Having just got back from sitting in a sea of Bucks fans 6 rows up at the Bradley Center, I've got to say the following (and I'm sorry if this repeats anything anyone else said):
1.) Moore actually looked really solid out there. He was hitting the shots he needed to hit, rotating well defensively (though he wasn't perfect in that respect) and doing a hell of a lot more on the court than I expected him to do.
2.) I wasn't crazy about Marbury before I saw him today, but now? I HATE him. There were at least 5 occasions in the second half (I stopped counting after a while) where all he had to do was just turn around and face the guy and he would have disrupted the play perfectly. It wasn't even that he hogged the ball (though I admit a couple of his baskets had me wincing); it was that he would over-dribble and put himself in a corner where he couldn't pass out of it. Putting him in at SG is a terrible idea; either he is a PG, or he rides the bench. He and Rondo can't be out there together.
3.) Pierce was struggling far too much today. I think he reverted a bit into his "I've got to carry the team" mode from pre-GPA days, and I think he took more than a few shots where, had he passed it out after drawing the double, he could have found an open man. I'd have liked to see him get House and Allen more involved in the game, though I concede neither of those two were knocking it down all that well.
4.) What can I say? Perk kept us in the game for most of it. He ran his mouth a bit too much, and he went ice-cold for a stretch during the second quarter, but the Bucks didn't have much of an answer for him all game.
5.) I knew the Celts would miss KG, but I didn't realize how much their defense suffered without him. It was like the team was playing JV out there; that Mbah-a-Moute dunk down the lane should NEVER have happened. They just looked incredibly sloppy on defense, and I honestly believe they could have won if it wasn't for the 3 or 4 consecutive lapses they had in the third quarter. But when you keep leaving Ridnour et al. wide open on the arc to take threes, you're going to lose.
6.) Even though most of the calls were going the Celtics' way, I have to be honest: the officiating was TERRIBLE. I was astounded. They were calling traveling violations on both teams at random points completely unrelated to whether there actually WAS traveling. Plus, the refs were ignoring Pierce and Perkins getting slammed in the face while calling fouls on Bucks players for just being within a foot or two of a Celtic (and I'm talking about the kind of phantom foul calls that even die-hard Celtic fans have to begrudgingly admit are ridiculous). If the NBA doesn't get this reffing system fixed, and I mean pronto, people are going to start viewing the NBA like the WWF.
Those are my thoughts. Also, as off-topic as this is, I'm asking those of you who are reading this to keep my buddy who was supposed to go with me today in your thoughts. I had two seats today, and I missed the tip-off and the first 2 1/2 minutes of the first because I was sitting there calling my buddy's cell phone and waiting outside his place for him to get out. Finally, at 10 minutes before tip-off (I live on a back route to the Bradley Center) I gave up and just drove in to the arena to watch the game solo. It wasn't until my drive back that I got a text from a mutual friend telling me that my buddy had gotten jacked last night on his way home from the bar, had all his money and his phone taken, and had just gotten out of the hospital at around 2 p.m. CST today to go home and rest. I stopped at his place en route to home, and luckily he's got no broken bones or anything, but they worked him over pretty good. So, yeah; not a lot of joy here for me today.
Topic: Celtics (50-16) at Bucks (30-38) 3/15 (Read 51438 times)