Dear Philly,
We’re sorry. You didn’t deserve to lose this game at home and have your home streak snapped at 5 games. We know it was your first national television appearance for the year (and we know for how long for that matter). We know you played harder, faster and with more energy and focus. We should’ve let you win in front of your home crowd albeit half of them were Celts fans.
As coach Doug Collins dishearteningly said “What a heartbreaking loss. It was just a shame. It would have been an incredible win for us here tonight.”
It was a game where the margin was never larger than 8 points. Meeks was possessed shooting 6-9 for 19 points with 4-4 from 3pt territory. Iggy had his usual stat line of 14 points and 11 assists with 2 steals. We even let Young and Williams, 2 of your bench players, score a combined 32 points on 12-21 with Williams hitting 4-5 3pts. You outrebounded the Celtics 39 to 33 and obtained 15 offensive rebounds with Brand pulling down 8 of those in his rebound total of 14 and ran for 22 points in transition. You only had 11 turnovers for the entire game against a premiere defense that had 15 turnovers.
But what can we do when the team you’re facing is destined for bigger things. This Celtics team is hell-bent on getting back to where it must’ve felt like hell this past offseason. They want that ring and they are willing to go back through the ring of fire.
Never mind that this was a team playing the second game of a back-to-back and at times this resembled a muck-up game between teachers and students with the 76ers average of 23 as opposed to the Celtics’ average age of 28 with 5 players over 30 with Shaq turning 39 in March. Never mind that the Celtics are injury plagued with four of their players out, three of which are centres. Never mind that those who are playing are also carrying injuries. Rondo FedEx continues to deliver with a double double of 19 points and 14 assists despite hobbling around on the court. Ray “Jesus” Allen, their most reliable player for the night was also the oldest player at 35. He shot 23 points on 7-10 shooting along with a perfect 7-7 in free throws. This guy doesn’t understand the concept of aging. Even their captain Paul Pierce is ill.
“It was a gutsy win,” Pierce said. “It didn’t seem like we had it all night. We couldn’t get really consistent momentum in the game or get a consistent flow. But good teams find a way to win. There was good execution down the stretch.”
This was the game that Doc forewarned that his team would steal when they had no right when we punished them for not playing the entire game and simply trying to turn it on for the last quarters of the Durant-less Thunder and Toronto games in November. Garnett even acknowledged it in his usual trash talking sense after his huge lay in with 1 second left gave the C's the win at 102-101. “Rajon threw a perfect pass and I just banked it,” Garnett said. “The crazy part about all that is that I messed that play up so many times in practice. It’s only right that the basketball gods gave it to me tonight. It was a good win for us, a grind-out win. This team has been playing unbelievably.”
We know. We shouldn’t have listened to KG. But he plays so hard every night and is so intense that he even intimidates us and we give in to his will. We really are sorry. If it’s any consolation, if you continue to play that hard every night, than we will more than likely reward you. Think of it this way, the way the Celtics need to bring it the entire game, you need to bring it every night. Even though you are not at that level, you have to play hard every night. It could’ve been worse. We could have let you lose by 20 on national television and not even let it build into an absorbing contest.
Sincerely,
The Basketball Gods.
PS. Although they say that 90% of basketball is effort, there is still the other 10%. If you think that in appeasing us know it is essential to play pick and roll defense. We know that Elton Brand is trying awfully hard but he was awful defensively giving up lay ups rather than rotate to protect the cup.
We’re sorry. You didn’t deserve to lose this game at home and have your home streak snapped at 5 games. We know it was your first national television appearance for the year (and we know for how long for that matter). We know you played harder, faster and with more energy and focus. We should’ve let you win in front of your home crowd albeit half of them were Celts fans.
As coach Doug Collins dishearteningly said “What a heartbreaking loss. It was just a shame. It would have been an incredible win for us here tonight.”
It was a game where the margin was never larger than 8 points. Meeks was possessed shooting 6-9 for 19 points with 4-4 from 3pt territory. Iggy had his usual stat line of 14 points and 11 assists with 2 steals. We even let Young and Williams, 2 of your bench players, score a combined 32 points on 12-21 with Williams hitting 4-5 3pts. You outrebounded the Celtics 39 to 33 and obtained 15 offensive rebounds with Brand pulling down 8 of those in his rebound total of 14 and ran for 22 points in transition. You only had 11 turnovers for the entire game against a premiere defense that had 15 turnovers.
But what can we do when the team you’re facing is destined for bigger things. This Celtics team is hell-bent on getting back to where it must’ve felt like hell this past offseason. They want that ring and they are willing to go back through the ring of fire.
Never mind that this was a team playing the second game of a back-to-back and at times this resembled a muck-up game between teachers and students with the 76ers average of 23 as opposed to the Celtics’ average age of 28 with 5 players over 30 with Shaq turning 39 in March. Never mind that the Celtics are injury plagued with four of their players out, three of which are centres. Never mind that those who are playing are also carrying injuries. Rondo FedEx continues to deliver with a double double of 19 points and 14 assists despite hobbling around on the court. Ray “Jesus” Allen, their most reliable player for the night was also the oldest player at 35. He shot 23 points on 7-10 shooting along with a perfect 7-7 in free throws. This guy doesn’t understand the concept of aging. Even their captain Paul Pierce is ill.
“It was a gutsy win,” Pierce said. “It didn’t seem like we had it all night. We couldn’t get really consistent momentum in the game or get a consistent flow. But good teams find a way to win. There was good execution down the stretch.”
This was the game that Doc forewarned that his team would steal when they had no right when we punished them for not playing the entire game and simply trying to turn it on for the last quarters of the Durant-less Thunder and Toronto games in November. Garnett even acknowledged it in his usual trash talking sense after his huge lay in with 1 second left gave the C's the win at 102-101. “Rajon threw a perfect pass and I just banked it,” Garnett said. “The crazy part about all that is that I messed that play up so many times in practice. It’s only right that the basketball gods gave it to me tonight. It was a good win for us, a grind-out win. This team has been playing unbelievably.”
We know. We shouldn’t have listened to KG. But he plays so hard every night and is so intense that he even intimidates us and we give in to his will. We really are sorry. If it’s any consolation, if you continue to play that hard every night, than we will more than likely reward you. Think of it this way, the way the Celtics need to bring it the entire game, you need to bring it every night. Even though you are not at that level, you have to play hard every night. It could’ve been worse. We could have let you lose by 20 on national television and not even let it build into an absorbing contest.
Sincerely,
The Basketball Gods.
PS. Although they say that 90% of basketball is effort, there is still the other 10%. If you think that in appeasing us know it is essential to play pick and roll defense. We know that Elton Brand is trying awfully hard but he was awful defensively giving up lay ups rather than rotate to protect the cup.
http://www.celticslife.com/2010/12/celtics-102-sixers-101-highlights.html
ReplyDeleteGreat Title + comments.
ReplyDeleteI want more metaphors. I love the teacher v student game and the dead goldfish. WE WANT MORE!