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.

Continue reading this post »

It occurred to me the other night that the Hawks play like a NCAA Cinderella team in Atlanta. And that's not an insult. The bench jumps around like wild, there is a ton of energy and they take down a higher ranked seed. On the flip side the Hawks have looked more like Penn against the UConn Huskies when the games have been played in Boston. It has has been surreal. And despite the outcome of the first 6 games in no way am I comfortable. For starters the Celtics usually don't look all that sharp on Sunday afternoon games - an ugly road win at Toronto (Ray Allen buzzer beater), the first loss of the year on the road against Orlando, that lackluster home win against the Cavs (minus LeBron), another loss at Orlando (Turkoglu's ridiculous 3) and a road win in Portland. In fact the victory over the Spurs at home is the only Sunday game that stands out to me in a good way. More importantly the Hawks are attacking the rim, getting the Celtics in foul trouble and dominating the free throw line as Boston chucks up jumpers. Let's hope the Celtics figure this one out.