Foil in the Oven: The Hitter's Count

Consider Eddie House unleashed.

Holy shit. That was the greatest playoff win I have ever seen, by any team. 2002 was great, but it doesn't hold a candle to the significance of what the Celtics did last night. Maybe now people in the national media will finally concede what we've been saying on this site ever since the playoffs began. THE CELTICS ARE BETTER THAN THE LAKERS. When the Celtics are playing well, the Lakers can't touch them. If last night's historic come-from-behind win didn't convince you of this, then nothing will.

I don't want to dismiss the poor play from the first half. This was a pivotal game, and this team should have come out aggressive from the opening tip. Instead, they came out with the same lack of intensity that we saw in game 3. They never should have found themselves in that hole in the first place. But, the way they played in that second half was incredible. We've seen impressive defensive stretches from this team in the past, but I can't ever remember a game like that. Remember, the Lakers are the NBA's number one offense. To see the Celtics playing so poorly in the first quarter was disappointing. Seeing them dig deep and find a way to come back on the road is something that I'll never forget, and I imagine that last night's victory will be remembered as the pinnacle of a season that has been marked by one great moment after another.

In his post-game press conference, Doc Rivers was asked by a Los Angeles Sentinel Reporter about the general belief that the Celtics still have not played at their best during this series. He agreed, and said that he told his team that after the game. It's true, the Celtics are yet to play well for all four quarters of a game. And still, they lead 3-1. At this point, it's not a matter of whether or not they will win this series, it's a question of when. And, I guess that in a lot of ways that depends on the Lakers and how they respond to this soul-crushing defeat. Apparently, Kobe plans on drinking heavily:

Some thoughts on the game:

Great move by Doc to stick with Eddie House for most of the second half in order to space out the Lakers defense and open up more scoring lanes. We've been calling for Eddie to be unleashed, and last night was just what we had in mind. It will be interesting to see how the point guard situation plays out on Sunday. I'm sure Rondo will see more minutes. But, as the announcers stressed time and time again, Rondo can't pass up those open shots. Even if he's not making them, continuing to shoot them will attract more defensive attention.

Paul Pierce did not look good during that first half. And yet, it was Pierce who asked Doc Rivers if he could guard Kobe Bryant during the second half. Paul has been impressive on defense all year long, and there are a number of games that stick out to me. But, he was incredible last night in the second half. He didn't bite on any of Bryant's fakes. He didn't allow Bryant to get him off balance. This was the best player in the world that he was defending, and he had him locked down.

Also a great move by Doc to play James Posey for so many minutes down the stretch. By having all shooters in the game, he opened up a lot of one-on-one opportunities for the Celtics to exploit. An example of this was Ray's fleecing of Sasha Vujacic at the end. Doc was really reacting well to what the Lakers were doing, which is crazy for him.

Sasha Vujacic practicing for his audition to become the next Slovenian Idol

I've heard the question of "if the series were to end right now, who would be your MVP?" thrown around a lot over the past couple of days. There seems to be a consensus that Paul Pierce would be the front runner if the Celtics win the series. Look, Pierce is my favorite player, and nothing would make me happier. But, I'd like to throw Ray Allen out there right now as a possibility. Ray has had a great series, and he is the only one of the big three that has played consistently well throughout all four games (both Pierce and Garnett sucked on Tuesday, and Ray was a big reason why the Celtics were still in it until the end). Furthermore, Ray has done a great job on Kobe Bryant, and he played at a high level for all 48 minutes of last night's game.

Speaking of Ray, how about that leg-scissor that Sasha put on him. I've tried to find it on youtube but no luck. Instead, why don't we all just watch this clip of Ray abusing Vujacic on one of the game's final possessions.

Last night was one of those nights when you try to think of a play of the game, and you can't decide because there were so many huge shots. I'm going to go with the three-pointer that James Posey hit to bring the Celtics within one. I believe the score was 81-77 before he hit it. Please feel free to disagree with me below in our comments section. Obviously I'm talking about offensive plays. Otherwise, every fucking defensive possession in the second half could be considered the play of the game.

For some reason, the There Can Only Be One commercial last night towards the end of the game had a very powerful effect on me. Seeing those guys' entire faces while they read the lines was like seeing Darth Vader without his mask for the first time in Return of the Jedi.

Last night was incredible, and now the ultimate goal is within reach. As I've said, the Celtics are the better team. They just need to play hard and come out more aggressive on Sunday, and banner #17 will take care of itself.

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FRIDAY 90's ROCK TALK, VOLUME 2

People tend to write off Hole without ever giving them a shot. At least, that’s the way it was back in the 90s. Courtney Love became this sort of sad and tragic figure, and people never seemed to take her seriously as a musician because of it. I will certainly concede that she has seemed to be a bit outlandish at times, but I think that we can all agree that we can’t really say for sure how we would act if our spouse had blown their head off and we then had to deal with intense media scrutiny. Not really taking a stance either way here. Just saying.

Anyways, I can’t say that I celebrate the entire Hole catalog. In fact, I have no interest in most of it. In particular, I think that Celebrity Skin sucks. It’s not that I don’t think there was talent there, I just don’t think talent always produces results (sort of like the Nuggets I guess). But, like many bands do, Hole did manage to catch lightning in a bottle in 1994, and produced one of my favorite 90’s rock albums, Live Through This.




Here’s what David Fricke of Rolling Stone said in his 1994 review of Live Through This:
"Forget, just for a moment, everything you've heard about Courtney Love for the past three years – the tales, apocryphal and otherwise, of substance misadventure; her, uh, lively marriage to Nirvana's Kurt Cobain and checkered passage into motherhood; the endless Yoko Ono comparisons and dragon-bitch disses. Then go straight to the lusty, vengeful, lung-busting "Fuck y-o-u-u-u-u!" that blows the roof off "I Think That I Would Die" three-quarters of the way through Live Through This. Even if you have serious reservations about punk-rock brats living on major-label largesse or believe profanity is the last refuge of the inarticulate, the sheer force of Love's corrosive, lunatic wail – not to mention the guitar-drum wrath unleashed in its wake – is impressive stuff, a scorched-earth blast of righteous indignation as feral and convincing as anything in Johnny Rotten's bark-and-spittle repertoire."

Live Through This was one of the best rock albums of the 90s. I’ll stand by that statement until I die. This album epitomizes the grunge movement of the early 90s, and I think it stands up to anything that was put out by other grunge bands of that era (Nirvana included). If you own it, you know what I mean. If you don’t, and you loved the grunge rock of the early 90s, I guarantee that you can find it for cheap somewhere on the Internet and you won’t be disappointed. Plus, it’s only about 38 minutes long, so it won’t take long for you to appreciate it.

Now, there have always been rumors circulating about as to the level of involvement that Love’s husband, Nirvana front man Kurt Cobain, had on the album (which was released only four days after he was found dead). There are even some that claim he wrote the entire album. However, these rumors seem to be built more on a lack of appreciation for Love’s musical abilities than any actual facts. Here’s what I’ll say: I’m sure the two of them bounced ideas off each other all of the time. That’s what musicians do. But, I find it hard to believe that he wrote the album. First, neither of them seem like the types that are driven to compromise their artistic integrity for money. For both of these individuals, their music seemed to serve as more of an emotional release than a product designed for financial gain. Second, look at these videos. These performances seem too genuine for these songs to be coming from someone else. I was discussing this with this dude last Friday night while drinking heavily. The person was a musician my age that makes their money playing in local bars and clubs. His answer to my question was simply “I think that you tend to be much more creative when you are around creative people.” I felt pretty content with that answer.

Not on the CD, but still sick: