Spurs 87 Celtics 86

Even though the Celtics lost if you missed this game you missed one of the better ones this season. The Celtics were down 17 points in the first half, and then battled all the way back and only lost but an inch or two on a Pierce fade away at the end.

Rondo was once again great with 17 points and 11 assists. It is now 14 straight games that he has had over 10 assists, which is exactly the consistency I have been looking for. Through Rondo's first 29 games he had 15 games which he was over 10 assists, so about half. Now he is doing it every game. In fairness to him I think some of this can be chalked up to a couple different things. First off, the Celtics have been playing so much better since the trade deadline past and not everyone thinks they could be playing somewhere else. Second, when all the Celtics big men got hurt and they had to start using KG at center and running a small lineup, Rondo finally has people to run with him. So, in that regard maybe I was hard on Rondo, but I do think most people would agree he is playing incredibly consistently lately, and I feel as even his turnover are down.

Back to the game. What killed the Celtics was their rebounding, which no matter what is going to be the toughest thing for the Celtics going forward. They just don't have enough big bodies to control the floor. You could really see it in the first half, and at the end of the game. The Spurs just crushed the Celtics down low (out rebounding them 53-39), especially in the first half when the Celtics were running more traditional lineups. What the Celtics can do (and this is a shocking thing to say with how the team has played in the last couple of years) is run a lot of teams out of the building with their small lineup. Rondo and Bradley cause complete chaos for anyone bringing up the ball, and the combo of KG and Bass running the court causes a lot of problems for any big man with any kind of weight on them. I think you are going to see more and more of this as it goes.

Bradley outplayed Allen last night (other than Allen's amazing 3 near the end of the game), but Allen was rusty and that was expected, so I wouldn't read into that too much. Doc has found a way to get these guy equal minutes now, and I think you will continue to see that going forward. I still think that you will see Ray playing more and more with the 2nd unit, because they really need someone who can score there even if Ray starts the game.

The end of the game was frustrating. The Celtics caused a bunch of stops only to give up an offensive board. Then, they finally do stop them and Pierce takes a fade away in from of the 7 foot Tim Duncan. Didn't seem like the brightest play in the world, but Pierce has hit that show so many times it's hard to knock it.

Even though the Celtics lost this game really impressed me. The Spurs are a really deep team and have been kicking the shit out of everyone (they have won 9 in a row). If the Celtics hit the shot at the end they would've had it, so we are talking about really no spread between these two teams, or if the Celtics just didn't come out so flat. So like I said, this is really one of those losses you don't feel too bad about, especially with the 76ers get blown out by the Raptors on the same night.