Take That Rockets, Glen Taylor

Late yesterday afternoon, the owner of the Minnesota Timberwolves, Glen Taylor, took some shots at Kevin Garnett. He accused KG of “tanking it” at the end of last season when the big man didn’t play the final five games. It’s a ridiculous charge, of course. As anyone who has watched Garnett knows, the man does nothing at half-speed. It was also shameful that the owner of a franchise would rip on the only guy who made pro basketball worth a damn in Minnesota.

Taylor wasn’t the only one taking shots at the Celtics. Before last night’s game with the Rockets even got underway, veteran Rafer Alston tried to go at it with Rajon Rondo. In the second half, Luis Scola tried to separate Tony Allen‘s head from his body. The Celtics responded by beating Houston by 20 and snapping the Rockets 22-game winning streak.

We know the Celtics are good. What everyone else should realize is that they’re tough, too.

The Rondo thing was one of those classic young fella moments that all players must go through. It’s hard to tell what was going through Alston’s mind when he got entangled with Rondo. Here’s a kid who has gone toe-to-toe with Chauncey Billups and outplayed Tony Parker in the second half the night before. Did “Skip to my Lou” really think he was going to get Rondo to back down?

But it was the silly Glen Taylor comments that everyone all riled up last night. On the pregame show Charles Barkley was incensed. “He’s just like Hank Steinbrenner,” Sir Charles said, endearing him to everyone in town. “They both don’t know their ass from a hole in the ground.”

True to form, KG took the high road when asked about it after the game by TNT’s David Aldridge, but his tomahawk dunk on Scola with a little over two minutes left and the game in the bag spoke volumes. The Celtics are a little bit salty right now.

Other great TNT moments: How refreshing to watch a game and not have the commentators bring up the officials even once. You’d have thought there wasn’t some kind of grand conspiracy against the Celtics or something… Poor Doug Collins, done in as a coach by rebellious youngsters in Washington, just can’t bring himself to trust anyone under 30. But even he was impressed by Leon Powe last night… Charles on something: “It’s like when you date a girl who’s kind of ugly,” Ernie and Kenny simultaneously: “We can’t relate.”