Last night was one of the strangest games we've seen in a while at the TDBG. With the unremarkable Clippers in town, the second quarter had a playoff-like intensity to it, with technicals, an ejection, and some really scrappy play. The fourth quarter showed a surprising lineup, as Doc left the second unit (House, Powe, Davis, Posey, Tony Allen) in for almost the entire time. Most surprising of all - the bench played some fantastic defense and better-than-expected offense to close the Clips out.

The opening two minutes looked like they had blowout potential, as Paul Pierce scored the first nine of the game before LA coach Mike Dunleavy could barely shift in his seat. Pierce, apparently better after his bout with the flu, and Ray Allen, apparently better after his bout with - well, whatever - played well, but the story of the starting five was Rajon Rondo, who sliced, diced and sacrificed his way to a career-high 24 points with eight assists.

One interesting wrinkle was the behavior of the Clippers' Sam Cassell, who's been openly pining for a chance to ditch his team and sign with the Celtics. It was a strange audition for his putative future team; Cassell clobbered Rondo on a drive to the basket (as seen here) and got himself ejected. Already making a play for more minutes?

But as we said, it was the performance of the second unit that made the difference. Posey played with as much intensity as we've seen all year. Leon Powe played his usual hard scrappy game and got himself 13 points. Tony Allen scored 17, Big Baby outmuscled LA lug Chris Kaman, and Eddie House hit his customary couple of insane 3-pointers. Doc didn't have to bring back the starters until there were 47 seconds to go. And he probably wouldn't even have done that, except an officials' error made a 7-point lead look like a 6-point lead for a moment.

Kevin Garnett wasn't courtside - he'd probably try to play even in street clothes - and he also will probably miss the trip to Minnesota on Friday. The Timberwolves aren't even planning a ceremony, or a Key to the Twin Cities, or anything for him, which seems a little chintzy considering KG is their best player ever. Garnett thinks he might be ready to go against the Spurs on Sunday.

Old friend Pedro Martinez was spotted at a cockfight at the Dominican Republic's fabled Rooster Coliseum. It's legal there, but still freaks us out.

Screenshot of Sam Cassell's job interview from ESPN.