Every morning, we compile the links of the day and dump them here... highlighting the big storyline. Because there's nothing quite as satisfying as a good morning dump.
"Yeah, that was a turning a turning point in the game. Yeah, he dunked on me. He's got jumping ability and I wanted to shake his hand for it. These types of games for us, you know, it get's chippy, but we can't keep from executing what we want to do on the offensive end and on the defensive end. I thought that we were patient, and we just hit 'em back."
WEEI: Ray Allen post game interview
Make note of the score in that video. The Teague dunk made it 47-39.
The Celtics went on an 11-4 run to close out the quarter. The run stretched to 34-11 before Atlanta started a run of its own.
From there, it was a dog fight. That's when the Celtics, on the road and in Atlanta, got a boost from the crowd (from the same postgame link).
Max: "How arrogant are your fans… in another person's building??
Ray: "I love it… I love it"
Max: "I just told Sean, this is like going to someone's ele's birthday and taking all the toys and going home."
Ray: "that moment, you can't really explain it… they automatically started saying 'let's go Celtics' and it felt like it was a home game and all the people here could do is boo because they didn't have anything to say back to what our fans were doing and we had a lot in the building.. and that's basketball, that's Celtics basketball right there."
It came through loud and clear on the TV broadcast. Celtics fans packed the house and it was obvious there were a lot of them there. That was a lot of fun.
Back to Teague for a minute. I developed a bit of a dislike for him last night. And one thing that really pissed me off was his selfish move at the end of the the first and second quarters. Each time he had the ball with time on the clock to launch maybe a half court shot, but he deliberately waited for time to expire before firing the ball.
Now, I get that that's not going to go in most of the time, but he made zero effort to get close, and he waited until the buzzer sounded so he didn't get a missed shot on his stat sheet. So I was already less than thrilled with the guy when he got the taunting technical. The happiest moment of the game was when he airballed a potential game-tying shot. Made me feel like Doc's right about Basketball Gods having an influence on the game.
On Page 2: C's and Quis are talking buyout
His agent Mark Bartelstein tells CSNNE.com that there have been preliminary discussions about buying out Daniels' contract.
"He loves it in Boston and would love to be back in the regular playing rotation," Bartelstein said. "But if that can't happen, then we may look and see if there's a better situation, playing-wise, for Marquis."
CSNNE: Celtics have had preliminary discussion on Daniels buyout
I know I've said it a million times, but I don't know if I'll ever really understand what happened to Marquis this year. Even last night, after some productive minutes in Denver, Quis never sniffed the floor.
I like Marquis Daniels. I applaud his tenacity and will to play again after a scary injury. And he seems to be trying to keep a positive attitude. So if the Celtics truly have no use for him, then they should just let him go so he can play somewhere else. I'm sure he'd like to get on the court for something more than layup lines.
The rest of the links:
Herald: C's warm up in Hotlanta | Surgery to KO Jermaine O'Neal for year | Globe: Celtics slam back | O'Neal out for season | ESPN Boston: Dunk watch: Bass, KG lead the way | WEEI: With deadline behind them, Celtics face uncertain future | The inevitable end for Jermaine O'Neal with the Celtics
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