Results tagged “rasheedwallace”

Superficially, it looked like the old rivalry again. The Sixers have brought back the old logo, the old floor from the Spectrum (more or less) and uniforms that hearken back to the days of Dr. J and Andrew Toney. But the team that Philly put on the floor last night was no match for the early 09-10 Celtics. The '83 Sixers might not have been.

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.

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.

Mother Nature was as sick of it as you were. Josh Beckett was a very late scratch with back spasms, so the Sox sent young Michael Bowden to the mound with about 15 minutes' notice to try to stop the Blue Jays. Five innings later, Bowden and reliever Hunter Jones had both been sent to the showers with ERAs over 10. Two innings after that, the skies opened up and put the Sox and the Fenway crowd out of their misery. Final score: 11-5, Toronto, in seven innings.

The newest Celtic hit town yesterday. With his three-man recruiting committee by his side (we wonder how much guts it would take to turn down a job when Paul, Ray and Kevin come to your interview), Rasheed Wallace met the press and said everything we like to hear when a new guy comes to town. WEEI has a transcript of most of those things. He says he felt Boston gave him the best chance to win, he's looking forward to playing with KG every night, he (for the moment, anyway) doesn't care whether he starts or how much he plays. Sheed will wear #30 for the Green, which has had a really rough stretch since M.L. Carr took it off in 1985. Mark Blount and Sebastian Telfair were the latest to wear it. We hope Wallace does better things, but frankly, we don't see how he couldn't.

We're gonna go ahead and declare this the Summer of Wake. Sure, we noted yesterday that Josh Beckett's the anchor of the rotation. And we're not going to forget to spread the love around when guys deserve it. But in his first start since learning his All-Star status, Tim Wakefield hung around long enough to get graced by a Sox comeback, earn his 11th win, and be carried off the field on a metaphorical wave of cheers.

Wakefield's been pitching out of his mind. Penny and Lester have been good, for the most part, but not great. Smoltz is still a giant question mark. Dice-K seems to have been rightly sent on the "Julio Lugo Not-Really-Injured Tour Of The World". The one constant, with apologies to Terence Mann, is Josh Beckett.

Jason Bay. Dustin Pedroia. Jonathan Papelbon. Kevin Youkilis. Josh Beckett. All have been to All-Star Games before. All are young, and will probably go again. So congratulations to them, but we know and they know that they aren't the headline on this All-Star Selection story.

The Red Sox staff had no answers for the bottom of Seattle's order as Rob Johnson and Ronny Cedeno combined to go 5-10 with five RBI in a 7-6 Sox loss in 11 innings. Johnson's two-run double in the 11th inning was the deciding hit in the game. Ramon Ramirez took the loss.

The Red Sox have returned home to find out which parts of Fenway haven't washed out to sea in the last two weeks. They'll play the Mariners to begin a 10-game homestand that will take us to the All-Star break; Oakland and Kansas City will follow. Red Sox history will be made tonight, weather permitting, as Tim Wakefield will make his record-breaking 383rd start for the team. Pushing that Clemens uncomfortableness out of the record book. We say "weather permitting", of course, because we've heard that the guys from Seattle are rumbling that Boston is a little too rainy and clammy and cloudy for them. Let's hope for the best.

So said Jonathan Papelbon afterwards. And if you're one of the millions who figured that (hour-long rain delay) + (10-1 lead) = (bedtime), we understand. Unfortunately, among the snoozing millions were the Sox bullpen, who turned a 10-1 lead into a devastating 11-10 loss in no time. This was ugly.

He was the last man added to the Eastern All-Star team. When KG scratched, he waited for the call, only to find it went to Rasheed Wallace. When Washington's Caron Butler went down, the call finally came. He had to cancel the fishing trip and make plans to go to New Orleans.

You know the old saying: you can't win 'em all. There are some gentlemen in Foxboro who may disagree, but the theory holds up for the most part. Which the Celtics and their eager fans learned last night at the Garden, as the battle-tested Pistons came in and outlasted the C's for the first home loss of the season.