Semi-Annual Celtics Post

Well, now, exciting times at the TD Banknorth Garden! C's make a trade - Ricky Davis, Mark Blount, Marcus Banks and Justin Reed (sort of tossed in, to make the meny work, I guess) - for Wally Serbiak* and Michael Olowokandi.... Had an interesting immediate effect - nice game out of Wally, but more than that - for some reason, the boys decided to play some defense tonight! Plenty of hacking and the usual turnover problems, but they shut down the Kings, dominated the boards - where did that come from? Better question - can they do it again? They've won 4 of 6, I think it is, which is pretty stellar work, by this year's standards - and have occasionally loked competent out there. Obviously, a big part of it is the commitment to play Kendrick Perkins and Al Jefferson - they need the experience, but even now, both bring energy and some bulk to the game, which they weren't getting from Mark Blount....

Tonight's game looked like the reverse of all the bad things I growled about in my previous Celtics post. They played defense - they are playing the kids - and they tightened it up and played better in the 4th quarter than they had all game. They still turned the ball over a bunch - but not down the stretch (a direct contrast to the Wizards game they lost a couple days ago.) Is Doc Rivers doing something right? I should probably amend some of the ranting I did by noting that the flaws he seems to have - managing the clock, dealing with the end of the game - can be neutralized by putting veteran, savvy players on the floor. Serbiak seems more controlled than Davis - and the kids get better the more they are put in that position. So - they should start dealing with the ends of games better. I hope.

God knows if they play defense like they did tonight, they will start to win a few games here and there. I admit that I didn't like the sound of this trade when they made it - Davis for Serbiak seems to be getting older and less athletic, while trading one gunner for another - but I might be wrong there. They looked good tonight - and Serbiak is a different kind of gunner, more of a shooter than Davis - which (as the whole broadcast crew and Danny Ainge kept repeating all night) spreads the floor, opens up opportunities down low for Al and Perk - so - this might work out....

Meanwhile, in more important sports news, I see the Red Sox managed to pull off their Coco Crisp trade. Adding David Riske, too - a good middle reliever... They've picked up Josh Beckett, Julian Tavarez and Riske, kept Timlin, and should get Foulke healthy again - that adds up to a major upgrade of their pitching staff. They've done it without giving away any of the top 4 pitching prospects (Papelbon, Hanson, Delcarmen and Lester), 2 or 3 of whom should be ready to fit into the mix at Fenway this year. There's been angst about Johnny Damon, but this - upgrading the pitching, across the board - is far more important than what's happened on the offense. Manny and Ortiz will do their thing - they still have a bunch of potent hitters - and now they have Crisp, who looks like a pretty legitimate player, and hsould stay useful for a few years. I think they've had a very nice off season.

* Update: one reason this may be the last Celtics post for a while is that "Serbiak" is spelled in fact, "Szczerbiak". That's too many consonants in close proximity to have any hope of getting right....