The Celtics are 2-1 to the Atlanta Hawks after Saturday night’s loss.
They haven’t really played all out dominating basketball yet in this series. For two games there wasn’t a reason to. The 3rd game got away from them because the Hawks played at such a high level. Try as they might, they couldn’t stay ahead of the Predatory Birds and had their very first difficult moments of the play-offs. They expressed frustration with each other, which is unusual.
Paul Pierce has been the consummate team player and even led the Cs with 8 assists in the last game. In the play-offs, he is hitting from the arc at a solid 53.3% and is 2nd in the East in made threes at 2.7 per game. He is 2nd on the Celtics in average with 15.7 points per game (behind Garnett’s 22.3) and in only 32.5 minutes a game. He took a very hard foul when Josh Smith landed on his head and he just got up and played. Paul has been having a very good series.
There has been some discussion about Horford’s finger pointing and trash talking at Pierce after he made the final basket in the game Saturday.
I understand the unwritten rules about rookies and stars. I understand why it’s a big deal to some that Horford did that. But I also know Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and a few other Celtics are prone to running some quality trash talk themselves during most games. Rookies, they are
not.
So I understand the breach of etiquette. But the NBA in particular is the most talkative sport, by far, of the three major team sports. David Stern even made a pointed effort to get politicking to the refs after every foul call minimized. It has improved. But almost everybody talks in this league.
I even read that Paul may have said or done a few things before that, and Horford was just responding when the game was appropriately in the bag. So, I find it much ado about very little.
Pierce and the rest of the Cs should use it for motivation. I expect that they will. Yes, Al Horford should have gotten a technical for taunting or whatever they call it, if that is the rule.
But I’m not worried about it. Talk doesn’t decide basketball games. Performance does. I wish they would all just keep quiet and play. But the fans do get into it, and everyone pays attention to it, due to the conflict it reflects, that is going on on the court. Even John McEnroe made talking a part of his tennis game and he was loved and hated for it.
I don’t think Doc will watch game film of trash talking to make sure they get it right. The Celtics already do that almost as well as they play basketball. In fact, I’d like to see a players vote of the top trash talking teams in the league. I believe the Cs would be in the top 5, and maybe higher.
But going forward, they should retaliate by their performance. I expect that they will.
