Spurs Game ... Nuts.

[bird <birdwl@earthlink.net>]

A hard-fought, valiant effort -- but you don't get a win for effort.  A 
close game; even when San Antonio went up by eleven in the third, the C's 
came back.  I think the farthest the teams were apart in the quarters was 
two points.  Duncan's one of those guys you hope only to contain, and the 
Celts did: 25 points and 12 rebounds, but he only took 13 shots.  I'll 
take that.  One part of the story was the Spurs' shooting at the line 
(33-40, more than doubling the Celtics' attempts), and the other was Steve 
freakin' Smith's three-pointers, free throws, and that one shot he made 
from inside the arc that just had me shaking my head.  I thought the C's 
were going to keep the free throw attempts close but it wasn't to be.  
There were some bad calls at both ends: especially not calling blocks when 
the defender was within the hemisphere under the basket.  I mean, there 
*is* a line there, I wish the refs would pay attention to it.  The Spurs 
are all about the power game, and getting to the line, though, and it 
showed.

Guys had good individual games as well as the good team game.  Walker had 
21, 12 and 8; Pierce 31 and 6 in limited minutes (due to early fouls again)
; Kenny another 8 and 8 (and that *sweet* bounce pass on the break); T had 
11 rebounds, etc.  The team needs Pierce to limit the number of fouls he 
gets early in the game, someone to hit that corner three, and to shoot 
just a bit better (if they hit just two more shots ...).  The defense is 
there at crucial points.  The rebounding was as good as it will probably 
get (and that's pretty damn good).  I wonder why V only got 4 minutes, 
though?  I will give Blount props for the good steal and the nice finish, 
but he missed a few passes down low (not that *that's* all that unusual 
from the Troika, but Blount is probably the worst of the bunch), and just 
misses his guy on defense all too often.  He actually played better 
tonight than normally, but I saw a Blount mistake about ever other play, 
on average.  Maybe I'm just hypercritical when it comes to him, though.  
Some guys on the team may look as if they are "retahded" but Blount comes 
closest to playing like he is.

A very entertaining game, though.  I think the Celtics were trying to do 
the right things; they succeed at most, but not all.  Eventually, you've 
got to think that JJ, K. Brown, and Strick are going to get better at 
canning that open corner shot.  Look at when that happens.

Bird

P.S. If Pierce doesn't make the All-Star team, it'll be another in a long 
line of All-Star offenses.  But I can't see the East coach (Byron Scott?) 
leaving him off.  I agree that the powers-that-be are always a few steps 
behind in characterizing P-Dub: when he was playing mostly 2-guard he was 
listed as a small forward, now it's the other way around.  Sure, in the 
Celtics' scheme, the positions are pretty interchangeable, but this just 
shows you the need to nail it down.  Call him a small forward already and 
be done with it.  As for Walker, looks like he'll make it, too, and on the 
fan vote, for what *that's* worth.  No better PF in the East; how many 
near-triple-doubles does this make now?  Hope that reported knee problem 
isn't serious.