After opening up the preseason 3-0 while outscoring the bad guys 280-244, the Celtics perfect run came to a hault in last night's 92-103 loss to the afore-defeated Sixers. Now, before you all get too upset, know that the C's played the "B" squad for pretty much the entire game. Players like Pierce, Rondo, Shaq, KG, Allen, and Delonte West all had the night off. When you look at it that way, with our "B" team going against Philly's "A" talent (which is pretty much a "B" team as well), you can actually come away from this loss with some confidence and positive feelings about our depth.
In a rough and tumble game that saw 5 technicals called (Nate Robinson and Jermaine O'Neil for the C's), Austin turned the ball over 25 times. That may not seem very bright, but the "B" teamers did perform well overall. Nate Robinson scored 26 points, with Glen Davis dropping 14, and Marquis Daniels adding 12. Von Wafer and my boy (and ND's boy) Luuuuuuuuuke Harangody each chipped in 11. It's nice to see Luke coming around and getting better in the preseason, and I still think that you have to admit that our depth is pretty great. Speaking of depth, how about our #2 O'Neil (Jermaine) pulling down 12 rebounds? Clutch. It's a lot like the hockey preseason, and baseball for that matter, you look at individual performance, not game results.
That being said, we're 3-1 heading into our clash with the Knicks tonight at the MSG. The Knicks are 1-1 to start the preseason. If you read the blog, you know that my othr motive for preseason Celtics posts (besides sharing my love of the 2010/2011 Champs) is to talk garbage on the Clippers to try and further the rivalry between me and B. After a 1 point loss to San Antonio last night (99-100, thus proving "Lawler's Law" yet again), the Clippers are now 1-3 this preseason. But, wait, the Clippers have former Celtic and former Providence Friar Ryan Gomes now? That's got to have Beasy pumped, and it only continues to fuel the greatest rivalry in all of sports.
Just quickly before I go, I'd like to share a cool stat from Basketball-Reference.com, and again, I understand that I plug the Sports Reference guys in every post, but they are just that good. PER (Player Efficiency Rating) is a measure of per minute production, adjusted so that 15 is the league average. I just wanted to list last season's above average PER players for the C's, the Clips, and the Lakers for a fun comparison:
Celtics-
Garnett: 19.4
Rondo: 19.1
Pierce: 18.2
Allen: 15.2
Clippers-
Camby: 18.3
Gooden: 18.0
Davis: 17.4
Smith: 16.9
Kaman: 16.5
Lakers-
Gasol: 22.9
Bryant: 21.9
Bynum: 20.2
Odom: 15.9
You know I'm a sucker for stats in sports, especially those that attempt to create a value measure. I thought this stat was really interesting because it showed (in terms of per minute production measure for individual players) that the Clippers are tops of those three teams. While the Lakers have the highest rated players, they significantly drop off after their top 3. And, while the top 2 Celtics players would be the top on the Clippers, the fact that they have more above average players says a lot about their team. I'm not trying to give them credit, because a lot of things go into winning over the course of an 82 game season, but I was impressed that they led in most above average PER players between these three teams. Really impressed. It'll be great to see how the PER stat works out through this season, along with some other really cool stats by the guys over at Basketball-Reference.com. I'll keep you posted.
Alright, let's sock those Knickerbockers.
-- Sent from my Palm Prē
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