Is it just me or has the left side of the Boston Red Sox infield suddenly learned how to field their positions? Xander Bogarts (SS) and Raphael Devers (3b) are great and feared hitter but not known for their glove work but over the first couple of weeks their level of defensive play has risen considerably.
Part of it might be Trevor Story now at second, part might be rather young Devers finally maturing as a player but a lot of it also might be the opt out clause that Bogarts has and the extension that Devers is seeking.
Either way it’s something to see.
Yesterday the Boston Celtics beat the Brooklyn Nets 115 to 114 in an exciting game where after a Three Pointer gave the next a 3 pt lead with under a minute to go, the C’s drove down, scored to make it a one point game, managed a defensive stand and without calling a time out rushed back down the court were after a series of great passes the winning basket was laid in with no time left on the clock.
To me the big story was the decision to drive down the court, rather than take a time out to get a set play. Ninety nine times out of 100 with a time out remaining a team uses a time out in that situation inbounds on a set play and goes from there. The decision to not call the time out was a gutsy one but demonstrates the value of not letting an opponent prepare a set defense or get a heads up from their coach to watch for a particular thing.
Of course if they didn’t get the winner shot the only story today would be “Why didn’t they call that time out?”
Oh speaking of the Celtics game two more things concerning the narrative. There was a huge debate in the local sports talk radio about their winning their last game forcing them to meet the Nets vs losing it and facing a weaker opponent. The game bolstered both sides of the argument.
You can make the case that this was one of the most competitive games of the first round and they would have been better off with a different opponent. They were one second away from a loss. On the other hand it showed the advantage of home court as a side story was Irving the former Celtic flipping off a heckling fan which generated a whole lot more talk than his spectacular game.
Give me the home court any day.
There is a ton of talk about the NFL draft around here and what the Patriots will do in it but the bigger subject here is year two of Mac Jones at QB with an offensive coaching by committee and how he is expected to do without proper coaching now that Josh McDaniels is gone. Three things:
- Belichick has not one but two ex head coaches on staff below him, if a former head coach can’t coach a 2nd year QB let alone two then you’ve got real trouble here.
- The AFC competition has significantly improved all around both in division and out. Even if McDaniels had stayed the Patriots and Jones would be hard press to repeat their record of last season
- This illustrates once and for all the value of Tom Brady and how much he skewed the field in the past. If you took this same lineup with the same coaching staff but put 45 year old Tom Brady at QB does anyone doubt they would be the favorite to win the AFC east? Signing Brady was the single best move this franchise ever made, letting him go was the worst.
The Hockey Season is almost over and the Bruins face their first post season without Tuukka Rask in a decade.
Rask was an excellent goaltender who played his entire career in Boston but was unable to take them over the top and he got a lot of heat for that and there was plenty of talk that he wasn’t tough enough to do so.
With two younger goaltenders on the ice this time around it will be interesting to see just how far the team goes. If they manage to go all the way in the next few years the trash talk about Rask will only get louder.
Finally some members of the Red Sox will not be heading north for their series against the Blue Jays because they are unvaccinated against COVID 19 and trucker convoys not withstanding Canada still has strict rules on the subject. There is some speculation that this is the reason why the Celtics didn’t want to face Toronto in the 1st round as well.
It seems insane to still be playing this game but Canada is their own country and if that’s what they want to do so be it. Frankly given Trudeau I wouldn’t put it past him to keep this stuff up just to give Canadian teams an additional home field advantage.
