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Ohhhh brother. These guys again. The Knicks are in Boston tonight, in case you haven't heard. That means the increasingly tiresome Carmelo Anthony-Kevin Garnett beef narrative will resurface, this time in front of the TD Garden crowd. I hope nothing comes of it.
Meeeeeanwhile, I'm dreading the actual basketball game. These are not the same Celtics we saw a couple weeks ago, in a few ways. On one hand, the Celtics we saw on the 7th were in the midst of a reawakening and what went on to be a six-game win streak, and now they're spiraling badly, having lost four straight to pretty mediocre competition. On the other hand, tonight's Celtics will be playing: 1. In Boston, where the Knicks haven't won since the days of Francis/before this blog existed 2. With Rajon Rondo, who was suspended during the last game, and who tends to excel on national television, does he not?
So, uh...I don't know what wins out: The Celtics' downward momentum or their historic tendency to thwart the Knicks in the most nauseating way possible. You can probably guess which way I'm leaning, expectations-wise. Incidentally, if the Knicks lose tonight, they'd fall below into a tie with the Nets in the Atlantic Divison/Eastern Conference standings and dangerously close the nippin' Pacers and Bulls as well. If they win, they're only a game and a half back of the heat.
We still don't know Mike Woodson's lineup for tonight, but it sure seems like it's gonna be Jason Kidd, Iman Shumpert (25-minute cap), Carmelo Anthony, Kurt Thomas(??), and Tyson Chandler. I hope that lineup doesn't dig the Knicks into to deep a hole before the bench friends come into provide some scoring and spacing. Shump's probably gonna have to hit some jumpers.
Oh, and Kidd's gonna guard Rondo to start, which-- as many have said many times about many opponents-- really means Chandler's gonna guard Rondo to start. We'll see how all that goes.
Big game! I am paralyzed with terror! 8:00! I'm gonna vomit!
(You can listen to me vomit on the radio at 6:30, by the way.)