In anticipation of tomorrow's game, another mid-series meditation from reformed mass-hole, Jeffrey Coots:
"Before launching into psychoanalysis of the Round 2 Celts, it seemed appropriate to share a few closing thoughts on the Round 1 series against the Baby Bulls that everyone was hyping last week as one of the best in NBA history.
The cyclical nature of sports means that without a thriller in Game 7, people will forget about any great match-up after a few years. Unfortunately, both teams looked tired, played sloppy and otherwise fell into the mold prescribed to them by countless TNT/ESPN talking heads: Boston’s experience and modified Big 3 of Pierce/Allen/Rondo will triumph over Chicago’s streaky shooters and youthful bigs (have a nice off season Joakim). One of my co-workers also made a good point that the law of averages usually bares out, and the shots that helped the Bulls to stretch it to seven games ended up catching a lot of iron on Saturday night.
Personally, I was exhausted by this series. Watching your team lose several multiple-overtime games is not good for the psyche, even if you feel secure in their eventual triumph. Not to mention the fact that there were three days between every game so we were given an extra 24-hours to mull over the poor decisions and blown defensive assignments that cost us the win. Fortunately, we’re behind the West right now, so we’ll play every other night the rest of the way through.
Now that Boston is facing the Orlando Magic, led by the Tony-Hopeful Dwight Howard, the match-up challenges have completely flopped for the Celts. Injured bigs Garnett and Powe are joined on the sideline by Mikki Moore who has struggled to learn the Celtics’ unique system of help defense. This means that Perkins, Baby Davis and everyone’s new favorite Jerry’s Kid, Brian Scalabrine, need to avoid foul trouble if there’s any chance of Boston earning the right to be the lamb to the slaughter in the Eastern Finals.
I actually watched Game 1 from a bar, so I didn’t get to hear any in-game commentary from the folks at TNT, but it looked as though the Celtics didn’t really want to be there. Anytime you give up a 26-6 run to close the half, you obviously don’t care much about the game. This is our Dr Jekll personality—passive, friendly, emotionally stunted—and this is where we miss Garnett the most. Especially when Pierce falls back into the “Well, I’m doing what I need to do,” mentality and shuts down his passing game. This also makes it two rounds in a row that we’ve dropped game one at home to a lower seed.
Throughout the game I found myself wondering what the hell J.J. Redick was doing on the floor. Honestly I wasn’t even aware he was still in the NBA and he ended up murdering us from 3-point land. What’s in store for us next round? Greg Paulus coming off the bench for the Cavs to shut down Rondo? Oh right, he got benched his senior season so he’s trying to play football now.
For Game 2, the Ubuntu Juice was flowing freely in the locker room before the game and the Celts came out with the most energy I’ve seen since, well, Game 2 of last series when they realized they probably couldn’t drop the first two games at home and still advance. The Celts’ Mr. Hyde was fully unleashed when Rondo completed his triple-double by dunking right in Dwight Howard’s face in the middle of the third quarter. Now don’t get me wrong, Rondo doesn’t have a chance if Howard was playing with the slightest bit of intensity, but Howard never even attempted to block the shot. I’m actually surprised Orlando even put a squad on the floor for the fourth quarter. Charles Barkley said it best at halftime – Orlando showed up content to split in Boston and go back to Orlando with home court advantage. All in all, not a very exciting game, but there are a few sub-plots developing for the Celts in this series.
The Celtics bench is desperately shallow right now. Brian Scalabrine is our 7th man and threatening to become the 6th, playing 27 and 35 minutes, respectively, in the first two games. Last night the TNT trailer guys put up a split screen between Scal and Jackie Moon. I don’t even know how to respond to that. And this is in stark contrast to Mickael Pietrus, who is surprisingly athletic and played 32 and 37 minutes in the first two games dropping 17 both nights.
After a solid Game 1 where he toyed with relevance, Starburry settled back into his usual bullshit. I think what I enjoy most about his game is that after he passes up a good, in-rhythm shot that makes sense to our offense he likes to follow it up by taking an incredibly long or wild shot on the next possession, and he usually manages to do this with more than 12 seconds on the shot clock. Clearly he and Mikki Moore have not panned out the way Danny Ainge had hoped.
As for the whole Eddie House/Rafer Alston smack upside the head…Remember earlier in the season when we were hearing opposing teams complain about how much shit the Celtics were talking before, during and after games? This seems be one of the side effects of Garnett’s defensive intensity/borderline insanity that he brought from Minnesota last year. Eddie is certainly one of the worst offenders in this department and his mouth will likely earn Rafer at least a one-game suspension for his dope slap late in the third quarter. Van Gundy knew enough to put Rafer on the bench for the rest of the game, but Doc left Eddie in to run up the score and reach a personal best of 31 points in a playoff game.
Classy, that’s how we do it in Beantown.
So this series really depends on which Celtics team shows up each night, and the same can be said for the Magic. Neither team looks much like a title contender right now, although that may change. I’d hate for the Celts to stretch it to 7 games again when the Cavs look poised to sweep, but that might be what it takes to fend off an up-and-coming Orlando team. I’ll do my part and drink my share of Ubuntu Juice on Friday night, and I know the rest of the Brotherhood will do the same. We’ll have to wait and see if King Garnett manages to spike the G on the road in Orlando."
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