Game 7

Team Zalad is going to be having a collective heart attack during the entire game, so I'll spew my thoughts now.

Here it is: if we play like we did in Boston this entire season, bye-bye Shock The World. So how can we win the greatest victory in the history of athletic competition? Simple, two ways:
1. Play like the game is at Phillips arena. Replicate everything that we did right at home and repeat nothing we did on the road, period. In fact, it may be effective strategy if the players were just told to play the exact opposite way of how they would have otherwise. The Hawks are such a horrible road team that, yeah, they can be confident in their abilities and focus, but unless they radically change the way they approach and prepare for road games, esp. in a hostile environment during the playoffs, it's just hard to imagine these young players making up the minus-20 average points scored away from Phillip during this series.
2. Right before gametime, film Zaza in his Rocky hoodie going into the Celtics locker room and beating up every Celtics player, with emphasis on Cassell and Pierce. Then somehow switch that film with the motivational video the Celtics personnel prepared for the game.

Only if both of these things happen do the Hawks stand a chance. But you know what, after being there for games 3 and 7 and seeing game 4 on TV, I truly believe anything is possible with these guys. Their will to win games has been inspiring and a joy to witness. I just hope somebody, anybody, found a way to carry all of this inspiration to Beantown. As the greatest motivational speaker ever once said, "WE GO TO GAME 7, BABY!! GAME 7! GAME SEVENNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!"



Injury note: I hope Marvin is completely healthy to play. The knee crash didn't look bad after watching the replay, but any knee troubles can mean trouble to his shooting and trouble to the team. Yeah, we can trash him all day about how much he sucks and how he's not even worth one CP3 assist, but he's been important to the Hawks play during this series, more so than I readily admit. Ever since Joe has been double-, triple-, even quadruple-teamed, we need that player who can consistently knock down open jumpers. Even though I'm still not completely sold on Marvin's jumper, it's been falling enough and he hasn't been rushing or shooting from too far away (he can only shoot from 16'-19', not an inch longer or shorter). Plus, who else do we have to knock down shots off passes from drives to the interior and said double- and triple-teams? I still don't want JSmoov to ever shoot from beyond 6 feet, JChill seems content on just driving the ball and getting layups and rebounds (even though he has a great shot and needs to hoist it up a lot more), and Bibby may pull a 2-8 again. Ok so this wasn't so much an injury note as it is more analysis of the offense, but whatever this may be the last time this decade you'll see me complimenting and expressing need for Marvin.