Actually it hurts to knock down 4 margs at the Rio Grande in 4 hours, which I am paying for with lack of sleep right now. However, I don't care. The C's beat the Pistons in Double OT tonight. This is what I had to say about the Pistons in one of my last posts:
Overall, they are a team built on a solid foundation of starters, but Larry Brown is a great coach, and gets what he needs from his subs, which is why they win. However, on paper this is not a very talented bench. Edge: C's
Tonight, in a game that lasted 58 minutes, the Pistons played only 9 people, with 3 people picking up DNP's. One of the 9 people, Darvin Ham, only played 2 minutes. Going with an 8 man rotation through 2 overtimes is the kind of decision that could wear out Detroit before the playoffs even start.
The REAL story here though, is how Paul Pierce finally stepped up to the plate and did again what he so often did in that magical run to the conference title that got that traitor O'Brien a second job in the NBA. Antoine's magic ran out for one night, and he had a horrible night, shooting 4-19, 0-5 from 3 pts, and committed 4 turnovers. Though he netted 8 rebounds and 4 assists, this is the kind of game that used to get us killed, especially against a good team like Retroit. Not tonight. Halluleuh! No matter what anyone says about Antoine, he brings out the best in Paul Pierce. Although I did not watch this game as I was busy getting hammered, I know that Antoine's influence is what spurred Pierce on, and afterwards, Pierce was finally talking like a man again, instead of the mopy "woe-is-me" quotes we've been hearing the past two seasons.
Bill Simmon's predicted the other day that the C's would get to 40 wins before they get to 30 losses. Looking at the schedule, only a big road game in Houston stands in the face of that goal. But it doesn't matter. Last year the C's won 36 games total and didn't deserve our 8 seed in the playoffs. This year we've already won 33 and we're well on our way to a 3 seed courtesy of our 3 game lead on Philly, but we are currently 6th overall in the conference. In addition, we are just a 1/2 game behind Cleveland and Chicago for the 4 spot, and 1.5 games behind Washington for the 3 spot. With Washington and Cleveland struggling, and given the fact that we've already handed Chicago their lunch twice this season, it is no longer a stretch to say that the East will come down to Miami, Detroit, and Boston. The Celtics have a major advantage over each team. We have better depth than Detroit, and we have more than one way to make our offense run, something that Miami doesn't have. Miami has little depth, and the two good players they do have, always have the ball in their hands. That's a recipe for disaster, just ask the C's of 2001-2002.
In the end, I know that no matter how it turns out, this has already been a great season. After the game ended tonight I immediately got three phone calls. The Celtics of 2004-2005 are special, and people care about the C's again. I couldn't be happier.
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