Results tagged “Rajon Rondo”

Sports-columnist convention requires us to list things we're thankful for on Thanksgiving. So let's go.

The only thing that would have made yesterday even more perfect was for Wes Welker to intercept a Mark Sanchez pass. The combination of Welker (15 receptions and 192 yards) and the defense (five turnovers, four of them interceptions) led to a satisfying 31-14 smackdown of the Jets that erased last week's turmoil and transferred it to Rex Ryan's Kleenex budget.

Our long regional nightmare is over! After a five-game local losing streak, the Celtics - finally, eventually - shook off the civic torpor and wound up blasting the Golden State Warriors 109-95.

Sure, he may be the most expensive backup catcher in history. And maybe his stats aren't what they used to be, and even those stats aren't what they were a few years ago. But even if Jason Varitek the catcher is past his expiration date, Jason Varitek the heart of the Red Sox and the captain is still around. And still, we hope, worth the $3 million he decided to accept yesterday.

It's one point. A shootout loss. One goal. The Bruins will gratefully take it right now. With the offense struggling to even find the goal, let alone put the puck in it, and with swine flu racing towards the team, it's time to think about baby steps.

The Celtics are beating good teams by double digits. They're ticking off All-Star opponents. They're 4-0 after dispatching the Hornets last night at the Garden. And most importantly, they seem to have locked up their point guard for a few more years.

When we last saw the Chicago Bulls, it was after the Celtics survived a seven-game street fight of a playoff series. Last night, the Bulls tapped out in about seven minutes. Perhaps that's an exaggeration on the part of Bostonist but the Celtics thoroughly outclassed the team, 118-90.

Maybe the results are a little skewed, since the Charlotte Bobcats clearly didn't belong on the same floor or in the same league as the Celtics last night. Or maybe the Bobcats just looked like that because the C's' defense locked them up so tight that Amnesty International was handing out flyers by the end of the game. Final score: 92-59.

The Celtics returned to more-or-less full strength, and in their first game in Hartford in over a decade, mauled the Raptors 106-90 in their finest preseason outing yet.

Nobody can say anything official, but everyone in Foxboro is unofficially saying that Junior Seau, who never strayed far from the phone, will be back with the Patriots sometime soon. Maybe. The amount of information runs from Seau's optimistic "I want to thank the management of both for making my return to the NFL with the New England Patriots a reality", to Bob Kraft's gushing "I’d love to have him part of our team for as long as he wants to be", to Bill Belichick's terse "we don’t have anything to say about it."

While Bud Selig teases us with the idea of an actual playoff game involving the Red Sox, the rest of the sports world is moving at a faster pace. Your Boston Bruins signed Phil Kessel Milan Lucic to a three-year extension through 2012-2013. Good for the B's, and Lucic. He plays hard, fans love him and he is exactly the kind of player the franchise wants to have. However, they just gave $12.25 million over three years to a player with 25 career goals.

Five of the six RBIs for the Red Sox came from David Ortiz and Jason Varitek? Is it 2003 already?!?

Six games does not a season make. Even though some easily-swayed souls seem to think so. But regardless, the Red Sox are indisputably 6-0 against the Yankees so far in this young season, everyone's happy, and last night's game was about as good as it gets.

So, Boston, which do you think is worse? The sudden, unexpected fatal heart attack that killed the Bruins last week? Or the slow bleeding-to-death-on-the-sidewalk feeling that permated the Garden throughout the second half last night?

"This could be the greatest night of our lives, but you're gonna let it be the worst." - John Blutarsky

Unfortunately, when a knuckleballer is your most reliable starter, there are going to be days of disappointment. Last night was one of those nights.

It's tied. But not in the way you'd expect. Sure, Ray Allen had a good shooting night, and Rajon Rondo notched his third triple-double in the playoffs - those are the kinds of things you expect to see in a win, especially one as lopsided as last night's 112-94 triumph.

It IS over, right? They're not going to suddenly declare this 5-out-of-9, right? They're not going to suddenly announce that they found an extra couple of Bulls points in Game Five, so we have to play out another OT?

Bostonist just finished rereading one of our favorite books, W.P.Kinsella's The Iowa Baseball Confederacy. A tale of time-travel, mysticism and sports, the book's centerpiece is an exhibition game between the 1908 Chicago Cubs and the amateur Iowa Baseball Confederacy All-Stars, which, through a series of events beyond anyone's control, turns into a month-long, time-space bending battle of over 2,000 innings.

The Bulls are the team that won't go away. The Celtics are the team that won't die. This is the series that won't end. The NBA is about an hour away from declaring this a "best 9 out of 17" series.

We were going to lead off with the Celtics, but yesterday afternoon was possibly the most frustrating and aggravating game ever, and so hard to come up with an angle on, that we're just going to talk about it later and start off with 2009's Play of the Year (nominations are technically open 'til December, but come on).

We check the ESPN SportsNation polls often. It's an addiction. Yesterday, the question "Who Will Win the Celtics/Bulls Series?" was red enough to almost double as the Reagan/Mondale election map. Not today, brother.

What a day at the Garden. A little depression, a little mania. A loss, a win. A soul-stealing episode, and a moment of triumph.

Well, that was a letdown.

The buzz in the Sox training camp these days is Clay Buchholz, the 1324 year-old pitcher who wowed us in 2007 with his no-hitter and in 2008 with his suckiness. That's bad news for Bostonist because his name is difficult to spell. Buchholz has a 0.46 ERA in the Grapefruit League this spring and a killer pick-off move, signs that he's maturing into the pitcher everybody hoped he would be last year. The bad news? The Sox' pitching depth means that the kid might be starting the season in Pawtucket, which is whole lot better than the Instructional League, where Young Clay found himself finishing out last season. He told the Globe, "If I'm still pitching at Triple A, it's a phone call away. I'll be ready to go whenever they do call me."

Garnett (Still.) Powe. Ray Allen. Out. (And that's not even counting Scalabrine and Tony Allen, who we've kind of written off.) How would the remnants of the Celtics beat the Heat and their clear silver medalist in the MVP race?

Friday was all about the player comeback and, in Boston's case, players' happy reunions with the teams that have missed them.

Is it possible we've segued right into a new Big Three? Even though none of them are all that big?

Last game before the All-Star break. Tough opponent on the road. Trailing by 15. Pack it in?

Sure, Thomas Paine may have thought he was writing about the coming bloody separation of the Colonies from England. But with the perspective of history, we know know that his opening line actually referred to the 2008-09 Celtics. They haven't played badly...and that's the worry, since two of the other top teams in the league have now come into the Garden back to back and left with wins.