Detroit Shock

I wasn’t at all stunned that the Celtics won the game against the Pistons, but I was pretty surprised how the outcome of the game was determined. Oh, you don’t agree that things were more than a little off last night? Well, let’s take a look at some possible headlines from after the game that, if you read before, you might not believe.

ALLEN SHUTS DOWN HAMILTON IN C’S VICTORY

Okay, I guess this one would have been believable before the game. Except we are talking about Ray Allen and not Tony Allen. That’s right, Ray Allen didn’t score a point for three quarters, but kept the Pistons leading scorer, in Rip Hamilton, at bay for most of the game. Ray set the tone with a sharp elbow to Hamilton's throat that would make Van Damme jealous. That’s right, folks, he knows Karate! So what if he couldn’t make a shot? You try chasing Rip around the court for 38 minutes and see what kind of legs you have left for a jumper.

Speaking of Rip and Ray, did anyone else catch the comment from Donny Marshall before the game that previewed their on-court scuffle? Marshall, Allen, and Hamilton all being former UConn Huskies, Marshall said that in the summer workouts, Rip and Ray never showed up to ball together. Translations...they F-ing hate eachother. Who knew? This is the insight that has me coming around on the Marshall report.

GARNETT, WALLACE SHINE IN SHOOTOUT

Okay so it wasn’t exactly a shoot out. But how many of the talking heads hyping this game for the past few days foresaw a scoring duel between Kevin Garnett and a limping Rasheed Wallace? That would be zero. All the talk was about Chauncey Billups and Rajon Rondo, and the dominating defense of both squads, but down the stretch, the game came down to stopping Rasheed Wallace in the post. Do you think that defensive game plan was on the chalk board before the game? Me neither. Stop Hamilton. Sure. Limit the 3-pointers. Probably. Try and contain Billups. Absolutely. But Sheed? Come on. Who knew that keeping the Pistons center under 30 points would be crucial to a Celtics victory.

FOUR TECHNICALS CALLED, ZERO ON RASHEED WALLACE

Well it wasn’t like Sheed wasn’t trying. On a couple of iffy-at-best calls Rasheed went into his usual theatrical curse-laden tirades, but the refs surprisingly gave the big feller the benefit of the doubt. Most likely because the calls were pretty bad to begin with. Or maybe they were just busy T-ing up the real bad apples in the league. Like Ray Allen and Chauncey Billups. Those JERKS!

HEINSOHN PRAISES REFEREES, RETRACTS

I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard Tommy agree that the game was one of the best officiated games so far this season. I thought I’d caught that 24-hour flu in the NBA and was hallucinating. What made it all the more hilarious was when five minutes later he retracted his statement and swore he’d never commend a referee again. That was classic.

Speaking of the 24-hour NBA flu, how is it that this thing has passed through almost every NBA team already? The basketball is the only thing these guys should be sharing. I’m just saying.

PERKINS GETS 20 AND 10, OUTSCORES ALLEN

This may even be believable, except that the 20 are rebounds and the 10 are points. Perk had more rebounds, 20, than Pierce and Allen had total points, 18. It’s funny that I decided to write about Perk the other day, and the next game he has a game that leaves me even more confused about how I feel about his game. Some people might say that Wednesday’s game against the Pistons was one of Perkins’ best. I would have to say it was his most frustrating to watch as fan. Perk dominated the glass, there is no question about it. But he also dropped another handful of easy passes for easy shots, caused three defensive three second calls, resulting in technicals, and took line drive hook shots that had no shot of going in. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll take it 20 boards and 10 points, hey, I’ll even take 10 and 10, but can we get someone to teach him to catch a pass. Everytime he’s wide open under the basket he turns into Featherstone from “Necessary Roughness”. I can’t take it anymore.

One thing that was no surprise was the intensity in the building and on the court. I know you’ve heard and read it a thousand time, but that game really did take on a playoff feel. It is no wonder that the game played out as surprising as it did. In the playoffs you win any way you can. Role players step up. Young players step in. Everyone does whatever it takes to get the win and to move on. The Celtics stepped up to a big test and played like a playoff team on Wednesday against Detroit. So maybe it wasn’t all that shocking after all.

Three things I thought while rewinding my DVR to watch Rondo bang on Maxiell…