Every morning, we compile the links of the day and dump them here… highlighting the big storyline. Because there’s nothing quite as satisfying as a good morning dump.
“I’ve been talking about (defensive pressure) a lot, and over the last seven games it’s been paying dividends for us,” said Rivers. “I told our guys, we also broke our own record with deflections. It felt like we had 100, and it was important, because we couldn’t make a shot.
“I didn’t like our shots down the stretch, but overall we got a lot of good shots,” he said. “They just weren’t going in. So we won a game where the team we played shot 51 percent, and we shot 43 percent. That was happening to us earlier in the year, where we lost a couple of games where we shot the exact opposite.
“When you get more possessions like that, you give yourself a chance to win the game.”
Way to find the silver lining, Doc. Deflections aside, the Celtics allowed Dallas to shoot 51% for the game and gave up 53 points in the 3rd and 4th quarters.
The most depressing stat may be the 60 points in the paint for Dallas. I’d say 2/3 of those came on dribble penetration (see Collison, Darren).
Playing 58 minutes isn’t ideal when you have three games in the next five nights:
The numbers were far beyond what Doc Rivers wanted: 40 minutes for Kevin Garnett, 44 for Paul Pierce, 48 for Jason Terry, and a whopping 53 for Rajon Rondo. But in a game that went to double overtime Wednesday night before the Celtics prevailed, 117-115, Rivers didn’t exactly have a choice.
Ugliness aside, this team is trending (albeit slightly) in the right direction. Can they take two out of the next three? I’ll be happy with that.
The rest of the links:
Globe – Celtics outlast Mavs | They took a shot at Mayo in offseason | ESPN Boston – C’s pleased after ugly win | Rivers ok with last second shots | For Terry, win is only thing that matters | CSNNE – Mayo reflects on almost being a Celtic | Terry has no extra emotions facing Dallas | Scal says this was a gutsy win | Herald – Bill Walton says its all up to Rondo
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