For all of the offensive fireworks displayed in Jersey, we must have left the gunpowder in the Meadowlands becuase we were shooting blanks yesterday against the Boston Celtic All-Stars. (Room here for an impotence zinger, but I’m more mature than that.)
It was a game we were lucky to have been in at all. 27% in the first half? And it’s not like we were shooting out of triple teams or launching fadeaway threes. The ball just wasn’t falling – layups, jumpshots in stride – the same shots that dropped the other day were clanging out (or worse, as evidenced by a couple airballs). It was as if someone exchanged the ACC rims for those CNE carnival rims, part of the slightly-too-small-but-still-enticing game where you give them 5 bucks and hope to sink a free throw and win a stuffed dinonsaur your girlfriend will name ‘Smushee’ or some embarrassing shit…
But somehow, by the grace of someone’s God (yes, even U-God), we found ourselves in a spot to win the game despite the fact that our two franchise players didn’t have a SINGLE FIELD GOAL in the first half. I’ll give some tentative credit to TJ for carving their PG’s a new asshole (guess Rondo wasn’t the ‘impact’ player I predicted) and keeping us in it, but any time TJ Ford is your only offensive option and key distributor, you’re gonna lose. No disrespect, but it’s just not his role. So while we lost the game, there is some solace in knowing that we’ll likely never have another game where Bosh and Bargs play so poorly at the same time.
The biggest loser from yesterday’s game? Jamario Moon. Dressed for the first time this season, he was poised to see some garbage time after our abysmal first half. When we started pulling it together in the second half, Jamario’s hardwood hopes were put on hold for another game. I suspect he’ll get some game action soon – not in an important situation, but just to see how he responds.
Let’s file this loss under ‘freaky bad shooting’ and rebound in Milwaukee. What we need is a big turnaround agaisnt the Bucks tomorrow night to get back on track.
P.S. Bobcats are 2-0. Surprising everyone but me.
