Re: Tonight's game

[bird <birdwl@earthlink.net>]

On Tuesday, March 26, 2002, at 04:52 PM, Shawn Niles wrote:

> I am happy with wins any way they come as well. But I also think that the 
> only time you should not wonder how you could have done things better 
> even in a win is if that win is to clinch a championship. I hope the 
> coaches feel the same way. I hope Obie is not saying, "Well we won, 
> everything is great".

There's a certain amount of truth (for me) in what you're saying, too.  I 
also hope the coaches and management and players are going for the jugular.
   They need to drive and motivate themselves to always try to do better, I 
agree.  At the same time, though, they're people, and I hope they give 
themselves credit for having what amounts to an outstanding season.  As a 
fan, I sure am. I mean, few people thought they'd be even as good as they 
are now.  Certainly no one in the media did.  I mean, if you discount the 
"optimistic-for-optimism's-sake" predictions (which is, to me, fine and 
dandy) and the "pessimism-hiding-as-optimism" prediction (which is, you 
know, not) from the list's predictions, more people seemed to think the C'
s were terrible to mediocre than decent.

And now that they *are* doing fairly well, for some people they suck again 
if they don't win it all, it almost seems.  I don't think you're like that,
  but for those that are, how about some realistic expectations?  Sure, the 
Celtics *could* win the East.  No one would be happier than I.  But if 
they don't, I'm going to look back on the season and judge it to be a 
success.  There's a "now that they're good, they ought to be better" 
attitude that I don't share.  I'll raise my expectations for next year.  
Right now, they've exceeded my expectations for *this* year, and I'm 
pretty damn happy about that.

> I'm going to the game tomorrow night and I hope they play better than 
> last night or it could make for a long night. For some reason, GS gives 
> us fits.

Exactly -- "for some reason".  I certainly don't know why.  The Worriers 
basically suck yet again.  Sure they have height and some bulk, but don't 
seem to use it all that much against the C's.  I have no clue, as I don't 
watch many GS games, only the Celtic ones, and I saw them live here in 
Portland once this year.  They suck live, too.  But, like you said, they 
give the Celtics a hard time.  Hope they figure out how to beat GS like 
almost all the other teams have done.

Bird