Enemy Chatter: No wounded tiger bounce for the Celtics

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 Phoenix.

No Wounded Tiger bounce for the Celtics tonight. Without KG, Pierce, Davis and Daniels and with a gimpy Rondo who had no interest in attacking the rim the Suns should have won this game. And they did win this game.

Coach Doc Rivers kind of disagreed but then talked himself out of it, "I expected to win. I think we pay everybody. As long as you do, you have to come in with the expectation to win..This was very difficult to win. They're a good team. So this game doesn't affect me at all."

Bright Side of the Sun

Given the fact Kevin Garnett was back in the hotel and Paul Pierce is still sidelined with a knee problem, the temptation might be to affix an asterisk to this romp. Between them they are nearly 40 percent of the Boston offense, and Garnett is the heart of the Boston defense.

But none the real focus of this one should not be on how tired and hurting the Cs were but on the ongoing evidence it provided that the Suns have recovered from their mid-December funk and are once again looking like the 14-3 team that was the talk of the league in November.

Suns Blog

``It's a win over the Celtics. We'll take it,'' Phoenix coach Alvin Gentry said. ``They don't really put an asterisk by it and say Kevin Garnett wasn't here, so we'll take it any way we can get it.'' 

Associated Press

There was no Kevin Garnett or Paul Pierce in green to help stoke the Suns' fire, but the East's top team was enough. "We've got to come as if Pierce and (Larry) Bird and (Kevin) McHale and (Bill) Russell and all those guys will be out there," Grant Hill said before the game.

Arizona Republic

If only the Celtics wouldn't carry that attitude into games, they might not lose to the Sixers, Clippers and Warriors.