how can we call this a rivalry yet? Sure, the Heat piss us off because that is all ESPN and the world talks about, but a rivalry? It would be easier to say LeBron has a rivalry with the Celtics than it would to say the Heat do. No matter what your definition of "rivalry" is, though, we can be assured come the playoffs this will be an extremely chippy showdown when these two teams meet. It will be the so called "old guys" against the "new guys" taking all the praise.