Rondo, Celtics cruise past Pistons

Basketball Betting Lines

11/20/2008 - Boston, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Rajon Rondo had 18 points and doled out eight assists to help the Celtics to a 98-80 victory over the Pistons in a rematch of last season's Eastern Conference Finals.

Kevin Garnett added 15 points in his return from a one-game suspension for hitting Milwaukee's Andrew Bogut during Boston's 102-97 overtime win on Saturday. Tony Allen chipped in 13 points and Ray Allen 12 for Boston, which has won three in a row.

Allen Iverson scored 16 points and had four assists for the Pistons, who have dropped two of three. Rasheed Wallace had 13 points and Richard Hamilton 12 in defeat.

The teams played to a 21-21 tie after the first quarter, and Boston led 49-40 at the half.

The Celts opened a 13-point lead as Paul Pierce hit two free throws and Garnett added a layup. Though a Kwame Brown free throw brought Detroit within 59-48 with 8:16 left in the third.

Boston outscored the visitors 16-4 over the next 5:19 to assume a 75-52 lead. Rondo and Garnett accounted for the first nine and 11 total points on the surge.

The Pistons found themselves down by 20, 77-57, heading into the final 12 minutes.

Glen Davis poured in a layup, Gabe Pruitt nailed a jumper and Eddie House drained a three to open the fourth quarter, and the Celts were up 84-57 with 8:44 left in regulation.

Game Notes

The Pistons fell to 5-3 on the road...The Celtics are 7-1 as the host this season and also handed Detroit an 88-76 setback on November 9 at The Palace of Auburn Hills...Boston has won four straight in this series, but the Pistons are 14-5 in the previous 19 matchups...Detroit had won seven of nine trips to Beantown.

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FOOTBALL TRASH TALK

NFL Football Trash Talk

Trash talk has a place in every competitive endeavor (except baseball; those stirrup-wearers are too busy chewing on their sunflower seeds and their “supplements” to worry about what their opponents are doing).

Fantasy sports is no exception. Any intelligent discussion of the subject would probably start with a thesis statement or a definition of terms. Thankfully, this won’t be an intelligent discussion.

Let me just say that I am happy to take a place in this space alongside my talented colleagues, even our commissioner. (You should see how she bleats like a demented paper boy about league fees on our fantasy site).

Trash talking, I would argue, is primarily about amusing your friends, their sheeplike demeanors and sloping foreheads notwithstanding. The best place I have found for football trash talking is at www.SportsAlarm.com.

Beyond the entertainment factor, though, I would recognize that the sophomoric ritual has one advantage, when properly applied. It magnifies your fantasy triumphs and mitigates your fantasy failures by transforming the eventual point total into an afterthought. Winning makes it seem like your opponent really is a “truss-owning, lapel-pin-wearing nitwit.” And in defeat, trash talk can be the air bag to break the fall from your hyperbolic heights. “The plug-necked yahoos on your team,” you can say, “will be sacking groceries by the end of the season.”

The best trash talk, in my view, is layered and nuanced. And it doesn’t focus only on your opponent’s team. It picks apart your opponent. The idea is to create a shock-and-awe-scale blizzard of nonsense, and the goal is to make your opponent drop his hands from his keyboard in exasperation.

What team does your opponent root for? Accuse a Giants fan of having a Joe Namath pillowcase. Where’s your opponent from? Give a look of concern no matter his reply, then say, “I’ll try to type slower for you next time.” Is your opponent into politics? Label everyone a tax-and-spend corporate shill.

Cap all that with a liberal application of irrelevance. For instance, don’t just conclude by saying your opponent is a “twerp who drafts like my grandmother.” Say that your opponent is a “sweater-wearing, eyebrow-plucking twerp who drafts his team about as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor gave acceptance speeches at the Oscars.” By the time your foe makes sense of that, his starting running back will have had puppies.

But what about you? Hmm? Recall a memorable slam? Have a tried-and-true technique? Know someone who seems impervious to insult? Take a moment and tells us about it. Put together some (fit-for-publication) thoughts. You won’t be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, I’m sure, to reply.

In addition to the trash talking, the Sports Alarm has a huge gallery of high resolution pictures of beautiful women and models in bikinis. The most popular models are: Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Underwood, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Paris Hilton.