Boston 108, Charlotte 90

[recap] [box score]

I watched this game on League Pass Broadband in the basement of the law school, where the connection isn't great. The feed kept freezing and I never got a great feel for the rhythm of what was going on. We jumped on 'em early, though, and didn't really let up.

I did manage to catch Rasheed Wallace's antics, which included picking up a technical foul while walking to the bench, then yelling his trademark "Ball don't lie!" when Charlotte's Flip Murray missed the ensuing free throw. This was the third straight game that 'sheed's picked up a T, and its his eighth on the year after going his first four games in Boston without one. I believe he is now halfway to the 16-tech threshold, after which you start getting docked a game for each infraction.

As much as I like what Wallace brings to this team, I'm already tired of his act vis-a-vis the referees. He doesn't just argue with them; he actively antagonizes him. When he got rung up against Charlotte, it was after a play on which not he, but Marquis Daniels, was whistled for a foul. Though I didn't catch what he was saying at that particular moment, I earlier had heard him chastise an offical with a comment along the lines of "Wait for me to foul him before you blow that whistle." In other words, 'sheed was not arguing that he didn't foul the guy; rather, he was arguing that the call came too early.

There's only so much of this the refs can and will put up with. Even without 'sheed last year, we got a rep for woofing to our opponents and barking at the refs, and Wallace's behavior exacerbates that. To their credit, I haven't noticed the officials treating us more harshly because of all this, but it's not absurd to think that might happen. Moreover, we really don't want Wallace suspended when push comes to shove in the spring.