There would be no talk this time around about the Washington Wizards pissing down their legs, or Andray Blatche woofing with Kevin Garnett and getting the All-Star’s juices flowing.  The Wizards couldn’t hold a 13-point lead last time these two teams met, but a 28-point lead proved to be more than enough.  It might have helped that Blatche decided to keep his mouth shut this time, deciding not to talk trash, preferring to let the Celtics continue to play dead.

But his reason for staying silent was a bit unbelievable.  Read more »

All the KG-Blatche comparisons are hereby finished.

Can we please stop comparing Andray Blatche to Kevin Garnett? I realize they are both insanely talented, freakishly long seven-feet (-ish) tall human beings that possess skills and abilities so unique they should probably be deemed unlawful.

But Kevin Garnett never would have left his team out to dry, as Blatche did yesterday when he refused to reenter a game after being pulled for not getting back on defense. (Washington Post)

“Yeah I guess, just because of everything,” Saunders said when asked if this incident was the low point in a season filled with forgettable moments. “This team, we’ve lost a lot of close games, you know, and you’ve got a chance, and when you have coaches go up and ask a player that’s supposedly your quote-unquote key player to play, and he just says he doesn’t want to play.

“I don’t care. You can be upset with me, but don’t leave your teammates hanging out to dry like that. You don’t do that. You don’t do that. That’s one of the greatest things about this sport. You look to the right, and you look to the left. It’s being in the trenches with those players. And what happens is as players, you know what you have. Right now, those teammates, he’s lost their credibility. What’s going to happen when things go bad? You can’t do those things.”

Saunders then continued, even invoking Garnett’s name to put down Blatche.

“You [know] what I’m disappointed in?” Saunders said. “I’m disappointed in that since we started him, 60 percent of the offense is run through him. Coaches aren’t wrong, no matter what. When a coach wants to teach you something, and you think you’re about that because you’ve played 16 good games?

“I mean I [coached] Kevin Garnett [in Minnesota]. That guy, you’d say one thing, and he’s up there, ‘What do you want coach?’ He wanted to get better every time. He never copped that type of attitude. That’s ridiculous. It really is. I am extremely disappointed. I am the most disappointed I’ve ever been in 15 years with a player. Most disappointed.”

Blatche has embarrassed himself, his team, and his sport.  If you have a problem with your coach, fine.  No big deal, that happens all the time.

But when you let your teammates down so blatantly, you’ve disrespected the integrity of the game.  Congratulations, Andray.  I just lost all the respect I ever had for you.

We criticize Doc Rivers a lot. But it could be worse.

Patience, young grasshopper. It’s a virtue, they say.

And Doc Rivers has it in spades.

There can be no denying Doc’s patience, after Doc told reporters yesterday he wouldn’t make any lineup changes despite the Celtics’ overwhelmingly mediocre play. While Doc is standing by the starters who won him a championship, here’s a look at how some other coaches might have responded while coaching the Celtics to a similar prolonged spell of losing.

Don Nelson – After two losses, Nelson would have clashed with Rajon Rondo, infuriating the rising star and forcing him to ask for a trade.  By the fifth loss, Nelson would have had half the D-League playing for the Celtics, with a starting lineup including Cartier Martin, Diamon Simpson and Antonio Anderson.

Stan Van Gundy – Van Gundy would have gone through larynx surgery by now, after spending two months ruining that voice box of his.  He then would have been re-admitted into the hospital a second time, this time following a heart attack.  During his second trip to the hospital, he would have been screaming, “It isn’t me who needs heart surgery! It’s Vince Carter!”

Mike Dunleavy – Dunleavy would have signed Steve Novak, just so he could insert him, completely cold,  into a tie game with less than ten seconds remaining.

Jim O’Brien – Desperate for a lack of perimeter shooting off the bench, O’Brien would have traded for the multi-talented Andray Blatche.  Then, he would have transformed him into strictly a three-point shooter, and taught him a little shimmy to perform after big buckets.

Flip Saunders – Saunders’s first move would have been to install a 24/7 security team inside the Celtics’ locker room.  After that, he would have screamed about how his team was pissing all over its legs, and reminisced with KG about Mark Madsen.

Mike D’Antoni – Upset by having the NBA’s first-ranked defense at his disposal, D’Antoni’s first move would be firing Tom Thibodeau.  “We try to score around here, and we aren’t concerned with anything else,” D’Antoni would explain.

And finally…

Phil Jackson – In between LSD trips, Jackson would have found the time to recommend a nice book to each player on his team.  For Pau Gasol, the book would have beem, “How a Seven-Footer Learns To Cope with Being Soft.”  For Lamar Odom, “What to do When You Get the Ugliest Sister.”

It remains to be seen whether Doc’s stubborn unwillingness to make changes will be the right move in the long run, but it’s safe to say he’s handled losing better than some of these other coaches would have.

You can say what you want about Doc, but staying loyal to his team and having faith that his players will pull it together certainly beats signing Steve Novak as an end-of-game specialist.

Flip Saunders had some fantastic quotes the other night after the Celtics-Wizards game. He talked about how his team pissed down its own leg, ripped his team’s newfound best player (Andray Blatche), and basically sounded off like Stan Van Gundy Light.

He also had one more great quote, about what not to do against Kevin Garnett or other wound-up, insane, hyper-competitive superstars. (Washington Post)

“We talked, screamed, talked, did a little bit of everything,” Saunders said. “His argument was, ‘I’m not going to let anyone talked like that.’ I said, ‘You’ve got to understand one of the keys at this level is understanding your opponent. Understanding what they try to do and as much as anything, this game becomes mental.’

“That’s what Garnett does, he talks. He’s talked for his whole career,” he said. “He tries to get into people. He gets more frustrated with guys like Tim Duncan that don’t talk back. Guys that talk back, he feels like he’s getting through to him and it kind of motivates him, gets his juices kind of flowing. One thing you don’t want to do with a guy with a high motor, a high-energy guy like Garnett. You don’t want to force them to go to the next level.”

With Saunders’ advice in hand, I think I would fare very well against KG. I’d let him scream my ear off, kiss my cheek, insult my mother, and do and say whatever. I’d simply sit quietly until he imploded, then I’d stroll in for a layup as Rasheed Wallace undoubtedly would forget to rotate and help KG out.

Perfect plan? Yup, I’d say so.