A look around the league and the Web that covers it. It's also important to note that the rotation order and starting nods aren't always listed in order of importance. That's for you, dear reader, to figure out.
C : Salt Lake Tribune . After taking over in overtime on Monday night to push the Boston Celtics to a 110-107 win over the Utah Jazz, Celtics captain Paul Pierce said his back-and-forth battle with Utah defender DeMarre Carroll had a history, and that he'd let the media ask Carroll about it . Well, Steve Luhm did; the result is a small but great story about getting got and how the tables can turn.
PF : Sports Illustrated . Lee Jenkins' full feature on Boston Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo — which you might remember from its revelations about the triggerman's estimable Connect 4 prowess — is now available online. Drink deep of the goodness.
In the final minute of a tightly contested game between the Boston Celtics and Utah Jazz in Salt Lake City on Monday, Celtics captain Paul Pierce did what he's been doing for, oh, about 15 years now — going one-on-one against a wing defender (in this case, Utah's DeMarre Carroll) and then herky-jerking his way to the elbow, getting said defender off-balance, leaning back and burying a deflating jumper to put Boston ahead with 36.6 seconds left to play. Typical stuff, really.
But thanks to some pretty uncommon poise from young Jazzmen Gordon Hayward, who rebounded from a bad pass and near turnover to beat Brandon Bass off the dribble into the paint, and Alec Burks, who made a perfectly timed cut from the left wing to give Hayward a passing target and finished a tough lefty layup around Kevin Garnett to tie the game at 97 with 19.9 ticks left, Pierce's jumper wasn't Boston's hoped-for dagger ... and with Carroll all over him on the Celtics' final possession, Pierce's subsequent attempt at a buzzer-beater rimmed in-and-out. Utah had escaped "The Truth" in regulation.
Unfortunately, that meant overtime.
Pierce scored seven straight points in the extra session, turning a two-point deficit at the 2:48 mark into a five-point lead with 1:12 remaining, and Boston hung on for a 110-107 overtime victory at EnergySolutions Arena in what Celtics coach Doc Rivers called "the best win of the year for me."
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MADNESS!
