Hate this part.
The shootaround gym feels like a funeral parlor this time of year. You walk in and everybody's so dumbstruck with gloom, you don't know what the hell to say to them. It's like walking up to the widow and turning into a stammering ninny: "H-h-how are you?" is the first thing out of your suddenly unhinged yap, and you can't bring it back because it's already out there, and it doesn't deserve a response because. ... well, how the hell are they supposed to be? Somebody just died.
And then you take a seat in one of those godawfully uncomfortable straight-back chairs and you don't move a muscle, you don't even cross your legs, because you're liable to knock something over and turn the room into a Mr. Bean sketch.
Anyway, that's what it's like.
Only this is probably worse, because now we have to come up with nice things to say about the dearly departed, which is a pretty neat trick for a 32-win team.
So we won't even try. We'll just submit our wishes for 2009-10:
1. That they cease to remain a 44-minute team in a 48-minute league, obviously. It's okay to lose, but you kind of hope that it's a result of execution or superior talent, not because the fourth quarter means you stand at attention to watch the other guys form a layup line, or because you pull a pratfall the moment the other team turns up its defensive intensity a twitch.
2. That Harris remembers that a player's true value is judged by what he does for all 94 feet, and that he shows some bona fides at the defensive end for the first time around here. This team will never change its mentality until he changes his own, and shows them how it's done.
3. That Vince somehow finds a contender, because the needle is stuck, and he seems at risk for settling for mediocrity. He has some good-to-great years left. He deserves to play games that matter again, and that might not happen here for a while.
4. That the rookies all stay the same people they are. Especially Senor Pez. He's delightfully goofy, and even if half of it is just an act, we don't care -- the league needs more kids like this.
5. That some of the other vets maintain active roles next year, even if the roster undergoes its usual changes. If this were a playoff team, both Hayes and Dooling would have been Sixth Man candidates. It speaks highly of both that they'd turn in career years for a team that needed their best, because they certainly gave it -- while playing hurt.
6. That their shopping list looks like this, in order: Starting 4, starting 3, backup point, and an unbearably nasty backup 5.
7. That ownership loosens the purse strings for The Boss to use some/all of the midlevel. He'll undoubtedly announce soon that it's at his disposal. We say he's going to sit on it anyway.
8. That the coach gets another shot at it, because he's done everything he was supposed to do in a rebuilding season -- and because those inflated expectations after a surprisingly strong start weren't necessarily his own, but those of the two guys who saddled him with two comically massive holes in his starting lineup.
* * *
Anyway, goodbye to all that. ... maybe.
Actually, it wouldn't surprise us if they stole one Wednesday night, since the Celtics are without KG, Powe, Veal, and Rajon has a bad wheel. Plus, there's rust -- Boston has had four days off. Doc's really got one objective at this point: Get his main guys healthy for the second round, because no matter how they spin it, Garnett's got only X number of games in him before the inevitable scope this summer.
* * *
L-Frank is going with the same lineup Wednesday night. Which means two more days, minimum, before he unleashes Yi on the NBA world again. Try to control your enthusiasm, because this guy is managing to do it, even when it was suggested he throw Yi or Ryan a few minutes at the 3-spot Wednesday night -- you know, just for kicks:
"They got to guard Paul Pierce in a real situation," Frank deadpanned. "That's probably, you know, not a real favorable matchup."
* * *
Guy to watch Wednesday night, win or lose: Lopez. He has had three very weird games against Boston this year. The first (Jan. 14) he was uneven, looking off-balance against the Celtic swarm (4-for-14), but he still had 13-8-5 in 31 minutes. The second (Jan. 17, when his backcourt got booted at halftime) was brilliant numerically, but much of his 28-and-10 came in garbage time and left you wanting more. And the third (March 4) was pretty awful -- only 10-and-5, on a night Perkins destroyed the Nets for 17-and-13, with six offensive boards, mostly because Pez spent the night jumping out at Rondo and Pierce off screens.
But we're guessing he'll be pretty good, because that Philly game was a revelation of sorts. He was going up against a near-great defender in Dalembert, and Lopez looked as if he was trying to learn the entire Kevin McHale drop-step-and-reverse-pivot repertoire in one easy 48-minute lesson. In short, he went after it like he was ready for anything the defense threw at him.
"Now he gets the counter move," a visibly-impressed Vince said this a.m. "Now he's got the jump shot, he's got the post moves off his left shoulder, and then if he has a counter move going back to that right shoulder. How can you stop him, because he's going to keep the opponent guessing? That's what it is, continuing to keep your opponent guessing. Okay, they see you going this way and they're going to cut that off. Well, he has the ability to go the other way now."
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