Game 2 Tonight

Ok, gang. As was the case last year, the first couple of rounds of the playoffs coincide with my final exam period. As a result, my posting to RwH will be sporadic, untimely, and brief. Hopefully, you'll be watching the games anyway.

So, we won Game 1 against the Heat, a strange contest which saw us down 14 points five minutes in to the third quarter, then close the game on a 38-15 run -- yes, we held them to 15 points over the final 19 minutes. I was a little distracted during the game and so I can't say for sure if the Heat's extended cold-spell was a product of 2008-style defense from the Cs or just poor shooting. It's probably a bit of both, to be honest. I will point out two things, however. First, in at least one of my recaps of a regular season game against the Heat this year, I noted that Miami missed a bunch of open looks, so there's some precedent there when these two teams get together. Second, back when we were really locking people down during the championship run, the whole defense was basically predicated on making teams take jump shots, including relatively good looks for the right guys. So while Miami may have been a touch uncharacteristically cold, there are signs that our defense played a big part in that.

Boston tries to do it again tonight at 8 p.m. Eastern on TNT. Unfortunately, they'll be without Kevin Garnett, who had 15 points and nine rebounds on Saturday night before getting ejected with 40 seconds left.

Of all the reports I've read and heard of the skirmish that led to KG being assessed two techs and being shown the door, they haven't been terribly consistent, so let me try to sum up the incident the way I saw it, with the unnecessary disclaimer that I tend to view things through green-tinted glasses: Paul Pierce went down with a shoulder injury on the Miami sideline; Quentin Richardson (with whom Pierce has a very testy history) came over to the sideline; KG nudged him with an elbow; the two started jawing (or perhaps continued jawing); Udonis Haslem and Glen Davis got involved; someone (I think Jamaal Magloire) grabbed KG from behind; Garnett, with his back to Richardson, swung his arms to break free of Magloire and hit Q with the elbow that earned him a seat on the bench (or in the locker room, since KG famously hates sitting on the bench when he can't play) for tonight's game.

Truthfully, I don't have any quarrel with the suspension. I expected it, although I thought it was possible the NBA would give him a reprieve since it really didn't look to me that Garnett actively sought out Richardson with the elbow. I agree, however, that you can't swing those 'bows and then complain about the consequences when one of them lands. (And for the record, KG hasn't complained; he's seemed resigned to this fate since after Saturday's game.) I do have a little bit of beef with Magloire, mainly because wrapping up the other guy is the dumbest way to break up a fight. You want to go after a guy to calm him down, you grab the guy who is wearing the same color jersey as you are.

Garnett's getting absolutely ripped for all of this. The Bulls Joakim Noah accused him of being a dirty player. Ball Don't Lie's Kelly Dwyer all but called him a coward. It seems that Garnett's intensity, confidence, constant yapping, and refusal to back down -- traits almost everyone loved when KG was toiling in Minnesota and transforming Boston back into a championship contender --have grown tiresome now that his knees have let him down a bit and he can't always back up that talk. Frankly, this doesn't make any sense to me, but whatever. I don't really care to get into a debate at this point about Garnett. I still like him, but you don't have to like him to cheer for his team -- and if you're not cheering for his team, then I'm pretty sure he doesn't give a damn about what you think of him.

I'm going to sort of take the high road here and not go off on what a punk I think Q is. Whoops. Okay, maybe I won't. Q's a punk. Always has been. If we are down on Garnett for not adjusting his swagger to fit his declining game, why don't we hate on Richardson for always talking a much bigger game than he was capable of playing? Relative to other NBA players, he's accomplished basically nothing, but he still thinks it's cool to walk over and taunt an apparently-injured player? (I am soooooo tired of talking about the accusations that Pierce embellishes injuries -- a hot topic here in LA -- that I'm not going to address it here.) Maybe we don't say anything about Q precisely because he's not one of the game's stars, but that doesn't change the bottom line, which is that, on the court at least, he's a punk.

Anyway, the bottom line is that if we're going to preserve our home-court advantage, we'll have to do it without KG. There is some precedent here, as Boston's win in Miami in January came when Garnett was out with an injury. Rasheed Wallace started in that one, but -- at least according to Kendrick Perkins -- Davis is getting the nod tonight, probably due to a combination of his inspired play in Game 1 and Wallace's general ineffectiveness. Boston has played 13 games with Garnett this year (and, of course, they didn't have him at all in the playoffs last year) so they're used to coping without him. At the same time, this edition of the team went 6-7 without him in the lineup, so there's reason for concern. Hopefully Rajon Rondo has sufficiently recovered from whatever sickness he was battling on Saturday to bring a little bit of extra spark that we'l be missing.

Boston 110, New York 101

Stagnant, pre-Big Three-style fourth-quarter offense made this one closer than it should have been, but it's nice to win a game over a decent team without KG -- and without Paul Pierce having to play Superman.

[recap] [box score]

Quick hit thoughts:

-I'm the first to criticize Brian Scalabrine, so I should give him some praise when he actually plays well. Starting in place of the suspended Kevin Garnett, Scal contributed, and not just with Scal contributions like rebounds and fouls. He actually hit three jumpers, two at the end of the third quarter, and the game-icer late in the fourth. He hasn't exactly earned all the money we've given him, but it's nice to see he has a good game in him once in a while.

-The bench played great in the second quarter; so great, in fact, that unless I'm mistaken, Pierce and Rajon Rondo sat the entire period. Particularly high marks go to Leon Powe, who I think got all 14 of his points in the second, mostly against everyone's favorite backup power forward, David Lee. Eddie House actually did some point guard-type stuff, including a few nice assists on fast breaks. I believe that the bench players hit their first ten field goal attempts. It helps, of course, that the Knicks have no interest whatsoever in playing defense.

-Nice to see Kendrick Perkins play as aggressively and as well as he did. The Knicks are basically playing without a center, and for all his offensive limitations, Perkins can score over guys like Lee and Zach Randolph. He even channeled KG a few times: hitting a wide-open Rondo for an easy layup; running the pinch post play with Rondo for another easy assist; and then a three-possession stretch where he kicked it out to Pierce for a three, blocked Wilson Chandler on the other end, and then hit an eight-foot turnaround bank shot over his right shoulder on the left side of the court. Not sure where it comes from, but I'll take it whenever we can get it.

-Defense wasn't great tonight, but the Knicks did only shoot 43 percent, and they're a team that likes to push the ball and put pressure on your defense. Considering we were without our best defensive player, I think we acquitted ourselves pretty well on that end.

-Even in victory, I'm not sparing Tony Allen. Tonight's example that he simply has no feel for the game of basketball: Up 12 early in the fourth, Tony gets the ball, wide-open, 17 feet from the basket, with two seconds left on the shotclock. This isn't exactly his shot, and he's been criticized for being a little selfish this year, but this is a time where no one would complain if he put it up. Instead, he kicks it to Glen Davis, 19 feet from the basket at the other elbow, who can barely catch the ball before the shot clock expires.

You can almost see what's going through Tony's head during plays like this: "I'm open, and the shotclock is running down, but Coach told me not to take so many jumpers. Baby's open. I'll pass it to him and show everyone that I'm not selfish."

Generally speaking, good basketball players "get it." There are obviously different degrees of this, but most good basketball players at least show a modicum of savvy about the game. Tony doesn't.

-Last thing: Does everyone on the Knicks have to be a punk now? This post from the weekend mentions the Jamal Crawford-Ray Allen skirmish from last preseason. It also mentions the Crawford-Pierce double ejection last MLK Day, but that was as much Pierce's fault as it was Crawford's. But it's not just Crawford. Nate Robinson is like the quintessential guy who shows up at the playground who no one wants to play with. Always complaining about a foul, always looking for a fight. Some might say it's a short-man thing, but being of rather diminutive stature myself, I'm not going to go there. Randolph started something with Powe in the first half tonight that led to double techs. Later, Randolph had words for Pierce for no discernible reason.

Those guys have always had that edge, though. What surprised me tonight was watching Chris Duhon drain a wide-open three, then turn and say something to the Celtics bench. He hit another wide-open three later, and again was talking smack.

Hey, Chris, I know you're not very used to hitting jumpers, but there's a reason we're letting you shoot: Compared to your average NBA guard, you suck at shooting. Talk all you want; we're not sending anyone out to guard you, because we don't think you can beat us -- and guess what? We're right?

Is this what happens when you let Isiah Thomas near a franchise? Everyone -- even Chris Duhon -- becomes a jerk? You're in the house of the defending champions, fellas, and the champs whipped you four times last year. You also play on a team that, despite a good start this year, has been the laughingstock of the league for the previous couplefew seasons. I'm not saying you have to genuflect, but maybe you shut up long enough to win a game.

EDIT: After I made this post, I saw this Ball Don't Lie post, which refers to this Boston.com blog post, which refers to some interesting post-game comments from Quention Richardson. Okay, Q.