How could be possibly ever be considered a good idea to start a basketball game — being held on the east coast — at 9 p.m.? The average onlooker has work the next morning and will probably not be drawn to stay up that late to see a Game 2. It’s not as if the NBA is competing against programming that would take away potential viewers. It’s Sunday night! The only thing that may lure some viewers are reruns of Family Guy or Desperate Housewives. Sunday Night Baseball’s match up of the Cubs at the Dodgers is nothing too special either. I’d really like someone to explain this one to me.
As for the game, it was nice to see a sense of consistency from game 1 to game 2 with the refereeing being still very pro-Celtics. When the free throw differential is 38-10, there is something wrong. Leon Freaking Powe was at the line more than the Lakers and it wasn’t as if they weren’t driving or attacking with the ball. It will be interesting to see if this reverses with the series shifting to Los Angeles for games 3 and 4 (possibly a 5 if the refs finally call a fair game).
“Paul Pierce doesn’t look injured, he’s been the best player on the floor,” analyst Mark Jackson said coming back from the half. Hmm, perhaps it’s because he wasn’t injured? Perhaps he was faking the mysterious, crippling knee injury that he could run on mere minutes later? Perhaps he was getting every call in a sympathetic way? “The Truth” nickname should no longer apply to Pierce.
Random thought: Did the game’s producers really have to run a profile about Leon Powe’s journey to the NBA at the half? They really couldn’t have come up with a better feature about a better player? They only have a maximum of seven half-time pieces to do, was this really in the top-2? I am very disappointed in this.