Saturday: Hayden @ Room 103, University Centre, University of Guelph
At first when I saw that Hayden was playing at Room 103, in the University Centre at the University of Guelph I asked my sister, (who goes to Guelph and was kind enough to pick up tickets) what kind of room it was. When she said that she had no idea where it was, my thoughts were: 1/ its bound to be a relatively small room; and 2/ this is going to be an awesome show. Turns out I was correct on both accounts.
103, seemed to be a small meeting room or something that seated somewhere around 150 people for the show. The room, because it felt so small, almost felt like we were all intruding on a practice session. Part of this might have been because of all of the flubs, (mike's falling over, forgetting the words, re-starting songs). The other part of this may have been because Hayden, as he mentioned during his set, hadn't toured in probably 3 years or so and is about to take off to Europe to open for The National. So the show in Guelph, along with his previous shows in Quebec and Kingston were essentially a practice run...
The show featured some new stuff off his record that is supposed to come out January 2008, as well as a lot of songs from Elk Lake Serenade [2004]. The encore was probably the highlight of the show as he came on and played old favourites 'Dynamite Walls' from Sky Scraper National Park [2001] and 'Bad As They Seem' from Everything I Long For [1995]. If you don't know Hayden, both songs/albums are highly recommended, especially if you like singer/songwriter type music.
Sunday: Celtics over Raptors 98-95 (OT), Air Canada Centre
I thought the Raps did well to compete on Sunday, make the game close and was ecstatic when they tied the game up to bring it into overtime. However, Sam Mitchell continued make me miserable in the following ways:
1/ By continuing to distribute minutes with little rhyme or reason, allowing just about everyone on the team to play a similar number of minutes with seemingly little thought on how to exploit different match-ups on the floor. This has caused me to reason that Sam Mitchell is a communist.
2/ After the Raps (read T.J. Ford), tied the game in OT with 4 seconds left giving the Celtics the ball and a chance to score. So, naturally Sam Mitchell decides not to double team Ray Allen, the Celtics leading scorer through the game, leaving him to run off a double screen for a wide open three to win the game.
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2 comments:
Bad inbound D from both teams down the stretch. First, the Cs fell for the old "losing complete track of the inbounder only to have him bury a 3 to tie it up" (I hated that when I coached 12 year olds, so you can imagine how impressed I was when the Celtics did it.)
As for the last play, double teaming Ray Allen is a bit of a risk, since that would presumably leave the inbounder uncovered (unless you want to leave somebody else on the court open)--but not: (a) anticipating those two screens, and (b) not fighting through said screens is? Completely inexcusable. Disappointing end to a great game.
While I have you (and since I almost blogged on this but changed my mind since I didn't think anyone would care): did you catch one of the CBC announcers (can't remember if it was Chuck or Leo, but I think the former) mentioning, off-hand, that Ray Allen was a "hall of famer"? Agree or disagree? I actually looked this up. Can a player who has never been a first team all-NBA selection or played in the NBA Finals be a legitimate HOFer? I say no.
Well, I stand by my comments that they should've double teamed Ray Allen and made someone else - say Posey/Perkins/Rondo - beat them.
On Ray Allen as a hall of famer, I couldn't agree more. While he's a great shooter, (and was terrific in He Got Game - although Denzel makes everyone look good)a great guy, his teams had been so poor its hard to imagine that a HOFer would continue to let his teams lose like they have.
I think the more interesting HOF question is Robert Horry. Thoughts?
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