o morzu BEZ CENZURY! - opinie internautów

[linzhihong18]

BOSTON — When the Celtics signed Gordon Hayward to a huge free-agent contract and traded for Kyrie Irving in the offseason Vikings Cheap Jerseys , they created what was supposed to be Boston’s new Big Three, along with holdover Al Horford.

Hayward was lost for the season with a gruesome leg injury in the first quarter of the first game of the season. Irving was eventually lost for the year, also because of injury.

That left Horford, a big man who draws the ire of some Celtics fans because of how quietly he goes about his business.

His coach loves him. The fans want more.

On Sunday, in the series opener against the Milwaukee Bucks, the fans got more.

“It’s go time,” Horford said after the overtime he helped fuel with 24 points and 12 rebounds in 44:19 of the game’s 53:00. “This is the time where you want to play. You want to be in these games setting the tone. It all starts on the defensive end. I try to set the tone on defense and kind of go from there. I guess it’s doing whatever I can do to help us win. That’s what it’s all about.”

Horford also had four assists, three blocked shots and two steals in the win that gave the second-seeded Celtics a 1-0 series lead heading into Tuesday night’s Game 2 at TD Garden.

All this after TV analyst Charles Barkley ripped Horford’s pedestrian season totals — 14.2 points, 8.6 rebounds and 32 assists, saying, “When I was averaging his numbers, they made me retire.”

But with Irving, Hayward, Marcus Smart and rookie Daniel Theis missing, Horford is more important to the offense.

“We’re going to ride Al,” Celtics coach Brad Stevens said. “He’s been unbelievable in being a facilitator for us all year. He has his moments, because of the way we’re being defended, where he gets to be more of a featured scorer. With where we are now Cheap DJ Chark Jersey , he’s going to be more of a featured scorer, and facilitate, and guard (Giannis Antetokounmpo), and do everything.

“He’ll probably run our film session (on Monday).”

If Horford is nothing else, his basketball IQ is high and he does many things that don’t show up on the stat sheet. His salary dictates higher numbers, but Stevens knows what he has in this player.

The Bucks, seeded seventh, tied Sunday’s game on a miraculous 35-foot jumper by Kris Middleton at the regular buzzer, but the Celtics found a way to win the game.

“We played well and we played hard and that’s what this series is going to be — both teams fighting,” Bucks coach Joe Prunty said.

Eric Bledsoe, making his first playoff appearance since 2014 — as the Bucks look for their first series win since 2000 — was beaten by Terry Rozier for the 3-pointer with half a second left that appeared to have won the game in regulation. Bledsoe scored nine points on 4-of-12 shooting and posted four assists and five turnovers.

He was also unintentionally slighted after the game by Rozier, who scored 17 of his 23 points in the second half and the OT. The Boston guard called Bledsoe “Drew Bledsoe,” an inadvertent homage to the former New England Patriots quarterback.

And Antetokounmpo fouled out guarding Horford, who was 5 of 8 from the floor and hit 13 of his 14 free throws. Antetokounmpo felt like he failed despite 35 points, 13 rebounds, seven assists and three steals.

“I’ve got to do a better job guarding Horford,” Antetokounmpo said. “He’s a really big body, he’s under control Brian Urlacher Jersey , he knows what he’s doing down there. Hopefully in Game 2, I won’t play on my heels. I’ll play more on my toes and be able to defend without fouling, too.”

After winning 14 games, including his first postseason victory with Minnesota and a second NFC North title in four years on the job, Vikings coach Mike Zimmer has a team set up to sustain such success.

The items on his to-do list are major issues, though.

Finding an offensive coordinator has become the top priority, following the departure of Pat Shurmur to become the head coach of the New York Giants. Then there’s the matter of working with general manager Rick Spielman to identify a starting quarterback for 2018, with contracts scheduled to expire for Case Keenum, Sam Bradford and Teddy Bridgewater.

The offensive coordinator will be determined first and likely have some input into the quarterback quandary, too, but sorting out the age, ability, cost, durability and unrealized potential of Keenum, Bradford and Bridgewater will be the more complicated and critical task.

Having been awake with angst until 3 a.m. following Minnesota’s 38-7 loss at Philadelphia in the NFC championship game on Sunday, Zimmer said at his season-ending news conference Tuesday that he hasn’t pointed his mind down that path yet.

”My whole focus was on the now and not so much the future,” Zimmer said. ”Rick and I talked about that earlier. We said, `Let’s just go through the season. Let’s figure it out after the season.’ We’ll go through that process and go from there and see how that goes. We’re just going to work through it.”

Though Zimmer was staying true to the status report Johnny Townsend Color Rush Jersey , he also didn’t exactly offer a ringing endorsement of Keenum.

”I’m going to work through the process, just like I always do,” Zimmer said, when asked for a specific evaluation of the year Keenum had after going from unheralded backup to season-saver. ”We’re going to evaluate all the players. We’re going to evaluate everybody and go about our business like we always do.”

As for Bradford, whose knee injury yielded the position to Keenum, Zimmer said Bradford told him on Monday that he feels like he is past the trouble that limited him to two starts in 2017.

As for Bridgewater, who took Bradford’s spot on the active roster for the second half of the schedule only to be bumped back to third string and did-not-suit-up status for the playoffs, Zimmer said the Vikings naturally would have preferred to see a fuller picture of on-field action following his recovery from a major knee injury. Keenum’s success made that impossible for Bridgewater, who hasn’t appeared in a high-stakes situation in more than two years.

”For him to even get to that point to where he was and be able to come out and practice and compete, get in a game, was a true credit to him,” Zimmer said, adding: ”He’s at the point where he can play. You just have to figure out where’s he at, because obviously we didn’t get to see him through games.”

Not many teams in NFL history will have such a strong season to come within one win of the Super Bowl, only to have the sport’s most important position in such an uncertain state, but that’s where the Vikings find themselves.

”I guess it’s unique, but it’s part of the process in the NFL,” Zimmer said. ”You work through it Authentic Customized Dolphins Jerseys , and you go about your business.”

As for the offensive coordinator vacancy, Zimmer said he’ll take his time to try to get the right hire. He didn’t rule out internal candidates such as quarterbacks coach Kevin Stefanski, but he also acknowledged the benefit of new ideas from the outside.

The defense could not have been better in the regular season, ranking first in both fewest yards and points allowed, but it faltered over the final five quarters of the playoffs. Nick Foles and the Eagles torched this proud group for 456 total yards.

”I have to do a better job in some areas as far as maybe sticking to some things too much because we’re successful,” Zimmer said.

As for the Super Bowl that will be painfully played on the team’s home turf at U.S. Bank Stadium, Zimmer will not be in attendance, in case there was any question. He’ll be at his vacation ranch in northern Kentucky, inevitably cringing from time to time about coming so close to the franchise’s first championship.

”Our fans were unbelievable the way they helped this football team out. They talked about bringing the whole state together, the state of Minnesota and Vikings fans throughout the world,” Zimmer said. ”That made me feel good, that we were able to bring a bunch of people and try to work for something for a common goal. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to finish it for them, so that is one of the disappointments.”

—

.