The Celtics and their fans celebrated something like 1,700 broadcasts from Mike Gorman and Tommy Heinsohn with a win over the Pacers last night. League Pass viewers who happen to be fans of one of the league’s other 29 teams likely celebrated the fact that after 30 years it must be getting close to time for Tommy to call it quits. While I’ll start by stating that Tommy says something stupid that makes me want to slap him silly on a game-to-game basis, I feel like I have to credit him for providing me with a lot of laughs over the years… sometimes with him, but most of the time at him. For example:
Well, there’s no doubt that he’s not only one of the biggest tools currently involved in commentating, but that he’s also completely blinded by his green-tinted homer goggles. I will give the guy this, though: he loves the Celtics like none other, and his passion does make him rather entertaining… as long as you don’t take him seriously. I’ve mentioned this before, but I miss the days when both the Celtics and the Knicks kind of sucked. The teams couldn’t stand each other. I’m talking about the Isiah Thomas, Eddy Curry, Stephon Marbury days of about five or six years ago… all Tommy did was rag on the Knicks, particularly Curry, who was always the subject of non-stop fat jokes. Good times.
Random Observations:
- Highlight Recap: Jeremy Evans skies over Anthony Tolliver. Surprisingly, Blake Griffin does not lead the league in alley-oops (LaMarcus Aldridge). LeBron got himself a pair of dunks. Delonte West with a SICK block on Paul George. Paul Pierce threw another one down. Troy Murphy dunked? Must’ve been a reverse. Russell Westbrook lobs one to KD. Dwyane Wade swats the hell out of Eric Maynor. Blake couldn’t see the bucket, but it doesn’t matter. Griffin with a pretty crazy block. Patrick Patterson finished an oop. Tyler Hansbrough is an angry dunker… I like it.
- The Celtics fell behind early and appeared to be in the midst of yet another rough night, but Jeff Green came in off the bench and dropped 17 in the first half, helping the Celtics pull out to a 47-40 lead at the break. Green would only go on to score two more points the rest of the way, but it was all green (the color, not the player) from that point on anyway. The Cs took it 92-80 as they held the Pacers to 37.5 percent from the field along with just 13 freethrow attempts. Pretty tough to win a game when you can’t hit from the field and can’t get to the line. Boston had dropped three of their last four coming into this one, and they’ve looked downright bad offensively, so the 92 points on 47 percent looked fairly encouraging. Rajon Rondo, though… I’m not sure what’s going on with him. He’s scored a total of four points in three games and has been unable to dish double-digit dimes since March 4th (seven games ago). He did something to his ankle in the game against New Jersey, but that doesn’t explain the four previous duds. Tyler Hansbrough went just 4-14 in this one, but he notched a double-double with 10 points and 11 boards. I really like this guy… he simply plays harder than the next man. He reminds me of Blake Griffin without the freaky athleticism. Both guys are full-speed ahead all game every game.
- The was a lot of hostility as Philly visited the Clippers last night. I guess it makes sense with Elton Brand coming back and Griffin’s recent struggles. The stage was set for something like this…
- I guess the tension never really escalated after that, though. Doug Collings was tossed, but there were no further incidents involving any players. As you can see from the score in the video, LA hung around up until halftime, when they trailed by just three. They would then proceed to fall apart in the third, though. They have a tendency to do that… I’m sure you’re well aware if you watch much NBA basketball. Philly ended up taking it 104-94. The least popular man in the building (Elton Brand..er..wait, was Donald Sterling in attendance? Brand may have only been second-least popular.) put up 19/12 with five blocks, and Jodie Meeks scored 22 points on 5-8 from distance. DeAndre Jordan posted a monster 16/15 double-double. Blake Griffin went for just 14/8… his fifth consecutive game without a double-double. He did post 26 and 23 points in two of those games, but I’d certainly call the other three sub-par. Blake hasn’t really been the same since the All-Star break. I think it’s probably a combination of fatigue and the loss of Baron Davis. Say what you want about Baron, but he played well this year for the most part. He got off to a slow start, but he and Blake had developed some great chemistry. Baron is an incredible playmaker when he’s out there giving it his all. He was setting Griffin up with multiple dunks every game, which really helped the young guy get going. Oh sh!t, I almost forgot:
- My main man turned 22 yesterday. We are the same age… that really makes me feel like FAIL.
- The Bucks took a three-point lead over Orlando at the end of three with a 15-4 run that covered the final 5:15 of the period. The Magic would go on to brick eight of nine three-point tries in the final quarter… but a team can survive such a slump when facing Milwaukee. Even though they were unable to find the range from long distance, the Magic were able to score 18 while holding the Bucks to 15, tying it up at 79 and forcing OT. They clanked a couple more threes in the extra period, but they were still able to out-score the Bucks 14-10 for a 93-89 W. Orlando went 1-11 from long range in the second half… 7-27 in the game… meanwhile Dwight Howard is doing 31/22 on 9-12 (he did brick 9 of 24 freethrows, but that’s still great production)… it’s clear to me at this point that living and dying by the three isn’t going to put this team where it needs to be. These guys are championship or bust, but they damn sure aren’t playing championship-caliber basketball. They say that doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results is the definition of insanity. Well, this team has been chucking threes and coming up short for years now… maybe it’s time to switch up the philosophy, Stan?
- Miami’s brief win streak has ended at three, and LeBron James is once again taking the brunt of the beating. He went 8-21 for 19 points while his counterpart Kevin Durant had 29 on 12-21. Alright, LeBron got outplayed by a fellow top-five player. It’s not like KD is some scrub… he can get the best of anyone on a given night. He did just that in OKC’s 96-85 W. The Heat had a really poor offensive night. They shot 38.5 percent, bricked 14 of 17 threes, and only managed 14 assists to 11 turnovers. None of their three big guns shot well (Wade 7-21, Bosh 6-17), which pretty much means it’s an auto-loss to any team that’s worth a sh!t. OKC didn’t have their best offensive night either (39.8% FG), but they did grab 17 offensive boards. Six of those were courtesy of Serge Ibaka, who also swatted three shots… that’s 18 blocks in three games for the guy. He’s swatting four per game in the month of March.
- Hey Carmelo, the Nuggets won, again… for the 9th time in 11 tries since you skipped town. A 102-87 demolishing of the Atlanta Hawks puts the league’s highest-scoring team two games ahead of New Orleans for the fifth spot out West. Assuming they hold that spot, it would likely lead to a date with the Thunder in mid-April. I think that would be a great series, and I certainly wouldn’t put the second round past this Nuggets squad. They had another great showing last night with 26 team assists and five players in double figures (three more with 8+, too). I love how these guys are sharing the ball. I’m going scroll down the box score and list the shot attempts of everyone who played 20 or more minutes: 9, 6, 12, 8, 11, 10, 10. That’s how the game should be played. Move the ball, take the open shot. Every single guy who gets minutes is capable of putting the ball in the basket, but there’s no single player who you would say deserves the bulk of the looks. Late in tight games it’s important to have a guy who can create his own shot, so what will Denver do then, you say? Well, I think JR Smith will be that guy. He’s certainly got the offensive talent to play the role of closer and play it effectively. I’m not going to get over-excited because they haven’t beaten any major competition yet, but I’ll be curious to see how they fare over the next seven days (they will play Orlando, Miami, and San Antonio). I’m going to say they win two of those three.
- The Other Games: The Mavs recovered from an 18-point defecit and beat the Warriors 112-106. Dirk was un-2007-like with 34 points and 13 boards. Rip Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince, and Greg Monroe all scored 20+ as the Pistons beat the Craptors 107-93. Fun fact: Andrea Bargnani has two double-doubles in 59 games played this season. That’s three times fewer than rookie Ed Davis, who plays just 20 minutes a night. Jared Dudley made five threes and scored 25 points, but New Orleans beat Phoenix 100-95. Chris Paul put a game-high 26 points on human turnstyle Steve Nash. Chuck Hayes followed up a 21-point performance with 9 points, 17 boards, and 7 assists in Houston’s 94-78 win over the Bobcats. CJ Miles lit the T-Wolves up like a Christmas tree with 40 points on 18 shots in a 119-104 victory. Kevin Love is back on the double-double train with 22/11. Whoa, the Cavaliers won a game. Leave it to Suckramento to go and choke a double-digit lead to Cleveland. The Queens took 26 more shots than the Cavs in this game… but they went 38-100 and lost 97-93. Said DeMarcus Cousins: “Even though they have a losing record, they have beaten key teams.” I guess the Knicks must be a “key team.”
Quote of the Day: Stan Van Gundy on his Orlando Magic…
“We did about everything wrong we could do. Another game with 19 turnovers, we didn’t make any free throws, we couldn’t stop them. But we got out with a win.”
Not a word about the 7-27 three-point shooting……
Photo of the Day:
Swag: Not everybody has it.
Defense, the Luke Harangody way.
Defense, the Golden State Warrior way.
