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recap] [
box score]
As some brave followers know, I took advantage of my new Twitter account to live-tweet last night's game. I thought it might be fun to re-post some of that commentary, with annotations. I realize this disincentivizes people from following these sessions, but what, as they say, ever.
So, here we go. Tweets in regular font, annotations in italics.
Welcome to the RwH livetweet of Cs-Wiz. No Oscar tie-ins, because I'm not clever enough. If you're following, say what's up.
And welcome to the RwH post-livetweet blog entry of Cs-Wiz! Still not clever enough for Oscar tie-ins.
Early, college-style TO from Flip just over a minute in. Are they ever effective in the NBA?
This after Boston went up 4-0 1:07 in. This would represent the largest lead the Celtics held all evening -- or, as we say on the West Coast, all afternoon.
Attn those with League Pass: Rockets-Piston tied in the final 20 seconds.
League Pass is awesome. Get it next year. Also, Detroit won.
25-19 bad guys after one. Andray Blatche killing us, but he has two fouls. KG 0-4. Need to get Ray and Rondo going offensively.
Blatche is a unique talent who has absolutely exploded since the trade-deadline departures of Antawn Jamison and Caron Butler. He displayed his soft touch on the midrange J, and he can put it on the floor. Think Lamar Odom, without the court vision. But a guy to build around in Washington, given the mess they've got there.
Garnett, by the way, finished 0-for-7 from the field, the first time he was held without a field goal since his rookie year -- January 27, 1996, to be exact.
Also, not to pat myself on the back too much, but the final sentence fragment of the above tweet would prove prescient. Stay tuned!
Robinson checking Boykins is both exactly the same and exactly the opposite as Scalabrine guarding SA's Matt Bonner.
I amuse myself greatly. ESPN's Dan Shulman was the first to point out that the listed 5-9 Nate Robinson would be matched up with the 5-5 Earl Boykins, but I took it to the next level by making the brilliant Scalabrine-Bonner analogy-slant-distinction. That's why you read me, folks.
This is the most we've seen from Perk offensively in a while. Should we credit Blatche's "defense"?
At the start of the year, Perkins looked greatly improved offensively, so much so that I didn't mind us feeding him the ball every now and then. He'd regressed the last several games, yet we were still going to him, which bugged me. But his ten points in the first half kept us in it yesterday.
JaVale McGee stuffs KG and the Captain in a span of like three possessions. One of my favorite underrated guys from the 2008 draft.
I love McGee, and have for a while (see the second item). I'm really excited to see what he can do now that Haywood is gone and he's the starting center by default in the nation's capital.
Folding laundry during halftime. Being an obscure Internet personality isn't as glamorous as it sounds. Back after halftime.
I'm not entirely sure what I did during halftime, because when I left my apartment this morning, half of my laundry was still in the basket. The other half is on my bed, having been poured there as I searched for a a pair of socks.
2 pts from Rondo at half. Need another 14-pt third quarter like the one he had after going scoreless in the 1st half against Philly on Fri.
Oh, yeah. I forgot to tell you. We beat the Sixers in Philadelphia on Friday.
Ten str8 pts from Ray followed by 7 str8 from Rondo. Nice to see guys stepping up after PP went to bench. Wizards by 4 after three.
The first signs of life from Boston on this night, erased by a terrible start to the fourth quarter, thanks to a bench that shot 3-for-21 for the game. But wait! There's more!
Glen Davis has GOT to stop trying to score in the post against taller guys who are good shotblockers. This has been a trend.
This isn't really fair of me, because I'm always criticizing Baby for wanting to play outside. But he really lacks the knack for scoring that shorter post players need to be effective (see San Antonio's DaJuan Blair, for the most recent example). Davis needs to either learn to score among the trees, or to kick the ball out more.
With that said, he's doing great work on the offensive glass. And he was definitely fouled on that last possession.
If I'm going to criticize the guy, I have to praise him when he deserves it, too. Davis was very active yesterday. But an offensive rebound goes only so far if the putback gets swatted.
79-66 Washington, 6:10 remaining. Put up or shut up time, but there's not a whole lot to be hopeful about.
Whoops. Who needs hope when you have Ray Allen? /foreshadowing
An Allen jam on the fast break makes it 79-72 with 4:39 left. This also led to a brief discussion about the origins of "Send it in!" which led me to Youtube, where I spent half an hour after the game watching college basketball highlight videos. I love March.
And one! This game is there for the taking, even though we don't deserve it.
A Rondo drive makes it 81-79. Thirteen second-half points for Rondo, by the way.
A lot of stuff just happened, incl us taking our 1st lead since the 1st Q, but bottom line is that we've got the ball, down 1, 27 secs left.
"A lot of stuff" included Rondo missing the free throw, a scramble on the rebound, Perk grabbing the loose ball, Ray draining a three as the building went crazy, and then Randy Foye answering on the other end with an icy-cold jumper.
I'd bet a lot of money on this being an iso for Pierce. If it's not, it'll be a three for Ray.
Not that this took a lot expertise. We're sooooooooo predicatble in these spots. I don't know why Doc likes getting Ray open for a three when we're only down one, but he does.
1/3 screen-roll with Ray curling off a screen on the weak side. His three ball is wet. Boston by 2. One more stop and we've stolen one.
Told ya.
The final tweets just narrate the final few plays:
Blatche short on a fadeaway. Pretty good look. Rebound OOB off Washington. 6.3 seconds left, Boston ball.
Rondo had Robinson wide open in the backcourt, but was too focused on Pierce. Would've killed some time. KG at the line to seal it.
KG misses the first. Hits the second. I say foul here, up 3. No timeouts for Washignton [sic].
Boston doesn't foul, Al Thornton leaves a decent look at a triple short. Six minutes of defense is enough to beat the Wizards, apparently.
***
So that's that. It was actually a lot of fun, and I plan on doing it again sometime. Any opportunity I have to be self-indulgent, I take. And I'll probably use my Twitter account for basketball-related thoughts (college and professional) in the future, so follow me if you're into that sort of thing.
Boston's got kind of a tough week. It starts at Milwaukee tomorrow. The Bucks are 9-2 after the All-Star break, including a win on Saturday against LeBron-less Cleveland. We beat them by nine in December, but we were 17-4 at the time and they were 9-11. A lot has changed since then, and the 33-29 Bucks seem firmly ensconced as a playoff team.
We then return home to face Memphis on Wednesday. We won a close game in the first matchup in December, a game I didn't get a chance to watch because it was during final exams. Memphis us an up-and-down team, but they have a lot of talent, a few wins over top teams, and a number of tight losses to the league's elite.
Friday we host Indiana, and then we have a showdown in Cleveland with the Cavs on Sunday (3:30 p.m. Eastern on ABC).
