Early glee

[Nathan Arneal]

At least once a game, it dawns on me "Kevin Garnett
plays for the Celtics" like was just relizing it for
the first time, and I feel downright giddy. I can't
belive what we are seeing right now. Consider:

- We are beating teams worse than any other team in
the league (a NBA high 16.6 point per game vicotry
margin right now.)

- We lead the league in shooting % (.524!)

- "But they can't play defense!" the preseason
naysayers cried. Well, our so-called weak defense is
allowing the lowest FG% in the leage (.407) and is
ranked #5 in points allowed (91.0)

- Slabrine has gone from goat to crowd favorite. The
Garden echos with the "Scal-a-brine" chant! I no
longer cringe when he goes into the game.

- We beat the Nets on a back-to-back in NJ when they
had a day of rest!

- As for our other weaknesses: Eddie House has been
lighting it up. Rajon Rondo has knocked down open
jumpers and has looked great on penetration (and is
shooting .512!) Perk has looked good on the boards,
especially the offensive boards, is doing better at
staying out of foul trouble, and has looked down right
crafty on offense at times.

Ahhh, it's great to be a Celtic.

However, like many have mentioned, I am a little
concerned about the big minutes GPA are putting in.
The Nets game I can semi-understand. Division rival,
bench thin without Scal and Posey, etc. 

But look at the Denver game. It was basically over in
the second quarter. Garnett sat out 90% of the fourth
quarter and still managed to log 36.5 minutes. GPA are
all averaging between 38.4 and 40.6 minutes per game,
and most of our games haven't been very close.

I was really hoping to see Doc sub out one of GPA at
about the 6 min mark in the first quarter, then bring
him back in for another one of the three with a couple
minutes left in the first. Instead, we usually see all
three play the whole first quarter. Garnett usually
doesn't get a break until just minutes left in the
half. We are five games into a 82-game marathon. It
would be nice to be getting our guys rest when we can.

Switching topics, what was with the season starting on
a Tuesday, and us not playing until Friday? I'm sure
we will wish we had some of those useless days off
later in the season when we are going through some
extra back-to-backs to make up for our delayed season
opener. Was it just because of TV or something?

Go C's.

I hope Red is up there smiling.

Nathan A. 

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