6.30.2008
McHale Weighs in on Banner 17, KG Trade
--Minneapolis Star Tribune
Timberwolves boss Kevin McHale congratulated Boston General Manager Danny Ainge by telephone one day after the Celtics won their 17th NBA championship. The two already were linked as former Celtics teammates. Now they also will be known for making the trade that brought Kevin Garnett to Boston.
McHale and Ainge were Celtics teammates the last time Boston had won a title, in 1986.
McHale also expressed happiness for Kevin Garnett, who spent 12 ultimately unfulfilling seasons with the Wolves, and maintained the team did the right thing by trading Garnett to Boston last summer for five players, including young star Al Jefferson, and two future draft picks.
"I'm happy with the direction we went in," McHale said after he watched potential draft picks work out at Target Center Wednesday. "The (contract) extension that Kevin was looking for -- $20 million for three years, a $60 million deal -- just was not going to happen. Glen (Wolves owner Glen Taylor) just was not comfortable doing that. When you get to that point, you say, 'If we're not going to sign him, we better trade him.' I thought that was the best deal by far, and I still think that."
At his season-ending news conference in April, somebody asked McHale if he would accept a championship ring if the Celtics won the title. He said no. When Larry Bird participated in an NBA media conference before the NBA Finals began, the first questioner asked Bird if he thought McHale traded Garnett to the Celtics rather than the Los Angeles Lakers because of the fierce rivalry between the teams. Bird, who had earlier proclaimed McHale to be the league's MVP for having made the Garnett trade, now characterizes the transaction as even-handed.
"That's people's perception," McHale said, shrugging. "If you think I went to seven guys on my staff and said, 'let's tell Glen this is a better deal so we can get Garnett to the Celtics and screw the Lakers,' and if you think I made that deal in an afternoon over coffee, well, you don't know much about the business of basketball. That deal went on for like a month and a half. That's just how things work. Everyone had their say. It's a business, man."
Timberwolves boss Kevin McHale congratulated Boston General Manager Danny Ainge by telephone one day after the Celtics won their 17th NBA championship. The two already were linked as former Celtics teammates. Now they also will be known for making the trade that brought Kevin Garnett to Boston.
McHale and Ainge were Celtics teammates the last time Boston had won a title, in 1986.
McHale also expressed happiness for Kevin Garnett, who spent 12 ultimately unfulfilling seasons with the Wolves, and maintained the team did the right thing by trading Garnett to Boston last summer for five players, including young star Al Jefferson, and two future draft picks.
"I'm happy with the direction we went in," McHale said after he watched potential draft picks work out at Target Center Wednesday. "The (contract) extension that Kevin was looking for -- $20 million for three years, a $60 million deal -- just was not going to happen. Glen (Wolves owner Glen Taylor) just was not comfortable doing that. When you get to that point, you say, 'If we're not going to sign him, we better trade him.' I thought that was the best deal by far, and I still think that."
At his season-ending news conference in April, somebody asked McHale if he would accept a championship ring if the Celtics won the title. He said no. When Larry Bird participated in an NBA media conference before the NBA Finals began, the first questioner asked Bird if he thought McHale traded Garnett to the Celtics rather than the Los Angeles Lakers because of the fierce rivalry between the teams. Bird, who had earlier proclaimed McHale to be the league's MVP for having made the Garnett trade, now characterizes the transaction as even-handed.
"That's people's perception," McHale said, shrugging. "If you think I went to seven guys on my staff and said, 'let's tell Glen this is a better deal so we can get Garnett to the Celtics and screw the Lakers,' and if you think I made that deal in an afternoon over coffee, well, you don't know much about the business of basketball. That deal went on for like a month and a half. That's just how things work. Everyone had their say. It's a business, man."
6.29.2008
Love Better than Bird?
Minneapolis Star Tribune
By the time the Timberwolves either use or trade their third pick in Thursday night's NBA draft, they will have tested and examined potential selections in a process so extensive Kevin McHale says "we look in every orifice they've got."
Kevin Love a mirror image of McHale: The UCLA forward grew up watching the Celtics star play, and observers say there is much identical about their games.
Still, there are some things you couldn't know, you wouldn't know, you shouldn't know.
Such as UCLA freshman forward Kevin Love's perhaps too-cozy relationship with a particular food product. In an attempt to convince NBA teams that he is nimble and athletic enough, Love has lost 15 pounds since the college basketball season by changing his diet and forsaking what he calls his "chocolate-milk fetish."
Even more disturbing to long-suffering Timberwolves fans might be Love's old-school game nurtured by his father and ancient NBA game videotapes that he hopes McHale -- the Basketball Hall of Fame player and unpopular Wolves executive -- sees as his "mirror image."
A comparison to one of the greatest big men who ever played shouldn't be a bad thing, but given McHale's standing among the team's fan base ...
"If he doesn't see a little bit of himself in me or me see a little of myself in him, that'd be weird," Love said. "I used to watch tapes of him all the time growing up. He might have been my favorite player. There were so many things in his game that I just love. Watching me, it's almost like seeing a smaller, bulkier image of him."
Love's father, Stan, played four NBA seasons with the Baltimore Bullets and the Los Angeles Lakers in the early 1970s. When Kevin was born in 1988, Love gave his son the middle name of "Wesley" after former teammate Wes Unseld and raised him on game tapes of Pete Maravich, the Lakers' "Showtime" teams and McHale's Boston Celtics from the 1980s.
Love even put his son on the telephone with former ABA and NBA great Connie Hawkins a few times.
"That's the reason I wear No. 42," Love said, referring to Hawkins' uniform number.
Now that's old school.
So is Love's game, an uncommon combination of size, skill and resolve that carried him to Pac-10 Player of the Year, Freshman of the Year, First Team All-Star and national first-team All-America honors.
Letting it fly
Love's athleticism and quickness is questioned. His grasp of the game, the passion with which he plays and passing skills compared to old-timers Unseld and Bill Walton by UCLA legend John Wooden, among others, are not.
"There's a gift in knowing how to play," McHale said. "It makes you faster. It makes you quicker. It makes you a step ahead. I played with a guy who you'd say, 'He's a step slow, he's this, he's that.' His name was Larry Bird. He wasn't too bad. There are guys who just know how to play. Magic Johnson wasn't a world-class athlete. He was just unbelievably smart. Those guys always do well."
Stan Love gave his boy that middle name and introduced him to a variety of passing drills, dribbling drills and hand exercises to hone his instincts and his strength. The results can be seen on youtube.com, where there is clip after clip of Love.
In one, he makes a full-court practice shot with a flick of his wrists. In another, he throws a 90-foot alley-oop pass to Beasley at a summer camp. In many others, he grabs a rebound in a college game and in an instant fires an overhead pass to a sprinting teammate three-quarters of the court away.
"His outlet passing is just ridiculous," Arizona State sophomore guard Derek Glasser said.
Former UCLA and NBA star Marques Johnson heard all about this Oregon schoolboy star before Love arrived in Los Angeles, and Johnson was reluctant to believe the hype. A Pac-10 television broadcast analyst, he now counts himself among the converted after watching Love average 17.5 points and 10.6 rebounds last season while leading UCLA to the Final Four, where Memphis beat the Bruins in a semifinal game.
"The pro game might be even easier for him than the college game was because he'll play with better players," Johnson said. "He has a basketball IQ and a toughness, a mentality you just don't see an awful lot. I didn't see Larry Bird play at 18 years old -- not to compare him to Larry Bird -- but I'm willing to bet Kevin Love was much better as an 18-year-old freshman. I'm not saying he'll chart out to be better, but I know what his heart is, what his desire is."
Measuring up
Still, questions remain: Is he tall enough? Is he quick enough? Does he jump high enough? Could you put him next to Al Jefferson in a power forward/center combo and not get destroyed defensively by taller, quicker opponents?
Wolves assistant general manager Fred Hoiberg, when asked if a Jefferson-Love tandem would be tall and athletic enough, said, "Against most of the teams in this league they are. A guy like Kevin Love is the perfect offensive complement to Al and, defensively, he's very strong and physical. That makes up for his lack of size. He's a player who plays bigger than his size with his smarts."
Love gained more height than anyone measured at the NBA's pre-draft camp in Orlando when he put on his basketball shoes. He measured 6-7 3/4 in his bare feet, 6-9 1/2 in his shoes.
"How 'bout that?" Love asked. "You'd have thought I had heels on out there."
Love gave up his beloved chocolate milk and now has nutritionally balanced meals delivered to him daily in an effort to slim down and thus answer questions about his speed and mobility. He weighed 255 pounds in Orlando after playing last season at 270 pounds, he said.
"I've been pegged as certain things -- unathletic, I can't move -- so I'm hoping to surprise a lot of people," he said. "That's what I'm here for: to change people's minds. I feel like Mr. Fit. I feel like a Transformer, if you've ever seen that movie."
The only film McHale and his scouting staff have seen recently is countless game tape, some of which features Love's game broken down into retrievable snippets.
Asked if he sees himself in any of the footage, McHale shrugged.
"I don't know," he said. "Kevin Love is going to be a real good Kevin Love."
By the time the Timberwolves either use or trade their third pick in Thursday night's NBA draft, they will have tested and examined potential selections in a process so extensive Kevin McHale says "we look in every orifice they've got."
Kevin Love a mirror image of McHale: The UCLA forward grew up watching the Celtics star play, and observers say there is much identical about their games.
Still, there are some things you couldn't know, you wouldn't know, you shouldn't know.
Such as UCLA freshman forward Kevin Love's perhaps too-cozy relationship with a particular food product. In an attempt to convince NBA teams that he is nimble and athletic enough, Love has lost 15 pounds since the college basketball season by changing his diet and forsaking what he calls his "chocolate-milk fetish."
Even more disturbing to long-suffering Timberwolves fans might be Love's old-school game nurtured by his father and ancient NBA game videotapes that he hopes McHale -- the Basketball Hall of Fame player and unpopular Wolves executive -- sees as his "mirror image."
A comparison to one of the greatest big men who ever played shouldn't be a bad thing, but given McHale's standing among the team's fan base ...
"If he doesn't see a little bit of himself in me or me see a little of myself in him, that'd be weird," Love said. "I used to watch tapes of him all the time growing up. He might have been my favorite player. There were so many things in his game that I just love. Watching me, it's almost like seeing a smaller, bulkier image of him."
Love's father, Stan, played four NBA seasons with the Baltimore Bullets and the Los Angeles Lakers in the early 1970s. When Kevin was born in 1988, Love gave his son the middle name of "Wesley" after former teammate Wes Unseld and raised him on game tapes of Pete Maravich, the Lakers' "Showtime" teams and McHale's Boston Celtics from the 1980s.
Love even put his son on the telephone with former ABA and NBA great Connie Hawkins a few times.
"That's the reason I wear No. 42," Love said, referring to Hawkins' uniform number.
Now that's old school.
So is Love's game, an uncommon combination of size, skill and resolve that carried him to Pac-10 Player of the Year, Freshman of the Year, First Team All-Star and national first-team All-America honors.
Letting it fly
Love's athleticism and quickness is questioned. His grasp of the game, the passion with which he plays and passing skills compared to old-timers Unseld and Bill Walton by UCLA legend John Wooden, among others, are not.
"There's a gift in knowing how to play," McHale said. "It makes you faster. It makes you quicker. It makes you a step ahead. I played with a guy who you'd say, 'He's a step slow, he's this, he's that.' His name was Larry Bird. He wasn't too bad. There are guys who just know how to play. Magic Johnson wasn't a world-class athlete. He was just unbelievably smart. Those guys always do well."
Stan Love gave his boy that middle name and introduced him to a variety of passing drills, dribbling drills and hand exercises to hone his instincts and his strength. The results can be seen on youtube.com, where there is clip after clip of Love.
In one, he makes a full-court practice shot with a flick of his wrists. In another, he throws a 90-foot alley-oop pass to Beasley at a summer camp. In many others, he grabs a rebound in a college game and in an instant fires an overhead pass to a sprinting teammate three-quarters of the court away.
"His outlet passing is just ridiculous," Arizona State sophomore guard Derek Glasser said.
Former UCLA and NBA star Marques Johnson heard all about this Oregon schoolboy star before Love arrived in Los Angeles, and Johnson was reluctant to believe the hype. A Pac-10 television broadcast analyst, he now counts himself among the converted after watching Love average 17.5 points and 10.6 rebounds last season while leading UCLA to the Final Four, where Memphis beat the Bruins in a semifinal game.
"The pro game might be even easier for him than the college game was because he'll play with better players," Johnson said. "He has a basketball IQ and a toughness, a mentality you just don't see an awful lot. I didn't see Larry Bird play at 18 years old -- not to compare him to Larry Bird -- but I'm willing to bet Kevin Love was much better as an 18-year-old freshman. I'm not saying he'll chart out to be better, but I know what his heart is, what his desire is."
Measuring up
Still, questions remain: Is he tall enough? Is he quick enough? Does he jump high enough? Could you put him next to Al Jefferson in a power forward/center combo and not get destroyed defensively by taller, quicker opponents?
Wolves assistant general manager Fred Hoiberg, when asked if a Jefferson-Love tandem would be tall and athletic enough, said, "Against most of the teams in this league they are. A guy like Kevin Love is the perfect offensive complement to Al and, defensively, he's very strong and physical. That makes up for his lack of size. He's a player who plays bigger than his size with his smarts."
Love gained more height than anyone measured at the NBA's pre-draft camp in Orlando when he put on his basketball shoes. He measured 6-7 3/4 in his bare feet, 6-9 1/2 in his shoes.
"How 'bout that?" Love asked. "You'd have thought I had heels on out there."
Love gave up his beloved chocolate milk and now has nutritionally balanced meals delivered to him daily in an effort to slim down and thus answer questions about his speed and mobility. He weighed 255 pounds in Orlando after playing last season at 270 pounds, he said.
"I've been pegged as certain things -- unathletic, I can't move -- so I'm hoping to surprise a lot of people," he said. "That's what I'm here for: to change people's minds. I feel like Mr. Fit. I feel like a Transformer, if you've ever seen that movie."
The only film McHale and his scouting staff have seen recently is countless game tape, some of which features Love's game broken down into retrievable snippets.
Asked if he sees himself in any of the footage, McHale shrugged.
"I don't know," he said. "Kevin Love is going to be a real good Kevin Love."
What McHale is Up To
This time last year, the Wolves' roster was an aging, mismanaged mess saddled with bloated contracts (Mark Blount and Marko Jaric foremost) and superstar Kevin Garnett's demand for a three-year, $60 million contract extension.
Today, they have assembled a collection of talented young players around 23-year-old Jefferson, magically cleared salary cap room that might loom large in the future, particularly 2010, and stockpiled some draft picks that could bring them three first-rounders next summer.
The Wolves leveraged the promise of Mayo's talent for three important pieces that McHale contends instantly make his team better: a career 40-percent three-point shooter in Mike Miller, future cap room and 19-year-old Love's "intangibles," a word Love himself and Wolves management guys McHale, Jim Stack and Fred Hoiberg all use to describe what the 6-10 forward most will bring.
Link to rest of article
Today, they have assembled a collection of talented young players around 23-year-old Jefferson, magically cleared salary cap room that might loom large in the future, particularly 2010, and stockpiled some draft picks that could bring them three first-rounders next summer.
The Wolves leveraged the promise of Mayo's talent for three important pieces that McHale contends instantly make his team better: a career 40-percent three-point shooter in Mike Miller, future cap room and 19-year-old Love's "intangibles," a word Love himself and Wolves management guys McHale, Jim Stack and Fred Hoiberg all use to describe what the 6-10 forward most will bring.
Link to rest of article
The Other Number 35
Some day I'll write up a more extensive piece on this.
But suffice it for now to say that this number 35
--played four seasons for the Boston Celtics
--won two titles with the Green
--posted three 1000 rebound seasons, and one 900 rebound season
--was a member of 68-win Celtics in 1972-73
--played Kendrick Perkins' enforcer role to Dave Cowens' KG
--named to the All-NBA Defensive First Team twice, and to the All-NBA Defensive Second Team three times
Anyone else think Paul Silas should share a piece of the #35 hanging in the rafters?
6.28.2008
McCartney or Lennon?
The 1986-87 season was a painful one for me.
It marked the end of the Bird Era, at least as far as the Bird Era is remembered as one in which a dominant team took the floor every night. With the injury to Bill Walton in August of 1986, and subsequent injuries to McHale, Bird, and Parish, most Celtic fans could see the writing on the wall.
How Grandpa Celtic, Bob Ryan, listed this team as one of 10-best Celtics teams of all time is beyond me. That year still represents the low point of my life as a Celtics fan. Having reached the pinnacle of greatness in June of 1986, we had to watch that same team die a slow death over the next nine months, and then get pounded by the Lakers in six games.
It was like reliving the Beatles break-up in extra-slow motion.
Speaking of the Beatles, one chapter of their biography might help bring clarity to the “KG isn’t clutch” debate. As we all know by now, KG rarely takes over games down the stretch on the offensive end. Call him a flawed superstar, call him a team player. I don’t care. The fact remains that the debate has been going on since he entered the league, and a championship in Boston didn’t bring an end to it.
In fact, a number of NBA pundits have now added a new wrinkle to the discussion:
Who is the more valuable Celtic, KG or the Truth?
Beatles fans know very well of a not wholly dissimilar debate involving John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
For most of the 1960s, music fans from around the world debated who was the more original, the more important, and, ultimately, the more talented musician, P-Mac or Mr. Strawberry Fields? No definitive answer was ever agreed upon, but many fans thought that their solo careers would end the debate.
Well, if most observers favored Lennon's contributions before the band broke up, then at least as many fans favored the Walrus when it came time to compare their solo offerings after the break-up.
In the end, the debate was probably best understood by realizing that McCartney and Lennon needed each other to reach the mountain top. Mr. Linda Eastman played ying to Mr. Yoko Ono’s yang.
And so it goes for the Ticket and the Truth.
Neither player enjoyed much success by themselves before the 2007-08 season began. Nor would anyone doubt that the sum of their parts in 2008 surpassed what each brought to the table individually during past campaigns.
KG doesn’t take over games down the stretch, and would prefer to pass out of double-teams and set picks? No problem. We have #34, a true Alpha-Dog.
Paul Pierce is only 6’7”, and can’t wreak havoc on defense inside the paint? Again, no problem. That’s why we have #5.
You say goodbye. I say hello.
The good news is that both of them are Celtics, and while these inane debates will continue as long as they remain Celtics, at least we can take comfort in knowing that the question is about as meaningful as asking peanut-butter-and-jelly-sandwich eaters which half they like better.
Perkins as Loscutoff
It's easier to compare the current Celtics with the franchise's 1974 and '76 championship teams: KG is Dave Cowens, a relentless, take-no-prisoners, two-way board banger with an outside touch. Pierce is a better offensive version of Havlicek (though not as good all-around). Allen is White in his silky smoothness. Even Boston's earliest NBA champions of the late '50s and early '60s are a better fit: Garnett is Russell. Pierce is Heinsohn, cocky and offensive-minded. Allen is Sharman, fluid and fundamental, drop-dead accurate from the free throw line. Kendrick Perkins is Jim Loscutoff, the basher, the enforcer. (Rondo, however, is not Cousy.)
--
Not so sure about Jack McCallum's last point.
Speaking of Jack Mac, I miss Jackie Mac's weekly offerings. Her role at the Globe must have been diminished about the same time Peter May got bought out. Wait! I just read Wikipedia. Jackie Mac got bought out too.
Noooooooooo.
I thought it was odd she hadn't weighed in for a while.
Not Jackie Mac.
I loved Jackie Mac.
So she's been reduced to a talking head on Around the Horn and the occasional column for SI?
Man.
I might need therapy to deal with this.
--
Not so sure about Jack McCallum's last point.
Speaking of Jack Mac, I miss Jackie Mac's weekly offerings. Her role at the Globe must have been diminished about the same time Peter May got bought out. Wait! I just read Wikipedia. Jackie Mac got bought out too.
Noooooooooo.
I thought it was odd she hadn't weighed in for a while.
Not Jackie Mac.
I loved Jackie Mac.
So she's been reduced to a talking head on Around the Horn and the occasional column for SI?
Man.
I might need therapy to deal with this.
Celtics Demolish Hawks in Best Basketball Performance Walton Ever Witnessed
Attention, scalpers and scalpees. Pay all you want to gain admission, but let it be known that the best seats in the Garden are held by those who are paid to sit there. They belong to the Celtics Green (With Envy) Team, which last night witnessed perhaps the most one-sided display of play-off basketball ever.
"We play those guys in practice, and we usually beat 'em," declared Bill Walton, who then admitted the Celtics ' 36-6 third quarter was the best display of basketball he had seen -- and Walton's resume includes playing center for those impeccable UCLA championship teams and the 1977 NBA champion Trail Blazers.
"I have probably not seen anything of the manner in which we dominated," Walton said. "It just seemed like it was blocked shots and fast-break layups and great ball movement. And the crowd just really got into it. They were just pushing their intensity into everybody until everybody was on fire."
Including those on the Celtics bench. "We were all excited," Walton said. "We were asking ourselves how many points the run was. Sometimes you have to sit there and try and figure out just much we're ahead by."
It was at that time that the Celtics realized they were witnessing history, whether or not it could be substantiated statistically.
"We got up by 20 and we scored a couple more," rookie guard Sam Vincent said. "And we scored a couple more. And we scored a couple more. Then I just happened to look up at the score. We're up by 40. It's 100-61."
"That was like unbelievable," forward David Thirdkill said. "We were just cheering 'em on. It seemed like every loose ball, we got."
"I came here because I knew we were going to win," said backup guard Jerry Sichting, who joined the Celtics after five years at Indiana. "I didn't expect to see anything like that. You could see a little bit of panic in their (the Hawks') faces. They didn't know what to do. If you want to see how to play the game of basketball, put that third quarter on film and show it to the kids."
The scene dawned on the Celtics bench all at once. Playing its starters throughout the quarter ("That's something that's happening more in the play- offs," Sichting said), Boston scored the last 24 points of the period. "There was some kind of timeout with just a little bit left," Sichting said. "I think then we realized we'd held them to just six points in the quarter (which became a play-off record). I think somebody told the guys with three or four minutes to go that they'd only scored six."
"It seemed like we blocked six or seven or eight shots," Walton said. "It was everybody. It was not just Larry (Bird). Larry's the leader of our team, but everybody was playing great. Then the crowd just fed on it. They were just pushing, pushing, pushing. The team was already playing well, but the crowd just really made them feel great."
The Celtics probably don't feel bad this morning either. The next few days are a time to rest, and to glow. "Everybody knew the score was 66-55 at the beginning of the quarter, so it wasn't like we were rubbing their faces in it," Sichting said. "It's better happening at the end of the series than in the beginning (remember what happened after Game 1 vs. the Lakers last year?), so we don't get overconfident and they get upset. This will put us in a positive frame of mind."
By quarter's end, the Celtics bench was standing throughout play. "I did see something like that once in a high school game," said Vincent, perhaps the only Celtic who could make such a claim. "I just happened to be playing. We scored 20 points in two minutes. It was pretty awesome."
But these are the best players in the world, playing what is supposed to be one of the most intense games of the season. "And we were jumping up and down," Vincent said. "The guys on the bench were probably happier than the guys on the court -- because we all knew this was going to let us get in the game."
"We play those guys in practice, and we usually beat 'em," declared Bill Walton, who then admitted the Celtics ' 36-6 third quarter was the best display of basketball he had seen -- and Walton's resume includes playing center for those impeccable UCLA championship teams and the 1977 NBA champion Trail Blazers.
"I have probably not seen anything of the manner in which we dominated," Walton said. "It just seemed like it was blocked shots and fast-break layups and great ball movement. And the crowd just really got into it. They were just pushing their intensity into everybody until everybody was on fire."
Including those on the Celtics bench. "We were all excited," Walton said. "We were asking ourselves how many points the run was. Sometimes you have to sit there and try and figure out just much we're ahead by."
It was at that time that the Celtics realized they were witnessing history, whether or not it could be substantiated statistically.
"We got up by 20 and we scored a couple more," rookie guard Sam Vincent said. "And we scored a couple more. And we scored a couple more. Then I just happened to look up at the score. We're up by 40. It's 100-61."
"That was like unbelievable," forward David Thirdkill said. "We were just cheering 'em on. It seemed like every loose ball, we got."
"I came here because I knew we were going to win," said backup guard Jerry Sichting, who joined the Celtics after five years at Indiana. "I didn't expect to see anything like that. You could see a little bit of panic in their (the Hawks') faces. They didn't know what to do. If you want to see how to play the game of basketball, put that third quarter on film and show it to the kids."
The scene dawned on the Celtics bench all at once. Playing its starters throughout the quarter ("That's something that's happening more in the play- offs," Sichting said), Boston scored the last 24 points of the period. "There was some kind of timeout with just a little bit left," Sichting said. "I think then we realized we'd held them to just six points in the quarter (which became a play-off record). I think somebody told the guys with three or four minutes to go that they'd only scored six."
"It seemed like we blocked six or seven or eight shots," Walton said. "It was everybody. It was not just Larry (Bird). Larry's the leader of our team, but everybody was playing great. Then the crowd just fed on it. They were just pushing, pushing, pushing. The team was already playing well, but the crowd just really made them feel great."
The Celtics probably don't feel bad this morning either. The next few days are a time to rest, and to glow. "Everybody knew the score was 66-55 at the beginning of the quarter, so it wasn't like we were rubbing their faces in it," Sichting said. "It's better happening at the end of the series than in the beginning (remember what happened after Game 1 vs. the Lakers last year?), so we don't get overconfident and they get upset. This will put us in a positive frame of mind."
By quarter's end, the Celtics bench was standing throughout play. "I did see something like that once in a high school game," said Vincent, perhaps the only Celtic who could make such a claim. "I just happened to be playing. We scored 20 points in two minutes. It was pretty awesome."
But these are the best players in the world, playing what is supposed to be one of the most intense games of the season. "And we were jumping up and down," Vincent said. "The guys on the bench were probably happier than the guys on the court -- because we all knew this was going to let us get in the game."
The 36-6 Quarter (Part I)
The outrageousness of the stretch of good basketball was told by the dialogue on the Boston Celtics bench at the end of the third quarter. Kevin McHale only had an idea the good basketball had been pretty good. Dennis Johnson had the numbers.
"Do you know we held 'em to six points in the quarter?" the Celtics guard asked the Celtics forward.
"Oh my God," Kevin McHale said.
"Do you know we outscored 'em, 36-6, in the quarter?"
"Oh my God."
"Do you know we scored the final 24 points of the quarter?"
"Oh my God!"
The numbers stood out in the mind, lined in a neon red and flashing to beat the band. Who had ever seen anything like this? Who had ever been involved in something like this? This was basketball from another planet.
There might have been more meaningful quarters played by Boston Celtics teams in putting all those flags across the Garden ceiling than the third quarter of this team's 132-99 series-clinching win over the Atlanata Hawks, but has there ever been one that has been played better? Not according to the numbers. This was the best. Ever.
"You can't explain what was happening out there," center Robert Parish said. "Everything is clicking. Everyone is working together. It just doesn't get any better than this."
"It was the best quarter I've ever played in," Dennis Johnson said. "Probably the best I ever will play in."
The usual NBA music is jazz, improvisation and one-man riffs into the night. This was strictly classical stuff. This was the Boston Symphony Orchestra on its absolute best of nights, everyone playing the same familiar piece of music, everyone hitting the notes exactly as they were meant to be played, everyone at the top of his game at the same 12-minute stretch of time.
"You'll have runs, good stretches, in other games, but the run will end," Robert Parish said. "Usually, someone will make a foul shot or dunk on you or there'll be a timeout.
"That didn't happen here. This one never ended. That was the difference."
Whistle to whistle. No stopping. The Hawks could not score. The Celtics not only could score, but score easily, efficiently, the largest number of points in the shortest time span possible. This was a wave that built and built, the noise in the building growing louder with each Atlanta miss, with each Boston success. Twenty-four points in a row to end the period? There was thunder in the big room by the time the clock read 0:00 and the Celts had a 102-61 lead.
"It was just the finest exhibition of basketball I've ever seen," Hawks guard Glenn (Doc) Rivers said, seeing this up close and personal. "They would have beat the Lakers by 40 points too. They would have beaten anyone by 40 points. It was awesome."
"They just put the pedal to the gas and started moving," Atlanta forward Kevin Willis said. "They never looked back."
There was nothing the poor Hawks could do. They were nailing boards across doors and putting giant electrical-tape X's on the windows, but this was Hurricane Gloria coming at them and there wasn't enough time or stength to do enough against a wind as strong as this.
"All you can do is make substitutions and call timeouts," Hawks coach Mike Fratello said. "What else is there? The league doesn't let you make trades during the middle of a game."
Fratello called one timeout three minutes into the period. He called a second, 20-second timeout halfway through the period. He called a third timeout two minutes later. This left him with two timeouts for the fourth quarter, one of which he is required to keep under league rules.
"Why didn't you use the other timeout?" he was asked.
"The way they were going?" he said. "Why bother? What does it give you, a 30-second break or whatever? You still have to back out there."
The Hawks final basket in the peiord came with 5:31 left in the period, a give-and-go layup by Dominique Wilkins to make the score 78-61. The rest of the time simply was a Celtics dance. There was a free throw by Bird on a technical for an Atlanta zone, followed by a blind Bird pass to McHale, followed by a back-door pass from Bird to Parish, followed by . . .
Nothing was individually flashy. Look at the list of baskets that were scored and there are no little rocket moves, one-man drives to the hoop. Everything was pass and move, pass and move, the wonder ball, around and around, the easiest shot taken at the end of the most logical pass.
The prettiest of them all went from Bird in the left corner to Parish in the middle, who stopped in the middle of his drive and passed to McHale alone in front of the basket. McHale dunked. Exotic dancer Busty Hart applauded from her seat on the floor. The Garden crowd joined. Dennis Johnson even jumped high in the air in the backcourt, smiling.
"It's not like you're laughing at anyone," he said, talking about his reaction. "It's just seeing these guys, 7 feet tall, doing what they're doing. Kevin McHale, tall as he is, just moving through the lane like that. Just seeing it done."
At the end of the period, the crowd had begun its first "Beat LA" chant of the spring. McHale was discovering the numbers that were involved. The game was over. The Hawks were gone. The record was in the books -- lowest amount of points ever scored by a play-off team in one quarter.
"Do you know we held 'em to six points in the quarter?" the Celtics guard asked the Celtics forward.
"Oh my God," Kevin McHale said.
"Do you know we outscored 'em, 36-6, in the quarter?"
"Oh my God."
"Do you know we scored the final 24 points of the quarter?"
"Oh my God!"
The numbers stood out in the mind, lined in a neon red and flashing to beat the band. Who had ever seen anything like this? Who had ever been involved in something like this? This was basketball from another planet.
There might have been more meaningful quarters played by Boston Celtics teams in putting all those flags across the Garden ceiling than the third quarter of this team's 132-99 series-clinching win over the Atlanata Hawks, but has there ever been one that has been played better? Not according to the numbers. This was the best. Ever.
"You can't explain what was happening out there," center Robert Parish said. "Everything is clicking. Everyone is working together. It just doesn't get any better than this."
"It was the best quarter I've ever played in," Dennis Johnson said. "Probably the best I ever will play in."
The usual NBA music is jazz, improvisation and one-man riffs into the night. This was strictly classical stuff. This was the Boston Symphony Orchestra on its absolute best of nights, everyone playing the same familiar piece of music, everyone hitting the notes exactly as they were meant to be played, everyone at the top of his game at the same 12-minute stretch of time.
"You'll have runs, good stretches, in other games, but the run will end," Robert Parish said. "Usually, someone will make a foul shot or dunk on you or there'll be a timeout.
"That didn't happen here. This one never ended. That was the difference."
Whistle to whistle. No stopping. The Hawks could not score. The Celtics not only could score, but score easily, efficiently, the largest number of points in the shortest time span possible. This was a wave that built and built, the noise in the building growing louder with each Atlanta miss, with each Boston success. Twenty-four points in a row to end the period? There was thunder in the big room by the time the clock read 0:00 and the Celts had a 102-61 lead.
"It was just the finest exhibition of basketball I've ever seen," Hawks guard Glenn (Doc) Rivers said, seeing this up close and personal. "They would have beat the Lakers by 40 points too. They would have beaten anyone by 40 points. It was awesome."
"They just put the pedal to the gas and started moving," Atlanta forward Kevin Willis said. "They never looked back."
There was nothing the poor Hawks could do. They were nailing boards across doors and putting giant electrical-tape X's on the windows, but this was Hurricane Gloria coming at them and there wasn't enough time or stength to do enough against a wind as strong as this.
"All you can do is make substitutions and call timeouts," Hawks coach Mike Fratello said. "What else is there? The league doesn't let you make trades during the middle of a game."
Fratello called one timeout three minutes into the period. He called a second, 20-second timeout halfway through the period. He called a third timeout two minutes later. This left him with two timeouts for the fourth quarter, one of which he is required to keep under league rules.
"Why didn't you use the other timeout?" he was asked.
"The way they were going?" he said. "Why bother? What does it give you, a 30-second break or whatever? You still have to back out there."
The Hawks final basket in the peiord came with 5:31 left in the period, a give-and-go layup by Dominique Wilkins to make the score 78-61. The rest of the time simply was a Celtics dance. There was a free throw by Bird on a technical for an Atlanta zone, followed by a blind Bird pass to McHale, followed by a back-door pass from Bird to Parish, followed by . . .
Nothing was individually flashy. Look at the list of baskets that were scored and there are no little rocket moves, one-man drives to the hoop. Everything was pass and move, pass and move, the wonder ball, around and around, the easiest shot taken at the end of the most logical pass.
The prettiest of them all went from Bird in the left corner to Parish in the middle, who stopped in the middle of his drive and passed to McHale alone in front of the basket. McHale dunked. Exotic dancer Busty Hart applauded from her seat on the floor. The Garden crowd joined. Dennis Johnson even jumped high in the air in the backcourt, smiling.
"It's not like you're laughing at anyone," he said, talking about his reaction. "It's just seeing these guys, 7 feet tall, doing what they're doing. Kevin McHale, tall as he is, just moving through the lane like that. Just seeing it done."
At the end of the period, the crowd had begun its first "Beat LA" chant of the spring. McHale was discovering the numbers that were involved. The game was over. The Hawks were gone. The record was in the books -- lowest amount of points ever scored by a play-off team in one quarter.
The 36-6 Quarter (Part II)
This ticket stub gets saved. This videotape gets put away. This program goes into the safe deposit box at the bank. This memory is tucked away forever in that special compartment of Celtics ' fans minds wherein reside only the golden moments, the ones where Johnny Most used to go into dog whistle and Emperor Arnold used to fire up the expensive stogies.
The Celtics outscored the Atlanta Hawks, 36-6, in the third period last night.
Atlanta had two field goals and two frre throws in 12 minutes of play, and, yes, that is an NBA play-off low. The Celtics, who were already firmly in control of the game and had been since midway through the second quarter, finished the period with 24 unanswered points, sending the 265th consecutive Garden sellout crowd of 14,890 into delirium with a scintillating display of interior defense, transition basketball and Globetrotter-like passing which transformed the game into something bordering on legitimate humiliation, but which never degenerated into farce, even if Danny Ainge got so excited, he was reaching over writers to high-five fans, even as Kevin McHale was sinking two post-period free throws to conclude the historic run.
When the third period was over, the 66-55 Celtics halftime lead had ballooned to a scary 102-61 spread. The final score was 132-99, and when it was over, the fact that it also meant the end of this best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal series in five games was about the 134th thing on anyone's mind. Who doubted the Celtics would win the series? The question with this bunch for the last two months or so has been how much history it can make.
Is it possible to play better than the Celtics did in the final 5 1/2 minutes of the third period last night? Danny Ainge and Dennis Johnson either forced exterior turnovers or directed people into traffic. Robert Parish, Kevin McHale and Larry Bird either blocked shots or made Atlanta's people change the ones they had in mind. The transition game was spectacular. The outside shooting was deadly. The passing was worthy of being shown 24 hours a day at the Hall of Fame. The Celtics were truly a beautiful basketball machine.
"It's hard for me to recollect any quarter like this in the 20 or 25 years I've been around," said K.C. Jones. "I'll have to see the films and see exactly what happened."
The Big Run started in the most innocent fashion possible when Bird, a killer from the opening tap (36 points, 10 rebounds and 14-for-24 shooting), sank a technical foul on an illegal defense violation. That made it 79-61 with 5:17 remaining in the quarter.
Dominique Wilkins, who ended a skyrocket year with a sad 4 for 14, then was trapped in a sideline double-team, losing the ball out of bounds. Bird got a quick pass and faked a couple of times before rifling a blind pass to McHale (25) for a layup. That was the play which blew the lid off the pressure cooker, inciting the crowd and setting in motion the forces that would make the final four minutes something for Celtics fans to savor forever.
Before the period was over, the Hawks would have two shots blocked, commit two offensive fouls and make two other turnovers. The Celtics would respond with everything from a Parish layup on a superb looped-in Bird feed, to a Bird lefty overhead post-up banked jump hook (he was 7 for 7 with the left hand), to a great Ainge pass to a roaring McHale for a fast-break dunk, to an Ainge three-pointer which actually sent the normally unemotional Dennis Johnson into a war dance. All the while, the patrons were responding with a roar which forced people to turn up the volume of the TVs in Tewksbury.
Of course, none of this was necessary to win the game. We're talking serious, serious icing here. The Celtics had assumed control in the middle of the second quarter, and in fact, had come out playing the same kind of controlled, cold-blooded basketball which had produced victories in both Chicago 3 and Atlanta 3.
The leader was Bird, whose 15 first-quarter points included three inside baskets and a three-pointer to salvage a broken play. Atlanta led for precisely 14 seconds (21-20) on a Tree Rollins layup, but Parish recaptured the lead with a left box turnaround, and by the period's end, the Celtics were in front by five at 32-27.
Five isn't much, perhaps, but the manner in which the Celtics had scored their points was disturbing to Atlanta coach Mike Fratello. "We weren't stopping the layups," he explained. "In Games 3 and 4, guys made switches they didn't make tonight. We made the rotations and we stopped their splits. They do not blow their opportunities. Your execution has to be excellent. By the middle of the second quarter, we had lost our concentration completely."
Fratello was correct. The Celtics didn't need much in the way of outside shooting, not while they were getting 23 points from first-half post-ups, nine from second shots, six from layups and six from fast breaks. A little run of eight straight midway through the quarter stretched it out to 53-41, and were it not for eight points generated by Spud Webb penetration, the Hawks would have been officially finished at halftime.
Say this for the Hawks: At no point during that surrealistic third period did they lose dignity. They tried hard at both ends. They simply could not avoid being an accident of basketball history.
The Celtics outscored the Atlanta Hawks, 36-6, in the third period last night.
Atlanta had two field goals and two frre throws in 12 minutes of play, and, yes, that is an NBA play-off low. The Celtics, who were already firmly in control of the game and had been since midway through the second quarter, finished the period with 24 unanswered points, sending the 265th consecutive Garden sellout crowd of 14,890 into delirium with a scintillating display of interior defense, transition basketball and Globetrotter-like passing which transformed the game into something bordering on legitimate humiliation, but which never degenerated into farce, even if Danny Ainge got so excited, he was reaching over writers to high-five fans, even as Kevin McHale was sinking two post-period free throws to conclude the historic run.
When the third period was over, the 66-55 Celtics halftime lead had ballooned to a scary 102-61 spread. The final score was 132-99, and when it was over, the fact that it also meant the end of this best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal series in five games was about the 134th thing on anyone's mind. Who doubted the Celtics would win the series? The question with this bunch for the last two months or so has been how much history it can make.
Is it possible to play better than the Celtics did in the final 5 1/2 minutes of the third period last night? Danny Ainge and Dennis Johnson either forced exterior turnovers or directed people into traffic. Robert Parish, Kevin McHale and Larry Bird either blocked shots or made Atlanta's people change the ones they had in mind. The transition game was spectacular. The outside shooting was deadly. The passing was worthy of being shown 24 hours a day at the Hall of Fame. The Celtics were truly a beautiful basketball machine.
"It's hard for me to recollect any quarter like this in the 20 or 25 years I've been around," said K.C. Jones. "I'll have to see the films and see exactly what happened."
The Big Run started in the most innocent fashion possible when Bird, a killer from the opening tap (36 points, 10 rebounds and 14-for-24 shooting), sank a technical foul on an illegal defense violation. That made it 79-61 with 5:17 remaining in the quarter.
Dominique Wilkins, who ended a skyrocket year with a sad 4 for 14, then was trapped in a sideline double-team, losing the ball out of bounds. Bird got a quick pass and faked a couple of times before rifling a blind pass to McHale (25) for a layup. That was the play which blew the lid off the pressure cooker, inciting the crowd and setting in motion the forces that would make the final four minutes something for Celtics fans to savor forever.
Before the period was over, the Hawks would have two shots blocked, commit two offensive fouls and make two other turnovers. The Celtics would respond with everything from a Parish layup on a superb looped-in Bird feed, to a Bird lefty overhead post-up banked jump hook (he was 7 for 7 with the left hand), to a great Ainge pass to a roaring McHale for a fast-break dunk, to an Ainge three-pointer which actually sent the normally unemotional Dennis Johnson into a war dance. All the while, the patrons were responding with a roar which forced people to turn up the volume of the TVs in Tewksbury.
Of course, none of this was necessary to win the game. We're talking serious, serious icing here. The Celtics had assumed control in the middle of the second quarter, and in fact, had come out playing the same kind of controlled, cold-blooded basketball which had produced victories in both Chicago 3 and Atlanta 3.
The leader was Bird, whose 15 first-quarter points included three inside baskets and a three-pointer to salvage a broken play. Atlanta led for precisely 14 seconds (21-20) on a Tree Rollins layup, but Parish recaptured the lead with a left box turnaround, and by the period's end, the Celtics were in front by five at 32-27.
Five isn't much, perhaps, but the manner in which the Celtics had scored their points was disturbing to Atlanta coach Mike Fratello. "We weren't stopping the layups," he explained. "In Games 3 and 4, guys made switches they didn't make tonight. We made the rotations and we stopped their splits. They do not blow their opportunities. Your execution has to be excellent. By the middle of the second quarter, we had lost our concentration completely."
Fratello was correct. The Celtics didn't need much in the way of outside shooting, not while they were getting 23 points from first-half post-ups, nine from second shots, six from layups and six from fast breaks. A little run of eight straight midway through the quarter stretched it out to 53-41, and were it not for eight points generated by Spud Webb penetration, the Hawks would have been officially finished at halftime.
Say this for the Hawks: At no point during that surrealistic third period did they lose dignity. They tried hard at both ends. They simply could not avoid being an accident of basketball history.
6.27.2008
More Pierce & DJ
Inglewood High graduate Paul Pierce is only the second player from an L.A.-area high school to be named Finals MVP and the first since the late Dennis Johnson, who played at Compton Dominguez High, L.A. Harbor College and Pepperdine before leading the Seattle SuperSonics to their only NBA title in 1979.
Memo to the Purple
The return of Andrew Bynum could tilt the odds in the Lakers' favor, of course, but recent history has not been kind to NBA Finals runners-up. Only one team in the last 22 years has won a championship the year after losing in the Finals-the 1988-89 Detroit Pistons of Isiah Thomas, Dennis Rodman, Bill Laimbeer, Rick Mahorn, Joe Dumars, et al., who swept the banged-up Lakers a year after losing to Magic Johnson & Co. in Game 7 in 1988. Coach Chuck Daly's "Bad Boys," you may recall, were a lot grittier than the Lakers team that was manhandled by the Boston Celtics. As former Lakers coach Pat Riley might have said of the Finals efforts of Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom, "I've seen more pushing in the men's room."
--LA Times
--LA Times
1986 Cs Drop Game 4 to Atlanta
When is a game lost? Kevin McHale remembers watching the Canadiens blowing out the Rangers Saturday night. "It was 5-1 after the second period," he said. He glanced at the clock -- 10:15 p.m. -- and dozed off.
He woke up yesterday morning. He appeared at the Omni for the Celtics ' game unshaven and groggy. He was 4 of 11 at halftime.
"My biggest downfall was that I didn't watch the third period of the Rangers game," he said. "The Rangers are in it and all of a sudden it's 5-1. I fall asleep, 10 hours asleep, I come to the game, I'm groggy, I play like diddly."
Across the locker room sat his partner in misery. Larry Bird was 1 of 10 at halftime. The Celtics' Ruth and Gehrig finished for a combined 12 of 38. Do not search for coincidences that their team lost, 106-94, to the Atlanta Hawks. "I missed my first few," Bird said, "and it sort of rubbed off on Kevin."
Bird's first field goal was a rebounded layup 13:55 into the game. He had missed his first eight attempts. "I had wide open shots and I don't really like that," he said. "I like guys guarding me when I shoot, believe it or not . . . I had so many easy shots. Everything was coming so easy. I was not having to work for everything."
McHale (7 of 19 for the game) was not exactly a whiff of Old Spice in the armpit of Atlanta's defense. "Sure they were playing me tight," he said. "But once you make your initial move -- once I get into my shot . . . (Atlanta center Jon) Koncak stood there three times with his arms straight up like I was holding up a liquor store and I just shot three bricks. We (he and Bird) were tossing up bricks all afternoon."
But at what cost? "I didn't really realize it until DJ said something at halftime," Bird said. "He said that me and Kevin had shot very poor in the first half and we still led by a point . . . I don't press very much. We had a three-game lead and a one-point lead at halftime. There's no sense in pressing."
In reality, "We should have been blown out," he said.
Bird (5 of 19) threatened to light his fuse with a successful 22-foot jumper to begin the second half. But he waited nine minutes before his next official attempt, and by then Spud Webb had pulled an Eddie Gaedel and become the game's dominant figure. Late in the third quarter Bird missed a three- pointer, which he Xeroxed to begin the fourth.
"I was feeling good," he said. "Every shot I took was on target. They were just short."
His right pinky appears ready to give birth to a ring finger. "It feels good," Bird said. "It's fine. I didn't shoot as much today as I do normally before a game. I come and go. I didn't shoot as much yesterday (in Saturday's practice) as I wanted. I'm a 50 percent shooter. I think I'm shooting 56 percent right now. That will all even out before the play-offs are over."
McHale and Bird attempted most of Boston's half-court attempts down the stretch, but McHale had been taken out of his normal game by his inability to make 5-footers and his team's remarkable ability to botch the fast-break opportunities that make life easier for everybody. "This team, unfortunately, has a history of having little letdowns now and then," McHale said. "We just basically didn't play well. I give the Hawks credit. They played well enough to win. But this sure wasn't a banner performance by the Boston Celtics, that's for sure.
"We did this two years ago against Milwaukee, and against the Sixers, too. Hopefully we'll get rattled enough to play well Tuesday. Sometimes we don't get aggressive enough. Maybe we felt in the backs of our minds it was over with. It's disappointing. We wanted to get this over with today."
The moral of this story? "I learned my lesson," McHale said. "Don't follow the Rangers."
He woke up yesterday morning. He appeared at the Omni for the Celtics ' game unshaven and groggy. He was 4 of 11 at halftime.
"My biggest downfall was that I didn't watch the third period of the Rangers game," he said. "The Rangers are in it and all of a sudden it's 5-1. I fall asleep, 10 hours asleep, I come to the game, I'm groggy, I play like diddly."
Across the locker room sat his partner in misery. Larry Bird was 1 of 10 at halftime. The Celtics' Ruth and Gehrig finished for a combined 12 of 38. Do not search for coincidences that their team lost, 106-94, to the Atlanta Hawks. "I missed my first few," Bird said, "and it sort of rubbed off on Kevin."
Bird's first field goal was a rebounded layup 13:55 into the game. He had missed his first eight attempts. "I had wide open shots and I don't really like that," he said. "I like guys guarding me when I shoot, believe it or not . . . I had so many easy shots. Everything was coming so easy. I was not having to work for everything."
McHale (7 of 19 for the game) was not exactly a whiff of Old Spice in the armpit of Atlanta's defense. "Sure they were playing me tight," he said. "But once you make your initial move -- once I get into my shot . . . (Atlanta center Jon) Koncak stood there three times with his arms straight up like I was holding up a liquor store and I just shot three bricks. We (he and Bird) were tossing up bricks all afternoon."
But at what cost? "I didn't really realize it until DJ said something at halftime," Bird said. "He said that me and Kevin had shot very poor in the first half and we still led by a point . . . I don't press very much. We had a three-game lead and a one-point lead at halftime. There's no sense in pressing."
In reality, "We should have been blown out," he said.
Bird (5 of 19) threatened to light his fuse with a successful 22-foot jumper to begin the second half. But he waited nine minutes before his next official attempt, and by then Spud Webb had pulled an Eddie Gaedel and become the game's dominant figure. Late in the third quarter Bird missed a three- pointer, which he Xeroxed to begin the fourth.
"I was feeling good," he said. "Every shot I took was on target. They were just short."
His right pinky appears ready to give birth to a ring finger. "It feels good," Bird said. "It's fine. I didn't shoot as much today as I do normally before a game. I come and go. I didn't shoot as much yesterday (in Saturday's practice) as I wanted. I'm a 50 percent shooter. I think I'm shooting 56 percent right now. That will all even out before the play-offs are over."
McHale and Bird attempted most of Boston's half-court attempts down the stretch, but McHale had been taken out of his normal game by his inability to make 5-footers and his team's remarkable ability to botch the fast-break opportunities that make life easier for everybody. "This team, unfortunately, has a history of having little letdowns now and then," McHale said. "We just basically didn't play well. I give the Hawks credit. They played well enough to win. But this sure wasn't a banner performance by the Boston Celtics, that's for sure.
"We did this two years ago against Milwaukee, and against the Sixers, too. Hopefully we'll get rattled enough to play well Tuesday. Sometimes we don't get aggressive enough. Maybe we felt in the backs of our minds it was over with. It's disappointing. We wanted to get this over with today."
The moral of this story? "I learned my lesson," McHale said. "Don't follow the Rangers."
Giddens Drops 28 Points, Snares 17 Boards in Conference Tournament
The University of New Mexico wanted to leave nothing to question during the postseason.
After losing to No. 6 Utah 82-80 in overtime of a quarterfinal of the Mountain West Championships late Thursday, the third-seeded Lobos probably didn't.
Instead of advancing and taking a step closer to the NCAA Tournament, the Lobos are on the outside looking in. The 65-team field will be announced Sunday.
Following back-to-back-to-back dunks by both teams, UNM's Darren Prentice drove to the basket and got swatted by Luke Nevill. The Utah 7-footer had two dunks on his side and UNM's J.R. Giddens had the other. That forced UNM to foul with less than 10 seconds left.
It was 81-80 when Utah's Lawrence Borha made a free throw after missing one, and the Lobos inbounded to Giddens with 5.6 seconds left.
Giddens drove the length of the court and took it to the hoop but his underhand scoop bounced off the rim as the final horn sounded.
This was the second overtime game between the two teams. UNM won 77-67 on Jan. 22 in The Pit.
Giddens was far from failure. He scored all of UNM's eight points in overtime.
He scored a game-high 28 points and pulled down a game-high 17 rebounds and went 10 of 15 from the foul line.
But he ended up one shot short.
After losing to No. 6 Utah 82-80 in overtime of a quarterfinal of the Mountain West Championships late Thursday, the third-seeded Lobos probably didn't.
Instead of advancing and taking a step closer to the NCAA Tournament, the Lobos are on the outside looking in. The 65-team field will be announced Sunday.
Following back-to-back-to-back dunks by both teams, UNM's Darren Prentice drove to the basket and got swatted by Luke Nevill. The Utah 7-footer had two dunks on his side and UNM's J.R. Giddens had the other. That forced UNM to foul with less than 10 seconds left.
It was 81-80 when Utah's Lawrence Borha made a free throw after missing one, and the Lobos inbounded to Giddens with 5.6 seconds left.
Giddens drove the length of the court and took it to the hoop but his underhand scoop bounced off the rim as the final horn sounded.
This was the second overtime game between the two teams. UNM won 77-67 on Jan. 22 in The Pit.
Giddens was far from failure. He scored all of UNM's eight points in overtime.
He scored a game-high 28 points and pulled down a game-high 17 rebounds and went 10 of 15 from the foul line.
But he ended up one shot short.
Alford Key to Giddens Emergence
Albuquerque Journal (NM)
March 21, 2008
Justin Ray, we hardly knew ye. When J.R . Giddens ' last-second 18-footer rimmed out Wednesday night in Berkeley, Calif., it brought a sudden end to one of the most spectacular careers in Lobo basketball history.
And, sad to say, one of the most short-lived; 2006-07 doesn't count. A basketball season is a terrible thing to waste, and Giddens wasted one.
Yet, '07-08 -- a season found -- became unforgettable.
Credit firstyear coach Steve Alford and his staff for harnessing Giddens' free spirit without destroying it. Credit Giddens' teammates for recognizing that this season's J.R. wasn't last season's J.R.
Mostly, credit Giddens for one of the most dramatic turnarounds I've witnessed in UNM athletics.
The water under this particular bridge isn't fit to drink, so we'll deal with it only briefly. To call the 2006-07 season a train wreck would tend to trivialize train wrecks.
If coach Ritchie McKay was the engineer of that runaway train, Giddens was the runaway train -- firing contested 3-pointers from absurd distances, dribbling into turnovers, quarreling with teammates.
Then, McKay, who'd brought Giddens into the program as a Kansas transfer with baggage, was fired. After the hiring of Alford, a no-nonsense Bob Knight guy, speculation was rampant that J.R. had played his last game in a Lobo uniform.
Now that Giddens has played his final game, leaving on his shield after his 11th double-double of the season, certain things are clear.
Giddens, despite his exceptional physical gifts, came to UNM a victim of stunted development. At Kansas, more than 60 percent of his field-goal attempts were 3-pointers. He shot just 52 free throws in two seasons. His education as a college basketball player was sadly inadequate.
McKay -- remember, Giddens wouldn't be here if not for him -- did little to further that education. When a guy shoots five 3s a game but makes just 30 percent of them, that person belongs inside the free-throw line. Or on the bench.
Alford and his staff, in their approach to Giddens' basketball education, were nothing less than brilliant -- at once patient and demanding.
In mid-December, with Giddens averaging just 11.5 points and 9.4 shots per game, I wondered why Alford wasn't doing more to feature his best offensive player.
It's clear now that Alford wanted to see Giddens pass Basketball 101 before taking on any advanced courses. Until Giddens understood he was just one of five Lobos on the court, he could not become more than that.
And what a Lobo he became.
Consider his final 10 games: 23 points, 9.7 rebounds -- yes, he darn near averaged a double-double -- and 3.5 assists per game. Exploiting screen after screen and set play after set play in Alford's offense, he shot 54 percent from the field.
These were Danny Granger's statistics three years ago during the last 10 games of his brilliant senior year: 19.8 points, 8.6 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game on 51 percent shooting.
Here, at least, statistics don't lie. The new, improved Giddens of the past three months has been every bit the player and leader Granger was in 2005.
No, he didn't lead his team as far. Granger was joined in the starting lineup by two juniors and two seniors, Giddens by a junior, a sophomore and two freshmen.
And, no, I don't see Giddens enjoying Granger-like success in the NBA. Having taken his game inside the foul line to excel in college, J.R. now must take it back outside -- and dramatically improve his jump shot and ballhandling.
Of course, I've been guilty of underestimating Justin Ray Giddens before -- never his athletic ability, but his head and heart for the game.
Justin Ray, we miss you already.
March 21, 2008
Justin Ray, we hardly knew ye. When J.R . Giddens ' last-second 18-footer rimmed out Wednesday night in Berkeley, Calif., it brought a sudden end to one of the most spectacular careers in Lobo basketball history.
And, sad to say, one of the most short-lived; 2006-07 doesn't count. A basketball season is a terrible thing to waste, and Giddens wasted one.
Yet, '07-08 -- a season found -- became unforgettable.
Credit firstyear coach Steve Alford and his staff for harnessing Giddens' free spirit without destroying it. Credit Giddens' teammates for recognizing that this season's J.R. wasn't last season's J.R.
Mostly, credit Giddens for one of the most dramatic turnarounds I've witnessed in UNM athletics.
The water under this particular bridge isn't fit to drink, so we'll deal with it only briefly. To call the 2006-07 season a train wreck would tend to trivialize train wrecks.
If coach Ritchie McKay was the engineer of that runaway train, Giddens was the runaway train -- firing contested 3-pointers from absurd distances, dribbling into turnovers, quarreling with teammates.
Then, McKay, who'd brought Giddens into the program as a Kansas transfer with baggage, was fired. After the hiring of Alford, a no-nonsense Bob Knight guy, speculation was rampant that J.R. had played his last game in a Lobo uniform.
Now that Giddens has played his final game, leaving on his shield after his 11th double-double of the season, certain things are clear.
Giddens, despite his exceptional physical gifts, came to UNM a victim of stunted development. At Kansas, more than 60 percent of his field-goal attempts were 3-pointers. He shot just 52 free throws in two seasons. His education as a college basketball player was sadly inadequate.
McKay -- remember, Giddens wouldn't be here if not for him -- did little to further that education. When a guy shoots five 3s a game but makes just 30 percent of them, that person belongs inside the free-throw line. Or on the bench.
Alford and his staff, in their approach to Giddens' basketball education, were nothing less than brilliant -- at once patient and demanding.
In mid-December, with Giddens averaging just 11.5 points and 9.4 shots per game, I wondered why Alford wasn't doing more to feature his best offensive player.
It's clear now that Alford wanted to see Giddens pass Basketball 101 before taking on any advanced courses. Until Giddens understood he was just one of five Lobos on the court, he could not become more than that.
And what a Lobo he became.
Consider his final 10 games: 23 points, 9.7 rebounds -- yes, he darn near averaged a double-double -- and 3.5 assists per game. Exploiting screen after screen and set play after set play in Alford's offense, he shot 54 percent from the field.
These were Danny Granger's statistics three years ago during the last 10 games of his brilliant senior year: 19.8 points, 8.6 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game on 51 percent shooting.
Here, at least, statistics don't lie. The new, improved Giddens of the past three months has been every bit the player and leader Granger was in 2005.
No, he didn't lead his team as far. Granger was joined in the starting lineup by two juniors and two seniors, Giddens by a junior, a sophomore and two freshmen.
And, no, I don't see Giddens enjoying Granger-like success in the NBA. Having taken his game inside the foul line to excel in college, J.R. now must take it back outside -- and dramatically improve his jump shot and ballhandling.
Of course, I've been guilty of underestimating Justin Ray Giddens before -- never his athletic ability, but his head and heart for the game.
Justin Ray, we miss you already.
Giddens at NBA Pre-Draft Camp
Former Lobo standout J.R . Giddens , co-Mountain West Conference player of the year this past season, has been preparing diligently for the June NBA Draft. He had been drawing rave reviews and by many accounts had been shooting up the draft boards of many league executives.
Until the pre-NBA Draft Camp being held this week in Orlando, Fla., where Giddens appears by most accounts to be struggling.
DraftEXpress.com, perhaps one of Giddens' biggest supporters among Web sites that follow the NBA Draft, wrote this today of individual drills earlier this week:
"Those that impressed in the drills ranged from the instinctive do-it all offensive sparkplug types like Lester Hudson to superb athletes like Deron Washington and J.R. Giddens (not the most skilled with the ball, but capable as a spot-up shooter and constantly making plays offensively and especially defensively thanks to his trademark length and explosiveness)."
Of Giddens' work in games, though
"J.R. Giddens forced the issue with his weak ballhandling skills a little too much at times, but still flashed great potential with some of the moves he made at times. His talent is undeniable, he just needs to polish up his skillset."
HoopsHype.com wrote this about him regarding Wednesday's games:
J.R. Giddens (7 pts, 2 ast, 1 blk) fell victim to a similar drought, and didn't have the impact he is capable of providing."
They then wrote this about Thursday's games: "However, the player many expected to excel, J.R. Giddens (1 pt, 1 ast), failed to stand out once again."
Until the pre-NBA Draft Camp being held this week in Orlando, Fla., where Giddens appears by most accounts to be struggling.
DraftEXpress.com, perhaps one of Giddens' biggest supporters among Web sites that follow the NBA Draft, wrote this today of individual drills earlier this week:
"Those that impressed in the drills ranged from the instinctive do-it all offensive sparkplug types like Lester Hudson to superb athletes like Deron Washington and J.R. Giddens (not the most skilled with the ball, but capable as a spot-up shooter and constantly making plays offensively and especially defensively thanks to his trademark length and explosiveness)."
Of Giddens' work in games, though
"J.R. Giddens forced the issue with his weak ballhandling skills a little too much at times, but still flashed great potential with some of the moves he made at times. His talent is undeniable, he just needs to polish up his skillset."
HoopsHype.com wrote this about him regarding Wednesday's games:
J.R. Giddens (7 pts, 2 ast, 1 blk) fell victim to a similar drought, and didn't have the impact he is capable of providing."
They then wrote this about Thursday's games: "However, the player many expected to excel, J.R. Giddens (1 pt, 1 ast), failed to stand out once again."
Giddens Shows Signs of Growth
For most college students, early May means one thing. Time to cram. For J.R. Giddens , it means two things.
Time to cram -- and jam.
And while the former University of New Mexico men's basketball star is far from the only college kid trying to balance studies with a hectic personal life, he's definitely the only one at UNM trying to do so while making a run at the NBA.
In fact, he's probably one of a few studentathletes in the entire country trying to snare his degree while gunning for The League.
"I'm still at it," Giddens told the Journal with regard to pursuing his university studies degree. "I'm still trying to get it all done every day in school, either online or in individual study. I'm working really hard to get my degree, but I still have to work out for basketball.
"It's very hard, but I'm doing things to the best of my ability."
Come mid-March, most NBA prospects are long gone from school. When the college season ends, so does their campus presence.
In recent years, ex-Lobos Kenny Thomas, Ruben Douglas and even Danny Granger all headed out of town to work with trainers and basketball instructors once their senior eligibility ended, dropping out of class.
Giddens, too, has left Albuquerque to work on his game. But with one catch. He has been returning every week in hopes of graduating this semester.
"He is really trying to hold on in terms of finishing," says Giddens' academic adviser, Henry Villegas. "It's definitely a challenge for him. He definitely has a demanding schedule."
For more than a month, that schedule included meeting with instructors every Monday in an attempt to complete the 12 hours Giddens is taking this semester. Each Monday evening, he attended a lab at UNM's Regener Hall.
Early Tuesday morning it was off to Los Angeles. By Tuesday afternoon, Giddens was working out with former NBA player Don MacLean and a group of other NBA hopefuls who all signed with Priority Sports, an L.A-based agency.
Giddens remained in Los Angeles each week until Sunday, working out every morning and afternoon and doing homework online each evening. He flew home each Sunday evening, and the hectic agenda started all over again.
"Most guys just lay it down once the season ends," MacLean says. "We all agreed, that since he's so close to getting his degree, let him try to kick it out."
Giddens says his final lab was Monday and he's now trying to finish his school work online in hopes of graduating this month.
Priority Sports pays for all of Giddens' expenses, including setting him up with an apartment in L.A. The training includes weightlifting and nutritional programs.
Giddens works out with a group that includes Oregon's Bryce Taylor; Cal State-Fullerton's Frank Robinson; Syracuse's Darryl Watkins, who turned pro last season; and Brigham Young's Trent Plaisted, an underclassman trying to test the draft waters.
The workouts have been tough and physical. Giddens recently took a Plaisted elbow to the forehead that led to nine stitches.
"He felt horrible," Giddens said. "I told him, 'Don't worry about it. I want you to give 100 percent every possession. It's the only way to help us all get better.' ''
MacLean says Giddens has "energized" the entire group with his passion and attitude. Giddens says it's easy to push himself.
"It's been hectic, but that's how college life is," he said Saturday. "Being an athlete, you have to work very hard to achieve a balance.
"But I go to school with a lot of people who have it a lot tougher than I do. They are taking care of kids, taking care of a family and still trying to go to school. They're not getting to play basketball and aren't getting to do all the things they love. I feel blessed to get this opportunity."
Just more than a year ago, the last thing Giddens imagined was finishing college. Then again, he never expected to be in college his senior season.
Giddens, who transferred to UNM after his sophomore year at Kansas, sat out the 2005-06 season as a redshirt. He looked to be a one-anddone candidate at New Mexico.
"An NBA lottery pick," is how former Lobo coach Ritchie McKay described his enigmatic star.
But the dysfunctional Lobos slid to a losing record in 2006-07, Giddens slid off the NBA Draft radar -- and his grades? Well, to say they slid would be an understatement.
McKay was fired and Steve Alford was hired as new Lobo coach.
Giddens was trapped in noman's land.
He felt Alford was trying to force him out of the program. And who could blame the new coach? Since his hiring in late March 2007, Alford constantly heard of Giddens being a problem child and a cancer in the program.
Alford didn't even allow Giddens to go on a spring basketball exhibition trip to the Bahamas, and the Oklahoma City native looked to be on his way out the door.
Giddens, however, wasn't going anywhere.
"It was a good wake-up call for me," Giddens says. "I needed to mature, and I know I have."
Giddens pounded the books all summer to get himself academically eligible, but says he didn't stop there. He kept plugging away in the fall, and says he had his best semester, grades-wise, of his career.
Not so coincidentally, he had his best season on the court as well, averaging 16.3 points, 8.8 rebounds and 3.1 assists a game on his way to be named Mountain West Conference co-Player of the Year.
Still, Giddens didn't make anyone's NBA Draft board during the season.
Suddenly, that's all changing. Recently, draftexpress.com projected him as the seventh pick in the second round.
"He's been terrific," MacLean says. "J.R.'s work ethic, to me, is just great. I know there have been character concerns, and he's matured a lot, he's been humbled. He went from being a McDonald's High School All-American, to transferring, to sitting out. I hate to say it, but it's probably what he needed.
"But at the end of the day, he does everything I ask. He's getting better, he has a great attitude and I don't see any reason why he won't be in the first round."
Because of a rules change, prospects aren't allowed to have individual workouts for teams until after the predraft camp, which is later this month in Orlando, Fla. Giddens and MacLean are both confident the 6-foot-5 guard's stock will rise throughout the camp, and plenty of workout offers will come.
In the meantime, Giddens says he will keep honing his skills, and keep cracking the books.
He says it's still dicey whether he will complete the 12 hours he needs to graduate this semester, but he's giving it all he can. If he falls short, he says he'll finish up this summer.
"In the long run, it's all worth it," says Giddens, who led the Lobos to the National Invitation Tournament this season. "It's like getting that NIT watch. I know it wasn't the NCAA, but I'm so proud of that NIT watch because we laid the foundation for good things to come in the program.
"I gave that watch to my father, and I told him 'I know it's not like an NCAA ring or watch. But it's my first year as legitimate leader of a team. I helped this team as a leader to really achieve something. That NIT watch is my most prized possession. It's the first year I actually led a team.'
"Now it's time to work my way to the next level."
Giddens said the AP All-America honorable mention was one to be shared by his teammates, because "without them, there's no way I would be getting this type of recognition."
Time to cram -- and jam.
And while the former University of New Mexico men's basketball star is far from the only college kid trying to balance studies with a hectic personal life, he's definitely the only one at UNM trying to do so while making a run at the NBA.
In fact, he's probably one of a few studentathletes in the entire country trying to snare his degree while gunning for The League.
"I'm still at it," Giddens told the Journal with regard to pursuing his university studies degree. "I'm still trying to get it all done every day in school, either online or in individual study. I'm working really hard to get my degree, but I still have to work out for basketball.
"It's very hard, but I'm doing things to the best of my ability."
Come mid-March, most NBA prospects are long gone from school. When the college season ends, so does their campus presence.
In recent years, ex-Lobos Kenny Thomas, Ruben Douglas and even Danny Granger all headed out of town to work with trainers and basketball instructors once their senior eligibility ended, dropping out of class.
Giddens, too, has left Albuquerque to work on his game. But with one catch. He has been returning every week in hopes of graduating this semester.
"He is really trying to hold on in terms of finishing," says Giddens' academic adviser, Henry Villegas. "It's definitely a challenge for him. He definitely has a demanding schedule."
For more than a month, that schedule included meeting with instructors every Monday in an attempt to complete the 12 hours Giddens is taking this semester. Each Monday evening, he attended a lab at UNM's Regener Hall.
Early Tuesday morning it was off to Los Angeles. By Tuesday afternoon, Giddens was working out with former NBA player Don MacLean and a group of other NBA hopefuls who all signed with Priority Sports, an L.A-based agency.
Giddens remained in Los Angeles each week until Sunday, working out every morning and afternoon and doing homework online each evening. He flew home each Sunday evening, and the hectic agenda started all over again.
"Most guys just lay it down once the season ends," MacLean says. "We all agreed, that since he's so close to getting his degree, let him try to kick it out."
Giddens says his final lab was Monday and he's now trying to finish his school work online in hopes of graduating this month.
Priority Sports pays for all of Giddens' expenses, including setting him up with an apartment in L.A. The training includes weightlifting and nutritional programs.
Giddens works out with a group that includes Oregon's Bryce Taylor; Cal State-Fullerton's Frank Robinson; Syracuse's Darryl Watkins, who turned pro last season; and Brigham Young's Trent Plaisted, an underclassman trying to test the draft waters.
The workouts have been tough and physical. Giddens recently took a Plaisted elbow to the forehead that led to nine stitches.
"He felt horrible," Giddens said. "I told him, 'Don't worry about it. I want you to give 100 percent every possession. It's the only way to help us all get better.' ''
MacLean says Giddens has "energized" the entire group with his passion and attitude. Giddens says it's easy to push himself.
"It's been hectic, but that's how college life is," he said Saturday. "Being an athlete, you have to work very hard to achieve a balance.
"But I go to school with a lot of people who have it a lot tougher than I do. They are taking care of kids, taking care of a family and still trying to go to school. They're not getting to play basketball and aren't getting to do all the things they love. I feel blessed to get this opportunity."
Just more than a year ago, the last thing Giddens imagined was finishing college. Then again, he never expected to be in college his senior season.
Giddens, who transferred to UNM after his sophomore year at Kansas, sat out the 2005-06 season as a redshirt. He looked to be a one-anddone candidate at New Mexico.
"An NBA lottery pick," is how former Lobo coach Ritchie McKay described his enigmatic star.
But the dysfunctional Lobos slid to a losing record in 2006-07, Giddens slid off the NBA Draft radar -- and his grades? Well, to say they slid would be an understatement.
McKay was fired and Steve Alford was hired as new Lobo coach.
Giddens was trapped in noman's land.
He felt Alford was trying to force him out of the program. And who could blame the new coach? Since his hiring in late March 2007, Alford constantly heard of Giddens being a problem child and a cancer in the program.
Alford didn't even allow Giddens to go on a spring basketball exhibition trip to the Bahamas, and the Oklahoma City native looked to be on his way out the door.
Giddens, however, wasn't going anywhere.
"It was a good wake-up call for me," Giddens says. "I needed to mature, and I know I have."
Giddens pounded the books all summer to get himself academically eligible, but says he didn't stop there. He kept plugging away in the fall, and says he had his best semester, grades-wise, of his career.
Not so coincidentally, he had his best season on the court as well, averaging 16.3 points, 8.8 rebounds and 3.1 assists a game on his way to be named Mountain West Conference co-Player of the Year.
Still, Giddens didn't make anyone's NBA Draft board during the season.
Suddenly, that's all changing. Recently, draftexpress.com projected him as the seventh pick in the second round.
"He's been terrific," MacLean says. "J.R.'s work ethic, to me, is just great. I know there have been character concerns, and he's matured a lot, he's been humbled. He went from being a McDonald's High School All-American, to transferring, to sitting out. I hate to say it, but it's probably what he needed.
"But at the end of the day, he does everything I ask. He's getting better, he has a great attitude and I don't see any reason why he won't be in the first round."
Because of a rules change, prospects aren't allowed to have individual workouts for teams until after the predraft camp, which is later this month in Orlando, Fla. Giddens and MacLean are both confident the 6-foot-5 guard's stock will rise throughout the camp, and plenty of workout offers will come.
In the meantime, Giddens says he will keep honing his skills, and keep cracking the books.
He says it's still dicey whether he will complete the 12 hours he needs to graduate this semester, but he's giving it all he can. If he falls short, he says he'll finish up this summer.
"In the long run, it's all worth it," says Giddens, who led the Lobos to the National Invitation Tournament this season. "It's like getting that NIT watch. I know it wasn't the NCAA, but I'm so proud of that NIT watch because we laid the foundation for good things to come in the program.
"I gave that watch to my father, and I told him 'I know it's not like an NCAA ring or watch. But it's my first year as legitimate leader of a team. I helped this team as a leader to really achieve something. That NIT watch is my most prized possession. It's the first year I actually led a team.'
"Now it's time to work my way to the next level."
Giddens said the AP All-America honorable mention was one to be shared by his teammates, because "without them, there's no way I would be getting this type of recognition."
6.26.2008
Artest to Lakers--Not in 10 Million Years
One player the Lakers probably won't be acquiring is Sacramento forward Ron Artest, who holds a one-year player option for $7.4 million, but Artest has said he would opt out only if he could make more money as a free agent. The most the Lakers could offer would be the mid-level exception of about $6 million a year for up to five years.
Artest, 28, visited the Lakers' locker room during the NBA Finals and has spoken glowingly of Kobe Bryant in the past, but he told the Mason and Ireland Show on KSPN-AM (710) that it "looks like I'm going to be a King next year" before saying he would "never" take less money to play for a championship contender.
"Not in a million years," he said. "Actually, not in 10 million years."
--Associated Press
June 2008
Artest, 28, visited the Lakers' locker room during the NBA Finals and has spoken glowingly of Kobe Bryant in the past, but he told the Mason and Ireland Show on KSPN-AM (710) that it "looks like I'm going to be a King next year" before saying he would "never" take less money to play for a championship contender.
"Not in a million years," he said. "Actually, not in 10 million years."
--Associated Press
June 2008
KC Snubbed for '86 Coach of the Year
The moment was spontaneous. Larry Bird was just standing there. K.C. Jones was just standing there.
The Celtics star suddenly grabbed the coach's right arm and held it high in the arena air, the traditional picture of a boxing referee declaring one fighter the winner.
"Were you surprised?" K.C. Jones was asked yesterday.
"Oh, yeah," the coach said. "I didn't know what he was doing. I tried to pull my arm down, but I guess I wasn't strong enough."
There was a smile about that because, no, K.C. Jones was not trying to pull his arm down. He liked what Larry Bird did. He liked it very much.
The moment took place at the same time a ceremony was being held at center court of the Omni prior to the introductions for the Celtics' 111-107 win over the Atlanta Hawks on Friday night. Mike Fratello, the coach of the team that was on its way to falling behind, 3-0, in this best-of-seven NBA play-off series, was being handed a trophy as NBA Coach of the Year. K.C. Jones again was being handed nothing.
Until Bird intervened.
"Mike Fratello's a good coach and I suppose he deserves to be the Coach of the Year," the representative from French Lick, Ind., said. "K.C. deserves something, too. I wanted people to know that. I wanted to show them that Mike Fratello might be the NBA Coach of the Year, but that K.C. Jones is our Coach of the Year."
It is a curious situation in sports that the coach of the best team during a season seldom is named Coach of the Year. The honor always goes to a Mike Fratello character, someone whose team is an improved contender rather than a champion. The notion seems to be that the coach in that situation was the turnaround difference, the extra factor that changed both attitude and performance.
How hard can it be to coach the Boston Celtics? That had to be the thinking of the 60 voters (out of 78) who gave the award to Fratello. Who couldn't coach the Boston Celtics? What is there to do? Put the practice times on the blackboard. Make sure there are enough clean towels in the shower room. Give the ball to Bird and Robert Parish and Dennis Johnson and Kevin McHale and all those people and say, "Go get 'em." Sit back and enjoy the show. Best seat in the smoke-filled house.
Winning isn't everything. Not in this Coach of the Year business.
"I guess that's the way it's always going to be," K.C. Jones said. "All those years, they didn't give the thing to Red Auerbach until he was about 90 years old. Pat Riley's never won it and he's had his team in the finals -- what? -- five years in a row.
"People just think it's easy. You look at Pat Riley and he's dealing with some Empire State egos out there and he puts everything together and that team wins. Sure, he's responsible for a lot of that."
"Are you dealing with some Empire State egos on your team, too?" K.C. was asked.
"Only 12," he said with a laugh.
Forgotten somehow is the long haul the Celtics have covered. Forgotten is the fact that the people in every place these guys have visited have treated the appearance as a special, emotional occasion. The Celtics won 67 of 82 games this year and didn't steal one of them. They snuck up on no one. Every night was an NCAA final, Louisville against Duke, in the minds of the other team. There were no chances for one-night vacations. This was a team that had to play hard every night, had to be ready. This was a team that did that.
"It's our fault K.C. didn't get the award," Larry Bird said. "If we'd won 69 games, set the record, there wouldn't have been any contest. If we'd won two more games, they would have had to give K.C. the award."
Would that have done the job? Two more wins? A record for wins? Maybe so. Probably not. Not only is there the idea that coaching this team is easy, there is the added fact that K.C. Jones makes it look easy.
In a profession where the bulk of the people dress like floorwalkers and chatter like late-night car salesman, K.C. resembles some English professor who quietly teaches the classics. His voice is soft. His humor is wry. He has about as much self-promotion in him as a Trappist monk.
Listen to some of these coaches talk and you would think they were preparing doctoral research papers every night instead of game plans. Listen to K.C. Jones and he simply is fixing a squeaky floorboard in the hallway. Michael Jordan is scoring all of those points. We can fix that. Here. Dominique Wilkins? Why don't we try a little bit of McHale on Mr. Wilkins, just to see how he likes shooting over a 30-foot-tall man. Easy. Simple. Do it.
There are no emotional speeches. There is no backbiting. Anger surfaces here and there, when the team is playing badly, but there always is more praise and encouragement than anger. A lot more. Easy.
"I don't know what motivation is at this level," Celtics assistant coach Jimmy Rodgers said. "I don't think you really do motivate people. I think it's more a situation of respect. You survive on respect. You try to create a situation where the players respect each other and the coach and vice versa. You play an awful lot games and you're with each other for a long time. You have to have respect . . . and that's what this team has with K.C."
The Celtics practiced yesterday afternoon in an old gym at Morehouse College. The Hawks had practiced in the morning and the new Coach of the Year, Mike Fratello, still was sitting on the front steps while the Celtics worked inside. He was talking about the problems his team was having, facing elimination this afternoon at the Omni in the fourth game.
"You always have to adjust against the Celtics," Mike Fratello said. "If you do something in the first half, you have to change it in the second half because they will have an answer for it. We did that in the first game, changed at the half. Then in the second game, we changed even sooner, changing our defenses at the quarters. The last game, we were changing every time down the floor . . . and they still had the answers.
"They're just so smart, the Celtics. Just so smart."
Inside the gym, the smart team worked easily. The players mostly exercised simply to exercise, to keep loose. They played little shooting games and one- on-ones and two-on-twos and laughed a lot at each other. K.C. Jones stood by the side. Relaxed. Quiet. Easy.
Why worry about awards? His team now has beaten the Coach of the Year's team nine times in nine games this season
The Celtics star suddenly grabbed the coach's right arm and held it high in the arena air, the traditional picture of a boxing referee declaring one fighter the winner.
"Were you surprised?" K.C. Jones was asked yesterday.
"Oh, yeah," the coach said. "I didn't know what he was doing. I tried to pull my arm down, but I guess I wasn't strong enough."
There was a smile about that because, no, K.C. Jones was not trying to pull his arm down. He liked what Larry Bird did. He liked it very much.
The moment took place at the same time a ceremony was being held at center court of the Omni prior to the introductions for the Celtics' 111-107 win over the Atlanta Hawks on Friday night. Mike Fratello, the coach of the team that was on its way to falling behind, 3-0, in this best-of-seven NBA play-off series, was being handed a trophy as NBA Coach of the Year. K.C. Jones again was being handed nothing.
Until Bird intervened.
"Mike Fratello's a good coach and I suppose he deserves to be the Coach of the Year," the representative from French Lick, Ind., said. "K.C. deserves something, too. I wanted people to know that. I wanted to show them that Mike Fratello might be the NBA Coach of the Year, but that K.C. Jones is our Coach of the Year."
It is a curious situation in sports that the coach of the best team during a season seldom is named Coach of the Year. The honor always goes to a Mike Fratello character, someone whose team is an improved contender rather than a champion. The notion seems to be that the coach in that situation was the turnaround difference, the extra factor that changed both attitude and performance.
How hard can it be to coach the Boston Celtics? That had to be the thinking of the 60 voters (out of 78) who gave the award to Fratello. Who couldn't coach the Boston Celtics? What is there to do? Put the practice times on the blackboard. Make sure there are enough clean towels in the shower room. Give the ball to Bird and Robert Parish and Dennis Johnson and Kevin McHale and all those people and say, "Go get 'em." Sit back and enjoy the show. Best seat in the smoke-filled house.
Winning isn't everything. Not in this Coach of the Year business.
"I guess that's the way it's always going to be," K.C. Jones said. "All those years, they didn't give the thing to Red Auerbach until he was about 90 years old. Pat Riley's never won it and he's had his team in the finals -- what? -- five years in a row.
"People just think it's easy. You look at Pat Riley and he's dealing with some Empire State egos out there and he puts everything together and that team wins. Sure, he's responsible for a lot of that."
"Are you dealing with some Empire State egos on your team, too?" K.C. was asked.
"Only 12," he said with a laugh.
Forgotten somehow is the long haul the Celtics have covered. Forgotten is the fact that the people in every place these guys have visited have treated the appearance as a special, emotional occasion. The Celtics won 67 of 82 games this year and didn't steal one of them. They snuck up on no one. Every night was an NCAA final, Louisville against Duke, in the minds of the other team. There were no chances for one-night vacations. This was a team that had to play hard every night, had to be ready. This was a team that did that.
"It's our fault K.C. didn't get the award," Larry Bird said. "If we'd won 69 games, set the record, there wouldn't have been any contest. If we'd won two more games, they would have had to give K.C. the award."
Would that have done the job? Two more wins? A record for wins? Maybe so. Probably not. Not only is there the idea that coaching this team is easy, there is the added fact that K.C. Jones makes it look easy.
In a profession where the bulk of the people dress like floorwalkers and chatter like late-night car salesman, K.C. resembles some English professor who quietly teaches the classics. His voice is soft. His humor is wry. He has about as much self-promotion in him as a Trappist monk.
Listen to some of these coaches talk and you would think they were preparing doctoral research papers every night instead of game plans. Listen to K.C. Jones and he simply is fixing a squeaky floorboard in the hallway. Michael Jordan is scoring all of those points. We can fix that. Here. Dominique Wilkins? Why don't we try a little bit of McHale on Mr. Wilkins, just to see how he likes shooting over a 30-foot-tall man. Easy. Simple. Do it.
There are no emotional speeches. There is no backbiting. Anger surfaces here and there, when the team is playing badly, but there always is more praise and encouragement than anger. A lot more. Easy.
"I don't know what motivation is at this level," Celtics assistant coach Jimmy Rodgers said. "I don't think you really do motivate people. I think it's more a situation of respect. You survive on respect. You try to create a situation where the players respect each other and the coach and vice versa. You play an awful lot games and you're with each other for a long time. You have to have respect . . . and that's what this team has with K.C."
The Celtics practiced yesterday afternoon in an old gym at Morehouse College. The Hawks had practiced in the morning and the new Coach of the Year, Mike Fratello, still was sitting on the front steps while the Celtics worked inside. He was talking about the problems his team was having, facing elimination this afternoon at the Omni in the fourth game.
"You always have to adjust against the Celtics," Mike Fratello said. "If you do something in the first half, you have to change it in the second half because they will have an answer for it. We did that in the first game, changed at the half. Then in the second game, we changed even sooner, changing our defenses at the quarters. The last game, we were changing every time down the floor . . . and they still had the answers.
"They're just so smart, the Celtics. Just so smart."
Inside the gym, the smart team worked easily. The players mostly exercised simply to exercise, to keep loose. They played little shooting games and one- on-ones and two-on-twos and laughed a lot at each other. K.C. Jones stood by the side. Relaxed. Quiet. Easy.
Why worry about awards? His team now has beaten the Coach of the Year's team nine times in nine games this season
The Danny Five Year Plan
(click to enlarge)I’m not one to dwell on the bad old days. I’ve probably mentioned the names “Bias” and “Lewis” twice each on this blog, and Pitino maybe three times. Mark Blount? Nary a mention. At the same time, I have been known to dabble in your Sidney Wicks and your Curtis Rowes. But those guys were not only bad, but funny, too.
I mean, how much better can you get than these two stories.
Asked for his thoughts after a close playoff loss, Sidney Wicks responded, “They don’t put wins and losses on my paycheck.” After Bill Fitch took over as coach in 1981, he watched Curtis Rowe loaf past him one too many times early in training camp and shouted at the uninspired Rowe “hey, Curtis, why don’t you just keep on running through that door, into the locker room, and out of the building…you’re cut!”
I haven’t gotten to the point where I can laugh at the follies from the Pitino and O’Brien Eras quite yet, and it’s possible I never will. On the other hand, I do have vivid memories of the befuddlement I experienced when reviewing the Celtics payroll.
Antoine Walker—locked up for big money and near-zero trade value.
Vin Baker—same.
Raef LaFrentz—same.
Mark Blount—same.
By contrast, the above payroll is a thing of beauty. Even owing Scalabrine $6m over the next two years really isn’t all that unreasonable, and not nearly as bad as what some other contenders are facing with their payrolls (we’ll take a look at some Laker pain later on this week or next).
So Danny’s five-year plan not only got us a championship, it resolved the payroll flexibility issues, too. This bodes well for stockpiling the roster with veterans to make a run a banner #18.
Unrestricted Ricky
--6'7"
--29 years old
--Shot .433 from the field and .405 from three last year on a very bad team
--Still fills up a box score in a hurry
--Played for Doc
--May have "history" with Doc
--Loose canon
--Questionable locker room presence
--Questionable Judgment
I doubt Danny and Doc would take a chance on him. But I wouldn't rule it out, either.
Wedman Finishes Game 3 at Guard
Thanks to Danny Ainge's third-quarter ejection, and the fact that for the third straight game Jerry Sichting wasn't having much of a night, Jones finished the game with Robert Parish, Kevin McHale, Bird, Dennis Johnson and Scott Wedman on the floor. Wedman replaced Rick Carlisle with 5:08 to go and stayed out there for the rest of the game, coming up with a couple of big defensive plays as the Celtics were pitching a shutout during the final four minutes. "I put Scotty in because he's a veteran and a good post-up player," explained Jones. No one is going to stop Spud (Webb) anyway, so we put Scotty in. Unfortunately, they took Spud out." . . . Webb, incidentally, had 14 points, 6 assists and shot 6 for 7.
Second and Third Quarter Dominance
The Celtics won all but one of the third periods of 2008 NBA Finals, the only one taken by LA being Game 5 (24-18). But the Celtics also were vastly superior in the second quarter, aka the Subs On Parade. Boston won the second period in Game 2, 34-25, the second period in Game 3, 25-17; the second period in Game 4, 31-15; and the second period in Game , 31-25. Their combined margin in the combined second and third periods of all games was 319-249.
Oh Brother
"I try to pattern my game after a combination of Amare Stoudemire (Phoenix Suns), Tim Duncan (San Antonio Spurs), and Kevin Garnett (Boston Celtics)," Anthony Randolph said, "because they're great big men and versatile. Bosh is a another guy I get compared to. I hope to get up to that level and hopefully pass him one day."
Several mock drafts have Randolph going as high as sixth overall to the New York Knicks, or possibly as low as the 14th choice, to the Sacramento Kings.
---
Yeah, I try to "pattern my game" after Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, but it doesn't seem to have gotten me anywhere...
Several mock drafts have Randolph going as high as sixth overall to the New York Knicks, or possibly as low as the 14th choice, to the Sacramento Kings.
---
Yeah, I try to "pattern my game" after Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, but it doesn't seem to have gotten me anywhere...
Waltonless Celtics Go Up 3-0 Over Hawks
It's not rhetoric, folks. This Celtics team appears to have the goods.
Game 3 is a tough game to play, but the Celtics made it look like an exhibition in Lewiston, Maine, as they had all the right answers all night long, utilizing their masterful two-way team concept to defeat the Atlanta Hawks, 111-107, last night and thus take a 3-0 stranglehold in the best-of- seven second-round play-off series.
Bill Walton (twisted left knee) wasn't available to K.C. Jones, but the mentor mixed and matched his front line nicely, employing Kevin McHale (25 points) as his backup center when he had to.
The Celtics led at every checkpoint, but never by much. Despite Atlanta's fourth-quarter inability to score (five field goals), the Celtics didn't put this one away until the final two minutes. The big sequence came at 103-101, Boston, when Larry Bird (28) nailed a 20-footer and Dominique Wilkins (38) missed a jumper at the other end. Danny Ainge, who had another very big game, tipped the rebound to Dennis Johnson, and the latter started a fast break which culminated in a free throw for McHale. Robert Parish rebounded a Randy Wittman miss, and Bird set up McHale for two free throws on a sensational pass. McHale canned them both, and with a 108-101 lead and 42 seconds left, it was just a matter of not giving it away.
Endless punching and counterpunching highlighted a nicely played third quarter which ended with the Celtics once again in possession of a shaky lead, this one by one point at 88-87.
Boston made the first run, using another three-pointer by Bird to launch a little burst that gave the Celtics three four-point leads, the last at 75-71. Now it was Atlanta's turn, in the form of a 10-2 run that made the Hawks four- point leaders (81-77) for the only time in the first three periods.
Undaunted, the Celtics shrugged off that statement with a series of great plays, the best of which was a Johnson clock-beating left corner jumper on an in-bounds play that had to frustrate the Hawks, who had played great defense (knocking the ball out of bounds with four left on the 24-second clock), only to see DJ throw in a monster shot. That basket made it 88-85 with 51 seconds left, and insured that the Celtics could survive a Spud Webb jumper and take the one-point lead into the final quarter.
Bird was a killer in that quarter, hitting his first four shots -- all from outside -- while working the boards and doing all his cerebral things.
Johnson's clock-beating three-point heave which salvaged a hopelessly broken play with 10 seconds remaining in the half sent the Celtics into the locker room holding tightly to a well-earned 64-60 lead.
Any night the Celtics have to deal with Bird in foul trouble is a night of minor history, and this was one of those nights. Bird got through the first period with his usual lack of difficulty, but he was whistled for three fouls in the first 2:24 of the second quarter, requiring Jones to send Greg Kite in for Bird.
The irony of all this is that as soon as Bird went to the sidelines (it was 40-38, Boston, at the time), the Celtics immediately expanded the lead to nine, their largest spread of the half.
They accomplished this with the large aid of two Ainge inside-out jumpers on McHale feeds, the first a three-pointer from the left corner and the second a jumper from one step inside the three-point arc on the right wing. Ainge performed very well in the half, scoring 12 points and making some of his patented hustle plays on defense.
Atlanta responded well to the Celtic thrust, ripping off a 16-6 spurt to regain the lead at 54-53 on an end-to-end drive by Doc Rivers. Jones called a timeout, and when play resumed, the Celtics went into their assassin mode, led by the indefatigable Johnson, who scored nine points in the final 4:17 after being silent offensively for most of the half.
By halftime, Wilkins had 23 points and had completely erased from his own mind the bad times in Boston. What hurt Atlanta more than anything was its inability to finish off fast breaks. At the 49-44 juncture, the Hawks was just 2 for 9 on fast breaks, and they had missed several open jumpers.
The Celtics had few basic complaints about a first quarter during which they survived a 13-point spree by Wilkins and still came out leading, 34-31.
The clubs went through five lead changes and four ties through 17-17 before the Celtics ran off a modest 8-2 spurt which put them in control of affairs for the rest of the quarter. McHale got things rolling with a tough turnaround in the lane, and when Robert Parish completed the little blast with two free throws, the Celtics had either club's largest lead of the period, a six-point spread at 25-19.
The hopeful sign for the Hawks was that the Dominique Wilkins who had led the league in scoring showed up for this game instead of the impostor who had clogged up the floor during the two games in Boston. Wilkins got going with a couple of inside scoops, and before the period was over, he appeared to have his normal outside shooting rhythm as well.
Game 3 is a tough game to play, but the Celtics made it look like an exhibition in Lewiston, Maine, as they had all the right answers all night long, utilizing their masterful two-way team concept to defeat the Atlanta Hawks, 111-107, last night and thus take a 3-0 stranglehold in the best-of- seven second-round play-off series.
Bill Walton (twisted left knee) wasn't available to K.C. Jones, but the mentor mixed and matched his front line nicely, employing Kevin McHale (25 points) as his backup center when he had to.
The Celtics led at every checkpoint, but never by much. Despite Atlanta's fourth-quarter inability to score (five field goals), the Celtics didn't put this one away until the final two minutes. The big sequence came at 103-101, Boston, when Larry Bird (28) nailed a 20-footer and Dominique Wilkins (38) missed a jumper at the other end. Danny Ainge, who had another very big game, tipped the rebound to Dennis Johnson, and the latter started a fast break which culminated in a free throw for McHale. Robert Parish rebounded a Randy Wittman miss, and Bird set up McHale for two free throws on a sensational pass. McHale canned them both, and with a 108-101 lead and 42 seconds left, it was just a matter of not giving it away.
Endless punching and counterpunching highlighted a nicely played third quarter which ended with the Celtics once again in possession of a shaky lead, this one by one point at 88-87.
Boston made the first run, using another three-pointer by Bird to launch a little burst that gave the Celtics three four-point leads, the last at 75-71. Now it was Atlanta's turn, in the form of a 10-2 run that made the Hawks four- point leaders (81-77) for the only time in the first three periods.
Undaunted, the Celtics shrugged off that statement with a series of great plays, the best of which was a Johnson clock-beating left corner jumper on an in-bounds play that had to frustrate the Hawks, who had played great defense (knocking the ball out of bounds with four left on the 24-second clock), only to see DJ throw in a monster shot. That basket made it 88-85 with 51 seconds left, and insured that the Celtics could survive a Spud Webb jumper and take the one-point lead into the final quarter.
Bird was a killer in that quarter, hitting his first four shots -- all from outside -- while working the boards and doing all his cerebral things.
Johnson's clock-beating three-point heave which salvaged a hopelessly broken play with 10 seconds remaining in the half sent the Celtics into the locker room holding tightly to a well-earned 64-60 lead.
Any night the Celtics have to deal with Bird in foul trouble is a night of minor history, and this was one of those nights. Bird got through the first period with his usual lack of difficulty, but he was whistled for three fouls in the first 2:24 of the second quarter, requiring Jones to send Greg Kite in for Bird.
The irony of all this is that as soon as Bird went to the sidelines (it was 40-38, Boston, at the time), the Celtics immediately expanded the lead to nine, their largest spread of the half.
They accomplished this with the large aid of two Ainge inside-out jumpers on McHale feeds, the first a three-pointer from the left corner and the second a jumper from one step inside the three-point arc on the right wing. Ainge performed very well in the half, scoring 12 points and making some of his patented hustle plays on defense.
Atlanta responded well to the Celtic thrust, ripping off a 16-6 spurt to regain the lead at 54-53 on an end-to-end drive by Doc Rivers. Jones called a timeout, and when play resumed, the Celtics went into their assassin mode, led by the indefatigable Johnson, who scored nine points in the final 4:17 after being silent offensively for most of the half.
By halftime, Wilkins had 23 points and had completely erased from his own mind the bad times in Boston. What hurt Atlanta more than anything was its inability to finish off fast breaks. At the 49-44 juncture, the Hawks was just 2 for 9 on fast breaks, and they had missed several open jumpers.
The Celtics had few basic complaints about a first quarter during which they survived a 13-point spree by Wilkins and still came out leading, 34-31.
The clubs went through five lead changes and four ties through 17-17 before the Celtics ran off a modest 8-2 spurt which put them in control of affairs for the rest of the quarter. McHale got things rolling with a tough turnaround in the lane, and when Robert Parish completed the little blast with two free throws, the Celtics had either club's largest lead of the period, a six-point spread at 25-19.
The hopeful sign for the Hawks was that the Dominique Wilkins who had led the league in scoring showed up for this game instead of the impostor who had clogged up the floor during the two games in Boston. Wilkins got going with a couple of inside scoops, and before the period was over, he appeared to have his normal outside shooting rhythm as well.
6.25.2008
Ainge on Pierce v. DJ
"As for Paul, he's a very determined player, like Larry, but he reminds me of DJ. Like DJ, Paul can get a little salty. He's up and down moodwise. And on the court he's kind of an energy conserver. He doesn't play all out all the time. That used to drive me nuts about DJ because I was the other guard and I'd think, This guy is so gifted. What's he doing coasting? But then, like with DJ, Paul has stretches that are unbelievably special. You need something to happen, whatever it is--a blocked shot, winning a jump ball, a steal, a rebound, a pass, a shot--and Paul supplies it. That's how DJ was.
Ainge on Bird v. KG
"They're completely different," says Ainge. "KG is more of a sentimental guy, more feeling, kinder. Larry was not kind. Larry was grouchy. That's how he was born, that's how he competed. He would bust everybody's chops, get angry and frustrated.
"But here's what KG is like: We're in training camp in Rome [last October], and I see him in the weight room. Then he goes to practice, works his butt off and gets his shots up after practice. Then, for the next 45 minutes, KG is running around the gym rebounding for [point guard] Rajon Rondo. Let me tell you something: In a million years Larry Bird would never do that. He might make me rebound for him, but not the other way around. KG is focused and intense like Larry, but he really cares about the feelings of his teammates, cares that he's perceived as almost the team mother."
"But here's what KG is like: We're in training camp in Rome [last October], and I see him in the weight room. Then he goes to practice, works his butt off and gets his shots up after practice. Then, for the next 45 minutes, KG is running around the gym rebounding for [point guard] Rajon Rondo. Let me tell you something: In a million years Larry Bird would never do that. He might make me rebound for him, but not the other way around. KG is focused and intense like Larry, but he really cares about the feelings of his teammates, cares that he's perceived as almost the team mother."
The Bird to Ainge Text Message
After one quarter it was 24-20; after two it was 58-35 and so over. All of Russell's rings would remain with him. (Later, Garnett would tearfully tell the goateed éminence grise, "I got my own.") The TV cameras could afford to spend time panning for Celtics legends in the stands--Russell, Havlicek, Heinsohn, Cedric Maxwell and Jo Jo White among them. With Boston up 89--60 at the end of the third quarter, Ainge's BlackBerry blipped, and up flashed a text message: GREAT JOB, DANNY, I'M REALLY HAPPY FOR YOU. LARRY.
Although they occupy different galaxies in the basketball univer se, Bird and Ainge were a lot alike two decades ago: monumental pains in the ass to friend and foe. As with Bird, feisty didn't begin to describe Ainge. He claims he never finished a game of backyard one-on-one with Dave, one of his two older brothers, because they would get into fistfights. "I remember a Little League game when a kid stole a base on us," says Ainge, who was playing shortstop, "so I told him there was a foul ball and he had to go back to first. He stepped off the bag, and I tagged him out. He started crying, and their coach called me a dirty player. It didn't bother me. We got the out."
During the time I covered Ainge in the '80s, I always saw him as a little brother to Bird and McHale. (He was two years younger than the former and 15 months younger than the latter.) In effect, he took on the same position he held in his own family under Doug (four years older) and Dave (three years older). McHale could goof off with the best of them--from time to time he would sneak a snack on the bench--but it was Ainge who acted as if he were 10, showing up at practice wearing goofy headbands and adhesive-taped names on his jersey. Lamar Mundane, a fictional playground legend who was the subject of a Reebok commercial at the time, was one of Ainge's favorites. Bird and McHale ragged him for his boyish enthusiasm and I-got-screwed whining during games. Only when Bill Walton came to the Celtics in 1985, giving Bird and McHale a new target, did Ainge slither off the hook.
Still, Ainge was the player most plugged into the complex Bird-McHale dynamic. "Larry would always come to me and say, 'Hey, go tell Kevin this,' and Kevin would come to me and say, 'Go tell Larry that.' They were such great players, but sometimes they didn't know how to talk to each other and how to yell at each other. But they knew how to yell at me."
--Jack McCallum
Although they occupy different galaxies in the basketball univer se, Bird and Ainge were a lot alike two decades ago: monumental pains in the ass to friend and foe. As with Bird, feisty didn't begin to describe Ainge. He claims he never finished a game of backyard one-on-one with Dave, one of his two older brothers, because they would get into fistfights. "I remember a Little League game when a kid stole a base on us," says Ainge, who was playing shortstop, "so I told him there was a foul ball and he had to go back to first. He stepped off the bag, and I tagged him out. He started crying, and their coach called me a dirty player. It didn't bother me. We got the out."
During the time I covered Ainge in the '80s, I always saw him as a little brother to Bird and McHale. (He was two years younger than the former and 15 months younger than the latter.) In effect, he took on the same position he held in his own family under Doug (four years older) and Dave (three years older). McHale could goof off with the best of them--from time to time he would sneak a snack on the bench--but it was Ainge who acted as if he were 10, showing up at practice wearing goofy headbands and adhesive-taped names on his jersey. Lamar Mundane, a fictional playground legend who was the subject of a Reebok commercial at the time, was one of Ainge's favorites. Bird and McHale ragged him for his boyish enthusiasm and I-got-screwed whining during games. Only when Bill Walton came to the Celtics in 1985, giving Bird and McHale a new target, did Ainge slither off the hook.
Still, Ainge was the player most plugged into the complex Bird-McHale dynamic. "Larry would always come to me and say, 'Hey, go tell Kevin this,' and Kevin would come to me and say, 'Go tell Larry that.' They were such great players, but sometimes they didn't know how to talk to each other and how to yell at each other. But they knew how to yell at me."
--Jack McCallum
KG & Russ
Old Celtics cast long shadows; accepting that is just part of the deal in Boston. When Russell and Garnett got together in March to tape a conversation for ESPN, I thought, What do they have to talk about? Russell won 11 championships and Garnett hasn't even played a postseason game in a Celtics uniform. Still, Garnett was moved when Russell said he would share one of his 11 rings with Garnett if the team didn't bring home the title this season.
Garnett has never been an in-traffic scorer; he's a jump-shooter in a 7-foot package. He makes his bones with rebounding and never-take-a-play-off defense--which describes Russell. The Celtics of the 1950s and '60s never went into an important game expecting Russell to lead them in scoring. That was for Bob Cousy, Bill Sharman, Tommy Heinsohn, Frank Ramsey, Sam Jones and John Havlicek. Russell's job was to be the spiritual leader, the rock, more immovable object than irresistible force. Same for Garnett.
--Jack McCallum
Garnett has never been an in-traffic scorer; he's a jump-shooter in a 7-foot package. He makes his bones with rebounding and never-take-a-play-off defense--which describes Russell. The Celtics of the 1950s and '60s never went into an important game expecting Russell to lead them in scoring. That was for Bob Cousy, Bill Sharman, Tommy Heinsohn, Frank Ramsey, Sam Jones and John Havlicek. Russell's job was to be the spiritual leader, the rock, more immovable object than irresistible force. Same for Garnett.
--Jack McCallum
Did Rivers Outcoach the Zen Mistress?
It is simplistic to conclude, as many did, that Rivers outcoached Jackson in the series, thus preventing Jackson from earning his 10th ring and surpassing the total of Red Auerbach, the Celtics' patriarch, who died in 2006. Outcoached is one of the most overused words in our sporting lexicon. Good coaching (and bad) manifests itself over time. Rivers juggled his backup guards (Eddie House, Sam Cassell and Tony Allen) according to no formula that I could discern, yet got strong performances out of all of them at one time or another; Jackson, meanwhile, had no idea what he was going to get from his bench and ultimately got very little. So is that one guy outcoaching the other?
But there is this: In six third quarters--the period that some say is the most important, when a team can build a lead and crush the opposition's spirit or render its strong first-half effort meaningless--Boston outscored L.A. by an average of 7.2 points. Let's put it this way: In these Finals, the Rivers way was superior to the Jackson way. Rivers roamed, Jackson sat. Rivers lit a fire under his players, Jackson asked his to figure it out on their own. Rivers acted glad-to-be-here, Jackson came across as this-is-my-11th-time-here.
When Rivers got the Boston job in April 2004, he embraced the burden of history, inviting every living former Celtic to attend practice. He also consulted with Auerbach, who gave him two pieces of advice: "Be the agitators; don't be the retaliators" and "Get the ball; don't give up the ball."
Rivers connected his players to the franchise's illustrious past while keeping them in the present. Something that backup big man P.J. Brown told me during the Finals stuck with me. Ainge signed Brown in late February--it was P.J.'s fifth stop in a 15-year career--to provide maturity and toughness. I asked if he had made an immediate assessment of Rivers when he came to the team.
"Most definitely," said Brown. "Doc had the team. You can always tell that right away. He just had the team."
--Jack McCallum
But there is this: In six third quarters--the period that some say is the most important, when a team can build a lead and crush the opposition's spirit or render its strong first-half effort meaningless--Boston outscored L.A. by an average of 7.2 points. Let's put it this way: In these Finals, the Rivers way was superior to the Jackson way. Rivers roamed, Jackson sat. Rivers lit a fire under his players, Jackson asked his to figure it out on their own. Rivers acted glad-to-be-here, Jackson came across as this-is-my-11th-time-here.
When Rivers got the Boston job in April 2004, he embraced the burden of history, inviting every living former Celtic to attend practice. He also consulted with Auerbach, who gave him two pieces of advice: "Be the agitators; don't be the retaliators" and "Get the ball; don't give up the ball."
Rivers connected his players to the franchise's illustrious past while keeping them in the present. Something that backup big man P.J. Brown told me during the Finals stuck with me. Ainge signed Brown in late February--it was P.J.'s fifth stop in a 15-year career--to provide maturity and toughness. I asked if he had made an immediate assessment of Rivers when he came to the team.
"Most definitely," said Brown. "Doc had the team. You can always tell that right away. He just had the team."
--Jack McCallum
Tyronn Lue Eyes Celtics
Tyronn Lue just missed out on the parade but could soon join the NBA champions.
Lue, a schoolboy legend around these parts but also an NBA veteran, kicked off his Kansas City Pro-Am Basketball League on Friday. And he has another important deal coming up beginning July 1.
Lue just wrapped his ninth year in the league as a reserve guard with the Dallas Mavericks. Now he's an unrestricted free agent, and the possibilities for his next destination appear bright.
"I've been talking to seven or eight teams," Lue said. "I'll probably end up going to Boston or back to Dallas."
Lue and the Celtics' Kevin Garnett are as close as family. Together with Detroit Pistons'Chauncey Billups, the three form a tight circle as BFFs.
--Associated Press, 6/24/2008
Lue, a schoolboy legend around these parts but also an NBA veteran, kicked off his Kansas City Pro-Am Basketball League on Friday. And he has another important deal coming up beginning July 1.
Lue just wrapped his ninth year in the league as a reserve guard with the Dallas Mavericks. Now he's an unrestricted free agent, and the possibilities for his next destination appear bright.
"I've been talking to seven or eight teams," Lue said. "I'll probably end up going to Boston or back to Dallas."
Lue and the Celtics' Kevin Garnett are as close as family. Together with Detroit Pistons'Chauncey Billups, the three form a tight circle as BFFs.
--Associated Press, 6/24/2008
6.24.2008
Bird, Celtics Go Up 2-0 Over Atlanta
Forgive the Garden fans if they say they don't see what all this Dominique Wilkins fuss is about. He left behind enough bricks to get Roz Gorin's arena off to a healthy start, shooting 7 for 22 last night to leave town with a 29 percent (11-for-37) shooting touch in Games 1 and 2.
There was little doubt that the long arms and excellent double-teaming of the frontcourt accomplices had a big effect on Wilkins, who was forced to give the ball up several times. But K.C. Jones had words of praise for the Atlanta star, saying, "He's playing very unselfishly. He went to the boards, he passed the ball (6 assists) and when he was open, he shot. He filled lanes. I think he's acting like a real pro."
Once the fans got beyond the sideshows, beyond the reenactment of the Battle of Hastings (featuring Danny the Would-Be Conqueror) and beyond what will always be known as the Fratello Fan Fracas, and once they put aside the pleasant memory of the first 3 1/2 quarters, the Garden patrons had to look up at the clock with precisely four minutes to go and confront the horrifying reality.
An 18-point third-quarter lead was down to one, 109-108. The way things were going then, they wouldn't have bet a used Megabucks ticket on the Celtics ' chances. They had to assume that the first Celtic Garden loss in 144 days was somehow fated to happen. The game had that kind of slippery feel.
And of course, right about here Larry Bird decided to start playing some serious basketball.
With the Celtics making a bunch of good defensive plays (including two big ones by Scott Wedman), and with Bird (36) scoring eight of the last 10 Celtic points and deftly feeding Robert Parish for the other two, Boston ran the table, shutting the Hawks out and walking off with a 119-108 decision which sends them down to Atlanta for Friday night's third game in possession of a 2-0 lead in this best-of-seven second-round series.
Granted, nobody was striking out 20 men, or anything like that, but there was more than enough start-to-finish excitement in this one to warrant a spot in the home videotape library. Bird's late heroics were a suitable dessert to what had been a very satisfying main course of superb transition basketball. And that's before even mentioning the extracurriculars.
The benchmark sequence in the game occurred with Boston threatening to convene garbage time while leading by an 87-69 score in the third period. Bird had just gone on the floor for a loose ball and come up with a sneakaway feed for Danny Ainge, prompting the crowd to start chanting, "Lar-ree!" And when Bird fed Dennis Johnson 12 seconds later for a two-on-one fast-break basket, the lead had apparently gone up to 20, and if it had, this thing would have been over.
But way back at the other end, referee Earl Strom was not only negating the basket, he was also ejecting Ainge, who, it turned out, had gone down on the floor with Scott Hastings and had, by Atlanta accounts, come up kicking the Atlanta swingman, first in the leg and then in the arm. Strom gave Ainge no satisfaction when he complained that Hastings had precipitated everything by pulling him down by the jersey (which Hastings cheerfully confirmed).
If that wasn't enough to inspire the Hawks, what happened immediately upon the conclusion of the third period certainly was. In one of the most regrettable, absurd and embarrassing incidents in Garden history, both veteran aide Dave Gately (who is, as they say, old enough to know better) and a season ticket holder got into a tiff with Atlanta coach Mike Fratello. The details are to be found elsewhere in these pages.
Now the Hawks were really wired. They had already managed to slice the 18- point lead to 10 before a Bird basket made it 94-82 at the end of three, and when the fourth quarter started, they were so determined that even a rocket start by Robert Parish (10 points in the first 2:40) failed to deter them. Sparked by Spud Webb's penetration and the inside aggressiveness of Kevin Willis (23 points, 10 rebounds), the Hawks made it just about all the way back, peaking with a sensational Rivers play when Doc stole a rebound away from Parish and stuck a turnaround in his face.
That made it 109-108, and that also appeared to make Bird angry, because for the rest of the game, he was The Beast Who Ate Atlanta.
There are two reasons Bird gets all that money. The first is that he brightens up dull games. The second is that he wins tough ones.
Here is how Atlanta died:
3:40 -- Bird loops pick-and-roll pass to Parish, who misses the shot.
3:36 -- Bird rebounds the shot and scores. 111-108.
2:45 -- Bird rebounds Willis miss.
2:23 -- Bird makes jumper in the lane. 113-108.
2:02 -- Parish blocks Willis layup (call it a Russell play).
1:41 -- Bird sinks off-balance, step-back right-corner fallaway. 115-108.
1:13 -- Bird feeds Parish for a layup. 117-108.
:44 -- Johnson dives on floor to direct loose ball to Bird.
:26 -- Bird swishes moon shot step-back jumper. 119-108.
"Dominique (Wilkins) played great defense on Bird," said Rivers. "What can you do about that? We hurt ourselves offensively in that stretch, not taking the kind of shots we took to get us there."
Forgotten in the midst of the dramatic ending and the second-half turmoil were great game-long performances by Johnson (15 points, 9 assists) and Kevin McHale (22 points, 9 rebounds, 6 assists), a 22-point, 9-for-11 first half by Bird and, conversely, another El Stinko offensively by Wilkins (7 for 22, 19 points) who nevertheless drew praise from K.C. Jones for not freaking out and trying to go one-on-North Station when double-teamed.
In the end, the story was Bird, who hasn't been called upon to be a savior in a while. "You know Larry," said Jones. " His timing is always good."
There was little doubt that the long arms and excellent double-teaming of the frontcourt accomplices had a big effect on Wilkins, who was forced to give the ball up several times. But K.C. Jones had words of praise for the Atlanta star, saying, "He's playing very unselfishly. He went to the boards, he passed the ball (6 assists) and when he was open, he shot. He filled lanes. I think he's acting like a real pro."
Once the fans got beyond the sideshows, beyond the reenactment of the Battle of Hastings (featuring Danny the Would-Be Conqueror) and beyond what will always be known as the Fratello Fan Fracas, and once they put aside the pleasant memory of the first 3 1/2 quarters, the Garden patrons had to look up at the clock with precisely four minutes to go and confront the horrifying reality.
An 18-point third-quarter lead was down to one, 109-108. The way things were going then, they wouldn't have bet a used Megabucks ticket on the Celtics ' chances. They had to assume that the first Celtic Garden loss in 144 days was somehow fated to happen. The game had that kind of slippery feel.
And of course, right about here Larry Bird decided to start playing some serious basketball.
With the Celtics making a bunch of good defensive plays (including two big ones by Scott Wedman), and with Bird (36) scoring eight of the last 10 Celtic points and deftly feeding Robert Parish for the other two, Boston ran the table, shutting the Hawks out and walking off with a 119-108 decision which sends them down to Atlanta for Friday night's third game in possession of a 2-0 lead in this best-of-seven second-round series.
Granted, nobody was striking out 20 men, or anything like that, but there was more than enough start-to-finish excitement in this one to warrant a spot in the home videotape library. Bird's late heroics were a suitable dessert to what had been a very satisfying main course of superb transition basketball. And that's before even mentioning the extracurriculars.
The benchmark sequence in the game occurred with Boston threatening to convene garbage time while leading by an 87-69 score in the third period. Bird had just gone on the floor for a loose ball and come up with a sneakaway feed for Danny Ainge, prompting the crowd to start chanting, "Lar-ree!" And when Bird fed Dennis Johnson 12 seconds later for a two-on-one fast-break basket, the lead had apparently gone up to 20, and if it had, this thing would have been over.
But way back at the other end, referee Earl Strom was not only negating the basket, he was also ejecting Ainge, who, it turned out, had gone down on the floor with Scott Hastings and had, by Atlanta accounts, come up kicking the Atlanta swingman, first in the leg and then in the arm. Strom gave Ainge no satisfaction when he complained that Hastings had precipitated everything by pulling him down by the jersey (which Hastings cheerfully confirmed).
If that wasn't enough to inspire the Hawks, what happened immediately upon the conclusion of the third period certainly was. In one of the most regrettable, absurd and embarrassing incidents in Garden history, both veteran aide Dave Gately (who is, as they say, old enough to know better) and a season ticket holder got into a tiff with Atlanta coach Mike Fratello. The details are to be found elsewhere in these pages.
Now the Hawks were really wired. They had already managed to slice the 18- point lead to 10 before a Bird basket made it 94-82 at the end of three, and when the fourth quarter started, they were so determined that even a rocket start by Robert Parish (10 points in the first 2:40) failed to deter them. Sparked by Spud Webb's penetration and the inside aggressiveness of Kevin Willis (23 points, 10 rebounds), the Hawks made it just about all the way back, peaking with a sensational Rivers play when Doc stole a rebound away from Parish and stuck a turnaround in his face.
That made it 109-108, and that also appeared to make Bird angry, because for the rest of the game, he was The Beast Who Ate Atlanta.
There are two reasons Bird gets all that money. The first is that he brightens up dull games. The second is that he wins tough ones.
Here is how Atlanta died:
3:40 -- Bird loops pick-and-roll pass to Parish, who misses the shot.
3:36 -- Bird rebounds the shot and scores. 111-108.
2:45 -- Bird rebounds Willis miss.
2:23 -- Bird makes jumper in the lane. 113-108.
2:02 -- Parish blocks Willis layup (call it a Russell play).
1:41 -- Bird sinks off-balance, step-back right-corner fallaway. 115-108.
1:13 -- Bird feeds Parish for a layup. 117-108.
:44 -- Johnson dives on floor to direct loose ball to Bird.
:26 -- Bird swishes moon shot step-back jumper. 119-108.
"Dominique (Wilkins) played great defense on Bird," said Rivers. "What can you do about that? We hurt ourselves offensively in that stretch, not taking the kind of shots we took to get us there."
Forgotten in the midst of the dramatic ending and the second-half turmoil were great game-long performances by Johnson (15 points, 9 assists) and Kevin McHale (22 points, 9 rebounds, 6 assists), a 22-point, 9-for-11 first half by Bird and, conversely, another El Stinko offensively by Wilkins (7 for 22, 19 points) who nevertheless drew praise from K.C. Jones for not freaking out and trying to go one-on-North Station when double-teamed.
In the end, the story was Bird, who hasn't been called upon to be a savior in a while. "You know Larry," said Jones. " His timing is always good."
Dirk and KG...again
For years in Minnesota, there was a knock on Kevin Garnett. Despite personal statistics that indicated he was among the league's finest players, Garnett could never win anything in the playoffs. Only got past the first round once. And it was said that Minnesota's big man and best player was too unselfish. Didn't always demand the ball in his hands at crunch time. Have you ever heard that said about another big man around here?
Of course, Nowitzki is not going to completely transform himself into Garnett. He's not going to be named the NBA's Defensive Player of the Year any time soon. But Garnett was a true leader for his team all season. He erased any doubts about where he stands in the game. As he said afterward, "What are they going to say now?"
--Dallas Morning News, 6/23/08
Of course, Nowitzki is not going to completely transform himself into Garnett. He's not going to be named the NBA's Defensive Player of the Year any time soon. But Garnett was a true leader for his team all season. He erased any doubts about where he stands in the game. As he said afterward, "What are they going to say now?"
--Dallas Morning News, 6/23/08
Speaking of Dirk
Rajon Rondo knew he couldn't outjump Dirk Nowitzki . So the 6-foot-1 Boston Celtics guard had to outthink him. Rondo, who had a season-high 12 rebounds, swiped the ball from Nowitzki and put in a reverse layup with 42 seconds left to give the Celtics the lead, and host Boston held on to beat the Dallas Mavericks 96-90 on Thursday night.
''He didn't block me out, so I went up under and got the ball,'' Rondo said. ''I just wanted to get it up quickly before the defense recognized that I had the ball.'' With Kevin Garnett sidelined for the third consecutive game, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen scored 26 points apiece to help the Celtics remain unbeaten against the Western Conference. And they did it against one of the West's best teams while overcoming 31 points and 11 rebounds from Nowitzki.
Nowitzki made two free throws with 58 seconds left to tie it at 90. The Celtics got the ball to Pierce, but his shot went around the rim and out.Along came Rondo to grab the ball away from Nowitzki and put in the game-winner.''I had the rebound in my hand,'' Nowitzki said, ''and then Rondo came out of nowhere and snuck it up to the basket before I could react.''
Let's Trade KG for Dirk
If you're the Timberwolves, you take this chance. Not only is Dirk Nowitzki two years younger than Garnett, but he's barely a drop-off in talent. Nowitzki is more of a perimeter player than Garnett, who works inside out, but you'd be trading one of the league's most unique 7-footers for another in return.
If you're the Mavericks, you're all over this deal. Nowitzki has been great for six of his eight years in Dallas, but what has that gotten you except a trip to the Western Conference finals? Garnett is more of a defensive presence than Nowitzki and a better passer. If Dallas is ever going to win a title, they'd have a much better chance at doing it with Garnett at power forward.
--Israel Gutierrez, November 27, 2005
Last week I referenced a blog arguing that the 2008 Celtics would have been just as good had they acquired Dirk Nowitzki in the offseason instead of Kevin Garnett. This seemed patently ludicrous to me then, and now I have someone else to back me up.
The Celtics won the 2008 NBA Finals because of D-E-F-E-N-S-E, and Dirk Nowitzki doesn't play a lick of defense. KG? Defensive player of the year.
Notice that the above snippet is from November 2005, or eight months before Dirk was marginalized by the Miami Heat's James Posey in the 2006 NBA finals and 16 months before Dirk was vaporized in the Dallas Mavericks' first round series loss to Golden State Warriors.
Now it's June 2008. KG has a ring on his finger after averaging a double-double for the NBA Finals, playing a key role in neutralizing Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol, and coming up huge in the decisive game 6.
Someone explain to me how Dirk Nowitzki, a pretty three point shooter and good rebounder, plays any role in shutting down the Lakers two big men?
If you're the Mavericks, you're all over this deal. Nowitzki has been great for six of his eight years in Dallas, but what has that gotten you except a trip to the Western Conference finals? Garnett is more of a defensive presence than Nowitzki and a better passer. If Dallas is ever going to win a title, they'd have a much better chance at doing it with Garnett at power forward.
--Israel Gutierrez, November 27, 2005
Last week I referenced a blog arguing that the 2008 Celtics would have been just as good had they acquired Dirk Nowitzki in the offseason instead of Kevin Garnett. This seemed patently ludicrous to me then, and now I have someone else to back me up.
The Celtics won the 2008 NBA Finals because of D-E-F-E-N-S-E, and Dirk Nowitzki doesn't play a lick of defense. KG? Defensive player of the year.
Notice that the above snippet is from November 2005, or eight months before Dirk was marginalized by the Miami Heat's James Posey in the 2006 NBA finals and 16 months before Dirk was vaporized in the Dallas Mavericks' first round series loss to Golden State Warriors.
Now it's June 2008. KG has a ring on his finger after averaging a double-double for the NBA Finals, playing a key role in neutralizing Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol, and coming up huge in the decisive game 6.
Someone explain to me how Dirk Nowitzki, a pretty three point shooter and good rebounder, plays any role in shutting down the Lakers two big men?
6.23.2008
McHale Stops 'Nique as 86 C's Go up 1-0
The Celtics adopted a modified version of the defense employed on Michael Jordan Tuesday when they ran up against league scoring leader Dominique Wilkins yesterday.
"We had Kevin (McHale) on him and a big man nearby to help in case he got by," said K. C. Jones. Every time the Hawks tried to isolate Dominique on his favored left side, another Celtic came running over to help, several times making him give the ball up, which is exactly what happened to Jordan.
You can say it lacked that certain je ne sais quoi, not to mention the ol' pizazz. The Hawks' minds were here, but their bodies were en route from Pontiac somewhere, and the Celtics were efficient enough in their cold-blooded way to blow the kiddies from Atlanta out by a misleading 103-91 score as the Eastern Conference semifinals got under way at the Garden yesterday afternoon.
The 12-point final margin was the result of one of those horrifying NBA eyesore conclusions that mean nothing to anyone except statisticians and myopic agents. With 10 minutes 2 seconds remaining, a lucky banker from down the middle by Danny Ainge (whose other accomplishments on this day had nothing whatsoever to do with luck) gave the Celtics a 93-67 lead and capped a 10 1/2- minute run, during which the Celtics outscored the visitors, 37-17, and started most people in the crowd thinking about either a) getting home to see Philly-Washington, b) another Sam Vincent-David Thirdkill alley-oop or c) dinner.
What most people are going to remember about this game is that league scoring leader Dominique Wilkins shot 4 for 15 from the floor and scored 13 points. Kevin McHale, take a bow for sure, but don't linger too long in front of the mirror because the evidence suggests that the so-called "Human Highlight Film" is just in a slump. His shooting numbers for the last three games are a mortal 29-75 (.386), indicating that he was in trouble before he ever got to Boston.
"Whoever played him should take pride in it," said Atlanta coach Mike Fratello. "He did a good job and made him work for his shots. But Dominique is a good student. He watches and listens and he'll be back."
Despite Wilkins' offensive problems (2-10 in the first half), Atlanta entered the locker room carrying a quite manageable deficit of six (52-46), a situation owing largely to the strong offensive boardwork of both Kevin Willis (18 points, 8 rebounds), Wilkins and Tree Rollins that produced 12 points on second shots to Boston's two. Aside from that area of expertise, and the fact that Atlanta had scored two baskets on inbounds plays, Atlanta had played very poorly at both ends to be down by as few as six points.
But they never did get any closer. After three minutes of hoop-swapping, the Celtics launched the game's key surge, initiated by McHale's classy 1-on-2 (Willis and the Tree) jump hook in the lane. A quick turnover led to a whirling McHale sneakaway layup from the ever-alert Dennis Johnson (a play-off career-high 14 assists), followed by an Ainge steal leading to a fast-break banker by Johnson, who had 10 of his 16 in the pivotal third quarter.
The Celtics were totally in control from that point, but they turned the game into a near-travesty with a run of 14 unanswered points later in the period. The highlight of this blast was a Larry Bird collaboration with McHale in which Bird pump-faked five times from the right wing before dumping it into McHale, who finished the play with a rolling right-to-left scoop shot out of the 1972 Paul Silas playbook. Even Red Auerbach jumped to his feet in appreciation of this little basketball artistry.
However, these kind of golden moments that had made it such a memorable regular season were too infrequent to make this game anything to remember. For that you can thank the whim of the schedule-maker (translation: CBS), which dictates that a tired, half-prepared Atlanta team take the floor 37 1/2 hours after playing two overtimes in Pontiac to play a rested Celtics team on a floor where it hasn't lost since Dec. 6, or 32 Garden games ago.
There can be little doubt that Atlanta's inability to get back on defense (the Celtics ran off 13 successful fast breaks in 15 attempts over the first three quarters) was a direct result of the body telling the mind where to go when the orders came to get moving. Especially vulnerable were Atlanta's big people, who were frequently beaten down the floor by the likes of McHale (24 points), Robert Parish (16) and Bird (16).
"I think we're capable of better transition defense," said Fratello.
They'd better be, or else this will be a quick series.
"We had Kevin (McHale) on him and a big man nearby to help in case he got by," said K. C. Jones. Every time the Hawks tried to isolate Dominique on his favored left side, another Celtic came running over to help, several times making him give the ball up, which is exactly what happened to Jordan.
You can say it lacked that certain je ne sais quoi, not to mention the ol' pizazz. The Hawks' minds were here, but their bodies were en route from Pontiac somewhere, and the Celtics were efficient enough in their cold-blooded way to blow the kiddies from Atlanta out by a misleading 103-91 score as the Eastern Conference semifinals got under way at the Garden yesterday afternoon.
The 12-point final margin was the result of one of those horrifying NBA eyesore conclusions that mean nothing to anyone except statisticians and myopic agents. With 10 minutes 2 seconds remaining, a lucky banker from down the middle by Danny Ainge (whose other accomplishments on this day had nothing whatsoever to do with luck) gave the Celtics a 93-67 lead and capped a 10 1/2- minute run, during which the Celtics outscored the visitors, 37-17, and started most people in the crowd thinking about either a) getting home to see Philly-Washington, b) another Sam Vincent-David Thirdkill alley-oop or c) dinner.
What most people are going to remember about this game is that league scoring leader Dominique Wilkins shot 4 for 15 from the floor and scored 13 points. Kevin McHale, take a bow for sure, but don't linger too long in front of the mirror because the evidence suggests that the so-called "Human Highlight Film" is just in a slump. His shooting numbers for the last three games are a mortal 29-75 (.386), indicating that he was in trouble before he ever got to Boston.
"Whoever played him should take pride in it," said Atlanta coach Mike Fratello. "He did a good job and made him work for his shots. But Dominique is a good student. He watches and listens and he'll be back."
Despite Wilkins' offensive problems (2-10 in the first half), Atlanta entered the locker room carrying a quite manageable deficit of six (52-46), a situation owing largely to the strong offensive boardwork of both Kevin Willis (18 points, 8 rebounds), Wilkins and Tree Rollins that produced 12 points on second shots to Boston's two. Aside from that area of expertise, and the fact that Atlanta had scored two baskets on inbounds plays, Atlanta had played very poorly at both ends to be down by as few as six points.
But they never did get any closer. After three minutes of hoop-swapping, the Celtics launched the game's key surge, initiated by McHale's classy 1-on-2 (Willis and the Tree) jump hook in the lane. A quick turnover led to a whirling McHale sneakaway layup from the ever-alert Dennis Johnson (a play-off career-high 14 assists), followed by an Ainge steal leading to a fast-break banker by Johnson, who had 10 of his 16 in the pivotal third quarter.
The Celtics were totally in control from that point, but they turned the game into a near-travesty with a run of 14 unanswered points later in the period. The highlight of this blast was a Larry Bird collaboration with McHale in which Bird pump-faked five times from the right wing before dumping it into McHale, who finished the play with a rolling right-to-left scoop shot out of the 1972 Paul Silas playbook. Even Red Auerbach jumped to his feet in appreciation of this little basketball artistry.
However, these kind of golden moments that had made it such a memorable regular season were too infrequent to make this game anything to remember. For that you can thank the whim of the schedule-maker (translation: CBS), which dictates that a tired, half-prepared Atlanta team take the floor 37 1/2 hours after playing two overtimes in Pontiac to play a rested Celtics team on a floor where it hasn't lost since Dec. 6, or 32 Garden games ago.
There can be little doubt that Atlanta's inability to get back on defense (the Celtics ran off 13 successful fast breaks in 15 attempts over the first three quarters) was a direct result of the body telling the mind where to go when the orders came to get moving. Especially vulnerable were Atlanta's big people, who were frequently beaten down the floor by the likes of McHale (24 points), Robert Parish (16) and Bird (16).
"I think we're capable of better transition defense," said Fratello.
They'd better be, or else this will be a quick series.
Polite Society
Remember how juiced I was when the 1986 championship DVDs first arrived? I think I watched game 1 three times. And then the 2008 Boston Celtics went on the road against Atlanta, and my stress level never receded enough for me to resume watching the '86 DVDs...until now.
I've only made it through quarter 1 of game 2. It's a tight game. But what I'm struck by is how calm everyone is in the stands. It's almost as if they've come to expect to see a) the best basketball ever played on the planet; and b) a blowout by 30 points. Instead, what they are watching through the first 12 minutes is a back-and-forth contest between two teams playing unremarkable basketball.
And I don't think those in attendance quite know what to do.
Compared to what we all just experienced at home over the last two months, one could almost mistake the 1986 Garden crowd for polite Elizabethan society studying a Shakespearean drama.
Odd.
I've only made it through quarter 1 of game 2. It's a tight game. But what I'm struck by is how calm everyone is in the stands. It's almost as if they've come to expect to see a) the best basketball ever played on the planet; and b) a blowout by 30 points. Instead, what they are watching through the first 12 minutes is a back-and-forth contest between two teams playing unremarkable basketball.
And I don't think those in attendance quite know what to do.
Compared to what we all just experienced at home over the last two months, one could almost mistake the 1986 Garden crowd for polite Elizabethan society studying a Shakespearean drama.
Odd.
Pierce & Jo Jo
--Journal-World (Lawrence, KS)
Now that Paul Pierce is hogging the headlines during the NBA Finals, it's possible he'll soon shed his second-rate status.
Pierce, a second-rater? Am I nuts?
Here is clearly one of the best players in professional basketball, a man who is paid a stratospheric $16 million plus per year, a man who probably could be elected mayor of Boston.
All of that may be true, yet Pierce remains only the second-best former Kansas University player to put on a Celtics uniform. Jo Jo White is still No. 1.
How many NBA championships have the Celtics won during Pierce's tenure? None. White, however, played on a couple of Boston title teams in the mid-1970s.
Has Pierce's jersey been retired in Beantown? No. But White's No. 10 is hanging from the rafters in the TD Banknorth Garden, the Celtics' home arena.
Memories of a player's skills diminish in direct proportion to the passage of years, and White played in his last NBA game nearly three decades ago. Yet White was just as important to the Celtics then as Pierce is to them now, if in a different context.
White was a guard noted for his speed, defense and floor acumen. He wasn't known as a scorer, but White did average a not-so-shabby 17.2 points a game during his 14-year NBA career. Pierce, meanwhile, is a points producer who averaged around 23 a game during the regular season.
White was also unusually durable. During a five-year stretch in the mid-70s, for instance, White played in all 82 of the Celtics' regular season games. Meanwhile, Pierce has been pretty durable, too. He missed nearly half the 2006-2007 season with an elbow injury, but otherwise has been an iron man during his decade in the NBA.
Curiously, both White and Pierce were taken at almost the same time in the NBA Draft. Back in 1969, the Celtics had the ninth pick in the first round and tapped White. Nearly 30 years later, the Celtics had the 10th pick and opted for Pierce.
You may recall that back in 1998 Pierce was expected to go higher than the 10th pick, but scouts downgraded him because they judged he was out of shape during the pre-draft camps. Shows you how much those pre-draft workouts mean, doesn't it?
Some thought Pierce might go as high as No. 2 that year, yet he slipped all the way to 10th. In retrospect, however, several quality players were taken ahead of him -- Mike Bibby, Antawn Jamison, Vince Carter and Dirk Nowitzki, to name a few. So it wasn't like the NBA teams considered Pierce chopped liver.
Also taken ahead of Pierce was former KU teammate Raef LaFrentz. A two-time All-American, the 6-foot-11 LaFrentz was the third name called.
Although still in the NBA, LaFrentz never really lived up to expectations after tearing an ACL early in his rookie year with the Denver Nuggets. But we need not shed a tear for him. LaFrentz is set for life, thanks to a seven-year, $70 million contract that won't expire until after the 2008-2009 season.
Meanwhile, Pierce appears well on his way to Celtics' immortality, and perhaps also on a path that would make him one of only a handful of former KU players in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
Now that Paul Pierce is hogging the headlines during the NBA Finals, it's possible he'll soon shed his second-rate status.
Pierce, a second-rater? Am I nuts?
Here is clearly one of the best players in professional basketball, a man who is paid a stratospheric $16 million plus per year, a man who probably could be elected mayor of Boston.
All of that may be true, yet Pierce remains only the second-best former Kansas University player to put on a Celtics uniform. Jo Jo White is still No. 1.
How many NBA championships have the Celtics won during Pierce's tenure? None. White, however, played on a couple of Boston title teams in the mid-1970s.
Has Pierce's jersey been retired in Beantown? No. But White's No. 10 is hanging from the rafters in the TD Banknorth Garden, the Celtics' home arena.
Memories of a player's skills diminish in direct proportion to the passage of years, and White played in his last NBA game nearly three decades ago. Yet White was just as important to the Celtics then as Pierce is to them now, if in a different context.
White was a guard noted for his speed, defense and floor acumen. He wasn't known as a scorer, but White did average a not-so-shabby 17.2 points a game during his 14-year NBA career. Pierce, meanwhile, is a points producer who averaged around 23 a game during the regular season.
White was also unusually durable. During a five-year stretch in the mid-70s, for instance, White played in all 82 of the Celtics' regular season games. Meanwhile, Pierce has been pretty durable, too. He missed nearly half the 2006-2007 season with an elbow injury, but otherwise has been an iron man during his decade in the NBA.
Curiously, both White and Pierce were taken at almost the same time in the NBA Draft. Back in 1969, the Celtics had the ninth pick in the first round and tapped White. Nearly 30 years later, the Celtics had the 10th pick and opted for Pierce.
You may recall that back in 1998 Pierce was expected to go higher than the 10th pick, but scouts downgraded him because they judged he was out of shape during the pre-draft camps. Shows you how much those pre-draft workouts mean, doesn't it?
Some thought Pierce might go as high as No. 2 that year, yet he slipped all the way to 10th. In retrospect, however, several quality players were taken ahead of him -- Mike Bibby, Antawn Jamison, Vince Carter and Dirk Nowitzki, to name a few. So it wasn't like the NBA teams considered Pierce chopped liver.
Also taken ahead of Pierce was former KU teammate Raef LaFrentz. A two-time All-American, the 6-foot-11 LaFrentz was the third name called.
Although still in the NBA, LaFrentz never really lived up to expectations after tearing an ACL early in his rookie year with the Denver Nuggets. But we need not shed a tear for him. LaFrentz is set for life, thanks to a seven-year, $70 million contract that won't expire until after the 2008-2009 season.
Meanwhile, Pierce appears well on his way to Celtics' immortality, and perhaps also on a path that would make him one of only a handful of former KU players in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
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