Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Celtics 112 Heat 106 (ot)

6 Thoughts

1) It was a good game; both teams played hard.

2) It was a good game; both teams played hard.

3) It was a good game; both teams played hard.

4) It was a good game; both teams played hard.

5) It was a good game; both teams played hard.

6) Okay, I can't do it like Rasheed...When you lose a game in large part because with a minute to go in a tie game at home against one of the best teams in basketball, Paul Pierce receives an inbounds pass 25 feet from the basket, and swings around and inadvertently catches the motionless Quentin Richardson in the jaw with an elbow, knocking QRich to the ground, and the only two possible calls are an offensive foul on Pierce, or no call at all, and Leon Wood, who played in the NBA approximately a hundred years ago and should know better, calls a foul on Richardson, and the fairly level-headed Q gets up and disputes the call, without histrionics, and then another referee, Courtney Kirkland, who didn't make the original horrific call against QRich and thus really has no involvement in the matter whatsoever, gives Q a technical from 25 feet away, both calls essentially costing the Heat three points in a tie game, and then on the ensuing possession, Rasheed Wallace, who has led the NBA in technical fouls for the better part of the past half-century, fouls out in a scrum under the basket in which he attempted to pull Udonis Haslem's arm out of its socket, and he goes wild, stomping out to midcourt screaming expletives at the top of his lungs, and no technical foul is called, and even after the other Celtics shepherd him to the bench, and the very, very white Brian Scalabrine is attempting calm him down, and Sheed is still screaming expletives over the top of Scalabrine - how do we know this? Because you could hear him on tv - and there is still no technical, and then the game comes down to the last play, and Miami, instead of winning by the 1, 2, or 3 points they got raked out of, ends up tied and in overtime, and then loses in overtime, I mean, that's a tough, tough way to lose a game. And basketball is just for fun and all, but, honestly, that didn't seem like much fun. And by the way, Sheed's screaming shouldn't have been a technical - but neither should Q's. Referees deciding games sucks. Oh, one more thing: if I told you that the Heat lost a game tonight because a referee gave an incredibly bizarre technical foul in the last minute of the game, and Joey Crawford was one of the three referees on the court, how certain would you have been that Joey Crawford was the ref who gave the incredibly bizarre technical foul? 100 percent, or 101 percent? I mean, he challenged Tim Duncan to a fight. During a game. While Duncan was sitting on the bench. And got summarily fired. And then, somehow, rehired...This is the spot where I would normally make the Gilbert Arenas gun joke about the referees, but I'll refrain, since I already have a $25,000 fine coming from the league office...Ahh, well, it was a good game, and both teams did play hard. Love that Sheed!

On the road for 19 of the next 24. Uh oh. See you Friday in PHX!

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