Jerry Sloan

It seems that concurrent with a televised taping of Tommy Heinsohn reading from his new book “Sagacity Manifesto” that was taking place in the Banknorth Garden last night, a pretty good basketball game broke out.

Per usual, Boston’s defense and a late-game onslaught by one of the Big 4 (Rondo this time, who dropped 12 points in the final five minutes and iced the win with a steal) were too much for Utah to overcome, but there was never a sense that the Celtics ever had them completely outmatched. Deron even kept it interesting late with his signature “I piss on pressure’s grave” theatrics, before his injury-plagued squad became the 15th straight team to have their dreams crushed by the Celtics.

But while the Jazz hung around admirably without Booz (mainly due to his understudy Paul Millsap’s sasquatch strength-fueled dominance), Coach Sloan wasn’t particularly pleased with his squad’s physicality. (via Slam)

“It looked like we were scared to play against them to start the ballgame,” said Sloan. “Looked like we wanted to play out on the perimeter and take jump shots…They’re awfully hard to get the ball inside on, because they’re an excellent defensive team and they knock you around a bit.”

“Our guys wanted to stay outside because I think they were afraid they’d get hurt. They had us intimidated a great deal and had us out on the perimeter. We never did fully recover.”

The lesson? We man up round these parts, fellas. Get steppin to.

UPDATE: Pierce also left the game with an apparent knee mallady in the final minute or so…but it sounds like he’s fine.

"You disgust me." (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Known Associates: Boozer, Celtics, Jazz, Jerry Sloan, Millsap, Rondo, Tommy Point

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