6:45 – “Should we go get some real food or try and catch lay up lines in case Gera
ld does something cool?”“Lay up lines.”
6:50 – Inside the Verizon Wireless Center we immediately hone in on the chicken finger/fries basket. This is a big seller.
6:55 – We find our seats and being to devour the baskets. They appear to be stale. Though on the plus side the fries may not have been fried. Does that make them healthier?
7:00 – The music selection has not changed since the early 90s. As we mock this an eleven year old with cornrows walks by and sings, “And inside-out is wiggida wiggida wack…” Is this song still cool?
7:05 – Random
players shoot around. I try to take pictures of Tommy and Mike, the referee doing high knees and various fans. They all come out terribly, though some are saved by iPhoto. Unfortunately I can’t take a picture of the red headed teenager with the Celtics jersey and headband. I think his dad is on to me. We can call him Scalabrine’s illegitimate son though.7:10 – There is a disturbing number of Lebron shirts in the house, on The Truth’s birthday no less. The two die-hard Cavs fans behind us fall into this category.
7:15 – The Celtics come out for their lay up line. Does Scalabrine miss his first lay up? Obviously. Are the aforementioned Cavs fans behind me singing loudly with the warm up lyrics? Obviously. “They say the money’s good but I’m still from the hood…” I can vouch for these guys being from New Hampshire but I can’t quite verify their hood.
7:20 – Gerald is screwing around doing reverse lefty-lay ups. He makes it look incredibly easy. As I watch for possible Green windmills and Scalabrine misses I ignore the Cavs’ warm-ups. Until it hits me, “Not for nothing where’s Lebron?” He’s nowhere to be seen. I hope he’s getting taped but deep down I know what is going on.
Negatives: I will not get to see Damon Jones’ newest, elaborate handshake. Half the people came to see Lebron. The guys behind me are livid. “Where the fuck is Lebron?” “I’m so pissed!”
Positives: I can declare Lebron my enemy.
7:22 – The Celtics are shooting around and no one will let Scalabrine get a rebound. He’s essentially shagging the makes. Finally he get’s one. The chances of him making it back under the basket almost immediately are as good as Hank Poteat playing for the Pats again some day. It will happen. Also given the way the Jets and Pats have been passing Hank Poteat back and forth and Belichick and Mangini's new feud you'd think this would be a least a minor story.
7:25 – Gerald throws an ally oop of sorts to himself and reverse slams it. Very cool.
7:30 – The national anthem goes off without a hitch. Two very unsurprising details: A New Hampshire native sung it and she was not hot.
1. Prior to the announcement of the starting lineup Damon Jones appears to be yelling at the Celtics bench. Doc Rivers, of all people, seems to be engaged in some sort of conversation with everybody’s favorite star clinger. Maybe he is giving Jones Dominique's cell.
2. Gomes grabs the mic and thanks all the fans for showing up. He also invites everyone to make it down to the TD Banknorth Garden and calls Lebron a pussy for not suiting up. Okay he didn’t call out Lebron. But Lebron is on the bench in civilian clothes.
3. Three guys reeking of beer and one teenager show up to sit in front of is just at the game is starting. They gleefully kick out some squatters. One of the newcomers exclaims, “Luke Jackson, #10 pick, shoots the lights out, Wally’s out of here.” As I see it there are a few problems with this statement:
- Jackson went 10th. Okay. Robert Swift went 12th that year.
- The Cavs are desperate to surround Lebron with shooters. If he were amazing he’d still be in Cleveland. This may bring about another move but we can’t deny the fact that Wally is a much more accomplished, better player than Luke Jackson.
- Jackson has a bad back.
- Wally ends up going 7 for 8 while Jackson doesn’t play.
4. The C’s start the game with Ratliff, Gomes, Wally, Pierce, and Telfair. The Cavs go with Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Larry Hughes, Damon Jones, Eric Snow and possibly David Wesley. It’s a little hazy.
5. The Celtics play well in the first quarter. Gomes is knocking down 18 footers, grabbing rebounds, harassing the other team and overall making plays. Gomes might not get a play run for him all season. Of course the Celtics might not run a play all season. As much as I reference Gerald Green, I hold Gomes in much higher esteem. It amazes me that he went 50th 2 years ago. Can you imagine what he would do on a team like the Spurs, Mavericks, Pistons, etc?
6. Ratliff gets abused by Ilgauskas. At one point big Z scores 6 in a row. Dwight Howard may average a 30-30 against the C’s this year.
7. Telfair is going to end up with 7 assists, which amazes me because he seems more concerned with scoring. He does have several amazing dribbling moments. He also establishes himself as the favorite to lead the team in “’Toine moments.”
8. A guy in front of me has two kids. One is wearing a Pierce jersey while the other is paying tribute to Ricky Davis. It reminds me of the Freakonomics blurb about the man who named his sons Winner and Loser. Ironically Winner ended up in jail, which according to Stephon Marbury is Minnesota. So I’m not sure where this analogy is going.
9. By the way leading the team in ‘Toine moments is not good.
10. Lucky is out of control. His highlights from the evening:
- Dancing with an attractive woman and getting a kiss out of it. She was actually grinding him. Does that outfit help him score? Does he wear it to clubs?
- He hit 2 half-court shots. The first was granny style. The second came after a flip in which he hit the ball on the floor. It was too amazing to mock.
Lucky lowlights:
- Any time he picks up a kid. Creeps me out.
- He couldn’t throw the free t-shirts to the upper deck. He had to call the intern from the bullpen.
- His existence.
11. There have been numerous mentions to the new Celtics website, which actually looks quite good. My favorite thing about it though is that the Celtics don’t update it regularly. You get the sense that their thought process is as follows: “Yeah we have to have a website because it is 2006. And we’ll even give it a face-lift and mention that damn dance team and that wacko Lucky. But don’t expect us to update it on a daily basis.”
12. I went to a bathroom. It was packed. Two kids who couldn’t have been older than 12 (based on how they sounded) had the following exchange:
Kid #1 – “Man I really got a piss.”
Kid #2 – “This is gay.”
Kid #1 – “I can’t wait. I’m going to the next one.”
Kid #2 – “You’re all gay.”
13. Larry Hughes is one of those guys who spend a lot of time in an actual defensive position.
14. Big Al does not take the ball to the rim, even when Scott Pollard guards him. Everything seems to be a jump hook or a fade away. Also he needs to feel the double team and pass out of it.
15. I used to have a difficult time differentiating between Pollard and Raef LaFrentz (two white, Kansas guys). Sorry Raef.
16. Gerald didn’t play at all in the first half. I think the more he sits out the more likely he is to attempt ridiculous moves upon entering the game. This ends up being the case as Gerald is blocked while trying to dunk over at least 2 players from far out. Overall he gets about 3 minutes of time, struggles and seems to drift. Also at one point in the fourth he went to the scorer’s table and was called back to the bench. His night is more disappointing than Lebron’s no show. I understand that Gerald is not ready yet. But now is the time to get him some experience. He’s graduated from the D League and the garbage time and late season games are only worth so much.
17. Pierce limps off the court into the locker room. This is never adequately explained. It is the most frustrating experience I’ve had while attending a game since Manny wasn’t in the lineup on the trading deadline in 2005. Of course Manny eventually emerged from the dugout for a pinch-hit, go-ahead single. But for a while I thought he was gone. As far as Pierce goes I can’t help but be concerned. Nomar’s wrist wasn’t supposed to be a big deal either.
18. The C’s abandoned the running game. Hopefully it has more staying power than two pre season games.
19. A highlight from the Cleveland fans behind us:
Fan #1 - “Who is #6?
Fan #2 - “It says Brown.”
Fan #1 - “Dee Brown?”
Fan #2 - “I don’t know.”
Fan #1 - “It looks like Dee Brown.”
- Little known fact: Once a guy has coached a WNBA team he’s done playing in the NBA. This is true 100% of the time. I’d love to go on a rant about this as a convoluted way to attack Bill Laimbeer, but I don’t want Brown or Dave Cowens to get caught in the cross fire. As a side note it was rookie Shannon Brown from Michigan State.
20. Another question from the Cavs fans behind us:
“Why is everyone booing #44?” Yup Scalabrine’s in the game. Interestingly Kevin Pittsnoggle gets huge cheers when he knocks down a three. I think nbadraft.net puts it into perspective:
"Brian Scalabrine's contract is very cheap compared to them (Pierce, Wally and Raef when he was still a Celtic), averaging just over $3 million per year until 2010. The fact that the money goes to Brian Scalabrine makes it a bad deal. Nearly any rookie in the league can average 2.6 points and 1.5 rebounds for a fraction of the cost." Zing.
21. Delonte looked rusty.
22. Overall it was a frustrating game that left me wondering about paying the price of admission as well as my expectations for the up coming season.
23. Redeeming moment of the night: During one of the timeouts the Celtics had a promotion where three little kids had to score on a mini hoop. Someone named Julie, who was dressed for her night job, and Lucky ran the promotion. They found three kids from the crowd. The crowd cheered on the two dressed in Celtics gear. But the third kid had a Cavs shirt on. There were more than a few boos until he dunked and broke the hoop. The crowd went wild and crowned him the champion. You had to be there.
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