Tossing batting practice…live from Deliverance where the folks don’t even know the Hawks are in a game 7 tomorrow much less a Celtics game 7 tonight. I know my neighbors
are rooting for the Bulls so I’ll stop yelling at the tv all night long.

Some lingering thoughts from game 6. The first time in my life that I wanted Pierce to take the pull up three coming off the curl, and he goes to the basket, only to turn it over and foul out. Sort of sums up the entire Paul Pierce experience.

Rondo played his D game, no matter what anyone says. Everyone has bad shooting nights, so I'll even give him a pass for going 4-17, however he only got to the line once, and obviously bricked them both. When you're struggling you got to recognize that and get to the basket more and try to get a rhythm at the foul line.
Defensively he only had 9 rebounds in 58 minutes, I expect a little more out of him in that much playing time, especially when our bigs went out. Lastly he didn't have a single steal in the game, which hurt because he couldn't score in transition, which is really where he creates his offense and explains his 4-17 a little more

Between the odd death threats, and the fact he looked like he was the Bulls 6th man, wearing green, does anybody think maybe Tony Allen has some gambling debts he doesn’t want to tell people about?

Doc gets a pass, compared to last year for winning a title, in that I don’t want his head on a pike for putting Tony in the game, however its only a “you’re allowed to learn from your mistake,” kind of pass. Do it twice, and you deserve to have the masses standing on your lawn with pitchforks.


I refuse to believe that the home crowd will allow the Celtics to lose a game 7 in the Garden, but I’ve been disappointed in the crowd a few times this year, so I suppose anything is possible. I just hope they don’t lay an egg like they did in 200

And now here we go, the time on the left is remaining in the quarter, I didn't distinguish between quarters, because if you read through, you should be able to count to four...even you Ryan, whom I'm writing this for as a recap since he was riveted by happy time with his significant other and her family instead of game 7.

9:56 – I hope that’s not god dressed like either Ben Gordon or Derrick Rose tonight. One Chicago Bull dropping 63 in aplayoff game in the Garden is enough for my lifetime.

9:40 ok, a 9-0 run is not how I would have drawn up my ideal first two minutes, but Perk makes a layup and draws a foul on Joakim Noah, who has to report to his WNBA team as soon as his run with the Bulls is over.
Ok I’ll be honest, I really don’t know when WNBA preseason practice starts…thankfully.

7:51 Doug Collins with the first Andrew Toney reference, I wasn't actually born yet when that happened in May of 1982, though my parents had been forced to marry that month because of an upcoming surprise, yet I did get physically sick to my stomach at Collins’ reference.
Ben Gordon is entering the Pantheon of all-time great fakes of an injury in a contract year.

6:58 The Celtics are in foul trouble, and chucking jumpers like the three foot arc around the paint is contaminated with swine flu.
I’m starting to wish the Bulls had watched game film of the Hawks in game 7 last year.

4:00 – a two and a half minute up and down where thankfully the C’s cut into the lead, but it looks as though Jerry Reinsdorf got to hand pick tonight’s officials, as the touch fouls that got Big Baby and Scal in early foul trouble appear to be encouraged at the other end of the floor. I think Rose took out a lead pipe and Gilloolied (sp?) Rondo on a break away as he tried to pass to Scal for an open three.

1:00 The 2007 Rajon Rondo has once again showed up in the first quarter, not a good sign, as Rose is absolutely abusing him at both ends of the floor.

:35 I cant even cheer when Scal makes shots, because by acknowledging that we need Scal to score and play well in a game 7 means we suck.

End of First: Free throws at the moment are 9-9 for the Bulls, and 2-3 for the Celtics, there doesn’t seem to be a huge disparity on what either team is doing, just what the officials deem a foul. This is why people hate the NBA.

5:00 Eddie House for three with the assist from Noah, followed by a layup from Pierce. The Celtics went on an 11-0 run, that honest to god, I’m not lying was keyed by the defense of Stephon Marbury. Either that or James Posey kidnapped him, and shrunk six inches to play Rose like a glove.

3:50 House launches and makes another one, glad to see Doc finally watched game film of the Conference finals from last year, or at least remembered his name, so he could put him in for the what seems like the first time in the series. Maybe he confused Eddie and Tony Allen for six games.

2:50 Perk just picked up his third foul, and we could be in some trouble there, especially as I see someone wearing Mikki Moore’s uniform entering the game. I’m hoping it’s the tallest most athletic guy Ainge found at the Tobin Community Center this afternoon, and not the actually Mikki Moore, but we’ll see.

2:20 and finally a touch foul is called on the Bulls, who are only in the game because they’ve taken 10 more free throws than the Celtics at this point.

1:57 whoever that masked tall man claiming to be Moore is, just took a charge and followed up with an offensive rebound and a layup. So we can safely say that everyone on the roster has contributed in this one.
I say yes, because Tony Allen is contributing by not actually playing. If his +/- remains at zero, as does his minutes played we’ll be moving on.

:50 a great hustle play with Rondo diving on the floor and forcing a turnover, as the Celtics are up 12 Vinny Del Negro is informed by Del Harris, that he is in fact allowed to use a timeout in this quarter to stop the run. He doesn’t have to save all six for the final 30 seconds. The learning curve for rookie coaches is a steep one in the playoffs.

:40 Even god knew it wasn’t a foul, as Hinrich bricks two free throws after tripping over his own feet and selling a foul.

Halftime – 52-38 Celtics. TNT chooses Scal as the halftime interview, has Scal ever been interviewed before, during, or after a game in his life? Did David Aldridge grab him during a timeout and give him three or four minutes to practice some answers?

Just an unbelieveable second quarter by the Celtics, who looked like a defending champion, using its bench, and turning a nine point deficit into a 14 point lead, with the help of Stephon Marbury, defensive specialist; Mikki Moore (or unnamed Roxbury native pretending to be Mikki) taking a charge and finishing two offensive rebounds with layups; Scal shooting threes, and serving as the team’s PR rep; and Eddie House, doing crazy things Eddie House does, that usually result in three’s when things are going well.
To allow only 11 second quarter points, when it looked like we couldn’t guard them at all was incredible, hats off to them, but the job is only half done.


After hearing about Tony Allen getting into a verbal shouting match with the Globe’s Marc Spears, who runs a cool 6-8 about 260 or more, before the biggest game of the season; well I understand how Tony has gotten himself into enough scrapes that might warrant death threats.
Some people just don’t get, and never will. It’s going to be a shame, when Bob Ley's nephew is interviewing him on a panel with JR Richard’s surviving family members, a decrepit Marvin Barnes, and an obese John Daly on Outside the Lines, morons who couldn’t get out of their own way.

For those who claim you only need to see the last five minutes of the fourth quarter of an NBA game, I will point to the second quarter of this one when the balance of power changed. If you were watching Evan Longoria continue to own the Red Sox in a way only John Henry and the Yawkey family has over the last 75 years, well shame on you, and turn in your Celtics fandom at the door.
This applies double if you were at a Major Indoor Lacrosse league game in Buffalo with your girlfriend.
I swear I don’t know anybody like that, if I did I’d be forced to kill him then myself, for once considering a person of such low self esteem, and even less pride a friend.

Third Quarter

8:00 for the first four minutes the Bulls came out with a little more fire as the C’s seem to think this one has been clinched already. Perk picks up his fourth, and quite honestly I’m still floored he played all of game 5 without committing a foul, how was that possible? Did Vegas even have that as a prop bet, and if so what would the line be? Greater or less than the 50-1 shot who won the Derby? I say much greater, on a level that we cant fathom.

5:57 Noah tries to turn the tide of the series, by trying to Kurt Rambis Rondo going to the hoop. I really want to argue about this being a flagrant foul, but quite honestly Rondo probably deserved it, and even though I hate Noah too, I have to think that after seven games of seeing Rondo any player might be forgiven if they lose their mind and want to punch him or haul his ass to the ground.

3:44 a Brief lull in the game as both teams are basically playing this like the final day of an AAU tournament, which is understandable given the amount of games and overtimes that have been played in this series.
It’s gotten a little physical and it was suggested to me that the Celtics need to clock somebody. While I scoffed at first, I think that could be Tony Allen’s contribution, a beating laid on a Bull and a suspension for game 1 or possibly beyond.
Then again he’s probably color blind, and while trying to take out Noah in the red jersey, he’d actually wind up clocking Big Baby in the home white and green, thus rendering our third power forward incapacitated for the next round.

0:00 A sloppy third quarter mercifully comes to an end, with the Celtics still up seven. They couldn’t give the knockout blow, and Gordon buried a three to end the quarter so he might be back ready to play in crunchtime. No lead in this series is safe, except for maybe that 30 point lead they had in game three.

11:20 wait Lindsey Hunter hasn’t retired? Wow, cant believe he hasn’t been used more in this series. He tortured the Celtics defensively last year in the conference finals, thank god Del Negro has that hillbilly Western Mass. intellect.

10:20 Eddie House drills another jumper, and I’m starting to wonder if him and Dave Roberts have similar bloodlines, or at least if the same brand of ice water runs through their veins.

8:48 – EDDIE AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He buries a badly needed three, and probably uttered the modern hip hop version of Larry’s epic “you can’t fuckin cover me” that the legend told Bill Fitch and the Rockets after drilling a three in game 6 of the ’86 finals.
Sadly Steve Javee heard whatever House said, and T’d him up for it, because apparently David Stern is handing out $1000 bonuses for handing out technicals tonight, (Rondo got a questionable, to be nice, tech in the third quarter), perhaps Javee had Pioneer of the Nile the Derby and needs to make up the deficit somewhere.

6:10 Hinrich buries a three and I cant figure out why the clock is moving so slow, why? Why? Why?

5:44 The Bulls are awarded a point from the first quarter on a Gordon three. I fell asleep multiple times during the correctable errors portion of referee school, so I guess I wont argue this one, but I don’t remember seeing this question on the test.

3:16 Kevin Harlan Strikes again, claiming the Bulls haven’t turned the ball over in 13 straight possessions, as Salmons kicks the ball out of bounds. Two more technicals are handed out as Javee clearly had a Friesan Fire/Dunkirk exacta in the Derby, and is in need of the extra five grand he’ll receive for the five techs given out in this one.
Perk makes the two free throws, and I’m starting to feel vindicated about my optimism toward him for so many years when he looked like a stiff.
I will be expecting a 600 word apology in my inbox by Monday, former roomate.

2:30 Dave Roberts for THREEEEEEEEEE!!! Oh, I mean Eddie House; my bad got caught up in the moment.

1:50 Doug Collins informs us that Red Holzman was the first coach to do the offense for defense thing. So wait, it took 6o years of playing basketball to figure that out? Man I wish I had been born in the 40s; my basketball IQ would be through the roof then.

1:05 Brian Scalabrine the anti-Tony Allen calls timeout when trapped in the corner in the midst of a bad possession. I think I cheered louder for that than anything else he’s done tonight. I want to buy him a beer for that, and shake his hand. (ok maybe hug him; you cant underestimate how much Tony Allen has scarred me from Thursday night)

:46.8 Noah fouls out as Pierce makes a great defensive rebound attempt between two guys. Somehow Noah had 15 rebounds, he seemed rather quiet tonight.
Pierce knocks both down (had he and Rondo done that earlier we’d be watching game 1 of the conference semifinals, rather well rested)

35.6 – Ray almost turns it over but instead he juggles it up to the hoop for a three point play, that sums up Ray’s entire series.
And I finally lit the good Fuente Cigar I bought in Myrtle Beach, not so much out of victory but out of relief

They say the two best words in coaching are Practice tomorrow, as a fan I think the best are "tickets will be on sale tomorrow morning at 11am"

***

Rudy T said it best, “never underestimate the heart of a champion”. Everyone on this roster is a champion basically and the likes of Scal, and Eddie House showed it tonight and it rubbed off on Mikki Moore and Stephon Marbury. It was absolutely the total team effort cliche, as the Bulls, and the country saw firsthand that Celtic Pride is more than just a horrific movie that killed Daniel Stern's career.
Short of a drive by I have no clue how to stop Dwight Howard in the next round, I don’t care that much right now.
This was a tremendous series, in which words cant do it justice, so I wont try right now, Im just happy they won and there two more weeks of Celtics basketball.