Celtics Title Town

The Good

Welcome back Jeff Green! It's been over a year since he played a game. He showed us a side of himself that we didn't see before. He was aggressive, and he was putting the team on his back. He scored most of us points driving to the basket, and that's what the Celtics need. Jeff can shoot the ball from the outside, but it's great seeing him taking to the rim. Jeff finished with 16 points,and 4 rebounds in 27 minutes. Perfect production from Jeff off the bench.

The rookie Sullinger came to play. He looks like a second or third year player contributing right now. Did KG help his progression? I'm sure a bit, but a lot of us think that Suulinger is ready to step up this season. Jared had 8 rebounds,and 5 of those were on the offensive glass. He also scored 16 points, and the points were off of offensive put backs, or using those soft hands to catch a nice pass from Rondo. We should all be pleased with Jared right now.

If you take away the 25 turnovers. The Celtics look much better without Ray Allen on the offensive end. It's way to early to say that now, but It's what I saw. The ball just moved, and we didn't have to wait for Ray to get open. It was nice to see. The Celtics shot 50%, and despite the 91 points. The Celtics just seemed better offensively.

The Bad

It's only preseason basketball, but the Celtics did turn the ball over 25 times. Rondo had five of those, but many of those TO's by Rondo were clean passes missed by guys like Darko (who played well), and Melo. I expect the Celtics to bounce back, and we shouldn't see that number once in the regular season.

The Celtics gave up 40 points in the paint. The Istanbul squad doesn't have Dwight Howard, or Pau Gasol, so giving up 40 in the paint is not good. KG only played 15 minutes lets not forget that either. So they must fix this now.

Fab Melo had a rough 9 minutes on the court. He was having issues catching passes, and he was erratic inside. I'll cut him some slack, but it's pretty obvious he's not ready. He's not even on the same planet as Sullinger right now.

The Ugly

The Celtics pick-and-roll defense worries me a bit. This can't be the line of defense. Will be out in the second round if this defense keeps up. The Celtics learned a lot defensively that they can build on. It's only the first preseason game, and honestly the Celtics would have won that game if they played their regular rotations.