Game two is the game where we find out if Anthony is worthy (in the short term) of what we gave up for him. Billups will be out of the picture, and although many eyes, including mine, will be watching to see if Douglas can rise to the occasion and Amare can give a repeat performance, there should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that Anthony’s performance on the court, which probably cost us a victory in Sunday’s game, has to improve for us to even have a chance of winning.
5/18 from the field, 2/8 from the 3, only 4 shots from the line, and 5 turnovers, is not the kind of performance I expected from him in the first game, especially since so many on UK have assured me that his value would be proven during the playoffs, where stars are supposed to shine. That foul call was total BS- a pure home court call (Garnett’s knee pick on TD was also a terrible non-call), and I have no problem with Anthony over that, especially since he was fighting for post position and not just jacking up a 3, but his numbers were more like a bad Gallinari/Chandler game, than one I expect from a player of his caliber. (In fact I can just imagine the threads some would have started if Gallo had the kind of game Anthony had in Game 1.).
Another point of contention for he are all the folks who seem to think that you judge players on how they do in crunch time, without taking into consideration that what happens earlier in a game determines if you have to win/lose on the final possession, or have a comfortable 8 point cushion in the final few seconds. Anthony’s shooting and turnovers can be seen as one reason the Celtics were actually able to be in the game at the end, a game which we outplayed them for most of the night. His final shot attempt was perhaps a fitting ending to a game in which he let the team down.
I’m on record as being against the trade that we made, and will not back down from that, but I’ll be quite happy if Anthony has a dominating game in Boston, and he and Amare push us to a road victory.
There was a line (Actually Biblical in origin) in the Robin Hood movie of a few years ago:
“Cometh the hour, cometh the man.”
Well the hour is close at hand, and I really hope that Anthony comes to the game with the eye of a tiger and his “A” game, and shows us he’s the “man.”
Maybe we lose, even though he scores 40, but this is the game (a playoff game on the road) where he can win over someone like myself, who was not happy about how we came to acquire him, with the right kind of performance.
No man is happy without a delusion of some kind. Delusions are as necessary to our happiness as realities- C.N. Bovee
4/19/2011 3:51 PM
