Gasol, Gar­nett

Pau Gasol will never for­get how Kevin Gar­nett belit­tled and humil­i­ated him when he entered the league with with sharp words and sharper elbows. Gasol hates Gar­nett for it, they will tell you.

There is a vis­ceral dis­dain that is stayed with the Los Ange­les Lak­ers star, an obses­sion that goes beyond beat­ing Gar­nett, but embar­rass­ing him.

When Gasol grabbed a rebound over Gar­nett late in the Lak­ers’ 102–89 Game 1 vic­tory, missed a shot, grabbed the ball again and laid it into the bas­ket, he could not help him­self. Out of nowhere, out of char­ac­ter, Gasol flexed his arms and screamed into the Sta­ples Cen­ter din. It was an unmis­tak­able mimic of K.G., a sar­cas­tic ode to a bully he vows will never take his lunch money again.

Fan­Na­tion

Boston Celtics

If Danny Ainge built a team built for a short run, the 2010 NBA Finals may be the end of it for prin­ci­pals Ray Allen, Kevin Gar­nett and Paul Pierce.

They are not get­ting any younger nor are they get­ting any better.

None of that should detract from what the Celtics have accom­plished this spring — and what they may very well accom­plish still — but it does place addi­tional urgency on these finals for a team that bases its suc­cess solely on championships.

Fan­Na­tion

YouTube.com

Kevin Gar­nett

Celtics for­ward Kevin Gar­nett has been sus­pended for Game 2 of Boston’s first-round play­off series against the Heat for land­ing an elbow to the face of Miami’s Quentin Richard­son in a fourth-quarter fra­cas dur­ing Saturday’s Game 1.

The announce­ment was made Sun­day by Stu Jack­son, NBA exec­u­tive vice pres­i­dent, bas­ket­ball operations.

Richard­son was fined $25,000 for his role in the altercation.

Gar­nett earned a dou­ble tech­ni­cal and ejec­tion in the melee that unfolded after Paul Pierce tum­bled to the ground near the Miami bench with 40 sec­onds left in Boston’s vic­tory at the TD Garden.

ESPN.com

Kevin Gar­nett

Boston Celtics for­ward Kevin Gar­nett has been fined $25,000 for pub­licly crit­i­ciz­ing game offi­cials and for using inap­pro­pri­ate lan­guage dur­ing a postgame interview.

Gar­nett was fined for com­ments he made fol­low­ing the Celtics’ 109–104 loss to the Okla­homa City Thun­der on Wednes­day, March 31.

After that game, Gar­nett and the Celtics were not pleased by the amount of calls Thun­der star Kevin Durant was receiving.

Inside Hoops

Boston Celtics and LeBron

Look­ing to rea­son why the Celtics are slip­ping? It is sim­ple. The Celtics have lost their edge, and good health and a cou­ple of ubuntu chants fol­low­ing hud­dles are not going to bring it back.

This is not the 2007-08 team and the Celtics are stum­bling against East­ern Con­fer­ence con­tenders like a punch-drunk cham­pion who has noth­ing but a few good rounds left.

The Celtics played a sparkling first half but had noth­ing for a response when the Cav­a­liers made adjust­ments, as good NBA teams do.

Fan­Na­tion

Kevin Gar­nett

Accord­ing to his peers, Kevin Gar­nett is the biggest trash talker in the NBA.

“Sports Illus­trated released the results of a new poll that asked NBA play­ers who was the league’s biggest trash talker,” wrote Alan Hahn of Newsday.

“Super-intense Kevin Gar­nett took first place by a land­slide of 62 per­cent out of 173 NBA play­ers polled. Kobe Bryant (7%) was sec­ond, fol­lowed by Rasheed Wal­lace (5%). Fourth on the list was Nate Robin­son (3%), who tied with Paul Pierce.”

Real GM

Kevin Gar­nett

Celtics coach Doc Rivers said Sat­ur­day that for­ward Kevin Gar­nett could miss another 10 days with a hyper­ex­tended right knee.

Gar­nett was kicked in his sur­gi­cally repaired knee twice dur­ing a three-game trip this past week.

“KG’s still 10 days, maybe, I don’t know,” Rivers said.

Real GM

Boston Celtics

While Doc Rivers said the fourth-quarter exchange between Kevin Gar­nett and Kendrick Perkins was just Gar­nett encour­ag­ing Perkins to be more focused, Gar­nett said after the 92–90 loss to the Clip­pers that Perkins needs to reduce some of those men­tal lapses.

Perkins and Gar­nett argued after Perkins picked up two con­sec­u­tive fouls, one on Baron Davis was ruled an “away from the play” foul and resulted in one free throw.

Fan­Na­tion

Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett

The pick-and-roll is among the most basic of bas­ket­ball maneuvers.

But it is also dif­fi­cult to defend, espe­cially when Celtics Kevin Gar­nett and Paul Pierce are exe­cut­ing the play.

“It’s a tough pick-and-roll,’’ Pierce said, “because you’ve got a big guy [who’s] able to knock down shots. I’m able to knock down shots or drive off the pick and they got to make a deci­sion whether to trap or switch. Then, if you trap you’ve got to rotate to Kevin, so it puts teams in a predica­ment down the stretch.’’

Inside Hoops