I often wonder what opposing teams, their beat reporters and bloggers are saying about the Celtics after playing the Celtics. Here's a dose of 'enemy chatter' from Phoenix.
The Boston Celtics are widely known around the NBA as the baddest team in the land, and the Phoenix Suns stared them right in the eye without flinching Wednesday night in the TD Garden.
They did so both on the scoreboard, where they brought a 29-point second-half lead all the way down to eight without a starter on the floor before falling 115-103, and they did so by physically fighting back against a Celtics squad that wanted revenge following the overblown aftereffects of the teams’ meeting in Phoenix a month ago.
That emotion spilled over in the final seconds as Kevin Garnett earned a technical with 16 seconds left for jawing at the Suns bench and then Rajon Rondo shot a three-pointer at the buzzer in a game long decided.
But Jared Dudley wouldn’t stand for that, so he fouled Rondo good and hard by the Suns’ bench to let him know how he felt about running up the score.
“I just did what I was taught since playing this game,” Dudley tweeted.
Dudley is a real tough guy… hammering a point guard whom he stands 6 inches taller and outweighs by 40+ pounds. I knew this was coming from Phoenix bloggers. The whole "we stood up to the Celtics" proclamation.
No mention of Gentry's antics; the yapping, the decision to keep fouling and calling of timeouts with the game out of reach. Nor was there acknowledgement of Nash's foul mouthed tirade.
There's also a lot of talk about the Suns reserves leading the comeback. That's true. But it's only fair to point out they did so against a patchwork Celtics bench. Avery Bradley, Von Wafer, Troy Murphy, Jeff Green and Glen Davis. I'm not sure that unit has ever played together. And Bradly and Wafer are 3rd teamers.
On Page 2, Kevin Garnett is vindictive.
Garnett is so vindictive that he builds a "nobodies" list of unworthy opponents he won't acknowledge with comments. But he was not ignoring what Gentry had said. Whether it was Frye's defense or the Suns' problems switching or helping on the interior, Garnett made his first seven shots of the game as Boston rolled to a 20-point halftime lead, with 36 of their 62 first-half points coming in the paint. Boston had 13 dunks or layups in the first half, and the Celtics led by as much as 29 when Garnett looked like he would be retiring early, especially with Channing Frye (bruised eye) and Vince Carter (cut mouth) going out after a collision.
Yup, that's KG in a nutshell.
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