Boston's Bettah

Looking for another reason to enjoy a Ryan Hollins alley-oop?

Let’s be honest: beer makes many things better. Sports, parties, food, you name it. Without beer, our lives would be much, much worse.

Last year during the Bruins playoff run, I invented the “Power-play drinking game” after our terrible power-play. The rules were simple:

1. Every time the Bruins went on a power-play, you had the allotted amount of time to finish whatever beer you had left. We had to find someway to make the power-play’s interesting.
2. If the Bruins scored on the power-play, get a new beer and chug it. It was time for celebration! The Bruins actually scored on a power-play.

The game became so popular that it spawned the #BruinsAA hash-tag during any playoff game and I even got some followers (shout out to @EricBruins77 notably) to join in the beer crushing ways.

With the Bruins long-gone in the playoffs (sniff), my friend Ryan Sullivan and myself needed to develop a new drinking game, one that will honor the 2012 Celtics through their run in the playoffs. We came up with the following rules and they are perfect.

Once again, as with any drinking game, the following rules are for entertainment purposes only. At no point do I condone binge drinking or anything of that sort. If you do play, do so responsibly. (All the legal mumbo-jumbo)

Here we go!

1. Anytime that Greg Stiemsma gets a block drink one. It’s simple but effective and we wanted someway to honor Greg Stiemsma or as Tommy Heinson likes to call him “The White Bill Russel”.
2. Anytime Mickael Pietrus scores a basket drink one and every time he hits a three drink two. This one goes back to our games of NBA 2k12 where, despite having the three-point shooter icon would NEVER, EVER hit a three even if $5 was riding on the game, err… not that we were gambling or anything.
3. If Ryan Hollins completes an alley-oop drink one. He did it once in the Atlanta series and we had to make it a rule.
4. If Brandon Bass passes in a situation where he clearly could have shot drink one. We had to honor “No-pass Bass” somehow. It’s also like an unwritten rule of the Celtics, like the Mike Morrison free-throw law of George Mason basketball. Brandon Bass could have two defenders on him or be completely out of rhythm but goddamit he is taking that jump shot
5. Celtics get an offensive rebound? Drink two because you will likely never see it again.
6. Whenever Dooling and/or Daniels are shown “flexing” on the bench drink one and if you thought I wasn’t going to take this opportunity to re-post the GIF of Dooling and Daniels flexing, you are sadly mistaken

Got any other rules for your own Celtics drinking games? List them in the comments below.

Jeff Green is about to graduate from Georgetown

You all might have forgotten about Jeff Green because you wiped the Kendrick Perkins trade from your memory and believe that Perkins plays for the Thunder now due to black-mail and/or an abduction, but Jeff Green was the main asset acquired in that trade.

Most notable was the fact that Jeff Green stunk. He couldn’t find energy off the bench and didn’t play great defense. The nickname I gave him was J.D Drew, after the disappointing Red Sox outfielder who also came in with high hopes and didn’t do well.

Jeff Green has has a tough year. He missed the entire season after Celtics doctors found that he had a heart condition right before training camp. He hasn’t been able to play basketball, he has been strongly disliked by Celtics fans and he gets crazy kids on twitter claiming someone they know knows him and causing that person to hate the crazy kids guts (this is another story completely).

Turns out though that Jeff Green is about to finally graduate from Georgetown, and he thinks he can come back next year and he wants to come back to Boston. From the Sporting News:

Green, who left Georgetown after his junior year and was drafted by the Seattle SuperSonics, will graduate from the school this weekend.

Jeff Green, most recently of the Boston Celtics, will pick up his degree from Georgetown. (AP photo)

“Just picked up my cap and gown for graduation Saturday…FINALLY DONE!!!..Best feeling in the world,” Green posted on his Twitter account.

Green’s an unrestricted free agent but has said he wants to return to the Boston Celtics next season.

Good for Jeff Green. He took an opportunity with time off to better himself and he did just that. Now he is going to graduate from one of the most prestigious universities in the country.

Hopefully he comes back healthy and ready to play next season. Turns out the Celtics might need him.

I can’t remember which one of the first round games it was, but I remember when it happened. Actually, I think it might have been Game 6, but that doesn’t really matter.

Anyway, Sully and myself are watching the Boston Celtics take on the Atlanta Hawks when someone on the Celtics took and made a huge shot in the game. The camera panned to the bench where Marquis Daniels and Keyon Dooling were doing…something. It was some kind of celebration where they were pumping their arms up and down and celebrating and, well, it was awesome.

Sully and I’s conversation went something like this:

Me: “What were Keyon on Marquis just doing?”

Sully: “I don’t know, but it’s awesome”

It turns out it was called “flexing” and it stuck. For the rest of the semester if we scored a big goal in our NHL 12 dynasty or chugged multiple beers in a short amount of time, or got a grade on that final you thought you bombed, it was time to flex.

It has spread with people tweeting at Marquis with all their flexing pictures. At this point, its destined to take off like “Tebowing” or “Bradying” and become the next great internet meme. Hell, I’m trying to figure out when I can get my next great flexing picture out there for the world to see. Maybe in front of a moving train or something.

So, you might be wondering where the inspiration was for their soon to be famous dance move that is sweeping the great playoff landscape.

Err…

“We’ve been doing that throughout the course of the season, it’s just magnified throughout the playoffs,” Dooling said. “It’s something that kind of gets us going. We put two fists in the air and kind of pump our fists a little bit — just something to let our guys know that we are cheering for them, we’re rooting for them. We’ve got their back.”

Whatever. It’s still awesome and it’s still going to be my celebration for every big shot in Intramural basketball next semester.

Paul Pierce's two dunks at the end of the first quarter energized the Boston Celtics

The major topic of conversation the past few days on Boston Sports blogs, radios and television is that the Boston Celtics clearly do not respect the Philadelphia 76er’s, that Rajon Rondo is not being nearly aggressive enough against point-guards he should dominate and that Paul Pierce is clearly hurting on the offensive end of the floor.

Basically, they all have been saying the same thing. The offense has looked stagnant, like the Boston Celtics are just going through the motions out there on the floor. Sure, the rotations and such are great defensively, but the Celtics always do that. When they are at their best, they are scoring at will and making it look easy on that side of the ball.

Maybe the the loss in Game 2 woke the Boston Celtics up to the fact that they were in an Eastern Conference Semi-Final series or perhaps they read/watched/listened to too much media the other day, but the Boston Celtics offense exploded to an easy Game 3 victory.

First off, Paul Pierce. The captain has been hobbled my an MCL injury the past few nights and no one was sure whether or not he would be able to make an impact on the series. Jackie MacMullen wrote a fine piece today talking about Paul Pierce and how he is giving it his all despite the fact that he was clearly hurting and how the Sixers are making him work for his points. She concluded the piece talking about Paul Pierce, when he is struggling, likes to get to the line. Right in the beginning of the game, Paul Pierce made it known that he had shown up to play. His two three-point-play dunks – with a Paul Pierce primal scream for good measure – let the Wells Fargo Center know that Paul Pierce was going to give it his all tonight. He didn’t shoot exceptionally well, but he didn’t have too. He was getting to the line, boxing out men for rebounds and turning in a solid effort, something they needed from the captain tonight.

Then there was Rajon Rondo. Maybe I missed something being away from the Boston media for almost an entire year now, but Rajon Rondo might be the most ripped apart player in quite some time in the city. The main criticism against him was that he wasn’t being aggressive enough. Rondo turned around and kept the Celtics in the game early by scoring 13 first quarter points both with aggressive plays to the basket and perimeter shooting. After not having an assist in the first quarter, he reminded people that he is one of the best pure point guards in the league by spreading it around for 14 assists and playing a complete game from the position. His aggression opened the passing lanes and his teammates hit the shots.

Finally, there was Kevin Garnett. Quite simply, what more is there to say about his play this post-season? I wrote about it the other day and it all stands. He is hitting his fall-away, working the ball inside and simply being fantastic for the Boston Celtics. Simply put, he has been the best player for the Celtics this post-season and he continues to prove it.

Combined with the always tenacious defense of the Boston Celtics, who once again forced poor shots and swarmed ball-handlers, and it equaled a pretty easy Celtics win.

The Celtics deserved this win and perhaps might have even started to stick the dagger into the back of the 76ers. The most talked about item was the disrespect that the Celtics were giving this spunky little team from Philly and how the Celtics going through the motions was killing the Celtics chances at making it a short series. The Celtics woke up tonight and they stand now two games away from the Eastern Conference Finals.

Hell, if they play like this every night, there is no doubt in my mind they can win the Eastern Conference and maybe even…

nah, I won’t say it.