Mmmmm, mmmmm, good.

[bird <birdwl@earthlink.net>]

I do so love a good, old-fashioned ass-whupping, especially against the 
Pistons.  Except in the fourth (almost every second of which was garbage 
time), the Celts dominated, and frankly, the only jobs the guys who played 
in the last quarter had was to take time off the clock, make one or three 
shots, and play defense (thus forcing Detroit into taking time off the 
clock), all of which they did.

One of the things that struck me was that Mark Blount was completely 
ineffective even in garbage time.  Man, I cannot believe this guy started 
for us last year.  He's careless with the pass in the high post, can't get 
*any* sort of feel for where the rebound is going to go, and can't play 
defense in the post.  What *good* is a seven-footer without those 
qualities?  I'm stymied.

Everyone else played well.  Walker didn't need to score, but rebounded 
well and layed down passes like house afire.  Another reason I was 
irritated with Blount was that he missed a shot after a pass from Antoine 
that, at the time, I thought would have given Walker a double-double 
(rebounds and assists).  Subsequent stat overlays on the broadcast 
suggested that Walker only had 7 assists at the timne; I'll check the 
boxscore to see how it was scored later.  (A gut gets an assist on a play 
where the shot goes but a foul is called, though, right?  Seemed to me 
that Walker had more than seven assists, but it's not as if I was keeping 
track.)  Not bad for a guy who "won't give it up on the break", eh?  Once 
again, I say Marv Albert and Clyde can stuff it where the sun don't shine.
   They think they know, but they are ignorant.  (Of course, Walker's still 
a punk, not a team player, is obvious "retahded", etc, etc, etc.  You know,
  the usual.  I love every minute of it.

I just checked the ESPN site and noticed that Walker got no love from the 
AP recap.  I believe the opening line was something like "Paul Pierce 
offset a poor shooting night by Antoine Walker...".  Yeah, maybe Waker 
went 1-14, but silly me, I think recaps of games ought to get to the heart 
of the matter, and surely one of the "hearts" of this game was the 
effectiveness of Walker's all-around game: 11 rebounds, 7 assists, 4 
steals, only 2 turnovers.  Sure, mention that his streak ended, but I'm 
sure he couldn't care less; and, most importantly, his play early on 
sealed the deal, helping to never allow Detroit even within sniffing 
distance of the men in green.  Oh, right, I forgot, he's the most hated 
man in the league, blah, blah, blah.  Man, I will take this guy, faults 
and all, bum knee and all.

No one scored more than 16 points, but six Celtics scored in double 
figures and JJ scored nine.  30 assists.  Pistons got more rebounds, but, 
importantly, the Celtics spread it around, with everyone (except 
Blount ... natch) grabbing at least one.  The usual suspects contributed 
well (Kenny, T, V, Strick) -- though T only had 3 bounds, he and V 
combined for a healthy 24 and 10 on 12-17 shooting.  I'm beginning to 
think Wallace, et al, aren't morons after all.  JJ seemed a bit less 
tentative, going 4-7.  In fact, the only guys who didn't shoot well were 
Pierce and Walker -- a combined 5-24 -- but no one else shot less than 50% 
-- except Blount, of course.  But, of course, we didn't need them to.  
Pierce really heated it up there for a bit, and I've already spoken about 
Antoine's floor game.  Hey, you know the game is going to go well when 
Wallah's hitting 5-7 for 12 points, and 5 rebounds.

This one was sweet.

Bird