Completion of the GAME PREVIEW: Suns Vs. Celtics

by Wil Cantrell on Dec 30, 2009 2:28 PM MST in Phoenix Suns: Game Coverage

PHX Stan laid the groundwork here, so I'm going to grab the baton and finish this thing:

The Celtics overall have had a good December, going 10-3 with victories over San Antonio, Oklahoma City, and Orlando. Still, they managed to lose to the lowly Clippers and Warriors, not to mention Philadelphia. They enter this game on a two game slide, last losing to the Warriors at Golden State.

As you may have read Rajon Rondo (hamstring) and Kevin Garnett (leg) are at the least questionable for this game. Glen Davis and Paul Pierce are out, which leaves Brian Scalabrine and Shelden Williams to bear the brunt of front line minutes for the battered Celtics (welcome to the NBA, where even the best teams cannot run and hide from the injury bug).

We could say, "awesome, the big two for the Celts are down, we got this!" But we all know how dangerous that kind of thinking is. The Suns mentality in this one needs to be the same as the Lakers, play loose (not stupidly), and of course, consider the Celtics at full strength, put pressure on them early, run (a lot), space the floor, make shots, and with our Nike's on their throats, stomp and suffocate them.

What Do the Celtics and Suns Have in Common?

Does this sound familiar? From Danny Ainge:

"... we’re not playing as hard as we can play for 48 minutes...we think we can show up for a quarter or a half, and that’s not good enough in this league...this is the second stretch where we really haven’t really shown up. The urgency of winning from the get-go hasn’t been important enough.’’

Other than that, the teams are very different in at least one category-defense:

TEAM	OPP PPG	OPP FG%	OPP RBPG	OPP OFF RBPG	OPP 3PT%	TO	DEF NBA RANK (PTS ALLOWED)
CELTICS	91.9	43.9	39.5	11.0	31.3	16.0	1
SUNS	106.0	45.8	42.9	13.5	36.9	13.0	29

On November 5, the Suns beat the Celtics, in Boston, 110-103. The mantra of that night was "Compete on the Boards." In that game, the Suns hung close in the rebounding category, only losing 42-39 to an obviously oversized Celtics squad who managed 12 offensive rebounds. Yet in this game, Garnett was held to 8 rebounds, which is respectable, considering Garnett is Garnett.

The key in the last meeting was not only did the Suns battle on the boards and limit Paul Pierce to 16 points on 5 of 15 shooting, they packed it in and let the likes of Rasheed Wallace and others bomb away from the outside, which of course led to 16 missed three pointers en route to a 2-18 performance from long range.

The other key to that game were strong performances Steve Nash (16/12) who battled the younger and tenacious Rajon Rondo, Amare Stoudemire, (22/10), who took on Kevin Garnett in their typical matchup that ends up nasty, and oh, Jason Richardson, who poured in 34 points to accompany 10 rebounds following his 0-for against Orlando.

Keys to this game:

Forget about Monday night, it was only one game
Don't look at the injury report
Run early and often
Make shots
REBOUND (of course)
Play 48 minutes of energetic, smart basketball

Celtics vs Suns coverage

Celtics vs Suns preview

CelticsBlog

Tweet Comment 18 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

Earl Clark

Any update on his psyche Stan? Is he still being a lazy bum or is he doin work?

by bradley281 on Dec 30, 2009 2:35 PM MST reply actions

Hard to say

I never see him staying late after practice like other guys but I am told (by the team) that he’s coming in early and at other times. I did see him the other night after the Lakers game hit the practice court with a couple of basketballs and a portable stereo.

He’s such a laid back kid personality-wise that it’s tough to get a read on him. The fact that he’s not getting minutes from Gentry is pretty much all the story as best as I can tell.

Blogging Suns Basketball . twitter: @phoenixstan

by Seth Pollack on Dec 30, 2009 2:37 PM MST up reply actions

well hopefully the lack of PT bothers him, if it doesn't, then we have a bigger problem

by bradley281 on Dec 30, 2009 2:43 PM MST up reply actions

Definitely could be a trap.

Let’s hope the Suns don’t fall for it, because they can easily take home a victory tonight.

by jburning on Dec 30, 2009 2:36 PM MST reply actions

dont look for KG to play....danny ainge said he expects Rondo to play BUT

i dont foresee boston beating the Suns tonight without Pierce, KG, Davis and Daniels. Suns just have too much in that building…was glad to see you guys waste the lakers

by celticinorlando on Dec 30, 2009 2:47 PM MST reply actions

look forward to your guys getting healthy...

and continuing our good work in LA…

by Fritzy on Dec 30, 2009 6:14 PM MST up reply actions

Trap game!

Careful. They have to play hard and not give the Celtics a chance.

"Basketball doesn't build character. It reveals it"

by PanamaSun on Dec 30, 2009 2:57 PM MST reply actions

JRich & Amare

I’m looking for big nights from both of these guys.

JRich plays really well against the C’s and didn’t have a very good game at all against the Lakers – I hope he comes out hot and aggressive tonight.

Amare is gaining beastliness with every game just as expected.. his two massive dunks on Monday -first after facing up with Bynum, he drives left and then… ELEVATES AND DETONATES! ahha it was a pretty poster of Bynum! – and then his second bouncing the ball off of MBenga’s head both quieted any silent fears I had of Amare never being the same explosive Amare of years past! With the C’s being short handed bigs-wise I’m looking for Amare to take it strong to the rim often. ‘AND1’ Amare, introduce yourself to ‘MAX CONTRACT’ Amare please?

Bonus – I really want to see Frosty guard Rondo – I have no doubt Rondo will try some slick moves but I honestly think Dragic can give Rondo fits with his defense. That will be fun to watch.

They say "don't swim with the sharks", but I'm faster than sharks so it's not a big deal...

by Eutychus on Dec 30, 2009 2:58 PM MST reply actions

We also need Rich to bounce back from a subpar evening against the Lakers.

Though it’s hard to fault any one player in that game. It was beautiful.

Bright Side of the Sun, where Suns basketball never looked so good.

by Trevor Paxton on Dec 30, 2009 2:59 PM MST up reply actions

Rivers takes the long view.

5th road game, aging banged up players, an opponent that will embarrass a tired team, a break in the schedule where you can get a weeks rest and only miss 2 games….. you might think Boston has mailed this one in.

by dCoye on Dec 30, 2009 3:07 PM MST reply actions

ITS A TRAP!

stop playing games with my mind!!!

Blogging Suns Basketball. Twitter: @willcantrellphx

by Wil Cantrell on Dec 30, 2009 3:26 PM MST up reply actions

Dear trap yappers,

you are just shielding your purple hearts and numbifying (i made that one up) your emotions.

It’s just like a lover who has tasted heartbreak one too many times will put up unnecessary social walls or adopt a ‘worst-case-scenario’ mentality to soften the blow of future failures which have not and may never occur… that all sounds pretty convoluted, but the point is that games are only ‘trap’ games because of lackluster effort and overconfidence on the trapped teams part.

There is no reason to expect the Suns to come back a couple days after beating the best WC team in swaggerish (add another to the dictionary) fashion and be overconfident against arguably the best EC team. This is not a game we were ‘supposed to win’ like the struggling Paul-less Hornets of last month (now that was a trap game).

The stars might be aligning and we could avenge the two losses to OKC and GS with wins against LAL and Boston to maintain a very decent record through a brutal December.

Trap Shmap. We need to eat their babies.

They say "don't swim with the sharks", but I'm faster than sharks so it's not a big deal...

by Eutychus on Dec 30, 2009 3:45 PM MST up reply actions