Celtics Manage a Win in Game 2 without Rajon Rondo

The Celtics were without Rajon Rondo for Tuesday night's Game 2 of the first round of the NBA playoffs.  Boston fans were tense, with the early exit from Lord Stanley's Playoffs by the defending champ Bruins, and a tense situation in Boston with Bobby Valentine.  Everyone had written off the Celtics from having a chance at victory without their mercurial point guard, and this would have been the case had PAUL PIERCE not gone absolutely bananas.  The Celtics' 4th quarter was insane, with them going on a strong run offensively, and playing lock down defense.  Avery Bradley made all kinds of athletic plays, and KG was doing KG things.  Great for the Celtics to get a win down in Atlanta and even the series up 1-1 heading back to Boston.

Stanley Cup..... Fuck YEAH!

Congrats Vancouver, but FUCK YEAH BOSTON!!!!!

4-0 Shutout Game 7

Conn Smythe Winner: Timmay Thomas

destruction in Vancouver...google it

Some Updates

Congratulations to the Dallas Mavericks, specifically Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Kidd, Jason Terry & Mark Cuban! Dirk will definitely be remembered better, not considered soft, now that he has an NBA ring. He briefly left the court right after the game, probably had to let a few tears go, and did not want to do it on the court, in front of cameras. Jason Terry's irrational confidence inspired him to get a tattoo of the Finals trophy on his bicep before the season. Jason Kidd was finally able to capture an NBA title, claims he has 2-3 more seasons. Although I am not a huge Cuban fan, he redeemed himself a little bit in the past 48 hours, in my eyes, check out the picture above!

There are a number of reasons that Miami lost, but the two most obvious in my opinion are Lebron and Spoelstra. Lebron is arguably the best player in the NBA, and possibly one of the most gifted athletes of all time. However, he disappeared in the second half of that series, just like he did in the series against my Celtics last year. I still can't comprehend how he did just decide to get to the basket, like he always does, which results in a better overall offense and free throw attempts for Bron. I am very mystified by that performance. Secondly, Spoelstra was less than competent in the series, and really in the whole playoffs. I know people love him, for some reason, but I am not buying it. The Heat had NO offensive strategy in the 4th quarters of almost all Playoff, and especially Finals games. They were leading for 95% of the first 4 games, and ended up only being able to split them. They gave up a 15 point lead with 7:30 to go, and that's not acceptable as a coach.

I was very happy with last night's NHL hockey game, where the Bruins were able to even up the series, drawing a game 7 in Vancouver tomorrow. The Bruins outscored the Canucks 17-3 in Boston's TD Garden, now they just need to replicate it in Vancouver, where they have struggled immensely. The game was basically over halfway through the first quarter, where the Bruins scored 3 goals in quick succession, and Luongo was pulled for the MA Native Corey Schneider, who was Boston College's captain and hails from Marblehead on the North Shore, who let in another goal making it 4-0 and time to book tickets to Vancouver. The rest of the game was pretty chippy, lots of penalties, and a final score of 5-2. Marchand punched Daniel Sedin in the face roughly six times, saying "he felt like it" in the post-game interview. I think we will see Luongo in the next game. My sportsbook has Vancouver -155, meaning they are roughly 58%ish percent favored to win, and I feel that is a pretty good line, I like the under 5, although I wagered on that same outcome on game 6, which I knew I had no chance to collect after the first period.

In other unrelated news, I have been thoroughly enjoying HBO's Game of Thrones. The characters are very compelling and I have always been a bit of a fantasy junkie, so this is right up my alley. The acting is good, as well as production, and the story is fantastic. In the most recent episode, the main character of the season Eddard Stark, who happened to be the most recognizable figure was killed off. This series really keeps you guessing, unfortunately I am going to pick up all of the books in the Song of Fire and Ice series that it is based upon. Also my younger brother celebrated his 21st birthday with a pig roast on Saturday, lots of beer and several shots were had by all, my wife Marina went a little overboard unfortunately ending our night a little earlier than I had planned, still fun though! The pulled pork from the leftover pig was excellent too!

Bill Simmons rolls out Grantland.com

Bill Simmons has launched his new website today Grantland.com named after Grantland Rice, a writer known for his elegant prose. For those who aren't familiar with Simmons, he is arguably the most popular personality in the ESPN stable, at least in my neck of the woods. Simmons was born in raised in New England, went to college at Holy Cross, and is one of the most vocal Boston sports fans of all time. His columns, podcasts, and twitter are account are among the most read throughout the internet. His writing style is often crude and he is not known for conciseness, but he is really funny and he hits on a lot of topics that I am interested in. I think he overdoes the popular culture aspect, but I can't really blame him, as that is his passion, especially living in Los Angeles.

Grantland is supposed to be an outlet for more creative, unfettered sports and pop culture writing. It has been advertised as free from the corporate overlords, which means everything will be a little more raw. This will not be Sportscenter, and if you have read anything by Simmons, you know there will be mentions of betting on sports, Simmon's friends, and certainly never less than 1000 words per article. I am actually currently reading his book on basketball, which I do recommend if you are as big of a basketball fan as I am. I look forward to following this site, and its promise of podcasts in addition to the B.S. Report is very appealing for me, as I listen to podcasts regularly during the day job and working out.

In other matters, Bruins are going to need to continue the offensive effort of Game 3 tonight. I am looking forward to Tyler Seguin being effective, in replacement of the injured Nathan Horton.

8-1

The Boston Bruins came back to Boston last night, and after a crushing hit on Nathan Horton in the first period, the Bruins decided to hit back, both physically and on the scoreboard. Boston went on to score 8 goals and only gave up 1 rather lackluster goal. Some highlights included Marchand's patience, waiting until the last second to punish Luongo for a shorthanded goal. The Bruins were able to score 2 powerplay goals, which had been a nagging problem throughout the playoffs. Tim Thomas delivered an awesome crosscheck to Henrik Sedin as he tried to make a play right in front of the net, and was completely lain out as seen above. Lucic was feisty and taunted Burrows effectively, sticking his hand right in his face. Daniel Sedin was a real pussy, and showed that once again, resulting in a 10 minute misconduct penalty as the game got chippy at the end. Boston scored on their last 3 shots, and really punished Luongo. Hopefully they can continue this momentum as they need to win 3 of the next 4 games to bring home the Cup.

NBA/NHL Finals Update

We are in the midst of both the NBA and NHL Finals. Unfortunately the Celtics are not anywhere near the NBA Finals, but as a huge basketball fan, I am still definitely into the series. Although Dallas was the underdog, they have a ton of support from the public, especially in my neck of the woods. The series is currently Miami -330 and I believe they are still at least 1 to 4 to win the series, although I don't usually like laying that much chalk. The first game went as much as I expected for the entire series, Miami basically in the drivers seat. Game 2 was going much of the same direction, and at one point Miami was up 15 and Lebron/Wade were chest bumping each other with big shit-eating grins. Then Dallas proceeded to go on a 20-2 run, winning the game by 2 to take the series back to Dallas even. Last night was Game 3 and although I did not watch the majority of it, I monitored the score, and Miami was cruising the majority of the game. Although they brought it within 2, Dirk had 2 chances at the end of the game, throwing away the ball in the first possession, and missing the shot over Haslem with 4.4 seconds to go, ending the affair. Wade and Lebron are too strong, and are starting to get Bosh going, so to restate, I do not think there is any value in taking Dallas for the series even at +300.

The finals of the French Open/Roland Garros (how about that for Anglicization) was surprisingly not Nadal v. Djokovic. The semi-finals of the open was the most exciting, Nadal destroyed Andy Murray in the morning, but the afternoon match of Federer/Djokovic were what people were anticipating. Federer who is a lot older, and not having quite the drive and motivation the Serb has. not to mention the momentum. However, Djokovic is not quite as strong on clay, and Federer who was +275 took the match in 4 sets, with a very convincing performance. I enjoyed the match immensely, and was looking forward to Sunday's final. Rain was threatening the match, but the day ended up going smoothly, and Nadal won in 4 sets. He won the first two, although they were fairly close, and was up 4 games to 2, when Federer hit the gas pedal, and won the set 7-5. Federer started the 4th set strongly up 40-0 and about to break the first game, but Nadal adjusted and was able to win that game and ultimately cruised to another Grand Slam victory.

Most important and closest to me is the NHL Stanley Cup Finals and my boys the Boston Bruins. Tonight is the first game in Boston, and the B's are in a 0-2 hole to the heavily favored Vancouver Canucks. The weird Swedish Sedin twins, the biter Alexandre Burrows, and Ryan Kessler have dominated the series, although both games were decided by one goal. The first was a defensive/goalkeeping showcase with the Canucks scoring with 20 seconds to go in the game, and everyone here in Boston was crushed. The most memorable part of this game Burrows clearly biting Patrice Bergeron, although the NHL claims they lacked evidence to suspend him. Saturday night, they played game 2, which was a much better showing, the Bruins dominated the 2nd period, scoring on a power play (very tough for us to do this playoff) and taking a 2-1 lead. I knew that the Canucks were going to come out strong in the 3rd period, and managed to tie the game up. After that it looked like it was simply their game to lose, even though it was a tie. The Bruins played solid defense and had several chances, but it seemed like the Canucks were going to win. However, they lasted through the 3rd and went to overtime. Amazingly, Burrows beat Chara and scored after 11 seconds of OT and everyone was crushed once again. Burrows, who probably should not have been in the game was involved in 2 of 3 of the Canucks goals, much to the dismay of Bruins supporters. Bruins have a must-win game tonight at the Garden 8PM EST.

NBA Playoffs Semifinals

I am so hyped for the upcoming series, especially for my Celtics. The Knicks were not as much of a problem as advertised, to be fair, Chauncey was injured as was Amare, but the two games in MSG were not playoff basketball. Boston has had plenty of time to rest and the Heat are going to be a real opponent. Ultimately, I don't see them having enough to beat my Celtics.



I admit that I am a bit of a homer (GO BRUINS!) but lets look back at the regular season games between the Heat/C's. Record was 3-1 in our favor. Let's throw out the first game and the last game as they are not fair representations of both squads. Celtics were 2-0 in the middle games, Rondo dominated, and Wade struggled. I expect a lot more of the same. Lebron/Wade/Bosh will dominate at least 1 game, possibly 2, but I don't see this series going to 7. The Heat lack the entire package that Boston has. We will have Rondo distributing the ball, bigs causing trouble in the paint, a better coach, and two wings who arguably shoot better than Lebron/Wade. Lebron has choked against Boston in previous playoffs, and I am expecting more of the same. The Heat gave the Sixers tons of opportunities to get back in games, and just looked generally streaky, while the Celtics play with precision and consistency. This might be our last year, but Boston will take this series in 6, and I am going to be betting the underdogs and under on total points in almost every game.


Looking forward, the Bulls should take care of Atlanta/Orlando without much of an issue, which worries me, because Boston will be tired from playing hard against Miami, we will cross that bridge when we get there! (and are you really scared of D. Rose?) Oklahoma City and the Lakers are going to be the two teams I am worried about in the West. The rest of the conference does not have much of a chance. Grizzlies were not able to put away the pesky Spurs who hit a couple of shots late, (and then covered the 6.5 spread in OT) but I hope ZBO and Tony Allen and crew will finish them off this weekend.