Back On Track At MSG

Have a good weekend all
Spike Lee and Mike Breen excluded

Link.

Great end from the Champs.

- excellent pic choice Jeff.

where did you find that epic pic? thats frame worthy.

Come on— you can’t expect the Celtics to come out firing after the game last night. Just logistically speaking, the team didn’t get into NYC until the wee hours of the morning. They played an OT game against one of the best teams in the league… that is draining.

Pop sat Ginobili, Duncan, and Parker the game after an OT in a back-to-back. We looked flat and made mistakes tonight because that is what you do when you are tired: you play flat and make silly mistakes.

I thought it was a great win for them. It gets them back on track for Sunday, which should be a great matchup.

Is anyone else really pumped for the Cavs/Lakers game.
Um, dare I say, more excited than the Celts/Spurs game? Don’t get me wrong, if I could only watch one game I’d choose the Celts because it’s the Celts, but, the Spurs aren’t exactly “fun” to watch. Duncan off the glass? Parker drives off a pick/roll? Eh.

Perk played 20

Other SBnation blogs have punny, witty, and dare I say “cool” blog names. Jeff: how did the folks at CelticsBlog & SB Nation come up with “CelticsBlog”? Was it a default choice or an actual choice?

- After a high-octane start, the game stagnated in the 2nd quarter. The Celtics’ offense was discombobulated, which I think had a lot to do with Doc’s decision to once again play Tony over Gabe. I don’t know what (if anything) Gabe did to warrant his sudden re-benching (maybe he’s a victim of circumstance only), but I know that I want him back in the game. At the very least, he’s not going to wreck the flow of the offense like Tony is almost guaranteed to do.

- Pierce was Pierce tonight. Those two long distance heaves as the shot clock was expiring were huge.

- Typical outing for Ray, as well. When he fouled out, even though there may have been a few minutes left, the game was virtually over.

- I was very happy to see Perkins pick up his performance tonight, especially on offense. Yeah, it was nothing spectacular, but I think Perkins gives the team a boost when he can finish nicely around the hoop, and score a couple of points.

- Leon’s back as well. It was just a matter of time before he found his game again. Way to go Leon!!!

- Another stellar offensive effort from my man Eddie House. His confidence is through the roof right now shooting the basketball. He was held scoreless in the first half, but persisted after missing his first two shots to score a few key buckets. He put together a string of 5 points in a row beginning with that stolen outlet pass, forcing a Knick timeout. Speaking of strings, House has quite the string of good games going right now.

- Unfortunately, House did not have a prayer of sticking with Robinson. He was trying to stay with him, but there was nothing he could really do about the speed disparity.

- Was it just me, or was KG really, really bad on defense tonight (both against his man, and weak side)? I phrase that as a question because I want to be cautious about criticizing last year’s DPOY’s defense.

- Boston was a little too flat for my liking for most of the night. There were too many easy shots and open shots available to the Knicks. Although, I guess the flatness was to be expected in a game following an OT loss to the Lakers, and I’m glad they kicked into gear when they needed to.

the one where he was hurt, holding his back, does anybody know what happened there? They came back from the timeout and had that useless interview with David Stern on CSN-NE, Ray Allen is shooting a technical free throw and then the Knicks have the ball…I don’t really understand that. Mike and Tommy didn’t really say anything about except when it happened and I could’ve swore I heard the MSG PA saying it was Knicks ball.

"My days of putting up big numbers [are] over with," Pierce said. "I’m within the team concept; that’s the formula that we need to win. We don’t need one guy to go out and score 46 points; we rely on our teamwork, our extra passes, our defense."

“It could happen. Paul had a big game in the playoffs [a 41-point game against Cleveland],” Rivers said before the game. “But for the most part, we’re more of a ball-movement team, we try to share the ball, so it would be very rare, almost strange, to see a 50-point game out of one of our guys. Having said that, I would take it, absolutely.”

BAM. That is why we won in 2008, and that is why we REALLY are a contender for 2009.