Barack Obama just got elected. The Celtics just beat the Rockets. Big night for Massachusetts, eh? Eddie House sank a pair of free throws to ice it late.
Give it up for Big Perk. In front of a home crowd — he reportedly set aside 100 tickets! — he had his best game of the young season, scoring 15 points on 7 for 8 from the floor and grabbing seven rebounds.
The more important news is that Ray Allen looked like the guy who torched the Lakers last June. 11 of 15, 29 points, 5 boards, 5 assists. 1 for 5 from the line, but hey, I’ll take that performance.
The minutes are once again piling up though. Allen played 35 minutes. KG played 36. Paul Pierce played 44. My colleague Hector Longo pointed this out earlier today. I suppose Houston is a marquee opponent, but the C’s can’t afford tired legs. Not a crisis, but definitely something worth watching.
So seriously, how excited are the players tonight? Reportedly 14 of 15 Celtics supported Obama. The lone dissenter is buying tonight…
More interesting news out of Houston. Embattled referee Scott Foster is speaking out — he reportedly made 304 phone calls to Tim Donaghy between December 2006 and April 2007. Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated has the scoop. Scary sounding stuff:
Sitting behind a wooden desk in a downtown Houston hotel room Monday afternoon, Foster doesn’t look particularly angry. He is clean-shaven and neatly groomed, and his face does not reflect the torturous months that have seen the reputation he had worked so hard for — and one that earned him a coveted spot officiating in the 2008 NBA Finals — torched and his family embarrassed. But in his first public comments since a July FoxNews.com report detailed the 134 phone calls made by Donaghy to Foster’s cell phone, the frustration in Foster’s voice quickly becomes evident.
“Two or three days after [the report] came out, I remember telling [NBA president for league and basketball operations Joel] Litvin that I can’t just sit on the sidelines and let them beat my ass,” said Foster. “If someone said, ‘He raped me’ and they were in Portland, Maine, and I was in Portland, Ore., I would get on a pulpit and say this isn’t fair. But because this had an NBA thing attached to it, I couldn’t speak.”
God, I WISH I was in the room with Tommy Heinsohn when he first heard about the Donaghy scandal. You can dismiss his continual referee gripes, but I would love to hear his thoughts…
I remember trying to get a hold of Tommy when the Donaghy story broke a few summers ago. His wife Helen, who has a great sense of humor, answered the phone. I told her I what I was writing about. She was super nice, but informed me that her husband, who was out at the moment, probably “Wouldn’t be talking about that.” Fair enough.
