BOSTON – The NBA has been the No Baller’s Angry league most of this season, with an occasional rift here and there between players.
But as we saw down the stretch on Saturday in Boston's 110-99 win over Toronto, there’s a piping hot dish of disdain brewing between Boston and Toronto … and I like it!
Because let’s be honest.
While it’s great that there are so many teams in the East that are showing their potential to be a really good team sooner rather than later, who doesn’t like a good ol’ rivalry?
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And as we’ve seen, the first step often comes in the form of increased physicality.
Boston Celtics
In Boston’s 110-99 win over Toronto, we saw this often as we got closer and closer to its denouement.
Terry Rozier drove to the basket in the fourth quarter and for a moment, Scary Terry had us all freaking out when he didn’t bounce back up immediately after referees whistled a foul on DeMar DeRozan.
Celtics fans have seen too many of those fear-filled falls that sadly, have often been a precursor to a serious injury.
But Rozier eventually rose to his feet while being serenaded with “Ter-ry, Ter-ry!” chants.
Things really heated up when Marcus Morris was fouled by C.J. Miles with 18.7 seconds to play and Boston ahead by 10 points at the time.
Morris took offense to the foul coming so late in the game and the score being what it was., and didn't mince his words in letting Miles know.
That led to a few other players for both teams chiming in with the end result being Morris being tossed after being whistled for two technical fouls - an automatic ejection - with Miles being called for one.
“I just thought the game was over and the foul was just a little too much, being down ten with 20 seconds left, so it got a little heated,” Morris said.
And considering these are the top two teams in the East record-wise with a Wednesday matchup potentially having the top seed in the East at stake, an unavoidable head-on collision between these two will be a sight to see for sure.
Rivalries of course have to develop over time, but they have to start somewhere right?
Saturday night was the first salvo thrown in what should be a regular occurrence between a pair of teams that will be in the title hunt for years to come.
And for the Celtics, there is no better initiator of such of rivalry than Morris.
He has proven himself to be one of Boston’s more talented players who also provides a high level of toughness, mentally and physically.
The same can be said for Terry Rozier who knows what we saw at the end of Saturday’s game was just the tip of the iceberg in this blossoming battle between teams that’s only going to be more intense, more physical, more worthy of a rivalry on the rise, when these two meet on Wednesday with the stakes even higher.
“It’s pretty obvious (Toronto) is number one and we’re number two,” Rozier told reporters after Saturday’s win. “We have to see them twice in the week, and we know it’s going to be a battle, but I say we don’t let standings dictate anything. We just go out there and we play and we go to war. That’s what happened (on Saturday).”