I am Jack's pulsating ball of rage.

All the things Boston did right in the first two games against Atlanta were thrown out the window tonight.  They played terribly as a team, taking quick shots, never making the extra pass, leaving Hawks open for shots.  They only forced 11 turnovers, let Atlanta shoot 47% from the field (56% from downtown), and the biggest issue of all, let the Hawks snag 12 offensive boards.

To be honest, I probably should wait until the morning to write this.  I'm a tad bit too angry to look at tonight's game analytically.  I just want to complain and scream and demand answers to questions like, Why was Leon Powe on the court for only 6 minutes, when Glen Davis (who looked terrible and lost tonight) played for 16?  Why is Sam Cassell hoisting up contested shots immediately after bringing the ball up the court?  If we wanted a gunner, we'd be playing Eddie House.  Why are we letting this young Hawks team run up and down the court, using our defense for their own personal slam dunk contest?  If Larry Bird were still a Celtic, Josh Smith would've landed in the 3rd row during one of those fast breaks.  Why are we playing some half-rate team, in some half-rate arena that doesn't even have functioning shot clocks?  Most importantly, why did the Celtics, aka, "The Best Team In The League" look frazzled and overmatched playing a sub-.500 team that didn't even deserve to be in the post season?

The only stretch of the game that we played well was the end of the second quarter.  Down by 9, we clamped down on defense, pressured Bibby (who, despite what you may hear on SportsCenter was terrible yet again, shooting 4-12 and 2-6 from from the line), forced him to commit a couple of turnovers and got some easy baskets.  For four minutes it appeared that we were done slacking off and were ready to bury the Hawks.  But, in completely uncharacteristic fashion (like every other aspect of the game) we came out of the lockerroom at half, ready to lay down and let the Hawks posterize us over and over and over again. 

BOXSCORE 

We gave them open looks, let them beat us down the court, never got any flow going on offense, looked for the first shot instead of the best shot, let the poor officiating frustrate us and just played a poor game of basketball.   

MVC:  With the exception of Garnett tonight, the rest of the Celtics were ho-hum... except for Cassell.  He was downright awful.  I don't care that he won 2 championships 40 years ago, until he can commit to running our offense, get him off the court.  Anyway, that's why KG is tonight's MVC.  He cared and he wanted to win.  The Hawks had no answer for KG, and Boston should've ensured that he got 5-7 more field goal attempts.  He finished the game with 32 points, 10 rebounds (4 off.), 3 assists, 2 steals and 1 block on 11-19 shooting.  He was dominating, he just wasn't enough.  We needed someone else to step up tonight, and it just didn't happen.

The last thing I want to comment on before I go stew in my anger is Al Horford.  Rookie needs to get slapped up.  If you didn't watch the game, with just around a minute left Pierce was guarding Horford while Atlanta was just running down the clock.  I didn't see how it happened, but Pierce slipped (tripped?) and fell around the 3-point line.  Horford, now wide open, got the ball and knocked down the open jumper.  On his way back down the court, he began pointing and screaming at Pierce, who was rising to his feet.  First off, that should've been a technical, but keeping with their sub-par standards, the Ref's let it go.  However, Pierce got to his feet, a look of absolute anger on his face, and began to follow Horford down the court.  Luckily, our dear friend Brian Scalabrine (decked out in a nice suit tonight) ran down and pulled Pierce back to the Celtics bench.  That was the end of that altercation.

But there are 2 things any Celtics fan knows about Paul Pierce that Horford may not be aware of.  First, the man is crazy.  Second, you don't want to piss him off... but that's exactly what Horford just did.  I absolutely expect Pierce to go off for 40 points on Monday.  Whatever Paul does, we need to take back control of this series, let the Hawks know what Playoff basketball is all about, and get back to playing the brand of basketball that we expect. 

I think it's time we switch the team's motto from "Ubuntu" back to "Celtic Pride".  Doc should force these guys to watch a few tapes of the old Lakers-Celtics games, let them know what those banners mean to this city and its fans.  Come on, Celtics, we're better than this.  Now let's go out there and knock Al Horford on his ass a couple times.