Blog

The NBA trade deadline has come and gone, and all the same guys are still here.  I’d like to thank Danny Ainge for listening to me.  Everybody’s main concern now about the Celtics is their lack of big men; Greg Stiemsma is the only active true center on the roster.  But recent numbers show it might not be as great a problem as people think.  Since the All-Star break Boston is 8-2, and in each of those ten games they’ve started Brandon Bass at power forward and Kevin Garnett at center.  The Celtics are a better team now that KG is the center.  Yeah they struggle to rebound, but that’s been a problem all season anyway.  Garnett forces other team’s centers to cover him on the perimeter, which opens up offense under the basket for Boston.  The C’s are averaging 91.3 point per game this season, but 97.5 ppg in the last ten with KG in the middle.

Their only two losses with the new smaller lineup were on the second night of back to backs in Philly (after consecutive overtime games no less), and a hard fought game to the Lakers in LA.  The lack of effort against the Sixers is understandable, and very few teams in the league can compete with the size of the Lakers.  I actually think LA is the only team in the NBA that Boston has serious problems matching up with at center, and if the C’s get another crack at them this year (it could only happen in the Finals), nobody is going to be complaining.  Garnett has already outplayed Dwight Howard twice this season, and beyond that a case could be made that KG is the second best center in the Eastern Conference right now.  Not to mention this stat that CSNE was nice enough to throw out there late in the game on Wednesday night:

One more note on Garnett: He is 4 assists away from being the first player in NBA history to put up 20,000 points, 10,000 rebounds, 5,000 assists, and 1,500 steals in his career.  Tonight he could put himself in a class all by himself.