Category: Sports

The Big Story – Sox Sweep Yanks: Not sure if the Red Sox salvaged their season over the weekend. But sweeping the Yankees to make it five wins in their last six tries against them tamped down local yapping about where they’re headed with the 2023 midway point on the horizon.

However, with the trade deadline five weeks away, the mini-surge actually makes it more confusing for the brass to determine whether they should be buyers or sellers when it arrives, as despite starting the week 37-35, they remain in last place with several bodies to climb over just to make the play-in game.

Sports 101: Who holds the NFL’s record for the highest career yards per catch average?

News Item – Did Pats Strike Out on Rodgers?

Count me as one who doesn’t buy WFAN’S Craig Carton’s claim the Patriots made a run at Aaron Rodgers before he was traded to the Jets.

Why? Three reasons.

(1) Because if Bill Belichick didn’t want to pay a guy who actually delivered in the playoffs almost every year $25 million per in Tom Brady, why would he pay $40 million to a guy who never does?

(2) The WFAN host is on his way to join Fox, so having that alleged scoop gives him juice, and having done a stretch in the pen for (wait for it) a ticket scam fraud to pay off debts from his gambling addiction, the track record shows he’s not above lying for his benefit.

(3) With New Yorkers now thinking they finally have an edge over Bill Belichick and company after mostly being defeated by New England in the 22 years since Coach B left them at the altar moments before becoming HC of the NYJ’s, it’s an attempt at one-upmanship from Jetland.

Nice try, Craig.

News Item – Owner Of Champions: Boston may have owned the first two decades of the 21st century in sports. But it seems Stan Kroenke has the lead for the 2020s as each of the three franchises he owns, L.A. Rams, Colorado Avalanche and Denver Nuggets, has won league championships in the NFL, NHL and now NBA in less than 18 months.

News Item – Morant Gets 25-Game Suspension: While it’s not hard to see why, since he technically did nothing illegal it’s interesting the Players Association hasn’t picked a fight over the suspension ofnitwit Memphis point guard Ja Morant for “reckless and irresponsible behavior” after he was seen brandishing a handgun in a video for a second time since February.

The Numbers

6 – Yankees batters in Sunday’s line-up batting under .235.

15 – years still young’n Erik Spoelstra has been head coach of the Miami Heat to place fourth behind Gregg Popovich (27), Jerry Sloan (23) and Red Auerbach (16) for continuous years coaching the same NBA franchise.

16 – wins against just five losses for Nathan Eovaldi (9-3) and Michael Wacha (7-2) who the too cheap Sox brass let walk for the reasonable new contracts they got from Texas and San Diego respectively.

17.9 – awful three-point shooting percentage by the Nuggets as they still somehow managed to close out Miami 94-85 in Game 5 to win the NBA title four games to one.

Random Thoughts:

If you ain’t been paying attention, after going error-less in April, Rafael Devers has made eight in the six weeks since the calendar hit May 1.

That the A-list receiver-needy Pats let DeAndre Hopkins leave last week’s visit to Foxborough without a contract offer says to me they aren’t sold on him for injury, fit or past relationship issues with OC Bill O’Brien reasons.

Thumbs Up – Wyndham Clark: For the 293rd-ranked-in-2022 golfer’s one-shot win over Rory McIlroy for the U.S. Open crown.

Sports 101 Answer: The NFL career leader in yards per catch at 22.5 yards is ’60s New York Giant Homer Jones, who died last week at 83.

A Little History – Homer Jones: As hard as it is to believe now, when he was doing his thing in the ’60s his Giants were still New England’s favorite NFL team. So Homer’s passing hit some old bucks a little differently than many in these parts.

He’s more memorable than most from the era for being one of the new wave speed merchants to hit the NFL then when his intimidating 9.3 speed led to that 22.5 per average that’s still the league’s best 50 years after he retired.

The second reason is more familiar today, as he invented the spike after a TD, which usually came after an electric long-distance hook-up with Fran Tarkenton that was so familiar in those times.

Final Thought – Prediction: If a season-ending reckoning happens with the Red Sox, Alex Cora will take the fall for the mess. Not those really responsible: Chaim Bloom, lapdog team president Sam Kennedy, doofus Tom Werner and most of all absentee (from reality) owner John Henry, who gave Cora the broken down jalopy he’s driving.

Email Dave Long at [email protected].

The Big Story: The Red Sox free fall? Nope. Denver maybe winning the NBA Finals? Nope. Las Vegas about to capture the Stanley Cup? Nope.

It was the beyond belief hypocrisy of the PGA merging with LIV Golf after a year spent (correctly) castigating the lack of morality of players abandoning the tour to take the giant money offered by the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund-backed tour.

It was a move with major sports financial and geopolitical implications that sent a shock wave of discontent through its players and left almost everyone else in sports stunned.

Sports 101: Name the winningest left-handed pitcher in Red Sox history.

News Item – Cassidy On The Brink: Anyone know the last time a manager or coach was fired at the end of one season by one team and then led his new team to the league championship the next year? Not me, but it’s on the cusp of happening for ex-Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy in Las Vegas, where his new club is up 3-1 over Florida as I write this.

And since it was the Bruins who fired Cassidy, what happens in Vegas will definitely not stay in Vegas this time if Cassidy pulls it off.

News Item – Sox Drop Into Last Place: Despite taking two of three from the Yankees over the weekend, the Red Sox were 14 games behind the division-leading Rays to start the week. It comes after losing six of their last 10 games to fall to an even .500 after 66 games.

Their biggest problem? It’s obvious: They’re in the AL East. If they were in the AL Central, 33-33 would have them tied for first place.

But they’re not. So an uphill struggle to get back in the race lies ahead.

Thumbs Up – Masataka Yoshida: Love hearing the Red Sox Japanese import saying he has no interest in being named Rookie of the Year. He correctly says after playing several years in Japan’s Nippon League he doesn’t believe he is a rookie.

The Numbers:

.209 –batting average after a 2-for-3 night vs. the Yankees on Friday to finally get Sox rookie Triston Casas over the Mendoza Line nine weeks into the season.

7 & 6 –wins and losses in the 13 games the Miami Heat have trailed by 12 points or more during the NBA playoffs. All other playoff teams were a combined 6 and 59 facing the same deficit.

Random Thoughts:

If the Patriots need cap space to make a deal with free agent wideout DeAndre Hopkins they should cut Trent Brown. Despite being terrible last year he’s looking like a possible camp holdout. So cut him instead and use the $11 million saved to sign Hopkins. Then if needed use draft picks to find another left tackle.

Is there any doubt now Denver’s Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray are a better 1-2 duo than Jayson Tatum and Jalen Brown?

The best the Suns could come up with to coach the final few prime years Kevin Durant has left is three-times-fried Frank Vogel? How is he an upgrade on the guy he replaced?

A Little History – June 15, 1964: In the ’60s the latest a baseball team could make an in-season trade was June 15. And for short- and long-term consequences, arguably the greatest deadline ever was made on this day in 1964, when the Cardinals traded 18-game winner Ernie Broglio for disappointing Cubs youngster Lou Brock.

It sparked the struggling Cards to roar from behind to win the pennant on the final day and then knock off the Yanks in the World Series.

Beyond that, Brock played a prominent role in getting St. Louis back to the Series in ’67 and ’68, while going on to personally rack up more than 3,000 career hits and become the all-time leader in stolen bases.

Meanwhile Broglio won just seven more games and was out of baseball after 1966.

Sports 101 Answer: Two-time 20-game winner Mel Parnell won 125 games between 1947 and 1956 to be the Sox’ winningest lefty hurler. Jon Lester is second with 110.

Final Thought: I’ve been watching sports for a long time and have never seen anything as bad as the PGA’s surrender to LIV Golf.

First, they sold out all the players loyal to the tour who passed on the giant money the defecting players took. To make the disloyal winners and the loyal guys the losers.

Second, the PGA is aiding the Saudis’ PR effort to obscure through sports its abhorrent civil rights abuses and what the CIA says was the murder and dismemberment by the kingdom of critic/journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

But worst was that PGA Commissioner Jay Monahan cast aspersions on the morality of players for taking Saudi cash, then a year later all is forgotten after the PGA got theirs.

It makes booing for the first time in golf seem like the right thing to do.

Email Dave Long at [email protected].

The Big Story – Baseball Took a Hit on D-Day: In the last week we have remembered with reverence and awe the courage and sacrifice made by American servicemen and women with Memorial Day and the 79th anniversary of D-Day, which I think is the greatest day in our history for what America stands for. Below I recognize athletes, especially baseball players, for their service in World War II and on D-Day. In the meantime, thank you for your service.

Sports 101: Name the baseball player who spied behind German lines for the U.S. during World War II.

News Item – Down Goes Chris Sale, Again: With the ERA at 2.23 in his previous five starts, when he struck out 37 and walked just four over 32.1 innings, it all seemed to be going so well. But the fingers are always crossed with Sale, because sooner or later something seems to go wrong. And it did last week when he had to leave after 3.2 innings vs. Cincinnati with an inflamed left shoulder that led to his latest IL stint.

News Item – Panicsville Hits the Hoop Hub: With the Celtics going out of the playoffs earlier than anyone wanted, there is a huge hue and cry locally to make big changes. In situations like this, I wonder what Red Auerbach might have done. Conveniently we can look back at what he said and did after the Celtics were swept out of the playoffs by the Bucks in 1983. Red’s response was, “You don’t go into panicsville to break up a ball club as good as this one just because you lose one series.”

Bill Fitch did step down as coach. But Red kept the core intact by ponying up the big bucks to re-sign free agent Kevin McHale,who was a whisker away from signing with the Knicks. And then somehow got Dennis Johnson and a first-round pick in a trade for back-up center Rick Robey. Both were keys to winning it all in 1984 and again in ’86.

The lesson: The worst time to make decisions is when emotions are raw. Take time, assess, and then act.

A Little History – Baseball at War, 1942-1945: A look at three Hall of Famers who saw WWII action on D-Day and elsewhere.

Yogi Berra: Nineteen-year-old Lawrence Peter Berra was on the USS Bayfield ferrying troops to Omaha Beach and providing cover for them on D-Day, and he earned a Purple Heart after being wounded by German fire.

Bob Feller: By joining the Navy two days after Pearl Harbor he was the first big-leaguer to enlist in the service, a naval gunnery officer who fought in the Pacific aboard the USS Alabama. It’s likely the 266-game winner lost 100 career wins due to his four years served.

Warren Spahn: The 363-game winner was awarded a Purple Heart and Bronze Star after seeing action in the Battle of the Bulge and the Bridge at Remagen.

The Numbers:

.280 – May batting average for Sox rookie Triston Casas after being buried at .131 at the end of April.

0 – points scored on 10 shots taken by Miami’s Max Strus in Game 1 of the NBA Finals.

8 – fouls called on Denver to 15 on Miami in Game 1.

Random Leftover Celtics Thoughts:

Is Charles Barkley ever right? After saying everyone in America knows Miami won’t win Game 7, the winner of exactly zero NBA titles called the Celtics failures after Miami did win. Making the question, well, Chuck, if they’re as bad as you say they are, then what kind of a numbskull would pick them to win Game 7?

Was Caleb Martin scoring just three points in Game 1 of the NBA Finals after annihilating the Celtics in their series just because he was due for a bad game, or because they actually decided to just cover him?

No question Marcus Smart is a disruptor and versatile team defender. But he’s not the lock-down individual defender he’s made out to be. Said another way, he’s no Michael Cooper or Scottie Pippen in one-on-one match-ups.

Sports 101 Answer: Journeyman catcher Moe Berg, who was Jewish and who spoke several languages after graduating from Princeton and Columbia Law School, spied behind Nazi lines gathering intelligence on their nuclear program.

Final Thought: Kendrick Perkins says Larry Bird was no legend.

In saying he’s not on ESPN’s First Take to make friends, mission accomplished. But is Perk’s role to be a complete blithering idiot instead? When you’re a Gen-X journeyman who never actually saw the greatness of Bird in person, speaking nonsense like Bird was not a legend because “he never won a scoring title” lets people know you have no clue about Bird’s dominant impact in 99.9 percent of the games he played.

Email Dave Long at [email protected].

The Big Story – Celtics’ Dream Ends: After Derrick White’s miraculous putback with :01 left to force Game 7 on Monday night, it was all set up for history to be made by the Celtics. But the 0-3 hole they had dug for themselves was too deep, as after winning three straight, sadly they put up yet another stinker at home to finish 5-6 at home in the playoffs, as the Miami Heat made history instead by becoming the first play-in team to make the NBA Finals.

No one beyond Rob Williams and Devin White played well. And while I don’t like to be unkind, it’s hard to fathom a human being playing a worse game than Jaylen Brown did in his turnover-strewn mistake- and forced shots-filled Game 7.

Jayson Tatum gets major points for gutting out the whole game after spraining his ankle on the game’s first play.

As do the Heat, who showed their toughness by not following the Boston Globe’s Game 7 story line of “could they somehow recover from their devastating Game 6 loss?” Answer: they could.

Sports 101: Three players in NBA history have played 20 years for the same team. Name them.

News Item – Alumni News: In case you missed it, NateEovaldi had quite a run earlier this month when he went for 29.2 scoreless innings for Texas. And he actually was allowed to pitch a complete game shutout against the Yanks and an 8.2-inning job vs. Oakland as well. Overall he was 6-2 with a 2.60 ERA in his first 10 starts for the new team.In the words of local legend Bob Lobel, “Why can’t we get guys like that?”

News Item – Mets Fans Show True Colors: It didn’t take nitwit Mets fans long to go from loving Justin Verlander in December to booing Verlander in just his third start and first home appearance at New York’s Citi Field (8 hits and 6 runs), which followed his giving up just 1 run while striking out 10 vs. Cincy in his second start.

News Item – Shaq Feeling The Heat Too: In what has to be a first ever, after chasing him for months, a legal processor finally hit Shaquille O’Neal with a summons during Game 4 while working the EFC for TNT according to media reports. They were after him to let him know he is a defendant in a class-action lawsuit claiming he and other celebrity spokespeople (Tom Brady, his ex-wife and Steph Curry) misled investors in the gone-bust FTX bitcoin investment scheme.

The Numbers:

3.49 – ERA jump for Sox closer Kenley Jansen, from 0.77 to 4.26 after he blew consecutive ninth-inning leads on May 12 and May 13, giving up 5 hits, 4 walks and 6 runs while getting just 3 outs.

7 – unheard of number of guys on the Miami Heat roster who went undrafted coming out of college before taking winding professional roads prior to being signed as free agents by Pat Riley and company.

10 – wins vs. 41 losses for Oakland’s A’s to tie them with the 1932 Red Sox for the worst start after 50 games in MLB history. Their 31-131 full-season pace would surpass the 40-120 1962 Mets as the worst season ever.

26 – times sluggers Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani have gone yard in the same game since becoming teammates in 2018, after doing it vs. the Red Sox when the L.A. Angels of Anaheim finished off their three-game sweep of Boston with a 7-3 win on Wednesday.

Random Thoughts:

LeBron James playing all 48 minutes in L.A.’s elimination game to Denver when he had the juice to go for 40 points and fall just an assist short of a triple double at 38 was impressive.

Put a pair of big-wire framed glasses and a blue blazer on NBA star Jimmy Butler and he’s a dead ringer for Jackie Chiles, the Johnnie Cochran-like parody lawyer on Seinfeld.

And Miami back-up center Cody Zeller looks like one of those plumbers or firemen JJ Redick said Bob Cousy played against in the ’50s.

Betting the squib/low line drive kicks will become a bigger factor in 2023 in the wake of the NFL adopting a rule last week that gives teams the ball at their 25-yard line if a guy makes a fair catch on any kick-off inside their 25.

A Little History: A look back in time shows the Celtics could have had two Miami Heat starters on their 2023 roster. In the 2012 draft they let Butler slide by them to go 30th overall to Chicago, after Danny Ainge selected Ju’Juan Johnson, who lasted one year in the NBA, with the 23rd pick. Then in 2019 three-ball bomber Max Strus was their final pre-season cut when they keptJavonte Green.

Sports 101 Answer: Dirk Nowitzki, Kobe Bryant and Udonis Haslem are the three to play 20 years for one team.

Email Dave Long at [email protected].

The Big Story – Celtics Feeling The Heat: In all likelihood by the time you read this the Celtics season will have ended with a big thud. As I write this they trail the Miami Heat 0-3 in the Eastern Conference Finals after what can only be described as a 30-point surrender to a team all the “experts” said the Celtics should run out of the playoffs with relative ease.

The only trepidation I have for writing their obituary now is the perverse way they play better after putting themselves in a position when their backs are against the wall. But after doing that multiple times in the last two postseasons it doesn’t feel like they can do it this time. Especially since no team in history has ever come back to win after trailing 0-3.

We’ll do our autopsy next week.

Sports 101: What do 1950s-’60s NFL stars Paul Hornung, “Jaguar Jon” Arnett, John Brodie, Ron Kramer and Len Dawsonhave in common?

News Item – More Last-Minute NHL Heroics: The Bruins learned the hard way you have to play the Florida Panthers past the final buzzer. That was the case again in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup semifinals, a game that appeared headed to a fifth overtime before Matthew Tkachuk did it again with 12.7 seconds left in the fourth OT to give them a 3-2 win over Carolina.

News Item – Greatest Team Sports Prospect Ever: That’s what NBA info guru Adrian Wojnarowski drooled out about 18-year-old French hoopster Victor Wenbanyama after Houston won the NBA lottery last week. I get it, at 7’5” he’s mobile with skills of a guard while also being a top rim protector. But that’s what the slobbering New York press said about the now on his third team Kristaps Porzingis.And best ever? Sorry, I’m a skeptic with a sense of history who knows monumental all-timers Wilt Chamberlain, Lew Alcindor and LeBron James all lived up to that title, while Greg Oden and Ralph Sampson did not. Said another way: I’m curious, but I’ll believe it when I see it.

And, one more thing. Not sure if this is a bad omen, but when I saw his picture for the first time, I thought it was Sampson.

News Item – Durability Need Not Apply: Who can be surprised that in the age of the detestable “load management” Jayson Tatum was the only all-NBA first-teamer to play even 70 games. The others, Joel Embiid, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Luka Doncic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, ranged from 63 to 68.

Ditto for the second and third teams, where only three were over 70, while Steph Curry, LeBron James and Damian Lillard played 56, 55 and 58 respectively.

Alumni News

Xander Bogaerts: After going hitless in 11 at-bats during their weekend series, he was hitting .257 with 6 homers and 16 RBI. Which isn’t much more productive offensively than Kiké Hernandez and Yu Chang’s combined 6 homers and 24 RBI from shortstop so far in 2023.

Michael Wacha: After Chaim Bloom was too cheap/dumb to give him a two-year deal after going 11-2 last year, he has moved to 5-1 with a 3.58 ERA after 6 shutout innings in the Padres 7-0 win on Sunday. That his cheaper replacement, Corey Kluber, lasted just 2.1 innings in dropping to 2-6 with an unsightly 6.26 ERA was interesting.

The Numbers:

4 – major championships now won by Brooks Koepka after taking the PGA championship Sunday to move him within one of tying Phil Mickelson for most majors won among active players.

205 – home runs the Red Sox are on pace to hit after hitting just 155 last year.

515 – length in feet for the monstrous homer hit by the demoted Bobby Dalbec last week while playing for AAA Worcester.

Random Thoughts:

Jayson Tatum — pink shoes on Friday night. A long way from high black Cons or Pumps.

I’ve heard him recently compared to Vlade Divac, Magic Johnson and Bill Russell (as a rebounder), but position aside, with his feel for the game and ability to influence every aspect of every game with no apparent athleticism, for my money Nikola Jokic is the only player I’ve ever seen that reminds me of Larry Bird.

Sports 101 Answer: Those players were picks 1 through 5 before Jim Brown was taken sixth by Cleveland in the 1957 draft.

Final Thought: There’s a difference between being the most valuable NFL player ever (Tom Brady) and being the best actual football player ever.

In my not so humble opinion the latter was the indestructibleJim Brown,who died last week at 87. The stat rationale is too long, so I’ll just comment on an ESPN poll that had him the GOAT of running backs. The great Barry Sanders was second, but check out the difference between him playing on grass vs. artificial turf. JB just had grass.Trust me, with the highest yards per carry average ever he was the best.

RIP, big fella.

Email Dave Long at [email protected].

The Big Story – Celtics Move On To ECF: Say one thing for the Celtics, they certainly like to make it hard on themselves. For the second straight postseason they went down two games to three by coughing up Game 5 at home to put their season on the brink before barely surviving Game 6 on the road and then closing out the bad guys with a blowout Game 7 win at the Garden.

The series brought to the forefront the continued frustrating inconsistency of Jayson Tatum, though his spectacular all-is-forgiven final 53 minutes of the series is the bigger story than said inconsistency, which included three of the worst shooting first halves in Celtics playoff history.

But it was a seven-game series, not one of just first halves, and despite his terrible first three quarters he saved Game 6 and thus the season by banging out three gigantic threes and a deuce over the final four minutes to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat before delivering the best Celtics Game 7 performance these eyes have witnessed.

It leads the Cs into their third Eastern Conference Finals meeting with Miami in the last four years, a team with the best coach in the NBA and who plays them (and Tatum) tougher than anyone.

Could be a nerve-wracking two weeks for Celtic Nation, so buckle up.

Sports 101: In going for 37 points and 23 rebounds this man had the greatest NBA Finals Game 7 by a rookie in NBA history. Name him.

Thumbs Up – Al Horford: Tatum’s sensational Game 7 might overshadow what Al Horford did on Sunday in the history books, but let’s hope not. The 36-year-old Horford’s spectacular defensive effort on Joel Embiid was vital to the win in harassing the league MVP into 5-18 shooting in his not good enough 15-point, 8-rebound afternoon.

News Item – Pats to Honor Tom Brady: Not sure how I feel about Brady being honored on Opening Day in Foxborough. Stems from his never mentioning the Pats or their fans in his social media posts following the first retirement. That snub and lack of appreciation did not sit well in this space. So I’m not for doing it in his first official game of his retirement. Too soon for me.

I also think, with the likes of Jerry Rice, Jim Brown, Lawrence Taylor and a few others in the conversation, Bob Kraft calling him the “best player in history” in the announcement is up for debate. However, with his seven titles, I’m fine with calling him the most valuable player in league history.

News Item – Rough Week for Sox: Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water of thinking the Sox might be better than most thought, last week happened. They entered the week 21-14 and on an eight-game winning streak. But it was all downhill when it ended on Sunday leading to a 1-5 week, concluding with a sweep at Fenway by the last-in-the-NL St. Louis Cardinals. The main trouble was the pitching giving up seven runs a game in the five losses. The good news was Chris Sale made it three straight solid games, his best one yet coming Saturday when he went eight innings while holding the Cards to three hits while striking out nine before Kenley Jansen blew a second straight win in the ninth.

The Numbers:

6 – organization record at any level for stolen bases swiped in one game set by Sox all-name team prospect Ceddanne Rafaela for AA Portland last week.

10 – losses in 16 Game 7s coached by Doc Rivers, which are the most by any coach in NBA history.

12.5 & 34.5 – points averaged by James Harden in Philly’s four losses to the Celtics and in their three wins in the series respectively.

54 – all-time Celtics record for points scored in a playoff record set by the late great John Havlicek in a 1973 win over the Atlanta Hawks.

Random Thoughts:

One more thing about Doc Rivers’s playoff record. Four of his six Game 7 wins came while coaching the Celtics.

For the record, the best Game 7 performance by a Celtic player I’ve seen before Sunday came in 1984 when Larry Bird went for 39 (13-24 and 12-12 from the line), 12 rebounds and 10 assists as the Cs closed out the Knicks in the semi-final round.

The best by an opponent came in the dramatic 1988 duel between Dominique Wilkins and Bird when Nique scored 14 and Larry 20 in their tit-for-tat fourth quarter, before finishing with 47 and 34 respectively.

Sports 101 Answer: The greatest Game 7 by a rookie was authored by Tommy Heinsohn in one of the NBA’s greatest games ever, when Game 7 of the finals went to double overtime as the Celtics beat the St. Louis Hawks 125-123 to claim their first NBA title. Bill Russell, also a rookie that night, went for 19 points and 32 rebounds while Hawks all-timer Bob Pettit had 39 and 19.

2023 Prediction Record: Was right on three of four in taking Miami (in 6), Denver (6) and Boston (7) in the last round while missing on Golden State vs. L.A.

NBA Conference Title Predictions: Denver over L.A. in six. Celtics in seven overMiami.

Final Thought: To all those praising Joe Mazzulla’s “adjustment” to the double big line of Al Horford and lob-it-to-Rob Williams in Game 6 vs. Philly like he invented plutonium, I’ll remind all we said upon his return in January that bringing him off the bench was a bad idea because it made the defense and rebounding worse because they were too small and there was no way he’d be able to play the 30 minutes per night they needed off the bench. It also killed Grant Williams’s confidence by taking away his regular run.

Email Dave Long at [email protected].