Caught the last eight minutes or so of the replay of the Celtics-Suns game tonight after I finished watching Gladiator ("Are you not entertained?!  ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED!?"), and a few things stood out:

1. The Suns are an amazingly good shooting team.  I don't think they've missed more than 2 or 3 shots since I've been watching.  Okay, they just said they're shooting 70+% in the fourth quarter.
2. Steve Nash is a really, really good basketball player.
3. This Celtics team seems really close to "making the leap", as Bill Simmons would say - they need to maintain intensity for longer stretches and learn to close out close games, but the talent appears to be there.
4. I typed Point 3 without laughing, despite the fact that the Celtics have now lost five in a row and seven of eight.
5. Shawn Marion has the ugliest shot I've ever seen, but the man can shoot the lights out.
6. Brian Scalabrine was in the game when I turned it on - I thought it was written in his contract that he wasn't allowed to play if the Celtics were within ten points of the opposition?  Hurry back, Kendrick.
7. Unfortunately, they aren't showing the post-game show on the replay, so I don't get to see if Doc Rivers throws anyone under the bus tonight.  "The Sports List" with Summer Sanders is on, though; I'll take Summer over Doc.
8. I'm curious what the Celtics will have to give up to get Allen Iverson from the 76ers.  He could potentially give the team a couple good seasons and possibly provide Paul Pierce the offensive partner he has lacked since Antoine Walker's original tour through Boston, but what will be the cost?  I hear Michael Olowokandi, Scalabrine and Theo Ratliff are all available - they're valuable commodities, right?
9. Very subdued Tommy Heinsohn tonight.  He actually gave Phoenix credit for outplaying the Celtics down the stretch.  I'm not gonna lie - I'm a little worried about him now.  Pray for him to go on a fifteen minute rant on blocking fouls during tomorrow night's game.
10. Finally, I can't write something like this without mentioning the Daisuke Matsuzaka negotiations.  Do we really need constant updates on this whole ordeal?  A couple of weeks ago they made a point to announce that he wanted to wear number 18, which is only a big deal because the last good player to wear 18 was Johnny Damon - it's not like he was asking Manny or Papi to change their number.  Anyhow, look at it this way - the chances are 80-20 that the Red Sox and Scott Boras manage to hammer out an agreement before next week's deadline.  Let's just leave it alone for awhile, then come back to it as things start to go down to the wire.  Keep it fresh - why should we be sick of Matsuzaka (I'm gonna come up with a great nickname for him, by the way - it is my new purpose in life) before he's thrown a major league pitch?  

11. True story totally unrelated to sports: I went to Best Buy tonight with my wife and my friend Sarah. We were walking around, looking at movies, when I heard someone ask an employee if he could help them find the movie "Grease". "Sure," he said. "That'll be in the international section."

    I don't think he was kidding.