Celtics ☘️ Sentinel

  ☘️       C's have their stud five starting tonight. Keys tonight will be defense and shot selection. C's are wearing those ugly city edition uniforms. JB is going to dominate Mitchell tonight. Not a great start for the C's tonight. Very flat right now.        Love seeing Jrue drive to the cup. He should be able to get there all game. No one on Toronto can guard him. Joe calls an early timeout as tonight's game sucks. What's with these slow starts lately? I don't like this trend going on. Hopefully after that timeout Joe was up in their face looking for better defensive effort.        What a pass from KP to JB for the JAM! Two quality offensive possessions off the timeout. KP for three! I like how KP is getting involved early tonight. KP is on fire right now! Cs are actually playing basketball with some effort! It's something to be said when you have a good Coach. C's were flat and Joe calls the timeout, boom back to playing l...

 First of all, Kristaps Porzingis to the bench would not be a demotion for the super-skilled big man. But it is worth trying now since the season is less-than-halfway done. The Celtics struggles are not the fault of Porzingis - nor can he be blamed for his fellow starters having to get used to playing with him. The issue is that it is expected that the 7'2" center will continue to be plagued with injuries, and his comebacks will be frequent. Boston is 9-7 (.562) in the 16 games Kristaps has played thus far in the season. He started all of those contests. Without him on the court, Boston is 19-4 (.826). The talk lately has been about the difficulties faced by other Celtics starters in readjusting to Porzingis' presence on the court . But how may times this season are they going to have to "readjust"/ That is my point. Time for Joe Mazzulla to start Al Horford at the center spot and have Kristaps come off the bench to play with the likes of Payton Pritchard, Sa...

       What can I say about today's game? C's barely escaped with a one point victory. First of all that five second call on Derrick was absolutely garbage. Derrick was pissed with that ref and he should be. My initial thoughts are we are beyond lucky to have won this game. I don't know what's going on with this team but we are not playing like I feel we should be.       I know it's very difficult to repeat in today's NBA. Yet this team if healthy should be able to do so. With that said I wasn't very impressed with tonights win. I love this team but tonight didn't really impress me. There were moments in the game that I felt good about what I saw. There were moments I wanted to smash my TV. Some of the turnovers were careless. Those need to be cleaned up. That's just a lack of focus in my opinion.          It was nice seeing Jrue get aggressive in the fourth. Those are the kinds of plays you want from a veteran like h...

  🏀       C's have their super stud five going tonight. KP from deep is a beautiful thing! Bang! KP is getting his groove going lately. With him healthy these C's go to another level. For you Nintendo fans it's like going from Tecmo Bowl to Tecmo Super Bowl. He's the key to going back to back.       JB is killing it in the paint tonight. Getting his way with no resistance at all! JB looks like a magician out there. C's defense sucks right now and Joe calls a timeout. They have to stop giving up easy points. Get a hand in their face and put the effort in. There's no Fox in the Kings lineup. C's need to take advantage of that.        I would really like for the C's to get dirty on D. Way too many missed shots to this point. We have the double big lineup out here. C's are getting out worked right now. They must get back to Celtics basketball. It starts on defense which will lead to transition offense. Can we go to the damn hoop.....

  Jayson Tatum may not be Superman on the court, but he certainly is the Celtics "Iron Man" . He rarely misses games and leads his team in five key statistical categories.   Is he "soft"? I think not. Here are my -eight tough Celtics players from the past as compiled by my readers when I wrote for another blog. Bill Russell . Few in the NBA at the time could handle Russ in the middle. He rebounded and defended like no other. He averaged 42.3 minutes per game in the regular season over the course of his career - and 45.4 MPG in the post-season. He backed down to no one - including Wilt Chamberlain. Larry Bird : Larry could play either way - as a finesse guy or a hard-working warrior. He was tough - both mentally and physically. Never forget his head bouncing off the floor in that crucial playoff game versus the Pacers - and his triumphant return to the court to the surprise of everyone watching the game.  Isaiah Thomas : I am not talking "toughness-per-inch...

 The late Celtics play-by-play man, Johnny Most , called him "High Henry" . Hank Finkel had the "distinction" of being Boston's primary center in the lone season (1969-70) between the departure of Bill Russell and the arrival of the effervescent Dave Cowens . The 7-foot Finkel was not generally a starter for Boston. That task went to 6'7" Rich Johnson , primarily for the purpose of winning the center tap . And 6'8" Jim Barnes took center stage when The Green needed some muscle in the middle. But Hank's first season in Boston was his best. He averaged 23 minutes per game, 9.7 PPG and 7.7 RPG. He lasted six seasons with Boston and became a backup for Cowens - and also a crowd favorite.  Henry's first season with the Celtics was tough on him . He often heard the crowd noise - "He's no Bill Russell". But of course, the Boston fans were right. Hank was tall but he was not quick or athletic . And frankly, he often looked aw...