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YOUR Washington Bullets are 13-5! The dominating W over the Nuggets capped off a 4-0 homestand

The Celtics at 6-11 are coming off a big W against arch rival LA Lakers on Friday. Tyler Zeller had a career night with 24 points and Rajon Rondo had 16 assists as he has rounded back to the form he was at before his ACL injury in January 2013. Brad Stevens has his team playing competitive ball but a lack of a go-to scorer and consistent rim protection has been an issue for the Cs.

The Wizards and Celtics will play a home and home back to back with the 2nd leg on Monday at Verizon Center.

Paul Pierce makes another return to the Garden (his ONLY trip to Boston this season) and it seems he has big things in mind. Let's hope he has a huge day. He needs 24 points to pass Reggie Miller on the all-time scoring list to get to #16.

[tweet]https://twitter.com/paulpierce34/status/540911695322161153[/tweet]





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Last game:
Nuggets vs. Wizards (W) 89-119
Lakers vs. Celtics (W) 96-113


Lineups:











Bench:

what i wrote on the c's board:

wiz fan here and we have a history of stinking in these day games so even though we're hot, i may would still pick you guys. The only 2 things that give me hope is pierce being motivated so he could lead us and us being motivated by being so close to 1st place. Im actually scared about pierce being so close to reggie. Weve been playing great team ball and wall has been awesome distrinuting but now im worried everyone will try to force feed pierce and break our rhythm

I remember the awful home loss to the Celtics last year (we were 3-1 vs them on the season but that one loss stuck out).. just checked the boxscore and the team was really only 7 deep at the time:

http://espn.go.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=400489498

^Wall/Beal/Ariza/Nene/Gortat with Webster/Booker being the only semi-useful contributors off the bench.


Fastforward to now, we have up to 11 (!) quality rotation guys on any given night:

Wall/Beal/Pierce/Nene/Gortat + Humphries/Miller/Butler/Seraphin/Porter/Gooden.

All of those players are capable of having big games in whatever role they play (other than Dre, but you know what you're gonna get from him every night). This team is unbelievably deep now compared to where we were just a year ago. Our defense is #4 in the league, and our offense is statistically slightly ahead of where it was last year. For the first time in Wittman's tenure, we've finally cracked the top half of the league at #14 - and that's with all the injuries, no Webster etc

No game is a guaranteed W but, I really don't expect us to lose this one at all. And after watching this team have so many letdowns last season I'm glad I can finally say that.

Will have to miss this game, unfortunately (am out of town). Only other one I missed we lost to the Hawks -- it was my fault I know! No repeats pls.

Damn, we have an ugly bunch of players on our respective rosters.

Gl tomorrow, guys!

FAH, what happened to Nene? Out of rotation?

truth18 wrote:Damn, we have an ugly bunch of players on our respective rosters.

Gl tomorrow, guys!

speak for yourselves. We stole Kris Kardashian from you. That automatically makes us the best looking team in the league

Just letting y'all know I voted gang green. Good luck tomorrow!

Illmatic12 wrote:I remember the awful home loss to the Celtics last year (we were 3-1 vs them on the season but that one loss stuck out).. just checked the boxscore and the team was really only 7 deep at the time:

http://espn.go.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=400489498

^Wall/Beal/Ariza/Nene/Gortat with Webster/Booker being the only semi-useful contributors off the bench.


Fastforward to now, we have up to 11 (!) quality rotation guys on any given night:

Wall/Beal/Pierce/Nene/Gortat + Humphries/Miller/Butler/Seraphin/Porter/Gooden.

All of those players are capable of having big games in whatever role they play (other than Dre, but you know what you're gonna get from him every night). This team is unbelievably deep now compared to where we were just a year ago. Our defense is #4 in the league, and our offense is statistically slightly ahead of where it was last year. For the first time in Wittman's tenure, we've finally cracked the top half of the league at #14 - and that's with all the injuries, no Webster etc

No game is a guaranteed W but, I really don't expect us to lose this one at all. And after watching this team have so many letdowns last season I'm glad I can finally say that.

I remember that game, Green was making some ridiculous shots that any other day would have been awful shots. He was just making everything he threw towards the rim.

As for this game its definitely not a gimme for various reasons, one being as someone had already mentioned being a day game. This Celtic team is pretty pesky too and Rondo despite not scoring much (he's shooting 30% from the line, yikes) bas been an excellent facilitator and rebounder. As a team there 7th in points per game, 10th in rebounding, and 2nd in assist per game, so they are definitely able to do some important things well. Their big weakness is defense were they are ranked 28th giving up 106 per game. So hopefully if we minimize our TO's and play are regular good defense we should be in good position.

Hypnotizer wrote:FAH, what happened to Nene? Out of rotation?

I keep forgetting he's playing. I replaced Gooden with Nene

PierceFan4ever wrote:Just letting y'all know I voted gang green. Good luck tomorrow!

Good luck.

I posted before the season started that Tyler Zeller is going to blow up and be a great addition to the Celtics.

I said I thought before long he'd be the Cs starting C. Cleveland gave up on him a bit soon. I think eventually Tyler Zeller will be as good a starting NBA C as Marcin Gortat is right now.

http://espn.go.com/nba/player/gamelog/_ ... ler-zeller

His last game: 10-11FG, 24 points, 14 rebounds

2014-2015 PER 20.54

I wanted the Wizards to sign Zeller cheap and retain Ariza. That said, I am very happy with Pierce/Porter/Butler. Gortat is playing worth his salary.

Should be a good game tomorrow.

dlts20 wrote:what i wrote on the c's board:

wiz fan here and we have a history of stinking in these day games so even though we're hot, i may would still pick you guys. The only 2 things that give me hope is pierce being motivated so he could lead us and us being motivated by being so close to 1st place. Im actually scared about pierce being so close to reggie. Weve been playing great team ball and wall has been awesome distrinuting but now im worried everyone will try to force feed pierce and break our rhythm

Before the last 3 game, I charted this as a lose after the season started once I saw were they were. Before the season. I had them winning both.

I expect Nene off the bench again. And if I had to put money on it, I would put it on the Wizards.

I'm expecting a 5-0 run way more then I am expecting them to lose to BOS these next two games.

Then its all up to the ORL game.

WTF hands? Way to ji the game thread.

hands11 wrote:I really like this dude. And he had a 3 removed.

Would have been 5-6 and 3-4 from 3 for 13 pt but ended up 4-5 and 2-3 instead. in 26 min.


http://espn.go.com/nba/boxscore?id=400578424

The real Rasual thread.

No wait. We really need Glen Rice...

RASUAAAAAAAAAAAAAL

This isnt a gimme game. Boston are better than their standings show, imo.

Washington's one of my favorite teams I never get to watch enough here in New England and it's always great to have The Truth back in town. Looking forward to this one...

Gl guys

I actually think this will be a hard one to win. Bos has good spacing from its bigs and some good role players. I see them as a poor mans version of ATL but if they get hot this is definitely not a gimme.

I like the Wizards a lot, but can't root for them today for obvious reasons. Pierce and Humphries are two of my favorite C's and it's nice to see them paying dividends for your team. Humphries is such a solid contributor and his contract is an absolute bargain. I'll gladly root for you guys if Boston does not make the playoffs.

truth18 wrote:Damn, we have an ugly bunch of players on our respective rosters.

Gl tomorrow, guys!

LOL these side by side pics are hilarious! Otto and Marcus Thornton cracks me up. Nene completely expressionless. Olynick and Seraphin look like a couple of goof balls. Seraphin starting to resemble Popeye Jones with those ears. Rasual head has a strange shape. Actually looking at them all it funny seeing all the different wide ranging shapes of their heads.


Everyone should watch this game to see a good team today instead of that mess of a team known as the Redskins.

truth18 wrote:Damn, we have an ugly bunch of players on our respective rosters.

Gl tomorrow, guys!

LOL.

I should point out that the glory days Cs had the single most gruesome looking starting five in the history of this or any other sport...

DJ -- those bags under the eyes? Yuk.
Ainge- that idiotic spiky haircut.
Bird- that ridiculous, corn pone Midwest mustache.
McHale - no eloboration necessary,
Parrish - Frankenstein,

Throw in an aging Bill Walton- ugh,

Dudes could play though.