howbouthemspurs
04-21-2008, 03:13 AM
http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1088586&srvc=rss
By Steve Bulpett
They are adults. They are old enough to vote. Yet all it took was Game 1 of the San Antonio-Phoenix first-round playoff series to turn the Celtics [team stats] into giddy children.
The Celts’ playoff run began last night with a 104-81 pasting of the Atlanta Hawks, but as Saturday afternoon rolled into early Saturday evening, the Spurs’ 117-115 double-overtime victory had them in the mood early.
“I felt like a little kid, like when I was 12 or 13 watching the playoffs,” Leon Powe said. “I love basketball, and a game like that tells you why. I can’t turn it off. I was glued to the TV with the TV turned up. I think that was an instant classic right there. I think it’s going to be a classic series. You’ve just got to love that. If you don’t love that, I don’t know if you’re a basketball player or a basketball fan.”
Watching the Spurs come back at the end of regulation and the first OT, and then seeing Manu Ginobili’s drive to win it in the second extra period, was inspirational.
“You’ve got to (love that),” Kendrick Perkins [stats] said. “I mean, I’m a fan of the game. I’m not going to lie to you; I’m a fan of the game. I just play in the league. The nights I’m not playing, I’m sitting home watching other games and getting excited.
“I’m not really cheering for nobody, but just the competitiveness is getting me pumped up. That was crazy, but that’s a playoff game. That’s two good teams playing the playoffs that really want it.”
Ray Allen thinks it’s a bit of a shame that Phoenix didn’t win.
“It was unfortunate that the Suns lost it, because they had it in control,” he said. “It’s a lesson to everybody that it’s not over with until the game’s over with. You know, guys make big shots.”
And those shots were thoroughly entertaining, even to the guys who do this for a living. Even for a 15-year veteran.
“I enjoyed every second of it,” P.J. Brown said. “I was a fan before I came into the league, and I always will be when I’m long gone. It just shows what the league has been about the whole year. It’s been an exciting year, and I thought that game showed that.
“It was just a pleasure to see something like that in the first round. Usually you don’t get a first-round matchup like that. That’s a Western Conference championship matchup, man - or an NBA championship matchup. And that’s in the first round. You’re like, ‘Wow.’ And you’re probably going to see that five or six more times. I’m going to be glued to the television like everybody else.”
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Ray Allen still hating on the Spurs
By Steve Bulpett
They are adults. They are old enough to vote. Yet all it took was Game 1 of the San Antonio-Phoenix first-round playoff series to turn the Celtics [team stats] into giddy children.
The Celts’ playoff run began last night with a 104-81 pasting of the Atlanta Hawks, but as Saturday afternoon rolled into early Saturday evening, the Spurs’ 117-115 double-overtime victory had them in the mood early.
“I felt like a little kid, like when I was 12 or 13 watching the playoffs,” Leon Powe said. “I love basketball, and a game like that tells you why. I can’t turn it off. I was glued to the TV with the TV turned up. I think that was an instant classic right there. I think it’s going to be a classic series. You’ve just got to love that. If you don’t love that, I don’t know if you’re a basketball player or a basketball fan.”
Watching the Spurs come back at the end of regulation and the first OT, and then seeing Manu Ginobili’s drive to win it in the second extra period, was inspirational.
“You’ve got to (love that),” Kendrick Perkins [stats] said. “I mean, I’m a fan of the game. I’m not going to lie to you; I’m a fan of the game. I just play in the league. The nights I’m not playing, I’m sitting home watching other games and getting excited.
“I’m not really cheering for nobody, but just the competitiveness is getting me pumped up. That was crazy, but that’s a playoff game. That’s two good teams playing the playoffs that really want it.”
Ray Allen thinks it’s a bit of a shame that Phoenix didn’t win.
“It was unfortunate that the Suns lost it, because they had it in control,” he said. “It’s a lesson to everybody that it’s not over with until the game’s over with. You know, guys make big shots.”
And those shots were thoroughly entertaining, even to the guys who do this for a living. Even for a 15-year veteran.
“I enjoyed every second of it,” P.J. Brown said. “I was a fan before I came into the league, and I always will be when I’m long gone. It just shows what the league has been about the whole year. It’s been an exciting year, and I thought that game showed that.
“It was just a pleasure to see something like that in the first round. Usually you don’t get a first-round matchup like that. That’s a Western Conference championship matchup, man - or an NBA championship matchup. And that’s in the first round. You’re like, ‘Wow.’ And you’re probably going to see that five or six more times. I’m going to be glued to the television like everybody else.”
[email protected]
Ray Allen still hating on the Spurs