Kevin Garnett Speaks West Coast, You Better Listen!

Kevin Garnett Talks West Coast, You Better Listen!
December 27, 2009 by Nick Gelso

After the Celtics pulled off of an impressive victory in Orlando on Christmas Day, it’s been relatively quiet. Before the Boston Celtics departed for the west coast, the media caught up with KG and the silence was broken.

Garnett’s unsatisfied statements are reminiscent of the classic sound bytes he produced in the 2008 season. I must say, hearing Garnett talk about “thriving on getting better,” “making statements,” and not “picking and choosing when you can be great”, makes me feel a bit relieved as we embark on a, three game, west coast trip.

As we are about to face off against the Clippers, Warriors and Suns, three losses remain fresh on my mind. Last season the C’s faced the Lakers on Christmas Day and were put in their place in a 92-83 loss. That loss would kick off a slump that would have a similar feel to this season’s seven game slump in November.

After notching a 27-2 start, following the Christmas day loss, Boston would suffer shocking losses in six of their next eight games. The lowly Warriors was one of those losses. Later in February the C’s would again fall to a subpar team. On February 25th the Clippers would take the defending champs the distance, pulling out a 93-91 victory.

We all remember the game that dug the team into a hole this season. On November 6th, the Phoenix Suns came to Boston and outran, outgunned and outplayed the Celtics to the tune of a 110-103 loss for the Celts.

By the sounds of KG’s media comments, the Celtics are looking for revenge against three teams that are clearly inferior and yet embarrassed them over the course of two seasons.

From the Boston Herald:

“You know, you can’t pick and choose when you play great. You play good against Orlando, you’ve got to play good (against) Philly. You’ve got to play good against Indiana. You’ve got to play good against the Clippers. You’ve got to play good against the Lakers. You’ve got to be consistent with what you’re doing in order to sustain that presence.”

“I believe in making a presence,” KG said. “I wouldn’t say statement. We’re a team that we thrive on trying to be better. We thrive on trying to be perfect, even though we know perfect is not a thing of reality. But we damn near try to get as close as we can to it.

“When we communicate, when we play with energy, when we’re aggressive, when we have a defensive mindset first, when everybody on this team does their job, does their role, man, we’re a pretty difficult team to deal with. That within itself sets a presence, and that’s all. We’ve just got to be consistent. We want to be consistent in what we do. But at the same time we want to have a presence about ourselves.”

This brief west coast trip poses more challenges in the way of travel and jet lag then it does in quality opponents but, as displayed through last year’s losses to the Clips and Warriors, these type games are the perfect opportunities for lowly team’s to make their season by beating a championship contender lagging from travel.

Consistency, communication, energy, aggressiveness are a few of the characteristics this season’s team has been lacking from time to time. They are attributes that will be needed on this road trip to be able to fly back to Boston, in 2010, 4-0.

Garnett’s comments Sound like a pretty strong New Year’s resolution to me and he doesn’t sound willing to wait until the new year to start implementing his intent. We all know, when Garnett talks… you better listen!