Boston Celtics News and Links: Defense Fails, Green Shines and More

Morning, Celtics Nation!  Here to warm you up on a chilly morning is your Boston Celtics News and Links!

Just how chilly is it, you ask?  Check this out:

This cannot bode well for winter.

Let’s start today by getting you all caught up on last night’s games – there were 18 teams in action, and you can find all of you recaps and video highlights over at NBA.com.  And don’t forget to check out our very own Three Stars and Player Grades for the Celtics-Suns game, too.

The NBA has named LeBron James and Damian Lillard the players of the week for November 10-November 16.  Check out how these two earned that honor.

Watching the Boston Celtics play defense this season makes me long for the days when Tom Thibodeau was on the bench.  In case you forgot just how good a coach Thibs is, check out how well his injury-ravaged Chicago Bulls are playing, and relish the power of Thibs:

"Tom Thibodeau doesn’t believe in excuses, just effort. He doesn’t believe in moral victories, just hard-fought wins.The beauty of Thibodeau’s mindset, the one he has drilled into his Chicago Bulls over the past five seasons, is that they never step on the floor believing they can’t win. No matter who he has, Thibodeau believes he can coach his players to victory.That was the case again on Monday night in the Bulls’ impressive 105-89 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers. Playing without Derrick Rose (strained hamstring) and Pau Gasol (strained left calf), the Bulls pulled out their most impressive victory of the season with the type of balanced attack that had become the norm for them over the past two seasons without Rose."

Of course, these Bulls still need to get over the hump and make a deep run in the playoffs, but you can’t help but marvel at how well these guys handle adversity.

Win a playoff series?  Those are words we won’t be hearing when it comes to the Boston Celtics.  Not after their “defense” allowed the Phoenix Suns to come into TD Garden and send the Cs to their third-straight loss:

"It could have been a game-winning, and-1 dunk. It could have provided the highlight of the entire season, already, in just the ninth game. It could have gone down as one of the best plays of Jeff Green’s career, right up there with the buzzer-beating triple he hit while falling into the Miami first row.Green should have been able to cherish the slam, go home and flip on the TV just to watch it again, all night maybe, on loop, over and over, smiling wider every time. He should have been able to look back at his 28 points, nine of them in the fourth quarter, with booming pride.Instead, Green’s sour postgame mood explained everything. His dunk did not stand as an exclamation point but as a comma, and the Phoenix Suns finished the sentence.“It’s kind of like déjà vu,” Rajon Rondo said after yet another regrettable loss, this one a 118-114 decision to the Suns."

Sad.  Green has definitely been a bright spot for these Celtics, though . . . as has Tyler Zeller who, frankly, needs to be playing more.

Think about that for a while, and enjoy!