It's All About 18 - A Boston Celtics Adventure

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The Boston Celtics announced today the signing of J.J. Price, an unknown european coach famous for his defensive attitudes and his ability in player market. Here follows his story, in which he tries to bring the title back in Boston and makes the winning years of the Celtics going on.

Boston, MA - I can see Celtics fans all around Boston's streets, and it's only the first day of the training camp. The Garden looks full as happened in june when we had battled against the Los Angeles Lakers for the Larry O'Brien Trophy. Our feelings about the upcoming season are pretty good: we know our team is getting really older but in the summer we worked hard to have a motivated team and a long bench that could give a quality rest to the starters. We hope to have lots of winning seasons in the future and finally let the 18 banner go down from the Garden's ceiling.

Coming Up Next: Boston Celtics Roster and Coach Price's Press Conference

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#	NAME	POS	AGE	HT	WT	SALARY
4	Nenad Krstic	C	27	7'0	240	5.80K$
5	Kevin Garnett	F	34	6'11	253	18.80K$
7	Jermaine O'Neal	C	32	6'11	258	5.76K$
8	Jeff Green	F	24	6'9	235	4.46K$
9	Rajon Rondo	G	24	6'1	171	9.00K$
11	Glen Davis	F	24	6'9	289	3.30K$
12	Von Wafer	G	25	6'5	210	916K$
13	Delonte West	G	27	6'3	180	1.07K$
20	Ray Allen	G	35	6'5	205	10.00K$
30	Troy Murphy	F	30	6'11	245	473K$
34	Paul Pierce	F	33	6'7	235	13.88K$
36	Shaquille O'Neal	C	38	7'1	325	1.35K$

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How do you fell about the "new" Celtics? According to you, can they win the championship?
"I really think so. Last year we took the Lakers to game 7 in the finals and we can repeat that road again, i've no doubts about it."

What about summer movements? Do yo think Jeff Green can be so important as Perkins was along the past years?
"Sure. Jeff has a huge talent and better offensive skills than Kendrick. He needs to get used to our defensive system, but i think he just need one or two month to do it. He can also defend well on power forwards like Lamar Odom, Rashard Lewis or Melo Anthony if the Knicks decide to play him as a 4. Despite this, we're going to develop him as a small forward and only sometimes made him a power one."

And Shaq?
"He just wants to win and this is all we need. He can give us 20/25 minutes of defense and post skills during the regular season and be ready and healty for the final run."

Other teams made lots of changes in the summer. Are you scared about the Heat?
"Just a bit. They are great, but three players don't make a team win. Everything depend on their ability of growing up a harmony. The team I'm most scared about is always the Lakers."

Final question. In five days you're going to start the season against the Sixers, your opinion about them?
"During the summer they worked hard to built a winning team. They now have Evan Turner, the second round pick of the last draft, a young and complete player ready for this league. They have got an amazing starting five, but i think the bench isn't so good, so we have to run and made their starters commit fouls, that is the key of the game."

Coming Up Next: Opening Game

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Boston Celtics 84 vs Philadelphia 76ers 106
TD Garden
Boston, Massachusetts
November 3rd, 2010

Boston, MA - It's the first game of the season and we're going to host the Philadelphia 76ers, Andre Iguodala's team. The Garden is full and the crowd give us from the first minuted the support we need to win the game. We started very well, changed the defense from man to man to 3-2 zone and making the Sixers losing a big number of balls. Paul Pierce is on fire and also Jermaine O'Neal find the basket quite easily. But with the head more on the rotation's management than on the game, Phila came back well in the game and at the break we're losing by two point with Shaq and JO had committed four fouls each other. We started to lose confidence in our abilities and the game went away from our hands. We lost really bad 106-84 with a poor defense and concentration that we absolutely have to improve.

Next Game: Boston Celtics vs Portland Trail Blazers

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Boston Celtics 91 vs Portland Trail Blazers 85
TD Garden
Boston, Massachusetts
November 10th, 2010

Boston, MA - A week after the bad loss against the Sixers in the opening game in front of our fan, we're ready to take the first W of the season and make the crowd enjoy our basket. During the free week, we worked hard on defense but, what is most important, we had set up new plays for our players, like iso for Rajon, three point opportunities for Troy or post moves for Jeff. The Blazers are very good: the have one of the best playmaker of the league in Andre Miller and an all-star guard that can shot in every way. Recently they also acquire the athletic and defensive small forward Gerald Wallace from Charlotte and recover Greg Oden from the knee's injury. This four players, among with Aldrige, make up the starting five. The game started with Ray Allen stroking from outside(24 point and 5 threes for him) and Roy responding with post shots and fadeaway jumpers. With Lamarcus Aldrige on fire from mid range, we could'n find the way to make a break. After the break, I decided to make the team on the court defend the 1-3-1 zone and this move resulted great. Portland had many turnovers and Rajon Rondo run the fastbreaks very well. When the Blazers adjusted their offensive performances, Paul Pierce take the game and managed to save it. The final is dramatic, with the key play of the game in Shaq served in post by Rondo that assisted Pierce for the three. The negative side of the game was the rebounding contest, where we lost 39-26! That's the second time in two games we lose, and that's what we're going to work on. Now we'll play our first road trip, composed of three games: one in a week and a half against the Indiana Pacers, two against Heat and Magic in the first back to back matches.

Celtics Record --> 1-1

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Boston Celtics 74 @ Indiana Pacers 73
Conseco Fieldhouse
Indianapolis, Indiana
November 26th, 2010

Indianapolis, IN - We're here for the begin of our first road trip of the season, which starts in Indianapolis against the Pacers. During the summer they worked really well and succeed in acquiring Darren Collison from New Orleans. They also selected one of the most interesting prospect of the draft, the 6'8 small forward from Fresno State, Paul George. They also have Danny Granger, the player i consider the best in the league if he finds the right match, and Roy Hibbert from Gergetown, the land of centers. We arrived ready for the tip off but Granger and his teammates wants to defend their arena so they set up a 9-2 break that made me really scared about the game. The number 33 scored from everywhere in every way: from the post or penetrating when we were man to man or from three point when we tried to switch to zone defense. From our side, we have two former Pacers with a lot of motivation in Troy Murphy and Jermaine O'Neal. Instead of hard defense on every side of the court, Murphy scored six consecutive points with three mid-range jumpers allowing us to come back in the game. Only Kevin of the starting five give us the point we need(14 for him among with a great defense) and so the score of the game remain very low, 37-36 Pacers at half-time. The third quarter was really mad, with an unbelievable number of turnover and with nobody that could find the way of the basket. When the fourth period began, JO was on fire. He wanted to win the competition with Hibbert and show his former crowd that the money he received in the past weren't spent in an incorrect way. He grabbed rebound, blocked shots and recover two balls in addition of his outstanding offensive performance. With little more than one minute left, he played a pick and fade with Rajon and give us the one point lead with a mid range shot. On the other side it's Granger responding with a shot near the basket. The ball goes on Ray Allen hands, that first play a pick&roll with KG assisting him for the jumper that wasn't good, than after the offensive rebound of Jermaine he call the isolation an scored two easy point attacking the basket. The Pacers were losing by one and needed a quick basket. Collison called a double vertical screen and serve Granger for the dunk with 2.6" left on the clock. I immediately called a time out in which i decided to give the ball at Paul Pierce that would have shot in two seconds after receiving a screen for Kevin. Jermaine made the pass, Pierce went in the corner, he raised up and... BUCKET!! We won the game in a dramatic fashion with a last second shot by our captain. Despite the shot, the MVP can be just one player, the former Pacer Jermaine O'Neal that concluded with 28 points, 10 rebounds shooting 13/21 from the field and 2/2 from the three throw line. Were the Pacers right when they left him and Troy go away?

Next Game: Boston Celtics @ Miami Heat

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Boston Celtics 107 @ Miami Heat 100
American Airlines Arena
Miami, Florida
November 28th, 2010

Miami, FL - The game where the former eastern conference champions and the aspiring new one met up is something you can't lose. We arrived in Miami powered by the last second win against the Pacers and we want to make our winning streak going on and became a three game one. Miami has an incredible roster but the team chemistry isn't so good so we have to play a reasonable basketball without running too much. During the first quarter Shaq and KG attacked Chris Bosh hardly and made him commit two fouls immediately. Without CB, Heat's frontline is offensively really bad, but with Haslem on the court gains some points in defense. We've got also Ray Allen that was on fire and he finally would have a great game with 26 points(6/12 from behind the arc), 5 rebounds and 6 assists. What we didn't have all along the first half was Paul, that took just one shot missing it for a zero-points poor half game. In the second quarter we switched on to 3-2 zone defense and Rajon made a great performance in fastbreaks scoring 13 points and distributed 8 assists. In the third quarter Lebron iso himself from Heat plays and do it a personal question collecting 11 rebounds and scoring 12/15 from the field for a total of 30 points. Also Wade did it and scored 28. But with only two players driving the team, Miami couldn't hope to find the W, and we answered with Jermaine that goes on with great performances scoring 18 points most made of mid-range jumpers, now a certainty for him. With Shaq replaced him well we went to the final minutes with a 5 point lead that we conserved all along the game. We went on playing together and managed to grab the W against one contender. Now from one part of Florida we'll go to another one, exactly in Orlando, where tomorrow the Magic are going to host us.

Celtics Record --> 3-1

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Boston Celtics 91 @ Orlando Magic 76
Amway Center
Orlando, Florida
November 29th, 2010

Orlando, FL - After the great win against Miami, we go to Orlando where the Magic are ready to host us. Orlando didn't start the season well, losing four games and winning just two. We're a bit tired after just a night of rest but we know our bench can change games and give some minutes of rest to the starting five. Shaq is the oldest player of the group and with is enormous tonnage had difficulties is playing and limited himself just to a normal game of administration, defending pretty well on Dwight Howard, that had just 13 points. The second quarter was the most important one and we succeeded in making a 10-2 break with the young Avery Bradley guiding the team really well for a 19 yo man. Also Green had a big game with two important threes that made us put the game on our hands. After the Magic trying to came back in the game with Jason Richardson(20 points) and Brandon Bass(16), we send them back again with some beautiful plays by Ray(19 points, 5 rebounds and 5 threes) and Jermaine, that ended the game with 19 points and just five missed shots concluding a wonderful month of november. Now we have an easy home game against the Bucks and than we'll be ready for our second road trip in which we're going to make a visit to the Golden State Warriors, the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Cleveland Cavaliers. Inside the team, Delonte West moral looks going down because he wants to play more time, but for the moment the situation is stable and we don't have to worry.

Celtics Record --> 4-1