That’s How You do it, Bobcats Beat Celtics

In Boston.  83-81, whew.  A collective sigh of relief, folks.  They did win again and it just happened to be against the second best team in the East, the Boston (expletive deleted) Cetltics!  I hate the Celtics as has been documented for years, ever since they got the “Big 3” and became relevant again, I’ve had daggers for them every time their name would be spoken.  To actually see daggers put to use….unbelievable.

The guys are hyped up, acording to Coach Paul Silas in his post game remarks.  It was a focused, laser-like effort.  The type I’ve been begging for and calling for all year, because seriously, the Bobcats, without some magic, can’t win without it.  They had both tonight.  83-81, never felt so good!

Stephen Jackson was out.  Tyrus Thomas was unavailable.  Diop, has been unavailable.  Przybilla has been out.  Garrett Temple had to put on a uniform but he was basically out.  Eddy Najera got injured in the game, early!  It’s a stinkin battle ward.  Steve Stricker has never been so busy!  Somehow, with Boston at mostly full strength, well…They did make the mistake of trading their “glue” guy, Shaq has been out.  Ray Allen does have a boo boo on his head.  We’ll say, if the Bobcats are the walking wounded, they’re a nursing home out on a field trip.

Kevin Garnett’s flops, his tough guy persona, his BS taunting of smaller players, none of it could hold against the Bobcats fourth quarter wave.  Yeah, we see you, with your 6’10” frame and 7’4″ wingspan, bodying up a 5’10” dude on an inbounds play, do you really feel so insecure that you have to do all that head waggling trash talking?  Such a ridiculous shell of what he once was.  He’s been reading his press around New England a bit too much.  He drew an offensive foul on Boris Diaw or somebody, fell over backwards as Diaw lifted an elbow and once the referee signaled the call was against Boris, Ol’ KG started that chest beating garbage while he lied on the floor just inside the three point line.  Such a sad sorry player at this point in his slow fade towards retirement.

KG’s 10, Ray Allen’s 14, Rondo’s 10 to go with just 5 assists and Paul Pierce’s Game High 18 weren’t enough to hold off the scrappy Bobcats in the fourth quarter.  The whole game it was Bobcats Yo-Yo where the string has a knot about 5 points before the hand.  They’d trail by 11 or 10 and close to within 5 for a possession or two then Boston would stretch it out again.  The Bobcats never actually scored more than 20 in a quarter until the 4th, where they scored 30.  The end of the third quarter saw them trailing by 13, 53-66 and my eye lids drooping to the floor, or wherever they droop to when you’re soooo tired.

It wasn’t the biggest come back, but it was monumental in the situations and possessions, offensively and defensively, that will define this game.  Dante Cunningham’s weakside block on Kevin Garnett when he had a sure dunk.  The Bobcats being screwed by offensive foul calls on one end followed by Gerald Henderson or DJ telling Boris to get his head in the game.  The look of absolute consistent focus and passion on the faces of Cunningham and all the available players in the final few time outs.  That’s what I’ll take away.

I hate to sound like I’m trying to write a fairy tale ending and some “overcoming adversity” puff piece, because it was ugly.  It really was, in weird ways.  Big Baby Glen Davis fouled out.  DJ Augustin dared the referees to give him a technical.  Gerald Henderson, Cunningham, Diaw all had to sit for extended periods because of foul trouble.  Henderson’s came very early.  Diaw was challenged by his coach, me, the media, the national stat-geek corps, everybody just to shoot, to be more aggressive.  He was, and it got him in a bit of trouble but he was available to step in, in his own way, that meant big dividends overall.

The boxscore is ugly.  DJ White looks like such a solid piece, scoring 16, rebounding 5 and he kicked open the fourth quarter with 4 points but again Silas took him out in favor of Kwame Brown’s size, which worked because it got Big Baby out of the game, and Krstic had nothing for him on the board.  No one lit the world aflame tonight on offense, 18 high points out of Paul Pierce, 16 for DJW, that’s where it spikes.  But then again, when so many possessions end with at least 2 guys on the floor, sprawled and waiting on a teammate to pick them up, it’s not going to be one for Springfield to put in rotation as a picture of offensive mastery.

Just such a glowing outcome and to add to it, Indy lost!  New York lost early, time wise, which on the 2nd night of a back to back with travel for both teams, might mean something, a tiny splinter of something but nothing to cling to.  Tomorrow, if these guys have bought in, if they are unburdened by the removal of Stephen Jackson (hush, what’d I just say) and if they can turn it on like they did tonight, the Bobcats stand a tremendous chance against the slipping Knicks.

Say it with me:  “MORE DYSFUNCTION!” for New York, maybe they’ll have some dumb quote in their post-game that will get the NY media in a tizzy ahead of tomorrow’s game.  Indy travels to Detroit to play tomorrow night as well, coming off a loss to Sacramento, wherever they’ll play.  Holy crap, just looked it up, Milwaukee is playing tomorrow night as well, at home, after beating the Knicks in New York tonight!  What kind of scheduling wizard screwed everybody with all those back-to-backs?  Yikes, makes for a serious weekend.  We’ll see y’all at the game at the Cable Box at 6:30 tomorrow.  Make plans, invite the neighbors.