Celtics 96 - Hawks 77

Last night was a difficult scenario as I had to work and Green Bandwagon went down. Who wants to DVR a playoff game? Would I have broken my modest record for an open game thread? Can DVR be used as a verb? Thankfully the Celtics came out and took care of business. Some thoughts:

Right from the opening tip Celtics fans were all over Bibby. It was expected.

It threatened to get out of hand throughout the first quarter. A lot was made about Josh Smith fouling Paul Pierce hard but it was really Joe Johnson that got him. Smith falling on The Truth afterwards did not help. On the bright side it looks like Pierce will be ok. By the way  you should read that article  to get the latest on Pierce as well as Doc Rivers essentially  saying, "I was way better than Scalabrine." I know that's not the intent of the article and Rivers doesn't say that. But what else would you take from that article besides the fact that the rules for playoff rosters have changed a lot?

After Smith fell on Pierce last night I could tell that some fans were saying some nasty things to him. I couldn't hear any of it. But I'm pretty sure about this one.

Even though I wrote about it last week I am continually amazed by how much Rajon Rondo and Leon Powe bring to the table. They've been fantastic.

Sam Cassell is definitely on a shoot first, second and third plan.

I'm still convinced that Acie Law IV can make it in the NBA.

Ultimately my favorite thing about this Celtics team is that it wins. However, the fact that this group refuses to be intimidated by anyone is a close second. They were built for playoff basketball.

More on this one later.