Celtics 108, Knicks 97: "Refs down with the tank"

Two terrible teams twirled their turrets, taking their tame tete-a-tete to truly terrifying tower tops. Thankfully the team that Tribeca's twilight tweens tickle their twangs to thought tumult told the tale. Thats that tank talk, toasters!

Boston had it going right from the jump and played with some semblance of what should be labeled confidence the whole way through. The Knicks prodded a pair of idealized performances out of Jared Sullinger and Avery Bradley with casual close outs and feeble one-on-one defensive efforts. Add in a couple steady contributors in Marcus Smart and Jae Crowder, subtract a nice game from Jason Smith, divide everything by a slew of bad calls and you got yourself another quality loss. Walt Clyde Phraser mentioned how it was pretty chill of the zebras to be "down with the tank". I felt that vibe too. Some thoughts...

- The stars of the game were honestly Sullinger and Bradley. Sullinger posted, toasted, roasted, boasted and ghosted. 22 points, 9 bounds, 6 assists. Step back jumpers, circus shots, wide open 18-footers. He had his way with our bigs, and we never really sent much help.

Bradley was just lights out and made his first eight field goals. He finally missed trying to ram on the entire squad, and the ball caromed directly to Brandon Bass who canned a mid range pull up like a punch in the stomach. A microcosm of the game.

- The Celtics shot 55% in the game. They shoot 44% for the season. That's eleven percent better. They won by eleven points. Phil Jackson has Eleven Rings. There are eleven dimensions. Eleven Kinds of Loneliness. Choose one.

- Jose Calderon is finally clicking, and it comes as a direct result of taking some ownership of the offense. He looks to shoot early in the game and his aggressive play opens things up for his teammates. He did have four turnovers, but 17 points on 12 shots, 3-4 from deep...that type of stuff is going to pull defenses apart and make a lot of Triangle options quite hard to guard with savvier players around.

- Jason Smith is making his case to be one of those players lately. I wouldn't want him as a starter, but there is no reason to think he can't keep up this type of production in a more limited role. Twelve points, seven boards, five assists. Really concise work, Jah.

- One of the best five-man units the Knicks had out there tonight? Don't laugh: Shane Larkin, Tim Hardaway, Quincy Acy, Lance Thomas, Lou Amundson. New York lost this game. In case that was unclear.

- George Karl is probably staring at his toothy smile in a funhouse mirror and laughing his red face off at Carmelo Anthony's play of late. I love Melo, but he's getting steamed on defense right now, and just doesn't have enough spring to pull anything out of his usual bag of tricks on offense. He needs to sit his ass out and watch some cartoons or something. Sooner or later his hubris is going to leave that knee shredded or some other totally horrible nonsense. His movements are balky and labored. I worry!

21 points on 23 shots is garbaggio. Melo only got to the line once tonight (2-2), which seemed quite odd if I may say so myself. He dabbled in a little bit of everything else out there on the floor and didn't have a turnover in 33 minutes. He just doesn't have that pop.

- Lance Thomas plays ball kinda like people that scare you with how they drive. You might make it to your destination safely, but you can really perceive your own mortality.

- Jamal Crawford made his way to the Garden to watch the game tonight! Al Trautwig had a short interview with him and he was his old genuine and gracious self. I really miss Jamal! Was so hurt when we traded him to Golden State. Someone at my home this cool and exclusive bar (who gets to sleep on the couch tonight) said he was "so sweet and handsome". I got mad real fast, but then I realized that I completely agreed, and I'm just jealous of everything about that guy. That is a surefire highlight in the grand scheme of this season.

- James Dolan showed up to game, and someone must have left him on all day, because his battery was drained.

Did James Dolan fall asleep in his seat? @netw3rk @ScottCacciola pic.twitter.com/VMkccvV3yC

— Sam Dolnick (@samdolnick) February 4, 2015

What a yucky person.

- Everything Evan Turner does on the basketball court is completely detestable. At one point early on, the chill vibing refs rescinded a clear path foul on him. Evan motioned for a jump ball. Just in general, he's also that guy floating around, over-dribbling and acting like he's the man. Then he flumps a pocket pass into somebody's calf and throws up his hands like, "THIS. IS. CRAZY!"

- Speaking of detestable, Lou Amundson got called for two awful, awful offensive fouls. One negated a nice little floater in the lane when Jared Sullinger didn't give him the space to land while also having one foot in the restricted area. The second was again landing, but this time while catching a pass. As he turned his back to the basket, the defender who was clearly underneath him made no play on the ball and decided to just crumble to the floor. Awful.

- The real story of course is that Pablo Prigioni didn't dress due to a hip injury. Every moment without Pablo is a cruel red hell. I wrote a haiku about it. Please share your own in the comments, or any of the feels you feels. <3 u, PP!

Secret Pablito Without your contributions My heart might not beat

— stingy (@aighttho) February 4, 2015