We only dressed 10. We were tired thanks to the back-to-back. It was a trap game stuck in between a couple of really emotional games. We were all too worried about Marquie Daniels' neck. Excuses, excuses. We Celtic fans can say all we want, but the 89-94 loss to Charlotte last night shouldn't have happened. If you're going to be a great team, you have to crush the bottom feeders, especially when their star gets ejected.
We couldn't do it. Despite Stephen Jackson getting tossed out of the game for another emotional outburst, despite it being a testy game with 5 technicals where physical presence should have mattered, we just couldn't do it. Even a Ray Allen three point record celebration would have quelled the nasty taste of this loss. That didn't happen either. Allen hit 2 threes, and needs 2 more to break Reggie Miller's record. I guess doing it against the Lakers will be cool. But, what does a loss against the Bobcats say about this Celtics team?
Since New Year's Day, we've lost 6 games. That's really not bad at all, and the fact that I'm lamenting it shows how spoiled Celtics fans are. However, 3 of those losses came to horrible teams. We've dropped games to the Wizards (13-37), the Rockets (25-28), and now the Cats (22-29). And we all remember the December loss to the now 19-32 Pistons. There is a split in ideas of what makes a Championship-ready team when we look at the body of regular season work. One school of thought says that a team's greatness is determined by how they play against the best (and, as we've looked at in a previous post, the C's have been very good against the best). A second school of thought says that a team cannot truly be great unless they are able to beat all the teams they are "supposed" to beat. As we've just pointed out, we've let a bunch of those "easy wins" kind of drift away.
Maybe it's because of the injuries. Maybe it's because of the emotional games on either side of the easy ones. Maybe, just maybe, it's because this Celtics team doesn't have that greatness we all think they have. I hope that's not the case, because I'm in the mood for another banner. But, when a team can't take care of business against average to crappy teams, you start to get nervous about the whole #1 seed getting knocked out by the surprise #8 seed thing. And the way this season is shaking out, that #8 team just might end up being the Bobcats. Insert ominous music here.
What hurts even more about this loss to the Bobcats is the play of bench player Shaun Livingston. Yeah, that guy. The former Clipper (and thus, hated by this blogger) sensation finally got healed up enough to play, and he drilled 18 off the bench to compliment the 19 and 16 from Gerald Wallace. It all brought back difficult to relive memories of Livingston balling for the Blue & Red. Ray Allen, despite only hitting two three pointers, led the C's with 25, and KG's 9 and 14 showed that Wallace got the better of him in this one.
There are three games left before the All Star Break: Los Angeles, Miami, and New Jersey. First up, we welcome the Lakers to town on Thursday. Wouldn't it be interesting if they brought Carmello with them?
-- Sent from my Palm Prē
2 comments:
Why does KG like touching guys' balls?
That's a great question. He obviously has been making a habit of it lately, though.
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