Results tagged “celtics”

Nothing lasts forever, certainly not an unbeaten NBA season. The Boston Celtics lost for the first time this season on Friday, dropping a 110-103 decision to the Phoenix Suns, who lost their first game on Wednesday. For a close game, the Suns were in control most of the way. The NBA's top two shooting teams didn't disappoint the crowd. The Celtics shot 51.7% from the field. Phoenix finished 13-24, or 54.2%, on three-pointers.

Let's face it. That was uglier than Minnesota's starting power forward. But if the Celtics are going to make a run at 70+ wins this season (and while PTI and the Globe and others are speculating about the possibility, we say, let's can that talk and let things unfold), they have to win games like last night. Trap games, against young athletic teams, on the second night of back-to-backs. And somehow, finally, the Celtics did.

Superficially, it looked like the old rivalry again. The Sixers have brought back the old logo, the old floor from the Spectrum (more or less) and uniforms that hearken back to the days of Dr. J and Andrew Toney. But the team that Philly put on the floor last night was no match for the early 09-10 Celtics. The '83 Sixers might not have been.

The Celtics are beating good teams by double digits. They're ticking off All-Star opponents. They're 4-0 after dispatching the Hornets last night at the Garden. And most importantly, they seem to have locked up their point guard for a few more years.

When we last saw the Chicago Bulls, it was after the Celtics survived a seven-game street fight of a playoff series. Last night, the Bulls tapped out in about seven minutes. Perhaps that's an exaggeration on the part of Bostonist but the Celtics thoroughly outclassed the team, 118-90.

Maybe the results are a little skewed, since the Charlotte Bobcats clearly didn't belong on the same floor or in the same league as the Celtics last night. Or maybe the Bobcats just looked like that because the C's' defense locked them up so tight that Amnesty International was handing out flyers by the end of the game. Final score: 92-59.

So says Doc, and it's a little easier to say now, after the Celtics withstood an early barrage from the Cavaliers and came back to win their season opener, 95-89.

Happy Celtics season opener, Bostonistland! The Men in Green are ready to kick off their 2009-2010 season tonight when they face the Cavaliers. The team is pumped, ready, focused on the task at hand--

Fans of American Football in London won't see a textbook example of the sport when the New England Patriots play the winless Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Wembley Stadium on Sunday. If the game on display isn't something the league really wants on display - unless the NFL loves potentially one-sided games - then that leaves this year's London game as a means to promote the league through its stars. In other words, Tom Brady. That's what Mike Reiss theory is, and he believes Brady has embraced that theory, too. That would explain the sight of Brady in a suit surrounded by teammates in their casual team gear. It might explain more detailed, emphatic answers to media inquiries instead of the usual Belichick-speak we are treated to.

Half the team is hurt. Much of the other half is brand new. But somehow, this bunch of strangers wearing Bruin black and gold managed to squeeze out a win over Nashville, 3-2. The first two goals all came from Bruins vets (Michael Ryder and Patrice Bergeron), but the game winner, Steve Begin's first Boston goal off an assist from Daniel Paille, was all n00b. "Most important thing is we won the game but it's great to get my first goal out of the way," said Begin.

The Patriots made a lot of roster moves yesterday. A LOT. To the point where we wonder if (a) Bill Belichick wasn't happy with the 59-0 win on Sunday, or (b) they were worried about jettisoning some extra weight for the team flight to London this week. Officially gone are TE Michael Matthews and WR Joey Galloway, who was handed his walking papers and promptly dropped them. Not gone long enough to be forgotten were linebackers Eric Alexander and Tully Banta-Cain, who were released and then promptly resigned, possibly for paperwork reasons. "There’s a lot of different procedures and rules, and I don’t even know if I understand them all," said Belichick, who's a lot more concerned right now with puffing up the 0-6 Buccaneers in his players' minds to make them think the Bucs are the second coming of the '66 Packers.

The Celtics returned to more-or-less full strength, and in their first game in Hartford in over a decade, mauled the Raptors 106-90 in their finest preseason outing yet.

Nobody can say anything official, but everyone in Foxboro is unofficially saying that Junior Seau, who never strayed far from the phone, will be back with the Patriots sometime soon. Maybe. The amount of information runs from Seau's optimistic "I want to thank the management of both for making my return to the NFL with the New England Patriots a reality", to Bob Kraft's gushing "I’d love to have him part of our team for as long as he wants to be", to Bill Belichick's terse "we don’t have anything to say about it."

Man. It seems like it's been forever, doesn't it? At least a week and a half since we had very much local to talk about.

The "he" in question is Alex Ovechkin, the two-time NHL MVP and star of the Washington Capitals. The "you" in question is Tim Thomas, Dennis Wideman (the quotee), and the entire Bruins organization, which saw Ovechkin score two goals and an assist to spoil Opening Day for the B's, 4-1.

Mother Nature was as sick of it as you were. Josh Beckett was a very late scratch with back spasms, so the Sox sent young Michael Bowden to the mound with about 15 minutes' notice to try to stop the Blue Jays. Five innings later, Bowden and reliever Hunter Jones had both been sent to the showers with ERAs over 10. Two innings after that, the skies opened up and put the Sox and the Fenway crowd out of their misery. Final score: 11-5, Toronto, in seven innings.

Boston and Los Angeles don't have much in common. We have miserable winters, they have palm trees. We have Ben Affleck, they have everybody else. They have Rodney King, we have Skip Gates. It's a different world.

Bostonist has obtained a picture of the 2009 Red Sox just before they embarked on their make-or-break week playing their top AL East rivals. If it looks like Sonny Corleone seconds before he was perforated by Barzini's men, it's not a coincidence.

This ain't the Orioles any more, brother. The toughest week of the Red Sox' 2009 schedule began last night, and Game One ended with a thud, as two home runs by Evan Longoria led to a 4-2, 13-inning, five-hour Tampa Bay win over a dismayed Boston team.

The newest Celtic hit town yesterday. With his three-man recruiting committee by his side (we wonder how much guts it would take to turn down a job when Paul, Ray and Kevin come to your interview), Rasheed Wallace met the press and said everything we like to hear when a new guy comes to town. WEEI has a transcript of most of those things. He says he felt Boston gave him the best chance to win, he's looking forward to playing with KG every night, he (for the moment, anyway) doesn't care whether he starts or how much he plays. Sheed will wear #30 for the Green, which has had a really rough stretch since M.L. Carr took it off in 1985. Mark Blount and Sebastian Telfair were the latest to wear it. We hope Wallace does better things, but frankly, we don't see how he couldn't.

We're gonna go ahead and declare this the Summer of Wake. Sure, we noted yesterday that Josh Beckett's the anchor of the rotation. And we're not going to forget to spread the love around when guys deserve it. But in his first start since learning his All-Star status, Tim Wakefield hung around long enough to get graced by a Sox comeback, earn his 11th win, and be carried off the field on a metaphorical wave of cheers.

Jason Bay. Dustin Pedroia. Jonathan Papelbon. Kevin Youkilis. Josh Beckett. All have been to All-Star Games before. All are young, and will probably go again. So congratulations to them, but we know and they know that they aren't the headline on this All-Star Selection story.

The Red Sox have returned home to find out which parts of Fenway haven't washed out to sea in the last two weeks. They'll play the Mariners to begin a 10-game homestand that will take us to the All-Star break; Oakland and Kansas City will follow. Red Sox history will be made tonight, weather permitting, as Tim Wakefield will make his record-breaking 383rd start for the team. Pushing that Clemens uncomfortableness out of the record book. We say "weather permitting", of course, because we've heard that the guys from Seattle are rumbling that Boston is a little too rainy and clammy and cloudy for them. Let's hope for the best.

So said Jonathan Papelbon afterwards. And if you're one of the millions who figured that (hour-long rain delay) + (10-1 lead) = (bedtime), we understand. Unfortunately, among the snoozing millions were the Sox bullpen, who turned a 10-1 lead into a devastating 11-10 loss in no time. This was ugly.

OK, let's rationalize. The guy hadn't pitched in over a year. He was adjusting to a new league (wait, it's interleague play, that doesn't really count) and feeling the eyes of six million diehard fans on him, waiting for him to be the same guy he was in 1993. And he said afterwards that all in all, he felt pretty good back up on the mound. In other words, folks, we're going to give Smoltzie a mulligan.

Five of the six RBIs for the Red Sox came from David Ortiz and Jason Varitek? Is it 2003 already?!?

The last time the Red Sox played in Washington, D.C., Rogelio Moret got a complete game win on home runs by Joe Lahoud and Rico Petrocelli. A 32-year-old Carl Yastrzemski batted third and went 0-for-3. In other words, it was a long time ago. Back in the nation's capital, the Sox took a little time to assert themselves, but that's what they did, unloading on the hapless Nationals bullpen to run away with an 11-3 drubbing of the worst team in baseball.

A bad day fishing is better than a good day almost anywhere else, they say. And when you play the Marlins, you're required to make fish jokes. So there you have it. The Sox returned to Fenway for their own Admiral's Feast last night, as David Ortiz homered (#5) and Tim Wakefield went to 9-3 for the year, grilling the fish 8-2.

A lot of Dates With Destiny from the Red Sox lately. A lot of good signs about the pitching. REALLY good signs. Tim Wakefield flirted with a no-hitter early in the season, Josh Beckett got a phone number in Detroit last week, and last night it was Jon Lester who was just an appletini away from a no-hitter. It wasn't meant to be, but his brilliant pitching and some powerful offense led the Sox to an 8-1 crushing of the Rangers at Fenway.