Posts Tagged ‘celtics’

Heat 107, Celtics 112

Friday, November 12th, 2010


It is interesting to see such a meaningful regular season game in November, but it is two in as many meetings for the Boston Celtics and the Miami Heat. Once again, the Celtics’ point guard Rajon Rondo tore apart the Heat defense with 16 assists, many to the hot-handed Ray Allen who exploded for 35 points on 7-9 shooting from beyond the arc.

It is doubly interesting because Lebron James put up 35-10-9, a good night by his former standards in Cleveland, but the focus was on Dwyane Wade’s 8-1-3 on 2-12 shooting with 6 turnovers. The Miami boxscore, if you replaced Wade’s name with, say, Adam Morrison, would look like a winning boxscore. But the Heat were pounded again by Boston and the scoreline ended up flattering the Heat.

However, now is not the time for the Celtics to gloat, impressive as their two games against the Heat have been. There are still 72 games until the playoffs, and with an aging roster, the regular season is not a walk in the park. But it would be wrong to let thoughts of the future overshadow what has been two great showdowns between two powers in the East.

Tags: ,
Posted in Game of the Month | 1 Comment »

Celtics 88, Heat 80

Wednesday, October 27th, 2010

Wed 27/10/2010. Buckle up. The 2010/11 NBA season hit the ground at full speed on One HD with the premiere matchup between the reigning Eastern Conference Champion Boston Celtics with Dwyane Wade’s Miami Heat. With the Garden rocking, Boston established a big lead early, withstood a run in the fourth, and prevailed 88-80 in the first game between two teams loaded with future Hall of Famers.

Celtics’ fans were given an early glimpse of Shaquille O’Neal with two dunks early on. From there, it was the Celtics of old that led the way. Garnett, Pierce, Allen and Rondo kept the Heat at bay and sent a message to the SuperFriends – they are still the team to beat in the East.

The Heat are an easy team not to like, but a hard team not to watch. I’m not upset to see them lose, and we’ll probably only appreciate them in ten years when they’re gone again. But if opening night is an indication, the season is going to be full of excitement.

Tags: ,
Posted in Game of the Month | 3 Comments »

2010 NBA Champions

Saturday, June 19th, 2010


Congratulations to the Los Angeles Lakers, the 2010 NBA Champions, defeating the Boston Celtics in seven games to clinch their 16th NBA Championship.

Tags: ,
Posted in Season 09-10 | No Comments »

NBA Finals on One HD

Monday, May 31st, 2010

Who will be the 2010 NBA Champions?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...

The 2010 NBA Finals are being shown by One HD on a delayed telecast, starting Sunday June 6. The Los Angeles Lakers meet the Boston Celtics for another historic showdown between the two most celebrated franchise in the league.

The One HD TV schedule is listed below.

Game 1: Sunday, June 6
Replay 11:00 AM
Game 2: Tuesday, June 8
Replay 2:00 PM
Wednesday 12:35 AM
Game 3: Thursday, June 10
Replay 2:00 PM
Friday 12:35 AM
Game 4: Saturday, June 12
Replay 4:00 PM
Monday 7:00 AM
Game 5: Tuesday, June 15
Replay 3:00 PM
and 11:40 PM
Game 6: Thursday, June 17
Replay 1:30 PM
Friday 12:05 AM
Game 7: Saturday, June 19
Replay 2:00 PM

Tags: , , ,
Posted in One HD NBA Schedule | No Comments »

Celtics 106, Heat 77

Thursday, April 22nd, 2010


Meet Dwyane Wade, the angriest basketball player in the NBA. Possession after possession, Wade ran up and down the TD Garden floor, the Lone Ranger on an abysmal Miami Heat team. Where is his head right now?

  • Jermaine O’Neal: one for ten, two points. $23M expiring contract at season’s end.
  • Michael Beasley: four fouls at the start of the third quarter. Trade bait at season’s end.
  • Daequan Cook: DNP-CD. Only player under contract with Miami in 2010-11 besides Beasley.

Wade is a Finals MVP, an NBA Champion and an Olympic gold medalist. Can he single-handedly make this series competitive, or is he already thinking about the summer? When with the rage of the humiliating 2-0 hole in this series surface?

Tags: ,
Posted in Season 09-10 | 1 Comment »

Celtics 90, Mavs 99

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

The Dallas Mavericks were trailing by nine points at half time, and the Boston Celtics looked comfortable out in front on their home court. Enter Dirk Nowitzki. Dallas’ All-star forward lead a magnificent 3rd quarter shooting display to storm past the Celtics, taking their lead to 16 points early in the 4th quarter.

The Mavs, by all reports, played terribly the night before in Toronto. And the question remains, as its has all season – which Dallas team will show up on any given night? The Mavs at TD Garden looked amazing in the second half. Nowitzki exploited his defender outside, Marion ran the break with a push from Kidd, and Dampier finished around the basket. Yet when Nowitzki’s shot isn’t falling, the whole Dallas team suffers.

The Mavericks are a playoff lock, and probably a division winner, but can this team show up in the playoffs?

Lakers 98, Magic 92

On the day that he was announced as a competitor in the NBA Slam Dunk competition, Shannon Brown glides past Vince Carter on his way to a career-high 22 points in just 21 minutes.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Season 09-10 | 1 Comment »

Celtics 83, Bulls 96

Monday, January 18th, 2010

The Chicago Bulls led from start to finish for a much-needed road win over the Boston Celtics, 96-83. Luol Deng finished with 25 points on 8-13 shooting, making up for only nine foul-plagued minutes of ineffectiveness from Derrick Rose in the first half.

Watching Joakim Noah (15 pts, 11 rbds, 4 blks) sends my mind back to the 2007 draft, and one of the big ‘what ifs’ for Mike D’Antoni’s Phoenix Suns. The lottery had already dealt Phoenix its biggest blow, when the Atlanta Hawks (the fourth worst record) drew the third pick and kept their top-three protected pick instead of conveying it to the Suns. However, the Suns still had interest in trading up from #24 and #29 to get among the top prospects.

Phoenix reportedly had a deal in place to acquire the 8th pick from Charlotte in exchange for Kurt Thomas (among other assets) in order to select Joakim Noah. Instead, the Golden State Warriors arrived late with an offer including Jason Richardson, and selected Brandon Wright with the pick. Noah, touted as a #1 pick in the 2006 draft, fell to Chicago at #9 in the 2007 draft. Phoenix selected then sold (a typical Robert Sarver draft night) Rudy Fernandez at #24, but kept Alando Tucker at #29, a player who never cracked the rotation and who was traded for financial reasons in 09-10.

Soon after the draft, the Suns ended up trading Thomas to Seattle, a team committed to rebuilding following the departure of Rashard Lewis to Orlando and the trade of Ray Allen to the Celtics. The salary dump backfired on the Suns when Seattle traded Thomas later in the season to the Spurs, who acquired Thomas to counter the Suns’ acquisition of Shaquille O’Neal. Thomas often guarded O’Neal as the Spurs dispatched the Suns in the first round of the 2008 playoffs.

Now, seeing Noah collect boards at a top-of-the-league rate (12.2 rpg), run the floor and finish the pick and roll (0.495 FG%) and make free throws (0.761 FT%), I wonder just how dynamic a Suns team with Noah at center could have been.

Someone (perhaps me one day) ought to compile a ‘what ifs’ for D’Antoni’s Suns to see where this one would rank.

Jazz 97, Cavs 96

Sundiata Gaines upstages Lebron James’ 4th quarter heroics by hitting his first 3-pointer in the NBA to win the game at the buzzer.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Season 09-10 | No Comments »

Celtics 98, Bucks 89

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009

The Boston Celtics, with a sense of inevitability, put away the Milwaukee Bucks late in the fourth quarter for a 98-89 victory at the TD Garden. Paced by Kevin Garnett and receiving timely scoring from Rondo, Wallace and Allen, the Celtics improved to 8-1 in their last nine and condemned the Bucks to 1-8 over the same stretch.

The sound on the One HD broadcast was miked differently to the regular TNT games. Sounds from the floor, like shoes  squeaking and the ball bouncing, were relatively absent, but sound around the rim, like ball in/on the basket, or Kendrick Perkins complaining about a call, were very clear. This setup also picked up the crowd noise effectively and gave me an insight into what an NBA game might sound like in the arena. The crowd, like the Celtics, were disinterested for most of the game except for a couple of short bursts. It was more like ‘chicken and egg’ than ‘horse and cart’ when I tried to decide which came first – the crowd’s cheers or the Celtics’ runs.

Celtics v Bucks is one of the more likely Eastern Conference first-round match ups, with John Hollinger’s playoff odds having the Bucks challenging the Raptors for the right to play the Celtics. But the Celtics’  “we’ll put the game away when we feel like it” dance with the crowd on Tuesday showed that Brandon Jennings and these Bucks won’t be repeating the drama that Derrick Rose and the Bulls brought to the Celtics in the first round in 2009. And perhaps sweeping the Bucks will be the Celtics first step toward claiming their second title in three years, and meeting their second president in three years.

Celtics meet the PresidentThe Celtics meet President Bush as NBA Champions in 2008

Follow all the NBA action with NBA Scoreboard 2010, the most popular NBA addon for Firefox.

Tags: ,
Posted in Season 09-10 | No Comments »

Cavs 89, Celtics 95

Thursday, October 29th, 2009

The Cleveland Cavaliers, after going 39-2 at home in the 08-09 regular season, dropped their 09-10 season opener to a revitalised Boston Celtics. The game also tipped off One HD’s coverage of the NBA regular season. With newcomers Rasheed Wallace and Marquis Daniels providing strong play off the bench, the Celtics showed themselves to be a big step ahead of the Cavs.

The Cavs started strongly behind the play of Lebron James and Shaquille O’Neal, but once James went to the bench at the start of the second quarter, the game changed. It left me with this question. How many games would a Cleveland team without Lebron actually win?

The Cavs are a projected 60 win team, along with Boston, San Antonio, LA Lakers and perhaps Orlando. But would this team even win 40 games without Lebron? Would they win 30? Shaq is not a franchise player any more, and Mo Williams is Cleveland’s other All-Star – neither are going to win games on their own. Varejao, Z and the rest of the supporting cast are role players at best.

Irrespective of anything that happens from here on in, the MVP award is only Lebron’s to lose. Not one player on any team means more to their team than Lebron does to this Cleveland team.

To follow all the action of the 2009-10 NBA Season, download NBA Scoreboard 2010 today.

Coming up on One HD

Friday 30 October (Brisbane time)
10:00 San Antonio Spurs @ Chicage Bulls
12:30 Denver Nuggets @ Portland Trail Blazers

Tags: ,
Posted in Season 09-10 | No Comments »