Different Perspectives On Game Two

Not everyone is buying that the Celtics were the victims of poor officiating last night, or that Rajon Rondo is even that good.

Storified by · Thu, May 31 2012 12:18:26

In what was an extremely entertaining game, the Celtics eventually fell 115-111 in overtime to the Heat Wednesday night in Miami. The Celtics held a 15-point lead in the first half, before the Heat outscored the Celtics 35-22 in the third quarter to take a 6-point lead entering the fourth. The Celtics came storming back and held a 5-point lead midway through the quarter, but the Heat once again came back, and the Celtics needed a Ray Allen three-pointer with 34 seconds left to force overtime. In the overtime session Rajon Rondo scored all 12 of the Celtics’ points, but in the end it was not enough.

Rondo was the story of the game, scoring a career-high 44 points in the loss. He also finished with 10 assists and eight rebounds. He did all this playing the entire 53 minutes of the game. Rondo was 16-24 from the field and 10-12 from the line. Kevin Garnett gave everything he had as well, playing 45 minutes and finishing with 18 points and eight rebounds. Paul Pierce fouled out late in the fourth, after playing 43 minutes and finishing with 21 points.

One note that was not mentioned at all during the broadcast and postgame was Pierce left the bench with 2.2 seconds remaining in the overtime to go to the locker room. He was not hurt, he was just frustrated. Not exactly something you want to see from the teams’ captain.

There was once again much discussion following the game on the officiating. In the end the Celtics were called for 33 fouls, to the Heat’s 18. There was once blatant foul on Dwyane Wade in the overtime session, when he smacked Rondo across the face when Rondo was going up for a layup, but there was no call. For the game the Celtics shot a total of 29 free throws, while LeBron James shot 24 by himself. While the officiating was questionable, no one can blame the referees for the Celtics blowing a 15-point lead, so there should be no pinning the loss on the referees.

Effort was there, result was lacking- Gary Washburn says the Celtics played with the most passion out of any playoff game this year.

Celtics’ best not good enough- Jackie MacMullen has despite some valiant efforts by the Celtics, it just wasn’t enough to get past the Heat.

Couldn’t ask for more from Celtics’ Rajon Rondo- Dan Shaughnessy compares Rondo’s performance to some games played by some of the Celtics legends.

Rajon Rondo gives his best- Steve Bullpet also looks at the Game 2 performance by the Celtics point guard.

Rajon Rondo deserved better- Chris Forsberg says Rondo and the Celtics deserved a win with Rondo’s Game 2 performance.

The Rondo game that got away- Paul Flannery has the reactions of different players and coaches on Rondo’s performance, including LeBron James.

Marathon Green men- Steve Buckley says another storyline of Game 2 was Ray Allen, as after following a tough outing in Game 1, Allen responded with some clutch three’s.

Foul odor detected- Mark Murphy in his notebook has Danny Ainge stopping Joe Borgia, the NBA’s officiating supervisor following the game.

Get the rest of the Celtics coverage at CelticsLinks.com.

The Red Sox defeated the Tigers 6-4 and are now two games over .500, just 2 1/2 games out of first place in the AL East. The Red Sox hit three home runs, including two-run shots by David Ortiz and Will Middlebrooks, and then a solo home run from Kevin Youkilis. Starter Jon Lester went 6 2/3 innings allowing four runs and striking out seven.

Second baseman Dustin Pedroia is dealing with a slight tear in his thumb’s adductor muscle. He will not swing a bat the next few days to allow for the swelling and bruising to go down before making a decision on Monday as to whether to go on the disabled list or not. There has been talk of bringing up shortstop Jose Iglesias from Pawtucket and moving Mike Aviles to second, if Pedroia were to go on the DL.

Red Sox must do what’s right for Pedroia- Chad Finn says the Red Sox should be extra cautious with their second baseman, not letting him return until his thumb his fully healed or he doesn’t risk doing any further damage.

Pedroia’s thumb injury poses a real dilemma- Nick Cafardo also looks at the situation the Red Sox are facing with Pedroia looking at both sides of the situation.

Red Sox showing heart- Scott Lauber has how despite a number of injuries to key players, the Red Sox are coming together and pulling out some good wins.

Bobby V suffles desk and wins again- Gordon Edes has Bobby Valentine getting creative with all of the injuries.

Or the rest of the series?

From the sounds of it, they have no chance. I’ve Michael Holley predict a Celtics win tonight, but not many others. Apparently, the Heat winning game one on their home court has removed any possibility of the Celtics winning, not just the series, but one game.

Interestingly, on the Sunday TNT broadcast of the Western Conference Finals, Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley were asked to pick the Celtics/Heat series. O’Neal and Smith picked the Celtics in six games. Barkley picked the Heat in five.

I wonder if their opinions changed after game one.

Felger and Massarotti had Doc Rivers on their show yesterday as a bit of a surprise guest. Shockingly, Felger didn’t ask Rivers about Pierce faking his injury or about KG being a fraud.

Hit the deck? Play some defense – Paul Flannery has Kevin Garnett preaching defense, not physical play is needed by the Celtics.

Them’s fighting words – Steve Bulpett has the Celtics going biblical.

Celtics will need a miracle of sorts – In among the miracle talk, Bill Reynolds says that the Celtics are 21-0 when Rajon Rondo has a triple-double.

Get the rest of the Celtics coverage at CelticsLinks.com.

The Red Sox finally hopped over the .500 mark with a win over Justin Verlander and the Detroit Tigers at Fenway Park last night.

According to the Boston.com Extra Bases blog, the Red Sox are holding tryouts for the Fenway Park PA position to replace the late Carl Beane.

Former Celtics PA announcer Andy Jick has been among those filling in, but Larry Lucchino announced that WEEI morning flash guy Jon Meterparel will get his tryout tomorrow night. Lucchino also said they’re talking about the idea of having the PA guy announce the balls and strikes count after each pitch, which I think is just an atrocious idea.

Emptying the Tank: Big 4, Lester, Theo, Thomas, Welker, Schilling, Media – George Cain on Sports of Boston weighs in on media coverage of the four local sports teams, before taking an extended break.

Defilippo cancels interview with Eagle Action – Interesting note from the Eagle in Atlanta blog, which has Boston College athletic director Gene Defilippo canceling an annual interview with the decidedly BC-friendly Eagle Action. With the BC football program on a downswing, it seems that Defilillo didn’t want to address questions about it or the future of coach Frank Spaziani.

At halftime last night, Celtics fans had to have been encouraged, seeing their team trail only by two points. As the second half wore on, Boston had no answers for LeBron James and Dwyane Wade. The duo did whatever they wanted and laughed in the Celtics faces (literally) while doing it.

There is plenty of talk about the officiating, something a certain afternoon radio host will ridicule, but while clearly the Celtics did not lose the game because of officials, I don’t think anyone can deny that some of the calls made were at best head-scratching, and at worse, clearly part of an edict sent from above. They threw the Celtics off-stride, and likely took some of the wind out of their sails.

This CSNNE.com video has an interesting stat – in the postseason Miami Heat opponents have been called for 23 technical fouls. The Heat themselves have been called for 6.

Let’s review the five technicals called against the Celtics last night:

1) A call goes against Ray Allen, and he exclaims “No!” does a little hop, and turns and walks away. Technical Foul called from Danny Crawford.

2) After a made Celtics basket, Garnett taps the ball as it comes out of the basket – something that happens on nearly every made basket. Technical foul, delay of game. ( I always think its worse when a player tosses the ball to an official standing 30 feet away – that’s much more of a delay, but that’s perfectly OK.)

3) Doc Rivers upset with a lack of a call, shouts “C’mon Eddie!” at Referee Eddie Malloy. Technical foul.

4) Upset that Shane Battier boxed him out of bounds and into the basket stanchion, even after the play was over, Rondo pushes Battier off him. Technical foul. Malloy again.

5) Illegal defense, Technical foul.

Meanwhile, any complaining about calls results in Tweets like these from various media members:

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Is this David Stern’s legacy as commissioner of the NBA? He’s been in charge during so many great moments, in the last 30 years, but these days there are many who view the NBA as joke, mostly because of the officials, and the perception that much of what happens in the NBA is, if not straight-out fixed, at least nudged in a certain direction. There appears to be no inclination to improve the quality of the officiating.

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Yes, Celtics lost because they couldn’t score, and they couldn’t stop Miami. That’s not open to debate. What’s also not open to debate is the fact that the officiating in the NBA is incompetent, and that reflects on the man in charge of the league.

One last thing as you prepare for the inevitable ridicule against the “green-teamers” this afternoon. Keep in mind that the guy who is mocking Celtics fans for complaining about the officiating, is one who has stated numerous times in recent weeks that the NBA is fixed.

Meanwhile, who is the voice of reason?

Stephen A Smith talking sense? Yup.

Get all the Celtics coverage today at CelticsLinks.com.

Don’t get me started on Mike Breen…

In the least shocking development of the morning, Dennis and Callahan continued their laughable, blind defense of their buddy Curt Schilling, and used the old technique of constantly moving the goalposts when people challenge them.

Gerry also used his favorite technique of answering people who challenge him by mocking the wording of their questions. As an example, someone called in said that Schilling “doesn’t have a leg to stand on” in his current predicament based on things he’s stated strongly in the past.

Callahan, instead of addressing the point made, slowly repeated doesn’t have a leg to stand on with as much sneer and condescension as he could muster, and never did get around to anything that was actually being said. It’s a favorite Callahan bullying technique when he has no answer – attack the delivery of the question.

Dennis and Callahan did have Kirk Minihane come on, in response to his column posted on WEEI.com this morning. (In the end, Curt Schilling was only about Curt Schilling.)

I took a little heat the other day for saying I liked Minihane, but this is part of the reason – who else in the local media is going to go on Dennis and Callahan and challenge them in this manner? I might believe him to be way off in many of his stances, (The Jack Edwards confrontation being one.) but too often, the Boston sports media operates in lockstep and with clubbish politeness towards each other.

All of this of course, is in response to the news of Company-wide layoffs at 38 Studios.

The Celtics play game seven against the Philadelphia 76ers tomorrow night. I’ll say it now, I don’t have a good feeling about this one. (It feels kind of like this, in fact.)

Of course, I’m not leaping off the Celtics bandwagon, they still have my admiration and respect, and I want more than anything for them to go out on a high note. Gary Washburn believes that there is no reason for the Celtics to be embarrassed about their struggles with the Sixers.

Get all the Celtics coverage at CelticsLinks.com

The Patriots had an OTA workout that was open to the media yesterday, and reporters got the chance to speak with Brandon Lloyd and Joseph Addai, among others.

The most complete and detailed wrapups of the practice session came from Greg A Bedard and Andy Hart.

A couple of media columns to wrap up a Friday:

Michelle Beadle has room to grow at NBC – Chad Finn has the former ESPN personality getting an expanded role with NBC.

Giardi: a Pro in Golf and Life – John Molori has a column on CSNNE anchor and reporter Mike Giardi. Among other things, you’ll learn that his 6-year-old son is named Beckett. John neglected to ask if Mike takes any heat among his media brethren for that one.

Media Roundup: Old Tradition With High Tech Trappings In Indy 500 – My SB Nation Boston media column looks at the new technology ESPN is building into the classic race.

In as frustrating and disappointing a performance as we’ve seen in some time, the Celtics just could not get things going last night in game six and lost to the 76ers 82-75.

I can be reactionary at times, but I don’t think I’m doing that when I am concerned, not about the Eastern Conference Finals, but about game seven on Saturday night. The Sixers have played the Celtics very tough at the Garden, even though game five ended in a blowout, the Sixers controlled that game for more than a half. Three of the Celtics top six players are injured, whether Felger believes it or not, and it’s a factor. Could the Sixers come in fired up and overwhelm a weary Celtics team? I think they can.

The news yesterday that Avery Bradley is likely done for the season is probably the back-breaker for this team. (Who would’ve thought that in December?) What’s even more depressing is it could take Bradley an entire year to recover from surgery, meaning next season could be completely wiped out for him as well.

Even if the Celtics win on Saturday night, I don’t think the expectations are that they can beat Miami (or even Indiana) any longer. Without Bradley and his defense and energy (and offense?) the Celtics are in trouble. It feels a lot like 2009 right now.

Depressing, I know. Maybe it helps that just a month ago, I was saying that a strong performance in the second round was a reasonable ceiling for this team. That changed with some bounces their way, but has their luck (and health) run out?

Get all the Celtics coverage today at CelticsLinks.com.

The Red Sox concluded a stretch of 20 games in 20 days with a 6-5 win over the Orioles in Baltimore yesterday afternoon. The Sox are back at .500 for the season, and return home for a series with Tampa starting tomorrow night.

For the Red Sox, 20 lessons learned from 20 games in 20 days – Alex Speier looks at what the Sox have learned about themselves the last three weeks.

Adrian Gonzalez has glove, will travel – Chad Finn is probably the best read when it comes to baseball at Boston.com.

Valentine’s honor roll call – Gordon Edes has Bobby Valentine with some praise for his team.

The Patriots will allow media access to an organized team activity today at Gillette, and Jeff Howe gives you 5 things to watch from the session.

The Patriots agreed to a contract with top pick Chandler Jones yesterday, and Mike Reiss and Mike Rodak are Looking closer at Jones signing.