Tag: Celtics

The Time Lord Returns and Celtics Win Third Straight

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After being out the past six games with a groin injury, the Celts’ beloved rookie did not make much too much noise in his return the court against the Brooklyn Nets on Monday night, finishing with just two points in a little over four minutes of play.

Those two points, though? They came on this showstopper:

Again: this kid can ball! The dunk was impressive enough, but his steal also set up the fast break that allowed it to happen in the first place. That steal was also his third in his past four games. Over that time, he’s also compiled a total of eight blocks, including his second five-block performance of the year against Phoenix just before Christmas.

Sadly, we didn’t get to see what he could do against Joel Embiid and the Sixers on Christmas Day, as both Williams and Aron Baynes had been out nursing injuries since that game (and even beforehand in Baynes’s case). Therefore, for about the past three or four weeks, the Celtics have been rolling with Daniel Theis, a still-not-fully-healed Al Horford, and an extremely underwhelming Guerschon Yabusele as the team’s only bigs.

Along with Williams’s return last night, Celtics fans also got some good news yesterday about Baynes, who has been out since December 19 with a broken finger. Both he and Coach Stevens seemed pretty positive about his healing progression when speaking to the media yesterday, and the 32-year-old Aussie could return to the C’s lineup as early as next week.

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Baynes and his man bun will soon be back on the court.

But what about the rest of the team? How have they been doing since the jolly ole fat man came down the chimney a few weeks ago?

Since beating Philly on December 25, the Celtics are 4-2, with those two losses coming against San Antonio and a scorching-hot Houston Hardens squad – oops, sorry, I meant Houston “Rockets” – respectively. And since Thanksgiving, they are a very respectable 15-6. Three of those losses, however, have come with either Williams and/or Baynes out of the lineup, so this team could be ready to roll once everyone is finally healthy once again. Don’t be so worried about that fifth-place spot in the East right now, as disappointing as it may seem.

Speaking of people who are healing up, Gordon Hayward may finally be showing signs of being the All-Star he was out in Utah. Taking away an absolute clunker against the Spurs last week, Hayward has otherwise averaged 17.2 points per game since the Philly contest, including a 35-point outburst against Minnesota. He’s also shot 54 percent from the field in those five games and over 42 percent from deep.

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Look who’s finally coming alive!

Kyrie Irving and Marcus Morris have also continued to roll, and both should receive serious All-Star consideration this year. Jayson Tatum has not taken quite the leap that everyone expected and hoped for this year, but he’s certainly not playing poorly, by any stretch of the imagination. And Marcus Smart is showing signs of rounding out his game, shooting over 40 percent from deep in six-of-his-last-11 games. The team is still playing top-five defense as well.

If there’s one noteworthy issue with this team, it’s in the rebounding department, especially on the offensive end. Again, though, with both Williams and Baynes back (or soon to be back) in the rotation, hopefully we see some signs of improvement there in short order.

So, at just about the midway point of the season, I’d say I’m feeling OK about this Celtics squad. Yes, I do believe they’re underperforming a bit relative to expectations, but the East is also the best it’s been in years (collectively, at least), and this team still has time to get hot.

Don’t believe all the negative rhetoric flooding the sports talk airwaves right now. The Time Lord is back! And this team is still doing just fine.

Time Lord Robert Williams Doesn’t Know What Day It is Because Time is Just a Social Construct

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Yahoo –  Boston Celtics rookie Robert Williams, sidelined the past five games with a groin injury, offered a refreshingly honest admission about the early days of NBA life.

“This might sound funny but I literally don’t know the days of the week,” Williams said after practice on (take note, Rob!) Sunday. “I promise, I couldn’t tell you what today is. I forget the days of the week. And with the traveling, mix up the hotel room numbers from the previous [night] – it’s a lot man. It’s a lot. It’s worth it though.”

Williams isn’t revealing anything that most rookies haven’t already experienced. The grind of NBA life, particularly with the heavy travel, makes it tough to keep the calendar straight. But in admitting it, Williams probably only strengthened the chances that his “Time Lord” nickname will stick.

Robert Williams doesn’t live in the same timeline of reality as normal human beings like you and me so he doesn’t know, nor need, the days of the week. Thats just how a Time Lord operates. So to that I say, forget these social constructs like “Monday” and just go out there and block some shots into the rafters, Robert.

Now go buy a Time Lord shirt!

Or better yet, a Time Lord clock…

The 300s Top 10 Blogs of 2018

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2018 was a banner year for The 300s as we saw our readership grow exponentially, we rolled out a ton of new swag, and we brought some new writers onto the staff. We appreciate everyone who takes a few minutes out of their day to read a blog or watch a video or listen to a podcast. With that being said, it’s the last day of the year so we had to break down the Top 10 Blogs of 2018.

1.) David Price Continues Good Will Tour, Rips 69-Year-Old Red Sox Reporter Jonny Miller

2.) Apparently Jon Gruden’s Son, Deuce Gruden, is the Goddamn Hulk

3.) RIP Mac Miller, Dead at 26

4.) Nike Deserves Applause for Choosing Colin Kaepernick as New Face of “Just Do It” Campaign

5.) Boston Celtics NBA 2K19 Ratings Predictions

6.) The Marlins Are Replacing the Ugly Home Run Statue With Irony

7.) Tough Break for Malden Men Who Recovered Red Sox Banner

8.) Terrible News: Ed Hochuli is Retiring. Better News: His Son is Replacing Him

9.) I LOVE This Quote From Rick Porcello

10.) Brock Lesnar Possibly Playing Ivan Drago’s Son In “Creed 2”

 

 

James Harden Took 18 Three Pointers Last Night and No One Batted An Eye

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Okay, granted he hit half of them, but James Harden took EIGHTEEN threes last night and no one even batted an eye. No one except my man, Chuck.

Eighteen three pointers is absolutely insane. It was more than double the amount anyone else on either team took last night. Again, yes he hit 9 of them so he shot .500 from behind the arc and scored 45 points but holy hell what a stat line. He only made TWO shots inside the three point line all night. The reigning MVP scored 4 points inside the arc. Analytics will probably say he was taking the best available shots based on his shooting percentage, but thats still mind boggling to think about. Getting 17 foul shots and hitting 14 of them helps alleviate that a bit, but damn. It’s not like he’s JJ Reddick who can only score when he’s out deep away from lockdown defenders either.

Harden leads the league in 3 point attempts and 3 pointers made despite not even being in the Top 100 in 3 Point % among players with at least 50 3 point attempts. Daniel Theis has a better 3 point % than Harden!

But hey, 45 points is 45 points. If it’s such a crime against humanity the Celtics should have, ya know, guarded the 3 point line a little better.

I touched on this phenomenon a little bit when I blogged about how, unfortunately, Kendrick Perkins saw the game pass him by as everyone became a three point shooter. You could blame Steph Curry, but the game had been trending this way for a while.

“[From] 2010-11 the average 3 point attempts per game around the league have nearly doubled from 18 attempts per game to 31.3 per game this season. In the previous 8 seasons before that, average 3 point attempts per game had only increased about three from a low of 14.7 in 2002-03. So no one could have predicted the game completely changing the way it has.”

Somewhere Charles Barkley just shakes his head in disbelief.

 

 

The Time Lord Made a Statement Tonight Against the Hawks

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If you’re not on the Time Lord bandwagon yet, then you better hop on fast, because those seats are gonna fill up pretty quickly after Friday night.

While his two points in 16 minutes of action against the Hawks at the Garden may not be all that impressive, we all know that’s not where his value lies. The rookie was EVERYWHERE on the defensive end against Atlanta, finishing with five monster – and I mean just lethal – blocks that would make even Ben Wallace blush.

Seriously, just LOOK at some of these swats: (Here’s the link to Dan Greenberg’s compilation of all five blocks, because apparently Twitter doesn’t want to cooperate with me tonight.)

He might not get enough consistent action this year to get Defensive Player of the Year consideration, but that type of talent is there. Oh, it-is-THERE.

(Can you tell I’m just a little excited?)

The Celts also won their eighth in a row and are still undefeated in the month of December. Jayson Tatum, Kyrie Irving, and Marcus Morris led the way on offense. Also, as mentioned the other day, Gordon Hayward is starting to cook, too, finishing with 19 points in just 18 minutes.

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He’s heating up!

But the real story of the night is Robert Williams. And while he’s apparently not too keen on the whole “Time Lord” nickname, you can’t tell me this 300s original design isn’t dope as hell:

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Get all your Time Lord gear here while it’s hot! We got shirts, mugs, and even actual friggin’ clocks! (And you know it’s all out of love, Bob; nobody’s shown you more support than we have since you got here. NO ONE.)

Next up is a matchup in Detroit on Saturday night against the Pistons and a red-hot Blake Griffin. But if anyone can slow him down, it’s Mr. Williams. On to Motor City!

The Robert Williams Time Lord T-Shirts Are Here and They Are Fantastic

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Update: Buy Time Lord shirts here!

So Robert Williams is finally starting to get some burn off the bench with Al Horford out and he has ran with that opportunity. The Time Lord has been rewarding Mattes and I for all the hype pieces we wrote before he even clocked into an NBA game. So we decided now was the perfect time for Bob to get his own shirt. Robert Williams’ time is now. The Time Lord shirts are here and we’ll be taking pre-orders on them starting today!

Here’s the backstory on the Time Lord nickname via MassLive if you aren’t constantly on Celtics Twitter:

“The Celtics, of course, selected Williams at No. 27. When Williams was late for a conference call and absent for the team’s first Summer League practice, the media reaction was intense.

“I’m irony poisoned, but to me it was hilarious,” Hebert said. “Manny Ramirez is the first athlete I loved and it was very Manny. And like, local writers and talk-radio people overreacted, and the whole point of Weird Celtics Twitter is to make fun of them and media in general being too uptight. …

So (we) started joking that he wasn’t late, he was operating on a different timeline concurrent to the one we are in, as evidenced by the fact that I knew he was a Celtic two years before he was a Celtic. And we would do it with people taking themselves really seriously and they’d get very mad at us for thinking they were too uptight. So from there he became a T I M E L O R D, like the characters in Doctor Who whose time travel can tie together terrible holes in the plot of a shoddy script.”

Kyrie Irving Said He Meets With a Mystical Board of People for Advice

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This quote came courtesy of Chris Forsberg, in which Kyrie said he meets with a mystical board of wise people for advice.

He is literally describing the Jedi High Council.

So is Kyrie Irving a Jedi? It would explain the insane handle and ball control in traffic; dude’s been using the force this whole time. It would also explain his overly elaborate and theatrical style of speaking. Kyrie is simply stuffed to the gills with midichlorians.

Williams, Morris Shine Against Anthony Davis and the Celtics Are Surging

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Photo credit: Charles Krupa/Associated Press

As already noted earlier today by Red, what a night it was for Bob at the Garden on Monday! His performance helped the Celtics win their seventh game in their last eight tries, and it really seems like The Green are starting to turn it on.

The Celtics rookie played a season-high 26 minutes against New Orleans and proved exactly why he was being projected by many as a lottery pick before this past June’s draft. His seven points and 11 boards were solid enough, but he also compiled three blocks – TWO of which were on none other than Anthony Davis.

Even more impressive is the fact that he held Davis to 7-of-17 shooting overall on the night; so, yes, while Davis did score 41, over half of those points were actually allowed by Daniel Theis and others besides Williams who covered The Brow last night. Bob also showed incredible discipline, playing so aggressively yet only committing one foul and zero turnovers.

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The rookie big man was all over Davis last night.

Red and I have been telling you since July that this kid was going to be something special, and we got our vindication last night. This is just a sign of things to come.

Another 300s favorite, Marcus Morris, was also huge in last night’s win. He posted 31 points to go along with four rebounds and four assists. Ever since being inserted into the starting lineup at the end of November along with Marcus Smart, Morris has averaged over 15 points per game.

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This man has kept on rolling all year long.

Brad Stevens’ choice to switch things up a few weeks ago has proven to be a very underrated (and potentially season-saving) move. Replacing Gordon Hayward and Jaylen Brown in the starting lineup for Morris and Smart may have sounded foolish just three months ago, but there is no doubt that the decision has injected some much-needed life into this team; the Celtics are undefeated through four games in December, and they have lost just once since Thanksgiving. I know that “season-saving” may sound a bit melodramatic, but this was a team that had lost five of their previous nine beforehand, and something needed to be done – and quickly – to get the team back on track.

Kudos on that one, Brad.

And what’s even better is that neither Hayward nor Brown have suffered as a result of the move, as both are still a huge part of the rotation and are each playing well over 20 minutes per night. Though Brown missed three games after injuring his back against Dallas on November 24, he’s averaged over 20 points per game in three games since returning. Hayward has been a bit more inconsistent and is still trying to find his groove, but his 30-point explosion against Minnesota on December 1 should give fans hope that he’s not too far off.

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Hopefully, this was Hayward’s coming-out party.

The team now currently sits fifth in the East, which is certainly not where most expected them to be this far into the season. Alas, don’t worry, Celtics Nation; it is still early and we’ve seen plenty of encouraging things over the past couple weeks which leads me to believe they’ll be just fine in the end.

Next up is a matchup with the Wizards on Wednesday night. The Celts then get Atlanta, Detroit, and Phoenix before a Friday night showdown against the No. 2-seed Bucks just before Christmas.

So while November was a bit of a rough patch, I’ve been liking what I’ve been seeing lately, boys! Keep it up!

The Celtics’ Robert Williams AKA Time Lord Put on a Show Last Night

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Update: Buy Time Lord shirts here!

With pretty much everyone of note sitting last night (Kyrie, Hayward, and Horford) there were plenty of minutes to go around. Enter Robert Williams AKA Time Lord, who got his first taste of legit NBA time with 26 minutes last night and boy did he put on a show. The Time Lord finished with 7 points and 11 rebounds, but for a young, raw player he was a force on the glass. Before last night Williams hadn’t played more than 8 minutes in any game this year so it was great to get an extended look at the 1st round pick. He was even a couple of inches away from being No. 1 on SportsCenter as he muffed an alley oop attempt. The highlight of the night for my young neighbor in Brighton though was this absolutely devastating block of arguably the best player in the game Anthony Davis.

Davis still finished with 41 points so nobody was shutting AD down, but that block was Williams making a statement. He actually had 3 blocks on the night as he made his presence known.

The kid can play and he may be the “rim defender” the Celtics have been looking for all these years.

Should the Celtics Bring Back Kendrick Perkins? Time for a Hit of Nostalgia!

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So apparently Kendrick Perkins called Danny Ainge just to check in and see if the Celtics had any interest in signing him. Imagine that? Just call up a company that you want to work for and ask hey do you want to pay me? No resumes, no interviews, just straight cash homie.

Normally I would sigh at the thought of a beloved, yet aging Boston athlete looking for one more shot at glory. I LOVE Perk, but we all saw him last year with Cleveland in a suit. The guy would make a phenomenal coach or more likely a corrections officer, but we all understand his playing days are over.

Except my 14-year-old brother was asking me about Perk wondering when was he really good, what he did well, and it dawned on me. 1.) How fucking old I really am and 2.) It’s easy to forget just how great Perk was for the Celtics back in the day. So lets dive in.

If Kendrick Perkins was born 20 years earlier he might be in the Hall of Fame today. I’m not joking. The guy was straight out of the 1980’s NBA. Bill Laimbeer would have been throwing hands with Perk twice a season. He was just an absolute force in the paint; a real old school bully. And that was exactly what the Celtics needed in 2007. A bodyguard for Rondo, a No. 2 to KG’s crazy, a guy willing to do the dirty work while the Big 3 handled all the scoring. He was the perfect fit for that team and both teammates and fans alike adored him.

I mean just look at this clip from the recent Celtics documentary that aired on NBC Sports Boston.

Never change, Perk.

Except Perk was actually born in 1984 and is really still only 34-years-old. Think about that for a second. He is literally just 40 days older than LeBron James. He’s 6 months younger than Carmelo Anthony. He’s two years younger than Dwyane Wade.

But, the sad fact is that the NBA game just passed Perk by. It passed a lot of guys by as the evolution of the game exploded so fast that the old school big man became a dinosaur in less than five years.

Perk’s last season with the Celtics was 2010-11 when Danny Ainge traded him to the OKC Thunder for Jeff goddamn Green in a move that I will still argue cost the C’s a legitimate shot at the title that year. I think if you got a couple warm milks in him, Danny would likely agree. But less than 5 years later the Golden State Warriors kicked off potentially the greatest dynasty we’ve ever seen built entirely on three point shooters, including the big men.

If you’re a big man who can’t shoot in 2018 you almost certainly are in the unemployment line these days. The Celtics have, and actively encourage, Aron Baynes to jack up multiple 3’s per game for fucks sake (averaging 6x 3PA per game than his previous career high last year). That was never Perk’s game so as the NBA turned into a video game with everyone pulling up from half court his role diminished a lot faster than anyone ever expected.

Did you know Kendrick Perkins has never made a 3 pointer in the NBA? Hell he’s only taken 14 attempts in 14 seasons!

To put that into context, from Perk’s last year with the C’s in 2010-11 the average 3 point attempts per game around the league have nearly doubled from 18 attempts per game to 31.3 per game this season. In the previous 8 seasons before that, average 3 point attempts per game had only increased about three from a low of 14.7 in 2002-03. So no one could have predicted the game completely changing the way it has.

As every Celtics fan my age will tell you, the C’s *never* lost a playoff series when their championship starting 5 was healthy and playing together. Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, Rajon Rondo, and Kendrick Perkins. Never. Lost. A. Series. Incredible. If Perk doesn’t blow out his knee in the 2009-10 NBA Finals there isn’t a doubt in my mind the Celtics beat the Lakers and win their second title in three years cementing their legacy as one of the greatest teams of all time. Instead we’re left with one championship and a bunch of what ifs, but goddamnit I don’t want to go down this dark road again because I could blog 10,000 words about the 2007-2011 Celtics.

So it sounds like despite all the great times they had together in green, Danny is gonna pass on the former big man.