Please, bring Deuce’s mom to see if he can make shots, and also Mitch’s for the FTs. 😉

Brunson has his dad there, so … the theory makes a lot of sense 😉

This game was won and lost many times, but every time they hit us we answered back with a stronger punch, this team can lose but simply refuse to give up and this kind of spirit is a joy to watch (even when they do dumb things).

Exausted and sleep deprived thoughts:

– This team is greater than the sum of his part. My individual grades are probably lower than someone could expect after a win like this, but my team grade is a gigantic “A+”.

– We won with a 18:20 AST/TO ratio (38.2% assisted baskets, very low even for us), shooting only 68.6% from the line (22-32. Celtics 22-25 88%), blowing a 7-points lead in the last 85 seconds of regulation, turning the ball over in the last play of regulation, burning 2 timeouts on the same inbounds play and so on…
Winning a game this way is very difficult, but we kept them at 39.5% shooting, hit our freebies a bit better in the clutch and fought like hell on every ball.

– Despite the win we missed JB. His calming influence and steady grip on the rudder are too important.

– The world now knows Immanuel Quickley and his blossoming, after a raw start of the season, has been maybe the biggest surprise of the year. We need to extend him ASAP.

– I was ready to watch Randle ejected, but he did regain his composure and his newfound mental strenght is a huge improvement from last year.

– When RJ plays like tonight our ceiling goes up. Come on kid, we need more of this.

– Next game is like a Wile E. Coyote’s ACME trap.
Will JB be back? I trust Thibs to keep them in the right place. Going West with 40 wins would be huge.

– Let’s talk about Boston a bit.
1. I don’t get why Tatum didn’t attack the rim all night long. He was getting all the whistles and could have shot 30 FTs but he took 17 threes instead. Good for us.
2. Marcus Smart fouled out but he committed 20 other unwhistled fouls and flopped at least 5 times. He’s allowed to play with a special rulebook that stop just short of armed robbery.
3. Sooner or later someone will advice my paisà Joe Mazzulla about the existence of timeouts.

Quickley A+ CUM LAUDE
He played all the 2nd half AND both overtimes, hit the first bucket of the game (was it the earliest heat check ever?), the tie basket at the end of the 1st OT, had 7 points in the 2nd OT including the first 5…
38-8-7, 4 steals, 2 blocks and a defensive clinic all night long.

Randle B+
Some timely baskets, including 4 huge FTs, balanced by some kind of regression to Point-Forward Randle that didn’t go too well (7 TOs, including the one that cost us a chanche to shot at the end of regulation, only 4 assists) and the dumb technical for hitting the ref.

Barrett B+
I wrote in the thread that he’s a bad rebounder and I still think he is (he often forget to box out and let his man slip behind and take position) but he probably read my comment and after that he went to the boards with a lot more intensity and grabbed 11… and he had a steal!
Botched the pass on 2 alley-oops and hit on 2 others, is that the only way of passing the ball that he knows?
50 very solid minutes on offense, needs to shoot better from the line.

Grimes C
He must be the happiest guy in the locker room because he would have been the scapegoat, his foul on Brown at the end of regulation close to unforgivable (next time if we’re up by 3 let them score a 2-pointer and focus on the inbounds). Took only 2 shots, uhm….

Robinson B+
Huge work under the boards (7 OR 7 DR), very good fouls/minutes ratio, but Horford tormented him all night… until the last shot 🙂
2 heavy misses from the line, this time everything went well but I’m worried for the playoffs.

J-Hart B+
40 minutes of energy, dogged defense, yeoman work on the boards (8) and a huge three in the 1st OT when Boston looked ready to swing all the momentum.
His Knicks’ resumee stays immaculate and I’m very happy we have him.

Hartenstein C
Bad game, 3 terrible minutes in the 1st half, 7 somewhat better ones in the 2nd. He’s always there but this time with less spark.
He’s often penalized by the refs, I’m starting to think he has a reputation and not a good one (he’s whistled even when he defend with perfect verticality).
Team best +11 plus/minus (+/- is a bitch, evidence #1)

Toppin C+
Second in the potential scapegoats’ line, his offensive foul on the pesty flopper Smart, when we were at our high watermark (up 11 with the ball in our hands, with 8 minutes to go), was like throwing a lifeline to the sinking Celts and completely changed the energy of the game.
Sometimes I feel he’s a fish out of the water intensity-wise, like he’s always at the playground with his friends…
Team 2nd best plus/minus at +10 (+/- is a bitch, evidence #2)

McBride C
Talking about fish out of the water… his energy is unquestioned, his defense can disrupt opponents’ offensive flow… but not tonight, I would have rather play Fournier in Deuce’s 8 minutes…

Thibs A-
Without the Little General, in a playoffs like atmosphere he squeezed every drop of energy from IQ (55), RJ (50), Julius (47), Mitch (44) and J-Hart (40)… and he was right, they were the best lineup.
The short-lived super small lineup didn’t work (but kudos for trying), I’m not sold on Deuce over Evan and our inbounds are cringe worthy but…
… This team never surrender, the guys are all in, they’re fearless and these are huge medals on his chest.

If the Celtics are the best team in the league and we’ve beaten them 3 times in a row what does that make us?

I don’t know how i feel about it, but the Orlando Magic also won the series (3-1) against the Celtics!? 😮

We may need to get Obi’s mom and Grimes’s mom in the loop. Would double as a nice reality show 😉

Please, bring Deuce’s mom to see if he can make shots, and also Mitch’s for the FTs. 😉

very unlikely. nba teams hardly ever forfeit games, let alone five.

We may need to get Obi’s mom and Grimes’s mom in the loop. Would double as a nice reality show 😉