Celtics-76ers Game 6 Preview

The Celtics will look to close out the Philadelphia 76ers at the Wells Fargo Center tonight at 8 PM. Currently holding a one game advantage and with a potential game 7 looming at the TD Garden, Philadelphia will try to step on the gas and take advantage of the transition game.

Tonight the Boston Celtics will be missing one of the top young defensive guards in the league, Avery Bradley. In his place, the Hall of Famer Ray Allen. The change of efficiency in the first unit will decrease slightly defensively due to Bradley's absence, but the second unit will suffer much more depending on the rotations Doc uses tonight. The loss of Bradley means more minutes for Keyon Dooling, while constantly gyrating on defense makes him look ridiculous, it is his offensive production that worries Celtics fans more.  Contrary to the worries about production from Rajon Rondo, over the past three postseasons, he has averaged 16.1 pts, 8.9 asts, 4.4 rbds, 2 stls and shooting 46% in closeout games. It is likely tonight that Rondo will share the ball handling responsibilities with Paul Pierce, because they have no one else once Rondo goes to the bench.

Philadelphia will look to attack early and often tonight on their home floor in this pivotal game. Although few around the league expected them to be in the conference semifinals, should we give Doug Collins another pat on the back if they lose by 20 or 30 tonight?  

What To Focus On:

Rebounding

Always a key statistic in NBA playoff games, especially in this series. The leader in rebounds has won four of the five games in this series thus far and has the ability to control the tempo.

Points in the Paint

The Celtics have been able to secure a one game advantage thanks to big performances by big time players. The thing that they have lacked both during the season and in the postseason, is depth at the bigs' spots. This should have been, and should be a point of emphasis for the 76ers to play inside out basketball by finding Hawes, Brand and Iguodala in the paint.

Brandon Bass
Game 5 was by far the best performance of Brandon Bass's professional career, thanks in large part to an 18 point third quarter. When the Celtics traded away Glen Davis and Von Wafer this past off season, this is the type of prowess they hoped he could show. With a player option for next year, Bass may be playing his way to a contract extension in this playoffs. If he can attack and continue to be a presence on the offensive end, Bass will undeniably help space the floor and allow Ray Allen and Paul Pierce to attack.

The Mix-Up in the AL East

Once again, it was a race to the finish in the American League East between the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, and Tampa Bay Rays to determine who'd win the division and wild card. For the fourth consecutive year these three teams have held the top three seeds in the AL East. At the end of the 2011 Major League Baseball season the American League East ended with the New York Yankees as the #1 seed, and the Tampa Bay Rays at the #2 seed. The Rays were six games behind the Yankees and Boston Red Sox were only one game behind the Rays.

The flop of the Red Sox in September brought new perspective to the history books. There has never been a team to blow a bigger lead in September besides the 2011 Red Sox. They were leading the AL East by nine games through September 3rd. The Red Sox ended their season in shocking fashion with a appalling 7-20 record, did not win consecutive games at any point during September, and managed to miss the playoffs by one game.

By the end of the 2011 season both the Yankees and Red Sox knew that they were in need of major personal changes. As the Red Sox faced a troublesome end  to the season the owners John Henry, Tom Werner, and Larry Lucchino all came to an executive decision that it was managements fault. The first step to recovery for the Red Sox was to fire Head Coach Terry Francona, and with that General Manager Theo N. Epstein decided that it was time to part ways with the Red Sox. With these positions needing to be filled the owners of this once dynamic franchise decided to add Bobby "V" Valentine and Ben Cherington as General Manager. Not only did the Red Sox experience change in management, the roster contained drastic
changes as well. Key Acquisitions: RP Andrew Bailey, OF Cody Ross, C Kelly Shoppach, OF Ryan Sweeny; Key Loses: SP John Lackey (Tommy John surgery), RP Jonathan Papelbon, OF Josh Reddick, SS Jed Lowrie, C Jason Varitek (retired), SP Tim Wakefield (retired), J.D. Drew (FA). With all of these former Red Sox players gone, they have also been suffering with 12 players currently on  the DL, six of them being outfielders (Carl Crawford, Jacoby Ellsbury, Cody Ross, Ryan Kalish, Darnell McDonald, and Jason Repko).


The Yankees pitching rotation needed to improve their depth for the 2012 season. In the offseason they acquired right-handed Pitcher Michael Pineda from the Seattle Mariners for New York's top catching prospect Jesus Montero. Pineda is in his second season in the majors and comes from the American League West, competing against Texas Rangers, Oakland Athletics, and Los Angeles Angels in the division. The American League East is considered the powerhouse of Major League Baseball. Coming from a less competitive AL West, Pineda is facing some of the toughest players and teams in the AL East. During spring training, Pineda looked out of shape and over weight, it showed because he struggled. He was 10 pounds above his playing weight at 280 pounds entering spring training. When he pitched, his velocity was high 80s and occasionally he would throw 91 mph. The struggles didn't fade when the regular season began, he started off the season on the disabled list with right shoulder inflammation. He will be shut down for the remainder of the season after sustaining a tear in the labrum of his right shoulder, he had arthroscopic surgery May 1 and will be out for about a year. Pineda was supposed to be the key factor to the Yankees starting rotation this season. Did the Yankees make a mistake by trading for him? Many speculate that the Mariners knew about his shoulder problems and never informed the Yankees. Was this a recurring injury?

Prior to the beginning of this 2012 season many baseball experts and insiders predicted for both the Yankees and Red Sox to be in contention for first place in the AL East. To their surprise, this year has been quite the opposite for both of these teams. The Yankees have only been able to reach first place once this season and that was from April 21-23, when they stood at first place with the record of 10-6. In the first 44 games of this season, the Red Sox have not been able to break a win percentage of over .500 thus far. As of today, the Red Sox stand in last place of the AL East with a record of 22-22, and the Yankees lay in 4th place with a record of 22-21.

American League
EAST	W	L	PCT	GB	EAST	CENT	WEST	INTR	RHP	LHP
Baltimore	28	17	.622	-	14-9	8-1	4-6	2-1	21-14	7-3
Tampa Bay	26	18	.591	1.5	12-10	3-3	10-3	1-2	21-10	5-8
Toronto	24	20	.545	3.5	7-11	8-3	7-5	2-1	17-13	7-7
NY Yankees	22	21	.512	5	9-9	7-6	5-4	1-2	15-15	7-6
Boston	22	22	.500	5.5	7-10	10-7	3-4	2-1	14-15	8-7

Is it to early in the season to start speculating the struggles of both Red Sox and Yankees? Are the injuries the reason for the Red Sox struggles? Or are their struggles due to new management? Will the Red Sox and/or Yankees make personnel changes to improve? Will both teams make the playoffs? Or will one team come up short again this season?