8 replies to this topic

[Judge Mental13]

LOVE this matchup. Not as a Celtics fan, necessarily, but as a fan of the NBA.

Rondo/Bradley vs. Holliday/Williams is going to be electrifying. I seriously cannot wait to see those guys go at each other. Iguodala vs. Pierce should be epic. Brand/Garnett in the paint.....

Without Rose to keep them in check, the Philly guards ran wild in some of those games. The C's had issues with Jeff Teague and now those issues are going to double with the combo of Holliday and Williams. Not super worried about Evan Turner. He had two good games in the Bulls series but he doesn't take a lot of shots to begin with and when he starts off slow he usually becomes a non-factor for the rest of the game. I might even put Rondo on Turner to start off with Bradley on Holliday. I give the nod at guard to the Celtics. The Sixers have a good stable but Turner is a weak link.

I actually like the Celtics all-around rotation a little bit better than the 6ers. With Allen/Pietrus/Daniels ready to come off the bench and potentially guard Iguodala (if Paul gets in foul trouble) is a big boost against Philly's weak wing play. Elton Brand had a weird series, he started off game 1 with 19 points 7 Rebs and 4 Blocked shots, then he disappeared and the Sixers went marching right along without him. He had 0 points in game 3, then scored 17 points in games 4-5-6 combined with 2 more rebounds.

I think if the Celtics can keep the Philly guards in check they could sweep this series. Chicago without Rose is a decent team, but the Atlanta Hawks probably would've swept Chicago without Rose.

I think the Celtics could sweep this, but I'm going to say Boston in 5.

[Jeff Van GULLY]

I really like the way Collins has set up his rotation. Having Thaddeus Young and Lou Williams come off the bench gives the 6'ers a solid 7 players who all have an argument to start. I actually like them better when Williams is out there.

Collins really uses an 8 man rotation in total, adding Lavoy Allen into the mix. IMO, the more minutes Allen plays, the better it is for the Celtics. Interestingly enough, he didn't play at all yesterday, and instead they used an 8-man rotation with guard Jodie Meeks instead. Until game 6, Meeks had seen relatively few minutes this series. Old friend Tony Battie is on Philly but he doesn't play.


Anyway, while L. Allen can sometimes play well (see game 2 of the Bulls series), he's inconsistent and seeing him on the court more often means we have Young/Brand/Hawes in foul trouble, which I think will be very important this series.

I am extremely concerned about Ray Allen; I don't think he plays Saturday. Pierce is another guy for the C's we're going to have to worry about each game. Will his shot disappear in a few games because he just doesn't have the legs?

That said, I see the Celtics in 7, maybe 6.

Edited by Jeff Van GULLY, 11 May 2012 - 11:02 AM.

[Hendu's Gait]

if Pierce had 2 healthy knees, I'd say Celtics in 5; with a sprain, Celtics in 7. If the unmentionable happens, Sixers in 6.

Edited by Hendu's Gait, 11 May 2012 - 10:58 AM.

[Brickowski]

My guess is that the young Sixers gained alot of confidence by beating the Bulls. I didn't think they would, even with Rose out.
Speaking of the title of this thread, there were plenty of Sixers I detested, and the guy I hated most was Andrew Toney. But there were players to admire on some of those Sixers teams, and Moses Malone was one of them. (So were Bobby Jones and Hal Greer.)

[smastroyin]

re: thread title.

The story:

The Houston Rockets were playing the Boston Celtics in the 1981 NBA Finals. With the series tied at two games a piece, Moses stated pooped all over the Celtics in the press, stating emphatically that he had no respect for them. He even went to far as to say that he could pick any four guys off the playground in his hometown of Petersburg, Virgina, and the five of them could easily beat the Celtics. Moses soon learned that just like you shouldn't shoot a grizzly bear in the ass with a BB gun, you also shouldn't piss off Larry Bird and the Celtics. Boston went on to win Game 5 by 29 points, and then they finished off the Rockets in Houston in Game 6. During the championship rally back in Boston, a fan held up a sign that said "Moses eats shit". Larry smiled when he saw it and loudly agreed...much to the crowd's delight.

http://basketbawful....malone-and.html

[Brickowski]

Yes, I remember that incident. Sort of like what Atlanta's owner just did. Even so, Malone was a blue collar guy who played the right way.

[JakeRae]

Is there a way to merge this with the thread Lose started? We don't need two series threads and it seems like game thread rules should give Lose's thread preference over this one.

[RoDaddy]

I was there as well with some friends, but never knew there was a sign! I just thought Bird made it up on the spot, and got away with it because ...well, he was Bird. I can still hear Johnny Most's cackle laugh when he said it! Maybe I should have known about this, but there were so many people at that victory celebration that day at Government center, so I'm guessing most never saw or knew about the sign either.

[Judge Mental13]

Lose hadn't posted his series thread yet so yeah feel free to merge this in with that one I certainly won't be offended.

Except now I feel stupid, I thought Moses made that comment about beating the C's with his friends from Virginia when he played for Philly. The joke still kinda works though. I remember him as a 6er.

And of course as San Antonio Spur



One big element of this series that hasn't been touched on too heavily is the fact that the 6ers are an extremely well coached team. That's going to be an adjustment for the Celts who just finished off a more talented but (IMO) poorly coached Atlanta team. On the other hand, our coach is pretty good, too.