Defence, schmefence. They don’t need no stinkin’ defence.

Well, they do need it and will need it and, frankly, have played it pretty well more often than not this season but a good, old 115-109 game in late January is good for the soul.

Well, maybe not Dwane Casey’s soul but you get my drift, right?

Anyway, onwards and upwards.

-

THREE POINTERS

-

Fast start, literally

It does an old man’s heart proud to see things like we saw in the first eight or nine minutes from Luis Scola.

Dude’s 35 years old and hardly fleet of foot but twice in a great first quarter he simply out-ran Amir Johnson and Jared Sullinger down the floor; I believe he missed the first layup because he was a bit too far under the rim but I know for certan he made the second and it was basically a tone-setter and underscored, again, his value and smarts. The Celtics sure aren’t big so it was okay for him to leak out a bit and he knew it and they aren’t fast so he knew he could win the 90-foot race and take advantage of it.

Those little nuanced things are exactly what you’d expect from a crafty old veteran. And as someone who appreciates both craft and old, it was cool to see.

-

A fine thank you

This was very, very well done.

And Amir didn’t have a particularly good game – he looked slow and a bit hobbled by sore feet – but he did bring one thing to mind.

Third quarter, I believe it was, he went to block a Scola three right in front of the Raptors bench, didn’t get and tumbled into the seats.

Patrick Patterson swallowed him up in something of a bear hug and held him for four or five seconds as the play went back down the court.

None of the refs saw it, which was good, because the last time there was some tomfoolery involving an ex-Raptor and guys who used to be teammates, Steve Javie saw Mo Pete give Vince a playful slap in the face and tossed Mo out of the game.

-

Making matchups work

I can’t remember the exact phrase Dwane used to describe Jonas Valanciunas’s game – “monster game” “great game” great night” or something like that – and then explained why he had to reluctantly use Bismack Biyombo for a chunk of the fourth quarter.

Had everything to do with trying – not overly successfully, mind you – to have a big able to switch everything defensively and get out on stretch big men, which the Celtics employ as successfully as about any team in the league.

Jonas, merely perfect from the field with 12 rebounds, isn’t the most mobile defender and Casey needed someone to be to able to venture out of the paint on defence in the late stages.

It worked okay – Boston was 1-for-7 from three in the fourth and Kelly Olynyk didn’t shred them as he had in three quarters.

-

More? Always a wee bit more on these mornings so here we go.

-

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Heard this yesterday and it’s got to be on the list of best Eagles tunes, right? Seems appropriate for this week.

-

As we await the final voting results tonight, one burning question:

I wonder if John Scott will make it as a starter?

-

You all did notice that Spurs went on the road midweek and beat Liecester in a third round FA Cup replay, right?

Yep, I can pick ‘em.

-

Yet another call for mail, please.

It’s at askdoug@thestar.ca as it always is and there’s not an awful lot there yet, certainly not enough to get us through two weekend mornings, even with a game on Friday night.

So get crackin’ as the old egg marketing board slogan once urged us.

Thanks in advance.

-

Now, I will preface this by saying I have no clue whatsoever what “quality control-special teams” means in the context of professional football coaching but it doesn’t really matter.

That the Buffalo Bills decided last night to hire a woman to fill that spot on their staff strikes me as a good, forward-thinking move and that’s not something I think anyone’s said about anything anyone in the NFL has done in quite some time.

Reading a bit about it last night and early this morning it’s obvious that it’s no stunt, it was someone deserving being promoted from within.

Good on them; I know in the sport I cover having a woman move up the coaching or scouting or officiating or front office ranks is no big deal and, thankfully, hardly worth mentioning because it’s so routine and sensible but the NFL has taken a step in the right direction with the hire and for that it’s newsworthy.

And it’s laudable that the Bills did it, at least to someone who grew up watching Jack Kemp and Paul Maguire do their stuff at War Memorial Stadium.

-