Makes even more sense after last night's double - OT thriller:
"After Ray's shot fell with two seconds left to seal the win on Monday night, the knot that had been growing in my stomach throughout the fourth quarter settled a little deeper in my gut. Not that I needed a physical manifestation to remind me that the Celts were no longer the team to beat in the Eastern Conference. Unable to sleep after such a terribly executed game, I was left to wonder what else my gut was trying to tell me? If only I could channel dubya or Stephen Colbert, then maybe I could get a good night's sleep during round one. Here's what the sheep and I have come up with so far:
In Game 1 we saw Ronda and Pierce play pretty well, with Ray struggling to find his shot the whole night. Obviously Rose took over the main stage, answering every good play by Rondo with a layup at the other end, but Gordon and Salmons didn't really have much of an impact. They looked like what we'd expect from the Baby Bulls in their first road game of the playoffs. Nobody anticipated Rose would outplay Rondo like that, but most people would also doubt that Rose can maintain this level throughout the whole series (See: Game 2). All in all, Boston played pretty well and I thought we should have won that game -- and likely would have if Pierce didn't miss a key free throw at the end of regulation.
For game 2, Rondo gets hurt after responding to Game 1's loss with a solid performance in the first quarter, but Starberry's a no-show and Ronda has to play hobbled for the entire second half. Pierce looks tired after the first quarter, settling for jumpshots and giving up on possessions at the other end. Ray starts slow...again. Then Powe tweaks his knee (we later find out he's out for the year with a torn ACL), and Perk gets his third foul two minutes into the second quarter, leaving Baby on the court to make his way towards a team-leading 21-shots for the night. With Garnett already in street clothes, dapper as they may be, this is basically the perfect storm for the Celts to find themselves down 0-2 for the series, and I'm thanking my lucky stars that the coaching staff wasn't complacent and didn't wait until year two of the Garnett Era to make a serious run at the championship (Did I just compliment Doc Rivers?).
There was actually one sequence in the second quarter where the Bulls were forcing the Celts to run their entire offense through Blackjack Baby, and he took 5 shots in 8 possessions. Mixed in there we had Starberry throwing a pass out of bounds to Eddie House, which he stupidly tried to save, starting a 4-on-2 break the other way. I remember looking to my Dad and saying "This is not how you win playoff games."
The Bulls, meanwhile, have all the momentum going into halftime and Gordon continues to explode in the second half, while Miller and Salmons are running the floor and taking advantage of Boston's shitty transition defense. This is also the point in the game when I realized just how much I hate Joakim Noah. Does anyone on the Chicago coaching staff think he should be putting his finger to his lips to hush the Boston crowd in game 2? Has he seen the opening credits to The Departed with footage from the busing riots? If he keeps shit up I wouldn't be surprised if he gets a beer dumped on him heading into the locker room after the game, maybe even halftime if we're lucky.
Ultimately Ray saved the day again with solid shooting in the second half and some last second heroics, but the Celts got outplayed the last three quarters and should have lost that game. If you're the Bulls, and you're able to convince Boston to set Blackjack Baby loose on the floor, you've gotta be disappointed to lose that game.
The only challenge for the Bulls seems to be figuring out how to share the ball so that they can be firing on all cylinders. If they find their comfort zone at home and win 2 out of 3, all they have to do is steal one more game in Boston to advance. Scary.
"Even without Kevin Garnett, the match-ups don’t work for the Bulls. Is Ben Gordon better than Ray Allen? Is John Salmons better than Paul Pierce? Is Derrick Rose better than Rajon Rondo? No, Hell No, and Not Till Next Year."
After two games I'm felling like: Maybe this year, if so we're in trouble, and one out of two ain't bad. This is my hoops nightmare. "
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