Paul Pierce will rip your heart out.
by Holly MacKenzie / @stackmack
Awesome. Just awesome. So awesome. That was awesome.
That was the extent of an im conversation I had with a fellow beat writer last night during the Celtics/Bulls insta-classic Game 4. Two of the chattiest, wordiest, loudest people in Toronto and we were reduced to throwing the word awesome back and forth for upwards of an hour. Honestly, this series is amazing.
Awesome, amazing, whatever the hell you want to call it, it’s fun.
Three overtime games out of five, one double-overtime. Ray Allen fouled out of this one, and while there is no KG, there is still a guy named Paul Pierce. With the shine that’s been surrounding Rondo, I slipped up and forgot. Until he drilled jumper after jumper after jumper to close out the game.
Ben Gordon also was playing with one good leg. I’m a little bit worried about that gimpy, strained hamstring when it comes to Thursday and Game 6. Playing 50+ minutes really hurts when they don’t get the W. BG continued to shoot and shoot and shoot. Shooting himself into it while appearing to shoot the Bulls out of it, then BAM, the guy would knock down the most ridiculous shot of the night. Then do it again a few plays later.
He’s crazy.
Twitter of the night came from our boy @russbengtson: “Ben Gordon is playing h-o-r-s-e with God“
And the response from Ben Collins via im: “While Jesus watches from the bench“
(Allen had fouled out at that point).
I love the SLAM-fam. I love these playoffs.
I don’t love seeing Tim Duncan look absolutely shellshocked as he watches the clock wind down and realizes he is going down in the first round for the first tme in his career. Yes, this is a first-time, first-round exit for a healthy TD. I went through this with an editor last week. The Spurs went down in 2000 in the first round (to the Suns), but TD was out with a torn lateral meniscus.
Not a bad run for Timmy, hey? It still hurt.
It was fun to see Josh Howard play well. Terry and Barea are fun as well. How does Barea get one rebound let alone five?
Dwight = suspended for Game 6? Could it be? If we listen to the TNT and NBATV crew, it should be. If you missed it, Howard threw a nasty little elbow at Sam Dalembert. It was a pretty hard hit and I’m surprised he wasn’t tossed from the game. The Magic got the W in this one as Dwight had 10 offensive rebounds and 24 total. That’s monstrous.
Dalembert wasn’t the only one with an elbow from Dwight. Courtney Lee fell victim to an errant Dwight elbow and had to be taken to the hospital for cautionary tests. Not sure on his status for Game 6.
Portland pulled out the W at home, so happy to see that for the Blazer-faithful!
B. Roy had a three over Shane Battier that was one of the prettiest shots I’d seen all night. Then, he goes at Yao and hits a floater over him and it was beautiful. Why can’t he be aggressive every single time down the floor? He’s too good to be passive.
Seeing JJ Redick on the floor for a playoff game still surprises me.
We’ve got MIA/ATl tonight and I’m praying for a healthy Dwyane Wade. I want a good game guys, no more crazy runs while the other team goes into a drought, lets pick up where C’s/Bulls left off.
New Olreans/Denver. Yeah. Unless Chris Paul scores 58 points I don’t see this series going beyond tonight. Maybe I’m wrong. I hope so. I’m just thankful I’m not liveblogging this one. That game was in my nightmares last night. Horrrrr-i-ble.
Okay, that’s enough from me today. Tell me your thoughts on last night.
I posted this on Twitter yesterday, but wanted to link to it here as well.
This is love:
Gets me every time.
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