Preseason Games 5 & 6: Keeping Enemies Close, Wins...A Little More Distant

See? That wasn't so bad! Going down to Brooklyn to face the Nets and our old teammates (well, teammate, anyway...Kevin Garnett and Jason Terry had the night off.) played out like any other game. Sure, there was good old #34, the Truth himself, giving the game what it needs for the opposition, but it was like he'd been wearing his New York whites all along. Even seeing him greet his old teammates Avery Bradley, Jeff Green, Brandon Bass and the others didn't make a...didn't make a...hold on....eyes tearing up...

Damn allergies!!!

Seriously, it was VERY strange watching the Captain come back and throw up one of his preseason special "getting the team involved" games against the MIG's (Men In Green), but nothing, I'm certain, compared to what it's going to be like when the other ex-patriots...er, ex-Celticots Garnett and Terry make their appearance at the Garden on January 26th.

As for the actual game, the C's were able to keep the game close and even had the chance to tie at the buzzer, though Courtney Lee missed a difficult acrobatic shot to let Brooklyn off the hook. Lee had a good game and showed flashes of regaining his offense as the C's high scorer. Kris Humphries showed up against his former team as well, and Jeff Green continued to right the ship from a slow start to the preseason.

What more can be said about this game that won't result in more tears allergies?

Actually, I'll let the truth be spoken by The Truth...

Brooklyn Nets

Box Score

Tale of the Tape

The Toronto game was another close one with the chance to win it at the end that didn't quite take. MarShon Brooks played well for the C's and looked more like the potential keeper many believed he could be with more experience and coaching. Green stayed on track and Kelly Olynyk, Vitor Faverani continue to make me excited about watching this team play together this season.

Toronto Raptors

Box Score

Tale of the Tape


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Who Got Next?

Boston Celtics vs. Minnesota Timberwolves
Sunday, October 20, 2013

6:00 PM

Late To Their Own Funeral: Celtics Never Say Die Attitude Kills Knicks

 

Attention K-Mart shoppers...we are all out of funeral black clothing. Shoppers are advised to put on their regular clothes, shut the f**k up and play ball.

 

Holy Apples!!! I can't even put into words how fantasmic this win by the Green was.

From Kenyon Martin and Co. wearing black to what turned out to be their own funeral; to J.R. (no-shot's-too-far) Smith talking his way into an excremental shooting night to the doomsday pundits all having to give respect to the never-say-die Celtics after doing everything in their journalistic (I say this tongue-in-cheek) powers to help shovel the dirt on Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and the C's WAY prematurely. And even with all of THAT, the Knicks had the nerve to try and smacktalk the C's at the end of the game after getting served by them and thus providing their opponents with even more fuel to want to serve them even harder back in Boston (yeah, I know they say Jordan Crawford started it, but I watched the tape)! As the dearly departed 2-Pacalyptic one would say (even though he was born in the NYC) "Throw up the middle finger."

From Smith's punk-@$$ elbow to Jason Terry's face to his subsequent bullsh*t "I don't even know who I elbowed," to his laughably idiotic "If I played it would have been over" lead-in to a 3 for 14 crapfest of a game and then Martin's chalkboard choke telling his boys to "dress for a funeral" before not only eating his words and his feet, but eating his teammates as well who all followed dimwittedly along and dressed in black.

And...while I'm not buying the idea that's floating around out there that the Knicks "funeral" blunder was a calculated attempt to disrespect the City of Boston and its recent tragedies, I think the Knicks (K-Mart in particular) are a bunch of typically egotistical, self-centered and spoiled athletes who don't think past the tip of their own noses when they say anything not filtered by a publicist. They may not be malicious, but they sure are DUMB. It's almost as if they wanted the Celtics to come out with fire in their eyes. Well, mission accomplished.

The Snickerbockers unintended self-immolation may have been just what the Celtics needed to push them over the edge to play together against a common enemy, but it also speaks to a larger problem for New York moving forward, both in this series and later, if they escape the wrath of the C's.

It is exactly this kind of empty "Big City" hubris that reveals just how not-ready-for-primetime this squad is. I'm not saying that they're going to fold up and hide faster than a New York street vendor during a cop convention and lose to our beloved Celtics (which they very well might, though he odds are with them...for now), but it's clear that all of this self-distraction proves that they've got some serious growing up to do and, under the John Starks stark and unforgiving spotlight of the Playoffs, that learning curve can be VERY steep. Just ask LeBron and his Heat.

I'm sure I don't even have to mention the pyrotechnics and confetti and the "not one championship, not two, not three..." embarrassment that preceded the first season of LeBrash and Friends and we all know how that season ended up. This year? They came into the Playoffs and quickly, quietly and efficiently finished off the Milwaukee Bucks. You have heard nothing from them as they wait for the winner of the Chicago Bulls/Brooklyn Nets series. Not a peep. That's called maturity, something that these Knicks are still searching for. Hopefully they'll have plenty of time to search for it after Sunday.

As for the Celtics? Well...I think I'll just say it in pictures...

Brandon Bass has been a force on both the offensive end...

 

...and the defensive end guarding Carmelo.

 

Kevin Garnett has been nothing short of a revelation,

posting 4 consecutive double-doubles.

Captain Paul Pierce had started this series slowly, but he has come on of late to lead the team as the "point forward" filling in for the injured Rajon Rondo and still providing ample points (and just about everything else).

He does, however, have to begin respecting

the defense of Houseparty 2 Iman Shumpert.

 

Jeff Green has begun to fulfill some of the promise he came to Boston with in the Kendrick Perkins trade with OKC. His heart and recent aggression have been key to the C's attack.

 

 

Bench players like Terrence Williams have proven to

be valuable playoff assets, both on offense...

 

 

...and defense.

 

And there are a whooooole lot of other factors contributing to this team's resurgence, but with any luck...we'll get to those.

 

Box Score

 

Tale Of The Tape

 

THE BUZZ:

 

NBA Eastern Conference Playoffs --

Round 1, Game 6:

Celtics vs. Knicks

Friday, May 3rd, 2013

@ The Boston Garden

Boston, MA

 

Knicks Get No Payback As Celtics Avoid The Sweep

Silly, Melo...Sweeps Are For #1 Seeds.

Okay, now veeeery slowly...put the brooms down and back away slowly...

Well...the Celtics may have lost a 20-point lead. They may have found themselves forced to go all the way to overtime in a win-or-season's-over game. And they may have done it with sharpshooter J.R. Smith out of the lineup for the Knicks due to suspension (in what amounted to a flashback to his former and frequent lapses into stupidity, Smith elbowed Jason Terry in the face at the close of Game 3)...but, dammitt...this one felt GREAT! Especially sweet was the return of The Jet getting revenge in the best way possible at a time when the C's needed him most.

With the Snickerbockers going ballistic on every form of social media available calling for GreenHeadz to roll in an effort to exact some measure of revenge for being swept in the first round two years ago by the C's, it was great to see so many Noo Yawkuz holding brooms and having no clue what to do with them (as usual. Haaaave you SEEN the city?).

This, of course, in no way diminishes the desperate situation in which the Green still find themselves in. It was nice to see Doc go back to the lineup that took 'em to the dance if for no other reason than continuity. The Celtics are going to be best with the lineup they played in Game 1 and Game 4 -- no question about it. It was also nice to see Doc letting Terrence Williams play significant minutes. He is as much a steadying force as Jordan Crawford is an offensive tempest.

I do still have a bone to pick with the coach about keeping the door locked to the doghouse that Courtney Lee is obviously residing in these days. I think Lee has a game waiting to break out of him and at worst, he's a legitimate opposing force that can help to keep Smith under control. We'll see if he gets some burn with the return of Smith in Game 5 on Wednesday.

One of my favorite moments of the game? Paul Pierce faking Jason Kidd out of his sneaks and flushing it as a too-late Prigioni whizzes by just in time to catch posterization.

One last note of discord between me and the coach...count me among the outraged believers that the "shortened playoff roster" is one of the most ludicrous artificial constructs in the game of basketball. Why in the world would a team with a possible contingent of ten legitimate offensive and defensive weapons cut minutes and even bench any single person who might help them in a game? Ludicrous.

Message to Doc and the fellas for Game 5 in MSG? You know what you did there for most of Game 4?

Keep doing that.

Go Celtics.

Tale Of The Tape (Now Isiah Thomas fresh!)

Box Score

Facing Elimination, Will Celtics Overcome Recent Challenges?

Okay, let’s start right off by addressing the 500 pound green elephant in the room so that we can move on: The Celtics Miss Rajon Rondo.

Did anyone in their right minds think any differently when news that he was gone for the season spread that fateful day against the Heat?

As annoyed as I was at the end of Game 2 when Tommy Heinsohn kept waxing on about how it was a “Rondo-type game,” and “If Rondo were in this game, he’d…” even as our guys in green were getting their shamrocks handed to them, he was indisputably correct. It just didn’t feel like the appropriate time to throw it out there, because our guys were struggling and to mention Rondo felt like an excuse for poor play. And it was poor play, Rondo or not.

Look, as I said back then after it happened and the Celtics went on a great run with ‘Hippie Basketball” sharing the wealth and running free and loosey-goosey which led to the inevitable but horribly ill-informed and naive proclamation by the casual fairweather that “the Celtics are better without Rondo!”

Without going into full-rehash mode, the Celtics team, that came together and rallied without their most vital piece was a running, passing pure-basketball team that traded in set plays for this basic basketball truth – if you play defense and get out and run, good things will happen.

The team you’ve seen over the last two of the three games has been the team that I feared would enter the playoffs – a walk-it-up, play-calling half-court-offense team with changing faces based on the current needs and matchup problems presented by their opponent.  We all know that in the playoffs, things slow down and the game moves deeper into half court sets. The more successful teams are the ones that can rebound and run on misses attacking the opponent’s basket before they get set. Either that, or they possess a talented point guard who can steer them through the intricacies of breaking down the half-court defense. Obviously, everyone knows which team the Celtics had to be.

I lay a fair portion of the blame on the players for not taking better care of the basketball in the first game, but I must include Coach Doc Rivers and even single him out for some of the failure of the second and third games.

Doc has a penchant for changing things up in the playoffs at the most inexplicable moments. The Celtics would and should have won Game 1, but for some horrendous unforced turnovers by Green,
Pierce and a couple of others in the 4^th quarter. Why try to fix what ain’t really broke? But he put the ball more completely in Avery Bradley’s hands (a huge mistake, since he is essentially a shooting guard in a point guard’s body) instead of keeping Paul Pierce as the the point forward role that he had assumed from the moment that Rondo went down. He started a different lineup in game 3 in the hopes that it would rejuvenate the offense and provide more scoring punch at the outset, but it did neither. In fact, it quite possibly disrupted any continuity we might have had from Game 1 to Game 2 and it may have undermined the confidence. He has relegated Courney Lee to the bench at a time when the defense could clearly use a strong defender with length at the shooting guard/small forward position for the J.R. Smith’s and Ray Felton’s of the world, not to mention an aggressive offense off the run, which he has shown is his strength. We’ve seen only sneak-peaks of Terrence Williams who is probably the 3^rd best ballhandler on the team at this point, and there has been scant floor time for our only solid big, Shavlik Randolph.

There are a host of other questionable turns that I can go into more fully maybe at the postmortem of the season, but, to quote a friend and fellow GreenHead, “You don’t make changes to your lineup in the postseason, only adjustments.”

We know that today’s game could very well be the last one of the season for the Celtics. If it is, it will obviously be disappointing, but they should be proud of what they WERE able to accomplish this season: They began the season with an almost completely new roster and set out with the goal of pursuing that elusive 18^th title in spite of the fact that two of their three main stars were on the downslope of hero’s mountain. They dealt with adversity when their best player, the pilot of their ship – the head of their Voltron – was lost for the season. They soldiered on even when another of their team, a rookie who hadn’t been counted upon initially but then seized his opportunity to contribute, was taken away with back surgery. And they continued marching ahead when yet another of their team, a proven scorer, was stricken down with the same injury that took their leader. They had two others returning from what was, evidently, life-threatening heart surgery attempting to become comfortable just running and taking contact, let alone resuming their high-level of play. There were trade rumors swirling amidst the team’s two best remaining players which could have damaged the morale and drive of this team. Instead, they pushed ahead further and entered the Playoffs as the 7^th seed, underdogs against the Atlantic Division winners.

No, the Celtics have nothing to be ashamed about, no reason to hang their heads. If this is, indeed, the end of the season – and perhaps even the end of the era of Pierce and Garnett – then at least the Celtics can rest assured that their future will be competitive. Coming next season, we’ll have the services of Rajon Rondo and Jared Sullenger back. Jeff Green, who finally began the journey of coming into his own, will also return. The young and talented Terrence Williams and  Jordan Crawford will be back, as will Shavlik Randolph and the potential of Fab Melo. The chorus of questions will become louder as the season ends and attention turns to whether Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Jason Terry return, either of their own volition or by the hand of General Manager Danny Ainge, who may opt to begin the rebuilding process in earnest now that it has become clear that the Celtics are no longer the title contenders that they were from 2009 through last season.

There will be much to say at the close of this season, whenever it comes, but I’ll save it. I’ll save it because as long as there is a game left to play, there is hope that these Celtics come together, stand as one, and keep fighting on.

As one sage and still fierce warrior once reminded us…

ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE

Go Celtics.

Putting Tragedy Behind, Boston Ready For Rumble With New York

 

Between the abject horror of Monday and the chaos and confusion of Friday, it was determined that as far as the Boston Celtics and NBA Playoffs are concerned, the show will go on.

And well it should. As many have already explained, if at all possible, we should return to as normal an existence as we are capable of as both a sign of resilience and defiance to any- and everyone who would seek to threaten our way of life and the freedoms that so many have given their lives to sustain.
 
With that said, I wish the victims and their families healing and want to give unlimited praise and thanks to the first responders and investigators for their very hard earned success.

Moving on…

____________________

Celtics vs. Knicks. MAN, this is gonna be good. 

Boston vs. New York…KG vs. Carmelo…Paul Pierce vs. Every Damn Thing In A Knicks Jersey.  THIS is what Playoff basketball is all about. The drama…the competitiveness…the legitimate and palpable dislike that these two teams feel for each other = epic watchableness (Yeah. It IS a word. I wrote it, didn’t I?!)  

Get ready to hear The Truth, put The Jet on the runway and get your pollen-based product-sweetened oat-grain cereal ready!

So…how can we expect our green giants to do this year as the underdogs? Well, if you listen to the so-called experts over at SportsIllustrated, ESPN and CBS Sports, Boston is going to get beat like punching bags as nothing more than sparring partners to the allegedly Eastern Conference-bound Carmelodrones New York Knicks.
 

See?

Now, I know I am probably not the most objective writer out there when it comes to assessing the Celtics (I’m known in some circles as the Tommy of the Typewriter, which I think is really a bad analogy because I neither announce for the Celtics as a former player named Heinsohn nor do I even have anything more than a vague recollection of what a typewriter is in this era of unswallowable tablets and smartiepants phones), but I do make an honest effort to separate my love of the Green from the realities of their sometimes-greater-than-a-care-to-admit limitations.  

But, we as Celtics fans also know how many “shock the world” moments it's taken for some of the non-believers to realize – you can never sleep on a playoff team led by Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Doc Rivers. NEVER.

 

And with that, let me launch into my prediction about the Celtics beating the Knicks in six games.

Sure, the Celtics have lost Rondo for the year and lost the season series, but two of those losses have had asterisks in the box score – a really tall, intense #5 jersey-wearing asterisk named Kevin Garnett, who happened to be sitting for the final two matchups. As everyone knows, you can take the season series stuff and throw it out the window for the Playoffs. Or, to put it more succinctly – “What happens in the regular season, STAYS in the regular season. History, though? History’s a whole different story.

What do we already know about the Celtics, Knicks and the Playoffs? Well, we know that anytime they’ve met up in the KG-Paul Pierce era, the Celtics proved to be the young father playing ball in the backyard with the Knicks as their 6-year-old son. In fact, the last time the Celtics played the Knicks in the Playoffs, the C’s looked like giant green atomic dinosaurs smashing their way through a well-known but helpless cosmopolitan city.  
 

Look, we KNOW The Captain LOVES playing in MSG.

 

 

 Actually, he LOVES playing against the Knicks ANYWHERE...

 

And we know that KG owns a luxury condo unit inside Carmelo's head.

 
But, this game is going to come down to the Celtics defense on the three-point line and each team’s wild cards stepping up to become heroes.

The C’s wild cards? The defensive dominance of Avery Bradley; A decidedly more aggressive (both on offense AND defense – Melo HATES playing on this guy!) Jeff Green; a new and improved (in just about every facet of the game) Brandon Bass, a sweeter-shooting C-Lee; a Jet that’s made-for-the-playoffs; and that wildest of wildcards, Jordan Crawford.  He may never find himself on the same planet of the country with the city where the building has the office in which people are talking about the Defensive Player of the Year, but he can definitely provide a major scoring lift during those confounding draughts the C’s are famous for, and that’s why the Celtics brought him in.

 

I still believe we’re going to see the best from Jason Terry in these Playoffs. As many a savvy veteran has done before him, he saves an extra gear for the “season that counts,” and I think back a few years when Doc invented his quote: “This guy’s gonna win a Playoff game for us. I guarantee you that,” he was looking into his crystal ball and thinking about Terry.

There’s also the great possibility that unsung heroes suddenly start hearing the sweet music of success like Shavlik Randolph, Terrence Williams, Chris Wilcox and others. Any one of or all of these guys can come in and turn a game with their hustle and scrappiness alone. The Playoffs are where legends are made (yeah, I LOVE that cliché!) and the Celtics are a bubbling cauldron of flying fish just waiting to leap out of the pot and make their mark. And, no, I have absolutely no idea what the hell that sentence actually means, but I am certain that is has something to do with the fact that someone, somewhere on the bench is going to help us out before it’s all over.

Ultimately, what it all comes down to is (All hands on deck! Prepare to fire Cliché # 3) which team wants it more. Effort will trump talent in this series and veteran savvy will win out over flamboyant scoring.

Celtics in six. And Melo has another meltdown in a New York minute.

Celtics Put League On Notice With Wins Against Indiana, Philadelphia

 

Man, are these Celtics fun to watch or WHAT?

Team Green completed their recent back-to-back road challenge with wins against the Philadelphia 76'ers and the Indiana Pacers, but may have come away with more than just the W's.

 

At this point in the season, it's becoming trendy among NBA talking heads and blogsites galore to refer to the Boston Celtics as "The Team Nobody Wants To Face In The Playoffs."

 

Beginning on that fateful day back in late January against the Miami Heat when the Celtics learned that All-Star point guard and team engine Rajon Rondo would be down for the season, and extending through the season-ending injuries to rookie phenom Jared Sullinger and bench sparkplug Leandro Barbosa, the Celtics put down the potential excuses and picked up their play. Contrary to almost every basketball brain and hoops herald, the Celtics refused to roll over and wallow in the unfairness of it all, instead adapting, excelling and announcing to the league that they would be anything but an easy out come playoff time.
 

These Celtics have not only survived the kinds of losses that would have crushed even the strongest resolve of most teams (hey, Lakers...at least your underachieving center can actually play...you think Philly doesn't want that trading day back?), they've thrived, playing 17 games and losing only 4 of them. I think 17 games is a decent short-term indicator that these Boston Celtics are not laying down; not for the Miami's, Golden States and Indiana's of the world and they're giving no freebies to the rest of the league, either. Even more amazingly, they haven't so much as missed a beat while adding and incorporating quality replacements (maybe even improvements) for some of their fallen.

Speaking of those replacements... as well as the C's have been playing, as much as I absolutely love the free-wheeling, passing game, speed basketball that the team is now playing...what gives me the biggest batch of butterflies in the belly is the exuberant spirit of this team. These guys are really pulling for each other...I mean REALLY pulling for each other. If you watch the Celtics vs. Pacers Tale Of The Tape to about the 2:09 mark, you'll see what I mean about the bench and how they've been rooting for the team for this entire run.

 

Even the guys who aren't seeing a lot of playing time seem to be as ecstatic for their teammates as they would be for themselves had they been the ones making the winning plays. In fact, Terrence Williams -- whose signing I happen to believe was an absolute hijacking by the Celtics over the rest of the League -- who has seen less playing time than Jordan Crawford (another steal, I promise you), has been among the most vocal and supportive from the bench, often out of his seat cheering with the joy of a fan in front of his television. Watching how he and the other recent bench additions have been marveling at the exploits of the Hall-bound Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce up close makes me believe that whatever problems some of them were alleged to have had on past teams will be kept to the shadows, at least in the short-term.

 

In the meantime, inspired and greatly improved play from Avery Bradley and Jeff Green along with Jason Terry, Courtney Lee and Chris Wilcox has allowed Coach Doc Rivers to rest Pierce and Garnett for larger stretches of time, thus increasing the odds that they can dominate down the stretch during crunch time, if needed.

 

If the Shamrockers can keep-on keeping-on the way that they have been, the C's can move past just making the playoffs and start thinking about home court advantage (hey, don't laugh...the Celtics are just a GAME AND A HALF out of 4th place in the Eastern Conference!), and Doc can pull out the the 'ol whiteboard once again.

Don't get me wrong...I'm neither giddy enough to be oblivious to the possible pitfalls awaiting the C's as they race to the end of the regular season and I'm not so much of a homer that I don't believe that there may be great trials that lie ahead in the Playoffs for a team without a true playmaker (and the League's best one at that!).

 

But, just as there are people who believe that the most important things these Celtics are missing are Rondo, Sully, the Brazillian Blur and a true center, I believe that the most important things they lack are fear and the desire to quit, even in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.

Once again...

Celtics Future Shines Bright Against Suns As KG-Free Boston Blasts Phoenix: 113-88

Call Springfield and tell 'em to add another spot next to the markers for Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett...Jeff Green's comin', Baby!!

Okay, I really am just kidding, so stop typing and calm down.

Still, Green -- stepping up and starting in the absence of a resting KG -- had the breakout game we've all been waiting for, scoring a season high 31 points and swatting a career-high 5 shots to go along with 7 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals.

This game against the Phoenix Suns -- who still happen to be an NBA team despite what their record (18 wins, 38 losses) and casual fans would have you believe -- was a blowout for the Celtics thanks to continued emphasis on running the ball in the passing game.

As a byproduct of the pace of this game, a newly aggressive and hard-running Chris Wilcox -- perhaps still feeling the heat from his brush with the trade deadline and his near-exile to Washington in the Jordan Crawford trade (more on him later!) -- scored a season-high 14 points (including this SWEET reverse jam to go with an even SWEETER put-back layup), grabbed 8 boards and registered 1 block.

And, speaking of the trade that sent the ACL-challenged Leandro Barbosa and his expiring contract along with Jason Collins to Washington for guard Jordan Crawford, J-Crawf and the equally green man-in-green Terrence Williams served each and every negative know-it-all a tall, bubbly glass of STFU -- at least for one game, anyway. T-Will looked steady as he showcased his versatility, dropping 9 points on 4-8 shooting with 4 rebounds and 4 assists in 23 minutes while J-Crawf scored 10 on 4-9 shooting in addition to his 3 rebounds and 2 assists in 15 minutes.

I won't get into it too deeply in this post, but the nattering nabobs of negativism who have criticized Danny Ainge for "only" trading for Crawford at the much overhyped trade dudline deadline instead of running Pierce and KG out of town and are speaking ill of the two new additions are most likely either fly-by-night fans or very casual observers of the sport. Any issue with Williams and Crawford was NEVER connected to a lack of talent. Each has had maturity issues in the past, but both are extremely gifted athletes who possess the kind of skill that the Celtics have been yearning for. And the fact that they're both on the young side of their 20's speaks to the tremendous upside each has if Doc Rivers and the Celtics' veterans can help to guide them. Many of the "fans" who are doubting T-Will and J-Crawf were cheering for the equally immature and impetuous Nate Robinson by the time he left town.

Time will tell with these two, but lets give them the time to be able to tell, 'kay guys?

In fact, the newbies were so effective in their abbreviated court time that Captain Pierce was treated to a relatively short night of 23 minutes, and was able to keep his shoulders light scoring 8 points on 3-5 shooting snaring 5 rebounds, passing out 3 assists and grabbing 1 steal. Instead, other Celtics like Jason Terry (13 points), Avery Bradley (13 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists and 4 steals), Brandon Bass and Courtney Lee carried the burden for the team.

The future is indeed bright for the immediate stretch-run and, potentially, years to come. Time will tell, but it's great to know that the clock is still running.

Speaking of running clock, it's only a matter of time before the Celtics fill in the rest of the open slots on the team with a couple of large bodies, and the most recent report floating around from League sources has the C's signing D.J. White to a 10-day contract. White is a 26-year-old 6' 9" forward who was drafted in 2009 by the Detroit Pistons. With career averages of 6.3 points per game and 3.4 rebounds per game, White has spread his ultra-limited 124 NBA games over 3 seasons with the Oklahoma City Thunder and 2 with the Charlotte Bobcats, but most recently, he played with the Shanghai Sharks of the Chinese Basketball League where he averaged 21.6 points and 9.7 rebounds. At this point, he may just be a placeholder for one of the bigs expected to be available in the coming weeks as teams look to perfect their rosters heading into the playoffs. There have also been rumors of the Celtics' interest in hair band member 6' 9" forward Louis Amundson, among others.

Box Score

Tale Of The Tape