Saturday Night Special

As I walked into Madison Square Garden this past Saturday evening for a match-up between the Boston Celtics and the New York Knicks I felt something I had not felt in quite some time as a Celtics fan. “I knew we were going to win the game.”

Coming off of two straight home wins over Indiana and Portland, the ladder the night before, I knew it would not be easy for Boston to win on the 2nd night of a back to back. I was fully aware that the Celtics went all of last season with out winning three straight games, something the Boston writers loved to stick in their columns about the teams’ inconsistency and struggles. There is just something special about going over to MSG as a Celtics fan and anticipating the Green beating the Knicks, regardless of the teams’ records.

My sports day had already gotten off to a great start as we had a great Varsity basketball practice earlier in the day. I thought I was just going to be coaching and teaching at practice, but we were short a few guys at the beginning who were taking an SAT II prep class so I had to hop in on some drills and scrimmaging, wow am I out of shape!!! It was a real struggle keeping up with the guys, being out the night before was not a help either. It felt good to break a sweat and work thru it, but I gotta get my ass back in the gym so I can run up and down the court with the guys a little bit. Practice had great tempo and we definitely took care of a few wrinkles that needed the proverbial ironing, specifically our movement in our zone offense.

After chilling with the guys for a while I headed home to watch the Ohio State Michigan game with some friends. We got the grill fired up, had a few drinks and really enjoyed the game. Two terrific football teams, hopefully there will be a re-match for the National Championship. I am not going to bore you with opinions and analysis on the game, and pretend I am an expert. Dick Vitale comes on the air and he talks college football now with Mike and Mike in the Morning on ESPN radio. Now don’t get me wrong Vitale has done a lot for college basketball and his upbeat high on life personality is great for college sports but do I really give a shit about anything he has to say about football? Enough yelling and complimenting everyone already. And during basketball, please Dick I am begging you please at least try and give some analysis to the action on the court. I know who the diaper dandies are.

I kind of veered off of the road there. Back to the game Saturday night. The Knicks went up 10-0 right off of the bat and the crowd started to buzz. It was an immediate test for the Green and then bounced right back to tie and take the lead. Though the Celtics have 3 bigs out of the line up (Jefferson, Ratliff and Olawokandi) they did not wilt and their small ball eventually built a 20 point lead. I was with two friends both rooting for the Knicks, but our empty seat which I saved for Red to sit in gave me plenty of Celtics support down the stretch. In the 3rd quarter I turned to my buddy as the Celtics lead was dwindling and let him know that the Captain, Paul Pierce would not let the Celtics lose this one. And indeed he did not. Pierce poured in 19 in the 4th, and even after the Celtics lost the lead with just over 4 minutes to go he lead them down the stretch to the win. Gomes, Wally, and Bassy all had solid performances as the Celtics won their third straight and sent Red and I out of the Garden with a big grin on our faces. Doc Rivers did as well as his job is safe for now and Celtic Pride was in the building.