The most depressing Mother's Day commercial ever

I saw this ad on TV yesterday:

Unfortunately I couldn't find the video on youtube anywhere.  Although I was able to find a clip of last year's version (the super creepy way the guy at the bar is leering is pretty amazing).  You got to hand it to Hooters though, way to step up and give Mom boneless wings this year instead of just regular; that's classy.

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Maybe the Celtics should tank Game 1 vs Philly

With 8:41 to go in the 4th quarter last night Kevin Garnett knocked down a turnaround jumper with a hand in his face for about the millionth time in the game (he finished with a season high 28 points), and Boston led 74-65.  The Celtics seemed to be pulling away.  But then they started to look old.  And tired. And slow.  Over the next six and a half minutes Boston scored just 2 points, and after Al Horford made an off balance runner in the lane with 2:22 left on the clock the Hawks led by three, 79-76.  At that point I was about as nervous as I've ever been sitting in section 8 at the Garden.

But the old guys had just enough left in the tank.  They clamped down on defense and didn't allow Atlanta to make another field goal the rest of the way.  Pierce made a tough driving layup, KG swished another contested turnaround jump shot, and the Celtics survived 83-80.

Towards the end of the regular season Doc rested all his guys and gave away a game in Atlanta that might have given Boston home court advantage in this series.  He basically said "screw it, we'll beat them anyway, my stars need the rest."  As it turned out he was right, and now part of me thinks they should take the same approach vs Philly in round two.  Pierce, Allen, and Bradley are all suffering from nagging injuries and haven't looked right the past couple games, and Garnett has got to be exhausted.  Maybe the Celtics should rest all four of them and tank Game 1 tomorrow night against the Sixers.  I'm totally convinced they can still handle Philly without home court advantage and trailing 1-0 (it's exactly what just happened against Atlanta), and those extra couple days off could make a big difference in the long run.

And one more thing of note, two of the last three times the Celtics have defeated the Hawks in the playoffs they have gone on to win the NBA Championship.

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Is there anyone else out there who hasn't given up on the Red Sox?

Admittedly the main source for this assessment is my twitter feed, but it's definitely conveying a sense of impending doom among fellow Sox fans.  They aren't easy to write about at the moment, but here's the first paragraph of my clnsradio.com preview for the Boston/Cleveland series at Fenway this weekend:

"My guess is that I'm probably one of the few remaining fans still riding on the Red Sox bandwagon.  I am a huge proponent of not making judgments based on small sample sizes, and at 12-18 the Sox have played less than 20% of their season.  But having said that, I must admit that I am starting to worry.  Boston heads back to Fenway having just lost 7 of 8 games against the A's, Orioles, and Royals.  They open up a four game series tonight against the surprising Cleveland Indians, who come to town with a 17-13 record, and in first place in the A.L. Central."


Click here to read the rest of it.  And in case you don't recognize the guy in the picture, that's Will Middlebrooks.  He's pretty much the only thing Sox related that anybody is excited about at the moment.

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Don't blame the point guard

When Ray Allen drained a 3 with 2:41 to go last night, tying the game at 83-83 and bringing the Celtics back from a big second half deficit for the second time, my buddy and I simultaneously texted each about how amazing a game it was.  Unfortunately in the end the C's came up one play short, and fell to the Hawks 87-86.  Who would have thought Al Horford could return and contribute so much for Atlanta, or that Ryan Hollins would log 19 minutes (Greg Stiemsma played just four) at center for Boston?  And where was Avery Bradley last night by the way?  The energetic starting shooting guard was just 1-2 with two points in only 18 minutes of action.

Rajon Rondo is taking a lot of heat today for failing to get the Celtics a final shot and a chance to win as the clock ran out, even though they never would have been in that situation if he hadn't stolen the inbounds pass seconds earlier.  Not to mention the fact that he completely changed the game all by himself in the span of less than a minute towards the end of the 3rd quarter.

Atlanta led 66-56 with 1:15 to go in the period when Rondo grabbed the offensive board and scored on a put back off a Ray Allen missed three.  A few seconds later he stole the ball, then nailed a jumper to cut the Hawks lead to 6.  On the ensuing possession he drew an offensive foul on Al Horford, then scored again to make it 66-62 with 25 seconds left in the quarter.  Rondo had 6 points, a steal, an offensive rebound, and a took a charge, all in just 50 seconds (reminiscent of a couple 21 second bursts he had in one game vs the Bulls in February).  Another steal by Ray and a Pietrus bucket cut the lead to 2, and all of a sudden it was a whole new ball game to start the 4th quarter.

Afterwards it was clear Rondo was frustrated and blamed himself for the loss.  I expect him to come up huge in Game 6 back in Boston on Thursday.
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How much cereal is a normal amount of cereal?

I took this picture about a month ago.  Sometimes there is more than that on my shelf, sometimes there is less, but I think this is about average for me.  Seven or eight boxes or so at a time.  On multiple occasions people have come to my apartment and made fun of me for having so much.  But I usually eat it once a day, sometimes twice.  And I don't like to eat the same kind all the time.  Also, I like to mix them, going back to when I was about 4 years old and I ate Cheerios and Wheaties in the same bowl together.  Or sometimes I like to start with a regular cereal like Crispix for an entree, then have half a bowl of a sugary cereal like Frosted Mini Wheats for dessert.  So really anything less than 6 boxes and I end up repeating myself within a day or two, and that's just no good.

And yes, that is a bottle of tequila next to the Corn Flakes.  

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I don't understand how Rajon Rondo does the things he does

The Celtics started the second half yesterday with a 16-2 run to build an 80-43 lead, and with 8 minutes to go in the 3rd quarter the game was over.  Seconds earlier Paul Pierce had thrown the Boston crowd into a frenzy when he ran into the stands after a foul, then high-fived fans on his way back to the court.

Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Rajon Rondo shot a combined 24-32 from the field.  You're not going to lose many games when your 3 best players shoot 75%.  Pierce was also the game's leading scorer with 24 point in just 17 minutes of action, something that hadn't happened in a NBA game in twelve years.  Meanwhile Rondo's stat line of 20 PTS, 16 AST, and 3 STL with just 1 turnover was unlike anything done in the playoffs since Tim Hardaway had a similar game in 1991.  One assist in particular made me very eager to get home from the Garden and watch the highlights on TV, because when I saw it live I couldn't figure out how it was possible.  Here's what happened 4 minutes into the game:

As Rondo starts to throw the pass not only is KG not open, but there doesn't appear to be an angle between the defenders to fit the ball through.

Somehow he threads the needle, gets the ball between Kirk Hinrich and Josh Smith, and into the hands of a streaking Garnett for the dunk.

I rewound and watched this play about 15 times, and I still have no idea how he pulled it off.  I'm convinced there is no better passer in the league than Rajon Rondo.

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Some stream of consciousness ramblings

Walking home from work last night (or early this morning by normal person hours) I saw people around Boston Common setting up for the "Walk for Hunger" today.  I'd totally forgotten that that was a thing.  I did it once about 20 years ago, and had a ton of fun.  Maybe next year...

I just wrote a quick injury update for Celts/Hawks Game 4 tonight over at beantownbanter.com.  If you don't feel like clicking the link, Ray Allen's a go, so is Josh Smith for Atlanta, and Avery Bradley is still up in the air.

By no means am I giving up on the Red Sox, but it's definitely not a good sign that both yesterday afternoon and today instead of watching them I've had the TV on random other first round NBA playoff games.

Speaking of that, as I watch Chicago vs Philly right now, I have no idea which team I'd rather see Boston get the chance to play next round.  Even though they gave the Celtics fits this year, I guess I'm slightly leaning towards the Sixers (and home court advantage) over a well coached Bulls squad (minus MVP Derrick Rose and obnoxious starting Center Joakim Noah) that still plays great team defense.

While I'm on the Celtics, here's the latest great feat from Rajon Rondo:

At this rate I may have to add a new post category called "photos of my television displaying ridiculous Rajon Rondo triple double stats on espn."  I'm up to four I think.  Here's one, two, and three.

And finally, when I checked facebook this morning a friend of mine had posted the video Somebody That I Used to Know by Gotye.  It is a kind of cool song, but it's a little freaky to me that it has some sort of weird facebook mind control thing going on.  In the last couple months I've probably noticed ten people put it in their status', which is easily more than all other music videos I've seen posted put together.  Creepy.

3:42 PM UPDATE: The Sixers just won to take a 3-1 series lead, and confetti dropped from the rafters in Philadelphia.  Atlanta pulled that same crap when they beat Boston back in game one.  What a joke.  Somebody should tell whoever makes these decisions that holding a celebration for winning one first round playoff game is basically admitting that your team has sucked for a long long time.

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