#MikeCiervo

Oct 17, 2018
5 min

The 8 Most Horrifying NBA Mascots of All Time

The hype of the new season always brings the same arguments: Who will rule the West, which players will bring home hardware at the end of the year, and how long until NBA superstar X has a mental breakdown during a preseason practice resulting in him screaming at management and demeaning his own teammates like a bunch of minor league bums? But one important factor of the NBA season that gets overlooked year after year by some of the greatest in our field like Woj, Stephen A.,

2018-2019 Off the Glass Team Preview Series: New Orleans Pelicans

Mike Ciervo

Sep 2, 2018
2 min

2018-2019 Off the Glass Team Preview Series: New Orleans Pelicans

Sporting News The 2018-2019 NBA season starts October 16th and to get you ready for tip-off, Off the Glass is previewing all 30 teams. Today we look at the New Orleans Pelicans. 2017-2018 Record: 48-34, 2nd in the Southwest Division. Lost to the Golden State Warriors 4-1 in the Conference Semi-Final. Season Recap: The New Orleans Pelicans played above potential in the 2017-2018 season. Shockingly they played their best basketball after losing DeMarcus Cousins for the season a

Mike Ciervo

Jul 28, 2018
4 min

Stay Smart

Photo Courtesy: NBC Sports The Boston Celtics’ offseason was more or less a snoozer this year, especially after last year’s Gordon Hayward sweepstakes and flipping Isaiah Thomas for Kyrie Irving, but they still managed to infuse a fair bit of drama into it. As July dragged on, the Celtics had yet to resign Marcus Smart, their hype man extraordinaire with an F-16 engine level of hustle crossed with the grit of a South Boston hardcore kid. Smart publicly let it known he was mif

Eastern Conference Finals: Game 4 Takeaways

Mike Ciervo

May 22, 2018
3 min

Eastern Conference Finals: Game 4 Takeaways

LBJ for Everything LeBron James scored 44 points last night, making him the first player to score 40+ in 5 playoff games in the last 25 years. Last dude??? Allen Iverson. Anyway, the most impressive part of last night’s performance wasn’t what he did, it was how he did it. LeBron scored 44 and it didn’t even look like he was trying. It was practically boring. It wasn’t a dominating performance per se but efficiency was key for him throughout. The Celtics are having about as m

Mike Ciervo

Apr 29, 2018
4 min

Celtics Game 7 Review and More

It took the Celtics 7 games to dispatch the Bucks in the opening round of the NBA Playoffs. Here are a few observations about the game itself and a few about the second round Al Horford Does His Part Horford has been a pillar of consistency over the past two seasons for the Celtics contributing night in and night out but Saturday’s game may have been his finest hour in a Celtics uniform as of yet. Flanked by good but young players, Horford took his game to the next level in G

2018 NBA Playoff Preview: Portland Trail Blazers

Mike Ciervo

Apr 11, 2018
6 min

2018 NBA Playoff Preview: Portland Trail Blazers

Season Recap After going 41-41 and being swept by the Warriors in the first-round a season ago, this year’s expectations were not much beyond that for the Portland Trail Blazers; another .500 season and a low seeded playoff trip would have been sufficing especially for a West team with only two real legit NBA starters in CJ McCollum and Damian Lillard. The Blazers had other ideas though, led by the aforementioned duo, they out preformed expectations and amassed almost 50 wins

10 Things Learned During the Celtics Win Streak

Mike Ciervo

Nov 20, 2017
9 min

10 Things Learned During the Celtics Win Streak

The Boston Celtics have been on a wild, improbable 16 game win streak over the last month. Here are 10 important developments over that time that somehow relate to its existence. 1. The Celtics Defense is Legit Everyone who even has a whiff of what the Celtics have been doing over the last month is like “Yeah…duh” but it is still worth pointing out how good this defense has been. Start with the simple fact they held the Warriors to a mere 88 points with Golden State averaging

Mike Ciervo

Nov 6, 2017
6 min

Second Chance Season

Watching Gordon Hayward writhe in pain on the floor in Cleveland was not what many Celtics fans had envisioned in their minds for the NBA’s opening night in 2017. Unfortunately, it is exactly what happened. A collective breath was gathered and exhaled as a sense of shock washed over the team and their loyal fan base. “Would Hayward play again?” was the first question to stick into the subconscious of anyone invested with any stake at all in the C’s or professional basketball.

OTG Staff

Oct 17, 2017
4 min

ROUNDTABLE: MVP

Four of OTG 's greatest give you their pick for MVP!!! Jac Manuell/@TheJManJBT The 2017-18 season is going to be the year of the ‘Klaw’. No that isn’t a Chinese New Year Symbol (happy year of the Rooster everyone), instead a very cool and apt nickname for the defensive magician, Kawhi Leonard. Some will be skeptical of this pick due to his lack of preseason with a quad injury; an injury which was troubled him in the past, however, it is on the lighter side in terms of serious

OTG Staff

Oct 15, 2017
5 min

ROUNDTABLE: Coach of the Year

Five of OTG 's brightest give you their pick for Coach of the Year Evan Dyal/@EvanDyal Now this is tough, but give me Mike Malone of the Denver Nuggets. I think Denver will finish in the sixth seed in the west and win 48 games. That would be an impressive finish in a brutal western conference. If he gets the Nugs to fifty wins, he has a real shot. I think Malone helps the Nuggets maintain a top five offense, revolving around Nikola Jokic, while improving a dismal defense. Las

Mike Ciervo

Oct 9, 2017
6 min

Youth Movement

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, this past offseason in Boston has been a series of surprises that have reshaped the face of the team. They shipped out fan favorite Isaiah Thomas and starter Jae Crowder, as well as opted to dismiss other popular faces that have been pertinently involved with the franchise in the post-Big 3 era. Kelly Olynyk? Gone to South Beach. Avery Bradley? Sent to Detroit in a riotously lopsided deal. Tyler Zeller? Now in…wait, where the hell did h

OTG Staff

Sep 27, 2017
7 min

ROUNDTABLE: Rookie of the Year

Eight of OTG's finest give you their pick for Rookie of the Year Matt Chin/@MattChinNBA Dennis Smith Jr. Even if he hadn’t been truly magnificent in summer league, I simply love his fit and opportunity in Dallas. He’s an attacking downhill guard who can finish near the rim and distribute from the paint. Nerlens Noel is an elite rim runner and lob finisher, and he and Smith will offer a nuclear athletic pick and roll pairing. Noel ranked in the 83rd percentile in roll man offe

Mike Ciervo

Jun 5, 2017
5 min

NBA Free Agency: Boston Celtics Preview

What Happened Last Year The 2016-17 Boston Celtics season was a successful campaign by all bench marks for a team in year four of a complete rebuild. Highlights of this year for Boston include the Eastern Conference’s top seed/best record (53-29), a deep playoff run before being expectedly dispatched by the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference Finals, and the emergence of Isiah Thomas as the C’s first superstar since Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett went to Brooklyn. Th

Mike Ciervo

Apr 26, 2017
5 min

Welcome Back, Boston

The Celtics were dealt a poorly timed black cloud in the passing of Isaiah Thomas' sister days before the playoffs started and if you didn't think it influenced the team just look at the discombobulated, frustrating efforts in Game 1 and 2. Last Tuesday, after the Celtics looked farther from the team they are then they have ever been, Thomas went back to Washington to properly grieve and support himself with family. The Celtics were left to pick up the pieces of what had been

Mike Ciervo

Apr 21, 2017
5 min

Worst Case Scenario

How does this happen? How does Boston end up down 2-0 after starting off a series at home as a 1 seed? The team that for long stretches throughout the season, was arguably one of the best teams in the league, has come out looking like the 8 seed with the Bulls getting the results they were hoping for to start the season when they brought Dwyane Wade and Rajon Rondo aboard. There were points this season when the Bulls were laughable from there on and off court dysfunction to a

Mike Ciervo

Apr 14, 2017
4 min

NBA Playoffs: Celtics Vs. Bulls Preview

The one seed Celtics (53-29) will meet the eighth seeded Bulls (41-41) in the first round of the NBA playoffs after splitting a regular season series 2-2, a strange but true fact, given the disparity in the teams records and opposite trajectories of their seasons. Both Chicago wins came in the Windy City, one being in October when D-Wade’s knees didn’t feel like they were used by the Cubs for batting practice, the other in February on a ticky tacky foul at the buzzer on Jimmy

Mike Ciervo

Apr 2, 2017
4 min

Big Al’s Big Impact

The impact of Al Horford’s signing with the Boston Celtics has had an immediate effect on improving the team far beyond what they were last year. In a free agency year that was littered with mid to below average players, especially in terms of big men (Hello Timofey Mozgov), the C’s got the pick of the litter in Horford. The 15-16 Celtics used a rotation of Jared Sullinger, Amir Johnson, Kelly Olynyk, and Tyler Zeller at center, who all had different spurts of over achievemen

Could the Celtics Beat the Cavs in the Eastern Conference Finals?

Mike Ciervo

Mar 20, 2017
7 min

Could the Celtics Beat the Cavs in the Eastern Conference Finals?

At the start of this NBA season, fans were fed the same notion again and again: when June comes, it will be Cavs-Warriors III. Outside of the Spurs and Pop with his never-ending bag of tricks stealing the West from Golden State, it almost seemed improbable to conjure any other image because in the East, it was Cleveland. End of story. And who could argue with that logic? They have rolled through their last two playoff appearances with a 30-11 record including four sweeps, two

Mike Ciervo

Mar 4, 2017
5 min

Bipolar in Boston

When the Boston Celtics stayed pat at the trade deadline, the decision was met with a reluctant shrug from most of the fan base. Danny Ainge refused to move some of the most important pieces of his gritty, us vs. Them Suicide Squad for the quick hit. Paul George wasn’t a guarantee beyond next year as he publicly stated he would only sign long term with the Indiana Pacers or the Los Angeles Lakers. The Chicago Bulls wanted too much for Jimmy Butler who has proved to be an elit

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