Posts Tagged ‘Ray Allen’

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Sixers’ Unexpected Run Comes To An End

May 26, 2012  ·  11:41PM





BOSTON – No one thought the Philadelphia 76ers would make it this far. And no one gave them much of a chance in Game 7 either.

But there they were, down three with the ball and a little more than four minutes to go in the fourth quarter. Paul Pierce had just fouled out, and you had to think the Sixers had a shot.

It turned out, instead, that Rajon Rondo had a shot. And when Rondo beats you with a long two and a long three, and when Ray Allen finally connects on a couple of shots from beyond the arc after missing his first five, you might just have to shrug your shoulders and realize it just wasn’t your day.

The Sixers could look back at Game 7 and the series as a whole, and choose to remember the turnovers and missed free throws. They shot 24-for-30 from the free throw line on Saturday and just 69 percent in the series. These seven games were downright ugly and the Sixers struggled to score throughout. So to not take advantage of every trip to the line is just shooting yourself in the foot.

“It’s just our inability to score that’s sort of plagued us throughout the season,” Sixers coach Doug Collins said.

But Philly also had their positive moments to look back on. They out-executed the veteran Celtics in three of the seven games. Their young players certainly gained a ton of valuable big-game experience. And they learned that if you play hard, play together, and play defense, you can go further than you should otherwise.

That’s really what this Sixers team should be remembered for. If you can overlook the missed free throws, they made the most of what they had. They were a great defensive team without a dominating big man. And they were a decent enough offensive team without a go-to guy.

Really, teams without stars aren’t supposed to take teams with four stars to seven games in the conference semifinals, but the Sixers did. They played the Celtics’ style and almost matched them defensive stop for defensive stop.

“The Sixers are a pain in the ass,” Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. “They are a tough basketball team.”

Sure, things would likely have been different if Derrick Rose didn’t tear his ACL in the first game of this postseason. But that doesn’t mean the Sixers didn’t earn their way here.

“It was a good run,” Jrue Holiday said. “We fought to the end.”

***

John Schuhmann is a staff writer for NBA.com. Send him an e-mail or follow him on twitter.

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Posted in 2012 NBA Playoffs / Comments (14) /

Sixers Take Advantage Of Bradley’s Absence

May 23, 2012  ·  11:20PM





PHILADELPHIA – Before Game 6 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, Philadelphia 76ers head coach Doug Collins stressed points in the paint as one of the biggest keys.

Then his team proceeded to outscore the Boston Celtics 42-16 in the paint, forcing Game 7 with a 82-75 victory.

This was an ugly game through and through. But the Sixers finally broke through offensively in the third quarter, largely because their guards were repeatedly able to get into the paint. And you had to wonder if things would have been different if the Celtics had Avery Bradley.

The second-year guard, who had made life tough for the Philly guards in the first four games, missed his second straight game with a pair of shoulder injuries. The Sixers’ Jrue Holiday, Evan Turner and Lou Williams took advantage.

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Posted in 2012 NBA Playoffs / Comments (32) /

Bradley’s Status Unknown For Game 5

May 21, 2012  ·  12:33PM

BOSTON – Despite their second-half collapse in Game 4 on Friday, the Boston Celtics are seemingly still in control of their Eastern Conference semifinals series with the Philadelphia 76ers, with Game 5 tonight (7 ET, TNT) and a possible Game 7 on their home floor.

The Celtics have won 17 of their last 19 games at TD Garden and are 34-9 there in the Big Three era. Only once in the last five years have the Celtics lost more than one home game in a playoff series. That was in 2009, when they lost Games 1 and 7 to the Magic.

Kevin Garnett missed that entire postseason. And as we’ve already seen in these playoffs, injuries can trump home-court advantage.

Right now, the Celtics’ biggest injury concern is not with any of their veterans. It’s with the youngest guy on their roster, Avery Bradley. The second-year defensive specialist has been dealing with a left shoulder issue most of the season, and it has already popped out twice in this series.

Bradley was not on the floor for Monday morning’s shootaround, and he’s listed as a game-time decision for Game 5.

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Posted in 2012 NBA Playoffs / Comments (4) /

How Boston ‘Iced’ Philly In Game 2

May 18, 2012  ·  10:20AM

PHILADELPHIA – It’s not clear if Brian Scalabrine is ready to retire yet, but he’s already in preparation for his next career.

Comcast SportsNet New England, which broadcasts Celtics games, hired Scalabrine to provide pre-and postgame analysis during the Celtics-Sixers series. So, there he was, in a suit at TD Garden on Saturday, talking about the Sixers just 48 hours after Philly had eliminated his own Chicago Bulls.

The former Celtic got a huge ovation from the Garden crowd when he was shown on the Jumbotron on Saturday. But Scalabrine’s finest moment of this postseason came after Game 3, when he asked Rajon Rondo one of the smarter questions you’ll ever hear in a postgame press conference.

“The adjustment on the side pick and roll,” Scalabrine said, “you guys went to the ‘ice’ or the ‘down,’ or whatever you guys use in your terminology. Do you like that better than going over the top with the ‘show’?”

“I like it better,” Rondo replied. “I don’t think they do. Their offense, we watched the first couple of games, they got into the paint pretty good on the side pick and rolls. And it led to corner threes, it led to the high-low. I think we took a clip from you guys. You guys ‘iced’ a lot of the side pick and rolls in that series, and I think they struggled offensively. I think we did a good job tonight. The bigs did a great job talking, and guards kept fighting over, even when they did step up and set the side pick and roll.”

OK. So what the heck does it mean to “ice” a pick-and-roll?

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Posted in 2012 NBA Playoffs, Film Study / Comments (7) /

Time For The Hawks To Turn The Page?

May 7, 2012  ·  11:09AM





HANG TIME PLAYOFF HEADQUARTERS – When the playoff pairings came into focus late in the regular season, we knew there was the potential for this when the Boston Celtics and Atlanta Hawks got locked into the No. 4-5 battle in the Eastern Conference.

An era was coming to an end. A five-year run for one of these two franchises would continue on for at least another series and that same five-year run (that began in their epic first-round series in 2008) for the other franchise would have run its course.

Well, it’s time for the Hawks to face the reality of their own situation and turn the page. The Hawks are facing more than just elimination after their disastrous 101-79 Game 4 showing in Boston Sunday night. Most compassionate observers turned away from when the Celtics’ lead grew to 37 points … with more than a quarter and a half to play remaining.

How many times can you hear about a team talk about “not responding” or “we just didn’t have it” or “our energy and effort was nonexistent” in a big game situation before it sinks in?

The Hawks have dropped 12 playoff games by 20-plus points since 2008, a staggering number that does not include all of the games they lost by 16, 17, 18 and 19 points.

They’d fight back with stats of their own — such as along with the Celtics and Lakers, they are one of just three teams to reach the second round in each of the past three seasons. But that would foolishly suggest that the Hawks belong in the same sentence with two franchises that have won championships in the past four seasons.

The Celtics won it all in 2008 while the Lakers won back-to-back titles in 2009 and 2010. The Hawks, for all of their accomplishments during this same stretch, have been escorted from the postseason in an ugly fashion each and every time, without once truly breaking through with this current core group.

They’ll tell anyone willing to listen that this series is far from over at 3-1 with Game 5 Tuesday night at Philips Arena. And with their history against these Celtics, it might be worth a listen. They played seven games in 2008, with each team taking turns ruling their home floors all the way through to Game 7.

But this time is different. As much as you’d like to believe these limping Hawks have a chance to make a series out of this one, the stench of inevitability is floating in the air after that Game 4 debacle in Boston.

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Posted in 2012 NBA Playoffs / Comments (89) /

The Truth Sets The Celtics Free

May 2, 2012  ·  9:46AM





HANG TIME PLAYOFF HEADQUARTERS – No Rajon Rondo. No Ray Allen. No Problem for the Boston Celtics.

The Celtics didn’t let their lingering issues, Rondo’s one-game suspension for bumping into a referee or Allen’s ankle injury slow them down last night in Atlanta.

It certainly helped that they had the “Tebowing” Truth, Paul Pierce, on their side. And it certainly helped that they had a willing dance partner in the Hawks, a team that’s almost always guaranteed to do exactly what they did last night (over the years, the Hawks have a made a habit of falling down when everything seems to be lined up for them to thrive) in losing home court advantage.

For all of the posturing that goes on and all of the moves coaches make in the course of a playoff series, sometimes the final result hangs on the answer to a simple question … whose will to win is greater?

That edge in this series belongs to the men in green and white, and one in particular.

Pierce showed last night that his is greater than anyone else’s in this series, and that includes the ultra-intense Kevin Garnett, Rondo, Allen, Celtics coach Doc Rivers, Hawks stars Joe Johnson and Josh Smith (who left the game with a sprained left patella tendon with four minutes to play) and anyone else you care to toss into the mix.

The Hawks led by 11 points with three minutes to play in the third quarter, a lead that we’ve learned in the past few days means next to nothing for a home team (ask the Grizzlies) and could not hold Pierce and the Celtics off.

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Pay For Play On The Olympic Team?

April 12, 2012  ·  9:18AM





HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – Playing for the Heat, Thunder, Celtics, Lakers or any other franchise has always been a pay-for-play proposition for NBA players.

But what about when the USA is splashed across your chest?

Heat star Dwyane Wade piggybacked on comments made a day earlier by Celtics veteran swingman Ray Allen in stating that he believes the players on the Olympic team deserve some sort of compensation outside of medals won and the appreciation of millions for their service the country.

(That $25,000 handed out for gold medals is gas money for the NBA stars that populate the team.)

It’s a bold statement for one of the league’s biggest and highest paid stars to make, especially when you consider the economic times we are in as a country, one that he backed off of this morning — telling ESPN.com that “he does not want to be paid to play in London this summer.”

But in his initial statement, Wade presented quite a compelling case to Mike Wallace of ESPN.com:

“It’s a lot of things you do for the Olympics — a lot of jerseys you sell,” Wade said after the Heat’s practice on Wednesday in advance of Thursday’s game against Chicago. “We play the whole summer. I do think guys should be compensated. Just like I think college players should be compensated as well. Unfortunately, it’s not there. But I think it should be something, you know, there for it.”

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Posted in HT News, London 2012 / Comments (65) /

Title Dreamers, Beware Of Boston

April 11, 2012  ·  9:56AM





HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – Go ahead and mark it down now — the two cities that every team dreaming of a championship needs to avoid at all costs during the playoffs are Memphis and Boston.

Just like the Grizzlies in the Western Conference, the Celtics have given everyone ample warning that they will be in the business of crushing hopes come playoff time. Their work since the All-Star break has been well documented. They have all of the components needed to derail the title aspirations of any other team in the playoff field, just as the Grizzlies did to the Spurs last year.

From a coach in Doc Rivers (who is arguably the best in the business at taking whatever parts he has and crafting them into a cohesive unit) to a clear leader in Rajon Rondo (who has finally asserted himself as the true catalyst for this club) to the fading-but-still-furious-glory of future Hall of Famers Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen (who have all had to accept diminished or drastically different roles than they are used to at this stage of their careers), the Celtics have everything in place to squash dreams and realize their own.

Their demolition of the Miami Heat twice in the past 10 days is no fluke. The Celtics, the league’s nastiest defensive team, showed last night that when they’re knocking down shots, they are nearly impossible to deal with. The Heat scrapped their way back into the game and still couldn’t overcome the Celtics, who shot a blistering 61 percent.

With Rondo directing the traffic, the ball moves all over the floor, making it hard for any team — even one as talented as the Heat — to concentrate its defensive focus in any one place. Garnett and Pierce both turned back the clock last night.

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Blogtable: Spurs, Celts Not Acting Old

April 4, 2012  ·  11:15AM

Each week, we’ll ask our stable of scribes to weigh in on the three most important NBA topics of the day — and then give you a chance to step on the scale, too, in the comments below.

The Spurs were too old. The Celtics were too old. Have you seen these guys play lately? Is it time to reassess the chances for these “too old” teams?

Steve Aschburner: My concerns with both these teams never was age – it was health. If Boston managed to keep Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen healthy, if San Antonio did likewise with Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker – or get to the postseason with all of them reasonably intact – then I figured they would be fine for a “tournament” run. It was up to their wily head coaches to navigate the uniquely grueling regular season with stars who never had been older, and to a great extent, Doc Rivers and Gregg Popovich have done that. Each team remains, to me, what it was when the season started; I’ve got the Spurs as the West’s second-biggest title threat and the Celtics as the East’s third- or fourth-best.

Fran Blinebury: Age with the Spurs was only an issue to those who didn’t bother to look past Tim, Tony and Manu.  San Antonio has gotten consistent contributions all season long from Gary Neal, Danny Green, Matt Bonner, Tiago Splitter and rookie Kawhi Leonard.  Now DeJuan Blair is picking up his game. The plan was to infuse to with youth around the Big Three.  Duncan’s minutes have been kept to a career low, so that he can perform when needed.  Parker has forced his way into the MVP conversation. This is the same team that was the No. 1 seed last spring and got better and younger.  While I admire the efforts of Boston’s Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce in keeping the Celtics going even with Ray Allen ailing, I still think the years and the miles catch up to them in the playoffs.

Scott Howard-Cooper: Nothing to reassess. Maybe the Spurs a bit, because I thought they would be good, just not this good. But the Celtics were always going to find their way out of the fog. I’ll stick with what I said months ago: Boston would still be heard from in the regular season and good enough to win a series. They’re just not good enough to be a serious contender to win the East.

Shaun Powell: The Spurs didn’t deserve to be grouped with the Celtics. Tony Parker isn’t old, Manu Ginobili isn’t old, Tim Duncan … well, OK, he’s old. But Duncan is looking fairly fresh (scoring and rebounding are up from last season) and, as usual, the role players are solid, much more than their counterparts in Boston. So, with the exception of a late-January swoon, the Spurs have been solid. The Celtics, however, are definitely feeling rejuvenated, although I wonder how much of that is due to playing in the East. They do have pride, which will continue to serve them well. Until their legs and lungs finally give out.

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Don’t Forget About Teague!

March 19, 2012  ·  11:01PM

HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – It was brought to our attention, via Twitter, that we might have slighted the best point guard dunk of the night by showcasing the work of Nets All-Star Deron Williams over that of Hawks youngster (and jumping jack) Jeff Teague.

We would like to correct that mistake now by showing you exactly what Teague did to Ray Allen on Monday Night Point Guard Dunks:



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