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celtics afterthoughts: found the defense

Posted on | April 23, 2009 | Comments

Playoffs Game 3
Celtics @ Bulls 107-86

I was so not expecting the game that I saw tonight. I figured either Rose/Gordon would go off offensively or Thomas/Noah would throw another block party and it would be another close game. How wrong I was. This was a blowout and got away from the Bulls quickly and they never recovered. The arena was sold out with Bulls fans all wearing red t-shirts and mid-way through the game they were booing. By the 2nd half, they were leaving. The Celtics were fantastic on defense. They haven’t been this good on defense since KG was playing. It was superb. I can’t wax philosophically about it enough. When they make up their minds, collectively, to do everything they need to do to wind up with that ball, they’re unstoppable. This was without KG and Leon too. Awesome. I can’t imagine the next game will be this easy, so we’ll see how the series pans out, but either way, I’m really proud of the way the team stepped up tonight, on the road, and got the convincing win.

Studs of the game: Pierce (24 Pts), Rondo (20 Pts, 11 Reb, 6 Ast), Big Baby (14 Pts, 8 Reb, 6 Ast), the entire team’s defense

Quote of the night: Rondo, post-game: “We played our A game tonight, on defense.”

Tidbits: Steph got hammered and needed an awkward arrangement of bandages on his head/face. Rondo’s feet hurt after the game and Bill Walker carried him off the court. According to @talkhoops, someone stole the headband off Walker’s head (what the hell does someone do with a sweaty Bill Walker headband?). In the post-game presser, Doc joked that he thought Big Baby stepped on Rondo’s foot “…and we all know what that would do.” Fat jokes, Doc? Tsk tsk.

Not to be a buzzkill, but I’d be remiss to not mention on this blog that my heart goes out to Leon Powe. It’s no secret that he’s my favorite player on the team, so of course this one hits me especially hard. For those not following the Celtics, Powe is out for the season (and longer) with a torn ACL. The same knee he’s previously already had surgically repaired. It is going to be a tough road trying to come back from this. Adding to the problem is the fact that he’s a free agent after this season. Do the Celtics tender him, wait and sign him if he recovers? I sure hope so. Everyone’s heard the stories about what a great guy Leon is so I won’t rehash it… I’ll just say that I hope and pray that he recovers as quickly as possible to resume his promising career. Come back soon Leon!

ps. Can I complain about Tyrus Thomas for a minute? For all of his talent — and he is extremely talented — he’s so frustratingly immature. As P. Diddy would call it, he has a lot of bitchassness.

Related news:

Category: gino time baby, kiss my shamrock, nothing but the truth, the powe show

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