Just time for a few observations, as I'm catching a flight in 3 hours... -If we can score 109 points with Ricky not having the touch tonight and Paul in serious foul trouble most of the night, its great to think how good we could be when they get re-aquainted. -Toine: only 2 three-point attempts. I like it, but I don't expect that to happen too often . -Speaking of Ricky, great job to keep himself in the game going to the free throw line. Sign of a great player to get in the game any way he can. -The Jazz do all the little stuff well: cut, screen, block out, work over picks. Thats the mark of a Jerry Sloan team. -One of the great things about 'Toine: after Pierce picked up his forth foul and started to sulk on the bench, Walker went over after the first free throw just to tell him to keep his head up. Thats the kind of thing I was worried wouldn't happen after GP left. -Kendrick Perkins: DNP-CD. I hope thats not the trend, cause he showed me something the last couple of weeks. -I still want GP to come back, but if he's not, I'm much more relaxed after watching the young guns tonight. If West can play like that in all his starts, we're in great shape. -Delonte does have homework before Phoenix: working over screens. The C's were getting killed when he had to take the big man on the switch all night. -They say it's because of Red, but I think that as long as Tony Allen is on the team the Celtics know they have no need for Cheerleaders. Good win, great to see Toine back in green. Here's hoping they can get some momentum with a long homestand looming...
Antoine Walker was pretty impressive tonight. he kept going into the game and he was basically toying with Kirenlinko, with his pump fakes and spin moves. Delonte West does have a problem on D, he was guarding Jaron Collins/Matt Hapring/ Andrei Kirenlinko on quite a few possesions, and was basically out-muscled.
'Toine was a machine tonight. Good thing too. A little Twany, Twan, 'Toine... Exerpt: <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Big Al Jefferson opened the scoring in the 2nd with a big dunk to keep the C's close at 31-28 with 10:46 left. He then went down on the block to score with a soft hook and then again with a short, straight on floater in the paint. With 8:12 remaining, the C's trail 33-32. Jefferson was displaying some nice back to the basket work. For a rookie, I love his footwork. Marcus Banks (MB) had a nice open court steal and layup score to see the Celtics now ahead 36-33 with 7:50 remaining. I know I'm not supposed to chastize the opposing announcers, but would they please stop calling Mark Blount, Corey Blunt. I mean once is an acceptable slip, but it's happened at least 3 times already. The Jazz pretty much just kept plugging away, passing the ball and finding scoring opportunities. The score got close and lead changes were frequent. Delonte pulled up for a long jumper from just inside the arc and the C's took the lead back 41-40. PP got nasty on Andrei Kirilenko (AK47) in the paint and threw down a fierce turn around dunk. However, AK47 returned the favor with a 3pter on the other end and with 3:35 to go in the half, the Jazz lead again 44-43. Antoine got to the hoop with a short drive to make it 47-46 with 2:15 remaining. McLeod then left his mark on the half by hitting a 3pter with :36 secs left and then going strong to the hole and getting to the line and making 1 of 2. At the half: 55-49 Jazz.</div>
