The Gut Punch Reversal

Now that was entertainment. Watching D Wade is fun. Perk gutting it out was great. Rasheed’s “Ball Don’t Lie” was cracking us up and just looking for a T. Pierce to Rondo executed PERFECTLY and let’s not forget having Baby’s big arse for Rondo to cut off of. That’s not the first time Baby’s performed that end of game duty. Wingspans are nice but a big rear has its D up Wade better than Ray. Ray was awesome in 4th Q comeback. Just a great game to watch. And you have to hand it to Doc. No other coach in NBA has better rep for end of game tactics than him and this was proof. He knew who would be on Ray and who would be on Rondo

good analagy. there were a few games that 2007-8 team pulled out of a hat and last nite was the penultimate rabbit in the hat.

Despite the sloppy play and horrific refereeing.

-Rondo and Ray penetrating continually.
-Sheed joining Perk and Baby in paint warfare.

But Chalmers got caught on a pick and Rondo was freed for a perfect lob pass from Pierce.

If you look at the play carefully you’ll see that the C’s very carefully run to their spots with no picks – they just run close to each other. So BBD didn’t really pick Chalmers, he just got his man to be in the way of Chalmers. Doc talked about it this morning about how setting the picks uses too much time for that kind of play.

When they practice it, he says Paul is the only guy who makes the pass correct like that and that it was a good thing he was available to play. He also said that Ray is the other option aside from Rondo who they can pull the play off with.

They practice that play every couple of weeks, with variations. He did have to re-draw it up during the time-out because of different personnel – normally you have KG out there but not only was he gone, but Sheed was fouled out as well so he had Scal and BBD out there.

The keys to making the play work were first and foremost the pass by Pierce. Next, it was BBD moving to the corner as if to recieve the pass&shoot, pulling his man into Rondo’s. Finally, Ray and Scal both pulled their guys out of the lane to the 3 pt line to protect against a game-winner from either of those two.

Beautifully executed Xs & Os. If any play ever put the lie to Basketball just being about being taller & faster and not about strategy and play execution, that one sure did.

Well, as Donnie Marshall said -that was definitely the play of this (short) decade!

I don’t buy that Miami had a “defensive lapse”. They played it the way they should have. Nobody thought Rondo would get the ball. Chalmers route off the pick was the most logical move since it would have enabled him to help off whoever got the ball on the wing.

It was only right that the guys covering Scal and Big Baby did not leave them.

If you were a member of the Heat and saw the lineup Boston was fielding you’d be thinking, “Hmmm, a bunch of jump shooters and Rondo as a decoy, I’m not gonna fall for that”.

These comparisons sound nice, but are kind of a stretch…

Espn even gave Paul to Rondo’s alley opp play #1 play of the night over Lebron’s behind the goal shot..maybe thats a new years resolution for espn,to be fair and balanced.

Now I know it was like 40 degrees in Miami last night (HAHA try living in NE for a winter) but did anyone notice that the crowd didn’t even show up until the 4th quarter? So many empty seats until then. Soon as Rondo made that alley oop the energy was sucked out of the building. I was watching the game with my father and he’s like “They are going to win now” and he was right. Awesome moment to see. The “Lets go Celtics” chant could be heard after that play as well- so great.

Other notes: Refs were awful and the games flow was up and down the whole time. Doc said he gave the MVP to Bill Walker and the other guys on the bench for pulling Sheed off the court after his 6th so he didn’t get a technical haha.

Paul still put up good numbers despite being really off (but thats ok you expect that – perfect pass tho). Rondo once again played out of his mind (I love that floater shot in the lane). Sheed hit some good buckets but was a headcase in the third. Ray threw some great daggers to get us back into the game. Davis had some key rebounds in the 4th and OT. TA played pretty good D on Wade (tho it was funny how RIGHT after Gorman says TA is being put in for defense on Wade that he jacks up and 3 and hits it).

Scal is doing the best impression of a chair I have ever seen (at least half of those 4 rebounds were in the open court fyi and with 2 other Celtics players right next to him).

for the year he is nearly 60% now. He can get to the line a lot and if he starts getting there at will and makes even 75% of his shots, well its exciting to see him coming along like this

was a crazy finish. Just as I was getting fed up with the C’s for coughing up the lead on the road, they battle back. Then Ray coughs up the ball to Wade for the win. But wait, .6 seconds are left on the clock. .6!?
Incredible play and then Rondo just keeps the pressure on in OT.

Really fun game to watch.

Davis did alot of the dirty work in the post at the end of the game. It’s amazing how Perk just owns O’Neil. It get’s to the point where just the thought of Perk guarding him makes him miss at key moments.