Good News and Bad News

The bad news is that we lost. We went 6-9 for the month of January The good news is that we only lost to the defending champs by 8 points. We played a tough game and finally showed up defensively. The even worse news is that we have to take positives out of losing games because it happens so often now.

We actually gave the Celtics a game. Their last 7 wins have all come by double digits, so I guess that is sort of a small victory for us, right? I expected the game to have more points, but the gap between the teams was as I expected. The Celtics don't blow us away. They lull us into thinking that we are close enough to come back at any time and we never do. They never stop defending, never. Marc Jackson pointed out that when the game finished, the Pistons were attempting just to score before the horn, even though it didn't matter at all. The Celtics shut them down. Not many teams do that.

The Celtics didn't do anything exceptional on the offensive end. We actually played pretty solid defense and held them to 45% shooting. The Boston 3 Party combined for 56 points, which is about average for them. Rondo had 12 assists, but we managed to keep Kendrick Perkins in check. He was getting so frustrated that he headlocked Maxiell and threw him down, so he was ejected. We stuck to one of my keys to success, not shooting more than 10 3-pointers. We shot 8, but only made 1. Overall, we shot only 40% from the floor. The Celtics defense just squeezed the life out of us.

Other things of note:

• The Celtics were able to score on us because of excellent ball movement. They had 25 assists, and were seemingly always able to find someone for an open jumper
• Iverson and Stuckey each had 19 points, but they combined for only 5 assists
• Tayshaun had a bad night, going 1-7 for 4 points. Paul Pierces defense is underrated
• Rip was instant offense off the bench. He had 14 points
• McDyess had 14 rebounds
• AI passed Charles Barkley for 16th on the all-time scoring list'
• In case you haven't heard, the Celtics have now won 10 in a row