Robert Parish: Paul Pierce the ‘Greatest Offensive Celtic Ever’

This sequence is the thing that gets you really excited. “It’s fun. He demands simple things, just to play hard”. Had just two turnovers in the first half.

Eight days after getting embarrassed by the Houston Rockets at Quicken Loans Arena, and in front of a national-television audience, the Cleveland Cavaliers made a clear statement and sent a message to other teams in the Eastern Conference Sunday. But James had the last laugh this time. The opposite occurred. There was no coming back from that.

Doing right by Wade was only a bonus byproduct of the trade James forced, of course.

Surrounded by family, former head coach Doc Rivers, former teammates such as Kevin Garnett, Rajon Rondo and Antoine Walker and Celtics legends Robert Parish and Satch Sanders, Pierce fought back tears at center court as he reflected on his childhood and his time spent in Boston. James’ extraordinary run of seven consecutive Finals appearances was in peril.

The presence of Isaiah Thomas and his controversial statements where he publicly criticized his teammates and not himself despite poor personal performances created a rather divided locker room, where it became nearly necessary to ship him out to create a more harmonious and focused squad which is on the same page. Kyrie requested a trade, now Isaiah Thomas has been traded.

Los Angeles made the move to free up cap space for this summer.

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By giving Osman, 22, a starting spot and bringing in Clarkson, Hood and Nance (each of whom are 25) via trade, the Cavaliers now have four rotations players who are 25 or younger – after having none prior to the trade. Maybe, this time around it will work better. Thomas is a lousy defender.

“My name was being thrown around a lot out there, so it was nerve wracking for sure”, Smith said after Sunday’s 121-99 victory over the Boston Celtics at TD Garden.

I know that’s a very small sample size, but this new-look Cavaliers team looks like they can play with anyone in the Eastern Conference. However, assuming James stays, combined with that roster, and a top prospect in the draft, it doesn’t look good for anyone to surpass the Cavaliers! Fans will now have the rest of the season to discover what this new-look Cavs team can truly achieve.

In a three-team trade with the Utah Jazz and Sacramento Kings, the Cavaliers sent Jae Crowder and Derrick Rose to Utah and Iman Shumpert and a 2020 second-round draft – pick via the Miami Heat – to Sacramento.

The biggest victor in all of this, of course, is whom you would expect. “This is a great fast-breaking team, and if you give them opportunities, they’ll tear it up”. We just got to do our job, be the best role players we can possibly be.