<div align="center"> </div> Game: <font color="green"><u>Boston Celtics (11-12)</u></font> @ <font color="red"><u>Miami Heat (19-7)</u></font> Date: Tuesday 12/19/04 Time: 7:30pm EST TV: NBALP, Sunshine Network , FSNE (Boston) Live Boxscore: http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/boxscore?gid=2004122114 <div align="center"><font color="green"><u>Boston Celtics Starting Lineup</u></font><font size="1"> Head Coach Doc Rivers Backcourt PG-Gary Payton SG-Paul Pierce Frontcourt SF-Jiri Welsch PF-Raef LaFrentz C-Mark Blount 6th Man Ricky Davis</font></div> <div align="center"><font color="red"><u>Miami Heat Starting Lineup</u></font><font size="1"> Head Coach Stan Van Gundy Backcourt PG-Damon Jones SG-Dwyane Wade Frontcourt SF-Eddie Jones PF-Udonis Haslem C-Michael Doleac 6th Man Rasual Butler</div></font> <div align="center"><font size="4"><font color="Red">Heat Keys to the Game</font></div></font> <ul>[*]Transition Defense: The last time the Heat played the Celtics they allowed them to get 33pts on fastbreaks which had SVG pretty mad. The sad part is the Heat only allowed 9 turnovers which means that a lot of those fastbreak points came from inbounding the ball after the Heat scored. Transition defense was also one of the main reasons why the Heat were able to withhold the Magic offense in the second half in the previous game the Heat played. [*]Play agressively and don't foul out: This was a big issue the last time the Heat played the Celtics. Udonis Haslem played only 23 minutes because of foul trouble and finally fouled out. Same thing with Shandon Anderson except he only played 19 minutes before fouling out. Wade had 4, Eddie Jones had 5, and Shaq had 5 fouls.[/list] <div align="center"><font size="6"><u>Final Score </u></font></div>
My two favorite teams playing each other, don't know who to root for on this one. My prediction is the Heat will win this one nicely by 10 to 20 points. Shaq, Haslem, Eddie Jones and Wade need to stay out of fould trouble like you mentioned above. But the real keys to this game is how well Damon Jones performs against the Payton and how many touches Shaq gets.
Yeah DJ is gonna have his work cut out for him against GP. I'm pretty sure him and Keyon will share minutes or KD will play the majority.
Hmmm The Celtics strengh lies in their back court, and PAyton and Pierce are a pretty good defenseive and offenseive backcourt. I expect Pierce to have a big game, but I also expect Shaq to have a big game. Keys Transition Defense(as most of you have said )- Make the CElts play a halfcourt game, and dont let Gary Payton lob the ball up court to some one for an easy basket. I've seen the Celts do that many times in the few games I've seen of them. Run the offense through Shaq-- We have been doing this the past few games and the results were ALL wins. Shaq can play point center and we all know it, so he can play point center or just go in for the easy basket. marc Blount is underrated, but I still don't think he can stop Shaq. Make Pierce work for his shots- I think we should stick Eddie Jones on Pierce and see what happens. Pierce can expllode in games, and we don't want any one exploding. Our best bet is to put a good defender such as Eddie Jones on him.
I didn't add many keys because I thought it wouldn't be a high profile game. Another key is to guard Raef LaFrentz. Last time he was the leading scorer because Shaq wouldn't come out on the pick-n-roll. Can't blame him, once he comes out there's always a huge whole in the paint and they get a pass in there for the easy bucket, I think it's better to have them shoot a low-percentage mid-range shot instead.
I don't think this willl be too hard of a game for us. I'm sure Keyon can contain Gary Payton. My only worry is Double-P, he could explode on us. Depends how Wade does with him, hopefully Wade does real good on the offensive end so Pierce won't be as explosive on the offensive end due to guarding Wade. Let's also hope that Haslem can guard Raef...
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Kobe 8 Ball:</div><div class="quote_post">The haters are going to have a field day with this one...hate away</div> <div class="quote_poster">Quoting Kobe 8 Ball:</div><div class="quote_post">I swear if he sits out against the Lakers he is a coward..that simple....</div> Practice what you preach.
Box score posted Wow what another great game. The whole team stepped up tonight in Shaq's absence and proved that one player doesn't make or break a team. Great game by Udonis Haslem, 18pts (7-16 FG 4-4 FT) 17 boards (Tied a career high, 8 offensive) 1 steal 1 dime 2 TO 2 PF. He had an efficiency of 26. Great game by Wade 33pts (11-20 FG 11-13 FT) 4 boards (2 offensive) 11 dimes 4 steals 4 2 blocks but had 7 TOs. He had an efficiency of 36. EJ really stepped up tonight and had 17pts (6-9 FG 2-3 3PT 3-3 FT) 3 boards 2 dimes 1 steal 1 blocks and 0 TOs. He had an efficiency of 21.
GO HEAT GO... this proves that we're a team, and can play without 1 player. And this shows how hot we are... the'rs definatly not going to be any trades goign on, we should leave our team intact, we are playign perfectly. Especially in the 4th quarter when it counts the most... Only team in the league who's won every game when we have a lead at half time!!! Shaq will play vs. the Lakers, no doubt...
Hustling Udonis GREAT GAME FOR UDONIS I didn't realize it but he played every minute in the second half !! "18-point, 17-rebound (CAREER HIGH) performance from Udonis Haslem. Haslem carried the inside load in his absence, playing every minute of the second half and tying his career high in rebounds." "At one point in the fourth quarter, Heat assistant coach Ron Rothstein implored head coach Stan Van Gundy to take Haslem out for a rest." <font color="Red">Van Gundy said he responded with an expletive.</font> "He's young. He'll play the whole game," Van Gundy said. "And that's what he did." http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/recap?gameId=241221014 LINK
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Mr.Wade:</div><div class="quote_post">Only team in the league who's won every game when we have a lead at half time!!!</div> Actually we were down by 1pt going into the half. We had a pretty bad half defensively, 60pts allowed. Like last year's team though we're starting to come around. We have soooo much more we can improve on and we can be a way better team than what we're at now. Give this team by the end of the season and we're gonna be a deadly combination.
I have to ask, because I saw it as a bogus call , but were there any Miami fans WHO SAW THE GAME, who thought Ricky Davis deserved an automatic Flagrant 2 foul and ejectionon the Wade foul? There was no intent to harm. Anyone with working grey matter knows that Davis can elevate with anyone in the league. It was a bad choice for RD to try for a spectacular block on Wade, but no way that was a Flagrant 2 foul.
A flagarent maybe... but I don't know about kicking him out of the game. It was just like the Matt Bonner incident... Bonner had a hard foul on KG nothing more and he gets ejected... pure BS. Davis's foul was really hard however. Wade almost got seriously hurt, didn't you see the fall? I mean from my POV it didnt' look like Davis was intentionally trying for the ball, just looked like he treid to get Wade to not score teh ball by any means possible... he just threw his arms up!!!
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting hagrid:</div><div class="quote_post">I have to ask, because I saw it as a bogus call , but were there any Miami fans WHO SAW THE GAME, who thought Ricky Davis deserved an automatic Flagrant 2 foul and ejectionon the Wade foul? There was no intent to harm. Anyone with working grey matter knows that Davis can elevate with anyone in the league. It was a bad choice for RD to try for a spectacular block on Wade, but no way that was a Flagrant 2 foul.</div> The League is trying to send a message. All players need to be protected when they are in the air. I was at the game and it looked very bad watching it live. It's something you just don't do. I agree that Davis probably did not intend to hurt him. BUT it's a very dangerous play that was not necessary. When you watch the replay in slow-mo it might not look as bad, but watching it in real speed there is NO DOUBT that it was a flagrant foul. I'm not sure how they decide if it's level 1 or 2, but Wade could have suffered serious injury. It was definitely scary watching him hit the ground. I'm not being biased just because it's Miami, I would expect all players to be protected equally. Like you said Ricky can elevate with the best of em, and you would expect the same call if someone took a swipe at him mid-air.
I totally agree that it was worthy of a flagrant foul, if for no other reason than how hard Wade hit the floor, but an ejection? NO WAY. Since you were at the game, you should have noticed that Udonis Haslem undercut Welsch not long after that play and only a regular foul was called, despite the fact that Welsch landed on his back. Interesting that the Refs protected one player while in the air and not another?
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting hagrid:</div><div class="quote_post">I totally agree that it was worthy of a flagrant foul, if for no other reason than how hard Wade hit the floor, but an ejection? NO WAY. Since you were at the game, you should have noticed that Udonis Haslem undercut Welsch not long after that play and only a regular foul was called, despite the fact that Welsch landed on his back. Interesting that the Refs protected one player while in the air and not another?</div> To be honest with you, I don't recall that play. It must have not been that bad. You know what I mean by a player being in the air, especially in the fast break. When an athletic player (Wade,Ricky Davis) is running full speed and jumps towards the basket, they are extremely vulnerable to being hurt. Any sort of push can result in serious injury. Again I don't know the rule on the ejection, but I do know it was definitely flagrant. To give you some positives I did notice from this and the previous Heat v. Celtics game: Rookies Banks & Jefferson look solid.
The same thing can be said about that football player who clotheslined that receiver. Some argue that it wasn't intentional but the player could've been seriously injured and the league needs to make a statement that they will not tolerate those kind of fouls.
