The best player on the court isn’t just beating the Celtics, he’s being amused by them. He’s being pestered by them, irritated by them, bored by them, and to a degree that he looks at the Celtics — to be precise, he looks at Celtic Grant Williams — and turns his face into a roadside billboard on which is written just one word.
Really?
Williams dialed up the intimidation during Game 2 Friday night at TD Garden, and we can all agree that intimidation is a wonderful thing in sports. When it works. As in when the guy you’re trying to intimidate gets knocked off his game, or maybe does something stupid in retaliation. But it didn’t work, not a bit. ...
But think about the optics. The Heat were looked at as plucky underdogs when they toppled the Bucks in the opening round of the NBA’s annual championship tourney. When they took out the Knicks in the second round, they were a team not to be taken lightly. And now? Not only have they won two straight road games to open the conference finals, they have turned the Celtics into the journeyman baseball pitcher who gives up two straight home runs and then drills the next batter in the ribs.
Butler was wonderfully diplomatic after the game, and yet at the same time he talked about the Celtics as though they were children. “I like that,” he said about the, um, intimidation from Williams. “I’m all for that. It makes me key in a lot more. It pushes that will that I have to win a lot more. It makes me smile. It does. When people talk to me, I’m like, OK, I know I’m a decent player, if you want to talk to me out of everybody that you can talk to. But it’s just competition. I do respect him, though. He’s a big part of what they try to do. He switches. He can shoot the ball. I just don’t know if I’m the best person to talk to.”
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Know this: If the Celtics lose this series, a referendum on Mazzulla will be held. Know this as well: What also will be remembered, and remembered for a long time, is that the Celtics kinda got laughed at by the other team.
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...these sudden and hard-to-explain, not-ready-for-prime-time jitters...
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It’s all about winning, of course. But now, for the Celtics, it’s also about getting their dignity back.
Nice piece.
