Game 1 and tonight

[Ryan W <ubiquitous_am_i@xxxxxxxxx>]

"Never Doubt Antione"

--and this is why you don't trade Antione.  I second
O'Brien's praise of Antione's defense, he hasn't
played that well on defense since Pitino came aboard. 
But, if you look back at his rookie season, when he
was playing center occasionally, I would have to argue
that there was the same type of fiesty post defense
from Antione.  And lost in all of Pierce's insanity
were the 10 points from Antione, biggest of all being
the tip in offensive rebound of the Delk miss late in
the game.  Antione is back.

"Nobody Stabs Paul Pierce"

--did anyone else gag as Tolbert basically went off on
how "tough" Reggie Miller is?  Well, Tolbert, this is
the man who is tough....he gets stabbed, he comes
back, he gets he teeth knocked out, he comes
back....you cannot stop Paul Pierce.  How about that 3
pointer when we were down by 2 with forty seconds
left?  And this after he hadn't hit anything the
entire game.  And the 21 of 21 free throws?  Come on,
that is the definition of mental toughness and
concentration.  When will Pierce get his due? 
Apparently Monday morning as Bob Ryan annointed him
the best offensive player in Celtics' history.  


As for tonight

There are things to be positive about....we won the
last game without Battie, which is something I doubted
we could do.  With a full game of Battie (hopefully
the refs don't botch another one), things are bound to
be better (i.e. we don't get down by 16 again).  Plus,
Pierce, for all his greatness, basically was crap the
first 3 quarters....hopefully the cold is gone and he
can hit a few from the field tonight.  Double plus,
there isn't any pressure tonight...you could see a
noticeable "tightening" last game...especially in the
beginning where we may have come out a little too
hyped up.  Tonight, hopefully, we take a little of the
edge off and let the Pacers' desperation play into our
hands.

And of course, we have Isiah....let's not blame him
too much for what happened on Saturday.  It wasn't
what he did, it was what Paul did....nothing more,
nothing less.  Isiah is a horrible coach, but it was
Pierce who put the ball in the basket 21 of 21 times
at the line.  Isiah, for all his ineptness, didn't
cause that...
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