Re: Tonight's officiating (and a comment about Pierce)

[Hironaka <j.hironaka@unesco.org>]

    Geez WEEI was really down on Antoine last night. When he got his technical
in the first half yapfest with Goog, they were saying it would help Boston's
winning chances if the ref's just gave him a second T and kicked him out. Hard
to believe they would rag on him like that, but he took some bad threes by the
sound of it, and was apparently showboating to impress his high school
basketball teammate and pro-bowl QB Donovan McNabb who was in attendence. I
guess the frustration comes because whenever a three is a  brick it is major
momentum killer, and Walker tends to launch early threes right in the middle of
rallys or after Pierce scored a couple in a row.

    In the end his numbers were pretty good...most of Walker's five steals
sounded like they were legitimate defensive plays and he outscored Cliff
Robinson and Goog helped limit them to 33% shooting. He also managed a 2-1
assist/turnover ratio, which played a part in the win. This last West Coast trip
has been the Paul Pierce getting-to-know-you roadshow. It sounded more
devastating on the radio than on the morning boxscore, because he dropped the 42
points in just 36 minutes and seemed to drive and score at will. To the extent
that he got so few fan votes in the All Star game, he is certifiably underrated
at this stage. This is one of the best two-game individual stretches since
McHale scored 90 points in 6 quarters, or when Reggie was in his zone in the
playoffs.

    It's odd how the Celts have been shooting the lights out at around a 50%
clip on this trip (let's hope that carries over into tonight's key B2B against
the McNuggets). It's like the old days when the West played soft, finesse
basketball. Our Celts have delivered the El Sweepo on both Phoenix and Seattle
which is nice, but we also got swept by Golden State and Vancouver so its a
wash. Even though the LA loss was devastating and put me in a depression, we do
have a chance to take three out of four against La La Land this year (uh,
including the sweep of the Clippers) if we can show up and beat the Flakers at
home on the 6th of April. Overall we've played competitively against the West
this year. Don't ask me why...maybe it is because we have better center matchups
against West Coast teams than against the quicker, skinnier Eastern teams. This
win is exactly what the team needed. Had we lost, Obie's record would have
fallen below .500 and cast doubt on the team's chances as a whole. After the
Denver and Spurs games, we have a chance to go on a five-game winning run to
finish March with some serious momentum and confidence. We just need to outcoach
and beat the crap out of Dan Issel's team tonight, and bring a greater sense of
urgency. I want Stith to show up big tonight, Walker to be relentless against
McDyess and LaFrentz and Pierce to finish his West Coast trip with another great
game. Then we need to do to Jersey, the Bulls (twice), Atlanta and Indiana what
we did to the Wiz and put together a 7-1 type run going into the final month. We
need to wail on them relentlessly and demonstrate to them that we're now the
better team by far.

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