Blood, Sweat, and Tears

[Ryan W]

First off, let me take full credit for the
reverse-jinx my last post provided.  Sorry I doubted
you guys.  

On to the game: I really don't have much to add to
things that have already been posted to the list in
regard to what happened on the court.  We played the
bench like we should, played defense like we should,
and blew out the Hawks like we should.  Done and done.
 As Doc said, we had to play better and we did.  

I agree with the idea that this series will provide an
important lesson to us on the way to what we hope will
be a championship season (Barkley pointed this out on
Tuesday, and predicted the blowout win too), but we
still need to win in Atlanta.  I do think our guard is
up and will be up for the rest of the playoffs.  We
know what the atmosphere in Atlanta entails and what
the road is like in the playoffs.  So we should be
ready on Friday.  But let's see which officials are
assigned to the game before we get too confident. 
This series has been plagued by bad officiating and
it's possible that we've yet to see the worst of it.

It was good to see Horford get unintentionally slapped
last night.  Man, I hate that guy (but I'd love him on
the C's).  

Rondo has been beyond good in this series.  40 assists
and 4 turnovers so far after 5 games (he's third in
the league during the playoffs in assists per game,
behind Chris Paul and Deron Williams).  That's nuts! 
I still think he should be getting the most minutes on
the team--he's our best point by far, he's young, and
he's has the conditioning to do it.  Chris Paul,
LeBron, Tony Parker are all getting the same kinds of
minutes, and Rajon can definitely handle them.  On the
flipside, we need to limit Ray's minutes more than we
are.  If we're not going to play Tony, I'd like to see
a Rajon/Sam backcourt at times, just to give Ray a
minute here or there to rest.  There's no reason to
play Ray the most minutes on this team; his health,
age, and performance do not dictate it.

Mark my words, we'll need Tony for game 6.  Doc,
please have the courage to play him.  Forget about the
airball and the questionable call he got on
Johnson--shit he hadn't played in two weeks anyway. 
We need his athleticism and we need him to go to the
basket.

Finally, this nonsense over the supposed gang sign
gesture needs to end.  It was a trumped up charge from
the beginning (Tommy revealed on the broadcast last
night that an Atlanta assistant coach sent a tape to
the league of the gesture, and edited out Horford's
taunt which led to the whole thing), and borderline
racist.  If not racist, then at least an example of
stereotyping someone based on where they come from. 
Shira came out of nowhere today for a terrible article
on the whole incident, with quotes from law
enforcement and everything.  You know what, Shira,
you're an idiot.  Go back to reporting on dog shows. 
First of all, let's remember that non-gang members get
shot at all the time because real gang members
misinterpret 'gang sign' in everyday gestures.  The
guys in these gangs can't even determine for reals
what constitutes a gang sign and innocent people die
because of it everyday.  And these guys came up with
the signs!  If they make mistakes in recognizing
signs, then where the fuck does the NBA get off
thinking they know what is and what is not a gang
sign!  Shira brings in some law enforcement bozo to
tell us that Paul's gesture "definitely can be a gang
sign."  You know what, probably 80 percent of all
human gestures "definitely can be a gang sign" if
you're looking for one; it's all in the eye of the
beholder.  This is all so much bullshit.  To top it
off, Shira asserts that the gesture was accompanied by
what could be seen as a 'menacing stare.'  WTF?  Look
at the tape, Paul is staring straight ahead, without
almost an absence of emotion on his face.  I see that
look everyday on the T, and while riding the T is a
bitch, I doubt everyone is trying to menace me (and if
they are, well, they can't touch me because I'm in my
IPod cocoon).  To every blogger and idiot with a
keyboard out there who wants to go assert that it was
definitely a gang sign and that Paul disrespected the
game and all this other BS that I'm reading, let me
assure you that only Paul knows what it was and wasn't
and the rest of us are left guessing.  But use a
little common sense.  If Paul was going to throw up a
gang sign, wouldn't he have done it already in his
career?  Maybe instead of waving a jersey in Indiana,
he would have flashed gang signs.  There is not one
picture or clip of Paul doing anything or expousing
anything that could be seen as gang related.  I'm just
saying that in this juncture of his career and his
life, on this team during this season, it makes no
sense that Paul would flash gang signs.  Paul is a
good guy and has never been associated with the gang
lifestyle in any way in any story or even any rumor. 
This is so completely out of left field that it's
funny.  

Ryan


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