Tuesday, January 19

The Celtics and Ramblings....

The Boston Celtics are in a funk. Since losing Kevin Garnett to a mysterious knee injury, they have a pedestrian record of 5-5. A knee injury that is starting to eerily play out a lot like Garnett’s injury last year, an injury he never returned from. The Celtics are calling the injury a hyperextension of his knee. The same knee he injured last year. The Celtics are claiming that Garnett will be back for their game against Portland this Friday the 22nd. If he retunes on Friday, he would have missed almost a month of game action.
As you can see from last nights Celtics game against the Mavericks, Garnett’s defensive presence is sorely missed. They miss his intensity, his athleticism, and his long arms that can bother shots for many players on opposing teams. Dirk Nowitzky had a field day against the Celtics last night. Putting Rasheed Wallace, or Brian Scalabrine on Dirk did not get the job done. The Celtics defense has gone down hill since KG got injured and they need him back sooner rather than later in order for them to be a true contender.
Once KG returns to the lineup the Celtics will once again be the team to beat in the East. They have a very well rounded team that, with the addition of Rasheed, has excellent playoff weapons. When healthy, the Celtics are contenders to win the NBA title, if they are not healthy they are a team that will lose in the second round of the playoffs. We saw these outcomes in each of the past two years. In 2008, the Celtics had their first year with the Big 3. They remained healthy all year long and the Big 3 led the Celtics to a championship. However, last year, once KG got hurt, their season went down hill and they had to fight and claw their way out of the first round and they took the eventual runner-up Magic to 7 only to lose on their home court. If the Celtics are healthy they will have enough weapons to win the East and and have an excellent shot at beating the Western Conference Champions in the Finals. But when you rely on the knees of a 33 year old seven-footer who has played in over 1100 games in his career, IF is a very key word.
I think that once KG comes back on Friday and he gets some of the rust off from the hiatus, the Celtic fans will be much more relaxed and the fact that they lost their seventh home game last night, compared to just six in each of the last two seasons, won’t be so magnified. The talking heads on ESPN seem to forget the Celtics have the best road record in the NBA, which currently stands at 16-5. The Celtics will be fine.
NFL Playoffs:
Crazy weekend in the NFL playoffs….
The Jets closed out the games with a thrilling come from behind win which saw them gain their first 1st down late in the second quarter and didn’t see them cross the goal line until the fourth quarter. They punished the Chargers late with Shone Green who broke free on a key 53-yard rushing touchdown midway through the 4th quarter. The Colts got to the AFC Championship game by dismantling everyone’s favorite darling, the Ravens, who were over-hyped after a big win in Foxboro the opening weekend of the playoffs.
Over in the NFC the Vikings defense dominated against an inferior Cowboys team. Favre played a solid game and didn’t turn the ball over. He can possibly carry this game into the Superdome where they will face the Saints in the NFC Championship Game on Sunday. The Saints laid the smack down on the Cardinals who, despite reaching the Super Bowl last year, looked very weak and couldn’t handle the Saints offense. We will see what the Vikings defense can do to stop the Saints offense later on this week.
24
The new season of 24 started this past Sunday night and it picks up with Jack healthy from his trial and risky procedure that was done with his daughter Kim to save his life. He tries to get you to believe that he is moving back to LA with his daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter, but there is an on-going peace process between President Taylor and President Omar Hassan, which of course, being the 24 veterans that we all are, be disrupted with an assassination attempt. An old informant, who has been shot, tells Jack that he helped bring in an assassin that is trying to assassinate President Hassan, sucks Jack back into helping CTU, which is in NY now and looks remarkably fake and ridiculous. Furthermore there is someone on the inside that is helping the assassin. CTU quickly and swiftly finds evidence that incriminates a journalist who is having an affair with President Hassan. This seems curiously suspicious to Chloe who wants CTU czar Brian Hasting to follow up on a lead, but is too arrogant and stupid to think he has the wrong person, so Chloe asks Jack to help, which he reluctantly agrees. Long story short, Jack and new CTU head of field ops Cole Ortiz, played by Freddie Prinze Jr., thwart the assassins attempt to kill President Hassan and they kill the assassin shortly after.
This sets up the season, as we learn that the assassin, who has traces of weapons grade uranium on his body, is part a very intricate and deadly sect of a Russian Mob syndicate. We then learn that President Hassan’s brother has nuclear ambitions and is against the peace process, was this a surprise to anyone? Jack is now sucked in for the season, and has to work with Renee Walker in order to infiltrate the Russian Mob sect to try and buy the Uranium. Why this would work? I am not sure seeing how the Russians have a very lucrative offer and deal with President Hassan’s brother.
So we shall see where this season goes, from the premier it looks like a typical season of 24, you aren’t going to get blown away by dialogue and great acting, but watching Jack do his thing is always good entertainment.
I enjoyed the wildly predictable season premier of 24 and look forward to watching season 8 and finding out all the secrets that were set up in the premier.

Coming up later in the week I will break down the Conference Championship games.

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