These Are The Celtics. They Are The Ruiners Of My Day.

Sensed it coming.

The visit from the Boston Celtics back in '08 was the second live game I attended. First of all, it was bright and sunny but viciously cold. Second, I got hung up at work. Third, I missed the bus and had to wait 45 minutes for another one (at the time I worked out at the butt-end of Irving, clear the hell to fuck and gone by DFW Airport). By the time I got to the arena, the first quarter was over. The Mavs losing 94-90 was the rancid pickle on a shit sandwich of a day. PS: I hate pickles.

Yesterday followed a similar pattern -- no measureable impact on the Daily Chore List (the Mavs Fan Shop doesn't carry sweatshirts/hoodies/jackets in sizes larger than 2X, the cell phone I want is out of stock everywhere), a communication breakdown between me and my ride, a Painted Fan section full of Painted Fan virgins (yes I know it sucks that half the section is standing room only, it wasn't my idea) and the Mavericks doing the resident Celtics fans a favor by getting a lot of it wrong at the worst possible time.

To be fair, this wasn't as bad as last year's Boston at Dallas -- the one where we blew a 20+ lead and Coach asked Dirk to be Jesus. But it was bad enough.

Being surrounded by Painted People when the game looks like a winner, when you've been genuinely thrilled, when things are going well, is a joy. And then it all went wrong. My brain, still happily drunk on dopamine and other THIS ROCKS! brain drugs, watched in horror as a seven point lead evaporated, as everything Boston threw up went down and through, as the panic shots missed, as every attempt at an offense led to Bad Things.

I'm not in the habit of second-guessing Coach, not really. But Rajon Rondo is exactly the kind of point guard the Mavericks have problems with, because he can think and move very very quickly. My specific second guess has to do with not putting Rodrigue in the game sometime in the first half whilst Rondo was in for Boston and seeing if that matchup was workable. And if it had been, serving Roddy some fourth-quarter minutes at the two or the point.

In any event, the Mavericks have dropped two of their last three making a lot of the same mistakes. I went outside in a bad state and stood there forever waiting for my ride. Wearing a T-shirt and a wrap. In twenty degrees.

Dear Mavericks et al; if I get pneumonia and die, it's you guys's fault.
-BJ