The Rules for tonight’s Twitter fun.

So we did this last year.  It was the first time it had ever been attempted for a live professional sports broadcast and, as I wrote in the hours before it began, “I think we’re about to find out why.”

But as chaotic-as-a-Nicki-Minaj-stage-performance as it was, we made history and had some fun in the process.

Tonight, the sequel.  And here’s how it works.  I’ll call the game by myself courtside in Chicago, and where Cedric Maxwell would normally come in, I’ll look down at the Twitter feed and incorporate your comments in real time. 

Send your in-game tweets to @SeanGrandePBP with the hashtag #CelticsRadio.

The guys will be retweeting some of the best tweets during the night and for the author of the best one?  Two tickets to see that guy, the NBA’s own version of Beiber-fever, Jeremy Lin and the Knicks in Boston for the big Sunday afternoon ABC game on March 4^th.

If you don’t hear your tweet on the air, it’s still very much eligible for the prize. By using #CelticsRadio, we’ll make sure every one of them gets read and while I’ll have some input, our esteemed studio producer @JonAlbanese will make the final call.  I was married for nine years, believe me I know how to avoid unwinnable situations.

Thanks for playing and enjoy, it will be a fascinating exercise in hopeless and unconquerable multi-tasking if nothing else.

Pistons Baffle Celtics and Statisticians Alike

February 16, 2012 – 12:36am

Right now we’re 30,000 feet above Syracuse, NY. Seems like a fitting place to lament a game lost by missing free throws.

The Celtics home court, double-digit loss to Detroit (just the 12^th in the 183 home games of the New Big Three Era), ends an ugly 7 days that has the green four games out in the division, and three games out of home-court in the playoffs.  Moreover, the 15-13 record looks even shakier when it comes with a 19-9 home/road schedule disparity as we approach mid-season.  The opportunity for make-goods is plentiful of course on the road, but let’s start with this little gem…

…the Celtics now play their next five games on the road against, wait for it, five teams that have already beaten them this year…in Boston.

A common theme during the stretch in which the Celtics won 10 of 13, was defense.  How good was it? 

CELTICS DEFENSE JAN. 23-FEB. 11 (9-3)

Points Allowed        82.2*

Defensive FG%       .391**

Defensive 3FG%     .256***

* Improved from 5th to 1st in the NBA

** Improved from 12th to 1st in the NBA

*** Improved from 7th to 1st in the NBA

Enter the Pistons. 8-22, on the second night of a back-to-back, shooting under 43% from the floor. Their 87.4 points per game 28^th in the NBA, only New Orleans (5-23) and Charlotte (3-25) have scored fewer points.

Two and half hours later, the Pistons came within a garbage time bucket of ending the Celtics 25-game streak of holding teams under 100 points (the longest such streak in the NBA in seven years).  How rare an offensive night was it?  Rodney Stuckey made 11 free throws and Ben Gordon made 4 three-pointers. Only Carmelo Anthony (13, 4 on Opening Day) had done that against the Celtics this year.  Entering the week, no one had made more than ten shots against Boston this year.  Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol did it last Thursday, Greg Monroe, exploiting the first game missed by Kevin Garnett this year, had 11 on Wednesday.

And if that wasn’t strange enough. Detroit entered the game last in the league in the thoroughly random but still significant free-throw defense.    Teams had shot a league best 78% against Detroit from the line this year. The Celtics, a 76% free throwing team, went 19-32, missing 13 free throws in a 10-point loss.  That…is the law of averages.

But Wednesday night’s game was notable for the scoring outburst of Rajon Rondo.  After tying his career high with 32 against the Bulls on a triple-double Sunday, the Celtics point guard and all-star snub went 15-27 from the floor on his way to his first career 35-point game.  Sitting on 27 though early in the 3^rd, it looked like he was headed for a 40-point night, which would have been statistically fascinating on several levels.

The first, that it’s been six years and 466 regular season games since a Celtic scored 40.

The second, that it wasn’t Ray Allen or Paul Pierce making the charge at it.

The third, the last 40-point game by a Celtic, was Paul Pierce’s 50 point game.

And the fourth, that tonight was the 6^th anniversary of that game, February 15, 2006.

(Now before we go any further, I’ve been tracking this stat for several years now, and whenever I tweet it, a small but vocal number of people start jumping up and down about Pierce’s 41 in Game 7 against the Cavs in’08, and Allen’s unforgettable 51 in Game 6 against the Bulls a year later.  So again, it’s a regular season streak.  The NBA record by the way, is 508 straight held by the Vancouver/Memphis Grizzlies from 2000 to 2006.)

It’s a fascinating streak.  It was the 23^rd time since the Pierce 50 that a Celtic has gotten to 35 points (the 13^th time in the Era), but no one’s been able to get the final five.

CELTICS TOP SCORING GAMES – NEW BIG 3 ERA

39 – PIERCE VS. TORONTO – JANUARY 12, 2009

37 – PIERCE @ SEATTLE – DECEMBER 27, 2007

37 – PIERCE @ CHICAGO – MARCH 17, 2009

36 – PIERCE VS. TORONTO – NOVEMBER 10, 2008

36 – R. ALLEN @ TORONTO – JANUARY 11, 2009

36 – PIERCE VS. MINNESOTA – FEBRUARY 1, 2009

36 – PIERCE VS. MIAMI – MARCH 18, 2009

35 – R. ALLEN VS. PORTLAND – JANUARY 16, 2008

35 – PIERCE VS. SAN ANTONIO – FEBRUARY 10, 2008

35 – R. ALLEN @ INDIANA – DECEMBER 7, 2008

35 – PIERCE @ ATLANTA – JANUARY 28, 2010

35 – ALLEN @ MIAMI – NOVEMBER 11, 2010

35 – RONDO VS. DETROIT – FEBRUARY 15, 2012

CELTICS TOP SCORING GAMES – SINCE LAST 40 POINT GAME

39 – PIERCE @ L.A. LAKERS – FEBRUARY 26, 2006

39 - PIERCE @ NEW YORK – NOVEMBER 18, 2006

39 – PIERCE VS. TORONTO – JANUARY 12, 2009

38 – PIERCE VS. MIAMI – MARCH 1, 2006

38 – PIERCE VS. DENVER – DECEMBER 15, 2006

37 – PIERCE @ PORTLAND – FEBRUARY 23, 2006

37 – PIERCE @ SEATTLE – DECEMBER 27, 2007

37 – PIERCE @ CHICAGO – MARCH 17, 2009

36 – PIERCE VS. DENVER – MARCH 12, 2006

36 – PIERCE VS. PHOENIX – DECEMBER 8, 2006

36 – PIERCE VS. TORONTO – NOVEMBER 10, 2008

36 – R. ALLEN @ TORONTO – JANUARY 11, 2009

36 – PIERCE VS. MINNESOTA – FEBRUARY 1, 2009

36 – PIERCE VS. MIAMI – MARCH 18, 2009

35 – PIERCE VS. CHARLOTTE - NOVEMBER 8, 2006

35 – SZCZERBIAK VS. CHARLOTTE- NOVEMBER 8, 2006

35 – PIERCE @ CHARLOTTE- DECEMBER 16, 2006

35 – R. ALLEN VS. PORTLAND – JANUARY 16, 2008

35 – PIERCE VS. SAN ANTONIO – FEBRUARY 10, 2008

35 – R. ALLEN @ INDIANA – DECEMBER 7, 2008

35 – PIERCE @ ATLANTA – JANUARY 28, 2010

35 – ALLEN @ MIAMI – NOVEMBER 11, 2010

35 – RONDO VS. DETROIT – FEBRUARY 15, 2012

The parable of the streak, of course, is that it hasn't been for a lack of star power. The Celtics have won over 60% of their games in the six years since and nearly 70% of the games they've played in the New Big Three Era.

And the night Paul Pierce had his 50? The Celtics lost that game, as they did tonight.

Rondo didn’t end the 40-point streak, but did end the not-nearly-as-glamorous six year run of no Celtics making 15 shots in a game, last done by Pierce a month after his 40 point game against Carmelo Anthony and Denver in March of 2006.  That game, by the way, was the last gasp for the ’06 Celtics. It got them to 29-36 and the fringe of the playoff race.  From then on they went 6-13 to end their four-year run of playoff berths   (It was also the night of the Sopranos season premiere on HBO, that featured your two favorite announcers in the background of a pizzeria mob hit. #UselessTrivia)

For the record, no Celtic has made more than Rondo’s 15 shots in a regulation game since Antoine Walker (volume shooter) made 17 in a Sunday afternoon game in Toronto nine years ago.

MOST FIELD GOALS IN A GAME – SINCE 2001

17 – WALKER @ TORONTO – MARCH 2, 2003

17 – PIERCE VS. CLEVELAND – FEBRUARY 15, 2006

16 – PIERCE VS. DENVER – JANUARY 24, 2003

15 – PIERCE @ WASHINGTON – MARCH 11, 2002

15 – WALKER VS NEW YORK – MARCH 5, 2003

15 – PIERCE VS. DENVER – MARCH 12, 2006

15 – RONDO VS. DETROIT – FEBRUARY 15, 2012

14 – WALKER @ NEW YORK – DECEMBER 11, 2001*

14 – PIERCE @ NEW YORK – NOVEMBER 2, 2002

14 – PIERCE VS. ATLANTA – NOVEMBER 22, 2002

14 – PIERCE VS. PHOENIX – JANUARY 28, 2005

14 – DAVIS @ ATLANTA – APRIL 1, 2005

14 – DAVIS @ DETROIT – NOVEMBER 15, 2005

14 – DAVIS @ SACRAMENTO – DECEMBER 30, 2005

14 -  PIERCE VS. PHOENIX – FEBRUARY 1, 2006

14 – PIERCE @ PORTLAND – FEBRUARY 23, 2006

14 – JEFFERSON @ ORLANDO – APRIL 15, 2007

14 – PIERCE VS. MIAMI – MARCH 18, 2009

MOST FIELD GOALS IN A GAME – NEW BIG THREE ERA

15 – RONDO VS. DETROIT – FEBRUARY 15, 2012

14 – PIERCE VS. MIAMI – MARCH 18, 2009

13 – GARNETT VS. DETROIT – MARCH 5, 2008

13 – R. ALLEN @ INDIANA – DECEMBER 7, 2008

13 – PIERCE VS. TORONTO – JANUARY 12, 2009

13 – PIERCE VS. MINNESOTA – FEBRUARY 1, 2009

13 – RONDO @ PHOENIX – FEBRUARY 22, 2009

13 – PIERCE @ CHICAGO – MARCH 17, 2009

13 – GARNETT VS. PHOENIX – NOVEMBER 6, 2009

13 – ALLEN @ MIAMI – NOVEMBER 11, 2010

13 – ALLEN VS. SAN ANTONIO – JANUARY 5, 2011

And so the Celtics embark on the daunting road portion of their schedule.  14 of the next 19 away from Boston.  And we reach the end of another statistical manifesto, and the first NBA-related piece written in the last week with absolutely no mention of Jeremy Lin.

Wait, does that count?

Damn.

Please forgive my late-night Lin-discretion.

Age Is Just A Number (but this one is pretty impressive)

On the night Paul Pierce's third-quarter three moved him past Larry Bird on the Celtics, and the NBA's all-time scoring list, another number kept jumping off the page at me.

Kevin Garnett, whose playing time, knees and health have been more closely guarded in Boston the last five years thank Beyonce's room in the maternity ward (go ahead and Google it, crazy story), has played more minutes than any other Celtic through the first third of the season.

When people ask me about the wear and tear on Kevin Garnett, about the miles on those tires (listen, strange questions get asked in the line at Whole Foods, just trying to pick up some soy milk and Quinoa, dude), I never really cite his MVP 2004 season in which he played a staggering 4,015 minutes.  (more than the 3,465 combined career total of three of Charlotte’s starters tonight).  I instead look at the 6,000 minutes he played his final two years in Minnesota, for teams that didn’t come anywhere near the post-season.

One of the many reasons that later this year, Garnett will move into the top 10 in NBA history in minutes played.

Take a second, think about that.  Top 10.

Now, that problem was quickly corrected by Doc Rivers, who rode him to an MVP caliber season and a 66-16 record in 2008 by playing him a career low in minutes for any of his previous 12 years, including the 50-game lockout season of 1999.

But injuries to Paul Pierce and Rajon Rondo have KG remarkably atop the Celtics’ minutes played list, three months from his 36^th birthday.  It got me wondering (copyright, Carrie Bradshaw), he has to be the oldest player in the league leading his team, right?

He is, and it’s not that close.

Jason Terry is second (and only leads because of the injury to Dirk Nowitzki), born 16 months after KG.  Included is the entire list of players leading their teams in minutes played.  The median age? 27, over nine years younger than Garnett.  If Dirk passes Terry before Rondo or Pierce pass KG, Garnett will be more than two years older than the second man on the list.

John Wall, the youngest team leader, was born days after Garnett started high school in South Carolina.

Note a pretty consistent correlation between the age of the top-minutes-played player, and the team’s W-L record.  The older, the better.  Making the Sixers start, quarterbacked by easily the most overlooked young point in the NBA, Jrue Holiday, that much more impressive.

Kevin Garnett 5/19/76

Jason Terry 9/15/77

Kobe Bryant 8/23/78

Joe Johnson 6/29/81

Carlos Boozer 11/20/81

Tony Parker 5/17/82

Anderson Varejao 9/28/82

Tyson Chandler 10/2/82

Jarrett Jack 10/28/83

Marcin Gortat 2/17/84

Chris Bosh 3/24/84

Deron Williams 6/26/84

Marc Gasol 1/29/85

Paul Millsap 2/10/85

LaMarcus Aldridge 7/19/85

Monta Ellis 10/26/85

Dwight Howard 12/8/85

Kyle Lowry 3/25/86

Darren Collison 8/23/87

Gerald Henderson 12/9/87

Danilo Gallinari 8/8/88

Kevin Love 9/7/88

Kevin Durant 9/29/88

Blake Griffin3/16/89

DeMar DeRozan 8/7/89

Tyreke Evans 9/19/89

Brandon Jennings 9/23/89

Greg Monroe 6/4/90

Jrue Holiday 6/12/90

John Wall 9/6/90

Rebounding Paradigms and Statistical Paradoxes

As the Celtics’ 22-point lead whittled away Tuesday night in Cleveland, you were probably wondering two things.  One, when did Sideshow Bob become Moses Malone?  And two, when’s the last time the Celtics lost a lead like that.

Let’s start with Anderson Varejao, who had one of the best individual games against Boston in the last decade. Approaching that lethal moment on the career curve when youth and athleticism crosses with experience, Varejao is having the best year of his career.  And the league’s leader in offensive rebounding had an ideal matchup on Tuesday.

The result, Varejao posted just the 2^nd 20/20 game against the New Big Three Celtics.  (Dwight Howard had the other in March of 2009 in a game notable in that it turned out to be Kevin Garnett’s final appearance of the title defense season.)

 CELTICS OPPONENT REBOUNDS – NEW BIG 3 ERA

24 – LOVE VS. MINNESOTA – JANUARY 3, 2011

21 – HOWARD @ ORLANDO –MARCH 25, 2009**

20 – HOWARD @ ORLANDO – DECEMBER 25, 2009

20 – VAREJAO @ CLEVELAND – JANUARY 31, 2012**

19 – NOWITZKI @ DALLAS – MARCH 20, 2008

19 – JEFFERSON @ UTAH – FEBRUARY 28, 2011

** 20/20 Game

  

20 REBOUND GAMES VS. BOSTON – SINCE 2001

28 – WALLACE @ DETROIT – MARCH 24, 2002

24 – LOVE VS. MINNESOTA – JANUARY 3, 2011

23 – NOWITZKI @ DALLAS – FEBRUARY 21, 2002

21 – CAMBY @ NEW YORK – DECEMBER 11, 2001

21 – WALLACE @ DETROIT – MARCH 15, 2003

21 – HOWARD @ ORLANDO –MARCH 25, 2009

20 – OLOWOKANDI @ L.A. CLIPPERS – DECEMBER 29, 2001

20 - O’NEAL @ LA LAKERS – MARCH 21, 2003

20 – Ke THOMAS VS. PHILADELPHIA – APRIL 10, 2003

20 – MARION @ PHOENIX – FEBRUARY 27, 2005

20 – HOWARD @ ORLANDO – DECEMBER 25, 2009

20 – VAREJAO @ CLEVELAND – JANUARY 31, 2012

But lest you think the Celtics can’t make rebounding history.  They may, tonight.  Kevin Garnett is nine defensive rebounds shy of 10,000 for his career.  He’ll become just the third man in league history to reach that milestone. Karl Malone, Robert Parish, Kevin Garnett.  That’s it.

MOST DEFENSIVE REBOUNDS – NBA HISTORY

1.	KARL MALONE	11406
2.	ROBERT PARISH	10117
3.	KEVIN GARNETT	9991
4.	HAKEEM OLAJUWON	9714

And because it’s 2:15am, and you’ve read this far, you could call these “nuggets” or “bullet” points, but they don’t pertain to either of those franchises.




*   The Celtics have now won 121 straight games when leading by 19+.  If Tuesday night’s scare seemed oddly familiar, it’s because the last time it happened, it was in the same building.  On November 11, 2006, the Lebron James’ 25 second-half points led Cavs back from 25 down to beat the Celtics 94-93. The Celtics leading scorer that night? Kendrick Perkins. Or, after Monday night, the artist now known around the NBA as “Kia Optima.”

·      *   The Celtics have now won nine straight when scoring at least 89 points.  In fact, the Celtics are 9-0 when scoring between 89-100 points.  The two times they’ve broken 100? Both losses, at New York and Miami to open the season.

·       *  How bizarre was the historic 27-point comeback in Orlando last week? In the other nine wins, the Celtics largest comeback?  Five points.

·       *  Ramon Sessions had the first double-digit assist game against the Celtics this year.  And the first since Chris Paul had 15 last March 19^th in New Orleans. It ended a 33-game regular season streak of no one getting 10 assists against the Celtics, and oddly enough, he ended that streak off the bench.

And I leave you with the strangest statistical note of the day….The Celtics and the Cavaliers were the last two teams in the NBA this year without a win against a .500 team.  The Celtics got three last week, home and home with Orlando anad against the Pacers.  So the Cavs entered the night as the only team without one.  But by losing…wait for it…they got it.  The loss pushed the Celtics up to .500 at 10-10, meaning Sunday win for the Cavs in Boston, is now considered a win against a .500 team.

Deriving joy from bizarre statistical paradoxes like that is likely why I get so little sleep, and almost definitely why I’m no longer married.