Don’t Count Out the Celts

The Celtics had a tough week. But I don’t think it’s the end of the road for Boston. This is a veteran team with resilient players who are only two years removed from winning a championship. KG is still hurt. Pierce has a nagging foot injury. Ray Allen is underperforming if we look at his career stats. Sounds like a recipe for disaster? But let’s not be so quick to jump to conclusions and write these guys off.

Doc’s players have nothing to prove. They have their rings. KG, Pierce and Allen are three of the toughest veterans in the league. Perkins and Rondo are two of the brightest young players in the Eastern Conference. They’re tough and have proven they’ll step up and play at a high level in the playoffs.

Much has been made of the Hawks beating Boston again this week to sweep the season series, but it’s not a nail in the Celtics’ coffin. Yes they’ve dropped from second to the fourth in the East after sitting in the top spot for most of November and December. But among the big minute players of the Cavs, Hawks, Magic and Celtics, outside of Shaq, only KG, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, Rajon Rondo and Kendrick Perkins have rings.

Doc is a master of keeping his team together and I think we’ll see him navigate his guys through this rough stretch. And Ainge is one of the best GMs in the league. Let’s see if he makes a move to tweak his team going into the All-Star break. Celts will fill three spots on the All-Star roster – the most from any team in the East or West. Pierce, Rondo and Garnett will team up with Conference leaders LeBron, Joe Johnson and Dwight Howard to rep the East under Van Gundy.

Star Power

When a superstar player like Carmelo goes down it can be a backbreaker. As a coach you can scheme and preach, but if your players don’t believe they can win without their star you’re headed for trouble.

In Denver we’re seeing the value of Chauncey Billups. He’s a true leader at the point guard position. There’s no time for excuses or to give away games in the tough West – especially at the top of the Conference. And Chauncey is keeping the team together on the floor and putting his teammates in a position to succeed, even without Melo. He’s also picking up his production averaging 24 ppg in January and his attitude will define the makeup of the team.

With an improved jump shot and growing confidence forward Kenyon Martin is another longtime vet who’s embracing a bigger role. He had 27 points to complete a sweep of the Spurs on Sunday. The Nuggets are also getting great production from JR Smith off the bench. These guys will hold the fort until Melo returns to full force. And with him, the Nuggets will be a mighty force to reckon with come playoff time.

On the other hand Chis Paul is the latest top-ten player to get hit by an injury. His is more serious as he heads to the operating table to scope his knee. It’s also more serious for the team. Though Collison stepped in to lead Charlotte to an impressive 3-1 week without Paul, the Hornets will not fare as well as the Nuggets without their star player over the long haul.

With two rookies in the starting lineup, the Hornets lack the depth and experience to make up for Paul’s absence. He’s the engine that makes the team go. And in the West where multiple teams are battling for the last playoff spot having your engine shut down, even for a few weeks, can kill the whole season.

Road Test

Through the first part of the season the Lakers played a very unbalanced schedule. They had many more home games than road games. And they took care of business running out to the leagues best record. But over the last couple weeks they’ve been on an extended road trip.

A lot of coach’s feel you don’t know what kind of team you have until you go out on the road. When you’re traveling you face adversity on the court and off the court. You could be flying on back-to-back nights – arriving at the hotel at 4am. Players are together a lot and sometimes the little annoyances can add up and magnify fractures in the team. Or you may discover you have a tight-knit group of guys who get along well and ban together to overcome hostile crowds and tighter whistles on the court.

Even though the Lakers won the championship I’m sure Phil didn’t mind going out on the road to see how is team would take on the challenge. And I think the jury’s still out. The Lakers went 5-3 beating the weaker teams (NY, Washington, Philly, Indiana) and nabbing a last-second win over Boston.

But they lost to the Cavs and came out on the losing side of a one-point game in Toronto. The last game of a road trip is a notorious trap game and the Lakers fell into it dropping another close one 95-93 to the Grizzlies.  You like to come back home with a winning record but I expect Phil would like to see his team play with a little more urgency and make sure they have home court through the playoffs. And I’m certain he’s hoping on the other side of the All-Star break he’ll have a healthy Kobe and Artest.

East vs. West

The road to the NBA Championship runs through the Lakers. They are the champs. But Cleveland has laid the groundwork in the regular season, beating L.A. twice.

The Cavs have evolved as a team this season. LeBron is playing at an even higher level than last year and his teammates are following his lead. The addition of Shaq is working — he fits in with the team and has become, in his words, that “high level role player.”

Last week’s rematch against the Lakers, despite Mo Williams and Jamario Moon being out, was a good way for the Cavs to measure their progress. I know Kobe is fighting through injuries and it looks like Artest is playing hurt as well.

But the Cavs outplayed the Lakers and were able to break down the tough Laker D and on the other side to get some big stops. Looking back at the season series, the Cavs played better team ball and were having more fun on the court. It’s only the regular season, but it could be a sign of things to come for LeBron and company.

The Lakers on the other hand have to be concerned with two things: getting their hunger back and getting healthy. After the Cavs game Kobe alluded to the team not being as hungry as last year — maybe getting their rings quelled the fire in their bellies? I think that’ll change after the All-Star break.

But more importantly, it remains to be seen if lingering back troubles will restrict Kobe’s mobility and explosiveness and how much his shooting will be affected by the prosthetic he’s wearing on his finger. Kobe is as fierce a competitor as any we have in the league and in spite of these hindrances, came away from Sunday’s one-point loss to the Raptors just one assist shy of a triple-double with 27 points, a career-high 16 rebounds and nine assists. On Monday avid basketball fan President Obama hosted the 2009 NBA champs at the White House and gave a nod to Kobe for his MVP performance in the Finals.

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From Cubs to Grizzlies

After the failed Iverson experiment, the Grizzlies have come together and are playing winning basketball. With the right chemistry they’ve done a complete 180 from their 1-8 nosedive in November. At 23-19 they are fighting for a playoff spot.

A big reason for the turnaround is Zach Randolph. He’s having a monster year. He’s always been a big numbers guy but this year he’s leading the young team and is deserving of an All-Star spot. The Griz are also getting big years out of OJ Mayo, Marc Gasol and Rudy Gay. Gay knocked down a huge jumper with the clock running down to seal a hard fought victory over the Thunder last week.

And that’s what’s impresses me about the Griz — they keep notching big wins. In December they were 9-4 with wins over the Cavs, Mavericks, Nuggets and Heat. During January, Memphis has already beaten the Suns (twice), Spurs, Jazz and Trail Blazers. They are a serious team and if they can keep their young nucleus together they’ll be knocking down the old guard’s door sooner than later.

The Bruise Crew

What do Brandon Roy, Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony, Kobe Bryant, Mo Williams, Delonte West, Leandro Barbosa, Raymond Felton, Eric Gordon, Jerryd Bayless, Tayshaun Prince and Ben Gordon all have in common? All missed games last week or played through tough injuries.

It feels like the injured list is more crowded this year than usual. And it’s seems precariously full of star players.  I know a lot of guys are looking forward to the All-Star break to heal up and get ready to make their run in the second half. Not least among them must be Nate McMillan.

I can’t remember a team suffering more injuries than the Blazers have this year and my hat goes off to Nate and his staff for holding the team together and winning. To manage to keep his team in playoff position in the very competitive Western Conference, with all the lost man games and an ever changing line-up, is incredible. Well done coach.

Hope for Haiti

Looking back on last week it’s hard not to think about what’s happening in Haiti. The reports of the destruction are astounding. But they are outdone by the fortitude and resilience of the Haitian people.  The Hope for Haiti telethon did a wonderful job of raising money and awareness. And in the NBA players are continuing to rally support for the Hatians on and off the courts.

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After Monday’s game Samuel Dalembert made a trip to his native Haiti to witness first-hand what is happening. On Wednesday he returned with a gut wrenching report just minutes before the 76ers game in which he scored 10 points and grabbed 15 rebounds. Sam has donated $130,000 to UNICEF personally and is working on raising more for the relief efforts.

Around the league Dwayne Wade and Alonzo Mourning raised over $800,000. And several players pledged to donate $1,000 for every point they scored during games in a bid to raise a minimum of $500,000 for the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund. Rebuilding Haiti is going to require a long-term commitment from all of us. If you’d like to donate call 1-877-99-HAITI in US/Canada, or go to www.hopeforhaitinow.org or www.yele.org.