Finley & the Celtics top Toronto, 115-104


Earl Barron and Sonny Weems must've had a meeting of the minds on Monday.  Earl said he'll play like Robert Parish if Sonny could emulate Clyde Drexler when they played the Celtics this week.  They both succeeded, but fortunately Weems' Raptors came up short tonight vs Boston.

  • Weems finished with a career high 21 points tonight, following up Barron's career night last night.
  • Tony Allen really used his head tonight, more so than I think I've ever seen him: he knocked out Turkoglu in the first quarter after banging heads with him.  Hedo was sent to the hospital (the second Raptor to do so in as many nights as Bosh went last night).  No report on whether his answer was "ball".
  • Rondo going against Calderon is like the guy you play in pick-up that's always there, and you're always better than him, and you always have your way against him.  I loved those guys.
  • Remember the Lakers-Celtics game for Genesis?  How certain guys had their specialty moves, like Charles Barkley's gorilla dunk from the foul line (which didn't need momentum; you could come to a complete stop and then proceed to dunk from the foul line lol) or the Tom Chambers dunk from the 3 point line?  If Reggie Evans was in the game, his specialty shot would be the missed layup.
  • Good to see Demar Derozan out of the starting lineup; Weems is much more fundamentally-sound than him.  Can't believe it took Jay Triano that long to recognize that.
  • Yet  another DISASTROUS end of the quarter situation, this time on the defensive end to end the 2nd quarter.  Toronto checks in Marco "the Sieve" Bellinelli for Reggie Evans.  So Toronto has 4 perimeter guys on the floor along with Bargnani, the 7 footer who masquerades as a guard.  Perkins and KG are both out there so Perkins is forced to take Antoine Wright who hits a 3 pointer.  Doc those 3 points are on you- why wasn't Perkins subbed for, it was an obvious disadvantage.
  • Ray Allen in the 4th quarter had a fantastic behind-the-back move.  If he had dunked on Charles Barkley instead of just laying it in, it would've been considered one of the greatest plays of all time.
  • Finley and Ray running those baseline screens in the 4th quarter was a thing of beauty to watch.  Sort of reminded me of this awesome video, which I needed an excuse to post lol:

  • Finley finished with 14 points (11 in the 4th quarter), including 4-5 on 3 pointers.  I really hope he resigns in Boston for 1 more season.  And although Paul had 20 and KG had 19, they were quiet.  Finley's shooting  in the 4th is what kept Toronto at bay.
  • Jarret Jack has got to be one of the most frequent players to jump into defenders.  Devin Harris without question leads this category.

The Celtics bounce back off an awful loss and beat a depleted Raptors team.  Atlanta's up 9 with about 7 minutes to go vs Detroit, so as of now, it looks like they may not be able to make up any ground.  Hawks totally blew it, no Joe Johnson and they're pretty mediocre.  They lost to the Pistons and now Boston moves back into the 3rd seed since they're tied.