Monday: Atlanta at Boston

[ATL DirtyBird]

Come on Hawks 2:44 left. Close this out, and show us something. COME ON HAWKS!

[tontoz]

JJ is definitely beasting and nobody else is doing much. Crawford and Horford are a combined 5-22.

At least marvin got to the line a lot.

[HMFFL]

I am never, EVER watching a game on Boston's telecast again. These idiots should be fired for their pathetic announcing. I will be watching the entire 4th quarter with the game on mute.

Exactly how I feel about watching Cleveland games on ESPN or even TNT. The mute button is always in use!

[Hawkeyes]

Joe and Crawford!!

[ATL DirtyBird]

BOYS, THEY DID IT!!!!! I dont care about the officials, or that they were down two bigs, we just closed out the Celtics!! Go Hawks!

[Benedict_Boozer]

Good road win for ATL. Impressed by you guys this year.

[JoshB914]

Wow what a win. Very proud of this team for the fight we showed. This is the type of character, intensity, and performance that is required in order not just to win in the playoffs, but a championship. We're talking about a game where the C's shot lights out, had Rondo running circles around our defense, and forced us to make tough shots all night long. We had four starters that were forced to log over 40 minutes of action, that's going to happen in games like this come playoff time.

This group has never won a game of this difficulty before, it says a lot that we can now. The huddle at the end of the game said it all, this is the type of performance we need to bottle up and re-produce over the rest of the year.

Joe was simply fantastic and that's all there is to say. Perhaps the best game I've seen him play. He carried us when we needed it and that's what a star does.

Horford and Craw were huge, too. Al didn't shoot it especially well but he hung in there and played some great defense in the post.

Josh was awful early. But settled in and willingly took a backseat on the offensive end as our backcourt caught fire.

[CAM]

That was fun to watch aside from the announcers.

[ATL DirtyBird]

Love the way we take care of the ball. Only 7 TO's tonight agasinst a good defense.

[parson]

My, oh my. We shoot 33 FTs, they shoot 18 AT BOSTON ... and I miss it. Where's the humanity?

And Marvelous shoots 11 while Pierce shoots NONE. Dream_come_true.

And gentlemen in ... Atlanta now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought ... against Boston upon .... Oh, I give up.

Good game.

[evildallas]

I am never, EVER watching a game on Boston's telecast again. These idiots should be fired for their pathetic announcing. I will be watching the entire 4th quarter with the game on mute.

Exactly how I feel about watching Cleveland games on ESPN or even TNT. The mute button is always in use!

The difference being that Heinsohn is supposed to be the ultimate homer announcer (any non-Boston fan finds him extremely annoying) while you would expect ESPN to be neutral. Of course you are right and the ESPN announcers might as well be employed by the Cavs considering the amount of Lebron-slurping they do.

Other cases the mute is in full effect:
Dick Vitale (I can't watch long with him talking anymore regardless of whom is playing)
Joe Morgan (not heard him in awhile, but I suspect he is still loving Barry Bonds verbally at every opportunity)
Tim McCarver (never could stand him)
Steve Young (he was so horrible in the booth that 1st Monday night when ESPN had two games)

[nashill]

lol! horrible commentators. i dont know who they are but i thought they are 10 year old kids cheering for celtics.. worst i have ever heard..

[Jcrawford11]

i never heard anything more annoying....celts had the same flargant foul called on zaza we just aint cry about it like they did

[HMFFL]

Bibby still drowning out the noise in Boston

For all of you who have been booing Mike Bibby for the past two seasons, don't worry — he's heard you. The thing is, he wouldn't have been able to have a 12-year career in the NBA if he succumbed to every jeer thrown his way.

Celtics faithful have been ticked at Bibby since the 2008 playoffs, when he employed one of the most offensive terms imaginable to an aficionado of Boston sports.

“A lot of these fans are bandwagon jumpers trying to get on this now,” he said during the first round of the 2008 postseason. “I played here last year, too, and I didn't see three-fourths of them. They're for the team now and they might get a little rowdy, but that's about it.”

Two years later, he isn't surprised by his welcome, or lack thereof, at the TD Garden. Bibby literally gets booed every time he touches the ball, whether he is dribbling, shooting or grabbing a rebound. On Monday night, the Boston crowd was out in full force once again to make its opinion known.

“I wasn't paying attention to it, really, anyways,” Bibby said following the Hawks’ 102-96 victory over the Celtics.

Bibby blocks out the boos to focus on the game at hand. Even though he did not have a strong performance on Monday (5 points, 2 assists), he has averaged 13.5 points and four assists per regular-season game while shooting 60 percent from behind the arc in Boston since making those comments. Most importantly to Bibby, the Hawks are undefeated against the Celtics this season, including a sweep at the Garden.

“I don't even care,” Bibby said of the jeers. “It doesn't really matter to me, you know what I mean? We're winning. We're 3-0 on them, that's all that matters.” http://www.weei.com/sports/boston/baske ... ise-boston

[JoshB914]

The Bibby boo's are ridiculous and hilarious. Dude is a freaking role player, I was surprised the Boston fans even remembered that, I know I had totally forgotten about it.

[ATL DirtyBird]

It was nice to see Jamal take and make shots in clutch time when JOe was cooking. If they can play down the stretch like that more often wed be tough

[HMFFL]

The NBA has fined two teams $10,000 apiece for violating the rule preventing players from standing for long periods of time in front of their bench.

League spokesman Tim Frank confirmed a memo was sent to all teams Tuesday informing them of the fines. The teams were not identified in the memo.

The fines were first reported by Yahoo! Sports.

The rule was instituted this season as a way to stop players from blocking the view of fans sitting behind the benches. http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/stor ... AHeadlines

This could possible be us since our players stood up throughout the Boston game.

[JoshB914]

I don't recall any players standing up for a prolonged period of time. Although our guys were surely jumping off the bench after any big play, they clearly quite jacked up.

[evildallas]

The NBA overturned the Davis Flagrant Foul call that lead to the technicals and the ejection. I watched the clip on YouTube. Link here. My take on it now is that Davis put his left arm on the neck and shoulders of Marvin in an attempt to get leverage to make a play on the ball with his right arm. It looked worse live that it really was, but I strongly feel that the call should have stood. Marvin wasn't injured nor was the intent injury but that's more a condition for a Flagrant 2. A Flagrant 1 is called either for excessive contact or fouling without playing the ball. A breakaway layup is a situation that exposes the offensive player to potential injury. If Davis had made contact while being able to attempt the block without clubbing Marvin to gain leverage then it would just a foul or a successful block (Lebron, Josh, and Dwade are known for these recovery blocks). The fact that he made contact knocking Marvin down before going after the ball seems to be the key point, but after review the NBA disagrees. No wonder NBA officiating is so inconsistent, the league sends very mixed messages on how to call things.

The part I enjoy most about the video is when the Celtics play-by-play guy says "I'm more concerned that it gets Atlanta's juices going" and Heinsohn dismisses that with a no way it gets Atlanta going response. Wrong, you #%!@$!