A Daily Babble Production
It was an angering three hours spent in front of the television last night.
The effort from the Celtics drove me absolutely crazy -- to the point that I realized after the fact that I spent the game overheating and growing short on breath. Rough times.
There's a lot to be legitimately peeved about on the green side, but sometimes, it's more worthwhile to take a deep breath and get ready to move past a loss. This is one of those times. Just seems like a wiser idea than forcing my head to explode by actually writing out the unhappiness brought out by Game 4 against the Pistons.
But it is also worth remembering that it takes two to tango. Sometimes, our team is really bad (the Celtics certainly were), but that often isn't the whole story. Sometimes, the other team is pretty good, too. At the very least, there are two members of the Pistons' frontcourt who earned some praise for their efforts this time around.
Antonio McDyess and Jason Maxiell embarked on a tag team mission to pull the Celts down last night, and they emerged from said mission quite successful.
All of Steve's daily posts can be found in the CelticsBlog: NBA blog. Check him out!
ESPN's broadcasters couldn't say enough about McDyess, and they couldn't have been more right. He was outstanding. His early jump-shooting from mid-range helped the Pistons get off to a fast start, and his desire helped carry them through the rest of the contest.
Simply put, McDyess played hungrier basketball than the Celtics did last night. He was the first one to rebounds and loose balls. He was the one not backing down from anyone in the green. He was the one who managed to tip a jump ball away from Kevin Garnett. He created second chances from his team by nabbing 7 of his 16 total rebounds on the offensive end. He hit his jump shots, got inside for a couple and went an effective 5-for-6 from the foul line en route to a 21-point performance on 8-for-14 shooting.
Beyond the statistics, McDyess clearly led the Pistons' first team in energy all night long, and his enthusiasm proved contagious to those around him. Just an excellent effort.
Meanwhile, Jason Maxiell came off the bench for a performance that went beyond mere Energizer Bunny excitement levels. He did a little bit of everything. Dunked emphatically on the fast break. Finished buckets plus the foul. Hit two of his three foul shots (good for a guy who had shot 43.5 percent from the line prior to the game). Knocked down mid-range jump shots. And, of course, he had the highlight reel block on Kevin Garnett's fast-break dunk attempt that we'll be seeing all over television for most of the upcoming week.
Antonio McDyess and Jason Maxiell have earned the tip of our caps. Hard-nosed, Blue-collar basketball. Hungry baskeball. Though I say it grudgingly, well done, fellas.