North Station Sports

The Celtics finally broke a losing streak that loomed over their heads at the Q for 5 years. In the opening quarter the C’s again seemed to be caught in the glare of the Q’s pregame pyrotechnics. The Cavs ran out to an early 17-4 lead and the Cleveland crowd erupted into early MVP chants, seeming to release their pent up frustrations from last years, surprising playoff loss to the Magic.  

As the teams settled down and the emotions of opening night faded away, the real matchup started. The Celtics exploited the weaknesses of the Cavs and LeBron’sfamiliar solo act  became apparant, showing that the addition of Shaquille O’Neal had not changed much early on for this team. Possibly more apparent then the addition of Shaq, was the subtraction of Delonte West — still out with depression issues.

It may be a new year and the Cavs may have added Shaquille O’Neal but LeBron was still on his own offensively. James’ 38 points led all scorers. The rest of the Cavs starters scored just 41 points combined, proving not much has changed for the Cavs in a season.

What was more impressive was the play of the Celtics second unit, out-scoring the Cavs reserves, 28-10. Doc Rivers went to his bench with 4:54 remaining in the first. Rasheed Wallace made his debut in green (white actually), nailing his first shot attempt. Wallace, one of the early candidates for sixth man of the year (is it too soon to discuss awards? lol), scored 12 points in 23 minutes. Sheed, sporting an afro, played excellent defense, grabbed 3 rebounds and his presence was most felt when teamed with Garnett on the defensive end as they talked with every squeek of the sneaker.

In true championship manner, the Celtics second unit, quietly chipped away at the deficit. Doc Rivers displayed some interesting line-ups that were not possible last season. Most intriguing (and effective) was a line-up of Rasheed Wallace, Shelden Williams, Ray Allen, Marquis Daniels and Eddie House. Doc continually went to Allen in the post as he displayed a repertoire of post maneuvers I never knew he possessed.

“The second unit saved the game for us,’’ coach Doc Rivers said. “And then the first unit down the stretch won the game for us.

 “Big win for us. Like I said before the game, big game – we really needed to win in this building. Now the game’s over, and it’s just one of 82. It tells us that we can win anywhere and it also tells us we can get better.’’

The second unit was calm, cool and honed in. The Celtics recovered quick and took a 51-45 lead into the half.

In the second half, the Cavs formulated their own intriguing line-up, playing both Shaq and Big Z together, a front line that can be touted as today’s Twin Towers. Boston.com declared this line-up a test for Garnett’s newly recovered knee. NSS declares this line-up for the Cavs as slow and nonathletic. The line-up of Ilgouskas and O’Neal combined for 16 points on 5-16 from the field.

Garnett did take a pounding in the unusually physical NBA outing. Early in the third quarter KG was pounded to the hardwood in a play that took the air out of Celtics fans. He popped back up fast, pounded his chest and lipped some expletives, in Garnett fashion– I really missed trying to translate the curse words Garnett was shouting.

Kevin Garnett scored 13 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. He displayed great ability to get up and down the court though his lateral movement and explosiveness is still, as Garnett puts it, “a process”. Evident on KG’s in ability to defend and receive lob passes. Of course, this can be related to the lack of intense game play for Kevin and have nothing to do with his knee surgery. Regardless, Kevin’s 33 minutes of play put my mind at ease in regards to his ability to play with his now legendary intensity.

It’s funny how, as the season gets started and the sweat begins to pour off our faces in our spectator seats while watching the player on really sweat, how quickly we forget the stories that obsessed us during the off-season. Rondo’s shot, Davis minutes, losing Leon…

Well, Rondo looked good. Despite some careless turnovers, Rondo played great defense, dished out 10 dimes and grabbed 6 boards. Rondo only scored 8 points but he displayed his “new look” jumper with confidence. I stated in an earlier post that Rondo’s new form was not evident. In Rajon’s few jump shot attempts last night, I must say, his shot looked good. The confident way in which he launched the long range bombers was more impressive then any new form the he could have unveiled.

Big Baby? Well, it wasn’t until the game was sealed on 8 late points from Paul Pierce, that I remembered Davis was out with surgery on his hand. It’s my opinion that Davis’ being injured/suspended doesn’t really hurt the C’s bench but can definitely further bolster it (is that possible?) upon his re-insertion into the active duty roster.

Leon? It was tough to watch Leon fraternizing with the enemy on the Cavs bench.

The Paul Pierce and LeBron James duel made momentary comebacks but certainly did not dominate the story line of this game. Pierce scored 23 points and grabbed 11 rebounds. The Celtics story line was not dominated by individual stats but by a team effort, highlighted by every roster spot being represented in the points category of the box scores.

The Cavs loss underscored their deficiencies as a team. They have the tendency to attempt the spectacular play over the fundamentals that get the job done. No doubt LeBron has the ability to create highlights with ease and efficiency. LeBron’s propensity and proficiency in creating the highlight block, steal pass and dunk has only rubbed off on his teammates in their attempt to do the same. Fact is, when Gibson, Hickson, Moon and Williams try to emulate LeBron’s freakish exploits, they create turnover. This was clear during the Cavs scoring draughts that resembled more of an exhibition game gone awry then one of the premier match-ups in the league on a national stage.

LeBron spoke with the media after the game last night, drawing comparisons of today’s star packed rosters to that of the 1980’s Piston, Celtics and Lakers. Nice comparison LeBron!

As LeBron finished up with the media, he didn’t look to distraught by his team’s loss, he smirked as if to say this match up is… “to be continued…”

Noteworthy:

Up and coming blog, Gino’s Jungle, is having an exciting contest called JG Pickems. I chose the Cavs to win on opening night. I lost round one. Check out all the picks and get in on the fun!