Holy Harangody!

Luke Harangody played his best game thus far as a Boston Celtic last night, scoring 17 points and pulling down 11 rebounds while the Celtics routed the Raptors 122-102. Rondo and the Celtics exposed the Raptors weakness inside the paint early on, and as a result scored 54 points in the paint in their ability to outmuscle, outhustle, and slash past Toronto's passive and less-than-aggressive defense. Rondo had a plus/minus rating of +23 in only 26 minutes played, while Harangody, Nate Robinson, and the rest of Boston's bench helped torch Toronto for majority of the game. The Celtics played extremely well overall last night, and complacency should be their biggest concern when they head to Chicago to face the Bulls tonight.

The Celtics need to make sure they come out firing tonight they way they did in the first half against the Raptors, and not just passively coasting the way they did in the second half when the game was essentially already over. The Bulls are a very talented and hard-nosed team, and are capable of punishing complacency with explosive scoring and drives to the hoop from Derrick Rose and Luol Deng, and can also dominate on the boards thanks to double-double machine Carlos Boozer. The Bulls have played well this season despite injuries, and are yet to see Boozer and Joakim Noah work the paint together since Noah went down as soon as Boozer had returned from injury. If they ever get both big men healthy together, along with their physical slashing guards and forwards such as Rose, Deng, Ronnie Brewer, and Taj Gibson, this team could absolutely turn some heads come playoff time.

However, the Bulls are coming off a loss last night to the lowly 76ers who worked an inside-outside game that enabled them to put up 105 points against this tough Chicago team. The Celtics have been using their combination of outside scoring ability from Ray Allen and Paul Pierce and dribble and pass penetration from Rajon Rondo to guys like Shaq down low to really stretch out defenses and pull out some big wins. If they can continue doing this tonight, Chicago should not be able to contain Boston's versatile offense. Keith Bogans will not be able to keep up with Ray Allen and will get dragged through picks as he chases Ray all over the court, and the Celtics should be able to penetrate inside and take advantage of Kurt Thomas, the second oldest man in the NBA, who is filling in for the injured Noah. I do not expect the Celtics to dominate the boards by any means, but if they can get rebounds from all their players the way they have the past couple of games, Boozer's dominance in the paint should not be enough to give Chicago a win. All eyes will be on the Rondo-Rose matchup which is always exciting and fun to watch, but ultimately Ray Allen and Boston's bench should be the difference makers in this one. I hope to see Harangody continue to play with confidence, box out, contest shots, make his jumpers, and do all the little things right as he became a legitimate scoring threat last night against Toronto. Also, I hope to see Scal get on the court against his old team, as nothing could be more entertaining than watching Scalabrine and Harangody go at it.

Whole Team Effort

Rondo's triple-double helped fuel the Celtics to a huge win against the Spurs on Wednesday night, as many of the Celtics played incredibly well to knock off the top team in the Western Conference. Ray Allen and Glen Davis made most of their jump shots and largely contributed to Rondo's 22 assists, and all of the Celtics helped crash the boards to make up for lost production since the loss of Kevin Garnett. Ray Allen's 31 points exposed the Spurs' inability to handle simple picks, and his jumpers punished them for it as he knocked down 13 of his 16 shots from the field. Nate Robinson finally had a haircut and was playing better than he has for the last couple of weeks, and contributed some key jump shots while filling in for Rondo and pulled down five big rebounds. The Celtics look to push their new win streak to four when they take on Toronto tonight, in a matchup that heavily favors Boston.

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The Celtics need another full team effort tonight in terms of rebounding, as once again on Wednesday Big Baby Davis and Shaquille O'Neal could not get it done on the boards, pulling in only three combined rebounds between the two starting big men. Rebounds from more unlikely smaller guys such as Rondo, Nate, and Paul Pierce are the reason that Boston did not get massacred on the boards for the third consecutive game, and this energy is what they need to come out on top against quality basketball teams while Garnett recovers from injury. Luckily the Celtics match up very well against the Raptors tonight, who still came up very short against Boston the last time they faced off despite an impressive 27 point showing from DeMar DeRozan. It will be interesting to watch the matchup between DeRozan and Ray Allen, who both played much better offensively than defensively last time they faced off.

And while Andrea Bargnani may be back for the Raptors, and led them to a win Wednesday night against Cleveland, Rondo is also back for the Celtics. He played against Toronto when the Celtics defeated them on January 2nd, but did not yet appear comfortable with his ankle. With 22 assists, 6 steals, and a triple-double against Tony Parker and the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday, Rondo now seems incredibly comfortable with his ankle, and will be looking to add another 15 or so assists to his season total. Look for Rondo to expose the Raptors' weakness on the inside, and for him to lead the Celtics to another victory. Players such as DeRozan and Jose Calderon are capable of putting together huge offensive nights, but as long as the Celtics can keep it close on the boards, and that three point shooting center Andrea Bargnani continues to be the Raptors' leading scorer, the Celtics should absolutely be able to win this game.

Back on Track

Rajon Rondo is back, and so are the Celtics after bouncing back from two straight losses to beat the Raptors last night 93-79 in Toronto. It was much easier to root for Nate Robinson as he was restored to his role as backup point guard, while Rajon Rondo quarterbacked Boston's offense the way he always does for majority of the game on his way to a team-high plus/minus rating of +24. Nate's often erratic shot selection is difficult to watch when he is logging 30+ minutes per game as a starter, but can be employed effectively to catch defenses off-guard when subbing in for Rondo, as defending point guards must guard the perimeter much tighter against Robinson than on Rajon. As for Boston's big men, the loss of KG has really showed in Boston's weak presence in the paint over the last couple of games, and Big Baby is also proving to be a guy that is much easier to root for when he is coming in for KG off the bench as opposed to logging nearly 40 minutes as a starter and putting up loads of questionable jump shots. Big Baby Davis absolutely has improved his shot over the past couple of seasons, but he needs to learn to incorporate this improved jumper into his play without being primarily a spot-up jump shooter. He is too big to not be using his size to put in points on the block, especially against weaker big men such as the Bargnani-less Toronto Raptors.

Davis is going to have his hands full tonight against Kevin Love and his breakout season, who is currently averaging 21 points and 15 rebounds per game. The Timberwolves may only have nine wins on the season, but Kevin Love is a guy that can completely dominate a game in the paint when given the opportunity, and he will absolutely take advantage if Boston is weak on the boards like they were against Toronto. Michael Beasley is also having a very solid year averaging about 22 points per game, and is out to prove that Miami should not have given up so early on the former #2 overall pick.

Nevertheless, Boston is far superior to this Minnesota team both on offense and on defense, and look for Rondo to pick them apart while Paul Pierce and Ray Allen continue to have big scoring games. Pierce was at his best last night knocking down clutch shots and drawing fouls, while he and Ray went a combined 6-8 from long range, so Minnesota players like point guards Luke Ridnour and Sebastian Telfair, as well as rookie Wesley Johnson, will have a very difficult time sticking with all of Boston's stars. The key to this game will be establishing more of a paint presence which has been lacking since Garnett went down with his calf injury. Big Baby needs to stick to his power forward position and stop hovering around the perimeter like a spot-up shooting guard, and Jermaine O'Neal and Harangody need to play tougher defense and box out their men. If all of Boston's big men would exert the same effort that Semih Erden did when he was filling in for an injured Jermaine O'Neal, they could still be a dominant team down-low even without Kevin Garnett. They just need to play hard, contest every shot, and win the battle of the boards. Against teams like the Timberwolves, Rondo, Allen, and Pierce should be able to handle the rest.