Posted by Jessica Camerato

For most of his career, Gerald Green has been known as more of a liability than a contributor on the court. He has also been labeled as just a dunker despite repeated assertions of a versatile game.

Doc Rivers wasn't calling game-winning plays for Green

But on Friday the former Boston Celtic shed those images and nearly saved the night for the Dallas Mavericks.

Green scored 13 points in less than five minutes during a fourth quarter run against the Denver Nuggets. His buckets included a driving layup, mid-range jumper, a pair of treys, and a free throw.

More noticeably it was Green, not Jason Kidd, Dirk Nowitzki nor Jason Terry, who took the potential game-tying shot with 0.4 seconds left in the game.

Green may have missed the three-pointer but his performance is bigger than the final score. Considering that Green wasn’t even signed to a team at the end of last season, having the ball in his hand for the last shot is an accomplishment in itself.

Posted by Mike Petraglia

Prior to going out and beating the Milwaukee Bucks on Friday night at TD Banknorth Garden, Celtics coach Doc Rivers called a meeting of the reserves before Friday night’s game, asking them if the opponent took away their best skill, how could they still help the team. Eddie House, Leon Powe and Glen “Big Baby” Davis had all the answers as the Cs wore down the Bucks in the fourth quarter with a 28-19 run to end the game and improve to 5-1 on the season, with Allen Iverson and the new-look Detroit Pistons on the horizon on Sunday night.

Eddie House said Doc got his message across before the game.

Former UConn star and Milwaukee forward Charlie Villanueva was disappointed the Bucks couldn’t hold their early 25-12 lead in the first quarter.

Kevin Garnett said the Celtics took Milwaukee’s best shot.

Paul Pierce said the Celtics need to solve their problems with slow starts.

Doc Rivers said Pierce working with the second unit was huge.

Kendrick Perkins is looking forward to seeing the Pistons with Allen Iverson on Sunday night.

Posted by Paul Flannery

Doc Rivers had a feeling the Celtics were going to start slowly Friday night. It’s not something he planned on, necessarily, but let’s just say after the team got back after 4 in the morning from beautiful Oklahoma City, he wasn’t surprised that it took his team a little while to get going.

That was why, despite getting down by as many as 13 points in the first quarter, Rivers resisted the urge to call a timeout. “I just tried to burn minutes,” Rivers said. “I didn’t want to sub any of them out. Just thought it was a good way of getting them running.”

Rivers hunch paid off as the Celtics slowly took control, and with the aid of an energetic bench effort, knocked off the Bucks, 101-89. But what of this emerging pattern of early deficits? Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by Jessica Camerato

Atlanta Hawks forward Josh Smith suffered a high ankle sprain on Friday night against the Toronto Raptors. Initial reports indicate Smith will miss 2-4 weeks, which would sideline him for next Wednesday’s game against the Celtics.

Last season Smith averaged 15.7 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 2.9 assists against the Celtics in the first round of the playoffs.

Posted by Jessica Camerato

Despite a slow start the Boston Celtics kicked it in gear in the second half to score a  101-89 win over the Milwaukee Bucks. After the game there was music blaring from the Celtics locker room. Across the hall in the visitors locker room, the Bucks were shaking their head in disappointment of letting this upset slip away.

• The Celtics outscored the Bucks 60-36 in the paint. “They pretty much owned us [in the paint] from the beginning to end,” said Bucks head coach Scott Skiles. “Early in the game out weak side defense was very poor and they didn’t hurt as much with it. They missed some shots but then as the game went on, they just kept taking advantage.”
• The Bucks seemed to forget everything they did correctly in the first quarter and crumbled 32-17 in the second. “The first quarter we played great,” said Charlie Villanueva. “We played great defense and the offense was going great. When they made their run, we started getting away from what we had been doing. Instead of spacing, we were in tight and our spacing was wrong. We stopped moving the ball correctly, stopped penetrating, and they took advantage of that.”
• Richard Jefferson (20 points) soaked his feet after the game and studied the stat sheet with Michael Redd. The two vets poured over the box score for at least five minutes. It’s nice to see Redd finally have some veteran support.
• Even though the Bucks are the league leaders in assists, they committed 22 turnovers and only dished off 17 dimes. “[We've] just got to get better at taking care of the ball,” said guard Charlie Bell. “We’re trying to make the extra pass and we’ve got to stay aggressive and know that they’re going to defend the passing lanes. They’re going to jump out. We’ve just got to do a better job of taking care of the ball.”

Many of the Bucks were quick to point out a grueling upcoming schedule. In the next five days they will face the Phoenix Suns, Cleveland Cavaliers, and San Antonio Spurs. Things are going to get harder before they get easier for the 3-3 Bucks.

Posted by Jason Pothier

Many of you may know I’ve been down and out since about 11pm on Tuesday night! Actually, it was more like 8:15pm when Fox News’ Brit Hume hinted that McCain had lost Ohio.  Ok enough already! Please, please, please Bills and Pats get me out of this funk…

Hey Barkeep Keep'em Coming... For the Next 4 Years!

Wow I am very dramatic when I want to be.  I should become a Soap Star like a young Glenn Ordway!

I assume I will be in full football mode by 1pm on Sunday because Texas Tech will have to play a tough OK State, and Bama will have to play error-free pigskin against LSU on Saturday.

On paper Bills vs. Pats is a must watch, two AFC East teams battling for first place right? Wrong. Both teams coming off a loss but New England is home. Edge: Pats… isn’t that brilliant analysis?

Is It Me or Have The Bills Always Had A Crappy Logo?

Get them out there. Predict the score and win a fabulous WEEI prize!

Pick your score in the comment page.

Good Luck!

-JP

Posted by Jessica Camerato

Once down 19-8 in the first quarter, the Celtics have fought their way back to pull away from the Bucks. Here is how they’re getting it done to close it out … Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by Jessica Camerato

Take a good look at the Milwaukee Bucks because there are very few chances to see them during the regular season. The team doesn’t come back to Boston again (the Celtics go to Milwaukee twice) and, as Andrew Bogut pointed out, they don’t get much national coverage either. The Bucks are ok with that, though.

“Going under the radar a little bit is something we’re obviously used to,” Bogut said. “We never really get attention, even when we had winning seasons back in the early 2000s. Milwaukee isn’t a big city and we don’t get that much attention nationally. I think we only have one ESPN game this year. But regardless of that I think it’s better for us.”

Charlie Villanueva, who played college ball in the spotlight at UConn, doesn’t thrive on the attention either.

“That’s the way we want it. We want to be under the radar,” he said. “Not a lot of people are talking about the Bucks or us acquiring (Richard) Jefferson and Luke Ridnour. But that’s the way we want it. We want to be under the radar and at the end of the season we’ll see where we stand and I think we’ll be in a good position.”

Considering the way the Bucks are keeping it close with the Celtics tonight, it wouldn’t be out of the question to see them back in Boston for the early rounds of the playoffs.

Posted by Paul Flannery

And we’re back. The Celtics turned it up in the second quarter and come out of the break with a 55-47 lead, but that’s not the big news here at the Garden. The big news is the presence of the Grateful Dead, or at least what’s rest of the Dead.

Fans of a certain age will remember that the Dead used to hang out with the C’s quite a bit in the Bill Walton days. On with the show, while we shake it, shake it, Sugaree…

Read the rest of this entry »