6 Thoughts
1) Elimination game, on the road, against the very powerful and very real force of doucheball, and errrry-body's already got you dead and buried - so what do you do? Give the ball to KJ James in the mid-post and: Get. Out. Of. The. Way...BALL SO HARD, BOY, BALL SO HARD!!! LIVE TO FIGHT ONE MORE DAY, KJ, CUZ YOU BALL SO HARDDD!!! LET'S GOOO!!!
2) 45, 15, and 5. On 19-26! He played the first 45 minutes without coming out. Mid-post jumper. Mid-post jumper. Mid-post spin to baseline jumper. Mid-post jumper. Rim attack layup. Mid-post jumper. Triple. Mid-post jumper. All night, from the mid-post. 30 in the first half. Even made a turnaround jumper while Rajon Rondo intentionally poked him in the nuts with his disgusting talons in the third quarter. Look, 45, 15, and 5 in a playoff game isn't that unusual: Wilt Chamberlain once did it in 1964. All day long I felt bad for this kid: he just had one of the best regular seasons of all-time. He was great against New York in the first round, phenomenal against Indiana in the second round, and he's been great in this series. Bosh is hurt, they are still getting pretty much nothing from him. Dwyane's been erratic. Through it all, KJ just plays hard, doesn't complain to refs, doesn't trash-talk his opponents even though he takes as many cheap shots up high as any player in the league (besides maybe Dwight Howard) - he's a super-solid, professional dude, he's not some sour-faced, complaining punk like Derrick Rose, or a self-aggrandizing "look at me" social deviant like Rajon Rondo. He just plays, and he compliments the other team win or lose - is it that hard for other guys to just act professional like KJ? And, still, all anyone wants to do is take a dump on his head. F*ck errrry-body else, KJ: just ball so hard. Feel good for you tonight, boy...
3) Basketball is supposed to be a team sport. But KJ won this game, pretty much, by himself. I mean, Dwyane Wade played well for about 2 minutes at the beginning of the 4th quarter when the lead ballooned to 20, which was pretty much ballgame. But the rest of the night, he looked stuck in mud. Almario Vernard Chalmers made three triples, and UD battled his way to 9 boards in 23 minutes. Bosh played 28 minutes, and I thought he was a little more aware defensively than he was in his first game back, but he still clearly doesn't have his legs, and probably won't until next season. Boston played really poorly - when you are an aging team, some nights you just aren't going to have it, and they didn't tonight. It was that, and KJ (sidenote: KJ is really, really getting balder by the day - as a balding man myself, I love it!). That was the game. Ball so hard, KJ...
4) How to ref: in the first quarter, Brandon Bass posted up Shane Battier, caught a pass, and as he often does, bulldogged Battier backwards with a shoulder. As he stepped to the rim to shoot, Battier came back at him and bumped him back. Bass missed the shot. So, so often, referees let the offensive player push, but not the defensive player - 99% of the time, this play is called a foul. But referee Danny Crawford, right there in perfect position, let them play on. Great job, Danny Crawford - if you are going to let the offensive player push to create space, it's only fair to let the defender bump back...How not to ref: two different times in this game, Crawford's partner, Tony Brothers, who is consistently weak, stood two feet away from Rajon Rondo, watched him dribble the ball into Almario Vernard Chalmers' chest, rock his head back, and both times Brothers called a foul on Almario Vernard Chalmers. Dude, call what you see, not the reaction. You couldn't have seen Almario Vernard Chalmers foul Rondo, because he didn't, either time. You're calling Rondo's reaction, you're getting suckered by a dude flopping - and you're two feet away. By the way, not saying those calls only went one way tonight - those were just two examples. You've got to take a little more pride in your job, you have to do a little bit better job of recognizing what is going on around you. It is a tough enough game to call as it is - can't base your calls on how players react. You have to trust your eyes, you have to call what you see...
5) In the third quarter, with the Celtics having a rough night, and KJ James balling so hard, Kevin Garnett made a layup, caught the ball after it went through the net (already illegal and annoying), zipped the ball with purpose into Shane Battier's chest, then ran away from him (st-st-studio gangster act). Technical foul. "Doc Rivers wants an explanation for the t," surmised ABC play-by-play announcer Mike Breen (don't know how he differentiated Doc Rivers' endless whining on every play from wanting a specific explanation for this one call). Really? At this late juncture in their time together, Doc Rivers still requires an explanation for a play like that from Kevin Garnett? Is that even remotely possible? Before I could say it, before I could even think it, M.Minutos gave Rivers the explanation herself: "Doucheball." ... Other reports from the Land de la Douche: fans getting into the act! One fan threw a ball that had landed in the stands and hit Dwyane Wade in the head. Another fan tried to dump a drink - I'm guessing maybe alcoholic - on KJ James as he left the court. Most of them bailed at the 7 minute mark of the fourth quarter with the Heat up 20+. The remaining 2,000 drunken, angry gingies stayed till the end of game, half-heartedly chanted "Let's Go Celtics" in the waning moments, then probably went outside and looked for random gay or black dudes to hassle. I went to school in this city, by the way, and absolutely love it - this isn't a criticism, just how it is. Doucheball gonna do what doucheball gonna do. You know...
6) Interesting fact about me: I have never, ever, not even for one second, been inside a limousine.
---
Well, one downside of this stirring victory is the excruciating loss we will probably take Saturday night in Game 7 back here in Miami when KJ goes to his weird, little passive space in his head, and Ray Allen and Paul Pierce combine for 17 triples and 71 points. That's not going to be fun at all. Still, that is what being a fan is all about: extreme and absolute agony. If you need me before then, I'll be seeing if any of the teenagers on my street are going to prom - I'm going to give someone fifty bucks to drive me around the block in their limo. Ball so hard!
-----
