Monday, March 15, 2010

Boston 119, Detroit 93

[recap] [box score]

No matter how often I see it, I'm not sure I'll ever quite get used to the unshakable confidence of professional athletes. One day after a definitive and potentially demoralizing loss to the Cavs, the Celtics came out and knocked Detroit on its ass in the first quarter, jumping out to a 31-15 lead after one and cruising from there.

ESPN's broadcast team made a couple of big picture points I'd like to briefly address. The first was that perhaps the Celtics were "back." Indeed, there were many traces of the brand of basketball we grew accustomed to in the past two seasons; intensity, stifling defense, hot shooting, sharing the ball, offensive rhythm, and swagger. To that, I caution against getting carried away. Detroit is every bit as bad as its 23-44 record. and they were down a couple of starters to injury even before Tayshaun Prince left afer seven minutes after colliding with Jason Maxiell. Boston should be blowing teams like this out.

The second thing is that at one point, someone remarked that the five Celtics on the floor were playing like "five Anderson Varejaos," referring to the Cavs' energetic backup center who has given us a lot of trouble. And it's true; Boston looked a lot more energetic Monday than they have in a while. But this, too, is concerning. Where was that energy yesterday against Cleveland?Traditionally, great teams get up for big games and sometimes fall asleep against inferior competition. In the last two days, the Celtics have done the opposite. Boston hasn't shown championship-level focus and intensity in a game against an elite team in quite a while. These types of performances against the Detroits of the league are luxuries; against the Clevelands and Orlandos and LAs, they are necessities.

Next game is Wednesday, at home against the Knicks. Then it starts to get tough; three games in four days in Houston, Dallas, and Utah, followed by a home date with Denver.

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