The Complete Guide to the Boston Celtics Milestones for the Upcoming 2012-13 Season

NBA All-Time List

Points Scored

14. Reggie Miller 25,279

17. Allen Iverson 24,368

18. Kevin Garnett 24,270                        (needs 99 to move into 17th place)

20. Charles Barkley 23,757

24. Ray Allen* 22,941

25. Paul Pierce 22,591                        (needs 351 to move into 24th place)

Games Played

11. Buck Williams 1,307

19. Otis Thorpe 1,257

20. Kevin Garnett 1,255                        (needs 3 to move into 19th place)

Field Goals Made

11. Dominique Wilkins 9,963              

12. Kevin Garnett 9,729                        (needs 235 to move into 11th place)

Three-Pointers Made

3. Jason Kidd* 1,874

4. Jason Terry 1,788                        (needs 87 to move into 3rd place)

6. Peja Stojakovic 1,760

8. Rashard Lewis* 1,690

9. Paul Pierce 1,678                        (needs 13 to move into 8th place)

Free Throws Made

10. Allen Iverson 6,375

13. Bob Pettit 6,182

14. Paul Pierce 6,101                        (needs 82 to move into 13th place)

-Jeff Green is 218 free throws made away from 1,000 career

-Rajon Rondo is 244 free throws made away from 1,000 career

-Brandon Bass is 258 free throws made away from 1,000 career

Offensive Rebounds

21. David Robinson 3,083

23. Shawn Kemp 3,026

24. Kevin Garnett 3,011                        (needs 16 to move into 23rd place)

-Paul Pierce is 37 offensive rebounds away from 1,000 career

-Chris Wilcox is 85 offensive rebounds away from 1,000 career

Defensive Rebounds

1. Karl Malone 11,406

2. Kevin Garnett 10,302                        (needs 1105 to move into 1st place)

-Chris Wilcox is 19 defensive rebounds away from 2,000 career

Total Rebounds

10. Wes Unseld 13,769              

11. Hakeem Olajuwon 13,748

12. Kevin Garnett 13,313                        (needs 436 to move into 11th place)

-Chris Wilcox is 104 rebounds away from 3,000 career

Assists

-Paul Pierce is 65 assists away from 4,000 career

-Rajon Rondo is 477 assists away from 4,000 career

Steals

15. Magic Johnson 1,724

18. Fat Lever 1,666

19. Kevin Garnett 1,664                        (needs 3 to move into 18th place)

-Paul Pierce is 1 steal away from 1,500 career

Blocks

18. Theo Ratliff 1,968

19. Kevin Garnett 1,908                        (needs 61 to move into 18th place)

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Celtics All-Time List

Games Played

2. Robert Parish 1,106

3. Paul Pierce 1,025                        (needs 82 to move into 2^nd place)

Field Goals Made

3. Robert Parish 7,483

4. Paul Pierce 7,406                        (needs 78 to move into 3^rd place)

Defensive Rebounds

7. Cedric Maxwell 2,405

8. Kevin Garnett 2,331                        (needs 82 to move into 7^th place)

Assists

4. Bill Russell 4,100

5. Paul Pierce 3,935                        (needs 166 to move into 4^th place)

6. Jo Jo White 3,686

7. Rajon Rondo 3,523                        (needs 164 to move into 6^th place)

Steals

1. Larry Bird 1,556

2. Paul Pierce 1,499                        (needs 58 to move into 1^st place)

3. Robert Parish 873

4. Rajon Rondo 843                                    (needs 31 to move into 3^rd place)

Blocks

4. Kendrick Perkins 646

5. Paul Pierce 638            (needs 9 to move into 4^th place)

7. Reggie Lewis 417

9. Tony Battie 369

10. Kevin Garnett 332            (needs 38 to move into 9^th place)

Note: Paul Pierce is already the Celtics franchise leader in three-pointers made and free throws made

* = Active players that are not on Celtics roster

Boston Celtics 2012-13 Mini-Preview

celtic-nation.com

The 2012-13 Boston Celtics are different from last year’s version in one distinct way: the bench. As of the beginning of the regular season, Avery Bradley will likely still be sidelined with his injured shoulders. Therefore, Courtney Lee will be slotted into the established starting lineup of Rajon Rondo, Paul Pierce, Brandon Bass and Kevin Garnett. Yet, the Celtics still do have enough firepower from the bench with the likes of Jason Terry, Jeff Green, Chris Wilcox, Jared Sullinger, Fab Melo and Jason Collins. In addition, for the first time since the start of 2007-08 preseason, Doc Rivers is having his team participate in the NBA Europe Live Tour. The second instance of this bonding experiment should bring together a team filled with a lot of fresh faces. However, the x-factor for this year’s Celtics is neither a player that the organization acquired this offseason nor is it an established veteran; it is Jeff Green, who is coming off of heart surgery that prevented him from playing in any games during the lockout-shortened 2011-12 season. He is such a dynamic player that can play either forward position and create unique offense by running extremely well with Rondo. I think he will live up to his hefty four-year, $36-million deal and be a huge asset to the Celtics in their pursuit of Banner #18.

2012-13 Boston Celtics Prediction: 57-25 record and NBA Championship.

Celtics Defense Walks All Over Hawks

 

To begin Game 2, Paul Pierce dominated the Atlanta Hawks defense with 4 made field goals on the Boston Celtics’ first 5 possessions of the game. Pierce scored the Celtics’ first 9 points and had the potential for even more production in the first half, but the Hawks were able to stymie the point forward. On both of the next 2 possessions, Pierce turned the ball over. Then, he only scored 4 points in his next 14 minutes of game time. The captain would end up with 8 turnovers in total on the night, his most turnovers in a game in the 2011-12 regular season and playoffs. In fact, Pierce became the first Celtic to commit that many turnovers in a postseason game since Antoine Walker did it in 2005. However, the 8 turnovers were due in part to Pierce having to handle the ball so often on a night without Boston’s starting point guard.

Nevertheless, you have to take the bad with the good because The Truth went for a total of 36 points and 14 rebounds. For the third time in his career, he scored at least 35 points and grabbed at least 10 rebounds in the same postseason game. Pierce is also the only Celtic to accumulate those numbers in the playoffs in the last 20 years. Impressively enough, he did this against a team he has recently struggled against. Coming into Tuesday night, Pierce was shooting only 28.8% (15 for 52) against the Hawks this season (including Game 1 of the series), his worst field goal percentage against any team in 2011-12. He shot 46.2% (12 for 26) on Tuesday in Atlanta. What a night it was the 34-year-old.

While most of the spotlight was on Pierce’s remarkable performance, the Celtics lockdown defense deserves admiration, too. After allowing the Hawks to hit 3 of 7 three-pointers in the first quarter, Boston held Atlanta to only 3 of 15 shooting from long range for the rest of the game. The Celtics showed why they had the best shooting defense during the 2011-12 regular season. This was especially evident in the fourth quarter when the Hawks shot 0 for 4 from deep and 4 for 19 overall for only 14 total points. The outstanding defensive accomplishments by the Celtics led them to only their fourth road win after trailing at the end of a third quarter during the 2011-12 regular season and playoffs. Entering Tuesday’s game, Boston had a winning percentage of less than 15% when trailing at the end of the third quarter on the road this season. In addition, before relinquishing their double-digit lead, the Hawks had a winning percentage of more than 90% when leading at the end of the third quarter at home this season. When examining those percentages, the Celtics comeback is even more extraordinary.

As with Game 1 of this series, when it rains, it pours for the losing team. Near the end of Game 2, Josh Smith left the court with a patella injury and did not return. After having an MRI exam on Wednesday in Atlanta revealing patellar tendinitis, he may miss Friday night’s game. This injury could prevent Smith from continuing his 43-game streak of starting postseason games to begin his career. The 26-year-old has been notably healthy during his first 8 seasons, missing only 40 regular season games (6.25%) out of 640. He started all 66 games of the lockout-shortened season and only missed 5 of the 82 games in 2010-11. If he does miss Game 3 at the TD Garden, it could prove costly for the already shorthanded Hawks. In the 5 games that Smith was out last season, Atlanta was 1-4 with an average differential of negative 11 points. In the last few years, the Hawks have played terribly without him, so they should hope he does not come back too quickly.

If the Celtics defense was the unheralded feature of their exciting comeback, then what allowed that to transpire was Doc Rivers’ confidence in his lineup down the stretch. For the last 10 minutes and 22 seconds of Game 2, it was Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Avery Bradley, Mickael Pietrus and Marquis Daniels. Doc sat Brandon Bass for the entire fourth quarter in favor of a stronger defensive lineup. Daniels made a major impact on both ends of the floor and led all players in Tuesday’s game with a plus/minus of positive 11.

When the Celtics signed Daniels in September 2009, they thought he would make a major impact in the 2010 playoffs. Unfortunately, he did not make it into the rotation for that postseason. Daniels played in less than half of the games in the 2010 playoffs. Then his 2010-11 season came to a crashing halt when he suffered a life-threatening neck injury against the Orlando Magic on February 6, 2011. Who knew that it would be in his third season with the Celtics that Daniels would play a crucial role in a postseason game? Daniels made a miraculous return to be with the Celtics in 2011-12 and it has already paid dividends. With Rajon Rondo returning from his suspension, Daniels may not even play the rest of the Hawks series. We may not even see him in crunch time for the rest of the playoffs, but he is always ready to play. If an injury, a suspension or anything else arises, Marquis Daniels could be an important factor going forward in the 2012 playoffs.