UPDATE 1:28 pm: Magic coach Stan Van Gundy agrees with us. Of course he does, he’s a smart man. These were his comments today at shootaround, as reported by the Orlando Sentinel.
“You know, it’s so funny the way things go, because we went down 0-3
and a lot of you guys were calling us ‘soft’ and everything else. Now
we’re like ‘bullies.’ So, I don’t know what we are. You guys change from
day to day….
“Look, the Celtics are far more physical than we are.
I mean, they push, shove, hit. They’ve been going after Dwight all
year. They always do. It’s part of their game plan, OK? And they always
do. I’m not saying dirty at all. That’s the way Kendrick Perkins plays
him: hit him, hit him, hit him. They’re a very physical team, and I
respect that. I’m not saying that as a negative at all. But all of the
sudden, what, they’re the ‘poor, picked-upon Boston Celtics, who are a
finesse team and don’t hit?’ Come on.”
11:38 pm: For three seasons now, the Boston Celtics have been a team that tries to intimidate. They are physical. Kevin Garnett gets in your face and claps and barks. Kendrick Perkins pushes people around in the paint. As a team they hook and hold and grab and clutch.
Dwight Howard has pushed back this series. Hard. And the Celtics fans don’t like that one bit.
Take Ron Borges column in the Boston Herald calling for Dwight Howard to be put in his place.
Far be it from me to advocate gratuitous violence, but in the case of the Magic’s elbow-swinging cheap-shot artist, two words come to mind: Why not?
Playing hard, banging bodies, pushing and shoving to gain position are all well and good. In those cases, Howard is just establishing himself in the post in the way it’s done these days.
It’s quite another thing indeed to “accidentally” flatten Pierce in consecutive games, to “accidentally” leave Davis staggering around Amway Arena like a guy who just was drilled by a Mike Tyson combination, and to “accidentally” level Rajon Rondo [stats] when he drives with everything but an ax handle.
My mom is a wise woman, and one of her favorite phrases — don’t dish it out if you can’t take it.
Dwight Howard has pushed back. Howard has been physical but things like the play to Davis were incidental. He gets in and mixes it up and sometimes people get hurt. This is not some no-contact, fifth-grade YMCA game, this is the Eastern Conference Finals. This is a physical series, stop whining and go play. Fans — act like men ad expect your team to do the same. Don’t bring up the vision of Kevin McHale clotheslining Kurt Rambis if you can’t take it, too.
The Celtics have been physical and knocking teams around as much as they could for years. If they want to win this series — and they had better do that tonight — they need to forget about petty justice and play like men. Take the physical play, hold their ground and get those loose balls. Because you know Dwight Howard and the Magic will.
