Court Awareness: The Celtics' Slide, the Lone Granger, and the Rest of Wednesday

There are times when the best cure for an ailing team is adversity—even if conventional wisdom states the opposite.

If you were to ask a team if they’d rather break out of a funk by beating up on one of the league’s doormats in the comfort of their own arena—or doing it on the road, without their best player, and against one of the league’s elite teams—it’s a safe bet to assume they would opt for the latter.

Those were precisely the circumstances for the Houston Rockets on Wednesday night in Boston. The Rockets, playing without Tracy McGrady, had lost six of their last ten games, including their last three.

Meanwhile, the Celtics were hoping some home cooking would be all they needed to halt their own mini-slump. The world champs came into the game having lost five of their last seven, but their 13-game winning streak at home was still alive.

Yao Ming had 26 points and eight rebounds, Ron Artest had 17 points and Aaron Brooks scored 19 points off the bench to lead the Rockets to the 89-85 victory.

It’s easy to say that the loss to the Lakers on Christmas put the Celtics into their current funk, but that doesn’t tell the whole story. If the Lakers did anything, it was take a little shine off of the Celtics and remind the rest of the league that Boston could be beat.

The main reason for the Celtics' poor play of late has more to do with their starting backcourt, lack of bench scoring, and failure to execute down the stretch than anything the Lakers might have exposed.

Since the Celtics don’t have as much depth this season than they did with James Posey and P.J. Brown, teams are beginning to realize that you can allow Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce to get their points as long as you limit Ray Allen and Rajon Rondo.

In the Celtics’ six losses, Allen and Rondo have averaged about six fewer points per game than their combined season average of 29—including three games in which Rondo scored only three, five, and six points total.

In the two losses out of the six in which Allen and Rondo combined to score more than 20 points, the Celtics’ bench was outscored 29-9 in one game and 34-19 in the other.

The only issue that should concern the Celtics is that four of the six losses came against teams missing important starters. The Warriors were playing without Jamal Crawford, Corey Maggette, and Monta Ellis. The Blazers were missing Brandon Roy. The Bobcats were without Raja Bell, and McGrady missed the game against the Rockets.

Paul Pierce had 26 to lead the Celtics, who next play against the Cavaliers in Cleveland on Friday night—the same type of “adversity game” the Rockets had in Boston on Wednesday night.



Lone Granger Strikes Again

Danny Granger knocked down a three-pointer at the buzzer to give the Indiana Pacers the surprising 113-110 victory over the Shaq-less Suns in Phoenix on Wednesday.

The Pacers led 95-86 heading into the fourth quarter, before both teams decided to start playing defense for the final twelve minutes.

Granger scored 37 points to lead Indiana. Mike Dunleavy added 14 points in 21 minutes for the Pacers in the first game he’s played after missing the first 34 games of the season.

Amare Stoudemire had 23 points and 14 rebounds to lead the Suns in both categories.

O’Neal sat out with a sore back. The Suns are now 2-4 in the six games this season without Shaq in the lineup.

Don’t look now, but Shaq is quietly making his case for inclusion as a reserve on the Western Conference All-Star team. Over his last eight games he’s averaging 21 points and 10 rebounds—increasing his season averages to 17 and nine per game.

While Shaq has no chance at passing Yao in the fan vote, there is a good chance that Shaq could be voted in by the coaches. His main competition should come from the Warriors’ Andris Biedrins and the Denver’s Nene.

With Kobe Bryant all-but-guaranteed a starting spot and Phil Jackson comfortably on pace to be the team’s head coach, there’s a good chance that Kobe, Shaq, and Phil could be reunited in Phoenix.

All-Star reserves are voted on the by the head coaches in the respective conferences. There are bound to be a number of coaches who are either convinced that Shaq is still an All-Star, or who just have a sense of humor and want to see the three of them together again.

Speaking of Kobe and Phil…

The Los Angeles Lakers bounced back from Tuesday night’s loss to the Hornets in beating the Golden State Warriors, 114-106 in Oakland on Wednesday.

Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum, who combined to score only 17 points on Tuesday, tripled their total with 51 points and 29 rebounds against the Warriors.

The Lakers improved their record this season on the second night of back-to-back games to a very impressive 7-1. Surprisingly though, is that four of the Lakers five losses on the season have come in the first night of back-to-backs.

The Warriors were without co-captain Stephen Jackson. Jamal Crawford led the Warriors with 25 points on 26 shots and Andris Biedrins helped his case for the All-Star team with a near triple-double, picking up 12 points, 17 rebounds, and eight assists.



Finally, A Win Without Devin the Dude

The Nets got their first win in five games this season without Devin Harris in their 100-89 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies. Vince Carter had 25 points and 12 assists in a game the Nets led from start to finish.

Yi Jianlian, currently third among forwards in Eastern Conference All-Star balloting, did his best to quiet the critics for a night with 20 points, six rebounds, three assists, two steals, and a block.

Yi and Tracy McGrady have both benefited tremendously from the All-Star votes they're getting in China. According to the most recent results released by the NBA, McGrady is currently about 100,000 votes ahead of Chris Paul for the second starting-guard spot.

McGrady has already missed ten games this season, and his 15 points per game average is his lowest since his third season in the league.

Yi is at least a quarter of a million votes ahead of more deserving players like Chris Bosh, Paul Pierce, and Danny Granger, despite averaging under 10 points and about six rebounds per game.

Is it time for the NBA to reassess the current rules and decide if it’s worth giving China a disproportionate amount of power in deciding the All-Star starters?

I’m holding out hope that the Chinese fans are at least watching games, and not just scanning their ballots for Chinese names. Otherwise, I’d expect David Lee to at least crack the top 10.



Too Little Too Late For Atlanta

The Atlanta Hawks nearly bounced back from a 21-point third-quarter deficit but ultimately came up short in a 106-102 loss to the Orlando Magic. The win gave the Magic their 13th road victory of the season—tops in the NBA, and gave the Hawks just their third loss in 18 home games this season.

Dwight Howard scored 23 points and grabbed 19 rebounds for the Magic. Josh Smith scored 21 points to lead Atlanta.



Travis Outlaws Pistons Winning Streak

Travis Outlaw hit the go-ahead bucket with 8.9 seconds left in leading the Portland Trail Blazers to the 84-83 victory over the short-handed Detroit Pistons on Wednesday night, thus putting an end to Detroit’s season-long seven-game winning streak.

LaMarcus Aldridge had 26 points to lead the Blazers. Tayshaun Prince scored 26 points of his own in the losing effort. The win gave the Blazers their first season sweep of the Pistons in six seasons.

The Pistons were without Rasheed Wallace and Richard Hamilton. The Blazers were again without Brandon Roy, who missed his fourth-straight game with a sprained hamstring.

Despite the loss, the Pistons still post an impressive 21-12 record after beginning the season a pedestrian 11-9.



Elsewhere

•    The Denver Nuggets won their first game after getting the news that they’ll be without Carmelo Anthony for at least the next three weeks. Chauncey Billups, Linas Kleiza, and J.R. Smith scored 21 points each in the Nuggets 108-97 victory over the Miami Heat. Dwyane Wade scored 31 for Miami and has led them in scoring in 31 of the Heat’s 34 games this season.

•    New Orleans’ old team beat New Orleans’ new team when the Jazz defeated the Hornets, 116-90. Paul Millsap scored 27 points and had 14 boards to lead the Jazz. Chris Paul had 26 points and seven assists for the Hornets.

•    The Cleveland Cavaliers manhandled the Charlotte Bobcats from start to finish in their 111-81 victory Wednesday night. LeBron James led six Cavs in double figures with 21 points. The Cavs are now 18-0 at home this year heading into Friday night’s game against the Celtics in Cleveland.

•    Randy Foye matched his career high with 32 points in leading the Wolves to their 129-87 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Wolves are now 4-0 in 2009.

•    The Raptors only had nine players in uniform against the Wizards on Wednesday night, but still managed to pull out the 99-93 victory over Washington. Andrea Bargnani led the Raptors with 25 points on eight-for-nine shooting.

•    The Philadelphia 76ers came back from down six to start the fourth quarter in their 110-105 victory against the Bucks in Milwaukee. Andre Miller hit the game winning three-pointer with 28 seconds left. Charlie Villanueva led the Bucks with 26 points.


One Last Thing

The Grizzlies waived Darius Miles on Tuesday after he played in just two games. Miles did manage to serve the 10-game suspension he received for testing positive for a banned dietary supplement.

Up until now, most people thought if Miles were to play in eight more games this season then the Blazers would have to keep his salary on their cap next season.

Now comes the news that the six games Miles played with Boston in the preseason counted towards the ten so he's actually only two games away from Portland losing the cap space.

The Blazers and Grizzlies are two of the only teams that could have significant cap space next summer—but the Blazers would take a hit if Miles stays on the books.

The signing of Miles has to make one wonder if the Grizzlies only signed him so he could serve his suspension, thus clearing the major hurdle for other teams who might be interested in signing him.

Had the Grizzlies waived Miles after he had played 10 games, then they would probably be accused of doing it just to mess with the Blazers cap. Now the onus is on other teams to do so—without having to wait for Miles to sit out the suspension first.

This article also appears on FoxSports.com