what i know...

first a couple of things i don't know...

i don't know why referees are calling suspect offensive fouls with :35 seconds to go in a playoff game but not a moving pick with the game on the line. nor do i know why it is so important to keep Jared Jefferies on Rajon Rondo after the latter gentlemen is relieved of the responsibility of in-bounding the basketball...

but i know this...

switching inbound passers after almost turning the ball over doesn't make you a genius, so let's hold off on the Doc Rivers schooled Mike D'Antoni talk right at the top. The play didn't change and more than anything else D'Antoni schooled himself by taking Jefferies off the inbound pass...

i've watched enough Celtic games over the past three or four years to make the following statements....
1. in late game situations Paul Pierce is the Celtics #1 option. he is not only one of the great players in the NBA today he absolute cash money with the game on the line. Pierce makes Kobe Bryant look like Charles Smith...
2. when Pierce is covered, which Carmelo Anthony did quite well on the play, Ray Allen is option #3. Allen has been metaphorically kicking me in the jewels since i was a younger tyke watching St. John's games from behind the basket. he might be the best shooter in the biz right now, and there is no reason to hang your head when he drops a game winner...
3. when the Celtics are successful getting a shot away out of option 1 or 2 they are very successful, when they have to go to option #3, they lose...
here endeth lesson 1...

as for the series, i have the Celtics winning in 6, but the way the Knicks played last night, most especially Tony Douglas and A'Mare Stoudemire, i am optimistic that it could get a little more interesting than that, seeing as well as they played and the team played defense and how terribly ineffective Anthony was on the offensive end, and that will most certainly change for the better...

if i was in that locker room last night i would have, (and i hope the questionable for game 2 Chauncey Billups would echo this gesture), pulled Douglas over and told him; 'next time keep the ball and take that shot.' that's not an indictment of Anthony's late game prowess, just a flow of the game decision that a point guard has to learn to make. win or lose, the Knicks can find comfort in the fact that Douglas will come out of this series a much better player in the long run...

down 1 on the road, i know this isn't over...