Celtics win again

Mike Bibby's words have bothered Celtics fans much more than his game this week.
The Hawks veteran point guard riled up the City of Boston by calling Celtics fans "bandwagon jumpers" and "fair-weather" before Tuesday's practice.
The boisterous Boston fans responded by heckling and booing Bibby from Hawks player introductions until he left Game 2 against the Celtics on Wednesday night with 3:43 remaining in the fourth quarter. And instead of motivating his Hawks with his words, Boston hammered his team 96-77 in front of a Bibby-thirsty TD Banknorth Garden crowd.
"The people know who I'm talking about, who I was talking about it," Bibby said post-game. "If everybody thinks they are bandwagon jumpers, then everybody in the crowd is now bandwagon jumpers. They know who they are. If they took offense to it, then they must be part of it."
Atlanta basically started the talk-a-thon when Josh Childress said before the series began that they matched up well with the 66-win Celtics while Josh Smith was talking upset. Forget the fact that Eastern Conference top-seed Boston owned the NBA's best record in the NBA and went 3-0 in the regular-season against an eighth-seed Hawks team with a losing record.
Celtics fans responded by heckling Bibby and Smith unmercifully during Boston's 104-81 win in Game 1 of this best-of-seven first-round series Sunday night. Bibby, who had five points on 2-of-10 shooting and one assist in Game 1, told hecklers at the end of the Game 1 that this is a seven-game series. One Celtics fan responded by asking Bibby repeatedly, "Do you really believe that Mike?"
With Game 2 on the horizon, Bibby very bravely jabbed back at Boston fans Tuesday. His words were read in The Boston Globe, analyzed on sports radio, heard and seen on local television stations all over New England and repeated all over by angry Celtics fans who value their loyalty to their sports teams as much as they value their mother.
"(The Celtics fans) were kind of loud at the beginning," Bibby said Tuesday. "But a lot of these fans are bandwagon jumpers trying to get on this now. I played here last year, too, [with Sacramento] and I didn't see three-fourths of them. They're for the team now and they might get a little rowdy, but that's about it."
It's tough enough facing the Celtics' stifling defense and being guarded by athletic point guard Rajon Rondo. Adding the rowdy Boston fans in the mix didn't make it any easier on Bibby.
The loud Celtics fans chanted such things as "Bibby ... Bibby," "Rondo's Better," "Where is Bibby?" and "Bibby Sucks" throughout Game 2. Initially, Bibby smiled when he was taunted in the first quarter. But with the Celtics fans still haunting him in the fourth quarter, the great free-throw shooter twice missed 1-of-2 free throws in the fourth quarter. Celtics guard Ray Allen believed it was at that point that the Boston fans had got into Bibby's head.
"That is what he had to deal with," Allen said. "This building gets loud enough. But he took it to another level up."
Bibby struggled in Game 2, too, as he finished with 12 points on 2-of-7 shooting and eight made free throws, one assist and one turnover in 28 minutes. He is also averaging a struggling 8.5 points, one assist and 23.5 percent shooting from the field in this series against Boston.
"You guys think what you want to think," Bibby said. "I just tried to come out here and make things easy for everybody on the team."
When Allen and Kevin Garnett were asked post-game if they ever had said something to rile up an opposing crowd before, Garnett said: "Neither one of us has said anything retarded ... Have I ever said anything retarded? It's hard enough playing on the road versus causing attention to yourself. I can't recall. No, neither one of us had said anything crazy like that."
No Hawks player entered the post-season with more playoff experience than Bibby. In fact, Bibby and Joe Johnson are the only Atlanta players with post-season experience.
Insiders say Bibby talked trash to take pressure off his young teammates. But if the Hawks hope to win a game in this series, forget winning the series, they are going to need a lot more production from the veteran point guard on the floor than on the quote sheet.