BP in SLC, Part II (The Game)
So, after the warmups and the National Anthem, I walked up to my seat as the fans streamed in.
Wow.
I have never been in an NBA arena before and been worried that I had accidentally walked into a nursing home. The average age of a Jazz fan must be 95 years. The only fans that aren't tiny kids or ancient zombies have mullets. Mullets everywhere. I have documented this fact to the right.
So, we went back to our seats, and I immediately scanned the crowd for Celtics fans. I found a ten-year-old girl sitting right in front of us, and she was fiesty to say the least so I knew that I could be obnoxious and she would have my back.
The game started as a mess- the refs were calling wack fouls on Pierce, the Jazz scored what seemed to be their first 30 points on layups, and all dribbling not done by Delonte appeared to be done with fists rather than hands. Midway through the second quarter, the Jazz had a 13 point lead, Pierce was out of the game, and Ben was getting upset. Doc was preparing his halftime speech of "let's just give our best effort out there", the fans were starting to talk about the other scores from around the NBA... it was about to get ugly.
Then, Delonte drained two three-pointers to pull the Celtics within four, and all of a sudden we had the following situation: a close game against an erratic team and our star had been on the bench. How did the Celtics possibly stay in this game? They were turning the ball over like crazy and they were shooting terribly. It was all Delonte.
Then, in the third quarter, it was all Paul Pierce. He went 6-6 from the field and nearly outscored the Jazz as a team in the period. The Celtics took the round 37-17. The fans started to boo like crazy- either that or they were moaning "braaaaaaains."
Watching Pierce take over the game was exciting. Anyone who thinks we should trade him is NUTS. He is one of the few players in the league that can completely dominate offensively. He destroyed the Jazz, and that was with AK47 on him the whole game. No big deal, you say? Well, he's an All-Defensive team player and he had 8 blocks last night. AK47 is great at D, and Pierce lit him up.
Here is a list of players that said that Paul is one of the most difficult in the league to guard:
1) Artest
2) TMac
3) Lebron
4) AK47
Check out this part of the Salt Lake Tribune article about the game:
Classic.
If the Jazz had Pierce, they would be a top-four team in the Western Conference. They don't have anyone that can take a defender off the dribble, and that is why they struggle on offense. There is no substitute available for Pierce- not in the NBA, not in Europe, not in college.
At the end of the third quarter, the ten-year-old female Celtics fan started talking smack with a little boy, same age, right in front of her. It got heated quickly.
"You're losing!" C's fan shouted.
"So what, you suck!" Jazz fan shouted back.
"Shut up!"
"No!"
With that, this chick reaches back and decks the little boy in the face like Bird and Dr. J. Now, I thought the two kids were cousins or something, but no. They were strangers, and it was great. Not only were we winning the battle on the court, but we were winning in the stands, as well.
At the end of the third, Jazz fans started shuffling awkwardly (like the undead are known to do) out of the stadium. Arrive late, leave early... sweet. It opened up a spot right under the basket and we swooped in.
One of my favorite moments of the game came soon afterwards. Doc went to talk to the refs by the scorer's table, and Pierce just got up and followed him, taking off his sweats. Doc looked at Pierce and said, clearly, "What are you doing?"
Pierce looked at him, shrugged, and walked back to the bench laughing. You have to love a star player that tries to check himself back into a game when winning by 20. It was also nice to see that Doc didn't fold and put him in- it gave the illusion that Doc is in control of this team. But could he resist the Peischman?!?
It was great sitting with the Jazz season ticket holders, because the Celtics kept on beating the hell out of Utah in hilarious ways. Kandi Man hit hook shots that surprised everyone, including the man that shot them, when they went in. Nobody twists the knife in a blowout like the Kandi Man.
With the game decided, I started screaming for Gerald Green, and I mean screaming. Some people probably thought I was being eaten my a zombie named Gerald Green. I was definitely within earshot, and before I knew it, GG was headed over to the scorer's table.
"I own Doc Rivers!" I said to my wife. "Now, I have to scream for Jones."
"You mean that guy Doc's talking to?" my wife responded.
The mind-meld was complete. Doc was my puppet. I was coaching the Celtics by proxy, and I must say that I made some killer coaching moves in the final minutes. Just as I leaned back to admire my handiwork, some jackass behind me started chanting, "Celtics suck!"
Odd timing, considering we were enjoying a twenty-point lead and the Jazz were still booing themselves. Before I could respond, a gaggle of C's fans arrived and started yelling words that this Jazz fan had probably never heard before. Come to think of it, it may have been the first time an f-bomb had been dropped in the state of Utah.
So, it seemed fitting that we entered the game to Raef and a trainer softly humping at center court and left under a hail of profanity. A perfect end to a perfect night.
Now, for the grades and superlatives!
MVP: Although Pierce was huge in the third quarter, Delonte was the reason the Celtics were in this game. DWest was awesome, and local sports radio was going nuts about why the Jazz didn't draft him. Sorry guys, you got Chris Humphries instead. Psyche!
LVP: OGreene. Ouch. A million fouls, most of them offensive. He did have a nice dunk, but after he went out in the fourth after picking up another offensive foul, he looked likes someone had just stolen his bike, had sex with his girlfriend, and pooped in his breakfast cereal.
Doc's Grade: It wasn't really Doc, it was more me, and you know I will never give myself anything below an "A". I liked how I didn't empty the bench until a couple minutes left, because you could tell that Tony Allen was getting more and more confident on the floor, and Gomes needs as much time as we're able to get him.
Doc made two excellent decisions in this game.
1) Keeping Pierce in the third when he picked up his fourth foul. Pierce dominated the rest of the period, and won the game for the Celtics.
2) Going to the soft 2-1-2 press in the third. This totally took the Jazz out of their game. They couldn't get the ball up the court quickly enough to work it inside, where they scored almost all their points in the first half. By the time the Jazz got the ball inside, they almost had a shot-clock violation. Plus, it protected Pierce from picking up another foul. Great, great coaching move.
Ref's Grades: D-
NBA refs look even worse in person. I would say that four out of Pierce's five fouls were retarded. One of them was especially outrageous, AK47 drove to the basket and Pierce lost his balance. AK47 jumped into Pierce's back and flailed his arms, and they called a foul on Pierce. The refs in the NBA are lightyears behind the quality of the players.
Biggest "uh oh" moment: Watching Tony Allen and GG hang out before the game. Let's just hope they weren't discussing the best way to purchase an unlicensed handgun.
Best shot: Pierce's halfcourt shot from a butterfly stretch during warmups. Blew my mind.
Worst jinx: My telling Wally to light it up led to him playing for three minutes total and bruising his knee. I'll take the blame for that one.
Biggest spazz: Tony Allen, who on one play in the second half had an uncontested path to the basket from midcourt. He dribbled the ball off his knee twice, almost lost it out of bounds, and finally hit a difficult layup with no one guarding him.
Best block: Scalabrine's stuff of Okur in the fourth was great. Okur looked like he was about to cry, and Scal looked like a kid on Christmas.
Some random notes from the game:
-Deron Williams plays with a grimace on his face as if he were saying, "You guys are a bunch of morons!" It's strange because he is shooting 38% for the season with two turnovers per game in limited time.
-Carlos Boozer wears Air Newark's shoes. I loved that because Boozer has been out for over a year with a 'hamstring tweak'- conveniently after getting a huge long-term contract. Sound like anyone we know and hate?
-The Kandi Man seems like a likable dude. He's just lazy unless the ball is within his reach.
-The Celtics look like they get along with each other really well. I remember watching the team during the Pitino Years, and the players looked tired and irritable all the time.
OVERALL PROJECTION:
The Celtics are headed in the right direction. GO CELTS!
Wow.
I have never been in an NBA arena before and been worried that I had accidentally walked into a nursing home. The average age of a Jazz fan must be 95 years. The only fans that aren't tiny kids or ancient zombies have mullets. Mullets everywhere. I have documented this fact to the right.
So, we went back to our seats, and I immediately scanned the crowd for Celtics fans. I found a ten-year-old girl sitting right in front of us, and she was fiesty to say the least so I knew that I could be obnoxious and she would have my back.
The game started as a mess- the refs were calling wack fouls on Pierce, the Jazz scored what seemed to be their first 30 points on layups, and all dribbling not done by Delonte appeared to be done with fists rather than hands. Midway through the second quarter, the Jazz had a 13 point lead, Pierce was out of the game, and Ben was getting upset. Doc was preparing his halftime speech of "let's just give our best effort out there", the fans were starting to talk about the other scores from around the NBA... it was about to get ugly.
Then, Delonte drained two three-pointers to pull the Celtics within four, and all of a sudden we had the following situation: a close game against an erratic team and our star had been on the bench. How did the Celtics possibly stay in this game? They were turning the ball over like crazy and they were shooting terribly. It was all Delonte.
Then, in the third quarter, it was all Paul Pierce. He went 6-6 from the field and nearly outscored the Jazz as a team in the period. The Celtics took the round 37-17. The fans started to boo like crazy- either that or they were moaning "braaaaaaains."
Watching Pierce take over the game was exciting. Anyone who thinks we should trade him is NUTS. He is one of the few players in the league that can completely dominate offensively. He destroyed the Jazz, and that was with AK47 on him the whole game. No big deal, you say? Well, he's an All-Defensive team player and he had 8 blocks last night. AK47 is great at D, and Pierce lit him up.
Here is a list of players that said that Paul is one of the most difficult in the league to guard:
1) Artest
2) TMac
3) Lebron
4) AK47
Check out this part of the Salt Lake Tribune article about the game:
Kirilenko's eyes started to tear in the locker room as he talked in a shaky voice about his frustrations and inability to stop Pierce. He played just four minutes in the final quarter because of his inept defense, but his small consolation was that none of his teammates could do any better.
Classic.
If the Jazz had Pierce, they would be a top-four team in the Western Conference. They don't have anyone that can take a defender off the dribble, and that is why they struggle on offense. There is no substitute available for Pierce- not in the NBA, not in Europe, not in college.
At the end of the third quarter, the ten-year-old female Celtics fan started talking smack with a little boy, same age, right in front of her. It got heated quickly.
"You're losing!" C's fan shouted.
"So what, you suck!" Jazz fan shouted back.
"Shut up!"
"No!"
With that, this chick reaches back and decks the little boy in the face like Bird and Dr. J. Now, I thought the two kids were cousins or something, but no. They were strangers, and it was great. Not only were we winning the battle on the court, but we were winning in the stands, as well.
At the end of the third, Jazz fans started shuffling awkwardly (like the undead are known to do) out of the stadium. Arrive late, leave early... sweet. It opened up a spot right under the basket and we swooped in.
One of my favorite moments of the game came soon afterwards. Doc went to talk to the refs by the scorer's table, and Pierce just got up and followed him, taking off his sweats. Doc looked at Pierce and said, clearly, "What are you doing?"
Pierce looked at him, shrugged, and walked back to the bench laughing. You have to love a star player that tries to check himself back into a game when winning by 20. It was also nice to see that Doc didn't fold and put him in- it gave the illusion that Doc is in control of this team. But could he resist the Peischman?!?
It was great sitting with the Jazz season ticket holders, because the Celtics kept on beating the hell out of Utah in hilarious ways. Kandi Man hit hook shots that surprised everyone, including the man that shot them, when they went in. Nobody twists the knife in a blowout like the Kandi Man.
With the game decided, I started screaming for Gerald Green, and I mean screaming. Some people probably thought I was being eaten my a zombie named Gerald Green. I was definitely within earshot, and before I knew it, GG was headed over to the scorer's table.
"I own Doc Rivers!" I said to my wife. "Now, I have to scream for Jones."
"You mean that guy Doc's talking to?" my wife responded.
The mind-meld was complete. Doc was my puppet. I was coaching the Celtics by proxy, and I must say that I made some killer coaching moves in the final minutes. Just as I leaned back to admire my handiwork, some jackass behind me started chanting, "Celtics suck!"
Odd timing, considering we were enjoying a twenty-point lead and the Jazz were still booing themselves. Before I could respond, a gaggle of C's fans arrived and started yelling words that this Jazz fan had probably never heard before. Come to think of it, it may have been the first time an f-bomb had been dropped in the state of Utah.
So, it seemed fitting that we entered the game to Raef and a trainer softly humping at center court and left under a hail of profanity. A perfect end to a perfect night.
Now, for the grades and superlatives!
MVP: Although Pierce was huge in the third quarter, Delonte was the reason the Celtics were in this game. DWest was awesome, and local sports radio was going nuts about why the Jazz didn't draft him. Sorry guys, you got Chris Humphries instead. Psyche!
LVP: OGreene. Ouch. A million fouls, most of them offensive. He did have a nice dunk, but after he went out in the fourth after picking up another offensive foul, he looked likes someone had just stolen his bike, had sex with his girlfriend, and pooped in his breakfast cereal.
Doc's Grade: It wasn't really Doc, it was more me, and you know I will never give myself anything below an "A". I liked how I didn't empty the bench until a couple minutes left, because you could tell that Tony Allen was getting more and more confident on the floor, and Gomes needs as much time as we're able to get him.
Doc made two excellent decisions in this game.
1) Keeping Pierce in the third when he picked up his fourth foul. Pierce dominated the rest of the period, and won the game for the Celtics.
2) Going to the soft 2-1-2 press in the third. This totally took the Jazz out of their game. They couldn't get the ball up the court quickly enough to work it inside, where they scored almost all their points in the first half. By the time the Jazz got the ball inside, they almost had a shot-clock violation. Plus, it protected Pierce from picking up another foul. Great, great coaching move.
Ref's Grades: D-
NBA refs look even worse in person. I would say that four out of Pierce's five fouls were retarded. One of them was especially outrageous, AK47 drove to the basket and Pierce lost his balance. AK47 jumped into Pierce's back and flailed his arms, and they called a foul on Pierce. The refs in the NBA are lightyears behind the quality of the players.
Biggest "uh oh" moment: Watching Tony Allen and GG hang out before the game. Let's just hope they weren't discussing the best way to purchase an unlicensed handgun.
Best shot: Pierce's halfcourt shot from a butterfly stretch during warmups. Blew my mind.
Worst jinx: My telling Wally to light it up led to him playing for three minutes total and bruising his knee. I'll take the blame for that one.
Biggest spazz: Tony Allen, who on one play in the second half had an uncontested path to the basket from midcourt. He dribbled the ball off his knee twice, almost lost it out of bounds, and finally hit a difficult layup with no one guarding him.
Best block: Scalabrine's stuff of Okur in the fourth was great. Okur looked like he was about to cry, and Scal looked like a kid on Christmas.
Some random notes from the game:
-Deron Williams plays with a grimace on his face as if he were saying, "You guys are a bunch of morons!" It's strange because he is shooting 38% for the season with two turnovers per game in limited time.
-Carlos Boozer wears Air Newark's shoes. I loved that because Boozer has been out for over a year with a 'hamstring tweak'- conveniently after getting a huge long-term contract. Sound like anyone we know and hate?
-The Kandi Man seems like a likable dude. He's just lazy unless the ball is within his reach.
-The Celtics look like they get along with each other really well. I remember watching the team during the Pitino Years, and the players looked tired and irritable all the time.
OVERALL PROJECTION:
The Celtics are headed in the right direction. GO CELTS!
posted by BP at
3:07 PM
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