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Thursday, July 8, 2010

C's Take Cues from Varsity Team: Blow 27 Pt Lead

This article was originally published for CelticsLife.com


In the greatest comeback of the Summer League, the Celtics led the Indiana Pacers by 27 at the half - yet Larry Bird's squad persevered to beat the Celtics' 86-85.

The Pacers entered the fourth quarter aggressively pressing the C's - and it worked. Boston ended the game with a total of 23 turnovers as they destructed down the stretch.

The Celtics held the lead until the very last seconds when Paul George picked off a pass from Oliver Lafayette. Down by 2, the Pacers called a timeout, George scored, got fouled and made the FT - giving the C's 4 seconds to try take back the lead since they first took it 2-0.

You have to wonder what the Celtics tell their players if the Summer League team is blowing big leads too. Thankfully, it's only Summer League. Here's some takeaways:

Summer League's Big Three:
This squad has it's own big three- Lafeyette, Carroll and Harangody - whom all led the team in scoring today.

If you haven't watched the Summer League you've been missing out on Harangody. He's really fun to watch. After getting elbowed in the face yesterday, he played today with a big band-aid over his stitched up face.

He's got an ugly looking jump shot which he releases at his ear - but it can't seem to miss at points. He finished today's game with 16 points on 7/15 shooting. He also reeled in a team-high 7 boards. I'm excited to see how he fits in on this year's Celtics roster. If he can duplicate some of the success he's had in the Summer League - he will be a great addition off the bench.

Lafayette continues to impress for long stretches. Yet sometimes he makes some bad passes which really hurt the team today (led the team with 7 TOs). He does play a little like Rondo though, in that he's good in hauling in rebounds. Today he had the second most boards on the team with six. He's also always going for the steal on defense - picking 5 today.

Carroll tied the game-high 19 points and had success getting to the free-throw line - going 8/9.

Bigs Put up Little Numbers
Turkish giant, Semih Erden, only attempted 1 shot and got to the free throw line 3 times in 28 minutes. He ended the game with 7 points and blocked a shot, but only reeled in 2 rebounds. He did seem a little lost at time and refused to run with the team on the fast break.

About Erden, ESPNBoston's Chris Forsberg tweeted:
"Semih Erden, who already has a nagging right wrist injury that he's been taping/icing, just appeared to jam a finger on his left hand."
His backup, Krastov, wasn't effective either. In 11 minutes, he turned the ball over four times and was whistled for 5 fouls

So far, not looking like the answer to our Center problem. Thank God Danny signed Jermaine O'Neal.

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