EDD-IE! EDD-IE! EDD-IE!!!!

Amen, brotha.

What a way to respond to Game 1! The moral victory that night, which saw us come back to within 4 points after being down 28 is Celtics basketball. That's just how champions play. The Orlando Magic, on the other hand, are not champions. They were out of this game from the get-go and never mounted any sort of comeback or displayed any sort of energy throughout the whole game. This is one of the main reasons as to why the Celtics can win this series. Let's start with the players who were mere footnotes to House's shooting barrage.

Kendrick Perkins. What a beast. Sure, he makes stupid plays all the time, but he's getting better and better at making fewer and fewer mistakes. He's taking on probably the most dominant big man in the game today and holding him down. Howard only had 12 points and 12 rebounds. In Game 1, he only had 16 points. Perk did a fantastic job defensively last night, limiting his fouls while pushing Howard out of the low post and forcing to take awkward hook shots. He ended up shooting 5-13 from the field, which is a sucky percentage for anyone, but even more so for someone who only plays his game 1-6 feet away from the rim. Offensively, Perkins was more efficient and effective: 16 points on 7-10 shooting, 9 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 blocks. Gotta love the stat stuffer.

Smmmooooooooooth (as the other side of the pillow?)

For the second series in a row, Ray Allen returned to form after a very off game. He scored a (quiet) 22 points on 7-15 shooting, including 2 threes. He too filled out the stat sheet, grabbing 6 boards and handing out 4 assists. He played the most minutes out of anyone (41) and, although I'd like to see him rest in these blowouts, it was somewhat necessary that he get his rhythm back and get his stroke going before we head into Orlando to try and retake homecourt advantage.

J.J. Redick: The New Machine. "Argrggrgrgghhhh!"

Glen Davis was especially efficient tonight. Although he got into early foul trouble, he ended up with only 3. He played solid defense on the quicker and longer Rashard Lewis, he and Scal holding him to a "more-than-it-seems" 17 points. Big Baby shot 4-5 from the field, 5-6 from the charity stripe, and had two steals, one of which was mighty purrty as he poked it away from Lewis as he tried to cross him over.

Pierce and Allen get some much-needed R&R as the Celtics cruise.

Paul Pierce played just 16 minutes, scoring only one basket: a three from the top of the key to open the game. He was plagued with foul trouble throughout, but this rest for him is the most deserved and needed. He's had a couple games here and there, especially in the Chicago series in which he's looked just...tired. Getting essentially 3 days off before Game 3 on Friday should help get his legs as fresh as possible to try and take that game.

Um, and one? Howard is pushing Rondo...so yeah. Whatever, look how HIGH HE IS!!

Rondo. What more can we say about him? The kid's a floor wizard. A mix of Bob Cousy's crazy-ass passes, Magic's scoring abilities, and Jason Kidd's rebounding talent. After a poor shooting night in Game 1, I knew and he knew that the remedy was to attack the rim and continue to do so. As Rondo goes, so does the team, as cliche as that sounds. He had another triple-double, bringing his total to 3 for these playoffs, tying Larry Bird's team record. One more would tie him for the record held by Jason Kidd in the 2002 playoffs (Anyone find this sketchy? Oscar Robertson, who averaged a trip-doub for a whole season never had more than 4 in the playoffs? Did his teams just never get far?). Rondo's line: 15 points (7-19 shooting), 11 rebounds, 18 assists, 2 steals, and only 3 turnovers. For the entire playoffs, he's averaging 18.3 ppg, 9.6 rpg, and 11.9 apg. Pretty dayum impressive. Oh, and to top it all off, to get the needed points for the triple-double, Rondo took a pass from Eddie House, drove straight down the middle, got up so that his elbow was above the rim, and DUNKED it as Howard and Lewis watched. No easy layups? I thought that was everyone's mentality for the playoffs, but Orlando was way to soft in this one. Not championship mettle, if you ask me.

The new defensive set: The Scal-D, in which Scal sneaks up from behind as Big Baby and Pierce surround Howard. Works like a charm.

Now, shall we move on to the bench? Once again, these mofos contributed greatly. Let's start with Brian "Jackie Moon" Scalabrine. What an underrated defender! Keeping the lanky and quick Lewis from going off is a tough job and Scal definitely helped out. He ended up shooting 3-4 (2-3 on threes) with 8 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 blocked shots! Can I get a hell yeah?? I never thought I'd say this last year, but thank god we have him. He's become a great off-the-bench asset for us.

That guy in the green shirt will be havin' NONE of that!

Now, onto the hero. Eddie "Go Ahead, Make My Headband Spin" House. Man, when he catches on fire, no one, I mean NO ONE can stop that. He's got the quickest release in the game and can change the arc of the ball so dramatically that he can get it over anyone. The plays the Celtics run for Eddie are great. My favorites are the little flare screens, in which he sets a screen for the ball handler and then runs over to the baseline as screens are set for his man. It's beautiful. Thing is, they've got no one capable of staying with him (did you see J.J. Redick trying to keep up with him?). After knocking a deep two in Rafer Alston's face, he got so angry he bitch slapped House's head! (Suspension, please.) What happens the next play? Oh, just another three from House to close the third quarter. And the fun would continue into the 4th, highlighted by a great 4-point play in which House got the ball off over backup PG Anthony Johnson as he hit his arm. That's kinda when you know you've got the hot hand. Fun fact: House scored the most points off the bench in a playoff game for the Celtics since Kevin McHale got 33 (or something) in 1993. Nice company.

If Bennett Salvatore had been watching, Alston would have been automatically ejected from the game. Not like it mattered!!! Boo-yah.

I know it's just one game, but you've gotta think the momentum of this series is directly in the Celtics' hands. We had the moral victory in Game 1, losing by only 5 points. We blow Orlando out of the building in Game 2 without our Captain for basically the entire game. Heading down south, I've got total confidence that we can take a game and at least get homecourt advantage back. Perk just needs to keep Howard contained and their shooters just can't get open looks enough to get hot. They have no penetrating game like we do (Rondo, Pierce) and we've got much more solid shooters, if we resort to that (seriously, who would you pick, Ray Allen or Redick? Yeah, thanks.)

I can't decide which angle's the best. It's all so good!!

And just one more picture to give some love to the ol' timers:

Imagine sitting next to or behind these guys?!?! Wow. Experience of a lifetime.

Eddie House Knocks Down 8 Threes and Knocks Out Kings

Baaaaaaasically. Eddie's game was just nasty.

I'm tellin' ya. When the Celtics are clicking on all cylinders it is the most fun thing to watch. Eddie House and Ray Allen are on such a hot streak these days, that ESPN analyst and former player Tim Legler is claiming that Allen is playing the best ball of his career. And that's a BIG statement considering Allen has averaged 23+ points per game over a season 5 years in a row (2002-2007). Although Ray Ray ended up shooting 5-12, he hit 3 of his first 4 in the first quarter (all three in less than a minute and a half). 

There were a ton of positives in this game, but the beginning was brutal. The C's did a great job of composing themselves after letting the Kings shoot 65% in the first frame. If there was ever a trap game, this was it. We hadn't played since Sunday afternoon and the rust was clear from the tip. The Kings were coming off a tough loss to the Cavs in overtime the night before and were clearly fired up. The length of the previous game showed as they appeared to get more and more tired as the game went on. Our lack of aggression turned around in the second quarter as we outscored them 40-19. Being down by 10 in the first quarter and then going up by 14 entering the half is a great turnaround and shows what this team is capable of doing.

Rondo kicks Brad Miller where the sun don't shine after a dirty play the refs missed where Miller stiff-armed Rondo after the whistle blew. Check out that coordination, though!

Rondo again is making a bid to be an All-Star reserve, going 10-15 (again using his speed getting into the paint and getting layups as well as hitting jumpers, which are getting a lot more consistent). He had a total of 24 points to go along with 9 assists. And how great is it to see the chemistry between KG and Rondo? They essentially base their game on eye contact alone, and they've got it down so well that they're going to get an alley-oop at least once a game (they had I think 2 or 3 last night). Another thing they've been running lately is a give and go. Rondo passes the ball to KG who's in the post, Rondo runs by and uses him to pick off his guy, and KG delivers a perfect pass to Rondo who lays it in. I know the Kings aren't a defensive team at all, but this play can work against anyone if run correctly. So pretty.

Tony Allen finally returned to the lineup after an 11-day absence due to an ankle problem. And boy was he effective. He seems to have a lot of explosiveness back and his speed is way up there. He blew by his defender several times. Overall, he was 5-5 with 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals, and a blocked shot. I'm not a fan of him really, but it's great to see him really contribute off the bench and attack the rim. He was especially needed because Brian Scalabrine was out after suffering his second concussion in a couple of days, colliding with Patrick O'Bryant in practice (after getting an elbow to the head from Dirk Nowitski. And yes, they called a foul on Scal. Makes sense.). He has been playing beyond expectations while he was healthy and believe it or not, when Scal starts for the Celtics, we have a perfect record (6-0 this season). 

Now onto the star of the show. Tedward. Is he ever gonna cool off? Doesn't seem like it. After an extended break, House picked up right where he left off. Quote of the night from Tommy: "They shouldn't call him Eddie House...they should call him Eddie MANSION!" He was 8-9 from three, which is a career high for him. He came within 3 points from matching his career high in points, but missing only one three is impressive enough. And it wasn't like he was wide open with all of these. Several of them were off balance and/or with a guy in his face, forcing him to change the arc of the ball. One memorable one had Eddie running to his left on the baseline with a defender in his grill and he STILL knocked it down. Incredible. The Kings actually ended up double-teaming him. 

That'll do, Eddie. That'll do.

The bench overall scored 61 points, with House outscoring all of the Kings bench players on his own. Our previous high for bench points was 49, if I remember correctly. When your bench scores that many points, I don't care if you're playing the London Sillynannies or the Monstars from Space Jam, you're going to win.

Next game at Detroit on Friday at 7 pm. Until then...

C's Continue to Dominate...and a Sighting of Leon Powe??

Led by KG, the Celtics have newfound energy, especially at home, where they are now 22-2.

That game was textbook. The C's are now at 8 wins in a row after going 2-7. It'd be great to keep this energy up through the All-Star break in February.

First and foremost, the main worry going into the game was the matchup nightmare with Dirk Nowitski. Now, any fan of the game knows that this 7 footer has the ability to shoot the three as well as post up with the best of them. In fact, he's one of only half a dozen or so who has shot at least 50% from the field, 40% from 3-point land, and 90% from the line. Nash had done it twice, Larry Bird once, and Ray-Ray is currently doing it. So KG clearly had a big load to carry. And carry it he did. Dirk was held to 0-7 shooting to start a game, including missing a couple of bunnies after faking out smaller defenders. In all, Dirk was 4-17 (0-3 from downtown) and was a -23 when he was on the floor.

KG was nothing short of dominant in this one. He played only 25 minutes, yet shot 7-11 for 23 points. The game was over by halftime, which has become a common occurrence at recent Celtics games. We lead by 35 at one point and scored 74 points by halftime (season high for the C's...the Knicks had scored 82 in a half this season).

Basically everything was falling for us, too (65% in the first half, 54% for the game). Ray Ray was again on fire, possibly making a case for a reserve position on the All-Star team (to be announced this Thursday). He went off for 23 points on 4-5 from three and dishing out an uncanny 7 assists. Rondo again took control of the game and outplayed vet Jason Kidd. He shot 6-10, including a handful of pretty jumpers. When he shoots those with confidence, he can knock them down. He nearly had a triple-double with 13 points, 14 assists, and 7 rebounds, while sitting out the entire 4th quarter. This guy is so mature beyond his years, it's scary. His talent keeps improving it seems from game to game and it's only a matter of time before he's a household name around the country and an All-Star.

The C's tied a team record for three pointers made with 16. Eddie House, of course, made a significant contribution to that total, making 7-11, tying his personal best and coming one short of the most made this season (Ray Allen with 8). He also had 23 points in 28 minutes and is quickly proving himself to be a VERY dangerous (and efficient) scorer. Give him a good look these days (which for him means the defender only has to be about 7 inches away) and he'll knock it down.

Eddie House was so hot from long distance, he actually made this shot...

I love these blowout games, not only because we get the win, but also because we get to see the young players and what they can do. There has been an abundance of garbage time this year already and it's great to see the 10, 11, and 12 guys gaining more confidence. Remember, when Perk was out for a while and Scal got to start, his confidence just kept on growing. Before that, his scant minutes saw him airballing threes and making rookie mistakes. But because of those increased minutes, he has become a very underrated defender and once again a threat from deep (he was 2-3 today with 6 points). Big Baby is asserting himself more down low, scoring an and-one on a pretty layup in which he cleared out space from Dirk, causing the foul.

Gabe Pruitt is getting more playing time as of late because of Tony Allen's absence and from what I've seen, he's a great third option off the pine. His jump shot exudes confidence and he seems to bury it more often than not. He handles the ball up the court better than Eddie and has three point range. Bill Walker got some minutes tonight, and although there are signs he can be a very explosive player, he did seem nervous out there, fumbling a few passes and getting a layup blocked by Kidd. Patrick O'Bryant, one of the guys I'd like Doc to play more, hit a DEEP two (swish!), and his length is great for rebounding. He did try a hook shot, coming up a little short, but I have seen him hit that a few times and it is prettayyyy.

And how about the Leon Powe sighting! Does anyone know why he hasn't been playing recently?? I don't think he was hurt or anything...Anyway, he wasn't effective, to say the least, going 0-3, which was probably due to some rust.

Overall, great win by the C's yet again over a quality West opponent, proving that their stutter from the Christmas game was just that. They're still the champs and are still the team to beat in the Association. Until they're knocked off that perch, they will be the best team out there.