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“I like the cover,” he said. “‘Don’t Panic.’ It’s the first helpful or intelligible thing anybody’s said to me all day.
Douglas Adams: Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
Asked if he got what he wanted out of the lineup change, Stevens deadpanned, “I was hoping to win.”
The Celtics can build off this. The fog isn’t going to just disappear, and Stevens acknowledged that Thomas will still have moments that are difficult as he copes.
But Boston looked a lot more like its old self Friday. Now the Celtics are hoping they can build off it and get back to playing the fun brand of basketball that had them excited about the postseason a week ago.
I love Douglas Adams, every few months or so, I’ll decide it’s time to re-read one of his books, and I’ll take it off my shelf.
Kipling? Eh. In some ways, too much a product of his times to be fully palatable these days. Still, I think ‘If’ is a great poem.
And, of course, the last quote is from Chris Forsberg, who, I trust, will be suitably flattered by the company he’s in this morning.
In some ways, the way the Celtics played those first two games in Boston was a bit uncharacteristic, but in other ways, well, how did they differ from the ugly games against Phoenix and Denver that came at the end of their last west coast road trip in March? In the game against Phoenix, Boston played terribly, clawed their way back into it, and lost on a last second play. The next game, against Denver, was one of those ‘no-show’ games the Celtics give us periodically. They lost by 20.
Now, you can say that the games against Chicago were different, as this was the post season, and the games were in Boston, but at the same time, the Celtics were under a lot of outside stress in those games.
And you can say that shouldn’t matter, you can say that the rest of the team should ‘pick up the slack’ or ‘play better’ because of Isaiah, but that’s not how real life always works. In the movies, you get some stirring music, and a montage, and at the end of it all, the good guys have triumphed over the odds. But, see, that’s why we all collectively pay money to see movies–because they’re not like real life.
What you get in real life is a bunch of guys–including the coaching staff–who are doing their best to keep their minds on the task at hand, but can’t quite match the other team’s level of focus.
So, yeah, those first two games were ugly. But not exactly unexpected. Nor was it unexpected that the less rational part of Boston would be spend the next three days rampaging through the media and various alcohol serving venues with very loud and very stupid opinions about everything from Al Horford’s salary to Brad Stevens’ coaching to Danny Ainge’s maternal lineage.
I have a question for those who spent the Tuesday night to Friday afternoon panicking: Was it worth it?
Because, ultimately, this is a team that we ought to know by now. They have games where they look like a bunch of stevedores who met half a minute before they walked onto the court. We know this. It’s one of the reasons why no rational person expects this team to win a championship. But we also know this team didn’t win 53 games by accident. They won because they were very good at keeping bad losses from snowballing. So should any of us be surprised either that they played terribly or that they bounced back? It’s what they’ve done all season!
More recaps:
MassLive: Isaiah Thomas, Al Horford help shove Boston Celtics past Chicago Bulls in Game 3, 104-87
Providence Journal: Celtics 104, Bulls 87: Boston gets back in series with Game Three win
Boston Herald: Celts pull it together | Celtics rebound in Chicago, score first victory of series
CSNNE: Stars, studs and duds: Garnett’s presence remains alive in Celtics locker room
Page 2: Where the Celtics are finding reasons to smile
About an hour after the game, surrounded by his family in the tunnel of the United Center, Isaiah Thomas was tugged on his jacket by his oldest son, James, who wanted to show daddy a new handshake and chest bump he and his younger brother Jaiden had devised.
The two Thomas brothers stared at each other, slapped hands, and then rose in the air at the same time for the bump.
Isaiah cracked a smile.
…
Friday may have been the first significant sign that the recovery is beginning. Thomas has been nothing short of courageous playing in these first three games, trying to harness his emotions on the floor, trying to lead a team that has so many expectations in a series that has been beyond challenging.
The Celtics can take a deep breath now, practice with passion and conviction on Saturday and prepare for another must-win Game 4 on Sunday. They have to be heartened by the progress of their leader, and perhaps dad can crack a few more smiles when his sons get that chest-bump routine down to perfection.
Good stuff from Gary Washburn (Shaughnessy wrote a column too–you can go look for it if you want). Sports are a great escape for us, as fans, but it’s real life to the people that play and coach, and try as they might to keep real life out, to put on a show for us, it’s gonna keep creeping in. Fortunately–for his own well-being more so than the Celtics’ post-season–Thomas seems to have come back from Washington with a bit less of a load on his shoulders.
Page 3: Where KG had words for the team
Once more, Kevin Garnett’s voice bounded off the walls and inspired the Boston Celtics. Once more, the fiery leader revived the team’s spirit. This time Garnett did so by sending a voice recording to Celtics trainer Ed Lacerte before Friday night’s Game 3.
Lacerte relayed the message to Avery Bradley, who played it for Isaiah Thomas, who decided the whole team needed to hear it. And so it was that the Celtics gathered around a Beats pill, blasted the volume and listened to Garnett’s expletive-laced motivational speech.
“To me, personally, it was everything,” Jae Crowder said after the Celtics closed their series deficit to 2-1 by topping the Chicago Bulls, 104-87.
“Everybody was kinda pumped up,” said Bradley, a former teammate of Garnett’s. “I almost felt like he was in the locker room with me again.”
This is one of a number of odd little subplots from last night’s game. You had the Rondo thumb fracture, the Rondo trip (more on that below), Gerald Green starting after a DNP-CD, and this item.
The voicemail/recording/video (it’s been reported variously) is a reminder that certain players never really leave the Celtics, even if they’re traded away.
More on KG’s message
CSNNE: Stars, studs and duds: Garnett’s presence remains alive in Celtics locker room
Globe: Kevin Garnett’s message inspires Celtics’ rout of Bulls
Finally: Where Rondo is still Rondo
Rondo doing what he can from the bench https://t.co/4PVYaiXFDQ
— Kenny Ducey (@KennyDucey) April 21, 2017
Oh Rondo, if that was a legit attempt at a trip, you might want to take some lessons from Draymond and Grayson Allen, and if not, you’ve got a seriously warped sense of humor.
(My take? If Rondo was seriously trying to trip Crowder he wouldn’t have been quite so slow or quite so obvious.)
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