Avery Johnson caption: "Look at that awful team on the court. haha. Who's the coach of this Nets team anyway? Haha."

-or-

Prokhorov will pay $1 million to the first person to pull Avery Johnson's finger

Dear Adam Morrison:

Shave your fucking face. Or just go away forever.

Thanks!

One good thing for the Celtics if this does go to 7...Sheed and Perkins can go balls-to-the-wall and each get a tech in that 7th Game (unless, of course, they get one tonight).

There has been a lot of bawfulness in this series, and everyone here has talked about it...horrible ref calls, bad shooting, bad decisions on the court, etc...but I have been watching the post-game press conferences on NBA TV after the last 2 games, and let me tell you, there's a lot of stupidy there as well.

A couple of the questions that stand out..."How close was that to an turnover?" (to Pierce after his fling to a cutting Rondo at the end of Game 5)... and "How confident are you?" (to Kobe, talking about going back to L.A., after the Game 5 loss). There are a lot more, I just can't think of them right now.

I just wish these players had a little Bobby Knight in them. It would make the post-game press conferences much more exciting.

I've always hated the press and they deserve their own WotN.

This deserves a WoE (Worst of Eternity). I didn't know a human being could get so low.
http://deadspin.com/5564268/the-legend-of-black-superman-billy-ray-bates-flying-high-in-the-philippines

WV: rapnests- the new term for houses ever since "cribs" got played out.

Taking up my much-loved and well-worn mantle of advocatus diaboli, that picture doesn't prove that Morrison doesn't have jeans on under the warm-ups, nor does is show whether or not a sports jacket is in fact hanging from the back of his equally much-loved and well-worn seat on the bench.

Ruh roh Odom is suffering from "flu-like symptons"

Those %'s of Celtics complainers do not surprise me. Ray Allen has suffered more bad calls than anybody this series, and Perkins always throws his hands up or spins away in disgust, even after obvious fouls. And Sheed..... is just Sheed.

And Avery is laughing at the Lakers _efense and at Kobe's frustration.

So will Kim Jong Il spare Korea DPR's players lives after they managed a goal against Brazil? I honestly think those guys are playing for their lives...

Over/Under on player defections from North Korea: 7.5

Hate to be picky but the editing is a little loose. It should read 'The Zen Master Phil Jackson is trying to sausage Laker fan fears...'

Lakers may get porked tonight. I have more than a feeling.

Caption : "As good as these guys in 5 years? Ha ha ha ha ha, you gotta be kidding"

Could Breen, Jackson and Van Gundy be cheering harder for the Lakers?

The Celtics brought out the Clogged Toilet Offense to end that first quarter.

Can I get a worst-of for Paul Pierce for all of his 1-on-5 play and poor choices in the first quarter? Some plays he didn't pass when he should have. Other times he made a terrible pass, like a pass to Wallace or someone in the middle of 4 Laker players. He doesn't seem to play well with Robinson. (Stat line: 1-4, 2 points, 2 boards, 1 assist, 2 TOs, 1 foul, -10.)

------

As I'm typing this, the WNBA is advertised with some Miley Cyrus song in the background. lol "can't be tamed" lol.

WV: bleak. Write your own sentence, probably regarding the Celtics' chances this game.

Accidentally overslept on my nap and just tuned into the game a little while ago but man am I pleased to see Farmar just hustle for that loose ball, anyone else have a brief flashback to Rondo's dive in the Celtics-Magic series?

Why does every Celtic look like they're playing in a preseason game? ZERO intensity and aggression.

Anonymous- I'm sure Kim has trained snipers following the team to prevent any defections.
It seems like Artest is pulling a reverse Weekend at Bernie's in this game so far.

Err and after the last couple possessions with Farmar's lay and Gasol's easy offensive putback, doesn't it seem like the Celtics are determined to use this game as a nap in preparation for game 7?

Perkins down, 20 point lead for the Lakers, a white marshmallow rolling all over the floor.

I'm going to bed...

@bawful I was wondering the same thing.

In general, how many guys does Bynum have to put into the hospital before he reaches "Dwight Howard" no respect for human life status?

Gasol is a little scrappy tonight as well. Little pushes and shoves. I think he's trying to get rid of his "soft" label. Maybe if he got rid of his soccer tendencies?

wv: glationo - the way the Celtics are playing right now

I'll stop spamming soon... I'm just very intrigued by Van Gundy and Jackson fellating the Lakers defense. They're playing good defense for sure, but there have been so many open shots at the rim.

I'm wondering if the Celtics' bodies are being operated by alien beings who have never heard of this strange Earth game called "basketball".

Dooj - Youve got to be kidding if you think Perkins got hurt because of some dirty play by Bynum. It was a simple over the back foul, like you see in almost every game. Not *everything* the Lakers do is evil, you know. Bynum had both hands up going for the ball. He did foul him, but it wasn't dirty. Sometimes players just come down wrong.

@Wild Yams

I'm just throwing it out there. I'm not saying he was trying to hurt Perkins. But Bynum has disregarded the safety of opposing players (see Wallace, Gerald) before. Similar to Dwight Howard's elbow to Glen Davis' face is how I see Bynum on that play. It's more of a "weird things happen" around Bynum.

And yes, "everything" the Lakers do is evil. They ARE evil! /sarcasm

Gotta love the WNBA's new ad slogan "Basketball is basketball." I guess we can expect Stern to start broadcasting grade school games, because, hey, basketball is basketball. How the fuck are we to tell the difference?

Johnson: "Hey Cubes, remember when you said 'Good luck finding another crazy billionaire to hire you' during that exit interview? Here's lookin' atcha, kid."

Dooj - Just a word of advice: you should make the stuff you "just throw out there" more intelligent than that or else you risk everyone dismissing you as not being credible. I know you're upset, but come on. 

@Bawful: I don't know if you will ever do a Basketbawful Hall of Fame, but can I suggest Mr. Candice Parker as the first inductee?

Lets blame it on the refs. Conspiracy theory!! Conspiracy theory!! David Stern is the anti-christ!!!

In all seriousness boston sucked, perkins injury is big, and were going to game 7. As a basketball fan you couldnt ask for more.

So when are they going to play Game 6 exactly?

Bynum's play was purely on the ball (and as foul-worthy as they get) and Perkins was only hurt because he came down weird. Perkins is a rock and a glass guy like Bynum wouldn't normally bother him, but he crumpled to the floor so quickly I thought it was Pierce at first.

Tony Allen did get a couple questionable fouls on him, but the game was long decided by then.

We see what happens when the Lakers bench players finally remember that they're getting paid to actually play basketball.

Also, out of pure curiosity, should Artest's arm into Rondo's face have been called a foul? My thought is it shouldn't because Artest was standing still with his arm up, not paying much attention to Rondo, and Rondo proceeded to run his face into Artest. I just ask because stuff like that usually does get called just based on Rondo appearing to get hurt on the play.

Well, I'll give Karc one thing, the Lakers didn't score 90.

However, I'll post at least a couple of his dumb quotes, like I promised:

"Celtics in 6."

"Not just in trouble, dead. They aren't winning Game 6, even with the refs trying to help them."

"You still have all of the records on your side indicating that the Lakers should win the title. Except the play on the court shows otherwise. By a wide margin."

So, here's a hearty "Fuck you" to Karc for being such a gloaty asshole. Only Wild Yams has talked any kind of Laker smack so far, and his was real, real tame by comparison.

Guess what? 2 of the 3 Laker home games have been blowout wins with the Lakers going away. 1 was a close game. Guess where game 7 is being played?

(Notice how nowhere in my post did I say who would win game 7?)

Blech... That wasn't a game, more like a slow motion vomit of basketbawful. The Celtics lost this game... but the Lakers didn't really distinguish themselves all that much.

Actually... come to think of it, Future Guy is on to something... We've secretly replaced your regular Celtics with decaffeinated instant coffee ground: In fact, I think the real Celtics have been trucked to an elaborately stages alternate arena where they are playing (and winning) against robot Lakers in front of a robot Jack. Meanwhile, many of Crazy Pills crazier relatives have been heavily made up to look like the Celts and put in the game ... How else to explain all those bricks?

What the fuck was that? Neither team deserves to win the title after a game like that. It seems to me the Celtics clearly don't respect the Lakers ability to win both games in LA. They just took the night off. That drives me nuts. And in the first half, Lakers got a lot of production from some AWOL players (Artest, Vujachick, Farmer, Brown, Odom). I don't see that happening in game 7. Even after this horribly ugly game the Celtics played, I still feel confident in them in game 7. Especially if Perk can come back and play enough minutes to contain Bynum. I love all the ESPN commentary that was talking about what a classic this game was going to be. They were spot on.

Once again, what smack have I been talking in this series?

I'm not gonna talk any now either. In Game 5 the Lakers didn't match Boston's intensity and poise, and tonight the Celtics were guilty of the same things. I don't know what to expect for Game 7. Whichever team wants it more is gonna win it all. I did say after Game 3 that I was happy LA had the last two games at home, and of course I still am.

Go Lakers.

Yams: When I mentioned you last time I was thinking more of the beginning of the Suns series, so my bad. Wasn't thinking so straight.

Also: Man, Carmelo Anthony just got schooled in Pop-A-Shot too. They're dropping like flies.

@Gabe

So what did the Lakers do in this game that makes them so undeserving of the title? The only criticism I can see is that the people who are getting paid to play, played some productive minutes.

I don't argue that we can't expect such performances from the Lakers bench and Artest again if we look at the history of this team's performance. And Perkin's situation is unfortunate, but to come back and contain Bynum? I don't think he was the big threat tonight. I think the Lakers just wanted it more. I saw Farmar and Fish dive for loose balls like their lives depended on it and Kobe distributed a lot more than taking it in with his hero ball.

Hey Celtics fans, SAY QUEENSBRIDGE.

We're gonna win 2 games in a row at the RIGHT time in the series.

Bawful, do you believe in magic? 47-0? I do.

LAKERS.

Adam - No biggie, I was a right asshole during that series, and I won't be doing that again. I'm hoping this site can get back to being a mixture of humor and intelligent discussion, and acting like that is counter productive.

That's why I won't engage in discussions with Karc anymore, cause he just wants to taunt and gloat and talk shit, but doesn't have any real interest in having a bona fide hoops discussion. I'd advise everyone else to do the same too. Don't quote his nonsense back to him, don't gloat like he does. Just ignore him. You do that and either he'll start making better comments or he'll just go somewhere else.

Grok: I think the Lakers distinguished themselves nicely. 52-39 rebounding advantage (including being +12 on defensive rebounds), +10% advantage with three pointers, a win by 22 points after being up by as many as 25, bench stomped the Celtics bench. The Celtics 'savior' Pierce finished with a game low +/- of -26 while his defender Artest had a game high +26.

Those better with stats can put all that into better perspective, but despite the low score for both teams, I'd say it was pretty decisive.

Yams: Well I understand the emotions being high at this point when the stakes are so much higher than at the beginning of the season, especially when both teams involved have such passionate supporters and have the kind of history they do. Things certainly weren't this contentious last year. When the slate is clean and next season starts it'll be back to freewheeling craziness I'm sure.

@$$$KB24$$$

As a fellow Lakers fan, I'm just as excited for game 7 and I'm hoping they pull in the win, but don't put up stats like 47-0. How long have you been reading this blog?? Do you not fear the ever present stat curse?

And not to call you out individually, but the dollar signs are a symbol of the reasons why other fans can't take us Lakers fans seriously..

But yeah, go Lakers! You've given me new confidence after that last horrid performance in Boston.

The Celtics lost this game... but the Lakers didn't really distinguish themselves all that much.

In the first half the Lakers did distinguish themselves...in the second half, they (like the Celtics) looked a little tired. Phil even said so at the press conference. Although part of lack of offensive was because they decided to just hold the ball for 24 seconds every 4th quarter possession, but still...everyone looked gassed at the end.

I don't know if this is a Worst of the Night or Best of the Night: Pierce sticking the leg out to trip Gasol before the Shannon Brown dunk. The Laker fan in me wants to punch him in the mouth; but if I was a Celtics fan, I'd appreciate it in a weird way. Although, it seemed to backfire, because Gasol looked a little anxious before the trip and in more control (and less jittery) afterwards.

As Marc Jackson might say: "Thank you. Give me this. That was good-old-fashioned beatdown."

@Adam: "Grok: I think the Lakers distinguished themselves nicely.

The best that can be said about the Lakers is that they sucked less than the Celtics and the Celtics sucked pretty effing hard... It's not like they played Laker ball: over 100 points and consistent rebounding on the O boards. Celts got a lot of stops which they bricked.

The Celts screwed a truly ugly pooch while in the act of falling out of the ugly tree and hitting all the branches on the way down. The Lakers screwed a slightly better looking pooch and managed to avoid some of the bigger branches on that ugly tree...

@jfefery

How can you argue the Lakers deserve the title after how badly they played? Yes they played hard, and yes the Celtics played even worse, but both teams played like crap tonight. Lakers simply played bad while the Celtics played ungodly awful. It was painful to watch. If game 7 is played the same way, whether LA or Boston wins, I'll say the same thing, neither team deserves to be a champion playing like that. The one thing LA did well is rebound. Their defense was decent but the Celtics missed tons of open shots and had tons of unforced turnovers, so LA's defense looked a lot better than it really was.

Grok: That was my point exactly. Even if neither team played as well as usual, the Lakers played *much* better than the Celtics and that's how they distinguished themselves. Not by their usual standards but against this particular Celtics team this particular night, and it was enough for a convincing win.

Anyone consider that maybe the teams counter each other in a uniquely strong way that leads to this "terrible" play, instead of it just being about certain players not showing up?

@Gabe

Don't get me wrong Gabe, I can understand that the domination the Lakers handed the Celtics (or maybe the self-destruction the Celtics handed themselves might be more appropriate) made the Lakers look better. It's just that your previous comment seemed to leave out what the Lakers did wrong. However, I have to argue that all the Lakers did what they were supposed to do that prevented them from looking like the Lakers of 2008. Pau was more forceful, Artest and Lamar showed up, Kobe put up good points while not being crazy selfish, and the bench ignited. Yeah, I'd have to agree there were some ugly possessions that were saved by uglier Boston possessions, but you can't deny that the Lakers forced the game 7 with what was intended to be 2010 Laker ball and killer intent instead of 2008 Laker ball.

This is a blessing in disguise for Boston, because now the next two days everyone's going to write off the Celtics at ESPN. And that's what fuels their fire. Just look at this playoffs (Game 3 Cleveland, Game 5 Orlando, Game 1 & 3 LA). After all those games most people wrote off Boston, and they always responded. Can they answer the bell one last time? I sure hope so. The thing that scares me the most is whistle happy refs in LA giving the Lakers a 40-10 FT advantage while fouling out 2 Celtics.

AnacondaHL: Did you make bet for the game to go under 188? I thought you were also considering taking the Celtics on the under (6.5). Hopefully not.

I thought Kendrick Perkins was pulling a "magic wheelchair" trick, but then suddenly realized there was only one douche on the floor who was capable to do that.

@jfefery

I'm simply as big of a Lakers homer as Bawful is a Celtics "homer"...from Indiana. The $$$ is me being proud of my team and rightfully so on an unabashedly Celtics-leaning blog. Also, Celtics fans aren't exactly the best of the bunch either.

I do not believe in stat curses. When I see 47-0, I do not see coincidence. I see perfection. The Zen Master wins. Fish wins. Mamba wins. I put my faith in winners.

LAKERS.

@ Gabe

What are you smoking dude? bec i want some of that..

Celts fans have already started bishing about the officiating for the game that even not played...Celtics couldn't get a better officiating than tonight's on the road, @ the Staples Center. You have to live with this reality.

The bottomline is Celts can't win a ball game when the fouls are evenly called.

@wild yams

I hate both these teams, so I'm not upset.

Without emoticons or using "/ commands" it's impossible to be sarcastic on the interwebs. In regards to Bynum, I'm trying to get people who agreed that Howard was egregious with his elbows to admit that Bynum has little regard for the safety of the people he's fouling. It absolutely was a weird fall and that's the only reason Perkins is out, but it's still thought provoking.

I don't mean to take away anything from the Lakers in this game. They played much better than the Celtics and deserve credit. I won't lie, I love seeing the Lakers fall, but I have no reason to be upset over this game.

"Just ignore him. You do that and either he'll start making better comments or he'll just go somewhere else."

Guys like him will never go elsewhere because bawful caters to guys like him. Personally, I can care less about comments from trolls like Karc but it cant be ignored when Basketbawful decides to quote him in every post after a Lakers loss like what hes saying is even remotely interesting. Bawful quoted karc about scoring less and less after game 5. My initial thought was so what? Going into game 6 the Celtics had scored 464 pts and the lakers 462. These are the interesting assessments of the series you can expect from karc. I can see why bawful keeps going back to this well for his golden analysis.

I think its understood no one comes to this site for objective commentary when it comes to the lakers. As a laker fan you should know that and not worry about it. I think all fans should talk as much trash as possible. Its the fun part of being a fan, but take it with a grain of salt. Most of the time the comments arent very insightful. For example, if i said, "Warriors all the way next year," lets not take me seriously.

@Marylander

If this game was the best the Celtics can hope for from an officiating standpoint, that's sad. I do like how they let both teams play though. But the Lakers did get the better whistle 2nite. It didn't matter though because the Celtics didn't show up. Even if the Lakers get a slight advantage with the whistles, the Celtics will still win if they play well. The key is just keeping the game close so that Kobe turns into Mamba-mode and tries to win it with Hero ball, while the rest of his teammates shit themselves.

Bawful is a Celtics "homer"...from Indiana.

He is Celtics-leaning but why not? This isn't a website about the Lakers or L.A. It's a comedic blog about bad basketball, who's main contributer happens to be a Celtics fan (although I'm always unclear if he's a Celtics fan, a Suns fan, or just a fan of spread-the-wealth-type basketball). Can't hate on a guy for rooting for his team on his own blog.

And while I feel like he has a little too much Kobe-hate (defined as: the irrational, visceral anger one feels simply from looking at or the mentioning of Kobe Bryant), I wouldn't call Bawful a homer. He's not Tommy Heinsohn. He's a fan that will call out his team, even when they win.

I do not believe in stat curses. When I see 47-0, I do not see coincidence. I see perfection. The Zen Master wins. Fish wins. Mamba wins. I put my faith in winners.

You know this team lost in 2008, right? I was there, we got murdered by 40 in Game 6. I have faith this year too, but yikes, just...yikes. Luckily...Adam Morrison is our lucky charm?

I know you're excited about the big win, but there's one game left, and anything can happen (see: Perkins's knee).

Yams: You're right. I over-reacted. But watching him get quoted in a Bawful post just made me throw up a little; the guy is a 100% bonafide troll, nothing more. /ignore Karc

Anyway, I have no idea how game 7 will play out. I can see the Laker's bench showing up again (they usually do at home), but every other player is pretty much a crapshoot.

Ash - Don't worry, I totally understand the impulse to throw it back in the face of a blowhard asshole when they're wrong, but ultimately you're just falling for their nonsense. Plus, if a guy won't ever give credit to your team when it wins, no matter what, what fun is it to talk to such a person?

I do understand the frustration with Mr. Bawful quoting him in an entry though. That's just another example of the double standard around here when it comes to the Lakers that we need to accept comes with this site. If people act like that while rooting against the Lakers it is ok and encouraged, but if you do it while rooting for LA you're a "troll." But as I've said before, this is basically one of (if not THE) main tenets of this site: to mock the Lakers, and Kobe in particular. It's always been this way and probably always will be this way. 

Anyone who doesn't enjoy that can always just stop participating...

I believe enough in Phil Jackson's coaching ability that he'll remind his team to keep their head in the game despite this victory. What I'm really afraid of, despite how he acts/what he says in press conferences, is how much pressure this puts on Kobe that it'll drive him to go into hero ball in game 7, which would either make the game unnecessarily close or obliterate LA's chances of getting a revenge championship.

BTW, did anyone grab the video of the KG-Sheed manlove going on on the Celtics bench near the end if the game? KG had his arm around Sheed in a rather odd manner, and Sheed even looked at it once for a sec as if to say "Uh, Kev, why do you have your arm lovingly draped around me like this?" Someone's gotta post that video.

Fuck. Another entry that got hijacked by Special Needs' Kids?

OMFG!LOL!!1!1!!one!one.imo.kthxbai.

Yeah, dominating the paint when the other team's center goes down looks real impressive. Or still not managing to break 90. Or Boston missing a gazillion lay-ups. Or Gasol (like I've been saying all along) acting like the MVP of the series and generating half of the Lakers points (near triple-double). If I am quoted in a post, it's because I said something of substance. Now, to bring some substance to some of the comments.

@Anonymous - The reason I brought up the Lakers scoring is because that is the their strength in any playoff series. Teams they faced love to run the break, so as long as they run the offense, (and specifically, avoid turnovers and long threes that lead to long rebounds), they can win the game. The Suns are not the Celtics, but they switched to a zone to force more jump shots, because the Laker bigs crushed them in the first game. They move to a zone, Lakers could not score as many point because they had to shot more shots from deep. This, in turn, fueled the Suns into fast-break points, as they are a better jump shooting team than the Lakers. Their strategy was not to stop the Lakers outright, but take away enough of their easy shots to give themselves a chance. Remember Artest's game-winner. It was a ridiculous lay-up, but it was still a lay-up. That certainly had a better chance of going in than Kobe's airball. The Suns had done that in every game, while slowly getting better on offense. Trends matter in a series. Same thing with the Celtics. The Lakers light them up in Game 1, and would have ended the series in Game 2 if Ray Allen doesn't have the night of his life. But the Celtics made the adjustments (namely crashing the boards and limiting Laker possessions to prevent multiple shots), and the scoring shows it. If the Lakers were getting 95-100 points every night, this series is already over. There are reasons why they can't get the points that they could fix. One is Gasol not getting the ball enough. Two was Kobe playing "hero ball" (because he had to). Three was Odom and Artest not attacking the rim (due to Artest not playing the offense and Odom eating too much candy or something). Four is the bench, and there is not a person on this site (Laker lover or hater) that's going to disagree with that. The list goes on. That's why I bring up the scoring. It's been the main problem all year for Lakers, when it should be one of the luxuries.

@Ash - Clearly I've upset you. I cared after Game 5. I'm not sure if I care now. Besides, Game 7 isn't being played in LA, it's being played in the hearts of all basketball fans who have longed for a Game 7 that wasn't completely overshadowed by a white Bronco casually taking a drive down the 405 (ok, it happened in Game 5, but let's face, no one cared about the Finals after that). And I truly believe that LeBron is considering that for Thursday. I mean, we had to wait a whole week for Izzo to come out to say he was not coaching the Cavs, which is a no-brainer since everyone knew the only reason he would was if the "Prince" stayed. And since you like digging through my stuff for quotes, here's one. Lakers are 0-4 in Game 7s against Boston in the Finals, and this is P-Jax's first Game 7 ever in the Finals (because, you see, Jordan and Shaq would have never let the series get that far out of hand). Does that mean the Lakers lose by default on Thursday? You'll see.

@Yams - I've participated in many b-ball debates here. The recent one about hero ball I avoided because I thought the whole thing was a little mundane. Hero ball at the streetball level is one thing. But these guys are pros, have played the game at a (supposedly) high level for years. When a guy's hot, let him shoot. Find other ways to take over the game and protect him. Getting paid millions of dollars should be justified by a little thinking. That's just my two cents. Besides, it's hard to have have discussions with someone that wasn't here for most of the season (zing!).

BTW, I was going to give a little kudos for the Lakers for winning a must-win game, but after all this nonsense from certain Laker apologists, there really is no reason too. I have never, and will never, call a Laker fan a "troll," or an "asshole." I will certainly recommend a good therapist that they can see on Friday, though (again, I kid, mostly). Cheer for whoever you want to. I just poke fun at it, and the play on the court will either back it up or open me up for a little grief.

Anyone have thoughts on Kerr leaving the Suns? I thought it was unfortunate, the guy had recovered nicely after the Shaq disaster and rebuilt the team with a nice balance of SSOL with a deep bench and some D. But with Amar'e apparently out the door, he might be jumping ship to TNT now that Collins is gone. And this is right after finally going over the Spurs. Shame.

After game 5 I lost any confidence I had in the Lakers ability to win this series. I still hope they do, but I'm not comfortable making any predictions.

P.S. More Shannon Brown please.

Can't believe Laker fans are complaining about one Celtic fan trolling after their invasion in the the Suns/Lakers series. So we've got a Celtic troll; he's pretty easy to ignore, and bawful grabbed what was apparently a decent quote and put it in the post. Consider it a service that he filters the troll for you.

There's no real double standard around here. Almost every team built around one superstar (as judged by the media) gets dumped on here when that superstar gets unwarranted attention. That means Kobe, LeBron, and Howard, pretty much.

Who attracts that attention on the Celtics? The Big 3 are all shells of their former selves (but Paul Pierce's "I'm the greatest" quote got hammered in these parts), and Rondo and Perkins didn't have anyone claiming that they were the MVP "hands down" (actual quote) before last night's game despite the fact that their team was losing the series.