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Your Morning Dump… Pietrus says he’s feeling much better

Chuck - Red's Army March 25, 2012 Uncategorized 6 Comments

Every morning, we compile the links of the day and dump them here... highlighting the big storyline. Because there's nothing quite as satisfying as a good morning dump.

Wanna thank the NBA Family especially CelticsNation (fans staff n teammates) n the fans around the world 4 their support.

Medical staff in Philly was great im feeling much better n will keep u posted on my recovery.Hope 2 b back with my C's soon #Blessed

To all my fans in France and my beloved Guadeloupe: merci pour votre soutien. A tres bientot Go Celtics!

Mickael Pietrus Twitter

The news about Mickael Pietrus continues to be positive. If the guy is tweeting less than 24 hours after being carted off in a stretcher, it's highly unlikely he's dealing with a career threatening medical crisis.

ESPN Boston's Chris Forsberg outlines the league's concussion policy. In a nutshell, Pietrus needs to undergo a bunch of tests before he's allowed back on the court.

The Celtics host Washington tonight and travel to Charlotte Monday. Even if he passes every test with flying colors, I don't expect him to play in either game. Let's hope we see him on the court Wednesday vs Utah or Friday in Minnesota.

Related links: Herald – Positive sign with Mickael Pietrus | Globe – Road took toll on Pietrus and Celtics |

On Page 2, the road trip by numbers.

• 18.9 — Kevin Garnett’s scoring average for the trip. That’s 3.6 higher than his season average. That’s . . . rather amazing.

On a trip that was supposed to try even a young man’s basketball soul — not to mention his legs — a 35-year-old 7-footer was able to fend off the road and put forth such strong performances.

• 13.25 — Rajon Rondo's average assists per game. Has anyone ever had a more under-the-radar brilliant trip than this guy? He was in double figures in dishes every game, but the only time he received much attention was around the trade deadline when people speculated that he’d be sent away.

Rondo is second in the NBA in assists, his 10.7 average just half a helper behind Steve Nash. If you want to know just how much of a two-man race this is, know that, as of yesterday, the players next in line were Jose Calderon and Chris Paul at 8.5.

Herald – Numbers add up for Celtics

Garnett has been getting plenty of praise for his play this season, but how about Rajon Rondo? The dude just serving up assists like crazy on the road trip. Isn't that priority #1 for point guards?

I have noticed a dip in the "Rondo sucks" comments on this site. Could be related to the passing of the trade deadline, or maybe Rondo's play has quieted some of the haters.

The rest of the links:

Globe – Perception not reality with injured O'Neal | Wizards thumbnails | ESPN Boston – Technically speaking, Doc tops in techs | Herald – Bigs a huge dilemma for Celtics |

Alex

Rondo has been doing a brilliant job setting up plays for his teammates, that’s for sure. The reason why he hasn’t gotten much praise is due to the lack of attacking the basket. And when he does attack the basket, I’ve noticed that Rondo has been having a more difficult time making some of the easy layups. Am I the only one who notices this?
Finally, there’s times where Rondo shouldn’t pass the ball and just go for the layup… Which results into a turnover. He’s becoming quite predictable, even to me. If Rondo finds that nice mix of aggressive offense and making the best passes when they are needed, he’ll be extremely dangerous.
vandell

Everybody thinks they know so much when it comes to Rajon….. half the time he doesn’t know who’ll be on the court with him at game time ! 9ondo (by definition) is the greatest point in the game right now, and we should practice appreciation before criticizes. Some celtics fans are so f’n annoying, and predictable !!! GREEN FOR LIFE !!!
http://profile.typepad.com/mdsample greenbeand

c’s may not have a championship caliber team, but give credit where credit is due as they’ve been on the road the past 2 weeks and have done a pretty damn good job of keeping it together. keep drinking the green kool aid!
Alex

I gave legitimate reasons as to why Rondo bothers me. It’s not much but still issues that Rondo needs to fix. I’m not bashing him.
Take off the green-tinted glasses and contribute something useful or please stfu and let the men talk in here.
BostonBub24

Great assist numbers aside, RR is the prime reason our offense has the propensity to go stagnant in the half-court. His awful turnovers and holding the ball too long into the shot clock notwithstanding, he simply does not attack the rack at a high enough frequency. For a team that lives and dies by their ability to hit the J, it is imperative Rondo is driving to the rim forcing the defense to collapse so he can kick it out to Paul, Kevin or Ray. Instead, he holds on to ball until there is about 10 seconds on the shot clock and starts passes then, forcing one of our shooters to take a quick shot which is usually unsuccessful. He is too flawed and inconsistent to take this team where it wants to go. Deron Williams should be priority number 1 this offseason. He does it all: scores AND drops dimes on a nightly basis. I love the Celtics like the rest of you but Rondo is terribly overrated.
http://profile.typepad.com/jmeedu James Eisenman

The reason that you haven’t heard as many Rondo complaints over this road trip is the same thing you guys always ignore. While his defense wasn’t noticably better, the teams we played didn’t seem to notice much. Rondo’s men didn’t attack us as much. Maybe because they don’t see him as much, they only scouted his first team all-defense choices and never noticed that they were mostly undeserved. The team that did notice – Philidelphia. Every guy Rondo guarded, attacked the basket with ease. Rondo, earning my first comment during the weeks, was literally guarding no one on Friday night. Now, when he does his “guard the paint” routine, he doesn’t even try to catch his man when he gets the ball. He doesn’t get picked as many times but he is still never where he should be. He also drove to the basket in ways that tried to avoid his going to the line, so he didn’t shoot a lot of free throws. I will say that it was my impression that his free throw shooting percentage was a lot better on this trip. That’s a positive. Also, his passing selection, for the most part, was more based on the conventional. So much so, that I was shocked each game when I heard his first assist numbers, thinking I must have missed a bunch. Overall, a better trip and the losses were blamable on everyone. I generally post when someone makes an incorrect post or comment. Since no one praised his defense, incorrectly, I left him alone.