Celtics Doin’ It Any Way Possible

With 4 key players out of the lineup, the Celtics gave every player with the exception of Billy Walker respectable playing time in last nights game. Obvoiusly we would have never thought the C’s would have to start Giddens, but we also did not expect Hudson to get good playing time unless things got real bad. Well, they have gotten real bad. Any problems? Not against the Raptors.

I was very impressed with the minutes Lester Hudson put in last night. He has always kept me interested with the minutes he puts in at the end of games. He remains active, and seems to know what is going on. He created some good looks including the nice bounce pass to Glen Davis under the basket. He also did not try to do too much and only took 3 shots, putting in 5 points. Not spectacular, but deffinitely what we were hoping from him.

Also Glen Davis showed what he can provide for this team when he gets back into the groove. Big Baby remained very active last night and put in 15 points while ripping down 5 boards off the bench in just under 20 minutes of play. As expected his play has overtaken that of Shelden Williams. He still has work to do with his jump shot, but only took one out of rhythm shot last night that was a jumper with someone right in his face. Once normal rotations are back, he will not have to worry much about this as teams now at this exact moment, he is one of our scoring threats thus play him tight.

Like was said in the recap of last nights game, 6 players scored in double figures. Typically, if the opposition has a 50+ percentage shooting for 3, the Celtics have extreme difficult beating them. That is, unless they out hustle them and out play them at every other aspect of the game. They did that by bringing down more offensive boards, out rebounding the Raptors by 8, creating more assists, turning the ball over fewer times, having 4 more steals, and 1 more blocked shot. This is the reverse of how the team played in the previous game against Phoenix. In that game, they only did better in two of these subjects: 1 more offensive rebound, and 1 less turnover. It was good to see the Celtics come home to do the little things right.

For the regular season, in games Boston should win, those things will get the job done. The Raptors are good, but not top of the line. Therefore an uncontrollably injured Celtics team can beat them by out hustling them and making fewer mistakes. Really, that is all they need to do at the moment to survive this stretch of the schedule with as much adversity as they are playing against. They did whatever it took to get the job done, with every asset they had, and hopefully they can continue to do the same for the next few weeks to hold onto the top of the East. Thumbs up for Doc for his performance in last nights game.

Lester Hudson(Photo by Scott Cunningham/NBAE via Getty Images)
Tony Allen(Photo Via NBAYahooSports)