Things I Learned from Bulls/Celtics

Okay I gotta ask...

WTF did Brad Miller do in this series that was so great? Was it the 2 clutch plays he put together in game six? Honestly... Rose, Noah, Gordon, Thomas, and Hinrich were a much bigger deal for the Bulls.

I really felt like the moving screens were as bad if not worse on Chicago's end (mainly because Perk doesn't get away with those). But, I'm a huge homer. I'll also conceed that no player in the league gets away with more illegal screens than Garnett. It just didn't come in to play because he was out.

But, I guess that's the nature of the game. The officiating in the league has always been subjective and any fans of a losing team will always have legitimate beefs with the officiating.

It's tough because I feel like a lot of people since Donaghy(and I'm not suggesting it's happening in this post. I'm just rambling here) point to missed calls or late game calls that could go either way and talk about games being fixed. The truth of it is that if a game comes down to the final possession and a guy drives hard and there is some contact then half of the fans are going to be happy and half are going to feel like the opposite call should have been made. It's the nature of the game.

Maybe that's why people were so upset about Heat/Mavs. For the first time, if the Heat had lost, they could not have complained about the officiating.

What's interesting about the Rondo thing is that 1) it does seem like mostly an overreaction to two plays, and 2) I'm not sure that that matters. Because those plays happened when they did, in this series, under a big national spotlight, they've clearly affected his reputation for some time -- and he might embrace that. Or at least not shy away from it. I mean, he's clearly cocky as hell, and pretty ornery (so the rep isn't _entirely_ based on those plays -- but it mostly is).

Anyway, it reminds me of this brilliant comment someone posted over at Free Darko:

"Watching Rondo in this series feels like one of those
'origins' comic book movies where we see the villain as an innocent boy, and we understand that becoming evil was simply a survival mechanism. Even if he goes on to become the new Isiah, I will love him because I saw the child in him die."

Missing out would assume I'm not going to still watch the Celtics.

This backlash against Rondo is way overdone. Think about it for a second -- yes, the Miller foul was hard, and he admitted he wasn't within reach of the ball, but he's not trying to punch the guy in the face. He's trying to hit the right arm so it's not a soft and-one foul. The Hinrich tussle was nothing -- Ray Allen, who you consider likeable, got into probably 5 or 6 dustups like that this year.

Rondo is one of the most fun players in the league and is extremely likeable. People are really overreacting over two plays that were overblown.

I get it since your a CHI fan, I'm probably down on guys for worse reasons who have wronged the Cs. But you're missing out on a really special player by overblowing two things.

I never said Rondo was bullying. Except tossing Hinrich when he was backpedaling seems to fit that description.

Perkins is lucky they can only call 6 fouls a game on him. He pushes in the back basically every rebound and every post up. Davis moves and holds every screen. But those were pretty much allowed this series (Chicago got away with it too, just not as often) so that's good for Boston.

I'm a biased Celtics fan, but I don't have a clue what exactly you could hate about Big Baby Davis. Rondo did take some big leaps into "super-villain" territory this series, and of course, I loved it.

Come on man, some of that is ridiculous. Actually, most of it is fine. But the dig at Perk and Big Baby? Perk is extremely underrated as an interior defender and he stepped up huge this series. As did Big Baby. Can't you conceed that without any "buts". I don't think getting away with calls was "the only reason" they played well. Miller and Noah get away with plenty as well. They both set moving picks all the time. Perk gets whistled for it if he moves an inch.

How is it "bullying" when a 6-footer smacked a 7-footer in the face? We're not talking about Garnett shouting at Bayless here. Call Rondo overly physical, sure, and say the refs blew the call, fine, but that's hardly bullying.

And this is indeed a very fun Bulls team. Noah and Thomas have kind of annoying personalities, but I like their games, and Rose could become amazing very soon (he's not there yet). I like Hinrich, too -- and it'll be interesting to see how Deng fits in as one cog among many rather than a miscast alpha dog.