Enemy Chatter: I can feel KG's lips touching my face

I often wonder what opposing teams, their beat reporters and bloggers are saying about the Celtics after playing the Celtics. Here's a dose of 'enemy chatter' from Washington.

But that buoyancy the Wizards used to build that lead simply gave way to bumbling youth, as they succumbed to a game-ending 20-4 run and lost 86-83. "Well, we choked," Saunders said, explaining how the Wizards squandered a huge lead so quickly. "The disappointing thing is we outplayed them for 42 minutes, but we didn't have the gall, the leadership and the know-how to close it out when we had to."

"We beat ourselves by getting them energized, which got their crowd energized," Saunders said. "Dray is wolfing the whole time at Kevin Garnett. You can't do those kinds of things. When you're coming up and establishing yourself, you don't take a guy that's been defensive player of the year and is probably the best power forward and get that guy juiced up to play against you. You got no chance."

Michael Lee - Washington Post

"I see myself as defending myself as a player. I'm a man, just like they a man. If a man is talking to me this close to my face," Blatche said, moving his hand toward his cheek. "I'm going to say something back. He has to respect me just like I respect him. I just, 'Get up out of my face.' He was this close in my face - I can feel his lips touching my cheek - I wasn't bragging saying 'Ah we winning.' It was 'Back up.' "

Andray Blatche (Washington Post)

As I watched the Celtics make their 4th quarter run, I did not think of the Blatche-Garnett exchange as a tipping point. It seemed like such a minor incident.

And it's not like KG took over the game. He was 2-4 FTs with 2 rebounds during the final 5 minutes of the quarter.