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The top 100 non-NBA dunks ever

Yeah... those were OK I guesssss...

Via Ball Don't Lie

Third round of All Star voting released

The 3rd round of voting results is out... and it looks pretty much like the first two rounds.

Forwards: LeBron James, Cleveland, 1,579,530; Kevin Garnett, Boston, 1,317,739; Chris Bosh, Toronto, 644,473; Paul Pierce, Boston, 320,499; Josh Smith, Atlanta, 293,680; Andre Iguodala, Philadelphia, 201,312; Danny Granger, Indiana, 198,478; Michael Beasley, Miami, 163,737; Hedo Turkoglu, Toronto, 117,168; Rashard Lewis, Orlando, 114,359; Caron Butler, Washington, 99,079.

Guards: Dwyane Wade, Miami, 1,539,968; x-Allen Iverson, Philadelphia, 806,749; Vince Carter, Orlando, 651,134; Ray Allen, Boston, 452,708; Gilbert Arenas, Washington, 407,581; Derrick Rose, Chicago, 344,435; Joe Johnson, Atlanta, 288,841; Rajon Rondo, Boston, 237,648; Mike Bibby, Atlanta, 139,484; Jose Calderon, Atlanta, 138,479.

Centers: Dwight Howard, Orlando, 1,479,625; Shaquille O'Neal, Cleveland, 536,681; Al Horford, Atlanta, 157,050; Andrea Bargnani, Toronto, 146,595; Brook Lopez, New Jersey, 133,106; Andrew Bogut, Milwaukee, 115,915; Jermaine O'Neal, Miami, 98,397; Rasheed Wallace, Boston, 77,848; Kendrick Perkins, Boston, 48,612; Samuel Dalembert, Philadelphia, 47,135; Tyson Chandler, Charalotte 38,337; Brad Miller, Chicago, 35,295.

Out West, Steve Nash is finally about ready to overtake Tracy McGrady and move into a starting guard position.  Now if only the same could happen to Allen Iverson.

Your KG Face of the Day

Thursday, December 31, 2009

The "OWWW... My KNEE!  No wait... it's my thigh.  No, no, no... is it my shin?  DAMMIT... I wish Danny would hurry up with that script so I know what I'm supposed to say."

Photo by Rocky Widner/NBAE via Getty Images

The new Celtics theme song

Hey Celtics... you talk too much.  Stop it with the refs already.  A lot of us are getting really sick of it.

Enemy Chatter: No wounded tiger bounce for the Celtics

I often wonder what opposing teams, their beat reporters and bloggers are saying about the Celtics after playing the Celtics. Here's a dose of 'enemy chatter' from Phoenix.

No Wounded Tiger bounce for the Celtics tonight. Without KG, Pierce, Davis and Daniels and with a gimpy Rondo who had no interest in attacking the rim the Suns should have won this game. And they did win this game.

Coach Doc Rivers kind of disagreed but then talked himself out of it, "I expected to win. I think we pay everybody. As long as you do, you have to come in with the expectation to win..This was very difficult to win. They're a good team. So this game doesn't affect me at all."

Bright Side of the Sun

Given the fact Kevin Garnett was back in the hotel and Paul Pierce is still sidelined with a knee problem, the temptation might be to affix an asterisk to this romp. Between them they are nearly 40 percent of the Boston offense, and Garnett is the heart of the Boston defense.

But none the real focus of this one should not be on how tired and hurting the Cs were but on the ongoing evidence it provided that the Suns have recovered from their mid-December funk and are once again looking like the 14-3 team that was the talk of the league in November.

Suns Blog

``It's a win over the Celtics. We'll take it,'' Phoenix coach Alvin Gentry said. ``They don't really put an asterisk by it and say Kevin Garnett wasn't here, so we'll take it any way we can get it.'' 

Associated Press

There was no Kevin Garnett or Paul Pierce in green to help stoke the Suns' fire, but the East's top team was enough. "We've got to come as if Pierce and (Larry) Bird and (Kevin) McHale and (Bill) Russell and all those guys will be out there," Grant Hill said before the game.

Arizona Republic

If only the Celtics wouldn't carry that attitude into games, they might not lose to the Sixers, Clippers and Warriors.

The 10 Best Celtics Moments of the Decade

It was quite a decade for Celtics fans. A promising young team derailed by horrid personnel moves in the early 2000s. Four years of mediocre/bad basketball. And then everything changed in 2007.

Here's my list of the best Celtics moments in the 2000s (Click here for the list of worst moments). If you agree or disagree, let us know in the comments.

10. Rick Pitino Resigns - Jan 2001

The reign of error finally comes to an end when Slick Rick bails on his young team mid-season. Pitino's record during his four years in Boston: 102 - 146. Some of his horrible decisions include; not keeping David Wesley and Rick Fox, signing Travis Knight to an obscene 7 year, $22 million deal, drafting Chauncey Billups and Ron Mercer and trading both within two years.

9. Wyc Grousbeck Buys the Team - Dec 2002

Paul Gaston agrees to sell the team to Wyc and Co. for $360 million. Fans were thrilled to have local owners who were fans of basketball and who actually cared about winning.

8. Danny Ainge Drafts Al Jefferson - June 2004

The Mississippi high school star was taken with the 15th pick. Big Al showed consistent improvement during his 3 years in Boston. He was on the cusp of stardom when Danny shipped him to Minnesota for Kevin Garnett. Without Al, the trade doesn't take place.

7. Draft day deal for Rajon Rondo - June 2006

Selected 21st by the Phoenix Suns and immediately shipped to the Celtics as part of a deal which also sent Brian Grant to Boston in exchange for a future 1st round pick. Rondo has blossomed into one of the game's top point guards and is the future of the Celtics franchise.

6. The Emergence of Antoine Walker - 2000-01

Antoine Walker was breathing life into a franchise and fan base starving for excitement. This was his breakout season. Walker set the team record for three-point field goals made (221) and attempted (603) in a season, as well as leading the entire NBA in both categories. He was the only player in the league to finish in the top 20 in points (23.4), rebounds (8.9), assists (5.5) and steals (1.70) per game. He finished first on the team and ranked third in the NBA in minutes per game (41.9). 

Your Morning Dump... Where the Celtics mailed it in

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.

"They were more aggressive than us today," said Eddie House, who provided the only spark for Boston, hitting five of the seven 3-pointers he attempted off the bench for a team-high 19 points.

"We came out and we were kind of lollygagging after that point, you know, going through the motions. They came out playing hard and they got us. So tip your cap to them. We'll try to regroup next game. We'll get it together, it's a long season."

ESPN Boston: House: "We were going through the motions"

Sounds like a team that said... "No Kevin, No Paul, end of the road trip... we're taking the night off."  It's not surprising at all... but I'm kinda sick of hearing all these stories about the C's not really trying hard. 

It's weird.  I'm ok with them doing that from time to time... I just don't want to hear about it. 

We did talk about it last night on "The 2 Man Game."  We also talked about how the C's are completely mishandling the flow of information when it comes to injuries... and we had "Phx Stan" from BrightSideOfTheSun.com give us a report FROM the game. Take a listen.

Coming up, Page 2... where bitching to the refs is out of control.

Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images

Fryed in Phoenix

Channing Frye and Amare Stoudemire torched Boston for 26 points each as the Phoenix Suns pounded the undermanned Celtics, 116-98.

The Celtics were without the services of Kevin Garnett (and Paul Pierce and Glen Davis and Marquis Daniels but who's counting injuries?), who due to a hyperextended knee will not play until Jan. 6 (vs Miami).

The Suns raced out to a 14-point 1st quarter lead thanks to the hot shooting of Stoudemire who made his first 8 shots. The Celtics cut the lead to 9 early in the 3rd quarter, but could get no closer.

The Celtics defense was porous. They also allowed Phoenix 12 offensive rebounds and ?? second chance points.

Frye had as many 3s (6-10) as the entire Celtics team.

Anyone else frustrated with Rasheed Wallace? He laid a giant egg tonight - 6 points on 3-11 shooting. 

The Celtics needed a big game from Ray Allen and he failed to deliver. 15 points on 4-13 FGs won't cut it when KG and Paul are out of the lineup. Eddie House lead the team with 19 points.

Perk had a decent game - 13 points, 7 rebounds - but picked up another technical foul. He's gotta stop bitching to the refs.

Rondo played 32 minutes on a sore hamstring. He appeared to have tweaked the hammy in the 3rd quarter but Doc allowed him to return to the court. He finally pulled Rondo with 7 minutes left in the game and the Celtics trailing by 19. I would have preferred Lester Hudson played the final 12 minutes.

Box Score | Recap

"He's gotta grow up," - Doc Rivers on Perk's 10th technical foul.

Celtics/Suns Game Preview

Celtics (23-7) at Suns (20-12)

Game time: 9pm U.S. Airways Arena; Phoenix. TV - CSN, NBATV. Radio - WEEI-AM (850).

Team Leaders

Scoring
Bos: Pierce - 18.2                  Suns: Amar'e Stoudemire - 20.3

Rebounding
Bos: Perkins - 8.0                  Suns: Stoudemire - 8.5

Assists
Bos: Rondo - 9.7                    Suns: Steve Nash - 11.3

Who'll go off:  With Paul Pierce out and KG and Rondo questionable, I'll have to go with Ray Allen. With a depleted roster, the Celtics will need Ray to go off, if they want to keep this game competitive.

Who needs to be stopped:  Jason Richardson. Nash and Amar'e will get theirs, but the Celtics need to contain Richardson. He scored 34 points (6 threes) in the first game at Boston.

The C's will lose if...  their second unit falls flat. Phoenix has a deep bench - Dudley, Barbosa, Lopez, Dragic and Amundson dropped 52 points on the Lakers. The Celtics will need big games from Eddie House and Rasheed Wallace (provided Sheed isn't starting for KG).

Wildcard:  Phoenix is sky high coming off a 118-103 thrashing of the Lakers Monday night. The Celtics are rock bottom coming off two losses to the Clippers and Warriors. Can the Celtics really lose a third straight game?  

Prediction:  Phoenix 107 - Celtics 101  

After the jump, some spectacular photos of the Suns dance team. Let me rephrase, some photos of the spectacular Suns dance team.

Is KG too content to shoot jumpers?

One of the biggest criticisms of Kevin Garnett has been that he likes to hang around outside too much and he doesn't really do a ton of work in the post.  His skills have allowed him to do that throughout his career... and we've seen this season that he's had nights where he was so hot that he could head-butt the ball into basket.

But has he become TOO reliant on the jumper?  The evidence in the Golden State game may point to "yes".  Jared Wade explains:

After resting on the bench for quite some time, KG entered the game in the fourth quarter with about 6 minutes to go and his team down by 5. About three possessions later, he found himself with the ball being guarded by Monta Ellis. To be completely fair, he didn’t have a ton of time left on shotclock, but that does not forgive the terrible, awkward, off-balance fadeaway he opted to take over a 6?3? guy who weighs less than the sandwich Big Baby ate during half-time. Then, on the next trip down the floor, Garnett again found himself with the ball in the midrange and, again, had himself a nice mismatch, this time over Corey Maggette. What did KG do? He took and badly missed another off-balance fadeaway. Rajon Rondo was able to score the next 6 points for Boston and keep them within a few missed Ray Allen threes from coming back to steal the win on the road, but it’s inexcusable for the Big Ticket to ruin two key fourth quarter possessions — especially when Paul Pierce isn’t playing, Rondo is reluctantly not completely taking over and Ray Allen is shooting like Marquis Daniels. That’s just not a winning formula for the Celtics. In fact, I actually have the formula that proves it.

You can follow the link for Jared's scientific explanation. 

There's no denying that KG loves to shoot the jumper.  According to 82Games.com, 69% of his shots are jumpers.  And while you might think that's entirely too much, it's actually down from the previous year... where 72% of his shots were jumpers.... and his first year with the Celtics where 73% of his shots were jumpers.

So KG isn't taking as many jumpers as he used to... and you can maybe attribute that to him playing with a much better Rajon Rondo (and entire Celtics team, for that matter) setting him up closer to the basket.  His "close" shots are way up.  But I agree with Jared... when you've got Monta Ellis or Corey Maggette on you... you've got to do better than a fadeaway jumper.  

So that begs the question... is he not at 100% (or whatever passes for 100% in KG-land nowadays)?  He's always in for treatment, so it's hard to say "uh oh, KG is in the trainer's room... what's wrong?"  We've heard reports that he's been kicked in the leg... and he is dealing with that thigh bruise.  So maybe the lack of aggression was just him taking it easy and waiting to REALLY push it on another day. 

I know KG likes to shoot jumpers... but when you're going up against Ellis and Maggette and you shoot fadeaways... that just begs people like us to ask questions.