Results tagged “docrivers”

Let's face it. That was uglier than Minnesota's starting power forward. But if the Celtics are going to make a run at 70+ wins this season (and while PTI and the Globe and others are speculating about the possibility, we say, let's can that talk and let things unfold), they have to win games like last night. Trap games, against young athletic teams, on the second night of back-to-backs. And somehow, finally, the Celtics did.

So says Doc, and it's a little easier to say now, after the Celtics withstood an early barrage from the Cavaliers and came back to win their season opener, 95-89.

"Two mysterious things happened in the universe today," said Seattle's Ichiro Suzuki after last night's game. Well, more than that, but who's counting?

Everybody's still alive. But for very different reasons. Bostonist covered the Celtics and the Bruins live, and they won. Now let's try to figure out why.

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."

Who can blame Doc Rivers for blowing his top? The Celtics blew a 13-point lead, they're 4-6 in their last ten games, a few more guys got injured, and he finally got thrown out at the end of last night's 127-121 loss in Chicago.

We're running out of ways to say this. The Bruins are beyond hobbling. Beyond struggling. They've lost 46 out of their last 45 games (to be fair, that's a rough estimate) and not one of their 35 shots made it past goalie Steve Mason as the B's fell 2-0 to the Blue Jackets in Columbus last night.

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

Did Ray Allen just save the season?

OK. It's oooookaaaaay. So maybe we thought that Doc Rivers' "stay the course" message meant something a little different. We all took it as sticking with a formula that has found success during much of this Celtics season-in-progress.

Sometimes, there's a fair-to-lousy team that just has a good team's number. It happens. The Celtics saw it with the Wizards and Hawks last year. Even in the days of the lowly Devil Rays, they still rose up and beat the Sox and Yankees more than their share. So it's not usually the end of the world.

At what point do we ready the panic buttons? Two legitimate losses to two legitimate good teams (LA, Portland), one stinker that can be chalked up to Laker hangover (G.State)...but then, this, now. The Celtics' eight-game winning streak against the Knicks, which stretched back to those prehistoric pre-KG teams, is over. The C's looked flat, couldn't keep up with New York's speed and intensity, and fell 100-88.

The boy is counseling the man. Except that Rajon Rondo's now The Man. It's confusing. Anyway, Rondo told Kevin Garnett late in last night's game to "relax a little bit" (yeah, good luck with that), and an inspired KG helped carry the C's down the stretch to another nailbiting win versus the Hawks.

Cousy, Russell, Auerbach, Havlicek, JoJo, Cowens, Bird, Parish, Kevin Gamble. In all the Celtics' many many championship seasons, no Green team has ever started 21-2. Until now.

Sure, it's 60 degrees outside. But it's beginning to look a lot like winter - well, maybe spring - in Las Vegas, where it's going to be in the 60s today, but more importantly, where baseball's winter meetings are taking place. And like this wintry scene, the Red Sox have come up empty so far.

"At times we sputtered," said Randy Moss after the game. It's hard to know exactly which times he's thinking of, since the Pats exploded for a 530-yard day and stomped Miami, 48-28. Matt Cassel has his biggest day ever (haven't we already said that about four times this year?), throwing for 415 of those yards and finding Moss for three TDs.

Well, they flipped the switch, and we're still here. Our MVP All-World QB is gone, and we're still here. The Rays are officially going to leave Fenway still in first, and we're still here. And we feel fine.

Proceeds from the auction go to the Shamrock Foundation, a Celtics charity currently partnering with Perkins School for the Blind, Children's Hospital Boston, Horizons for Homeless Children and the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (MSPCC) to provide services to children in need.

The following is an example of one of the rare moments in which ruining a perfectly good shirt makes everyone happy. When the Celtics won the NBA playoffs, Paul Pierce engaged in the common sports ritual of dumping a neon-shaded beverage known as Gatorade upon coach Doc Rivers.

CelticsBlog and Adam at Universal Hub have pointed us to plenty of reading material today. We thought we'd spotlight some of our favorite bits:

This was just about as sweet as anything could ever be.

All right, fess up. Who went to bed at halftime?

Bullpen troubles? Late inning collapses? The Sox have been dealing with these issues lately, so the offense did the helpful thing and staked starter Bartolo Colon to a 5-run first-inning lead last night at Fenway. Jason Varitek, woozy and eventually replaced, capped the first off with a 3-run homer (his seventh) and JD Drew (now hitting 1.043 in June) doubled in a run as well.

We honestly don't have much new to say about this afternoon's game. Win, and everything's forgotten and it's 0-0 against Cleveland. Lose - the unthinkable - and God only knows how ugly it's going to get in this town. Doc needs to coach like he's NOT being mugged, coaching a playoff game and watching his house burn down at the same time. Pierce needs to be smart and not give the refs a reason/chance to monitor him closely. Sam Cassell needs to play like home Sam and not Road Sam. The fans need to make Atlanta feel as welcome as the Soviets in Lake Placid. And KG needs to step up big and banish the doubters once and for all.

When the rumor first broke that Bill Buckner was the mystery guest at Opening Day, we thought that sounded just right. A perfect chance for diehard Sox fans, or at least the Opening Day crowd, to say all was forgiven, if in fact any forgiveness was due to the man who had to flee to Idaho to escape the indignity of a loss that he symbolized even though his was far from the only tragic mistake. Schiraldi, Gedman, McNamara...you're next. Roger, not so much.

It was about a week ago when we noted that the Bruins were in 6th place in the Prince of Wales Eastern Conference, which was a decent place to be, thus drawing the winner of the weak-sister Southeast Division. In that week, the B's have solidified the 6th spot, but are now officially in spittin' distance of bigger and better things. They've won blowouts this week, they've won shootouts, they've won at home, they've won on the road. They've done everything but beat Montreal. Now we see 6th place as little more than a nice springboard.

The All-Star Break couldn't have come at a better time for the Celtics. It's a few extra days of rest for KG, of course, but after last night, almost everyone over 6'8" is in agony this morning and needs some time off. Brian Scalabrine fled the court with a groin pull very early, then Glen Davis went down VERY hard in the second half. He was in so much visible pain that they didn't immediately kick it to the dancing idiots on the Jumbotron. What happened to him is being called a "strained left quadriceps".

Let's say you're going to the Celtics-Timberwolves game tonight. If you're like most of the people at Celtics games these days, chances are you weren't there last year. Which is perfectly legal on your part. But there's something you should know. Most of the Timberwolves played here last year, during that long, miserable 06-07 campaign, and several of them - promising, hardworking youngsters for the most part - were sent away to make room for the Celtics team you proudly cheer today.

"Half the guys in our league couldn't shoot 15-for-21 if they were in a gym by themselves," said Doc Rivers. The man would know, having coached Kedrick Brown, Gerald Green, and Brian Scalabrine over the years. But 15-for-21 were the numbers Toronto rained down on the C's from 3-point-land, dropping the C's to their first division loss of the season.

Bostonist was at a bar last night. Hey, it happens. Everything was good and fun, until the TV (sans sound) flashed a news report: "Brady Seen In Cast". We weren't around for the JFK assassination, but now we have a pretty good idea what the terrified hush that fell over the nation felt like. A couple panicked phone calls later, we weren't any closer to an explanation.