Boston Celtics vs. Atlanta Hawks - Game 7 Recap

Random Thoughts From Game 7

Kendrick Perkins’ first quarter was phenomenal. He scored some points, blocked a few shots and made himself a presence. You could make the case that the Celtics got contributions from their stars throughout the series. And it was their role players that pushed them over the edge in the victories and disappeared for long stretches in the losses.

The Celtics fans pulled out some classic chants - “It’s all over”, “Hey hey hey goodbye” and if I’m not mistaken an old school WWF “USA USA USA” when Zaza Pachulia went to the line. But my absolute favorite was the “Where is Bibby?” chant that erupted towards the end of the third quarter. Awesome.

KG’s pick on Pachulia was one of those dirty plays that is okay because as Mark Jackson rightly pointed out – a guy’s teammates have to tell him the pick is coming. It’s their job. Just like it is the on deck batter's responsibility to tell a runner whether or not to slide into home. Yes KG threw a little something extra in there. But that’s basketball.

I’m still concerned about Glen Davis eating his way out of the league. There I said it. In case you were wondering, “He doesn’t have much elevation to his game” (Jeff Van Gundy) is the polite way of saying that.

“I’m a big Lost fan.” – Mike Breen
“You are lost.” – Jeff Van Gundy
“Good one.” – Breen

It was a painful exchange. But it brought us one step closer to someone, most likely Van Gundy, busting out a “Your mom” or a “Your face” on national television.

I’d like to know what Salim Stoudamire’s deal is. I wrote the following about him in my “Meet the Atlanta Hawks” post prior to the series:

"From an outsider's perspective he is an enigma wrapped in a riddle. Lute Olsen is on the record as saying Stoudamire is a better shooter than J.J. Reddick, based upon their college careers. However, Stoudamire is better known as a streak shooter and a head case. In fact Olsen's biography, Lute! devoted a seemingly disproportionate amount of time to Stoudamire's time as a Wildcat when you consider all of the guys that have come out of Arizona. Whatever you think of Stoudamire there is no denying that he shot an abysmal 34.6% from the field this season, only played in 33 games and averaged just under 11 minutes when he did see time."

He just seems to be one of those guys that can role out of bed and shoot. And we saw a bit of that towards the end of the game when Stoudamire nailed two three pointers.

The Tony Allen of old would have pulled out a 360, a windmill or the T-Mac off the backboard self pass on that fast break late in the game.

I really like Eddie House, Glen Davis and Tony Allen. However, I’m hoping that Doc Rivers takes note of how things went down today and goes with the following nine:

Rajon Rondo
Ray Allen
Paul Pierce
Kevin Garnett
Kendrick Perkins
Leon Powe
James Posey
Sam Cassell
PJ Brown

Celtics Most Likely to Get Suspended and Miss a Game in the Playoffs:

3. Paul Pierce
2. James Posey
1. Kendrick Perkins

Huge upset win by Perkins. I'm convinced that KG’s all around craziness pushed Perk’s surly on court demeanor to another level. Cinderella story really.

“When you talk about…” – Can we possibly eliminate that phrase from broadcasting? When you talk about ABC’s announcing crews you talk about guys who love to say, “When you talk about…”

PJ Brown and Sam Cassell were part of a second unit that played defense for stretches better than some teams’ first units.

The Marvin Williams foul. I was horrified when it happened and just happy to see Rondo walk away from it. But I’m not sure how I can condemn when I champion Kevin McHale’s close line of Kurt Rambis. Just throwing that out there.

It's not often you can say, "Well the score was 99-65 but it was really much worse than that."