Danny Ainge willing to go all-in with this hand

Danny Ainge was out west last week scouting talent, including his own two youngsters in the NBDL, Bill Walker and J.R. Giddens, both of whom he recalled Thursday. That spared the Celtics [team stats] personnel czar much of the furor that was unhatched by his team’s 2-6 slump heading into Friday night’s game in Cleveland. “I’m not worried,” he said. Though there may indeed be a trade on the horizon for the Celtics prior to the Feb. 19 trade deadline, Ainge reiterated that there is “nothing even close” right now. More to the point, he’s...read full article

Celtics Want to Acquire a Shooter

An article on Yahoo! Sports stated the Celtics were looking to acquire a shooter for the bench:

What GM Danny Ainge wants is a shooter off the bench, but he's struggling to find one. League sources say he made a bid for the Orlando Magic's J.J. Redick recently, a guard he's long coveted, but an offer of J.R. Giddens and Gabe Pruitt couldn't come close to prying Redick. What's more, Orlando isn't motivated to fortify the Celtics. Suddenly, the Magic believe they can beat Boston. League executives say Ainge has become more persistent this week in searching...read full article

Celtics will face new look Raptors

Boston Celtics head coach Doc Rivers is referring to his club's recent malaise as a bit of a withdrawal on the savings it accumulated when it was winning 19 games in a row earlier this season. The Raptors wouldn't mind at all if the Celts' bank balance kept taking a hit for at least the next two nights. Boston has lost seven of their past nine and head into Toronto today looking to get things righted. The two teams finish up the home and home series in Boston tomorrow.
But this Raptors club will have a distinctively different approach than the one...read full article

Sleepy Raptors hope they wake up before Celtics do

It will be shortly after 12:30 p.m. today when the Raptors begin one of the most significant games of their season, a test of how far they've come against an accomplished opponent, an emotional afternoon sure to play out before a soldout Air Canada Centre. They'll be sleepy. And so, probably, will many of the fans. It's just the way it is in the topsy-turvy start-time world of television-driven NBA scheduling. But who wakes up first – the Raptors, their fans, the Boston Celtics – may be the determining point on who wins. "Once you get into the flow of the game, you pretty...read full article

Boston Celtics (29-9) at Toronto Raptors (16-21), 12:30 p.m.

The struggling Boston Celtics will try to put the brakes on a season-high four-game losing streak Sunday when they close out a short road trip up north against the Toronto Raptors at Air Canada Centre. Boston has dropped four in a row and seven of nine since ripping off a team record 19 consecutive wins. In Friday's 98-83 loss to LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers at Quicken Loans Arena, Kevin Garnett tallied 18 points and 15 rebounds for the defending NBA champions. The four-game skid is the longest for Boston since dropping seven straight from...read full article

Rondo key to turning Celtics' fortunes

Mike Giardi welcomes Scott Souza of the MetroWest Daily News into the NECN studio to discuss the Boston Celtics, who have fallen from grace, losing 7 of their past 9. One area critics can point to would be the play of point guard Rajon Rondo. "He has regressed a little bit," Souza said. "One of the things that he has to keep doing -- one of the things I liked that he did (Friday) night -- was even if things aren't going his way, he has to keep pushing the basketball. He can't walk the basketball up the court, because that really allows the defense to sag off of him...read full article

The Celtics Have Little to Offer When It’s Time to Talk Trade

Trades started the Boston Celtics on their way back to the top of the N.B.A. It could take something more creative to keep them there. The Celtics simply do not have much to give up. “We’re cap-strapped, and we’re an interesting team, where we won a championship last year yet we don’t have a lot of players that guys want to trade for,” Boston Coach Doc Rivers said. “That’s unusual when you think about it, so we have to go another route if we want to change our team.” That is why the Celtics have been linked to names like P. J. Brown...read full article