Eastern Conference Standings

Western Conference Standings

Atlanta was already good two years ago and better last season; you’d expect a young team loaded with quality players to improve every year, but their win streak has been impressive and the way they handled the Celtics at the Garden even more so. The same is true for Portland. But Milwaukee and Oklahoma City?! Who expected that after a dozen games or so the Bucks would be ahead of the Celtics, that the Thunder and the Pacers would have made it to the playoffs? I’d even add Phoenix to the mix. I personally thought that Steve Nash was done, or if not exactly done that he had already played his best basketball. This year he rejuvenated himself and is arguably playing his best basketball ever. This may not be good for TV, as the above mentioned teams come from tiny markets, but it is great for an average fan, who loves the game more than any particular team.

I am sure there are quite a few people out there quietly rooting for the underdogs. Now I am not gonna switch to a soccer game when the Bucks meet the Thunder. I will actually look forward  to see if Jennings will outscore Durant, or if the Thunder improved defense will make the stops down the stretch. Who knows, maybe we’ll see these two teams play on a Christmas Day in several years. Or even sooner.

Partizan, Belgrade

Partizan had a lot of success last season, but most of its key players were traded in the off-season (Tepić, Veličković, Tripković, Lasme). As always, Partizan does good scouting and they acquired new players (Alex Marić, McCalleb). It is still early to say, player-by-player it reads like a net loss to me. Marić seems to be somewhat of the force inside and McCalleb has speed, quickness, and mindset to score a lot of baskets, but their long-range shooting is not as much of the threat this year and they don’t have a clear leader on the court when the game is on the line. Partizan started slow both in the Adriatic League and Euroleague.

Cibona, Zagreb

Cibona has struggled financially, players played without the pay for some time. They were blown out by Sienna in their first Euroleague game at home. Then, they lost two more, but finally won a game at home against Zalgiris. Cibona is trying to incorporate some younger players into the roster while relying on Marko Tomas to break the defenses and score a lot of points. So far, the results have been mixed. They do have the best start in the Adriatic League in years as they haven’t lost the game their yet; coming back from Belgrade with a win against Partizan.

I would be surprised if either team did anything significant in the Euroleague this year. Round of 16 would clearly be a huge success. In the Adriatic League, this seems to be the year of Croatian basketball. In addition to Cibona, Zagreb has piled up wins, and Cedevita is in the upper echelons. In the past years, the clubs from Serbia dominated the league to the extent that they questioned the very purpose of participating. If Croatia and Slovenia can consistently add quality to the league, the current debate in Serbia that they just play to improve other countries’ basketball will go away.

Marko Tomas in Action

I’d like to remind my US audience that basketball is played throughout the world. This game is second to only soccer as the most widespread ball game in the world, and one of few truly international games invented on the American soil. But when I say the whole world, I really mean US and Europe. Yes, Argentina and Brasil have good leagues; the game is gaining popularity in China by hour; Australia has put some decent teams together in the past decades. But the best players find their way either to an NBA team or to a team which plays in Euroleague. Most of the best players early in their career (Ricky Rubio) or a bit later (Luis Scola) get drafted into the NBA.

Paul Pierce from the Celtics

Euroleague is a serious business, fans have real passion, and the quality of basketball is very good. A lot of talented players play Euroleague hoping that it will be a conduit to the NBA, but some choose it as their final destination. For years I’ve been following some teams which play Euroleague, one of them is Cibona from Zagreb, Croatia. This year they have a solid team, but one which is not likely to go very far after the group round.

Now, I am slowly coming to the topic of this article: Cibona’s best paid and likely their best player Marko Tomas, a star of sorts. Every time I watch his game he reminds me of one of the NBA stars Paul Pierce, from the Boston Celtics. They couldn’t be more different in some ways, Pierce makes millions while Tomas probably doesn’t crack the 1/2 mil mark; Pierce clearly has many times more talent and athleticism; Pierce won an NBA championship two years ago while Tomas hasn’t won anything yet. Neither is young any more, although Tomas is considerably younger. But the game, when you watch them play they both dance through defenses, the ball sticks to their hands, you can’t say if they’ll shoot or attack the rim, while quite often they’ll find an open guy as the defenses collapse around them. They are both elusive offensive players, very hard for defenders to track down.

Yes, Pierce may finish more of his shots and drives. He will likely have more assists on a given night because he is surrounded by Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen, but that game is born out of the same basketball dream that two kids once shared – one in L.A. another in Koprivnica, Croatia. And every time I watch either of them play, I am reminded that this game is one of the great connectors of distant places on earth, and human beings who couldn’t be less alike.

Why am I so pessimistic?

1. I am not a Rondo believer. Not that he is a bad point guard. He is really not. But I don’t believe in players who turn their game on or off by following some unpredictable urge which neither the fans nor, what’s worse, his coach and teammates can understand. He’s been like this since he got into the league and he will not change despite the 55mil contract. During the Celts’ last game, against the Nets, Rondo sat most of the fourth quarter. Eddie House led the Celts to the win. If Rondo played, the Celts may not have gotten the win. Despite the stat sheet, Rondo is the weakest link in the Celtics line-up, the link that other teams more and more often decide not to guard. I am very convinced that even 5 mediocre NBA players can guard 4 of the Celtics aging stars. The Nets proved that.
2. The Celts don’t get to the foul line nearly as often as they should. With exception of Paul Pierce, they simply don’t attach the hoop. Perkins is the only big player with a resemblance of an inside game, but Perk is only solid offensively, his real strength is defense. Ray Allen will go inside when the threes don’t fall in. I expected Daniels to attack more, but he’s been reserved so far, maybe still trying to learn his role.
3. The Celts have three seven-footers and are getting out-rebounded. This is the most frustrating component of the Celtics game. They have enough size to outrebound every opponent, yet they don’t do it every night. They’ve been sloppy with their box-outs, or maybe with age they lost a bit of that lateral movement and agility required for consistent box-outs. This is another result of a lot of the players preferring the outside game, lurking from behind the three-point line.
4. The Celts are struggling mightily when playing back-to-back games. Is this age? Is this lack of conditioning? It’s been particularly noticeable with Allen and Garnett. It is true that they’ve had a loaded schedule so far and that it came too soon, but the whole point of deepening the bench was to avoid the tiredness in the middle of the loaded schedule. Maybe the bench is not paying off the way the management and the coaching staff expected.
5. I don’t think that Doc Rivers is a great coach. I say this with conflicting feelings because he seems to be a great guy (never met him). Also, he’s had success, he won the championship two years ago. But even during that championship year I had a feeling that something was lacking. It is not very tangible, that what’s lacking. It’s just that his rotations don’t give me the confidence. In my view he gets stuck with certain rotations. For example, I watched Hudson in few minutes he played this season. It is clear that Doc will trust him only when the lead is big, but during the time he played he didn’t make a single mistake. He shows maturity on the court. Maybe try him at the point before the game becomes decided and finally relieve Eddie from running the game as he is not very effective at that.
6. Garnett is not 100% and maybe he never will be again. Let’s face the truth, he can barely dunk. Now, I wasn’t thrilled about Rondo/Garnett dunking plays last year as I suspected it might lead to Garnett’s injury, but this year his elevation is just not there. Forget about dunking, just look at his 18-foot jumper. Garnett never shot 1 of 9 until this season. I hope he recovers and does it quickly because Garnett is a true force in today’s game and his passion can be matched by no other player.

It would be a terrific Celtic-Lakers series in the Finals. I hope both teams make it there after some exhausting, exhilarating 7-game series in the Playoffs. If they do, and if players on both teams are healthy, I don’t think that the Celtics can match what the Lakers can throw at them. I am writing these words and hoping that I am so wrong.