Workin’ For It: Cavaliers-Celtics Game 2: Behind the Box Score
April 22, 2015Browns believed to be “front runners” to land Marcus Mariota
April 22, 2015
Happy Wednesday, Blawg Pound. I hope this edition of While We’re Waiting… finds you well. I hope you’re enjoying the sunshine. I hope you’re taking care of that pesky spring cleaning. I hope that you’re having a good time with whatever it is you’re doing.
I’m in the process of moving into a new apartment — if you feel I’ve been writing less recently, that’s the reason — and it’s a wonderful combination of obnoxious and exciting and tiresome. Lugging chunky furniture up narrow stairways is unsettling, and taking care of all the utilities is a pain, but it’s all worth it once you finally get your place in order.
Maybe it’s my years of playing The Sims; I just think few things are as fun as setting up a new pad. It’s a symbol of possibility. You can — if you’re the sole resident, that is, or at least the stronger-willed one — set it up however you like. You get to craft an entire living space in your own image.
You get to decide what’s really important, and that can be a telling exercise. After spending years abroad1, I’m excited to fill up a pad on American soil. I still don’t have some things, including the small matter of a bed, but that will be taken care of soon enough.
Once I get all of these ducks in a row, I will officially be a resident of Ohio City. This is no small thing, as I’m an east sider, born and raised. Tell me, Blawg Pound: anything I oughta know about heading west? Should I get vaccinated? Are there bears over there? Is it true that I need to get my passport stamped?
These Celtics are stubborn SOBs. Much of what we heard about the Celtics going into this series has held true, especially that they’re well-coached. What does that really mean, though: well-coached? We have heard that phrase a lot, but rarely have I heard it actually described and explained. It has something to do with what sorts of tactics they employ on offense and defense, yes, but there’s only so much NBA strategy.
Basketball can be complicated, but it isn’t like Brad Stevens is inventing a new way to play the game. His teams still run pick-and-roll and swing the ball from side to side. They drive and kick and seek advantageous mismatches. On defense they pressure the ball, led by guys like Marcus Smart and Avery Bradley. They swarm the strong side, make smart switches, and are generally irritants to their opponents.
So yes, they run smart stuff, and Stevens designs terrific inbounds plays, but it’s not earth-shattering.
If you want to see Stevens’ effect on the game, look at the little things. Did you notice how a couple of LeBron’s cross-court passes — those leaping, cutting diagonals — were swiped in Game 2? He makes those passes all the time, often sparking around-the-horn ball movement that yields open threes or alley-oops. Stevens and his charges took note, and they did well to take that pass away, if only a bit. It’s a little thing, but enough of those can be difference-makers in a seven-game series.
The other thing is the one that I most often equate with good coaching: the Celtics play hard. It’s the playoffs, sure, and every team should play hard, but that doesn’t just happen. It takes weeks and months of work to develop play-hard habits. It’s a skill as much as shooting and dribbling in that it takes practice. A good coach makes his team believe they can win to the point that they want to play hard, and schools them well enough so that they can also play smart.
Boston has a bunch of solid, rotation-caliber players, but there’s no way they hang in with the Cavs for the better part of two games without playing their asses off. They have done exactly that, and they’re making the Cavs match their effort. The Cavs will likely dispatch the Celtics in relatively short order, but I’m glad that they’re not able to walk through it.
[Workinâ For It: Cavaliers-Celtics Game 2: Behind the Box Score]
This happened last night:
Kevin Love says he felt like Billy Ho from "White Men Can't Jump" after his reverse lob dunk.
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) April 22, 2015
So did this:
Every once in a while, if you’re lucky, you come across a song or a movie or a book or a show that speaks to you. It makes you think about things. It makes you reconsider things. It makes you wonder about your place in the world, and if you’re doing it right — whatever it is. If you’re really lucky, you come across a person or a group that produces a bunch of stuff that makes you feel that way, and you get to run through it for a good long while.
Bill Withers is one of those people for me. He just got inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which is great, but which also doesn’t matter. I think he’s the man regardless.
Even if you couldn’t pick him out of a lineup, you know at least a couple of his songs. “Lean On Me”? That’s him. “Ain’t No Sunshine”? That’s Bill, too. “Just the Two of Us”? Yep. “Grandma’s Hands”? Well, maybe you don’t know that one, but you’ve likely heard Bill sampled in “No Diggity” by Blackstreet; that’s him playing guitar and humming in the background.
There’s a marvelous documentary about Withers’ life simply titled Still Bill. He was born and raised in a town called Slab Fork, West Virginia. He served in the United States Navy for nine years. He worked on airplanes and made toilets after that, thinking up melodies in his head all the while.
Then he became a recording star. He played music his way — with no big fuss — eschewing dancing girls and shiny costumes in favor of tambourines and acoustic guitars.2Â He played a concert in then-Zaire before the Rumble in the Jungle between Foreman and Ali. He was handsome and talented and famous.
And then he walked away, content to fade into the background. He still played and produced tunes here and there, but he was out of the spotlight, and that was okay. He’s 76 now, and he’s perfectly happy with his life.
There’s a quote in the movie that especially resonates with me: “It’s okay to head out for Wonderful, but on your way to Wonderful, you’re gonna have to pass through Alright. And when you get to Alright, take a good look around and get used to it, because that may be as far as you’re gonna go.”
One might read that as depressing, but I see it as the opposite. Aspiring is a good and natural thing. One should want to be great — to seek out that place called Wonderful. But just making it to Alright is not failing. Alright is an alright place to be. Alright is a symbol of contentedness, but it doesn’t have to mean complacency. You can still take big swings. Alright is being happy with what you have, even if you miss.
That’s the goal of this big game we’re all playing, isn’t it?
Thanks for reading, gang. Make today a good one. Shoot for Wonderful. Don’t sweat it if Alright is as far as you get; Alright is just fine.
- I taught English in South Korea for three years. [↩]
- From Still Bill: “Most of the major record companies called me up. They had this rhythm and blues syndrome in their minds with the horns and the three chicks and a gold lamĂ© suit, and I wasn’t really into that. So I thought, ‘Well, I got this good job making these toilets; I don’t need you cats.'” [↩]
36 Comments
I’m going to go off on a tangent for a moment…
Adrian Peterson needs to stop behaving like a petulant child who is whining about his punishmentâŠwe all know how HE punishes misbehaving children.
He needs to shut up and take his punishmentâŠhe got off easier than his kid.
Rant over.
Trade 2 first rounders for Phillip Rivers. Trade second rounder for AP. Drop mic. Exit stage left.
Will – do yourself a favor, head over to Lakewood and grab a pulled pork sammy from Jammy Buggars. Thank me later.
http://media.giphy.com/media/ShlElIEiSrUk0/giphy.gif
We oughta get a faux-vintage handmade sign that says TANGENTS WELCOME for morning posts.
I love that Lebron went all Liu Kang on Marcus Smart.
http://images.rapgenius.com/c2a290a72e49b22b6f8f7164203f42db.500x429x7.gif
FINISH THEM (in Boston)
http://t.qkme.me/3qbtii.jpg
Throughout this series I’m developing a bit of Brad Stevens envy. Poised, clever schemes, good communicator, humble demeanor, clearly earned respect from his players. Even his sideline huddle platitudes seem more substantive than the usual banalities picked up by the wired coach’s mic. He seems the type of stable and visionary leader who could turn a franchise with young stars into a Spurs-like dynasty. Not sure I see the same potential in Blatt
Spurs-like dynasty? Let’s see if they can win a playoff game, then a playoff series, first.
The fantasy was having him coach our young talent rather than Boston. Thanks for bringing me back to earth on a Wednesday morning đ
I really hate those wired mic segments. They, by design, only share audio that is not critical strategy. This means it’s always just a “ok, play hard” type of sound bite which is utterly useless and just makes the coaches sound dumb. I hate those little segments for that reason.
Yeah, you sort of mine them for any substance while looking more at player body language and whether they are regarding the coach with any degree of interest. Blatt and Mike Brown have not come off well in these segments, which are admittedly not a representative sample of coaching acumen, but are a shred of evidence for fans to scrutinize (which is why it’s still fun despite the eternal return of cliches)
Then just set the dial to 2010 and…. SUPER BOWL!
http://media.topito.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/timetravel.gif
Don’t worry it won’t be this season but that will be coming much sooner then all of the experts predicted too. 10 first round draft picks over the next 5 years!
Need Spurs-level players first. He finished under .500, but made the playoffs, which will make it more difficult for them to find their Tim Duncan.
Also, who is to say what a young team would have been doing under Blatt who is a veteran version of Brad Stevens (or at least that was the European narrative). Give a guy a few alpha dogs in the house and he has to change how the house is run.
Don’t worry Will. While you are on the good side of the city now, you are still more part of an extended downtown then the West side (or you can at least pretend that to keep your rep with your East side friends).
My question is, would he be able to be that guy with a team of stars and veterans like ours? I’m not so sure. He’s the ideal guy for a young squad like theirs, but someone like Blatt, with his experiences in so many places with bigger names (especially his international work) and egos and stakes, is the right fit here. Definitely becoming an admirer of his, though not to the level of drooling that many in the media have reached. The future is bright for the C’s
Should have read ahead before posting my response and saved myself the typing.
Van Morrison is for me what you’re describing with Bill Withers (who is most certainly great as well). Just reaches you and puts you in a different place. Find yourself a nice view of the sunset (preferably over water, but any spot will do), pour a glass of whiskey, and throw on some “Astral Weeks”, and even the worst days will melt away.
Right. As soon as they broadcast substantive and specific strategy, or even a player-coach angry confrontation, the coaches won’t be wearing no mic. Same with the players – miraculously there’s no playback convos about the a-hole opposing player or the girl in the green top in the third row.
yessir. And he always brings it. Incapable of a desultory performance. Because of that never minded his long gaps between output.
From a dispositional standpoint, Blatt and Stevens are very different creatures in terms of their composure and presence. Don’t think that Stevens would have exacerbated interpersonal situations that became major media storylines (publicly contradicting Lebron, criticizing Love as not being a max contract player, alluding to Love’s injuries, etc). Blatt’s management style and abrasiveness have concerned me since his hire – don’t think you have those concerns in any comparable degree with Stevens
He also doesn’t have superstars on his team who think they know what’s best and choose to just run whatever offense they feel like running. Part of being a good coach is getting your superstars to listen to you, sure. But it’s easy to coach a team to be hard working and scrappy when you have a bunch of players who are role players or guys who feel they have something to prove. Coaching a team with LeBron James and Kyrie Irving is a completely different animal.
I should have read yours before I typed mine. And before that, I should have read Bode’s.
I told this to Will already, but my Bill Withers is Mark Lanegan. “I’ll Take Care of You” is one of my biggest go to albums when I’m in a certain mood and/or feeling a certain way.
honestly, have no idea because Stevens has never been at a place where he wasn’t the alpha male. college HC are alpha. he is running a NBA team where the players are all scrap-heap guys, therefore he is the alpha.
maybe he would transcend if he had a LeBron, Love, and Kyrie (along with the other veterans), but I do not think it is fair to assume it would be the same.
Van Morrison is right up there, but my main fallback is John Lee Hooker. I have posted both plenty of times here though, so let’s go with another great one. Robert Cray band is just smooth and soothing, while going through everything that may ail you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCloZzqtAu8
The Spurs run Pop’s offense, the Rockets run a offense that Morey tailors. The Warriors and Clippers have talented improvisors, but still run offenses within the scheme of what the coach wants to do.
Superstars going rogue around the league is nowhere near as common as it is in Cleveland.
Great minds and such
Amen. I often work till 4 am Fridays or Saturdays then have to get up and be back by 9:30 the next morning. Nerves still jangling from blaring music and the mewling, baying nonsensities of young adults drunk on drunkenness and high on an over inflated sense of entitlement. As I drive in the morning the sun is in my face and by the time Cypress Avenue comes on life is tolerable again, a quick little soul bath.
For extra therapy I recommend the works of Mr. John Prine, and one outside the box a little War. Put on “Why Can’t We be Friends” and by the time “So” plays if you are still angry then you’ve got a problem with life, and you might as well delve into nu metal as your only listening choice because you aren’t ever going to be happy.
I love sports, but I think I’m done commenting on them, I’m here for music and random popculture references only*. I love reading the many well written view here writers and commenters, but I just can’t care enough to work enough sand into my drawers to formulate opinions on them anymore. Hope they win, but I’ll be as disappointed as a guy who had to settle for Natalie Wood because Liz Taylor chose Rock Hudson (*see).
AP, Rivers, and 9 little Eloi ought to be enough.
yeah, and look what that did for the Browns.
to be fair, San Antonio’s superstar isn’t a ball-dominant player. Parker is nice but he is no superstar. When your superstar is ball-dominant, it’s easier for him to hijack the offense.
Houston certainly runs “an offense” but in late-game situations it’s all James Harden. Maybe that’s by design but it doesn’t mean it’s part of “the offense.”
Of course, Phil ran the triangle in Chicago which was NEVER hijacked by Michael Jordan. That’s sarcasm.
That’s them this is the Celtics.
John Prine is fantastic. Caught him live down here back in 2008, and it was a terrific show. If “Souvenirs” or “Angel from Montgomery” doesn’t hit you right in the feels, I’m not sure anything will.