Monday, March 15th, 2010 at 11:30 am  |  33 responses

Celtics’ Latest Excuse: No Effort

Initially, they were bored with the tedium of the regular season. Now, they tell the Boston Globe that, for whatever reason, they’re not playing hard. Riiiight: “Center Kendrick Perkins didn’t even feel comfortable trying to measure his team against the Cavaliers, because the effort, he said, wasn’t there yesterday or Feb. 25 when Cleveland came into the Garden and dealt the Celtics a 108-88 loss. ‘I don’t really know where we’re at because we haven’t played them with our best game yet,’ Perkins said. “If they were to beat us playing Celtic ball, where at least we’re playing as hard as we can, it would have been different. But I don’t think we went as hard as we should have.’ As plain as it was to see how far apart the teams might be, Rivers said there were points when he could see how close his team was to breaking through. ‘Our goal is to get us at our peak when the playoffs start and see where we are at, but we’ve got to get there and work hard,’ Rivers said. ‘We’ve have a lot of work to do.’ Exactly how much time they have left is another question.”

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  • JP Posted: Mar.15 at 11:50 am
    please refs stop allowing Lebron to travel with the ball !!!! 3 steps is for Handball not Basketball !!! I’m tired of seeing that. Take a look at the NBA top10 today, it’s ridiculous to see the league promotting traveling James at number 3 !!!

  • riggs Posted: Mar.15 at 11:57 am
    stick a fork in the celtics this year and this is coming from a fan. but the truth of the matter is they knew this time was coming, the only problem is that it came up two years too early. I also agree with JP the funny part is that they showed the replay going to commercials that it was so obvious as hell he walked. i find it funny.

  • neaorin Posted: Mar.15 at 11:59 am
    I’m not a Celtics fan, but if I were, I wouldn’t put as much effort into buying tickets for a while. Just save that effort for the playoffs, as it were.

  • letsmotor Posted: Mar.15 at 12:01 pm
    since when is an honest reflection on the game an “excuse”? give me a break, Slam. your bias is showing.

  • Ryan Jones Posted: Mar.15 at 12:04 pm
    “We haven’t played them with our best game yet.”
    Sure you have, Perk. I saw it. It was about 22 months ago.

  • LA Huey Posted: Mar.15 at 12:08 pm
    “We haven’t played them with our best game yet.”
    Because they haven’t let you.

  • niQ Posted: Mar.15 at 12:12 pm
    1) They already achieved what the team was initially brought in for: a Championship.
    2) They’re getting old now.
    3) Somehow by signing more “veterans” they appear older than the Spurs. (Just a guess.. don’t quote me. lol)

  • fredd Posted: Mar.15 at 12:17 pm
    what to do now ? already start a new team with youth, draft picks etc ? Cos’ to wait too much is never good.

  • YKnot Posted: Mar.15 at 12:28 pm
    If they had Starbury, Powe, and House on the bench this would never have happened! Lol

  • Anton Posted: Mar.15 at 1:04 pm
    Anderson Varejao post game interview: “WE GON BULLY DEEZ NI&&AS!”

  • Bruno Posted: Mar.15 at 1:26 pm
    varejao sucks!!!

  • AL29 Posted: Mar.15 at 1:48 pm
    Where’s Mikkey Moore when you need him? Oh, and I think Cassell is free.

  • Heals Posted: Mar.15 at 2:00 pm
    The C’s used to talk alot on the court (and win), now they talk after games (and lose). 1st health, now its effort; the Truth is at full health and with extra effort they still woulda got whopped. 08′ was great, but the ship has sailed…

  • Farman Posted: Mar.15 at 2:09 pm
    I blame most of this on Rasheed Wallace. He comes in out of shape, and is having the worst year of his career. They plan was to have Wallace, Perkins, and Garnett be the best 3 man force in the league. That didn’t happen. Infact, it’s gone opposite. His game is below average. Shooting less than 30 percent from three, not a force on the defensive end, and post up game is gone. Garnett is not the same. That knee just doesn’t look right. His mouth is still running like he was 30, but his game is not matching his talk. Daniels hasn’t been that 2-3 wing man off the bench that they thought. He was injured for 2 months, but game has been inconsistent. Looks like Peirce has lost a step, or he’s just not playing like last year. Only players that has brought it every night is Ray and Rondo. Maybe it’s time to make Ray the 1st option and have others follow. Cause whatever they do are doing for the past 3 years, it’s not working anymore. I wonder if Danny Ainge would wish he had Eddie House back……

  • albie1kenobi Posted: Mar.15 at 2:38 pm
    this sounds like the Pistons when Sheed was there. you know, the whole “we’ll turn it on when it matters” thing. we all know how those teams ended up. actually if the celtics make it to the ECF i’d say they have a surprisingly successful season.

  • Th3_R3al_Chris Posted: Mar.15 at 2:51 pm
    I second the idea that Ray Allen should be the first option.

  • Shem Posted: Mar.15 at 3:09 pm
    Probably the last excuse I’d expect to see from the Celtics, this is the raptors excuse!

  • The Philosoper Posted: Mar.15 at 3:22 pm
    Maybe they’re starting to tune Doc out. And there seems to be a little chemistry issues, on top of them showing their age.

  • MooButter Posted: Mar.15 at 3:22 pm
    Any one claiming “Varejao Sucks” should be banned. You have no business posting on a basketball related site.

  • money Posted: Mar.15 at 5:27 pm
    so moobutter you say he’s a great player?
    he works and works and works and because of great players on this team he get’s open shots and tips. He’s a workdonkey… dwight howard a workhorse haha.

  • negative kreep Posted: Mar.15 at 6:01 pm
    Varejao sucks!!!

  • LA Huey Posted: Mar.15 at 6:33 pm
    MooButter didn’t say he was great. Anyone who can’t see the value of Varejao’s game is either a salty, rival fan or knows very little about basketball.

  • Teddy-the-Bear Posted: Mar.15 at 6:57 pm
    LOL @ kreep!

  • vanillagorrila Posted: Mar.15 at 8:31 pm
    Varejao is sheed’s perfect opposite, all work and hustle with little talent. I can’t believe the celtics didn’t assume this was going to happen, they are in no way the defensive power house that the pistons were and have slough of aging injury prone vets that don’t have the same last ditch effort mentality, then expect to bring in sheed and not have additional problems. Just dumb, thats all it was.

  • CelticzBae Posted: Mar.15 at 8:46 pm
    shut tha hell up!! Cz just gotta get back 2gether again. i agree there chemistry is off. why tha hell would they get rid of HOUSE 4 Nate Rob.?? they dont need him. anyway. turn ur tv 2 ESPN Celticz are killin dem Pistonz!! and as 4 KG he doin fine.

  • r13 Posted: Mar.15 at 10:06 pm
    VAREJAO SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LET’S HEAR IT!!!!!
    He actually has a lot of game, good rebounder and D, can finish well. But he is such a whiny b.itch

  • letsmotor Posted: Mar.15 at 10:30 pm
    as a celtics fan, let me just say that varejao is a great guy to have on your team. does he have talent? not really, not by nba standards anyway. but he hustles like crazy and a lot of top teams have had a guy like that (rodman’s the best example of this kind of player–can’t believe he got passed up for the hall of fame!!)

  • CB 34 Posted: Mar.16 at 3:04 am
    Varejao is an incredible player. Understands the game and does what he needs to do. To people who think he sucks, you don’t know ball. He’s the guy who would get picked early if they were forming teams. He understands the line between good d and being dirty plus he knows when to cut for backdoors. The cavs have been arguably the best team the past 2 seasons and he is just as responsible for that as bron bron. Perk already admitted before the game that andy was the toughest guy to play against. You get opposing players saying that knowing they will meet in the playoffs at some point says a lot about how much andy gets into their heads. Amazing player.

  • lucas Posted: Mar.16 at 8:27 am
    “uh, you only won vuz I let you. I wasn’t really trying.” Please. Oh yeah, Varejao sucks!

  • WOODY Posted: Mar.16 at 9:55 am
    CB34 is right. Varejao is probably the second most valuable Cav. He does what he can do well – hustle, rebound, cut, finish at the basket, and torment the entire opponent’s team on defense. He doesn’t do what he can’t do well – shoot. He should get sixth man votes and MAKE the all-defense team.

  • BostonBaller Posted: Mar.16 at 4:07 pm
    Var is a valuable player and any team would take him. My C’s are not making excuses just answering ?’s. If they were to say we are not good enough and we are too old to win you guys would be pulling their man cards and saying what lousy athletes they were. It’s funny how Ray is getting a bit of love here now only at the expense of his teammates. lol. Health has been the biggest issue and it trickles down from there to effect the chemistry. If they truly suck it up and LISTEN to Doc the can do some major damage in the playoffs and win this thing. Any good veteran team can win a series so watch out.

  • ClydeSays Posted: Mar.16 at 7:23 pm
    Cavs are definitely playing with some fire at the moment, and the C’s are not. Thought the C’s got jobbed by the refs in the last Cle game, but that’s not the reason the Celts lost. They lacked effort.
    The Pistons game was more like it. And now the 2nd unit looks like it’s coming together with Fin. Something like 60 points from the bench last night.

  • jaywalker Posted: Mar.17 at 5:04 am
    The one thing that has been constant from the C’s (apart from losing games against top contenders) is that they have owned the losses. They havent tried to blame it on Big 3 sitting out or trades. That shows that they know whats wrong with them bt unfortunately there aint much they can do about it..its called Age.

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