It wasn't REALLY a Playoff game....

there’s a lot to pin this game on: bad calls, bad offense in the 4th qtr, Joe Johnson and Crawford getting hot but in the end it really came down to a collective collapse of composure and cool- not so much by the players but by the coaching staff. Doc and Armond Hill cost their team 3 points. Tibbs then compounded their mistake by not subbing for the rest of the game. it was clear we were dead in the 4th. the only one with any energy was Baby which was understandable since he hadn’t played the whole game like the other guys. I know our bench has been inconsistent but this game screamed out for TOny Allen, Scal and Eddie to get back in the game and give the starters a blow. We were on the second of a back to back and guys were already tired. Rondo played 44 minutes against the raptors. Seriously, someone should take Tibedeau out behind the wood shed and kick his stupid ass.

Why do you bother watching the NBA at all?
Why follow it at all, let alone so passionately?
Why follow a sport if you believe the outcomes are pre-ordained?
Why would a “marque” franchise like Boston be singled out by the refs?
Has Tommy ever displayed disgust over a bad call that favored Boston?

I’ve been “watching” Celtics games on Yahoo’s 30-second updates for four years, which gives one a slightly different perspective. You see the minutes add up along with the other stats. So in the fourth quarter, the starters are grinders will into 40 minutes plus—including Perk—and the steals, missed shots, and rebounds are all piling up away from the Celtics. Those of you who saw the game can tell me how many C’s were leaning over during free throws. Either Bird or Heinsohn years ago said that was a sure sign of fatigue.

Whoever was coaching the team didn’t trust what’s left of the bench to let them play the first four minutes of the fourth, and it showed in the last four minutes. I didn’t see or hear about the technicals but reffing is essentially irrelevant if you’re playing on fumes and can only score 16 points in a quarter.

Tommy Heinsohn is simply the most intellectual dishonest broadcaster I have ever heard. I don’t know much about Tommy’s personal life nor do I care to, but he literally sounds like a drunkard obnoxious fan at a sports bar and grill instead of a sport’s commentator.

I don’t know if Tommy is as miserable off the court as he is as an announcer. If he is, why would the Celtics want to bring his misery to every game? And if this is all shtick, then why would such a classy franchise lower itself to that level of Jerry Springerism type behavior.

Tommy last night as normal spent most of his time complaining about the referees and even made statements like the Celtics shouldn’t even play because the refs are giving them the game.

One specific example. Baby wrapped his hand around Williams’ neck as he was driving to the hoop for a layup. That is potentially very dangerous for any athlete if they come down awkward. It happened to Redd where he landed awkwardly and he is done for the season. Look at all the injuries this year. Even KG with an allegedly hyper extended knee will miss a month.

The flagrant foul was called against Baby, Celts got 3 technicals against them and not once did the Celt announcers view it objectively. Tommy acts like there should be 60 fouls called against their team and only 5 against ours every game. Did the announcers expand on why the call might have been legitimate? No.

If that is not flagrant (hand around your neck on a layup attempt) than any player can do that to Wade or Kobe which in turn could cause a season ending injury. If it was Rondo and Dwight made the same play, we are making funeral arrangements for our young point.

Baby didn’t pull his neck, there was nothing malicious but you cannot have guys putting an arm or hand around another player’s neck when he’s going up for a layup- way too potentially dangerous.

And I saw this through much of the 70s. Not a flagrant foul, then Hawks send in a goon to horse collar Ray or Pierce. So now you might have one of our stars hurt on the retaliation. Then you have the technicals, player ejections, etc. Could Boston announcers objectively look at that play and give both sides? They didn’t or wouldn’t.

Tommy spent most of the game brainwashingly complaining about the fouls and the Celtics getting the short end by the refs. In the 4Q our offense was stagnant, what plays should we have run, etc to get better scoring opportunities? It seems all I heard for at least 3-4X or more was “get the ball to Pierce” out of Tommy’s mouth. When Johnson was lighting us up, what could we have done to slow him down? Nothing really out of Tommy. Celts not subbing 4Q- nothing out of Tommy.

In the Russell years they were stoic champions. Do you think Perk would be the way he was if he wasn’t feeding off all this Tommy bias? If Russell was mentoring him no way would he have 10+ technicals. During the Bird years there was an arrogance which to me I’m fine with. Now we have this Tommy idea that we have to beat the other team and the refs every night.

Celts need health and great basketball for #18, it won’t be the refs screwing us that keeps us from raising the banner. Celt management did an injury KG/Belichek move to the fans last year. Tommy’s the kind of guy who would compare himself to one of Donald Trump’s kids and constantly complain because he doesn’t have the wealth and opportunities that they have. So he’ll go through life complaining life’s not fair. For whatever reason management seems to think the fans are intellectual midgets. This organization and their fans are better than what Tommy Heinsohn brings as a Celtic announcer. It is time for him to move on.

They got the warning prior to all the horrible technical foul calls on the Cs. Then after all that bs one of their players drains a three (don’t remember who) and the whole Hawks bench comes out on the floor to congratulate him. Even Gorman said, “I don’t think there’s a timeout, why are they all on the floor?”

Doesn’t that qualify as a delay of game? I’m not an expert on these calls so help me out here. Just pointing that out.

Oh and I really wanted to do bad things to that guy on the Hawks bench who kept doing that face wipe with an open hand towards the Cs bench (the John Cena thing for lack of a better description) whenever SOMEONE else made a good shot (and he’s sitting on the bench mind you). Wasn’t sure who it was because I don’t know the Hawks line up well enough – they all remind me of a bunch of punks and I just group them all together haha (in my humble opinion of course).

It was just another Bennett Salvatore special and everyone knows it except David Stern and his minions, who would rather sweep the league’s officiating problems under the rug.

I saw at least three defensive 3-second calls that were not made on the Hawks, plus about a dozen fouls that were not called on the Hawks, including one shove on Rondo that was blatant and happened right in front of an official.

So let’s not quibble about one or two calls that were made. Let’s look at all the calls that weren’t made.

Now we know why Thibs hasn’t gotten a #1 job. He froze. Q4 of back to back, players looking tired and no subs (esp when Scal having game of year, esp w Tony to try on Joe Johnson).

brianceltfan, what are you, nuts? Or maybe not nuts enough. Tommy is not to be believed. He is to be enjoyed.

And yes, Brickowski, I agree Bennet Salvatore calls games badly. The money’s too good for him (and others) to leave, and Stern prizes his veteran refs, but they don’t seem to even like the game anymore. I don’t believe the games are fixed but I think many refs are petty, biased and cruising.

Since you decided to repeat your post of last night, let me repeat my response. See below, in case you forgot.

Let me add:
- You have added some ad hominem attacks on Tommy, based solely on his announcing. Bad move. Silly.
- You stated: “Baby wrapped his hand around Williams’ neck.” You must be living in an alternate universe, because in this one, Baby’s hand just grazed William’s neck, clearly accidentally.
- This quote is true: “Celts need health and great basketball for #18.” But it is also true that the refs COULD prevent #18. Not saying they want to… I do not believe there’s an anti-Celtics conspiracy out there in ref-land. But there does appear to be some antipathy toward the Cs on the part of many refs.
- To Lakers fans, I wanna add that I have often seen the Lakers get the shaft from the refs too. It’s almost as if one of the refs’ unwritten goals it to keep the league competitive. It seems as if they have an active agenda to pull down teams that are flying too high. That actually makes financial sense, and I would not at all be surprised to learn that Stern is involved in setting that agenda.
- However, when the Lakers play the Cs, the Lakers get the calls. I refer specifically to last year’s Christmas game in LA – one of the worst-officiated games we’ve seen – where the Lakers were handed the win by the referees. (By the 2nd game between the clubs, KG was out, so I’m ignoring it.)
-——

Here is last night’s response to your nearly-identical post:
- Tommy is an unabashed homer. He does not pretend otherwise; he’s right up front about it. And it’s not like everybody in the basketball universe doesn’t know it… the guy’s a Celtics legend, ferkrissakes.
- Your assertion that Tommy’s rants negatively affect Perk or anybody else on the team are unproven and pretty silly in my view. These are not infants, you know.
- Tommy complains a lot, yes. But he’s usually RIGHT. When he’s proven wrong by the tape, he will typically admit it.
- Unfortunately, in this game, Tommy never did see, or admit to seeing, Baby’s hand on Williams’ neck, which presumably was the reason for the flagrant. I think it was a bad call, but it was not unconscionable… there was some basis in reality (unlike many other NBA calls).
- That a national audience got to hear a legitimate HOFer and NBA announcer say the words that NOBODY ELSE has the nerve to say — that NBA refs are terrible, and disgustingly so — is a GOOD thing. How otherwise will anything ever change? You should be kissing Tommy’s feet, not criticizing him… he’s one of the few reasons we have to hope that someday the NBA might improve.
- Do the Cs get the shaft more often than other teams? Put it this way: I can’t remember the last time the Cs got the benefit of the kind of blatant game-changing bad calls we saw in this game.

Both fouls were flagrant, but not necessarily intentional ones. The refs nailed both those calls and both techs on Doc, who had no business reacting the way he did (nor did Armond Hill). Let’s face it; the Hawks have the Celtics’ number. Especially without Garnett and Wallace.
What bothers me most was the complete lack of composure, on the home court, by EVERYONE it seemed, down the stretch, and how the Hawks were completely composed. Polar opposites.
But it’s understandable Greg would be supporting the home team with his report. It gets tiring to see this kind of biased reporting, but hey, it’s a blog; I guess it’s supposed to.
The Celtics do not get the shaft more than other teams. And if they do, it’s because of players like Perkins, Wallace and Rondo (and back in the day, Pierce, and to a lesser extent Garnett) who obviously antagonize the refs.
Clearly this team has trouble with the Hawks, who are everything the Celtics are not. The refs had no unfair bearing on this game.

This is one of the reasons I don’t post here as much as I used to. To criticize some of Greg’s report (specifically, the part about the officiating, Greg, not the other stuff), and then to get personal attacks like “keep smoking the good stuff” and “troll” shows how low the level has gotten around here. It used to not be so bad. Sad that it is. So, succinctly: Greg, I wasn’t talking about your criticisms of players, I was focusing on your bias about the officiating. I stand by that. Kudos to you for criticizing individual players’ performances. DRJ1: Troll? Why the need for that? Ridiculous name-calling, and unnecessary. You want to disagree, fine. And yes, Iowa Guy, I watch the games, I just have a different viewpoint/perspective.

As a guy that only gets to see maybe 1 of every 6 or 7 games played throughout the year, I do want to see and hear intelligent commentary about the game. Fortunately only a few times throughout the year do I have to hear Tommy. There hasn’t been a single lose I’ve ever seen by the Celts that this guy didn’t cry like a baby. For those that think Tommy’s antics are “just to be enjoyed” different strokes for different folks.

I will at least give some of you credit for admitting that Tommy’s announcing is little more than buffoonery .

They talk about “the dumbing down” of America and if that raw meat he throws out floats your boat, what can I say? Great ESPN photo of Davis with his hand on Williams’ neck. If the players were reversed, no question Tommy calls that a flagrant on Williams’ hand on Davis’ neck and goes ballistic if not a flagrant foul called. And you Tommy homers get my point. I’m sure Jerry Springer got great ratings too, but that doesn’t make it great TV. If Tommy’s whole act is shilling like Springer, I’m glad i only have to put up with him maybe a few times a year. If Tommy is as miserable off the announcers’ table as portrays doing the games, then that’s Tommy’s business. Either way, I definitely prefer an upgrade.

But hey, if Tomminators put more $$$ in Celt brass pockets and that’s your brand of entertainment, stay the course, a win, win, win- for these types of fans, Celt management, and Tommy’s wallet.