The Shamrock Headband

That Might Be It For Now

2008-07-22T09:34:00.027-04:00

Yesterday I left off saying we have to see who else the Celtics sign before training camp, but after looking at the roster and reading Ainge's comments I realized that we well might be looking at the opening day squad for these '08-09 Boston Celtics. If both Giddens and Walker sign (and there was a rumor that the C's want Bill to play in Europe for a year) that will give Boston 14 players under contract. Given Ainge's previous statements about leaving a roster spot open, there seems a good chance that the Green won't be having any more additions this Summer.

And at the end of the day I'd be fine with that. There is a strong possibility they will be able to add someone of value during the season if need be. However, it is slightly irksome to look at the depth chart behind Pierce, Ray Allen and Rondo - House, TA, Pruitt, Giddens and Walker won't probably make opponents fearful. But as we learned last year, you needn't be feared to be effective. Still, among the five backups at the point and swing positions only two are proven: House and TA. What the C's need is for one of the three unprovens to step up and perform at a capable level. Hopefully that's not asking too much.

Where the Celtics do have considerable depth is with their bigs. This opens up the possibility of playing Garnett some at small forward, which he is fully capable of doing. That could create a potential mismatch nightmare. It also is always possible that Ainge could deal away "minor" contracts (like the ones TA and House just signed, or even Scal's) along with someone like Big Baby to get a better player in return.

So the flexibility is still there. One idea that I think could be highly worthwhile is for Doc (yes, we can call him that now) to use Ray as the sixth man, and for TA to start. First off, this will give the Celtics guaranteed scoring off the bench (I'd argue Powe automatically supplies this as well.) Secondly, it would give Doc a concrete way of curbing Ray's minutes, which were too high for most of last year. And any scuttlebutt about Ray coming off the bench should be hushed when we consider that Ginobili was a sixth man last year, playing only 31 minutes a game at the absolute peak of his brilliance. Ray can swallow the sixth man pill, and could be better for it.

In House

2008-07-21T11:32:00.011-04:00

The Herald is reporting Eddie and TA are returning. I think most of us will agree this is a good thing, if the reported numbers of the deals are correct (2 year contracts at $2-3 million a year for each player.) Continuity is an important aspect of winning, and with Posey leaving, two solid players returning becomes all that more significant. The question remains about who the Celtics will sign at the swing position - Barnes is off the market, and Devean George is supposedly within the Celtics' sights. We'll have a more thorough breakdown later....

Not So Far From The Tree

2008-07-18T13:35:00.026-04:00

I've been thinking a lot about who the C's are gonna try to get to "replace" Posey; as Ainge said it's not that simple. This team's style is going to slightly change without Posey, particularly the identity of the bench. Of course the bench's identity as we know it depends equally as much upon whether TA, House and Cassell come back, but whoever grabs that swingman spot will have an undeniable impact, and hopefully it will be a positive one. I am partially taken with the idea of signing another "charismatic" player - this Celtics team can probably bring the best out of such types. That's why someone like Matt Barnes still appeals to me; the sum of the parts becomes greater than just the individual talent added if it all works out well. Barnes could be that firestarter on the cheap; Micheal Finley could be too, in a different way, if San Antonio really would let him go.

But there might be an even less expensive immediate solution. And his name is Bonzi Wells. Bonzi thrives in situations that are emotionally charged, and with KG around the Celtics will be nothing less than maniacal night in and night out. Such brooding and screaming could be perfect for Mr. Wells' particular mental and physical skillset. He is a wild card, and when he is on - which can be for long stretches - he can be a dominant player in this league. Yes, he's 31 and might be unhealthy, and he has been called a cancer on more than one occasion. But he could probably be had for under $2 million a year, and if the Triumvirate approves I would go for it. Bonzi is big and multifaceted. He could be a potential bargain.

Exposed?

2008-07-16T21:53:00.027-04:00

Well, the Posey era is over. This unofficially marks the end of the '07-08 team, and means that the squad we will be seeing in a few months will have some totally new elements, for good or bad. Obviously it's hard to see James go; on an emotional level it's very, very difficult. For while Garnett's intensity was the hallmark behind the championship, and Pierce the ignition, Posey personified what this Celtics team was all about more than anyone else. Without him the Celtics would not have been champions. He was so gritty, so elegantly brutal, that his worth always appeared most apparent in the largest of situations. When all else failed in ATL and Cleveland, Posey was unbowed. No matter how pressure packed the situation, James captured it and was able to make that energy helpful instead of negative. For that we will forever be grateful, and he will remain one of my personal favorites...

And because of Posey's demeanor, and all the little things he does, I am not willing to discount this signing by the Hornets, as unusual as it seems when you already have Julian Wright, Mo Pete and Peja. Posey is one of the few players in the league for which stats really don't seem to do much justice at all. He can be vastly superior than what his PER indicates. But he also can be just an average player, as he often was with Miami. He needs the right situation to thrive, and if New Orleans gives him that environment he might be worth the high cost.

From the Celtics perspective four years and $25 millionish was just too much, and ultimately that's pretty understandable. It means Danny and Wyc are serious about their finances and aren't gonna screw around with cash. At least we hope that's what it means. While the '08 Championship could not have been won without Posey, the '09 Championship can. Now that this team has made it up the mountain, they don't necessarily need a guide to do it again. Posey unquestionably was a guide for this year's team, in everything he did.

So what are Ainge's options? There's plenty, and the Celtics might not land the big fish they want off the bench till February of next year. But it seems rather certain that a veteran swingman is going to be brought in prior to training camp; no one is resting their laurels on Pruitt, Giddens and Walker yet. Tony Allen is back in the picture (did we ever think he would really go away?). So are free agents like Matt Barnes, Carlos Delfino, Kelenna Azubuike, Dorell Wright and Michael Finley. And trades happen in the wink of an eye. So the Celtics should be all right. But it will be different and certainly a tad less salty next season. We'll miss you, Pose.

Yup

2008-07-12T10:36:00.008-04:00

Some information passed through the wire yesterday. We found out, finally, that Pierce's leg is in excellent shape - thank goodness. That's no small bit of good news, and I'm still surprised that Pierce didn't get the MRI taken earlier. But, whatever. Also, the C's signed Patrick O'Bryant to a two year deal, giving them three legit bigs (KG, Perk and O'Bryant) and two highly effective undersized bigs (Powe and Baby). The power foward and center positions are full of depth. O'Bryant was needed because he has the size that Powe or Baby simply do not. What's exciting about Patrick is that his Hollinger draft scores from 2006 were very strong; he was a top 10 prospect in Hollinger's book. So we're hoping that his two wasted years in Golden State were simply a byproduct of Nellie's small ball system; and that by teaming up with KG & Gang O'Bryant will begin to realize his potential. So I endorse the deal. Now we await on the Posey decision, and I don't think I'm gonna really comment on it until he signs. I want to process the numbers. Pietrus getting $5 million plus a year worries me, though. Not auspicious. Anyway, we'll see...

The Youth Brand

2008-07-09T18:05:00.053-04:00

Ever since Rhoden's NYT article a few weeks ago the Brandon Jennings saga has been in the public eye, and I'm glad to see so many writers supporting Jennings in his decision to screw college and make money. He obviously deserves that right, and there's nothing the NCAA and NBA can do about it. While it's unfortunate we will not get to see Jennings play on CBS next year, the personal story of Brandon (and players like him) seems so much more vital and noteworthy. Anyway, cheers to the kid.

Now onto the Brand thing, specifically the Philly side of it, because the Clips' side is so up in the air. The 76ers were one of my favorite teams to watch last season, but I think there is some overreaction to how good the Sixers will now be with Brand on board. Once you get past the (possible) shock of Brand in the East, you realize that Elton is probably not enough to get the Sixers over the hump - unless a few things happen. One way they could become very good fast would be if Thaddeus Young or Marreese Speights becomes a star. That's not an outlandish idea - both are young and supremely talented, and if one develops quickly into an All Star the Sixers will be mighty scary. But the emphasis is on quick development, because if it takes them five years to become great players, Brand's window already would have probably passed.

The other, and I would say more likely, way Philadelphia can compete for a title in the next couple of years is to parlay their young talent for a superstar veteran in a trade, a la Ainge. The issue with this scenario is that what Ainge pulled off is hard to do - getting a top 10 player via trade is a small miracle. Ed Stefanski has said on multiple occasions that he hopes to model his team off of the Pistons - with super solid players at every position, as opposed to two constellations and a bunch of supporting characters. Brand's signing goes a ways in achieving Stefanski's vision; I just ultimately question the intelligence of aspiring towards the Pistons' model - it worked once in 2004, and every other championship team of the last 20 years has been led by a top 5 superstar.

The other issue with these Sixers is that they still will be not experienced enough to legitimately contend for a title in a few years. There's basically Andre Miller and Brand, with everybody else being a proverbial kid. A common thread of all championship teams is deep experience, and while I think Iguodala, Young and Louis Williams are excellent players, none of those guys have been through any real battles on the court. That matters come playoff time.

So all in all I am a little dejected by this free agent "coup" by the Sixers. Their weird, eccentric blend of athleticism will almost surely be tempered down by Brand's more traditional presence, and we will probably just be looking at a 48 win second round loser till 2011. Of course, Shavlik Randolph could finally reach his potential immaculateness as a 20-10 monster; then all bets would be off the table.

Carpetbagging Assholes

2008-07-02T21:46:00.005-04:00

Just a fucking shame. Let's give our heartfelt support to all Seattle fans. It's amazing the city just let those motherfucking wretched owners off the hook like this. Sonics fans - you've been let down by both your town officials and crooked owners. DO NOT FORGET.

Knees

2008-07-02T10:19:00.021-04:00

Reading about Walker's knees and thinking about whether the Celtics would extend Powe this summer with his knee situation, I came to a larger quandary: Pierce's "sprained" knee. I mean, have you heard anything about this? Because I haven't. Paul had an apparently horrific knee injury in Game 1, but battled back and won MVP. By that point we had obviously figured his injury wasn't nearly as bad as it first appeared. And then...nothing. I'm assuming he's fine, although I don't see how journalists could have not asked the Celtics or Pierce about his condition.

It's just strange - yet it perfectly summates the Celtics' postseason run. The Celtics' troubles in May have been swept under the rug, but anyone who thinks the C's just had "matchup" problems with the Hawks and Cavs is delusional. Boston had one of the more shaky postseasons a Champion has ever had. Frankly I have no idea what happened in May, and am just grateful that they were able to figure it out. And Pierce's injury - so shocking and momentarily demoralizing - was the final bit of bad karma that had to be done away with before the Green could finally lay their mental problems to rest for good. Now we are at the epilogue. And I'm just wondering what's up with Paul's knee.

Baron Surprise

2008-07-02T00:44:00.002-04:00

Well, this is a bit loopy. The internets are reporting that Baron Davis has "verbally agreed" to sign a five year, $65 million deal with the LA Clippers, mere hours after rather abruptly opting out of his Warriors contract. This is obviously pretty big news, and lips are aflutter that this is merely the first salvo fired in post-KG basketball, that Baron and Elton Brand (also a free agent, incidentally) recently looked at the Celtics and were like, "hey, we can do that" (they can't), and then, you know, maybe this changes the whole Corey Maggette thing and all that. Truthfully I don't really care, since the only thing Clippers-related I've ever cared about since he entered the league is Shaun Livingston, and goddamn it, where does this leave him? I mean, not to get all freedarko on you here, but Shaun Livingston is 6-7 and listed at 182 lbs., and all he does is play basketball better than any point guard most of us have ever been in a (large) room with. Granted, the kid can't stay healthy to save his life (a rich turn of a phrase, when you think of it), but does this mean the Livingston era in LA is over? The mind says no but the heart screams "yes," if only because I would really, really like to watch Shaun Livingston play basketball the way he can and should, one of these days, and maybe, just maybe, the whole Clipperdom thing isn't work out. As, I'd like to add, it generally doesn't. Free Shaun Livingston!!!

Gee Wiz

2008-07-01T09:47:00.031-04:00

Today's a big day, with free agency beginning and all, and there already has been some surprising moves announced. But let's talk about Jamison's extension from yesterday, because it's official, and it implies a problem we might be seeing more of in the next few weeks. I wrote a piece at the beginning of the year talking about how salaries should be curtailed in light of the current luxury tax crunch so many teams are facing (I also mistakenly blasted Kyle Korver - oh yeah.) The main point was rather simple: only pay top dollar for the very best talent, especially when you're bidding against yourself.

Ernie Grunfeld apparently didn't take heed. What team besides the Wizards was going to give Antawn $50 million over four years? There's no way the Sixers or Grizzlies would have, they're both rebuilding, and that was really Washington's only direct competition for Jamison's services. So basically Grunfeld had all the leverage going into this negotiation - and didn't take any advantage of it. This is a classic case of salary cap mismanagement, evoking immediate memories of Otis Smith's misguided generosity towards Rashard Lewis last year. It's not surprising, but always kind of disappointing.

If there's one thing I don't get in today's NBA's fiscal climate, it is why you would overpay a player who doesn't need to be overpaid. Jamison is not a peerless talent -he's probably the Wizards' third best player, and he's 32 at the beginning of this deal. Grunfeld should have at least offered Jamison a few less greenbacks so it would be more palatable to throw money in Arenas' direction. Or - if he was really forward thinking - he would have let the market dictate whether he would have signed either Jamison or Arenas, and acted accordingly to get better talent if his stars decided to move elsewhere (and be vastly overpaid.)

Listen, the Wizards just aren't that good - I don't care if Eddie Jordan coached the All-Star game a few years ago. These guys aren't gonna get through the Celtics, Pistons, Cavs, Magic, etc. They might get through one, but they won't get through all of them. Forking over $170 million to Gilbert and Antawn all but guarantees adequacy from the Wiz over the next few years. So congratulations on that, Mr. Grunfeld, we'll see how many other GMs have joined you in this dubious club by summer's end.

Upsideseses!!!!

2008-06-27T19:15:00.003-04:00

That sure seems to be the most overused watchword every year come draft time, and lord knows the Celtics did their best to blow up Chad Ford's thesaurus this year. I figured I'd weight in on last night's exciting-yet-confusing Celtics draft action, although honestly I pretty much agree with everything Tim already wrote. This one was a bit of a headscratcher, although no one should question King Ainge for a while 'round these parts, particularly when it comes to milking value out of relatively low draft picks.

Suffice it to say, Danny and his gang felt the C's needed to get more athletic on the wing, and truthfully they're probably right, especially with Tony Allen's future somewhat up-in-the-air. The Giddens pick was a curious one, although Shoals over at FreeDarko loves him, which is a ringing endorsement in my book. Obviously the major knock on Giddens is character shit; anytime you see the "Lottery-type talent" followed by the inevitable "but" around your name a few too many times, you know you've burned some bridges. Giddens has done his best to convince anyone who'll listen that he's a changed man, and if he is, well, this could be a great pick. Truthfully, the Celtics actually seem like a great fit for him: Garnett surely doesn't suffer fools, and Ray Allen and especially Pierce could be great mentors for the kid. And for the record: yes, the Celtics now have two guys who have survived stabbings. Not sure what to make of this, but it's worth mentioning.

All that said, like Tim, I think the Bill Walker acquisition could be the coup de grace of the evening. Walker is possibly even a bigger question mark than Giddens, although Walker's issues are primarily physical and thus a bit more cut-and-dry. He claims the knee isn't a big deal, but suffice it to say some rather important people disagree, since it's not every day a guy of Walker's talent and skill set slips to #47. However, the guy is a freak: 6-6, 235, built like an All-Pro tight end that can jump out of the gym. What's more, he can actually play basketball: Walker isn't just a guy who lucked into an otherworldly body and freakish athleticism and has now decided to extend his open palm to an NBA team. Quite honestly, if his knee ends up not being the issue that everyone fears, it's not outside the realm of possibility that Bill Walker is better than Tony Allen right now.

As for Semih Erden, well, in the words of the great Chad Ford: "He can be a little wild on and off the court." Color me fucking excited.

No Exactly Giddy, But All Right

2008-06-27T11:21:00.041-04:00

I have long ago learned not to doubt Danny Ainge on draft night, so I will let J.R. Giddens off lightly. J.R.'s third year projected PER is a terrible 9.16, but WoW had this kind of nice thing to say about him: "New Mexico guard J.R. Giddens destroyed weaker competition in gathering a PAWS/M of .205 in 2007, but had no games against the top 25 and posted a poor .058 in WS/M his junior year." Okay. What obviously galls us about the Giddens pick is that Chalmers and CDR were just hanging there. Both those guys are probably going to be solid pros, perhaps very good ones. It's tough to see your team bypass such obvious talent. But you can't really question Danny, he's been spot-on so many times, and we'll get to see if that's the case again.

I have no idea about Semih Erden, and it will probably stay that way for a while. But without question the highlight as a Celtics' fan last night was when the Bill Walker acquisition was announced. I mean, it's Bill Walker. On every level it makes sense with a pick so low. And yes, he may never even play in the NBA. But he could also be an All-Star some day. So I was much more enthralled by that than anything else the Celtics did last evening, and it helped make up for the potential Giddens' mishap.

Speaking of mishaps - what the fuck is up with the draft? Every year I convince myself that GMs have a slight idea what they are doing draft night - and I'm always surprised by the level of draft incompetence. Don't get me wrong - I know I sound like an ass by criticizing teams about players who haven't even played yet, but I can't help myself. I'm beginning to doubt how brilliant Sam Presti is when he uses top 5 picks on Green and Westbrook in consecutive years. Chris Wallace can be considered nothing short of a fool (as we already knew) for trading Love, Miller etc. to Minny. The Clippers are clueless as usual. Those three teams committed egregious errors in my book, but the list is much longer. Draft night is not a sound process.

I wanted to say Portland easily took away the best haul, but then Kevin Pritchard and Paul Allen did their regular thing and traded away a lot of the gold. After the Indy trade Portland momentarily had come away with Bayless, Arthur, Dorsey and Omer Asik (who is supposed to be real good in a few years). That's an incredible draft - especially saying the Blazers did not have a top ten pick. But Pritchard is like a speed freak - he trades and then trades again. So Arthur, Dorsey and Asik are all now gone. If Pritchard ever slowed down, he'd be a great GM. Because of Allen's deep coffers he doesn't have to be, though. There was plenty of other good drafting, Miami lucked out, but frankly I can't process it all right now. Too many trades, too much action. It's gonna be a hell of a Summer.

Fun For The 66 Games That It Lasted

2008-06-26T16:46:00.002-04:00

ESPN and others are reporting that the Milwaukee Bucks have traded forwards Yi Jianlian and Bobby Simmons to the Nets for Richard Jefferson. Thus ends the glorious Yi Jianlian era in Milwaukee... he pretty clearly never wanted to be there and now he doesn't have to be, and has even ended up in the major-media market he'd always hoped for (we'll see how that works out). The Bucks, on the other hand, get Jefferson, a nice player who'll either work nicely with Michael Redd or make him even more expendable, depending on how the winds are blowing over Lake Michigan. This will probably throw a wrench in my prediction of Joe Alexander to the Bucks at #8, but eh, screw it, nobody knows anything anyways. Actually, we do know one thing: the Nets will be terrible next year.

What a Difference a Year Makes

2008-06-25T20:52:00.002-04:00

Last year around this time I was absolutely awash in anxiety, fixated on the draft to the point of complete distraction, wondering what in the world Mr. Ainge had up his dubious sleeve. Well, now we know, and from what I've heard it's worked out well. I heartily commend Tim for posting on the Celtics' draft options, as I'm kind of at a loss; I mean, it's been quite a while since the Celtics held the coveted last pick in the first round (seriously, think about it; all things considered, it's pretty fucking coveted). A lot of prognosticators have the C's going long-term international a la San Antonio, which makes a lot of sense considering the last team this wants is more payroll, but then again, Danny's notoriously skittish when it comes to foreign talent, so you never know. Tim mentions Chris Douglas-Roberts, and honestly I've been salivating over the thought of him dropping to #30 for a while; it probably won't happen, but he's a guy who could step in and pretty much make soon-to-be-free-agent Tony Allen expendable immediately, bless his heart. Still, I think if there's any year for the C's go international, this is it; Ainge's aversions will be overshadowed by Wyc & Co.'s desire to avoid yet another financial hit. And truthfully, it might be the right call from a talent/personnel standpoint as well.

Quick interjection, apropos of very little: Jermaine O'Neal was reportedly just traded to the Raptors, for T.J. Ford, Rasho Nesterovic, and the 17th overall pick. At extremely first glance, this deal seems like a push... O'Neal could be absolutely huge in Toronto, but as we all know the reverse could be true as well. T.J. Ford's a nice little player; not the caliber of O'Neal, although both share a fairly similar recent medical history. Basically it's a gamble for both teams, only the Pacers get Nesterovic and #17 as well because let's face it, their gamble is just a little bit bigger. A healthy O'Neal on the Raptors would mean that next year there could be five legit teams in the East, with Boston, Detroit, Cleveland, and an ever-improving Dwight Howard in Orlando being the other four. Slowly but surely, the Eastern Conference is ascending from "not-as-bad-as-everyone-thinks" status to "not-actually-that-bad-at-all" status. Some sanguine Chicagoans might argue that a certain draft pick might lift a certain bovine competitor into this mix, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

With that as a segue, Tim offered up a projected Top 10 yesterday so I figure I should do the same. Without further ado, a ten-pick Mock Draft that's more honestly improvised than a Shaq freestyle:

1. Chicago: Derrick Rose, PG, Memphis. This appears to be who the Bulls are picking, and it's honestly fine with me. I think Rose is a marquee point guard, and as Chris Paul and Deron Williams have shown, knee-jerk draft-day devaluation of guards should be passe at this point.

2. Miami: Michael Beasley, PF, Kansas State. Rumors abound that Pat Riley and the Heat want nothing to do with this kid and intend to either trade the pick or flat-out not draft him. I'd venture to call this "stupidity." Rose and Beasley are 1 and 1a in this draft, in my opinion, and to pass on B-Easy at #2 is a foolish move, regardless of circumstance. In five years passing on him at #1 might prove to be foolish as well.

3. Minnesota: O.J. Mayo, SG, USC. If you're 'Sota, I don't really see how you pick anyone else here. Not that I think Mayo is quite in the class of a Beasley or a Rose, but I do think that he's a headline player who's almost certainly the most NBA-ready dude on the board right now, and let's face it, the Timberwolves need that, because they fucking suuuuuck. Then again if you're 'Sota, McHale is your GM and Glen Taylor is your owner, so all bets are off here.

4. Seattle: Jerryd Bayless, PG(?), Arizona. A few days ago there were a boatload of rumors about the Sonics sending the #4 and Chris Wilcox to the Heat for the #2. This would put the Sonics in a position to draft Beasley and play him alongside Kevin Durant, which is insanely wonderful by any stretch of the imagination. These rumors seem to have died down, though, so I give the Sonics Bayless here, who's probably the second-best point guard prospect in the draft, even if as yet he's not really a point guard (a recurring theme, as we shall see).

5. Memphis: Kevin Love, PF, UCLA. I actually think the Grizzlies will do something horrendous here and draft Brook Lopez or something, so for the record, this is what I think they should do in this position. Kevin Love can play, and there's no one else out there who's better that doesn't already play a position that Memphis has covered.

6. New York: Russell Westbrook, PG(?), UCLA. As those who read this site regularly know, I have myself a Knicks jones. They simply fascinate me to no end.... I'm not sure how else to describe it. That said, the new, mightily improved D'Antoni-Walsh Knicks could go in a number of directions here, but I think Mike wants a point guard, and even though Westbrook isn't one yet (see above), his potential, skills and athleticism will win the day here.

7. LA Clippers: Eric Gordon, SG, Indiana. I really don't know... I mean, it's the Clippers. Gordon seems fine, and by all accounts they're looking to trade Maggette, so whatever.

8: Milwaukee: Joe Alexander, SF, West Virginia. I kind of love Joe Alexander: I saw him play quite a bit towards the end of the NCAA season and he was an absolute beast. Exactly the kind of player you see and think to yourself, "I would love to see him on [insert favorite NBA franchise here]." The problem is the other half of the season, when he was apparently inconsistent at best; the basic knock on Alexander is he's a hell of an athlete who hasn't quite figured out how to play basketball. Sometimes that works out pretty fucking well, and sometimes it doesn't. But these are the things that make the draft interesting, am I right? I mostly have Alexander here because apparently he speaks fluent Mandarin, which means that all of the Bucks' problems in finding a basketball friend for Yi Jianlian would be solved.

9. Charlotte: Brook Lopez, C, Stanford. Lopez isn't going to be a Borchardt-level bust, but I honestly don't think he deserves to go higher than this. The track record in the NBA of choosing size over talent is extremely poor, and honestly, when you look at the guys picked before him, are any of them not markedly more talented than Brook Lopez? Best case scenario: Brook Lopez gives the Bobcats a serviceable force in the middle, Okafor can finally range around at the 4 like the poor man's Garnett he's supposed to be, and everything's happy in Charlotte as the 'Cats sneak into the 8th seed. Worst case scenario: ahhh, let's just end this now.

10. New Jersey: Danilo Gallinari, Italia. Gallinari's been exhibiting quite the sack recently, apparently insisting that he be drafted by a New York team in order to best aid his impending world domination. He's probably a little off-base with that, but I imagine him slipping to the Nets given a situation where a lot of NBA teams are now a bit more scared off by foreign talent than they should be. This kid could be really good, and if he does slip to 10, Jersey should snag him. If they don't, two words (maybe three? maybe 2.5?): D.J. Augustin.

Post Parade Draft Strategy

2008-06-25T18:16:00.024-04:00

Awash in glory, it's easy to forget the C's hold picks 30 and 60 tomorrow night. But we can bet Danny hasn't forgotten. And I'd like to believe him when he says it will be hard to find immediate help for next year with his picks. But I don't. Granted, I can't expect the Celtics to land a prolific piece tomorrow, but they should be capable of finding another Big Baby type with pick 30. I would understand if Ainge goes the overseas route and wants the prospect to stay there (Hollinger says that there are some terrific international options), but I say chances are Danny drafts like he usually does - which means excellently, with the player he selects paying immediate dividends. Ainge has proven to be a master GM, and he is at his best finding prospects. So who should we expect him to draft? I don't really know, and I don't have have stunning recommendations to make. Surely if a player drops who deserves to go considerably higher, someone like Chris Douglas-Roberts, you would expect that to be the pick. And such a player almost always ends up falling, the way Davis did last year. Like we touched upon yesterday, this year's draft does not appear as deep. But you can guarantee someone of significant value will be there at 30. The question is who.

As has become somewhat of a tradition, there is a glut of "undersized" bigs that will go lower than they deserve in the draft. This year's crop includes Richard Hendrix, Darnell Jackson, Joey Dorsey (whom WoW loves) and possibly D.J. White. Saying that the C's already have Powe and Baby, it is unlikely they would go in that direction. But one of those four might be the best available prospect at 30. Other bigs that I find appealing (and might fit more into the Celtics' scheme at 30 or 60) are Jason Thompson, Ryan Anderson and Aleks Maric.

But it seems more likely that Boston will go with a point or wingman, given the limbo status of House, Cassell and TA. If Bill Walker is healthy he could be a steal at 30, but that is a big "if". I have never seen Mike Green play, but his Hollinger score is good enough that he would probably be a good pick at either 30 or (more likely) 60. Chris Lofton is held in very high regarded by WoW, and Hollinger liked him last year. Amazingly, Lofton is not expected to be drafted, even after he revealed that he was recovering from testicular cancer last season. He would be a steal at 60, and would probably be able to partially replicate House's role immediately. I also like Pat Calathes, who seems to be a unique player because of his size and skill set.

So I don't know what Danny is going to do tomorrow night, but he usually surprises us in a good way. It will be nice to sit back and enjoy the action this year, with few worries to think of. Enjoy the evening; it's good drafting when you're the champs.

Hollinger's Latest, Or: Trying To Not Be Overly Quixotic As The Draft Approaches

2008-06-24T15:59:00.093-04:00

Hollinger's new methodology concerning the draft has all been released. Regression analysis predicting third year PER seems cooler than just a three digit number like 500 or 600, but actually I don't see it as much of an upgrade. While the new system might improve some aspects of Hollinger's draft order, it undermines the ability to see who is supposed to be very good; the calculated third year PER's of stars like Paul, Wade and Boozer do not come close to their actual output - the three digit number better indicated the eventual dominance of each year's best players. In itself this is not a big deal, but I like the old way better. It made it clear that Chris Bosh was a better prospect than Nick Collison. Anyway, enough of my griping, it's still an excellent prognosticator, better than any other draft tool I have come across. So, let's look at Hollinger's Top 15, with their projected third year PER's:

1. Michael Beasley - 19.19
2. Kevin Love - 17.80
3. Darrell Arthur - 15.82
4. Marreese Speights - 15.02
5. D.J. Augustin - 14.88
6. Derrick Rose - 14.69
7. Joe Alexander - 14.58
8. Brook Lopez - 14.21
9. Mario Chalmers - 14.03
10. Jerryd Bayless - 14.03
11. Roy Hibbert - 14.02
12. Kosta Koufos - 13.32
13. Donte Greene - 13.17
14. Darnell Jackson - 13.17
15. DeAndre Jordan - 13.17

It's really not that shocking a list (which is something I think Hollinger was looking for when he revised his data analysis.) Noticeable absences are O.J. Mayo, Russell Westbrook, Eric Gordon, and Anthony Randolph. An argument Hollinger makes is that the popular belief of this being a draft deep in guards is fraudulent, and it is actually the bigs that will be higly regarded down the road. He may be right. Personally, I'm having a hard time getting a good read on this draft, but my suspicions are that it might not be as deep as some are saying. Hollinger's number's back this theory.

Beasley certainly looks to be the best prospect. If Miami is lucky enough to nab him at #2, they should pounce. If Chicago is smart they'd take him first. He is the one undeniable All-Star this draft has to offer. I agree with Hollinger (and WoW's) data that Kevin Love is the second best prospect. It will be interesting to see if Minnesota goes for him at #3, because as devastating a combo as Big Al and Love would make offensively, you could be looking at a defensive quagmire. If I were McHale I would probably take the risk. While Love doesn't appear to have Beasley's upside, he is an extremely safe and quality pick; words I never thought I would utter in Love's regard at the beginning of last season.

And after the Beasley-Love combo we get to what everybody wants to talk about: The Freshman Guards! The Freshman Guards! The babble over Rose, Mayo, Bayless, and Gordon (not to mention Westbrook, who might as well have been a freshman)has been endless, and it is probably undeserved hype. I will go on record (as quite a few have) in saying that I doubt Gordon and Westbrook will be noteworthy pros. Mayo has more promise, I see him as being similar to Larry Hughes; but in no way does he deserve to be picked in the top three. That leads us to the Rose/Bayless debate, where I stand in the significant minority in favoring Bayless, who is supposedly going to drop on Thursday night. Anyway, for what it's worth, here's my top ten prospects:

1. Beasley - I agree wholeheartedly with what a GM said in Chad Ford's article today - Beasley easily appears the best prospect in the draft, and people are sweating Rose way too much. When will we start to see how stupid it is to value "good character" over clearly superior talent?

2. Love - This guy will become a dominant rebounder and passer in the league for years to come. The question is whether he will be able to raise his game another notch and become a perennial All-Star. It's not as high-falutin' an idea as it sounds - Love's numbers are that good.

3. Bayless - He's been in most mock drafts' top 5 the entire year, but I feel like he is still underrated. Jerryd's Hollinger and WoW stats don't stand out, but this guy can just flat out play. Of all the hyped freshman guards, Bayless is the only one in my eyes who can potentially become a #1 scorer on a good team. I mean, offensively Bayless can basically get wherever he wants. Rose can do this too, but Bayless is under control, and seems to have more of an attack mentality. There's nothing to dislike about him offensively; his talent should alleviate concerns about whether he is a point or shooting guard. Defensively there might be issues, but Bayless could be athletic enough to make up for his average measurements and (relatively) short wingspan. All in all, I still don't feel right putting Rose ahead of him.

4. Rose - Derrick is the most hyped player in the draft, and while he has the talent to make an All-Star game or two, the inferences to Chris Paul and Deron Williams need to end. My biggest qualm with those comparisons is that Rose has not shown himself to be nearly that kind of a passer. Yes, he's incredibly explosive, but it's not clear if he knows how to harness that power fully. That makes him totally different from Paul in college (as the numbers attest.) He also is not as big as people think; Bayless is actually taller than him. Nonetheless, he's a heck of a prospect, and probably the last of the four player on this list who have the potential to turn into a big time star - although you never know.

5. Roy Hibbert - Whoa, baby. Before you switch your website, listen to my logic. Roy plays the most important position on the floor, has incredible size, solid numbers, and could become excellent defensively. Now that the potential stars are off the board, what more could you want? Plus Hibbert has all those intangibles that everybody goes ga-ga over. Make no mistake - Roy has talent, and his position predicates a slot this high. He's superior to Brook Lopez, who looks like Chris Mihm all over again.
6. Marreese Speights - A banger with great numbers (7.2 PAWS/40) deserves to be picked this high. It seems inevitable that Speights will produce a solid PER for years to come. We are looking at an underrated gem.

7. Darrell Arthur - This is a straight Hollinger pick. His WoW is negligible, and he has never really stood out when I have watched him play. But if he's ranked third on Hollinger's board he's good enough to go here.

8. Mayo - This spot seems about right for O.J. I didn't mean the Hughes analogy disparagingly - Larry used to be very good. Alas, I don't know if O.J. will ever achieve 2004 Hughes-level output. Anyway, whoever drafts him will probably be slightly disappointed down the road.

9. D.J. Augustin - At this point I'd like to say I don't know enough about Danilo Gallinari to put him on my list, but that's just ignorance on my behalf. Augustin, somewhat surprisingly, was the highest rated guard on Hollinger's list. Dude is a "pure" point, which gives him a different quality than his more hyped brethren. D.J. should be in the very least a fun player to watch. You have to be worried about him defensively blah, blah, blah.

10. Joe Alexander - Alexander has the potential to be very good because of his athleticism, so he belongs here. But it wouldn't be shocking to see him disappoint. I was more excited with the tenth spot last year - there seems to be a faster talent drop this year, with less future starters available to be picked. Still, some interesting (bench) pieces will remain through the second round. We'll examine those bits of mild intrigue later in the week, and try to figure out if any of it could work for the Celtics.

Silence Is Golden

2008-06-22T12:13:00.026-04:00

Never forget, baby, never forget. Our blog has been particularly quiet in the post-victory haze because it should be. I mean the Celtics just won the Championship. What is there to say? Incredible. Like we always harp about, this was an unprecedented turnaround, but I am having a hard time articulating how unprecedented it was. What we witnessed in the last 13 months simply does not happen in the NBA. Anyone who says it does is lying; and while teams may now try to copy the Ainge model of success, I don't know if they'll have much luck. Danny struck while the iron was hot, and fetching together a group of superstars is hardly that easy most of the time.

So it's pretty unbelievable, and it should stay that way in our minds. But now, because we love the NBA, let's mention the draft and the accompanying crazy trade rumors. As is to be expected, you are hearing all kinds of stuff, and it's hard to know what to believe (if any of it). One thing I will say when it comes to the draft - in my opinion it's a heck of a lot smarter to listen to the statheads than the general news media covering the prospects' potential. Hollinger has updated his system (I'm not sure I like it as much) and released his rankings of this year's big men. Wages of Wins has some interesting stuff to say. And so does this guy. I'm sure we'll be talking draft as the week progresses, and it will be interesting if in the wake of the Celtics' success another team tries to go with a similar approach and shoots for the moon. As Celtics fans we are fortunate enough to say that we already landed. Incredible.

I Was Dreaming When I Wrote This

2008-06-18T15:25:00.002-04:00

It's difficult to really make sense of what transpired last night, and it may take days, weeks, even years to wrap our heads around it. We started with this, then there was this, then this, then this, then finally this. Oh yeah, and there was a whole bunch of other shit in between. It's almost impossible to meaningfully consider the larger ramifications of all this, but suffice it to say, the Celtics are back atop the NBA and the city of Boston is a little bit richer for having known this team. The Garnett trade is now officially one of the most significant in NBA history, and could potentially alter the way basketball business is conducted for the foreseeable future. Ironically, if we knew last summer what we know now you have to wonder if Kobe would even still be a Laker, or if a team like Chicago or Phoenix might have offered a little extra something to pry him away from Kupchak and Co., secure in the knowledge that championships can indeed be won through front office coups. How's that for a counterfactual? The thing that can't be said enough about this Celtic team, though, and an element for which Ainge deserves both all of the credit and none of the credit, is the chemistry that this team has showed since day one. The Celtics came out with a championship on the line last night and played their best ball of the season, which is a truly magnificent statement. They were simply not going to allow each other to lose, and not a single player had a bad game. Everyone was who we'd always hoped they'd be, plain and simple, and this chemistry was far and away the most glaring difference in a series that was far, far more lopsided than the Celtics' 4-2 victory even suggests. It's almost hard to believe it, but last night the Celtics went out and played one of the best basketball games that has ever been played by any team in history. It will be talked about in Boston for many years to come, and it will hang like an albatross around the necks of Kobe Bryant and the entire Lakers organization for possibly just as long. When the chips were down the Celtics beat the Lakers by 39 points and systematically destroyed them in every aspect of the game.

Because he's the star of stars, there will be a great deal of ink spilled over the spectacular disappointment of Bryant over the coming weeks and months, some of it deserved and some of it simply easy fodder for lazy columnists. I personally don't really give a shit about Bryant, his fragile hopes and his even more fragile ego. I care about James Posey, Eddie House, Leon Powe, Kendrick Perkins, Big Baby Davis, and a whole bunch of other guys who will never change their jersey numbers to grab headlines or talk shit about their teammates to strangers with cameras. Probably most of all, though, I care about Paul Pierce, who last night finally and deservedly became one of the most iconic Boston athletes of his generation. Number 34 is going to the rafters and Pierce is going to Springfield: it's no longer a matter of "if" but simply "when," and I'm confident and thankful that it won't be for a while. James Posey ought never pay for a drink in this town again, but Paul Pierce just became a goddamned legend.

And so did Garnett. A day after Peter Vecsey penned a characteristically vicious screed against KG that I won't even dignify by linking to here, Garnett forever silenced the whispers that he can't get it done when it counts. Garnett played as well as he's played all season last night, and now has done pretty much everything there is to do on a basketball court, aside from winning an NCAA Championship (though we're guessing he's doing alright without that). Garnett's one of the seminal players of his generation, although that was truthfully always the case. This title merits his inclusion with the likes of Shaquille O'Neal and Tim Duncan (and possibly no one else) in conversations surrounding the definitive players of this decade. He's an all-timer, no question.

Ray Allen will forever be the third of The Three but again, I'm sure he's fine with that. His kid's in the hospital, he gets a Deadwood-style eye-gouging in the first quarter and still scores 26 points and hits seven 3-pointers. Here's hoping young Walker Allen gets well soon so he can enjoy what his dad did last night; I'm sure he'll be a popular kid at his preschool.

And oh yeah, anyone else get the feeling Rajon Rondo's going to be playing in the All-Star game next year?

I'm not sure I've got anything left for now. Tomorrow is the parade and then things will slowly start moving back to normal, but today is special. Seventeen banners. Enjoy it.

17

2008-06-17T23:56:00.003-04:00

We'll be with you tomorrow. Thanks for EVERYTHING, to EVERYONE.

Gotta Fight On

2008-06-16T00:37:00.013-04:00

Fuck. The C's almost had it tonight, and while the outcome was not surprising, that doesn't make it any less painful. I thought it was gonna be a long night as soon as I saw Bavetta officiating, but really we can't end up making excuses like that for this loss. Let me say it sucked Pierce couldn't put this away in LA. He was downright Jordanesque tonight, as his box score would attest (38-6-8). Of course MJ probably wouldn't have gotten his pocket picked by Kobe at the end there (he would have gotten the foul call instead.) For the first time in the series Odom and Gasol were really working the inside, and although the rebounding numbers ended up about even, the Lakers seemed to have a leg up on that front the whole night. Was it because Perk wasn't around? Maybe. But also Gasol and Odom just seemed to do an exceptional job on the glass tonight, and I don't know how much Perk would have changed that. Of course only playing Leon 5 minutes doesn't help, and PJ was pretty worthless while he was in there. This is the risk you take by playing Posey at power forward - you do give up some size. But James was great tonight, the Celtics' second best player, so I don't feel like knocking him down.

Realistically I said I would be happy winning one game out in LA, and that's exactly what Boston did. On top of that, in none of these contests did they appear to be the inferior team. LA has many more problems than Boston right now. It's just you can't help but be anxious and slightly paranoid at this stage. You want it to be over, yet nothing is that easy, so you at least partially fear the worst. But let's be real - the Celtics have done nothing to shake our confidence. You have to believe if they continue to play as well as they have the last few games they will finish this thing out on Tuesday. No need to rehash, let's just see this thing through.

One More

2008-06-14T11:11:00.017-04:00

It's all we ask. And it's also good it only has to be one, because the C's are more than just a bit hobbled. Pierce might need surgery after the season, Rondo is iffy, and it seems like there is a good chance Perk won't play at all tomorrow. On the positive front, the Celtics have withstood injuries throughout the entire year, and there seems little reason they can't do it now. The absence of Perk means PJ Brown might start, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. But unless he is having a great game hopefully PJ will not play more than 20 or so minutes. KG these days seems the best option at center - with Posey or Powe at the four. When people talk about the C's getting potentially burned by playing the perimeter-oriented Posey at power forward, they forget that Glenn can easily stick Leon on the inside in his place. So missing Perk hopefully won't be that hard of a problem.

As for the Rondo injury - we can obviously see how well Eddie has responded to extended playing time in this series, and optimistically we can expect more of the same. The Lakers will probably try to pressure the ball with House in at PG, and it will be up to the rest of the Celtics on the floor to make sure Eddie doesn't get into trouble. I think the rather constant derision of Rondo in this series (by Van Gundy etc.) is plain ridiculous - dear little Rajon had 16 assists in Game 2 and has acquitted himself quite nicely. Sure he has passed up a few shots he should have taken - but the good ultimately outweighs the bad. If House is faltering next game, Glenn should not hesitate to then play Rondo longer minutes, if his health permits.

Also the criticism of KG shrinking in this series is off-base in my mind. Yes, he hasn't played his best ball, but his defense and rebounding have been consistently outstanding, and truthfully that's the most important thing for him to do. He certainly is fortunate to have Messrs. Pierce and Allen alongside, but let's not overdo this "KG failing to come through" thing. The whole team only needs to come through once more, and that's enough.

About Last Night

2008-06-13T10:36:00.002-04:00

There's a small arsenal of high-minded cliches making the rounds in description of last night's epic comeback: that this is the face of championship basketball; that series and seasons turn on nights like the last; that the Celtics just seem to want this thing a whole lot more than their favored counterpart. All of these observations have elements of truth, but they all obscure the real reason the Celtics won last night, which is the simple fact that they spent the last two quarters playing exactly the same way as they've played for the vast majority of this season: specifically, they played like far and away the best team in basketball. Knowing what we know now it's hard to make sense of the rationale that had many "experts" picking the Lakers to win this series in five or six games, a suggestion that's now utterly outside the realms of possibility. I'm not trying to play some sort of "nobody respected the Celtics" card here, because clearly most people did, but it should be obvious to anyone that the C's aren't up 3-1 simply because the Lakers are collapsing; they're up 3-1 because they've played like the (much) better team. The Celtics have now played the Lakers six times this season and won five--I mean, how sanguine can Phil Jax & Co. possibly feel about suddenly turning around and winning three straight, including two in Boston? Some see this as a stunning turn of events, but again we ask: is it really?

Make no mistake, last night is the clear frontrunner for "game everyone will remember" from these playoffs so far. Much like the 2004 ALCS in baseball, expect this one to be referenced by every hack announcer any time a team falls behind by a considerable margin early for at least the next 10-15 years. There's also some obligatory Finals MVP speculation going on, which is only natural since the C's are now only one win away. I don't really see how anyone besides Paul Pierce is really in the conversation, unless Ray Allen goes for 40 in the clincher or something like that. Pierce has just been tremendous, and the tale of him asking Doc to put him on Kobe last night has taken less than 12 hours to reach legendary proportions.

And what about Kobe? He's gonna get a boatload of shit if the Lakers lose this series, which is partly fair because he all but asked for this responsibility, and partly unfair because his teammates have played like callow, frightened children when the chips are down. Check out the Vujacic video below; hell, I'd yell at him too.

The Lakers' defense was terrible down the stretch, and it was clear in the fourth quarter that, despite all the spin, forced grins and fluff pieces, Kobe still doesn't trust his teammates with the ball, no matter who they are, and at this point probably never will. It's a problem, but when you watch games like last night's you wonder if it's nearly as much their problem as it is his. Through four games the Lakers don't look like a championship team and the Celtics do, and I'm not sure how anyone in LA can confidently argue that this will reverse itself over the next three games. But hey, that's why they play the games, right? God I'm pleased right now.

Yeah, We Saw It

2008-06-12T23:52:00.003-04:00

And so did you, we imagine. We'll have more on this tomorrow because right now, we're positively speechless. Celtics up 3-1; for right now that's all any of us need to know.

The Elephant in the Room

2008-06-12T20:47:00.002-04:00

Our little blog has been about as quiet as can be the past few days in regards to The Biggest Sideshow of the NBA Finals, namely Tim Donaghy's allegations about a whole bunch of different bowls of wrong that he claims have been taking place in Mr. Stern's league since lord knows when. I wish I could say that my silence is some sort of "consider-the-source" mega-optimistic high road, but the truth is that this shit is potentially so crazy I can't even bring myself to fully respond to it yet. Perhaps Donaghy's lying; he is, after all, a certifiable Grade-A scumbag, by all accounts worse than even a McNamee, and almost everyone who's been asked testifies to the fact that he's a twisted individual. But still, like McNamee, the most compelling (and in Stern's case, damning) part of his story is that there's not really good reason for him to make it all up. Stern's eerily Clemensian line has been that Donaghy's simply a sick fuck who's been backed into a corner and is now saying whatever he can to try and save his own ass, but the fact is that it doesn't really work that way: I mean, a scenario in which federal investigators told Donaghy he could help his own cause by implicating the entire NBA in his case just kind of rings false, don't you agree?

Anyways, the latest news in this whole clusterfuck is that at least two more ex-refs have been questioned in regards to none other than Dick Bavetta, perhaps the league's most well-known and respected official. Bavetta helped call the increasingly-infamous Game 6 of the 2002 Western Conference Finals, which you may recall as the most egregiously poorly-called NBA game in recent memory (and I'm using "recent" extremely liberally here) and a game which--surprise!--Donaghy now alleges was fixed in order to ensure a Game 7. Yikes.

Like I said, I still don't even know what to make of this; it could very well go away, but if everything that Donaghy's saying is true--hell, even if some of it is--the NBA's got a scandal on its hands that makes the Mitchell Report look like a mirthful misunderstanding. Again, I recognize that none of these observations are remotely new or original, but this whole mess just seems worth acknowledging.

Validation From A Good Source

2008-06-12T12:49:00.006-04:00

True Hoop had a good interview yesterday with Haralabos Voulgaris, considered a master gambler of the NBA. He's the kind of guy who obviously knows a hell of a lot about the league, otherwise he would have gone under years ago. Anyway, near the end of the interview we get this nugget concerning head coaches in the NBA, couldn't help but share it:

The best coach in the league (and its not even close) is Gregg Popovich. He is without peer in terms of how well he manages a game, as well as prepares his team. It's really not even close, he is just that much better than every other coach in the league. If you are ever unsure of what the correct strategy is in a certain situation, look to the Spurs. If they are doing it, it's probably the right strategy.

There are a lot of coaches who do a poor job with what I call the mathematics of the game, but to be fair, maybe they are better at other aspects of their job like motivation or player development.

However, I have a hard time believing that Doc Rivers could ever make up for his in-game strategy with his ability to motivate or develop players. I would like to have seen how the Celtics would have fared this year if they didn't hire Tom Thibodeau to install a great defensive system. If Popovich is the guy you lean to if you are unsure of what to do, Rivers is certainly the guy you look to if you want to know what NOT to do.

50% Of Something

2008-06-11T17:04:00.018-04:00

Well, Rajon is blogging like mad, which is probably bad, because it means he's bored and injured with nothing else to do. I am more than slightly concerned that #9's injury could severely curtail him, and if that is the case you would think it would certainly help the Lakers. The PG ballhandling problems Simmons writes about today are much worse when Rondo is not in there. That's a legit worry, everything else at this point is just your normal (possibly paranoid) concern. The Celtics look good, the superior team, after three games. Although that could change, the odds seem to be in their favor.

But you never know, obviously, particularly in light of Boston's postseason woes this year. What has been nice is that the quivering hesitancy we often saw in those first three rounds has not been apparent at all thus far in the Finals. So I'm hoping Rondo is healthy, and will now bore you with my "Lack of Leon" bitch-of-the-day. Despite only playing 15 minutes in Game 2, Powe was arguably the player of the game. He was close to unstoppable, which everybody on team seems to be able to acknowledge except Glenn. Leon had six minutes of action last night. Six. Although PJ Brown is playing almost shockingly excellent defense, and Perk has been consistently solid, you have to find room for Leon. I know the Celtics' defense was the key to almost winning last night, and Perk and Brown had plenty to do with it. But ultimately Leon is the better player. I'm not necessarily asking for 25 minutes of playing time every game, but he has to be in there for more than just six. It's good to take advantage of size mismatches, which the Celtics have done, but Leon gives you so much on the offensive end, and defensively is not bad, either. It is just ridiculous for Glenn to keep him on the pine. But hopefully it won't matter in the end.

We Let 'Em Off The Hook

2008-06-10T23:55:00.002-04:00

I'm exhausted and don't have much to say about this one right now. However, there are indeed some things that need addressing, starting with this: it definitely seemed as though the Celtics had the Lakers in a goddamn stranglehold for a little while tonight and now it's not exactly like that, am I right? Halfway through the fourth quarter the dream of taking an insurmountable 3-0 series lead was still very much alive, and now we're kind left with table scraps, in the form of a 2-1 lead with two more games to play in LA. Some bitter scraps to swallow indeed, correct?

Well, yes... er, no... well, you see, the scraps are pretty delicious if you're a Celtics fan and inclined towards optimism. Look, the Lakers barely squeezed a win out of a game that they pretty much had to win and which Bennett Salvatore & Co. were obviously inclined to nudge towards the home team. To say that the Celtics had a subpar offensive game doesn't even begin to cover it: Garnett and Pierce combined for 19 points tonight, and for someone like Pierce--who's probably already started writing a chapter of his autobiography about eating the Lakers alive over the course of his career--it's hard to believe we'll see a repeat of tonight in Game 4.

Look, the Lakers played their hearts out in Game 3 and won, like everyone thought they would. But they only won by six points, and it took Sasha Vujacic scoring more points than Pierce and Garnett together to make it happen. While it would have been so, SO fantastic to take Game 3 and send Boston into a state of anticipatory euphoria, the fact is that very little we saw tonight should change the impression that, from what we've seen, the Celtics are the better team in this series. And for the record, I'll maintain that position regardless of what happens on Thursday.

Hilarity Ensues

2008-06-10T10:02:00.003-04:00

I think I got about five hours of sleep last night just thinking about tonight's game and need some sort of psychic release, so please excuse this little light-hearted foray into fish-in-a-barrell media criticism. The gentleman to your left is ubiquitous Denver Post columnist Woody Paige, a man who forms a perfect synthesis of "jackass" and "blowhard," a man so camera-happy he makes Bob Ryan seem like J.D. Salinger. It's hard to know whether to entirely hate him, since he's such a perfect punching-bag for snarky sports bloggers like yours truly; in the words of Elvis Costello, I used to be disgusted, but now I try and be amused. Anyways, last week Paige wrote a much-discussed column in which he suggested, among other ridiculousness(es), his hometown Colorado Rockies trade arguably their best player, MVP runner-up Matt Holiday to the Cleveland Indians for ace C.C. Sabathia, whose contract expires at the end of this season. Both Fire Joe Morgan and Deadspin were all over this jackoffery, illustrating the oddly symbiotic relationship Paige seems to enjoy with the blogosphere. Maybe if we all just pretend he's not there he'll disappear or something... maybe...

Well, that's going to have to wait, because Woody Paige has decided to fire up his bizarro trade machine once again, and this time he's got his sites set on our beloved NBA. In a column in today's Post, Paige suggests that the Nuggets trade--get ready for this--Carmelo Anthony, Marcus Camby, Kenyon Martin, and Chucky Atkins to the Pistons for Chauncey Billups, Tayshaun Prince, Rasheed Wallace, and the Pistons' first-round draft pick (29th overall). Before you run off to the RealGm Trade Checker to see if this insanity will actually work, allow me to unsurpise you by revealing that it doesn't. Still, just writing this column and convincing an editor to publish it is a tremendous feat: briefly leaving aside the question of whether this trade might actually benefit one or both teams, this is the sort of trade a 9-year-old would make while playing NBA Live with the CPU trade-monitoring feature disabled. I realize that rumors have been swirling for a while now about some sort of Billups/Anthony deal, but this is the Pistons trading three of their four best players after they came within two wins of reaching the Finals. I understand that after failing to win a title yet again Dumars & Co. have to at least pay lip-service to making some major changes, but Jesus Christ... this would arguably be an even bigger makeover than the Garnett trade was for the C's, only a) probably not with the same positive effects and 2) the 2007-08 Pistons won 35 more games than the 2006-07 Celtics.

Continuing to indulge the Woodman's great hypothetical, though, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this trade would be exquisitely terrible for the Pistons. In Billups, 'Sheed and Tayshaun Prince you're trading three aging-yet-durable guys (and Prince isn't even that old) with a proven track record of playing together for a youngish guy whose failure to make the leap to truly elite status is only slightly less frustrating than his penchant for off-the-court idiocy (Melo), plus two aging bigs with a disturbing history of injury problems. Oh yeah, and Chucky Atkins, because why the fuck not, right? This trade isn't that far from simply asking the Pistons to trade the core of their team for the core of the Nuggets', which seems entirely fair considering the Pistons made it to the penultimate round of the playoffs while the Nuggets saw exactly three games' worth of the postseason. I don't want to say you'll never see Melo in a Pistons uniform or Billups in powder-blue, but if you do it's not going to be like this.

One last gripe: one of the more idiotic recent insights of NBA talking/writing heads is the notion that Rodney Stuckey's "emergence" has made Billups "expendable." Granted, Stuckey's a nice player and might even end up some sort of star (I still doubt this), but judging from the coverage of Stuckey in the Eastern Conference Finals you'd think he was some hybrid of Chris Paul and Nelson Mandela. This has to be due largely to the fact that after six straight years in the Conference Finals the networks were desperate for any sort of new Pistons-related storyline, the "Rip Hamilton runs five miles a day" angle having run its course back in 2004 or whatever. Billups is getting up there in years but he's still very, very good: this past season he was 10th overall in PER (10 spots higher than Melo, for the record) and second among PGs, behind only Chris Paul. Stuckey or no Stuckey, it will take a whole hell of a lot to pry Chauncey Billups from the Pistons, as well it should.

Alright, I'm done here. Please excuse this meandering self-indulgence... God I'm nervous.

The Inglorious Escape

2008-06-09T14:19:00.002-04:00

Now that we're all feeling pretty good about last night's results and have had some time to remove the fourth-quarter panic from our minds, I think it's time to revisit the scene of what, for a few brief yet excruciating moments, threatened to inarguably become the most spectacular single-game collapse in NBA history. Allow me to preface this by assuring you that this is not a freak-out post: if anything it's the opposite, a way of putting to rest both the silly claim that LA may have finally "put it together" in the fourth quarter and the even more ludicrous notion that the Lakers now have "momentum" going into Game 3.

Truthfully it all seemed to happen so fast; I remember looking at the clock with about six minutes to go, seeing the Lakers down 18 and half-thinking to myself how improbable it would be for a team to come back from that, and then it all just sort of happened. There was a barrage of three-pointers, some incredibly careless ball movement from the Celtics, and Kobe Bryant finally remembering how to get to the foul line, where he somehow, some way, cut the lead to 2 with 38 seconds remaining. It was absolutely chilling to watch, it never should have happened, and it says here that it's not going to happen again. Here are some reasons why:

First of all, one should never underestimate the potential effectiveness of a desperation offense like the one LA was running at the end of last night. It's more or less the equivalent of one of those crazy two-minute drills in football when all of a sudden every pass is being caught, running backs are casually breaking off 15-yard runs from draw plays and the defense is playing some sort of half-assed prevent scheme that's not really about winning the game so much as simply not losing it. Never a fun thing to watch if your allegiance lies with the defensive side, and you invariably find yourself wondering how the hell this offense could possibly be doing this now when they seemed so overmatched the rest of the game. That said, the problem with the desperation offense is that, by definition, it's unsustainable. It's not a system, and in fact, it's almost an anti-system, which is one of the reasons it can be so difficult to defend: there's not really any logic to it besides to overplay the ball on defense and score at all costs on offense. The Lakers scored 41 in the fourth last night by brazenly gambling on the passing lanes and firing up 3-pointers on the break; the fact that this non-strategy happened to prove extremely effective doesn't mean that we're going to see it again, and I guarantee that Phil Jackson was hating it almost as much as the fans at the Garden. In short, don't hold your breath for another 41-point quarter from LA unless we're in a similar situation to last night, in which case any Celtics fan would probably once again like his/her chances.

Secondly--and this is at least somewhat related to the first point--Glenn Rivers probably won't let this happen twice. This is an odd thing for someone like myself to say, who's spent a healthy dose of the past several years viciously deriding Rivers' capacities as a coach, but if there's one thing that's become clear about Glenn over this playoffs it's that he does, in fact, seem to learn from his (copious) mistakes. The mistake last night--and my God, was it a huge one--was deciding to completely change his team's style of play in a game that they were in the process of winning by an embarrassing margin. Around the 8-minute mark it suddenly became apparent that the Celtics had recently been instructed to play to run out the clock, a profoundly misguided maneuver when your primary success has come from attacking on offense and a downright atrocious one when you're playing a team as potentially explosive as the Lakers. I do not understand why this happened, and honestly to start playing to hold with eight minutes left in Game 2 of the NBA Finals is flatly indefensible. I'm not saying you should pay absolutely no attention to the scoreboard, but Christ, these are the Lakers; nobody will take exception with running up the score because, as we now uncomfortably know, even a 24-point lead in the fourth quarter is not a legitimate comfort zone. All in all this was a brief and highly unpleasant flashback to earlier in the playoffs, when we often wondered if Glenn was even aware he was coaching in the postseason, so scattershot and unfocused were his decisions and tendencies.

But he's been better of late, and I guess that's the larger point: he continues to get better, and for this reason alone last night's rather disgracefully close call shouldn't happen again. I'm not going to sit here and argue that the Celtics are going to sweep the Lakers, or even that this series definitively will not return to Boston: I'm just pointing out that after two games, the Celtics have the Lakers exactly where they want them, and no one ought to think otherwise.

Grown-Ass Work

2008-06-09T00:56:00.028-04:00

Awesome stuff, folks. I am sorry we haven't had more in-depth analysis lately, but frankly it's been nice just to sit back and enjoy these first two games, it'll all get sorted out later. This win we just saw gives great hope towards the ultimate goal being achieved. The Celtics won tonight because they were the better team, not because LA didn't show up the first three quarters, or because of poor officiating. What has been so exhilarating about the first two games of the Finals is how well the Celtics have played, and how normal it all seems when put in context of their great regular season. It would make all the more sense if they had not been so goddamn perplexing all of the playoffs prior to Game 5 against Detroit.

But here we are. And it's a wonderful feeling - even if the Celtics can scrape together just one win out on the West Coast you would think they would have the advantage. But I'm sure they are not thinking that way - they're just happy about the win and focusing on getting the next one. Tonight's contest could have easily been lost, which might seem scary but probably shouldn't be. Yes, LA scored 41 in the fourth and was in a position to win a game they had no right to win. But we are at the point of the season where such things don't matter. Either you win or lose - and the Celtics won. We can sleep happy.

Something that might be overlooked in the morning is that Leon still only played 15 minutes in scoring his 21 points. Let him play. There's no holding back. But I can't knock PJ Brown when the team is +20 with him on the floor. Yet tonight revealed what was rather obvious to many of us - Leon can score big against LA, just like he can against most teams. If he had been left in the game in the fourth I don't know if we would have been talking about LA's near comeback. He can mean that much, and thankfully Glenn let us see some of that grown-ass magic tonight.

Again, I am just really impressed about how the team has seemingly regrouped and is collectively playing so well. All the big guns are firing. The defense on Kobe continues to be superb. There is more to say but I will leave it to other scribes for now - soak in this victory, and hope for two more.

Incredible Beginning

2008-06-06T00:37:00.015-04:00

I'm almost at a loss for words after this, I am just glad I got to see it. This was a great game, extremely well played, and it made my heart beat faster than any game this year. Pierce might be the toughest player in the NBA, when you really think about it. This was truly a classical performance by him, an actualization of what makes him great. Obviously, Paul's health seems to be the utmost concern as the series moves forward. I don't even know what to say about the injury, or what to believe. I have to think Paul will play, but there is a chance that the injury will make it physically impossible to do so. If that happens, and I really, really shudder thinking about it, the Celtics can still win the series. But God knows it will make it much harder. But let's not try to freak out totally about that yet.

Perk's injury is also disconcerting, it is hard to say if he will even be close to 100% on Sunday. PJ played decently in his minutes tonight, but Powe definitely still should have played more in his place. Perk's injury could increase both their roles. Brown's defense was excellent down the stretch, as was every one of the Celtics' on the floor. Holding LA to 37 in the second half is phenomenal, even if the Lakers were missing plenty of shots they usually make. Actually, pretty much everyone on the Green played well tonight. Ray especially looked refreshed from the time off, and it was apparent from the outset he was willing to do anything to get the win (his 8 boards were huge.) Hopefully another two full days off before the next game will help keep his legs fresh.

Los Angeles is scary, as we all know. In the first half, which was a great half of basketball, we got to see how unstoppable they are when all the pieces are clicking. But the Celtics showed no signs of hesitancy tonight, and they couldn't afford to against such a powerhouse. Ultimately that was the most positive sign of the evening - Boston played rock solid, with none of the postseason jitters we've become all to accustomed to. Great game, great performances, and now I will worry myself to sleep.

Now's The Time

2008-06-05T11:49:00.002-04:00

I'm feeling I should put something up today, seeing as the future is nearly upon us and all. Truthfully I'm almost too amped up to write... in his series preview (which is outstanding, by the way) Simmons mentions not having eaten a solid meal in four days and I actually believe him. I'm going to keep this relatively short; Tim might throw up his own take later if he can extricate himself from the affectionate headlock that Dwyane Wade's got him in.

This should be a fabulous series... two great teams, a handful of simply outstanding players, one great coach, and two cities that stretch the boundaries of antithesis. You've heard it all before and you'll hear it all again (absolutely fucking constantly, I'd add, for the next two weeks), but there will at least be a few hours later tonight when it'll all just be about basketball, Gatorade commercials and more basketball. Then that will happen again on Sunday, then on Tuesday, and follow that loose pattern for at least a little while longer, we hope.

I have no idea what to expect from this series, and truthfully I doubt anyone does. Both teams are capable of absolutely slaughtering the other if certain pieces fall into place, which probably means it'll be the tight series that everyone's hoping for. It's unclear how Kobe will react on the biggest stage of all with the spotlight finally his, although the same obviously holds for Garnett. Paul Pierce is happy to be spending some time in LA and will most likely light shit up; Pau Gasol can't believe he's in the Finals after being on the Grizzlies a few months ago and will show up to play at the least. Ray Allen is... complicated. But so's Lamar. And around and around we go.

Few people are picking the Celtics to win this series; Tim Legler is the only ESPN "expert" going Green, a discouraging sign on a number of levels. Kobe's astonishing dismantling of the vaunted Spurs has led some to wonder if this is just a coronation. I don't think so, although I can't really formulate why, and while many would take this as a bad sign to me it feels comforting: there's something about this team that's beyond logic at this point. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that they were the best team in basketball for the entire regular season, and the fact that they're still here now might be seen as supporting the apparently taboo assessment that perhaps they still are.

Let's play some basketball. C's in six, motherfuckers.

Bigtime Poetry And Talk

2008-06-04T14:01:00.011-04:00

Not to already beat this Kobe-KG historical context thing into the ground, but I have to say I disagree with Jack in automatically placing Kobe above KG at this point in their careers. Obviously this can all change in the next couple of years (or even by the end of this series), but right now I cannot rate Kobe any higher than Garnett historically. Kobe got to play with one of the three or four most dominant players ever. At his peak I don't know if anybody was better than Shaq. Don't you think KG would have liked that opportunity? Kobe's incomparable partner-in-crime and their location (Global Media Head, California)has made his status bigger than it ever would be leading 44 win teams out of Minnesota. So judge Kobe a little more objectively, I say, at least till he takes his team all the way to the promised land.

Speaking of Garnett, do you know what Lakers' big men play significant minutes? Gasol, Odom, and Turiaf. That's it. Talented for sure, but hardly large and imposing. I'm surprised this isn't being talked about more. The Lakers have been able to go "small" and have a limited big man rotation without dire consequences. That could all change this series. One would believe KG could often have his way on the inside. And you know who could also probably? OUR FRIEND, LEON POWE. Remember him? You know, the guy who quietly dominated most of the season? And who Glenn will now never play for more than ten minutes, if at all? Oh yeah, that guy. Listen, PJ is a pretty good defender, but his playoff PER is all of 8.9, so let's stop with all the accolades. Get Leon in there and don't take him out unless he fucks up numerous times. You're gonna need offense against the Lakers, and Leon helps provide it. PJ does not. Plus, Powe should be able to guard the Lakers' bigs decently, as none of them are really centers in the first place. Glenn is still probably wishing he had John Amaechi for this series, though (read that link, it's what you'd expect from Rivers.)

Also, I have to touch on the crazy Dwyane Wade trade rumor, because it's so zany it possibly might be true. I love Wade, and in my mind he's one of only a handful of guys you simply don't ever even consider trading unless you get an equally untradeable commodity in return (read: LeBron, Kobe, Howard, Paul - and that's probably it.) But maybe, because of Dwyane's injuries, Miami no longer feels that way, even though they can't say it. And if there was ever a team that could put together an enticing package for an "untouchable" superstar it would be the Bulls - we're talking something like the #1 pick and a resigned Deng as the major pieces, or maybe Noah and Tyrus Thomas in place of Deng. That's considerable talent Miami would be getting. I dare say the majority of people would agree with Riley if he pulled the trigger on such a deal.

But I wouldn't. As we found out with KG this year, the elite great ones can totally transform your team. And a healthy Wade is exactly that type of player - the kind of constellation that is worth more than Beasely and Deng, as unlikely as that might sound to some. The stars of stars blind everyone else, and in 2006 Wade showed he clearly was one of those. And I will go out on a limb and say that if he remains healthy Dwyane Wade will be remembered as being better than either KG or Kobe twenty years from now.

Truth is Truth, to The End of Reckoning

2008-06-03T09:02:00.003-04:00

I haven't posted since last week, so allow me to get this out of my system and say, ominously... It's All Happening. Before addressing the historical (or maybe more accurately, historiographical) questions posed by Tim in his last post, allow me to drop the not-entirely-un-noteworthy news that Tony Allen will probably miss the Finals with an Achilles injury. Considering how little TA has played in the postseason thus far (he's taken exactly one shot since the Atlanta series) this might not seem like a huge deal, although if the C's start getting in foul trouble against Kobe his presence may be missed. If this is the last we see of #42 this year he deserves an ovation, both for coming back from that gruesome knee injury last year and for adapting seamlessly and without complaint to a new (and, let's face it, diminished) role on an overhauled team. On the more humorous side this might mean Scalabrine dresses, although I'm personally hoping for Pruitt just to keep things interesting.

Now, on to the larger, weightier questions being knocked about by Tim and others on the figuring of this series in NBA lore. Tim makes the excellent point that since Jordan retired for the second time, the ol' Larry O'Brien has been almost exclusively the property of Mssrs. O'Neal and Duncan (doesn't this fact make the 2004 Pistons Championship seem even more impressive in retrospect?). It's also safe to say that a degree of immortality is on the line for both teams and their designated "superstars" (in this case, Kobe and KG), although I can't help but feel like Kobe has a bit more heat on him to make the next step. If the Lakers lose this series (and they certainly can) it will be on him, fair or unfair, and for a guy who has already been demonized for blowing up a championship team to soothe his own ego, among other things, a loss here will re-open the floodgates of doubt. Part of this is because the Celtics' best (perhaps only) shot of winning this thing is for Tom Thibodeau to draw up some sort of deKobeizing defensive strategy, such as the one explored by Henry at TrueHoop in this fantastic post from yesterday. If the C's are able to neutralize Kobe by making him regress to his high-volume-shooting neuroses--and neuroses is not too strong a word--not only do the Celtics have a good chance of winning this series but all of the "Kobe's too selfish to play within a system when it counts" stories will come back at a deafening roar. Kobe is an astonishingly polarizing player, and for all those who can't wait to see him ascend into an extremely exclusive pantheon (and a championship right now would do just that), there's just as many who'd love to see him lose in five, if only so they could point and say, tersely and loudly: "Not Jordan."

Garnett is a somewhat more delicate and confounding case. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that if there's one thing these playoffs have shown it's that most Celtics fans, myself included, slightly overrated Kevin Garnett during the regular season. This isn't to diminish KG's considerable accomplishments but merely to point out that, knowing what we know now, it seems categorically insane that many were vocally lobbying for KG to win MVP over Kobe, which in restrospect would have been an error of near-Nowitzkian proportions. Make no mistake, Garnett is a great player, still quite possibly a top-five player in terms of overall impact if not overall skill. But Kevin Garnett's not playing for the same sort of historical status that Kobe is. A championship for Garnett would be a terrific story, a fantastic vindication of an all-time great, and it says here that if the C's win the title KG quickly becomes the front-runner for Sports Illustrated's "Sportsman of the Year" and all that sort of shit. But he's not Kobe, for better and for worse, and there's nothing wrong with that.

This leads us to an element of this series that will probably manage to be both over- and under-discussed over the coming weeks: the question of Paul Pierce. Shoals had a terrific guest-post about this over at Deadspin yesterday, and it's a conversation worth continuing: what happens to Paul Pierce if the Celtics pull this thing out? As readers of this site probably know--and just check the banner if you forget--both Tim and myself are among the more vocal leaders of the Paul Pierce Appreciation Society (it's metaphoric, don't go to Google). In my opinion Pierce is one of the most misunderstood and underappreciated athletes in the history of Boston sports, and perhaps the most striking part about this playoffs has been watching Pierce methodically play his way into the pantheon of Celtic greatness. And if you're one of the few Celtics fans out there who still doesn't see this, well, I sincerely hope that you'll go find another team to follow. All season long Garnett was telling anyone who'd listen that Paul Pierce was the MVP of this team, and we all dismissed it as more of KG's delightful blend of intensity and humility; now, a month into this whole thing, the question that ought be on everyone's lips is: Holy shit, what if he was right? Paul Pierce is, to a massive degree, the reason we're here: his 41 in Game 7 of the Cleveland series is already legendary, but his 27 in the Eastern Conference clincher was quietly magnificent: 43 minutes; 8-12 shooting; 10-13 from the line; 8 boards.

The basketball punditocracy doesn't know what to do with him: they're already cranking out story after story about Pierce's LA roots (by Thursday this trend may reach "Jerome Bettis is from Detroit"-level idiocy), but this isn't supposed to be Pierce's show: the script since November (July, even?) has called for Pierce to be Pippen to Garnett's Jordan, Kobe to his Shaq, if you will. What if it's the other way around? What if it's always been the other way around, exactly like Garnett's been trying to tell us for as long as there's been a microphone in his face?

If the Lakers win, Kobe ascends to Top-15 all-time status, possibly even Top-10. If the Celtics win, KG loses basketball's biggest albatross and most likely crosses over into legitimate cultural phenomenon in a way that few sports stars do, when you really think about it. Neither of these, at the end of the day, are all that interesting; they've seemed almost pre-ordained for quite a while now, even farther back than we care to admit. Pierce is a different story: he has the chance to become something entirely unexpected, something new, as strange as that is to say. Kobe and KG are freakish basketball geniuses, forces of nature and marketing, figures whose successes and failures have stalked the consciousness of an entire generation of basketball fans: theirs has been a path of magazine covers, Gatorade commercials and gauzy Sunday Conversations. It's partly for this reason that Pierce has a chance at a sort of sports heroism that we don't see much of anymore. Mark my words, if the Celtics win this series, it's Pierce we'll remember, maybe not at the post-series presser, or even the EPSYs or Barbara Walters' 10 Most Fascinating People of 2008, but sometime later. And these memories will last.

The Third Man

2008-06-01T20:35:00.039-04:00

The post Jordan years have been dominated by Shaq and Duncan. As much of a swell as people might make about Kobe being the best player in the league the last five years, any reasonable fan intrinsically must understand that Shaq and Duncan have been the two best players after Jordan left the Bulls. But almost as logically we can deduce that the best player after these two is going to be playing in the Finals. Kobe or KG is the third best player of the last ten years; it is almost as indisputable as naming Duncan and Shaq the best two. I find this pretty interesting - we are going to get to see two guys go at it head to head in completely new situations for them. How they will be remembered could dramatically change with how this series goes down.

The Kobe train is in full blitz right now - the media can seemingly not get enough of the guy; the MJ comparisons will never end. I have long peered at Kobe cynically, but no one can deny how brilliantly he is playing now, and how superior his game looks thanks to his veteran savvy. While I still believe "best player in the game" is going a bit far, there is little reason to think Kobe is not good enough to lead this team to the championship. And if he does he will surely cement his status as being the best guard since Jordan. Because this Lakers team, for all the hype, is flawed. Their third best player, the middle piece, is gone for the year. The team is still youthful and slightly inexperienced. Their second best player has only been with them since February, and as brilliantly as he has played, is not totally adapted. Yet the Lakers are the favorites - and the main reason is how on top of his game Kobe has been. We marveled at Wade and LeBron the past few years because they were so virtuosic- young but knowing how to seize the moment brilliantly. They were like Kobe used to be playing alongside Shaq. But this Kobe we are seeing now is nothing like his younger self or Wade and LeBron. He is a veteran, and has lost enough to find a new humility within his game that makes his sudden incomparable explosions seem all the more devastating. Many of us never though he would get it together like this, and the fact that he has will probably redefine his career.

KG's situation is totally different. While Kobe had the luxury of playing on great teams throughout his early career, constantly managing to steal the spotlight, Garnett worked his trade in relative obscurity. KG is the ultimate PER and Wages of Wins guy; there are many statheads who actually think Garnett is historically better than Shaq or Duncan (he's not.) Because he was always working with little, it was hard for many to gauge how good KG really was. Yet a victory here in the Finals would seemingly validate all those who claimed that Garnett was always a top 3 player in the league. Interestingly, KG does not seem to be playing at his absolute peak right now, which is how most of us are viewing Kobe's play. KG, on the other hand, is just being KG. His best days may have already passed (although his defense has never been this strong.) But even if the Celtics win and Paul Pierce is named MVP, it will be KG's stamp on the team that will be most remembered, because it will underscore how splendid Garnett has always been.

So this whole "Battle For #3" is an interesting setup. It really is unfair to say that whoever's team comes out of the series a victor is the better player, but don't be surprised if that ends up happening. Of course, both the Lakers and Celtics are very good, and this could be only the first of many Finals appearances in the near future for both squads. Kobe could lose this year and come back with Bynum to win the next three. And I guess such a positive prognostication could even be made for KG and the Celtics. Whatever the case, we are going to see two long revered stars shine in the spotlight in a new way, and the outcome will have significant historical meaning.

Finally Satisfaction

2008-05-30T23:48:00.028-04:00

Oh my. The amazingness continues. There is a ton to say, but for now let's be brief and try to enjoy the moment. The Celtics made the Finals tonight by doing exactly as we would have hoped - by playing their way, and not backing down an inch. It was how they played the entire regular season, a terrific display of defense, toughness, and resolve. Now if we only knew what to make of it. Beating Detroit in six seems like a hell of an accomplishment. But if you read Simmons today you would think it's all for naught. And he's got a point. But everything is deeper than what Simmons wrote about, and it's impossible not to start thinking about what the Celtics are as we savor the afterglow of this wonderful victory.

What was so gratifying about tonight is that the Celtics shouldn't have won this game. The officiating in the third quarter was atrociously biased against Boston, so despite playing better than the Pistons they found themselves in a ten point hole. If they played how they usually did in the postseason they would have just faded away. But instead Boston battled back as only superior teams can. And therein lies the great paradox of this club - no team this year has more talent than the Celtics, including the Lakers. It's just we no longer have any idea how much of it will be on display.

It was all there tonight, however. And I truly believe that the Celtics are better than a Bynum-less Lakers. I know Gasol adds a whole new (and brilliant) dimension to LA, but the Celtics whooped the Lakers both times they played them, and seemed to match up very favorably to the purple and gold. Now, apparently, everything has changed - the Lakers have exceeded expectations, while the Celtics have struggled mightily. But the Finals don't start till Thursday. The Celtics will have more than one day off for the first time in over a month. In many ways they are actually more of a veteran team than the Lakers. And maybe, just maybe, things are only gonna get better for the Green.

And Then There Were Three

2008-05-30T10:01:00.003-04:00

The Lakers beat the Spurs last night, 100-92, and I seriously doubt there's anyone reading this who didn't already know that. Still, the Lakers are in the Finals and this now fulfills my bold prophecy that the Spurs would not make it out of the ~~first round~~/~~Conference Semifinals~~/Conference Finals. It also means that the NBA is now 50% of the way towards the NBA-brought-to-you-by-Gatorade's wet-dream matchup of Celtics-Lakers in the NBA Finals.

Speaking of... I hate to be a wet blanket here and embrace that fearsome stranger known as "objectivity"-- and this is NOT an expression of doubt about the Celtics' ability to win this series-- but am I the only one who finds it strange that no one is talking about the fact that Lakers-Pistons would be a pretty sweet series as well? I mean, it's not like there's no historical rivalry between those two teams: in fact, since the start of the Magic/Bird/Isiah era, the Celtics and Lakers have squared off in the finals only one more time than the Pistons and Lakers have. And don't forget that Phil Jackson and Kobe are probably still stinging from the Pistons' huge upset win in 2004, a truly embarrassing moment for the Lakers' franchise all around.

Again, in no way do I mean to suggest that I'd be anything less than devastated if the Pistons beat the Celtics in this series, and one could even make the case that this post could function as a "reverse jinx" against the Pistons. Still, you hear a lot of noise about coastal media bias, and while I do think a lot of that's exaggerated, if I were a Pistons fan let's just say I'd probably be acutely concerned with the officiating of tonight's game and particularly Sunday's, if necessary (heaven forbid).

And, finally, a few words of eulogy for the San Antonio Spurs, model franchise and most dominant team of the past decade: Fuck you and I'm glad you lost. I'd also like to point out that Robert Horry scored 2 points in 53 minutes this series and was a DNP-CD in Game 5. In his defense the two points were probably super clutch, somehow.

Puzzling, But in a Good Way?

2008-05-28T23:59:00.002-04:00

This whole postseason thing is one hell of a roller-coaster, I'll tell you that much. In what might have been the most dramatic game of their playoffs thus far, the Celtics held on to beat the Pistons at home, 106-102. This now leaves the Celtics one win away from reaching their first NBA Finals since 1987, although I'd like a show of hands from those who think that win is easily waiting just around the corner. Yeah, that's what I thought. This was an odd game, one in which neither of the teams appeared capable of playing well at the same time as the other, which led to a sort of see-saw effect. The Celtics started the game off well, then the Pistons surged ahead, then the Celtics surged WAY ahead (up 17 at one point), and then, well, the Pistons put the clamps down. Despite being up 15 in the fourth, the Pistons got the lead down to one in the final gasps of this thing, and as a C's fan I feel personally lucky that we escaped this one with even a nervous smile on our faces. Losing this game would have been devastating; winning at least gives us a chance to close this thing out on Friday, although that chance feels pretty goddamn remote right now. I don't know, check with me tomorrow, maybe I'll feel a little more sanguine about the whole thing, but I doubt it's a buyers' market for Game 7 tickets right now, if you catch my drift.

The Pistons' defense was simply incredible down the stretch tonight, and while the Celtics' defense was justifiably celebrated from November through April, since the playoffs started they haven't really showed us any late-game performances like the one Detroit threw our way tonight. It was brutal, suffocating, smothering, pick your violent cliche of choice. We need to find a way to deal with it, because there's absolutely no reason to think we're not going to see much, much more of it in an elimination-game situation in Detroit on Friday. I need to stop writing about this, as it's making me edgy and irritable.

The two big stories of the night were first and foremost Kendrick Perkins, who came through with a mindblowingly huge 18 points and 16 boards and appeared to be channeling Dwight Howard through much of the first half, and Ray Allen, who veritably exploded for 29 points some huge clutch shots in the closing 90 seconds or so. It's nice to have him back... let's hope he decides to stay. Aside from these guys, Garnett contributed an extremely efficient 33 points on 11-17 shooting, and Pierce went for 16 to go with 6 assists and 5 rebounds. Rondo added 13 assists but shot 3-14 and you know what, I really don't want to talk about him right now. There are nights when he makes me really happy and nights when he absolutely fucking terrifies me and you can probably guess what kind of night this was.

I think I'm done here. Let's close this out Friday night, for reals.

What? Um, no. NO.

2008-05-28T09:52:00.002-04:00

I can't resist posting about this... yesterday ESPN.com "senior writer" J.A. Adande, who's probably a perfectly nice gentleman in real life, put up one of the stupidest articles I've read since we started writing this site, which is truly saying something considering that Peter May was at the Globe until only a few weeks ago. A (if not the) central premise of Adande's piece is that Robert Horry belongs in the Hall of Fame. Adande opens his article with a quote from the movie Shane, and well, it somehow manages to go much farther downhill from there.

According to Adande, Horry belongs in the Hall of Fame because he has made some big shots and has seven championship rings. I will grant you that this is a truly amazing statistic; Adande points out that it hasn't happened in thirty years. There's no doubt in my mind that Horry has picked his free-agent spots quite judiciously, and has definitely been a contributing player on some all-time great teams. Still...

Robert Horry has career averages of 7.0, 4.8 and 2.1. He's averaged only 24.5 mpg over his career, and only four seasons out of sixteen did he average more than 30. He's never played an 82-game season. Let's not even discuss things like All-Star appearances, because clearly there aren't any. To suggest that he belongs in the Basketball Hall of Fame--a building that already has far, FAR too many residents--is utter insanity. Adande tries to bolster his argument by saying that K.C. Jones is in the Hall of Fame with similar numbers, but neglects to mention that Jones wasn't elected until 1989, after he'd won two rings as a head coach. That gives Jones a total of 10 rings to Horry's 7, and I'm truthfully not at all sure that K.C. Jones belongs in the Hall of Fame to begin with.

Some other "pieces of Adande:"

There hasn't been a description that has stuck with Horry his entire career. He was a small forward who moved to power forward. He has started almost as many games as he has entered as a reserve.

Wow, he made the revolutionary switch from 3 to 4? How courageous. The reason we see guys being shuffled between 3 and 4 all the time, often within a single game, must be because Robert Horry pioneered this daring move. The last sentence is hilarious, too: basically Adande is framing the fact that Horry hasn't been good enough to start for the majority of his career as if it's some sign of greatness and versatility.

Has there been anyone you'd dread seeing in position to kill your team more than Horry? It's his big shots in big moments that warrant Horry's mention among the game's greats.

Did he really write that? There are probably at least twenty players I've dreaded seeing in a game-winning situation more than Horry, and that's being incredibly generous. Let's start with Michael Jordan and go from there, shall we? Granted, Horry has hit some huge, huge shots, freakishly disproportionate to his day-to-day contributions, but that's exactly the point: the reason it's so fascinating is that he's not that good in the first place. This is basically an anti-argument for HOF-inclusion.

Lastly, I have to take issue with Adande's sycophantic free-pass of Horry's recent dirty tactics. Adande's only evidence for Horry not being guilty of dirty play is Horry's own defense of himself, which doesn't seem particularly weighty. I don't think that Horry's an out-and-out thug, but there's no denying the fact that the end of his career has been marred by two high-profile instances of dirty play, the Nash body-slam from last year and the repugnant clip of David West during this year's Hornets' series. I don't think it's entirely unreasonable to expect a better explanation for this sort of stuff than Horry himself has offered.

Look, I think it's really impressive that Horry's got seven rings. It's a pretty unique accomplishment these days. However, articles like this one are so unbelievably lazy, unresearched and undeveloped that it's depressing when they pollute public basketball discourse. Robert Horry doesn't belong in the Hall of Fame and there's nothing wrong with that. He will be remembered, but writing articles like these is not the way to go about doing that.

The Coaching Question

2008-05-27T11:12:00.002-04:00

The subject of Glenn Rivers' coaching performance during these playoffs has been marred with controversy pretty much since Game 3 of the Hawks series. For those of us who've never been convinced of Glenn's competence it was easy to blame the team's underachieving on his playcalling deficiencies; others chose to blame the poor performance of certain players, arguing that it doesn't matter what plays you call if guys can't hit open jump shots or, even worse, won't even take them. Both sides had their salient points. However, there recently appears to be a sort of despondent coalescence of feeling around the brutally apparent fact that Glenn Rivers is not a championship-caliber NBA coach, not by a long shot. He's been arguably outcoached thus far by two guys (the Mikes, Woodson and Brown) who are almost universally considered to be in the bottom tier of head men in the league, and let's face it, Flip Saunders isn't exactly making anyone forget Red Auerbach, either. Even if the Celtics can get past the Pistons, does anyone want to see what Phil Jackson or Gregg Popovich will do to a Glenn Rivers-coached team in the NBA Finals? Good lord.

I could take this time to catalogue the various deficiencies of Glenn's strategies, or lack thereof, as Simmons did in his cathartic guilty pleasure from a couple weeks' back. I could bang my head against my computer in frustration that we still--STILL--have absolutely nothing resembling a consistent rotation, even having just completed the 100th game of our season. These are all valid criticisms and weighty evidence of an NBA coach in far, far over his head.

But I'd rather step back and look at a slightly larger picture. Here are the names of the men who, in the past twenty years, have won NBA titles: Popovich. Riley. Brown. Jackson. Tomjanovich. Daly. And you know what? That's it. Basketball, quite simply, is a sport where coaching seriously, seriously matters. This isn't football, where every now and then a coach like Brian Billick or Barry Switzer will win a Super Bowl simply because his players are so good they won't allow him to fuck it up. And it's certainly not baseball, where the basic job description of the manager is often simply to stay out of the way. In a very real sense, in basketball, there are championship-caliber coaches and then there's everyone else, and from all indications, Glenn Rivers falls into the category of "everyone else," and right now that feels like an almost laughable understatement.

Hey, I hope he proves me wrong, and soon, but how fucking hollow does that sound right now? A bigger-picture problem is the fact that if Ainge didn't fire Glenn after three seasons of grotesque mediocrity there's no reason to think he'll fire him now, unless--and this is an extremely outside but still existent possibility--ownership is so committed to winning a title (which they genuinely appear to be) and so frustrated with this team's playoff performance (which is thoroughly unclear right now) that they force the issue. Again, this probably won't happen, especially because there's not a whole lot out there that represents a genuine upgrade over Rivers, particularly now that Larry Brown's settled on Charlotte. Except...

Be warned, this post is about to veer into flagrantly irresponsible, baseless speculation; Buzz Bissinger's getting aroused even as I type this. I think that, if the Celtics lose this Pistons series, management should seriously consider putting out a feeler towards Pat Riley. Granted, Riley seems pretty well ensconced in South Beach right now, but don't forget how he ended up there in the first place: the whole Arison/Knicks tampering debacle. In other words, it's not outside the realm of possibility that he'd at least be flattered by the attention. More importantly, if Riley were to come back to coaching, and many think it's only a matter of time before he does, isn't this precisely the sort of situation he would jump at? A solid veteran core and intriguingly deep bench whose championship window is right fucking now? Sounds a lot like the situation that led to the bloodless overthrow of Stan Van Gundy a few years back. And while I realize that it'd be almost perverse for Riley to take the helm of the Celtics after his storied history with the Lakers, but hasn't Riley always struck you as exactly the sort of contrarian asshole who would relish such a move?

Again, this is nothing short of flagrantly irresponsible speculation, an extravagant daydream. There's a million and one reasons why this is almost entirely impossible. But then again, nothing's impossible, and daydreams sometimes feel like all you've got.

Lucid Morbidity

2008-05-26T23:53:00.016-04:00

Tonight's loss sucked on a number of levels, but the primal point seems to remain: the Celtics aren't the same team as they were in the regular season. And ultimately, that is what sucks most. The Celtics' team we loved this year never would have laid the egg that this team did tonight, just like it never would have been forced to play seven games against Atlanta and Cleveland. But this current group - same in form, different in persona - seems lucky just to be here. If you were to tell me before the year we would be 2-2 with the Pistons in the EC Finals I would have been enthralled, no matter what the extenuating circumstances might have been. But the reality today is I'm down, down, down - because I've lost most of my faith in this team, because they've consistently been subpar for much of the last month. Harsh words? Maybe. But I held this squad to high standards because they earned high standards, and seemed to demand nothing less. And then they just deteriorated.

Don't get me wrong - the Celtics could still get to the Finals, and I guess they could even win it. If that happened obviously everything I just wrote would dissolve into delusion. But frankly it doesn't appear the Celtics are capable of that. I am not ready to even begin to explain why, not until the entire thing plays out. But something seems very wrong to me, and has since Game 4 against ATL.

Tonight's loss taken by itself doesn't seem particularly bad. Detroit played great defense, ran their offense, and had good energy. But you compound this Celtics' loss with all their other road losses during the postseason and you end up just muttering profanities into the wind. It's all unsettling, and a major thing, not just Glenn or Ray fucking things up.

But I do have to say something about Glenn, I can't help it: PLAY LEON POWE YOU FUCKING BASTARD. YOU ARE AN ABSOLUTE FOOL TO LEAVE HIM ON THE BENCH. Ah, I feel a little better. Sleep well, my friends.

Decoration Day Delights

2008-05-26T09:49:00.002-04:00

Happy long weekend, folks. The sun is out and I feel like a blog post. Last night the Spurs beat the Lakers 103-84 in Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals, a development that might be characterized as "unsurprising." In case you haven't notied, the Spurs seem to have a knack for winning when they need to (just ask the Hornets... oh, wait, they're no longer available for comment), and last night clearly qualified as one of those situations. It'll be interesting to see if they can pull the same stuff with the Lakers, who allegedly have more "experience" than the Hornets, or at the very least a better coach. Manu Ginobili scored 30 points, Duncan went for 22 and 21 and oh sweet lord I'm trying so hard not to strangle myself as I write this. I don't want to say that I'm rooting for the Lakers in this series, because I don't think that's entirely possible for me, but let's just say my desire for a Spurs-less finals isn't exactly dwindling as the hour approaches. It's been pointed out to me numerous times that the Spurs are simply the New England Patriots of the NBA, that the way I feel towards the Spurs, namely that they're an infuriating combination of dull and dirty, is precisely the way the rest of America feels about the Pats. I accept this point, and were I in the position to make a Belichickian non-apology to the rest of America for the Pats' Spursiness, perhaps I would. Hey, at least we didn't win it this year.

Anyways, where was I... ah yes, the Lakers. This provides a workable segue into another unsurprising-though-no-less-irritating development this morning, namely a classic Dan Shaughnessy sleepwalk that appears in today's Globe sports section. I have to be honest, I've actually been fairly okay with Shaughnessy during this NBA playoffs: forced into C's duty due to the unfortunate departure of Jackie MacMullan, I feel like his basketball writing is refreshingly free of the stultifying self-importance that's plagued his baseball writing for the past ten years or so. Nonetheless, as anyone who's read his Sox writing is aware, Shaughnessy basically has two types of fallback columns when he runs out of insightful shit to write: the rip and the jinx. The rip is obvious enough, and can be quite directly explained as just CHB being CHB. The jinx is less common but still pretty pervasive, and consists of Shaughnessy actively making the sort of hasty, presumptuous, ill-conceived statement that everyone who has ever followed sports knows you should never make. It's not even superstition, more just common courtesy; propriety, even. The happiest instance of this was when, in 2004, he flatly declared the Sox dead in the water during the ALCS, thus tempting fate for the side of good. A notable unhappy instance would be his column the following year in which he flatly declared, sometime in July, that the Yankees had absolutely no shot at winning the AL East that year (and guess what happened). These sorts of things are absolute anathema to Sox fans, and CHB clearly, clearly does them solely to piss people off.

Well, congratulations, Dan: on this fine morning you have accomplished your mission. I'm not entirely sure why he's decided that right now is a great time to write his "imagine if the Lakers and Celtics were in the Finals together!" column--it seems like he could have at least waited until the C's had won a third game--but this little musing is barely worth the modicum of space it's taking up on the Globe's server. I was hoping that the headline was a Battlestar Galactica reference--any sort of silver lining would be nice--but I unfortunately don't think it is. A column like this is already obnoxious coming from a guy who only a few days ago was hysterically proclaiming the Celtics as doomed to failure, but the real problem with it is that it's just airy garbage, and makes you wonder what sort of bullshit we're going to have to endure if everyone's dream finals matchup comes to fruition. I mean, I'm not sure how many nostalgia-wads CHB's got in his holster, but I'm sure this is just the tip of the iceberg, and can you imagine Bob Ryan if this shit goes down? We're gonna be getting 8,000-word profiles of Scott Wedman written in M.L. Carr's tears.

Anyways, wah wah wah, I'll shut the fuck up now. I feel like I should address Tim's recent comments about the Draft, if only because discussing the NBA Draft in late May is invariably one of the more enjoyable activities of the sports year; I'm not entirely sure why that's the case, but it just is. A few months ago I declared that, were I holding the top pick in this year's draft, I'd think long and hard about selecting Beasley over Rose, and I stand by that claim, even though Beasley does superficially seem a better fit for the Bulls, who already have a respectable point guard in Kirk Hinrich. I'd hasten to point out, though, that this was part of the logic that led the Bucks to draft Andrew Bogut over Chris Paul and Deron Williams (they already had T.J. Ford), and I'm guessing most Milwaukee fans/management/anyone-other-than-Bogut-himself wishes that they could have that decision back. The big thing I'd be on the lookout for is the Bulls trying to shop the pick: the beautiful thing about their situation is that while either Rose or Beasley would be super-nice to have, the Bulls don't desperately need either of them, and if there are teams out there who are convinced that they do desperately need one of them, well, Chicago's in a good position to potentially fleece someone looking to overreach on some rookie who, as Tim's pointed out, will probably be neither an Oden nor a Durant, let alone a Chris Paul.

This leads me to another discussion, whether or not this is really a two-player draft. Again, I'd have to agree with Tim that this angle's been overplayed. Chad Ford's got an O.J. Mayo boner that won't quit, and while Chad's track record on these things isn't uniformly pristine (the Pavel Podkolzine affair, anyone?), it's strong enough that we should take him seriously. Ford seems to think Mayo could be the most complete player in the Draft, and there's rumors out of Miami that the Heat prefer him to whomever conventional wisdom suggests they ought to take with the second pick. I'm not entirely sold on the prospects of a Mayo-Wade backcourt, but whatever.

Truthfully I haven't watched enough NCAA ball this year to have a real solid grip on who could do what in the pros. I do think that Beasley and Rose are the two best players, though I'm not convinced either has superduperstar potential (though again, I'd say Rose more than Beasley), and I definitely don't think the gap between, say, Beasley and Mayo is as wide as the gap between Durant and Mike Conley. We'll see, I guess; I do think that the potential for trades (or at least trade rumors) in the run-up to this year's draft will be pretty huge, just because there appears to be so little consensus on whose stock is where.

Anyways, I'm tapped out. Enjoy the holiday. Might the Celtics go up 3-1 tonight? The heart flutters at the thought.

Yes We Can

2008-05-25T10:05:00.003-04:00

Sorry for the slight delay in this post, but the giddy sense of near-disbelief finally garnered from a road win is almost too much for words. Alright, maybe that's a bit much, but still, who didn't wake up this morning feeling just a little bit better about almost everything? Last night the Celtics played like a Championship-caliber basketball team, plain and simple. It was almost certainly the best performance we've seen from the Green this entire postseason--some might point to the Game 7 drubbing of the Hawks, but come on, it was the Hawks, and more depressingly, it was Game 7--and puts the Celtics in a great position going into Monday. If we can win the next one in Detroit the series is all but over, and even if we don't we'll head back to Boston tied 2-2 for what will essentially be a best-of-three with homecourt advantage... precisely the situation the Celtics faced during the regular season, when they took the series 2-1. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Last night was just fantastic, an almost entirely dominating performance and one of those classic games that great teams just go out and win. The Pistons had changed the complexion of the series when they stole game 2 in Boston, but last night the Celtics went out and changed it right back, and in rather dramatic fashion. With the exception of a brief spot where they trailed by two in the first quarter, this was a wire-to-wire affair; the Pistons started to claw their way back a few times, most memorably towards the middle of the fourth quarter, but the C's always had an answer: in their eyes, the game never appeared in doubt. People talk a lot--too much--about "must-win" games, and lord knows the Celtics have played their share of those in these playoffs, but one of the marks of true excellence is stopping the must-win situation before it even presents itself. It's the prime reason I don't see the Spurs winning it all this year, and it's the prime reason my faith in the Celtics' chances is currently the highest it's been since, what, Game 3 of the Hawks series? Not a stretch.

The Celtics had no dominating star performance, but managed to get six guys into double figures, with KG leading the way with 22. The big story from this one was the bench: guys like Posey, PJ and even Cassell made big plays at big moments, muting the impact of Garnett, Pierce and Allen occasionally dealing with foul trouble. As for your nightly Ray Allen update, Employee #20 had a rough night from the floor (5-16) but actually played quite well otherwise: 6 assists, 6 boards, and generally looking refreshingly confident in the offense even though his shots weren't falling. The highest praise, however, must be reserved for Kendrick Perkins, who played like a grown-ass man tonight: 12 points, 10 boards, and a thankful minimum of Kendrick Scissorhands-moments and shitty whining to the zebras. If Perk can figure out a way to play like this consistently--knocking down short open jumpers, playing great help defense, snaring big-time rebounds--then the Celtics will be truly scary, although we've been saying that most of the season and should probably just learn to love him for who he is. Which certainly wasn't hard last night.

Don't look now, David Stern, but your NBA is halfway home to a Celtics-Lakers finals. In the meantime though, let's focus on the task at hand; I'm already excited for Monday.

Not Two

2008-05-24T10:19:00.013-04:00

One of the more perplexing elements in this year's draft is the assumption that the top two players are going to be far superior to everyone else. I don't see it shaking out that way, and find it mildly offensive that seemingly everyone is willingly embracing this "Elite Two" idea.

The 2007 draft was unique - Oden was the classical center we see maybe twice a decade, and Durant made a shockingly indelible mark. By December it was clear that both were special talents worthy of the #1 selection. The age-limit rule was the only reason either of these guys attended school, and their wholly unique talents were on full display - Oden was a virtuoso center and Durant a freakishly long forward that spelled out "FUTURE". Both were special, not the type of players that show up every year or two.

Now we have 2008. Michael Beasley and Derrick Rose are two exceptional freshman, and because we were so inundated with the Freshman Duo of '07, we seem to have unconsciously labeled Beasley and Rose as being in the same realm. And they are not. While Beasley had one of the more prolific statistical seasons (playing Sacramento State and Winston Salem helps) a freshman has ever had, he has none of the revolutionary knack that Durant's game oozes with. Beasley is instead just an extremely talented forward, and one who should be an All-Star many times over. But his talent alone does not imply championships, as both Oden and Durant did last year.

However Beasley's misrepresentation in draft circles seems minor compared to Derrick Rose's status, which gets more overblown with each passing day. Rose is an incredible athlete who has been deemed the "next great point guard" despite the fact that he really hasn't shown to be much of a floor general. That is understandable for a 19 year old - but Rose seems more of a natural scorer than anything else, and while that is fine and should translate well into the next level, it is far too early to compare him with Chris Paul or Deron Williams. Rose's stats, unlike Beasley's, do not shoot out on us - instead he has the reputation of being a winner, although it helped that the Memphis team he was on was absolutely loaded ( and he wasn't actually their best player).

So the hype over these two guys and then the supposed drop off is sensationalistic - it is quite possible that the best player in the draft will be picked later. I personally think Jerryd Bayless (incredible scorer) and Kevin Love (an animal inside) will both be better pros than Rose. But the larger point is that good talent will linger long after the top two of this draft. The talent dip is not like last year - there is not the high peak that Oden and Durant represented, but more of a gradual slope. Shades of 1990 surely exist, but the storyline to follow this year could be how overhyped freshman (OJ Mayo, Eric Gordon, DeAndre Jordan, Anthony Randolph) get picked far too early. Ultimately the '08 draft might go down as blowback from '07 - and in retrospect we might begin to realize how dangerous it can be to overrate freshman, because not all can live up to their imagined potentials.

The Damage Done

2008-05-22T23:53:00.029-04:00

Normally losing to Detroit in Game 2 would not totally freak you out. But obviously this situation is far from normal. And that is why we may have seen the beginning of the end here tonight. The Celtics have shown no certifiable signs of beating a team of Detroit's standards away from their home court all month long. Of course that could change - but there is strong evidence to argue otherwise.

Even if that is not the case, tonight's loss was disheartening. The Triumvirate and Rondo all showed up offensively, but the defense was only adequate - which is why we had an unusually high point total of 200. And while the Celtics did not seem to shrink down the stretch, they hardly stepped up - while the Pistons played like the steady, confident team that they are. They got the rebounds and hit the big shots to keep the lead. Their offense, which can be nothing short of devastating, ran smoothly and unselfishly. Meanwhile the Celtics often seemed hesitant to recognize what shot was the best to take - either under or over passing again and again at the finish of the game. It wasn't terrible - it just didn't leave you with any confidence when compared to the Pistons' stunning offensive precision.

But maybe it was the Celtics' D that let them down - because 97 points usually will get it done against Detroit in this setting. Or maybe it was Glenn. I bit my tongue early in the playoffs, but he's getting progressively worse in my eyes as the postseason matures. What a surprise. Leon Powe played all of three fucking minutes tonight - the same player who had the second best PER on the team this year. Meanwhile PJ played 19 minutes and Big Baby 7. Big Baby was nearly invisible; and while PJ performed adequately, he hardly replicated his performance on Sunday. This is ridiculous - as has been pointed out a thousand times - Powe is a fantastic inside offensive option. In a series like this there is a good chance he could flourish and change the complexion of the game. But he languishes on the bench in place of PJ's "veteran" defense and Big Baby's who-knows-what. It's unacceptable - especially saying that Leon crashes the boards better than either of those guys, particularly on the offensive end. I'm sure Glenn has a good excuse for Powe not playing - but it's hogwash, unless he is hurt.

Another interesting topic on the Glenn front is his usage of House over Cassell. While Eddie is probably the better defender, I stand by my position that Cassell is still the more dynamic player and could be more beneficial to this team in many situations. There were times in this game, particularly when Rondo was on the bench, that the offense grew completely stagnant. Cassell is much more likely to remedy this situation than House. Sam is an initiator - he attacks, he doesn't wait for the ball to find him to shoot. Instead he takes the ball and finds a place to shoot it (or pass it). That can be a big difference, and I'm pretty sure we missed Cassell's presence on the floor tonight.

I am hardly ready to write this team off; but mental toughness is going to be the key if the Celtics are going to stand a chance in this series. If they are weak, as they have been all too often, they will return to Boston in a two game hole. And even if they are strong, they still might find themselves in the same predicament, especially if Glenn continues to behave accordingly.

Hope Springs

2008-05-21T00:25:00.002-04:00

The Celtics beat the Pistons tonight, 88-79, in a game that almost made you forget all the bullshit of the last couple weeks and come scurrying back to the fold of championship dreams. All of a sudden it's disturbingly easy to feel good about this team again: such is the way of the 2008 Celtics' postseason, apparently. If this wasn't a dominating performance it was certainly both an assured and assuring one. The Celtics barely ever trailed and worked with backbreaking efficiency: Garnett had 26 and 9, Pierce had 22 and Rondo even pitched in 5 steals for good measure. Ray Allen we won't talk about. Once again, the Celtics seemed to have all the answers at home, and this win was particularly impressive considering that the Pistons had enjoyed a week off and the C's had just endured their most draining win of the playoffs. I almost don't want to say anything more, because I'm afraid I'll jinx it, but if you were looking for some sort of sign or, more likely, just something to feel good about, tonight probably fit the bill. Towards the end of the game ESPN flashed up some statistic to the effect of the team that wins Game 1 of the Conference Finals has gone on to win 79% of the series(es?)... I don't have the wherewithal to look it up and confirm it right now, but it works for me.

The other big NBA news tonight is that, in a rather stunning turn of events, the Chicago Bulls have won the NBA Draft Lottery. For those keeping score, the Bulls had a 1.7% chance of winning this thing. It's hard to avoid imagining Mike D'Antoni at home right now, repeatedly banging his head on the sink, trying desperately to come up with something resembling a flux capacitor. Enjoy that sixth pick, Knicks. Hey, that has a bit of a ring to it. Who knows whether the Bulls will take Beasley or Rose (the estimable Chad Ford says Beasley), but one thing that's for sure is that a team that many already thought would compete for the Eastern Conference title this year just got a whole lot more interesting next year. I dunno, I gotta think they'll go with Beasley, just because they're one of the few teams in the lotto that actually already have a legit point guard. And this clearly works out well for the Heat, who almost certainly would have drafted Rose if they'd won the whole thing. You gotta feel for the Wolves, too, who have to deserve something one of these days, right? What? Eh, maybe they don't.

Anyways, a convincing win tonight on a number of levels. I'm almost ready to start forgiving and forgetting, but only if they show me they can really change. And starting hitting your fucking jump-shots, #20. PLEASE.

The Motherfucking Truth

2008-05-19T11:33:00.002-04:00

It's often forgotten that when Shaquille O'Neal first bestowed one of basketball's great nicknames on Paul Pierce, his exact words were: ""Take this down. My name is Shaquille O'Neal and Paul Pierce is the motherfucking truth. Quote me on that and don't take nothing out."

For obvious reasons, most newspaper reporters were unable to oblige Shaq's request, but were there ever a time to retroactively honor it, that time is now. Yesterday Pierce reminded us for the eleventy gazillionth time that he's the best Celtic since Bird, and as Bob Ryan notes in today's Globe, the greatest pure scorer the team has ever had. There are only a handful of guys who've ever played basketball who are capable of the sort of performance Pierce had yesterday, and amazingly two of them were on the court at the same time. Needless to say, these are the players we remember. Paul Pierce hasn't always been perfect during his ten seasons with the Celtics but more often than not he's been close, and few Boston athletes have put up with more bullshit criticism and false accusations of failure than the Celtics' captain. No matter what he's done it's never been enough for some people, even though Pierce has spent the vast majority of his time here playing his heart out for terrible teams, often lifting them to heights they have no business achieving. For his troubles he's been frequently and inexplicably characterized as selfish, immature, malcontented, and just generally not Larry Bird. Yesterday should prove once and for all that he deserves our highest respect, but the fact of the matter is that he always has. For all of the time that's been spent focusing on what Paul Pierce is not we've tended to lose sight of what he is: namely, the sort of player who will play through pain to score 41 points in a Game 7, refusing to let his team lose the most important game of their season. That, my friends, is all one can ask for from a team captain.

We Made It

2008-05-18T19:53:00.019-04:00

Relief. Before the playoffs started, anything less than a trip to the Conference Finals would have qualified as complete disaster, and at least now it can be said that was avoided. What else can we say? Well, the Celtics are pretty good at home. This game will probably be considered a modern classic, as you hardly ever see a mano-e-mano scoring duel in a seventh game. And this certainly was the most entertaining game of the series. Both teams actually scored despite good defense! That really can just be attributed to LeBron and Pierce being unstoppable, but it was fun. It's pretty overwhelming that already Boston has been in two seven game grinders, and at this point I am not ready to seriously think about Detroit yet. Let's give it a night. Enjoy this though - despite the Celtics often digging their own ditch in May, they managed to battle through it. We've been waiting for Detroit for months, and now the time is upon us.

A few things are presently worth adding about today's affair. First off, obviously, PP was great, and so was PJ Brown. No one else was particularly overwhelming, but KG, Rondo and Posey all acquitted themselves nicely. The same cannot be said about Ray Allen, who was atrocious, and continues to be a stick in the spoke. I no longer feel like we can expect him to be consistently good, and that is unsettling. And even though the C's won, Glenn coached another poor game - he was too cautious with Rondo in the fourth quarter, leading to turnovers from Pierce handling the ball and general misdirection from the offense. Luckily he ultimately had Paul to bail him out. But Glenn was shaky, which comes as no surprise. The whole Eddie House thing will probably be overblown - Eddie ended up with all of 4 points, so while he played decently, there's no need for a coronation. Ultimately Cassell still might be a better option. And finally the only reason it is remotely okay to only play Powe seven minutes is the fact that PJ Brown had his best game of the year. So if anything, I have less faith in Glenn - he is falling into his '06 habits of playing a guy too much just becuase that player had a good quarter two games ago. It's stupid and dangerous - it's almost always better to go with known quantities - but the Celtics have lived to tell the tale of it so far.

So Far Away

2008-05-16T23:42:00.012-04:00

Quite honestly I don't know what to say about this one - the Celtics had their chances, and squandered them, with no help from the officials. The absurdist fatalism of the road follies continues, and at this point it is very hard to make any sense of it. I mean I can point out problems, but even so there is more to it. It's not just Glenn - although he had Paul playing point guard (wtf?) down the stretch, and didn't play Leon at all (despicable). It's not the officials - who were favoring the home team seemingly the whole game, accentuated by the Pierce offensive foul call at the end. And it's not just Pierce and Ray - although both pretty much sucked again. No, this fucked up situation is beyond these issues, and I have given up making sense of it for the time being.

I feel rather certain the Celtics will win on Sunday. I don't feel rather certain about anything else concerning the team. I wish I could tell you that arguably KG's best offensive game of the year meant something deeper, but I can't. I just don't know. I do know Detroit is going to have plenty of time to rest, and that no one I was watching with tonight thinks the Celtics are going to beat them. But the Celtics currently might be beyond our perceptions. I don't get it, none of it adds up, and I'm gonna have to reflect once this whole ride is over to understand a bigger picture. More could be written, but it'd be phony. That can be saved for the morning papers.

Semi-Tough

2008-05-15T12:24:00.013-04:00

Jack perfectly summed it up, but I just want to share a few thoughts in the wake of Game 5. As crazy as it sounds, by the end of last night I was convinced the Celtics still have a shot to win it all. I feel schizophrenic, and maybe it's the only way to feel. Because if there was ever a team that could win a championship by only winning home games, this might be it. That's an outrageous statement, and something that I don't think will ever happen - but the fact that I could even toss it out there shows how wonky this team is. And how good.

Last night we saw the real Celtics, the most talented team in the league, and maybe the most scary. I don't know if we had seen that full a package since Game 2 against ATL. They fought with force the whole second half, and it was a great sight to behold. Finally signs of mental strength were in full display. When they play with this edge, as they did during the regular season, they have to be considered the favorite. And obviously they have hardly fit that profile in the postseason. But when all the jets are firing like last night...well, they're a sight to behold. And no one right now knows when and if those guys will show up. It's not a matter of coaching better (Glenn played Leon all of four minutes last night)or of running certain plays - it's a whole attitude and edge that has been stunningly absent for a few weeks. When they have it, they can beat anybody. But where it goes no one knows. I feel very confident we'll at least get through Cleveland, though.

Ah Yes...This Again

2008-05-14T23:54:00.003-04:00

Guess what guys??? The Celtics won at home tonight! This now makes the Green 7-0 at home in the postseason, a thoroughly sweet record that's still rather terrifyingly tempered by that glaring 0-5 on the road. I'm all out of words; it's been a schizophrenic postseason and honestly, if they can win in Cleveland on Friday, it'd go a whole hell of a long way towards re-securing my faith in this team as something people should take seriously. The Celtics played goddamn inspired basketball this evening, getting 29 from Pierce, 26 and 16 boards from KG, and an exquisite 20 points, 13 assists and (count 'em) one turnover from Rajon Rondo. Winning basketball is back in Boston, at least for the next day or so.

I'm sorry for the sardonic tone, but Christ, can you keep up with this? If you're looking for an added silver lining in tonight's win, here it is: the Celtics actually played well in a close game for the first time in ages. They were on the verge of being run out of the gym at several points in the first half, hung in there, then methodically took control of the game in a way that we haven't seen since the halcyon days of the regular season. Also, LeBron finally kind of went off tonight (35 points) and it didn't matter; so much for the monster hiding in the closet. Rivers looked like some sort of genius for playing Baby for 12 meaningful minutes, and the C's even weathered an uncharacteristically sluggish off-night from uber-sub James Posey.

If the Celtics play like they did tonight on Friday, we'll come away with a hard-fought six-game series win against the Cavs; nothing to scoff at, indeed. If they don't, well, at this point I honestly don't even need to finish the second part of this equation. Please, Celtics, do what we all know you can and finish this team off on the road. Please. Friday, Cleveland, 8pm. It's not too late to believe again.

The Soft Parade

2008-05-13T11:44:00.019-04:00

Yesterday's loss was demoralizing and appalling on many levels, but I have to say that I slightly disagree with Jack's assertion that Glenn is the main culprit. If you read this blog, you know I have less faith in Glenn Rivers than just about anyone - I started writing here just because I hated him so much. But for us to pour the majority of the blame on his shoulders for these road woes is going a bit far in my book.

Rivers is not a good coach, no matter how fine a job he did with this team during the regular season. Last night's miscues are just regular stuff in his oeuvre. In my mind, and as has already been pointed out by Wharper, the Big Baby thing was ridiculous - KG didn't need to rest for long, if at all, and Powe should have been in there if KG was not. But P.J. Brown wasn't the problem; he was productive as hell with his minutes. Anyway, what I mean to say is that veteran faith didn't kill them last night - it was a problem, but not the story of the game. What Mike Brown or Flip Saunders do on a regular basis is just as bad.

No, what killed the C's was their same old road-playoff shit: horrible execution by your stars down the stretch. Glenn can talk about "playing better under stress" and KG and Paul can refute that claim , but for once I will agree with Glenn: the Triumvirate (and Rondo etc.) do have to play better under stress. Players have to make plays, not the coaches. As ridiculous as Ainge's faith in Glenn has been over the years, his recent comments ring with truth: players have to respond to the pressure. You've got KG, Pierce and Ray on the floor and you score four points in the last six minutes. That's not Glenn's problem, that's your stars' weaknesses revealed.

Glenn Rivers Tells Playoff Basketball To Go Fuck Itself

2008-05-12T23:15:00.003-04:00

You'll have to excuse me, I'm a little angry right now. The Celtics lost to the Cavs tonight 88-77, in Cleveland (surprise!), and, well, we've got a fucking problem. The Celtics are now 0-5 on the road so far, and if you're even tempted to point out that the C's could win a title by only winning at home please go find some sort of ESPN SportsNation message board upon which to ply your considerable intellectual wares. Come on, folks, something is absolutely wrong with this team: over the past three weeks we've lost half as many road games as we lost during the entire regular season. To quote the immortal Pogo, we have met the enemy, and he is us.

Specifically, he's Glenn Rivers, the very coach we've been giving an amiably free pass to for much of the 2007-2008 season thus far. I'm not sure what Coach Rivers is up to, but the Celtics were outscored 20-12 in the fourth quarter tonight, and nothing seemed more apparent than a need for some sort of offensive strategy. The defense, for its part, was outstanding; we did NOT lose this game because of anything the Cavs did. We lost this game because of things that we didn't do, namely score baskets when it counted. We ran pick-and-rolls around Rondo and P.J. Brown; we saw Sam Cassell miss basket after basket; we saw Kevin Garnett look increasingly bewildered and helpless due to the incredibly unfair offensive burden that was casually strapped to his back. AND NOTHING WAS DONE ABOUT IT. We rolled over and died, as if this sort of defeat was somehow inevitable. Once again, I'm angry, but let's talk this over a bit.

First, Leon Powe played six minutes tonight. SIX. P.J. Brown played 23. This isn't to take anything away from P.J., who actually had a fairly nice little game, (8 pts, 6 boards), but why would you yank things around like that? Everyone knows Leon is an up-and-coming energy guy who makes things happen; everyone knows P.J. Brown is a solid free-agent pickup that Glenn spontaneously decided to play 23 minutes during a road game all of a sudden. Even though that had never happened in the regular season. Awesome.

Second, Ray Allen took 10 shots tonight and hit 4 of them. He seemed to be starting to come out of his little shell, gaining confidence and whatnot. He's a really awesome shooter, in case you haven't heard. In fact, we traded a whole bunch of guys for him--a surprising amount of which are now playing for the Cavs, I'd add--to get this guy, and he shot four less shots than Rondo. I'll repeat that: we have one of the NBA's best scorers on our team, and our second-year point guard got more looks.

Look, Glenn Rivers is fucking shit up. I don't know how else to say it. I really don't. This should be the year, but if they realize that then it's up to them.

Grumble, Grumble

2008-05-11T09:25:00.012-04:00

I was too tired last night to post after the game, but truthfully I don't have much to write anyway. It's easy to get critical or be lenient with the Green after this loss, because Game 3's are notoriously difficult to win given the situation. So, yeah, plenty of bad shit happened yesterday - the Celtics were mauled at the beginning, never recovered, and looked to be the same screwed up bunch that we got familiar with in Atlanta. But that said, it's a Game 3. After the initial destruction that led to a 26 point hole, it seemed like the Celtics actually held it together some. Of course if "holding it together" means never even cutting the deficit below 12 maybe I'm being too easy on the guys. I just don't know. I feel like Game 4 is gonna tell us what this game really meant. Last night we again saw something absent from the regular season - a blowout where the Celtics never got it close. If ATL hadn't happened it would be shocking, but ATL occurred, and now as fans we just have to roll with the punches and see if this team actually has its act together. Last night didn't help me draw any conclusions, negatively or positively.

It's Over

2008-05-10T16:18:00.007-04:00

The Knicks time of terror just ended as they have agreed with Mike D'Antoni to coach the team. The abject insanity of the Layden-Isiah years is about to be put to rest. D'Antoni was the best coach the Knicks could have hoped for, and I'm surprised he only cost $24 million over four years. You're talking about an exceptional coach; and it won't be surprising to see the Knicks in the playoffs next year. They should be no less fascinating, but the reasons will be vastly different than in the recent past.

The Burning of the Midnight Lamp

2008-05-10T11:54:00.003-04:00

"Hope Springs Eternal" or some such overworked platitude might be a more direct way to sum up the second round of the NBA playoffs thus far, but we're all Hendrix fans here, right? With the exception of the Celtics-Cavs series, which began unexpectedly late (no need to go into the specifics of that), the remaining three series have followed a nearly identical script: home team convincingly wins first two games, then drops Game 3 on the road, leading all interested parties to twitter about "momentum," "pride," lack of "quit," blah blah blah blah Christ I can barely keep my eyes open. As you, dear readers, might imagine, I have a strong psychic investment in the Celtics breaking this pattern, but that's unfortunately out of all of our hands unless Leon or Posey reads this blog, which I secretly believe that they do. Quite honestly, a Celtics win tonight would be magnificent, both because history would then be inexorably stacked against the Cavs and simply because it would demonstrate that the Celtics can, in fact, win on non-parquet courts. If the Cavs win we'll be subjected to 48 grueling hours of the media questioning the Celtics' intensity when they're not eagerly fellating King James; this does not sound like fun.

Aside from the Celtics I'd have to say that the series I'm most emotionally invested in is New Orleans' valiant attempt to guillotine the champs. Part of this is because the Hornets are lovable upstarts, part of this is because Chris Paul is to point guards what Eleanor Roosevelt was to First Ladies, and part it is because my hatred of the San Antonio Spurs has now reached blindingly irrational depths. It's honestly not even about the guys on the team anymore: everyone outside of San Antonio readily acknowledges that Bowen is a dirty player, that Ginobili engages in the sort of medicine-show floppery that's terrible for the sport, that Oberto is just Pachulia with an undeserved ring, so there's not much new to say there. I've honestly come to despise the entire aura of the team, the position they've come to hold in the collective consciousness or whatever. This is not their fault, I realize, but I hate them for it anyways.

An example: up until a few years, back when the Yankees actually won stuff (and continuing into well after they didn't), there was an excruciating trend in the way the team's games were announced that friends and I complained about endlessly. Basically, even when the Yankees were losing the games would be called as if they were winning. The team could be down 6-1, Jeter would draw a walk and all of a sudden there'd be all this gushing about how the Yankees refuse to lose, how guys like Jeter show how no lead is safe. Most of the time the inning would end and the Yankees would, of course, lose, which makes sense because that tends to be what happens when you go down 6-1 in any baseball contest, regardless of who you are. The thing that was annoying about this trend wasn't just that it showed a complete lack of respect to the team that was actually winning the game, the team that actually was refusing to lose; it was also just profoundly lazy on the part of the announcers. They had clearly been expecting the Yankees to win the game, which in those days was understandable, but then when they didn't win they wouldn't deviate from the script. They'd just prattle on about Jeter, Posada, even guys like Matsui who'd never won a fucking thing.

Needless to say, this has begun to happen with the Spurs, and it's driving me crazy. Granted, the last game isn't a great example, since the Spurs actually did win, but if you'd only been listening to the announcers without recourse to the score, you'd think they were leading wire-to-wire. You'd think they were dealing a blowout similar to the ones the Hornets had dealt them in the first two games of the fucking series. In reality, this was an extremely close game that until very late could have easily gone either way. The Hornets led at the half. If the Hornets had pulled through and won the game, the announcing would have been abjectly disgraceful, but you know what? It's disgraceful anyways. If I were a Hornets fan I would be absolutely livid about this, and I absolutely guarantee it will happen again on Sunday. When you go up 2-0 in a series you are absolutely the favorite; furthermore, by virtue of being the higher seed, the Hornets arguably should have been the favorites from the onset. Instead they're being treated as a foil so that we can hear about the Spurs' "toughness" and "resiliency," qualities suspiciously absent when they lost the first two games by a combined 37 points through a mixture of what appeared to be apathy and incompetence. But hey, who wants to hear about that? Bruce Bowen is a grinder! I'm losing control. Celtics-Cavs tonight at 8 on ABC.; get ready to hear a lot about the upcoming episode of Grey's Anatomy.

A Little Bit Of Sugar

2008-05-08T22:15:00.013-04:00

That was nice. Two weeks ago when the C's went up 2-0 against ATL we all deemed the series over. This time around we have no preconceptions. Ultimately, there is little more you could want from Boston through the first two games: they successfully stifled LeBron and the Cavs as well as you could. And being up two to zip gives you a heck of an edge. But after ATL an uneasiness remains. Cleveland is fully capable of winning the next two games, with LeBron putting up 35 a night. We all know this. But it seems double scary given the recent (an unprecedented) road woes of the Celtics.

Still, tonight felt promising. The cylinders are clicking, and the Cavs are so anemic offensively that you have to like the Celtics' odds going forward. The key, as always, will be to play suffocating D. Posey has probably been the second best player on the Green this series (KG has been phenomenal) with his kudzu D and panache for doing all the little things. I stand by my statement that he should be playing more than Ray (why is Allen still getting more minutes than anyone?) It's shocking to see LeBron struggle as he has; and as good as the defense has been, he's missing bunnies with regularity. It can't continue. Which is why a steady diet of Posey on LeBron is probably essential to a Game 3 victory.

If the Celtics can win Game 3 it will go a long way in eliminating the doubts that arose from ATL, because as you saw tonight, this team is just plain awesome from a talent standpoint. Posey, Powe and Cassell off the bench - that makes things much easier. The question is whether more funky badness will occur at a moment's notice. I don't know what to think about that, but at least the immediate situation looks cheery.

Count It

2008-05-07T00:35:00.002-04:00

On the one hand, if someone had told me the Celtics would only win by four in a game that saw LeBron shoot 2-18 and turn the ball over 10 times, I would have thought to myself: "hmmm, they need to take things up a notch; there's no way they can count on that happening every game." On the other hand, were I a Cavs fan and someone had told me that Paul Pierce and Ray Allen would combine to score 4 points in a total of 66 minutes on the floor and the Celtics would still win by four, I would have thought to myself: :hmmm, they really need to take things up a notch; there's no way they can count on that happening every game."

A shitty opening, I know, but hey, this was kind of a shitty game. The Celtics stole away with a nailbiter of the more disappointing sort, a dysfunctional mistake-fest in which neither team shot even close to 50% from the floor nor seriously threatened the 80-point barrier. The less said about this one the better. Garnett, Rondo and the splendiferous James Posey were the primary bright spots for the C's, but in fairness KG more or less single-handedly kept them in this one with a monster 28-point effort. It was cool to see the Celtics finally win a true grind-it-out playoff contest, but honestly this game was so weird that it's hard to know what to make of it. Scratch that: one down, three to go. As far as right now is concerned, that's what to make of it.

An Inconclusive Happiness

2008-05-06T23:50:00.022-04:00

The Celtics easily could have lost this game, but they won and I'm momentarily at peace. So it goes. It's hard to come up with much to say about a "feel each other out" contest which saw LeBron, PP, and Ray combine for all of 16 points. What can be definitely said is that tonight felt like the playoffs. The first round, despite its often carnival atmosphere, never did. And this had all the classic ugliness you would expect from these two teams in such a setting: the defense was sterling on both sides, and neither offense was ever able to get into a sustainable flow.

KG played great tonight, quietly pouring it in early in the game, and then stepping up down the stretch as we all hoped he would. That was encouraging. Paul just had an off night; his play wasn't as bad as his stat line, and there was no reason for Glenn to keep him out for as long as he did in the fourth quarter. Ray is another matter. He was scoreless, and seemingly did nothing of substantial use for the entire game. Obviously it was a personal nadir, but it sure seems to me that Rondo has taken over the role as being the real third guy on this team.

Ray's gradual fade (and he could go for 35 on Thursday, you never know) leaves us with a question for the rest of the series: should Posey be taking more of Ray's minutes? Pose certainly seems like the best option on James, and clearly nothing is more important than stopping the King. Tonight the C's were +17 with Posey on the floor, easily the highest mark for any player on either team. Glenn might be wise to stick with him till the final buzzer, unless Ray is just blistering out there.

But the story of the night, ultimately, has to be LeBron's inefficiency. If he has a semi-normal game the Cavs probably would have gone away victors. We are unlikely to see such a morose LeBron again. Luckily, it seems the C's might be able to combat that. All things considered, I still echo what Jack said earlier: I have no idea where this series is heading...

All This Useless Beauty

2008-05-06T11:12:00.002-04:00

Seriously, what to make of it? Detroit looks focused and is up 2-0. New Orleans is looking to do what few thought they could and not only beat San Antonio but beat them resoundingly. The Lakers, meanwhile, are the Lakers, and the Celtics are who-fucking-knows what.

The Hornets' casual domination of the vaunted Spurs is probably the most interesting plot of the past 48 hours. You're going to hear a lot of noise about how the Spurs have never won a playoff series in which they were down 2-0, but that doesn't mean a whole lot since this is only the third time it's happened in the Duncan era. More crucial is the fact that they've been blown out in both contests and generally just don't look that good. Nobody has an answer for Chris Paul and my God, it's just fucking exquisite. Nobody gave the Hornets a chance in this series (check out the ESPN series page... bless you, Mr. Hollinger), and that's something of a minor outrage seeing that Nawlins played them even in the regular season and are currently the higher seed. Still, I turn on the television and hear a million and one talking heads wringing their hands and squealing that they can't believe the Spurs could lose this series, could they? Um, when you lose the first two games by 19 and 18 points, respectively, the answer to that question is: fuck yeah they could. Look, it would not entirely shock me if the Spurs came back to win this series; they have depth, experience, Tim Duncan, all that shit. But the fact is that the Hornets have them down 2-0 and are led by a point guard who's some sort of unspeakably beautiful miracle: it's time to start taking seriously the argument that it might not be the Spurs' year, and that there's nothing wrong with that. Nothing at all.

It's worth noting again that the Pistons look fierce. Wouldn't want to play them in the next round, were I hypothetically the fan of a team for whom that was a possibility. Some wacky shit went down with the clock at the end of the 3rd quarter--seriously, can't the NBA have one postseason without some sort of scandalously terrible in-game fuck-up?--and the Magic clamored long and hard about it afterwards, but the fact is they would have lost the game regardless. A good "basketball tip" is that if you'd like to win a game, shoot better than 25% during the 4th quarter.

Bob Ryan has a mildly entertaining/irritatingly lazy puff piece on LeBron in today's Globe that generally reads like it was written five years ago. Peter May has some sort of cutesy series-preview feature that made me stupider just by reading it. Keep up the good work, sportswriters. Celtics-Cavs at 8 tonight on TNT. I have no idea what to expect. None whatsoever. It's time to rebuild the trust in this relationship.

We Are All Witnesses

2008-05-06T00:13:00.003-04:00

Seriously, he's stretching our boundaries of hyperbole. Kobe's set to get the MVP tomorrow. Whatever you say.

Hard To Quantify, And Scary As Hell

2008-05-05T17:01:00.004-04:00

There is a human element to professional basketball that is generally misapplied and given far too much credence. Fans, announcers, coaches, players - we all too easily fall into the trap of cliches by saying how one team "wanted it more" or how one team "mentally collapsed", or maybe how a player "inspired a team to victory". These everyday proverbs have bits of truth to them - but this is the NBA, and mental fortitude means little in comparison to talent level. When you get to the NBA mental fortitude is an ingrained talent, and it doesn't waver nearly as much as we think from game to game, preseason to postseason. Yes, pro basketball is an emotional sport - but emotions only take you so far, and most of the time you can analyze the game objectively without becoming overly melodramatic. In the long run the team that has better talent almost always wins. This is the pride and tradition of the NBA.

Yet exceptions to this general tenet rear their head most often in the playoffs, and they are real exceptions. It is at this juncture where statistics, almost always useful, stop having much meaning. It is where the great ones show their superiority over the very good ones, something that plain numbers cannot easily reveal. If the NBA has a mental component, we see it fully only in the Spring. And it always shows itself. Only the strong survive. But make no mistake - you have to be very good to even get in that position where mental strength really helps.

Which brings us back to the Celtics. While this mental superiority often splendidly exemplifies itself in May and June (think Duncan, Ginobili and Wade as recent pillars of higher virtue) there is also an exact opposite which surfaces: choking. Some excellent teams get tight and slightly unravel (think the Pistons the last few years),while some out-and-out choke(the 2000 Blazers). Judging from their queasy first round, it appears the C's could fall into either unfortunate category.

Or not. It is very hard to pinpoint how choking happens, and how it can be rectified. There are outright collapses like the Kings and Blazers had against the Lakers, but these are only egregious examples. And with each failure (which the Celtics had in Games 4 & 6) a higher immunity to the infliction might appear. Switching sports momentarily, let's think of Peyton Manning. Manning choked so many times early in his career that at this point he seems almost above it. Conversely clutch players like Tom Brady or Tim Duncan don't always seem impervious from letting nerves stand in their way.

So choking is a hard thing to put your finger on. We know KG has had a reputation for disappearing down the stretch, and he did little to disprove that in the first round. It is one thing to play well in a pressure game when you're up by 15, another when you're down by 4 on the road. Will he be able to step up the way Duncan, Kobe and LeBron have done in the past? It certainly does not seem beyond him, and it also may be unfair to lump all of the load on his shoulders.

Nonetheless, how the Celtics play under extreme pressure will be one of the main elements everybody will be examining from now on. The key, as it has been the whole season, will be the defensive intensity. If the Celtics can maintain their excellence on that end of the ball they should be playing into June. But as we saw in the last ten days, we can no longer safely assume that this will automatically happen.

There's Nothing Left To Feel

2008-05-04T16:33:00.003-04:00

The Celtics beat the Hawks by 34 points a few hours ago, slamming the door on a series in which, to borrow from Yeats, the best sometimes appeared to lack all conviction while the worst were full of passionate intensity. Seriously, if you're a Celtics fan who knows what to think of this team anymore? This afternoon they stunningly resembled the team who only two weeks ago were prohibitive favorites to win the title; two nights ago they looked an Antoine Walker away from 2005. As enjoyable as today was--and it was surprisingly enjoyable, far more so than I was expecting--there are still an ocean of question marks with this team that seems no less perilous with the LeBrons coming to town on Tuesday. One of these days the Celtics will lose a home game in the playoffs, which means that if they want their season to continue they'd best learn how to win a road game. Seems simple and straightforward enough, you'd think. Winning by 34 is fun (and it could have been more) but you're in a Game 7 against the fucking Atlanta Hawks, for Christ's sake; talk about your pyrrhic victories. Things need to change and change soon, and while it's tempting to look at today's game as evidence that things have finally gotten through to these guys, lord knows we've made that mistake before. The Celtics have arguably the deepest and most talented roster in the playoffs, and it's well past time that they consistently start to play that way.

But enough sturm und drang. The Celtics flat-out destroyed the Hawks today; it was an absolutely ruthless, dazzling performance. Much will be said and written about the C's domination, but I'd like to briefly point out the absolutely stunning degree to which the Hawks simply did not show up for this game. They were overmatched from the beginning and by the second quarter seemed to have visibly quit. If Mike Woodson had saved his job through the first six games of this series that position ought to be reconsidered, as his team appeared colossally unmotivated for the biggest game of their collective professional careers (not you, Bibby). Marvin Williams' absolutely atrocious, suspension-worthy takedown of Rondo even sapped dry their considerable lovable-underdog reserve; at the bitter end these guys came off as surly, self-absorbed and dislikable. The Celtics, on the other hand, played some of their best ball of the year: stifling defense, rock-solid contributions from the usual suspects excepting Ray Allen, who had another troubling night from the field (3-12 FG), and overall brilliant team basketball, unselfish and efficient with a surplus of heart. Probably the most pleasant surprise was Kendrick Perkins, who logged a double-double (10 and 10) and generally played like a grown-ass man.

Cleveland. LeBron. Tuesday. Make no mistake, this one's going to be a series. Hopefully in the next forty-eight hours I can convert my hesitation to excitement; in the meantime I just feel oddly glad to be here.

Oh My God

2008-05-03T00:20:00.012-04:00

A week ago I was joking about panicking over losing to the Hawks. It wasn't a good joke. The Celtics probably will win on Sunday, but the magic of this season might have evaporated into the night air after this evening's game. I am bleary eyed and can only help but to be brief, but someone could easily write a tome about what has just occurred. Maybe then I could understand it. Safe to say, some (if not all) of our nightmares about this team have come into reality, and it would hurt more if it weren't all too absurd.

The Celtics choked tonight, plain and simple. As someone who usually waves off such talk as reactionary bullshit, you should know that I use the "c" word with discretion, and it definitely was appropriate for tonight. And in retrospect we now realize it was appropriate for Game 4 as well. We can complain about the officiating discrepancies and Glenn's end-of-game play calling, but we have to ultimately realize that the Celtics team we are seeing is nothing like the one of the regular season. At least on the road. And that is major, major cause for concern. Who is going to presently pick the Celtics to beat San Antonio? Or Detroit for that matter? Or maybe even Cleveland?

Yes, it's all up in the air after these three road losses to Atlanta. The more widespread implications, for both the future and the historical record, will have to be talked about at a later date. But the reality of tonight was that James Posey was the Celtics' best player in the fourth quarter. KG disappeared, as he infamously has been known to do. Ray Allen was shot happy - and not very accurate or intelligent. Paul Pierce was helplessly on the bench, probably the one antidote for the C's troubles, but unable to play. Rondo was ineffective; and Cassell too unsure of his role in the situation to take over....yeah, I don't want to go on.

It'd be nice to say these shortcomings can be fixed. And it's possible they will. But it is also exceedingly possible that this team is not ready to be a champion. As bad as the fourth quarter was, the Celtics should have been able to put the Hawks away earlier, like Cleveland and Detroit were just able to do against inferior teams. But Boston failed. It is something we did not see at all during the regular season. But we are seeing it now; and these playoffs are turning into a surreal finale to an unbelievable past year in Celtics history.

Breathe

2008-04-30T23:29:00.002-04:00

Yeah... that's more like it. The Celtics summarily stomped the shit out of the Atlanta Hawks tonight, 110-85. The series is now at 3-2 in favor of the Green and headed back to the ATL, where the C's will try to close it out Friday night. This was an immensely satisfying victory, though still felt like it could have been more so: these Hawks are pesky, make no mistake, and clearly, clearly not to be taken lightly. Even though the Celtics outscored them in every quarter, the Hawks were still within single digits well into the third quarter, and really only fell irretrievably behind when they allowed themselves to lose focus in that comfortably familiar Hawkish way. But hey man, a win is a win, and it's a bit presumptuous to gripe when you've just bounced back from a two-game skid to slam your opponent by 25 points.

The Celtics had six players in double figures, led by the truly menacing Paul Pierce, who lit up Marvin Williams to the tune of 22 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists. A fantastic performance, and one that should quiet some of the whispers that his Game 2 injury is worse than previously thought. Leon had a Leon kind of night, and James Posey continued to remind us why there is absolutely nothing to dislike about his game. The C's generally dominated the Hawks in every meaningful statistical category with the continually troubling exception of free throw attempts, where they shot 29 to our 15 (and made an impressive 25, I might add). Tommy was displeased. I refrain from comment, except to offer a rather flamboyantly furrowed brow. In the end, fuck it, we'll take it, a 25-point win and hopefully reclaiming what's rightfully ours, i.e. the Atlanta Hawks' sacrificial head on a platter. Let's do this again on Friday, shall we?

Anticipation Can Be A Drag

2008-04-30T16:51:00.009-04:00

The funky dissolution of the two great "just miss" teams of the last five years bears mentioning, but in terms of unpredictability this Hawks saga is still the strangest thing to come out of the playoffs so far. I will not comprehend it anytime soon, I'm afraid. And while only the Jazz and Houston toil on out West, here in the East the best team is gonna play at least six, and get no extended rest. And they have no one to blame but themselves.

While the Spurs had maybe the hardest first round opponent of all time, the truth is they are now going to have time to lick their wounds; the same goes for the Hornets and Lakers. As draining as we said these Western series were going to be on the elite teams, the main reason why was the drag-out fatigue a seven game stretch produces on your players. But LAL, SA and NOLA all avoided that with aplomb. Don't be surprised if the second rounds are shorter than expected out West, too. The postseason almost always normalizes within its traditional framework - the first round cannot be a kaleidoscope of epic battles; it's too early and it just doesn't happen.

Which brings us back to the great exception for this year - the totally bizarre "showdown" between two teams that seemed to be on the opposite ends of the playoff spectrum. I still cannot imagine the Celtics losing this series, and indeed will be stunned if it reaches seven games. And years from now when we see that the Celtics won the series in six no one will care one way or the other. But contextually in the moment it is far more shocking than seeing the Mavs and Suns going down in five to good teams. Something horribly askew will have to occur, however, for it to have more of a historical remembrance years from now.

Ubuntu, Motherfuckers

2008-04-29T11:37:00.005-04:00

Last night was, as Tim astutely pointed out, the Worst Loss of the Year. There's not even a close second. Whereas Saturday night's game was one of those weird "what-the-fuck" moments that you sort of chuckle nervously about and shrug off, last night was infinitely more troubling. The Hawks played with far more energy than the Celtics, Joe Johnson looked like a mid-1990s Reggie Miller in the fourth quarter, both Garnett and Pierce were disturbingly cold from the field, and the officiating more than occasionally left you wondering if there was some sort of Keyser Soze-level conspiracy afoot. It was a difficult night to be a basketball fan in Boston.

However, the time to panic is not now. It might be closer than it was on Saturday, but it's not now. Wednesday we're back in Boston in front of a home crowd and all that entails, and the Celtics will be fired up, make no mistake. Here's an interesting quasi-parallel to mull over: recall the 2002 playoffs, when the Celtics made their historic 21-point fourth quarter comeback against the Nets in the Eastern Conference Finals, stunning the heavily-favored Nets at the Garden and taking a 2-1 lead in the series. Many a pundit declared the momentum in the series irrevocably shifted, and speculation was rampant that the Nets would never be able to pick themselves back up from such epic humiliation. Of course, that was all bullshit, and the Nets went on to win the next three games in a series that we don't even remember as being particularly close. Why did this happen, you ask? Because they were much, much better at playing basketball than the Celtics were. Granted, there are numerous differences between these two situations, but at the moment that's what this situation most reminds me of: a humiliating aberration that will be dealt with because part of being a world-class athlete is dealing with humiliating aberrations on an almost constant basis. It's why Kevin Garnett took 21 shots last night and only made 5, because most nights he will make more than that; it's why Eddie House kept firing ill-advised threes that made me scream in frustration at the television, because most of the time what Eddie House does is make ill-advised threes that cause me to squeal with delight.

Look, last night was horrible; I woke up this morning and literally cringed in bed thinking about it. But it's one game. The series is tied 2-2. If three weeks ago someone announced to you that the first round of the playoffs had been truncated to a three-game series against the Atlanta Hawks, would you bat an eye? No, you would not have, except perhaps when you yawned and asked who we'd be playing in Round 2. And calling it a three-game series at this point is obviously cliched and disingenuous but it's not as disingenuous as claiming Game 4 as proof that the Hawks are in the Celtics' heads and that Rome is burning: the Hawks played the best basketball of their young lives last night, but they're still the Hawks; the Celtics played uncharacteristically lackadaisically and at times looked positively frightened, but they're still the Celtics. You're going to hear a lot about Mavs-Warriors in the next day or two but there are a number of reasons not to believe that garbage, starting with a couple big ones: 1) The difference in talent between the Mavs and Warriors was nowhere near as large as it is between Boston and Atlanta, and everyone at the time knew this; 2) the Warriors had one of the great coaches of the modern era guiding them against the Mavs, while the Hawks have Mike Woodson. This isn't to say that Glenn Rivers is Don Nelson, simply that Don Nelson's a hell of a lot more likely to outcoach Avery Johnson in a seven game series than Woodson is to outcoach Rivers. If Atlanta takes Game 5 in Boston we'll reconvene and have a vastly different discussion, but for now, let's try not to believe the hype, shall we? See you Wednesday.

Worst Loss Of The Year

2008-04-28T23:25:00.026-04:00

Yikes. I don't know how cogent I am right now, but let me at least start trying to make sense of what just happened. Basically, the Hawks have made this a series - which seemed incomprehensible to me until the fourth quarter actually unfolded tonight. So while much can be said, the simple fact is that Atlanta-Boston actually has gravitas now - which should be a scary thought for Celtics fans.

I was almost certain the Green would win today - because these are the type of contests they have won the entire season. KG's angry reaction to Saturday's loss insured in my mind that the series was about to be sealed up. And as skittish as the Celtics played in the first half, by the end of the third things were falling in place as they always do. Boston's defense had settled in, allowing only 14 points the whole quarter, and a comfortable 10 point lead had been established. After a game and a half of playing poorly, and seeing the Hawks play well, natural order had been restored.

But the final quarter panned out in a completely unfamiliar way - Boston's offense was limp and Atlanta scored 32 POINTS to rightfully come away as the winner. It was something we have hardly seen this year - especially when all the chips are on the table. It was disturbing as hell - because this collapse could imply a weakness that so far has been concealed. Yes, it was but one game, but it was a horrible one to lose, especially against a clearly inferior opponent.

And rationalizing why the Celtics lost won't help much in getting rid of this lousy sinking feeling. Sure, Josh Smith had a monstrous evening. And Joe Johnson had an even bigger game - with his monumental fourth quarter heroics shaking the building. Meanwhile, the officiating seemed partial the entire night - goaltending wasn't called on two of Smith's blocks, and the C's seemed to get mauled several times without whistles being blown. On top of this, many shots seemed to roll around the rim and then fall out - shots that find the bottom of the net most nights. The C's 41% FG percentage was partly their own doing - they often just couldn't get the ball to go in. And finally, the ATL crowd really was into this game tonight, as they seemed to sense that their lovable losers actually had a chance.

With all those excuses spelled out, let me now say - none of them are very legitimate for rationalizing tonight's final outcome. The Celtics played subpar D (for them) in the first half, turned it on for a quarter, and then went right back to bad D in the fourth. Still, it well might have been their offense that killed them in the end. Glenn inserted a bench-ridden Eddie House to replace a hot Rondo at the beginning of the fourth, and the wheels immediately began falling off. They made one field goal in the six minutes Eddie was in there, and scored 5 points total. Atlanta scored thirteen, totally changing the complexion of the game in their favor.

Glenn turning to Eddie to give Rondo a blow made sense - Cassell had been awful in the first half. But after a few minutes of anemic offense House should have been pulled for a fresher Rondo; or in the least Sam should have been given another shot. Instead House remained in the game, and the hourglass was turned the other way. Many coaches would make the mistake Glenn made - nonetheless it was mighty disconcerting.

But I can't pin this loss on Rivers. It was a team defeat, and the big boys have to step up and play when it counts. For a team that has shown such mettle throughout the year, there was little to recognize tonight. The fact that they failed miserably for one evening will mean nothing if they can show it's just a fluke. But it only takes a few "flukes" in the playoffs to end up going home unhappy for the Summer.

Not Lanta

2008-04-26T23:35:00.008-04:00

Well, for the first time this season the Hawks didn't lose by double digits to the Celtics. They even beat them! While the masochist in us may look at SA and LAL up 3-0 and think them superior to Boston at the present moment, let's stay real. Tonight the Hawks shot the ball well, particularly from behind the arc. This was aided by uncharacteristically flat defense by the Celtics throughout the evening, and the results are therefore understandable. The Celtics were not their customarily dominant defensive selves tonight, which we can pardon given that they utterly destroyed the Hawks every other time this year. So I will say it - perhaps the C's were a little too carefree tonight. ARE YOU PANICKING YET? Please don't, appreciate the splendor of Josh Smith and let everything else go. If the Green are at the short end of the stick on Monday then we'll have more sinister words, but till then you may still rest your head in blankets made of stars...

I'm not really keen on Leon only getting 6 minutes when they could have used him on the inside (where KG had his way the whole evening). I love Pose, but don't know if he had to play 25 minutes at the expense of Powe, and I don't know if P.J. had to play at all. Philips Arena is a joke - the clock thing was just another reminder of how bush league this franchise has become. Yeah, the energy appeared good in the stadium - almost the same as a regular season game in Sacramento. Like we've said many times already, fuck this series. Please let it be over without anyone getting hurt.

The Collective Reprieve

2008-04-25T09:30:00.002-04:00

Last night saw three teams previously down 2-0 (Rockets, Raptors and Wizards) battle back to reclaim some semblance of control over their respective series. No sweeps here, folks. In some senses the Rockets win was most commendable since it happened on the road, but it still seems to me that Houston has the least chance of these three teams to actually battle back and win their series. The Wizards' win was easily the most convincing, as they absolutely destroyed Cleveland, 108-72, a score that begs the question of how the hell the Cavs could lose a playoff game by 36 points with all that "veteran toughness" they traded for a few months back. If you're looking for one series to truly turn around this one might be it, although the Wizards are known for similar problems of focus, so it's possible these teams could go to seven games by exchanging blowouts. Oh yeah, and Toronto beat Orlando. I know, I know, I don't care either, but it warrants mention.

From David Stern's perspective it's probably good to avoid any of these teams falling into 0-3 holes, since no one finds that particularly interesting, at least not in the first round. I, for one, am not entirely sure that the vaunted Game 3 victory means a whole lot: ask any inveterate gambler and s/he will tell you that the best bet in a seven-game series is on the underdog going home for Game 3. Tonight we've got Detroit-Philly, NOLA-Dallas and SAS-PHX, as the Mavs and Suns will hope to duplicate the legendary feats of last night's players. Best of luck to the Suns; not so much the Mavs, whom I'm sort of hoping will get swept, if only because I'm sick of them and also because Cuban will go absolutely batshit if his team gets ousted in the first round in two straight seasons.

It's About Time

2008-04-24T10:32:00.018-04:00

Good news that I didn't catch till just now: Peter May is going to be leaving the Globe. As we have tried to document, May is an atrocious NBA writer with no real semblance of understanding the game anymore. Honestly, often it appears he has not even been watching the actual games - his words are that bereft of any critical substance. His departure can only help - although almost inevitably the Globe will fill the position with another writer high in the hack quotient. But at least Springer and May have been removed, that leaves a glimmer of hope...

Now onto a more important thing: Paul Pierce's health. P's spill last night was gruesome, and when he took himself out of the game it was very discomfiting. Thankfully he returned, but when Paul leaves a game you know something is going on. He gave the regular "I'll, be fine, it's the playoffs" lip service afterwards in the locker room, but I think I am in the majority in saying that it is okay for Pierce to miss the rest of the series to get healthy. We don't want this back injury to linger into next month, and the best way to avoid that is probably rest. The team can tough it out against Atlanta without you Paul, but the same maybe can't be said in a few weeks time.

Mercy

2008-04-23T22:26:00.002-04:00

That'd be tonight's buzzword, from Tommy complaining about the "mercy officiating" shown to the Hawks (he was more right than wrong), to the look Mike Bibby's face as he stood at the line in the fourth quarter, down 20 and showered with boos, to the point around the three-minute mark in the final frame when the C's finally, finally started yanking their A-list. Celtics win, 96-77: that sound you hear is absolutely no one gasping with surprise. This series is getting ugly fast: watching the C's play the Hawks is like watching a housecat slowly mutilate some sort of small animal, keeping it alive for the sole purpose of toying with it. The Hawks, obviously, dislike being in this position and have rebelled by playing atrocious basketball that borders on the dangerous, from Paul Pierce being mauled by Josh Smith in the first (a flagrant foul if ever there was one; he seems okay but sweet jeebus, keep him in your prayers) to KG being wrecked in the fourth, again by Smith. Like Game One, this contest was never very close and would have certainly been even less so if not for an uncharacteristically poor shooting night for Garnett (6-18 from the floor). Rondo continues to play out of his mind (12 points, 8 assists, 6 boards), and Boston again wielded a hyper-balanced attack, with five players in double figures. Atlanta looked terrible, particularly in the second half, when any semblance of a game plan went out the window and most players seemed to openly quit on Mike Woodson. Yikes. We'll see if Dr. Rivers' decision to continue playing KG, Allen and Pierce with the game well in hand leads to any shit-talking shenanigans; I for one am endlessly amused by the bizarre, entirely unexpected Mike Bibby-Kendrick Perkins feud. This series needs more in the way of ludicrous off-court subplots, since the games themselves have been a bit, um, one-sided. See you in Atlanta! (Not literally)

A Helpful Reminder

2008-04-23T15:30:00.018-04:00

Chris Paul just carved the Mavs to the tune of 67 points, 27 assists and 7 steals over the first two games of his series, and it wasn't all that surprising. That means more than a little. While we always say that we have seen no one like LeBron or Dwight Howard, CP3 is just as revolutionary a sight. He's still only 22 and just had the greatest statistical season of any point guard in history. This is coming on the heels of two of the more impressive years a point guard has had to start their career.

Paul is special. He is not just a statistical phenomenon, but legitimately leads his team to a higher place. Most squads with virtually no playoff experience from their stars would shrink under the pressure, but Paul is simply too good to let that happen. Players like Deron Williams, Tony Parker and Monta Ellis are all young and with tremendous talent. But it is time we stop comparing them favorably with Paul. He is on another level, and frankly that should have been clear even after having watched him play at Wake Forest. There is only one Chris Paul. He is already better than Steve Nash, Chauncy Billups and Baron Davis ever were. As long as he stays healthy the Hornets will be contenders for the next decade.

KG Gets Another Car

2008-04-22T16:46:00.018-04:00

KG was named Defensive Player Of The Year today, and the only mini-surprise was that it wasn't a more sweeping victory. KG "only" got 90 of 124 votes; and while Camby, Battier, Bowen, Duncan etc. all clearly are defensive stalwarts, how in God's name could you not vote for KG? The results should have looked a lot more like Manu's did yesterday. If I sound like a whiny Boston homer so be it, but incredibly it appears many national writers still have no idea how good this Celtics D has been.

While Thibodeau is brilliant, Rondo perhaps the best defensive PG in the league, and the roster in general full of defensive heart and savvy, it is KG who instilled and anchored a truly historic season of defensive tenacity. As quietly great as KG has been defensively throughout his career, he was able to step it up to a special level this year, and his whole team realized a defensive potential that otherwise would have been unfathomable. Yes, Camby is a wonderful defensive player, but the profound effect it has had on his team is relatively minor compared to Garnett's accomplishments. Likewise for Battier and Bowen.

KG doesn't block that many shots, get that many steals, or rebound every ball. He often isn't required to cover the opponent's big scorer. No, instead his role on the Celtics is to make sure the entire opposing team is softly shut down. It's not particularly glamorous, but it is hard as hell, and the results speak for themselves. Gaps close faster, the ball pressured more, communication seamless, and gambles appropriate - all of this directly correlates with KG. No player came close to sustaining such focused defensive excellence throughout the season. For that the recipient of today's award should have been blatantly obvious to everyone.

The Raw and the Cooked

2008-04-22T11:01:00.002-04:00

Tonight will be the fourth night of the NBA Playoffs, and a number of things have made themselves apparent thus far: 1) Do not tease LeBron; 2) PHX-SAS looks like fun; 3) The Jazz look almost as good as some folks say they are; 4) The Hawks look exactly as bad as everyone knows they are. It's been an eventful few days, for sure, and tonight should be pretty fantastic as well: Dallas-NOLA at 7, followed by Round 2 of the wondrous Suns-Spurs series. For those in the crucial Central Florida/Central Canada demographic, check your local listings for Magic-Raptors at 7:30. In the meantime, some observations and impressions:

Pity the Rockets. These poor dudes. Talk about your boulevards of broken dreams. After dropping Game One by eleven at home, last night the Rockets were the victims of the first (though surely not the last!) instance of overzealous officiating interfering with a basketball game, as Luis Scola (aka New Laimbeer) was called for an offensive foul away from the ball about a second before Bobby Jackson hit a game-tying three with less than a minute to go. Basket revoked, ballgame. Having watched the replay numerous times, it was a classic flop on Andrei Kirilenko's part, exactly the sort of play the NBA insists every year that they're not going to call and then some bullshit like this happens. Adelman and McGrady were justifiably livid after the game, although there's no changing the fact that the Rockets have dropped two straight at home and there's certainly no guarantee they would have prevailed had the officials conducted themselves properly. McGrady seems once again destined for an early exit, and the talking-head media douchebags are already licking their chops, and that's a crying shame since according to those same douchebags a few months ago these guys aren't even supposed to be here. Keep ya head up, T-Mac.

The Wizards are not who we thought they were. Seriously, this is the only team in the NBA that beat the Celtics three times? The Wizards have looked like scared, petulant children the first two games of this series, and last night they expanded that description to "scared, petulant, thuggish children" in the wake of Brendan Haywood's flagrant, borderline-repugnant foul on LeBron James in the midst of last night's blowout. There will be those who will argue that Haywood was simply playing hard and misjudged his play on the ball, and maybe that's true, but he can still go fuck himself, and Stern ought to suspend this hack if only to send the message that body-slamming the best basketball player in the world in the midst of a 30-point defeat is uncool for all involved. Haywood's teammates ran their stupid little yaps about how excited they were to be playing the Cavs in the playoffs (with Agent Zero giving new life to the old "writing checks with his mouth that his body can't cash" cliche), and now we're already getting this bullshit by the second game. You disappoint me, Washington.

Sixers-Pistons suddenly interesting blah blah blah blah... Seriously, I heard some commentator on Sunday night actually use the phrase "backs to the wall" to describe the Pistons after their Game One gag-job. I'm sorry, I must have forgotten that this was a three-game series. Seriously, much respect to Philly for pulling this one out (although as Tim noted, the last minute or so of that game gave every indication that they were trying to lose it), but does anyone out there actually think that this strongly changes the complexion of this series? Until further notice this is a Game-One-of-the-2001-Finals situation (which, incidentally, Philly was also involved in). If Philly wins the next game I will strongly reconsider this stance, but in the meantime I don't think the Pistons are exactly wetting themselves over the challenge of having to win at least one game in Philly to take this series.

Teams that aren't in the playoffs can still do things; why shouldn't they? The Milwaukee Bucks hired Scott Skiles to be their new coach yesterday in a move that I find puzzling for both sides. Skiles still has some dap as a successful NBA coach and you'd think that he could have had his pick from at least several open jobs this offseason; why in the world he would choose the Bucks is simply beyond me. I actually attended the Celtics-Bucks game a couple weeks ago and the Bucks are just terrible; even their young players seem almost precociously disappointing. From the Bucks standpoint, Skiles is a notorious firebrand with little patience for clownery, and you're putting him in charge of a team that's trying to build around Yi Jianlian, Andrew Bogut and Charlie Villanueva? Christ. We'll see, but something tells me Skiles isn't making it to the end of his four-year contract (although seriously, those numbers are all pretty much made-up anyways).

Lastly and most enjoyably, a report from the Daily News tells us that Isiah Thomas, while still not fired from the organization, has been banned from having any contact with the team. James Dolan really knows how to run that organization. The same article reports that Mark Jackson is now the lone horse in the highly-dubious "race" to become the next coach of the Knicks. We shall see.

Ruthless

2008-04-20T23:40:00.002-04:00

The 2008 Celtics playoff extravaganza got underway tonight, as the C's dismantled the wildly overmatched Atlanta Hawks, 104-81. The Hawks surprisingly kept this one fairly close for a while (they were only down nine at halftime), but sooner or later it became clear that there was simply no escape. The most striking thing about this one was that the Hawks seemed to play pretty well (for the Hawks, at least) and still lost by 23. This wasn't even vintage Celtics, either; the offense sometimes appeared unfocused and KG spent a good portion of the first half in foul trouble. No one thinks the Hawks can make this a series and there was certainly no evidence from tonight that the conventional wisdom is mistaken. The looks on the Hawks' players faces in the fourth quarter were almost excruciating to behold: they looked like they were completely aware that they have absolutely no chance to beat this team. I think it's safe to say that they're not exactly looking forward to Wednesday.

From the Celtics standpoint, they received solid contributions from the usual suspects and boasted six guys with double digit scoring numbers, although no one scored more than 18 (Ray Allen). KG had 16 and 10 boards, and honestly Rondo may have had the best game of anyone, pouring in 15 to go with 9 assists and 6 boards. Any remaining doubt as to whether or not Rondo's ready for the playoffs should be settled by this performance. Leon scored 10 and was the beneficiary of a stunning display of Garnett charisma/intensity/borderline psychopathology. Breathtaking stuff. Anyways, there's now two days off before the next meeting--God I hate the playoff plod--so get some rest, you lovable Hawks.

Tomorrow, Life Begins Anew

2008-04-18T20:58:00.005-04:00

We've made a lot of noise around these parts concerning the impending playoff odyssey... in fact, we probably started making noise about it sometime in December. Still, nothing could have prepared us for what we have in front of us: Celtics with home court throughout. A Western Conference first round that may well be the greatest sustained two-week stretch of pro basketball we'll ever see. And, of course, the Atlanta Hawks, who are just so pleased to be here. Anyways, with things beginning in earnest tomorrow (although the Celtics don't play till Sunday, and if you didn't already know that chances are you misspelled a URL or something), I figured I'd offer up a quick take on things around the Sweet Sixteen, if only for posterity's sake.

Eastern Conference

Boston vs. Atlanta: Seeing as this is a Celtics blog I should probably have more to say about this than any other series, but Christ, what can I say that hasn't been said already. I'm not sure which NBA prognosticator first coined the phrase "Celtics in four" to describe this series, but a wise man was he. I'm sorry, but I just can't see the Hawks making this remotely interesting; it's just an outrageous mismatch. Celtics in four.

Detroit vs. Philadelphia: The Sixers are a great story, Mo Cheeks deserves Coach of the Year consideration, and they've done more with less talent than any team still standing. That said, the Pistons are having none of these guys. It's just not happening. Pistons in four.

Orlando vs. Toronto: I dunno, for me this is kind of the ultimate who-gives-a-shit series. The Dwight Howard-Chris Bosh storyline will be kind of fun but it'd be a lot more fun if they didn't play for the Magic and Raptors. The main point is that either of these teams will probably get completely demolished in the second round. For now I'll respect Orlando's regular season proficiency and give it to the Magic in six.

Cleveland vs. Washington: Ding-ding-ding!!! The one first round Eastern Conference series worth its salt. This one will good, and the shit-talking is already in mid-series form. The Wizards are good (just ask the Celtics) but after last year, can you bring yourself to pick against LeBron in the first round? Don't even answer. Cavs in seven.

Western Conference

Before I begin, I'd like to take issue with Tim's assessment of the Western Conference as only possessing four (or perhaps even only two) legit Finals contenders. The only teams in the West that I think have categorically no shot of making the Finals are Denver and Houston. Nothing else would shock me at this point. That said, on to the picks:

Los Angeles vs. Denver: LA lucks out and gets the one West team that everyone else wants to play. Well, I guess it's not really "lucking out," since that's kind of how it's supposed to be when you get the top seed. Anyways, Denver plays enjoyably irresponsible basketball but not nearly as enjoyably irresponsible as last years Warriors (RIP; it should have been you here, fellas). Lakers in five.

New Orleans vs. Dallas: Holy hell what a series this is. Upstart meets the Establishment, New Money meets Old, one superstar who's even better than everyone thinks he is (Chris Paul) meets another who never seems to be as good as everyone thinks he is (Dirk). I realize the Mavs have experience, etc., but they had experience last year, so... fuck that. NOLA's for real, Hornets in six.

San Antonio vs. Phoenix: I'm going to say something that may well seem remarkably stupid two weeks from now, but I'm still going to say it. I don't think the Spurs are that good this year. I think they have 2002 Yankees written all over them. Everyone keeps saying they've taken it easy during the regular season like the Pistons always do, which would be all well and good if a) the Pistons actually won playoff series, and b) there was convincing evidence to suggest that was the case. It was only about a month ago that they lost six of seven. Granted, all those losses were to good teams, but guess what kind of teams you play in the playoffs. Furthermore, Phoenix took 3 out of 4 and beat them by 17 a week and a half ago. I dunno, they'll probably prove me wrong. Suns in six.

Houston vs. Utah: You could call this Orlando/Toronto, Western Conference-style and you probably wouldn't be mistaken. That said, I'm starting to believe the handful of knowledgeable people that tell me the Jazz are much, much better than most of us think they are. I see the Jazz winning this series, as do a lot of folks, apparently, which is honestly too bad because it means Tracy McGrady will be forced to live with the "can't make it out of the first round" tag for another year in spite of a season in which he took a questionable roster to downright historic levels. I'm sorry, T-Mac... I really am. Jazz in six.

That Escalated Quickly

2008-04-17T13:07:00.020-04:00

And we are here. Everybody has been looking at the 2008 Playoffs as promising greatness, and there is little to dissuade us from this thinking. Yet, at the same time, two and half months from now I wonder if we will look back at this moment and say that we were excited about the wrong elements. As Celtics fans we have every right to be pumped - it looks like Boston has the easiest road to the Finals of any contender. But the way the West seedings shook out, coupled with the thought that some of the Western teams might not be as legitimate as we think, makes me believe we could be looking at a much more traditional playoff experience than is being advertised.

Let's get real - most teams in the West don't have a chance of winning the whole thing. We should get this thought of awesome Western parity out of our heads - there is no Finals grab bag. It's the Spurs, Lakers, Suns and Mavs who have a shot - and I might be generous by including those last two teams. While any of seven Western teams could win a series (Denver is helpless), there is little reason to believe that most have the stamina and strength to successively win multiple series. You have to be mentally sharp as nails and also have an abundance of talent. Thus most prognosticators realistically think it will be LA or San Antonio.

The biggest shame about the seedings is Spurs-Suns in round one. In terms of talent there might have been a better first round pairing in history, but I can't think of it. I still believe whoever comes out of that series will represent the West in the Finals. Which is why it sucks they have to play in round one. It was strange enough when they met in the second round last year, and this is much worse. Too much good quality is going to be immediately eliminated, and you'll realize it more once it's gone. I know there are those of you who think the Suns are a jokey team that doesn't play enough defense, but they are much more legitimate than Utah (which often doesn't play good D), New Orleans (ultimately too young), and Houston (not enough talent). I see the Suns probably losing this series, and it would be an interesting epitaph to Phoenix's run as a serious contender.

The Lakers, meanwhile, should be able to (relatively) glide into the Western Finals thanks to the seedings. The Nuggets are ultimately a joke, and Utah doesn't play enough defense to stop LA, while Houston wouldn't have enough firepower to keep up with them. SA/PHX will have a dragout fight with either Dallas (peaking just like they hoped to) or NO (actually the Hornets might get lost in the moment a little - even though Chris Paul does deserve the MVP.) So while all this might make your head spin (and my convoluted writing doesn't help) it turns out that we probably have the same amount of contenders and same playoff paradigm as most years. I see (pray) the Celtics taking down the Spurs in the Finals. But there'll be a lot of action before we reach that dream point.

The Over Fifty Club

2008-04-16T21:58:00.003-04:00

66-16. Oh mercy.

Tonight We Dined in Hell

2008-04-14T21:50:00.002-04:00

The Celtics beat the Knicks tonight, 99-93. I'm not even posting a photo for this atrocity, as it's best stricken from memory as soon as possibility. While it was going on, this one had its perverse charms: Zach Randolph airballed a couple threes and picked up three fouls, all in the first quarter, and Rondo and Cassell combined for a solid 45 points (23 and 22, respectively). Pierce, KG and Ray-Ray politely watched from the bench tonight (duh), and generally the atmosphere was total chaos both on and off the court, as the Knicks apparently rolled out free food for everyone in attendance at MSG. So, you know, at least they've got that going for them. All in all this one was a complete mess, one of the worst displays of allegedly professional basketball in recent memory; I actually think an NCAA bubble team could hang a convincing win on the Knicks at this point. These guys better pray for a top-two pick in this year's notoriously weak-ass draft, otherwise... Jesus Christ. In closing, it's worth noting that the C's notched their 65th win of the season tonight, which is nothing short of astonishing, and acknowledging this really never gets old.

Nuts And Bolts

2008-04-12T21:43:00.017-04:00

In by far the most entertaining of these April games, the Celtics just beat the Hawks behind a quintessential fourth quarter by Sam Cassell. As the C's starters rested, and the Hawks stayed with their stars, Sam put on a clinic that he long ago patented. First he found angles on the floor to get his mid-range game going, and then when he heated up he just started draining long range jumpers. Then there was considerable amounts of the testicle dance. It was brazen, artful, wise - and it was what we were all hoping for when Sam arrived. The fact that it suddenly showed up a week before the playoffs is great, although honestly I don't know exactly how it will be handled.

Like I recently mentioned, Sam has hardly been incorporated into the flow of things. And when you see a performance like tonight, one cannot help but want to see more of him. The problem is that we have no idea how his strong play translates with the Triumvirate on the court in a big setting - because it really hasn't happened yet, if you perhaps exclude the San Antonio game. As many scribes have asked: do you really want a 38 year old Cassell taking shots at the end of the game as opposed to KG, Paul or Ray? I'm not sure - but my first inclination is to say no, that everything has been smoothed out over the course of the year, and it is too late in the season to dramatically change things with Sam. I think this is also probably what Glenn is thinking, and in extension why he has often stayed with TA and House, although Cassell is still the better player. But at the same time, we do have to remember that the player in question is Sam Cassell, one of the savvier and most clutch pros in recent NBA history.

What tonight's performance again does is obviously raise the question of who deserves the minutes more: Cassell, TA, or House? All three are vastly different. Cassell is the smartest and most dynamic, still fully capable of taking over games. TA can be brilliant defensively and also sometimes provides an offensive spark. House meanwhile is a steady pro who is maybe the best shooter on the team. Whether Glenn rotates these three based on matchups or decides on a fixed order is one of the more intriguing issues as the playoffs approach.

Can't You Hear Me Knocking

2008-04-12T12:10:00.016-04:00

Sorry for the lack of posts recently - you have to admit, the games aren't exactly stirring the imagination. Mainly I watch and fear someone getting hurt. So far, so good - only minor ailments to Cassell, Baby, House and Powe. All stuff we can joke about. In the back of my mind I fear a devastating injury just as the train gets rolling in April. But I think this way just because there is little else to do but to worry and dither at this point of the season. I want PLAYOFFS.

It's dumb to dip my foot in the MVP pool; absolutely everything has been said on the subject, but I think there is perfect validity for KG's case after pondering it more thoroughly. As Jack said, no one else could have caused such a crazy turnaround to actually happen. When you're the cause of the greatest positive transformation of all time, you deserve the plaudits you get. If you just look at what Kevin Garnett does on the floor (which is a ton), he would not be in the MVP discussion. But because he not only is the symbol of the Green Revolution, but the direct cause of all of it occurring, he needs to be in this discussion. I would still probably go with CP3, but God Bless KG.

Wizzed On

2008-04-09T22:23:00.015-04:00

If there is one team that has given the Celtics fits this year, it is the Wizards. Be scared, very scared. Or rather, don't be. The Wiz have been lucky as to when they have met the Celtics, and that has as much to do with their three victories as anything else. Tonight Glenn had a very strange substitution pattern, and the defense was flat, so defeat seemed destined. You gotta lose sometimes, and the cards have played out in such a way that Boston ends up losing thrice to the Wiz. Eddie Jordan's team is a frisky bunch, and they do match up with the C's better than most clubs. It's just they clearly are inferior to the Green, regardless of the regular season outcomes. I'd be more concerned about meeting LeBron in May.

Our man Leon played all of seven minutes tonight, we don't know what was up with that, but we do want to endorse the idea of getting him signed to an extension this Summer. If you can wrap up a Perk-like deal with Leon it would appear to be a relative bargain given his performance. Also hopefully Big Baby's hamstring injury is minor, those type of ailments can linger for a while, and we can only hope it's just a slight tweak...not much else to say, the big stuff is about to start, we just have to be patient.

Why Not Just Call It a Tie

2008-04-09T09:48:00.002-04:00

The Celtics beat the Bucks in Milwaukee last night, 107-104, although they needed an overtime period to get it done after the bench gagged away a 25-point lead in the third quarter. Playing in overtime at this point in the season sort of just seems like a joke, but the Celtics managed to keep a straight face and dispense with their pesky adversaries, whom they'll see again on Friday at the Gahden. Garnett, Pierce and Allen played 20, 21, and 22 minutes, while James Posey and Tony Allen played 35 and 31, respectively. So yeah, it was one of those nights, and I can only hope we should be ready for quite a few more in the coming week and a half.

Suffice it to say, I'm ready for the playoffs to start.

Get Ur Knick On

2008-04-08T22:11:00.002-04:00

Not sure if people have had the chance to read Jeff Coplon's masterful take on the Knickerbocker Fiasco, but it manages to eclipse Ben McGrath's recent Lenny Dykstra profile in the New Yorker as the most ceaselessly entertaining piece of sportswriting I've read this year. I actually went scouring YouTube looking for a clip of the Randolph-Troy Murphy incident that Coplon describes but couldn't find one. I did, however, stumble upon this, which is quite honestly even better:

Note that the shot clock has a solid 7 seconds on it when he lets it fly, and it's a three-point game... I mean, this is seriously one of the most brazenly "I-don't-give-a-fuck" plays I've ever seen a professional basketball player make. Honestly, this might be my favorite non-Celtics-related highlight of the 2007-2008 NBA season.

The Incomprehensible Turnaround

2008-04-06T21:40:00.008-04:00

I know both Jack and I have written about this change of fate a dozen times, but the fact that a year ago this team had 23 wins and presently has 61 is still beyond belief. Is there any logical circumstance under which you could have seen this coming? No. Everything that had to go perfectly right has - not just the farfetched idea of getting KG and Ray Allen, but also having fantastic coaching, an unbridled defensive intensity, and stellar role players to complement the stars. All these pieces falling in place makes for a historic occasion, and is why Ainge has to be the no-brainer winner of Executive of the Year, although he won't be. And while in earlier months we were saying that big seasonal turnarounds do happen in the NBA, it needs to be acknowledged that nothing like this has ever occurred. This is not Nash to the Suns or Duncan to the Spurs - it is a huge calculated risk by Ainge in giving up nearly his whole roster to acquire the right veteran pieces, and then see it flourish more than he could have ever hoped. So we can quit kidding ourselves that previous teams have had this year's experience. It is wholly unique.

Nothing has been more personally amazing to me than Glenn's deserved ascension into the Coach of the Year talks. As much ribbing as I give him, he's done an excellent job, and if he wins the award it will be deserved. Everything has been different about Glenn this year as a game coach, while his personality has been exactly the same. Last night was a good example. Earlier in the week he was adamant in saying that the Triumvirate would not get games off, no matter what the situation. Last night all three sat - leading to a quintessential Glenn moment where he said that sitting all three was something they had talked about doing for a while. Probably no coach in the NBA prevaricates more than Glenn Rivers. This year when he does, it usually comes up aces, like it did yesterday.

Glenn misleading you is fine because he always seems to find a way to make the team win. Last year was the total opposite. It seemed whenever Glenn contradicted himself last year it led directly to another loss. He seemed like a buffoon, and that was because he was one. Those of you who think I don't give Rivers a fair shake simply don't vividly remember '04-'07. I wish Jack and I were not too traumatized to write about the Celtics in early 2007, because if we did the animosity we have held against Rivers would make sense to outsiders - we would have a written record of the blasphemy witnessed during that cold, cold winter. I stand by my belief - Glenn Rivers was probably the worst coach in the league in '06-'07, and he was almost as bad the previous year. From never being right to always being right is a hell of a transition over the course of one season. Yeah, Glenn now has KG, Ray, and Thibodeau - but it is still unbelievable. Of all the crazy things this year, I have the hardest time making sense of this one. It sure is fucking awesome, though.

PawCelts Defeat Bobcats, Clinch East, Generally Kick Ass; Plus, College Kids!

2008-04-05T23:03:00.000-04:00

Tonight we were treated to a bizarro-world vision of the Celtics if the Garnett and Allen trades had never happened and Paul Pierce hadn't slid to #10 back in 1998. And guess what? Still totally awesome. The C's stomped the Bobcats in Charlotte, 101-78, and clinched both the best record and... ahem... bragging rights for the greatest single-season turnaround in NBA history. Guys like Posey (19 points) and Eddie House (16) got the chance to remind us they can fill it up as well, and Mr. Leon (22 points, 9 boards) continued to build his case for shrewdest draft pick of the Ainge era, no small honor indeed. Seriously, Leon was picked 49th two years ago, and when you consider that we landed Rondo at #21 the same night, that 2006 draft might end up being the stuff of legend when the curtains close on the stunningly revitalized Ainge era.

I have to admit, it was pretty difficult to truly focus on this game with the college kids playing a mere tap-of-the-remote away. Watching the tournament as a Celtics fan this year has been a different sort of experience... for much of the past, er, twenty years, the Celtics going deep into the postseason has been a safe impossibility, so March Madness was a time when you could watch some of the blue-chippers and daydream about them suiting up in green the next season. This year's draft isn't really going to hold the same allure for C's fans; we do have a first-round pick but smart money says it'll used on an overseas project who's a year or two away so as to avoid taking on salary. Obviously I much prefer the current situation than, say, watching Danny Granger and wondering if he might fall to #18 (almost!), but still, obsessing over the draft around this time of year has long been a cherished pastime of mine.

That said, I think I'll go on record now as stating that if I had the first pick in this year's draft, I'd think long and hard before not selecting Derrick Rose. It's more or less conventional wisdom at this point that Beasley will go first, and it's hard to argue with the size, athleticism and jaw-dropping numbers that he brings to the table. But my word, Derrick Rose is frighteningly good, and as rare as it is for an NBA-ready talent like Beasley to come along, a point guard of Rose's caliber is arguably more uncommon. It's more than a little confusing to me that it's been only three years since the Bucks, Hawks and Jazz all talked themselves out of picking Chris Paul out of a similar sort of received wisdom (yes, Deron Williams is very good, but knowing what we know now there's no way Utah still makes that pick) and nobody's let them forget it since, but now everyone seems perfectly content to quite possibly make the same mistake equally blindly.

Beasley could easily be a great player but his major downsides are his surly attitude and problems with authority... concerns that should not be taken lightly. I'm not sure how many have had the chance to read Grant Wahl's lengthy profile of Beasley in Sports Illustrated a few months back but it's totally fascinating, equally entertaining and disturbing. Rose, on the other hand, is a famously good teammate with great leadership skills... aside from a somewhat shaky jumper, the primary knock on him is that he's not 6-9, 235, but guess what? He doesn't need to be. Rose is so smart and so athletic that he's got the chance to be some sort of unholy amalgam of Jason Kidd, Gary Payton and Dwyane Wade. The kid can flat-out play, and while I'm not suggesting that Beasley will be a Marvin-Williams-to-the-Hawks level fuck-up, I can easily foresee triumphantly (and obnoxiously) linking to this post three years from now when Kevin Durant and Derrick Rose are leading the Sonics deep into the Western Conference playoffs.

What Goes Around...

2008-04-04T09:46:00.003-04:00

This is so ludicrous that it's practically a waste of a post, but I feel like a published report is fair game. The New York Daily News has a story today on the ongoing shake-up over at MSG; you might have heard about it. According to beat writer Frank Isola, Isiah's long overdue dismissal is an all-but-done deal, and Donnie Walsh is leaning towards New York native, former point guard and current (exceptional) television analyst Mark Jackson to replace him. The only question is in what capacity: Jackson's long been considered an intriguing coaching candidate, but Isola suggests that Walsh might be interested in MJ for the GM position, which would be a somewhat weird move since Jackson's never held a position like that (do the Knicks really need a first-time GM?) and leads me to believe he'd basically just be a sidekick/puppet ruler in the new Walsh regime. Whatever, I'll cut to the chase. Five paragraphs into the story, once we're well ensconced in the Jackson-as-GM hypothetical, Isola drops his bombshell:

Another name that cannot be ruled out is Louisville's Rick Pitino, the former Knicks coach. Jackson considers Pitino the best coach he played for and the two have remained close throughout the years. Whether Pitino would leave college and return to the NBA for a third time is not known. The fact that Pitino would be answering to both Jackson and Walsh might also keep him from taking the job.

This is normally where I'd say something like, "you can't make this shit up," but honestly Isola's story is so poorly sourced that perhaps, indeed, you can. Nonetheless, how incredible would this be... not only would the Celtics come back next year on the heels of a 60-win-season (and who knows what else) but they'd come back to a situation where they'd face Rick Pitino four times as coach of the Knicks. Is there any doubt that Pitino could coax the loudest boos out of a Celtics crowd since the heyday of Bill Laimbeer?

Granted, I don't really see any possibility of this happening. Pitino's got a great situation at Louisville, and as Isola suggests, he's such an inveterate egomaniac that I can't see him going back to the NBA in a situation where he'd have to relinquish autonomy to Jackson and/or Walsh. That said, part of me feels like if they could convince him, it wouldn't be the worst idea in the world--remember, Pitino's problems were far more related to his management than his coaching, and his first go-round with the Knicks was pretty successful--but then I look at the Knicks roster and immediately conclude that it would be the worst idea in the world. I mean, can you imagine Rick Pitino trying to coach Eddy Curry? Please, please let this happen.

Sam It Ain't

2008-04-02T22:26:00.025-04:00

There's not much to carp about when you've just reached the 60 win plateau, but we'll try. First, let me say again, the Celtics look awesome. They are destroying most teams, and are so dang professional that it almost gets me teary. The team is a joy to behold. 60 wins is a sure sign of a dominance, and no one can doubt that this group is an elite bunch.

But now let me have my caveat. Cassell is hardly playing. Sam has played in 17 games with the Celtics, averaging about 15 minutes a contest. He's also been DNP-CD five times, including tonight. He played one minute against the Hornets last week, and all of six against Phoenix. And like I said, he didn't play at all tonight.

So what gives? I know you hardly want to rock a boat that is sailing along as smoothly as the Celtics' has, but there needs to be a rational compromise here. House has been playing very well lately, and perhaps has earned himself a regular position in the playoff rotation, but Glenn needs to find minutes for Cassell. I mean, in the second night of a back to back why is Ray Allen playing 37 minutes and Sam none? Why in general has Glenn stuck with Tony Allen and regulated Cassell to the pine? Does he really think TA will be more important than Sam come playoff-time?

The point of these last few weeks is to fine-tune things, and part of that clearly should be assimilating Sam into the flow as much as possible. Yet Rivers seems disinclined to do this, which strikes me as shortsighted. What excites us about Sam is not only his gamesmanship and playoff savvy, but the fact that he is still a very good player. Unfortunately we have not gotten to see any of that since he joined the Green. The results surrounding Sam's disappearance have been positive - the bench has been great of late - but the truth remains: Sam is one of your more important bench players. He is more important than TA, and probably more important than House. He needs to play.

It takes a while usually for players to adjust to their new team. I would be concerned that Sam would not be able to fully adapt even if he were averaging 25 minutes a night since he joined Boston. But presently the concern is more profound. When the C's picked up Cassell I assumed they were getting a considerable resource - now I only get wistful.

The Best Game of the Year

2008-04-01T23:02:00.003-04:00

Hey, it's still April Fool's Day, right? Whatever, this one was alright, I guess. 106-92, 22 points for Ray Allen, 20 for KG, 10 assists for Rondo (to go with 7 turnovers... shhhh!!!). It gets our magic number down to 2, which is exciting because it makes me think of the playoffs. Big Baby's mohawk will surely be a lively topic of discussion over the next few weeks, provided he gets in games: don't look now, but he hasn't played more than 17 minutes since the first week of March, and while that's partly due to the ever-unfolding genius of Leon, there's little denying that Baby has slammed into the rookie wall in a major way, and judging from appearances it may have been a wall of milkshakes and cupcakes. On the bright side, this is the last time we have to watch the study in misery that is the Chicago Bulls this season, so we've got that going for us. That and 59 wins.

Also, Kevin Garnett won the 500th Tommy Award, so that elusive Championship would really just be icing on the cake at this point. Gary Tanguay also just asked Donny Marshall if he anticipated ever having 500 "Marshall Plans" and I nearly threw my remote at the television in terror.

They Were Hitting Everything

2008-03-30T20:41:00.013-04:00

I missed most of this one, and while I am remiss for neglecting a historical evening, I think I'll get over it. The Miami Heat shot a glorious 17 for 59 tonight, the 17 made field goals the lowest in NBA history for a game. Are you even remotely surprised? I didn't think so. Combine the best D in the NBA with a pathetic roster in a year from hell and you'd figure this record had a decent chance of falling. Everything Jack said this morning about the state of the C's opponents was brought home by this game, except Scalabrine was (unfortunately?) inactive. The Heat are shockingly bad. They have reached the point now where utter disappointment and disgrace has been tampered by horrible injuries, leading you to trot out Ricky Davis, Earl Barron, Kasib Powell, Chris Quinn and Porthead Blount as your starting five. Ladies and gentleman, I predicted the Miami Heat in the 2008 NBA Finals. One of my finer moments.

The Glorious April of Scalabrine is Nearly Upon Us

2008-03-30T11:14:00.002-04:00

The Celtics have ten games left on their schedule. Exactly one of those games is against a team with a +.500 record (April 9th at Washington; hide your daughters). In fact, aside from said clash with Wizardry, the Celtics' remaining schedule consists of playing every single Eastern Conference non-playoff team, including the Milwaukee Bucks twice. Granted, that's "if the season ended today," but have you looked at the lower-seeded EC playoff picture? I mean, who gives a shit. The Atlanta Hawks may well poised to end their 10-year playoff drought with, what, 36 wins? 38 if you're a wild-eyed romantic? Meanwhile the West is delivering some of the best basketball in the history of the League, and the strong possibility remains that a 50-win team from the left side of the map could miss the playoffs in downright historic fashion. I can't stress enough how epically fucked-up this is... but I digress.

My larger point is that its time to dust off the #44 jerseys and distasteful ethnic solidarity because the worst player on the Boston Celtics is about to start getting some burn, big time. The C's are 5.5 up on the Pistons for home-court and the next time you see KG on the court for even 30 minutes may well be against those heroic Hawks. It actually warms my heart a bit to think of Scal capering about on the court, particularly considering his symbolic valueas a sort of victory cigar for the entire regular season, but I'll probably change my tune once he starts air-balling 3s on the break, whipping passes out of bounds and generally mutilating the game of basketball. But hey, at least he'll be playing hard.

The most exciting thing over the next month (aside from everything in the Western Conference) will probably be seeing how the MVP race shakes out, and on that subject I feel I should say a few words. Numerous esteemed Celtics partisans have been banging the drum for KG, rightfully pointing out the Celtics' historic worst-to-first turnaround and the way in which one man seems to have reversed twenty years of star-crossed frustration. All of this is true. I don't think anyone quite understood how tremendous a basketball force Kevin Garnett was before this trade, both on and off the court, and I don't think there's anyone else in the League who could have done what he's done quite how he's done it.

That said--and it doesn't even pain me to say this--KG is not going to win MVP, and I don't think it's any screaming injustice. There's a number of semi-valid arguments as to why the trophy's destined for other hands: how well the C's performed in Garnett's rather extended absence; the fact that he plays alongside two All-Stars; the fact that his individual numbers aren't quite up to speed with the LeBrons and Kobes, or even the Antawn Jamisons. There's clearly an element of bullshit to each of those claims, and we could debate them till the cows come home, but here's the larger point: when the Celtics put this team together back in July and August, all we were hearing was how it wasn't about individual glory anymore, that if none of these guys ever made an All-Star team again but could bring home a championship then all would be right with their lives and ours. And you know what? They've done exactly that, and didn't even have to give up those All-Star slots in the process. This season's been a big-picture, team endeavor of singular focus, and to wring our hands when KG is left out of the top 3 for MVP voting is to profoundly miss the point. I'm sure Paul Pierce will think it's a travesty when the award goes to someone else, and KG will most likely be outraged when Pierce himself gets barely a whiff of consideration (which may ultimately be the greater travesty), but then they'll shrug it off and focus on kicking the shit out of the Pistons, as should we. It's not KG's year for the MVP, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.

That said, this is going to be one of the tightest award races in recent memory. My personal feeling is that it'll go to Kobe, largely because he's never won, and then LeBron will become the new Kobe, which strikes me as somewhat unfair since LeBron's a better basketball player than Kobe (or anyone else). Chris Paul is a fascinating option and may well be the most deserving of all--what he does every night for Nawlins is almost too wonderful for words--but he's only 22 and the idiots who vote for this award seem to have it in for youngsters (see James, Lebron). It'd be enjoyably unexpected if he pulled it out.

Daffodilling

2008-03-28T22:49:00.018-04:00

The Celtics just took down the Hornets in the second half, like they did on Wednesday to the Suns. If we were still looking at the game-by-game picture I could write an epic about this one, but we are past that point. It is hard to imagine any team really coming close to the C's when they shoot 60% and play their customary stifling D. Pierce was ridiculous (27 points on 11 shots, 9 dimes, 6 boards, 1 turnover), KG primed (21 and 13), and neither was the best Celtic tonight. That went to my roller-skating hero, Rajon, who contained CP3 as well as you can, shot 8 of 10, and finished +28 for the night. Well done. New Orleans, like Phoenix, is a hell of a team, and when you can lay such shellackings on quality you are doing most things well.

So now for the good/bad news. The C's, who have beaten every team in the league, have an easy schedule to round out the regular season. That is excellent for getting some rest, tweaking minor issues, and assimilating Cassell (who played 4 seconds tonight). All those things are very important. The only element that is too bad is that the Celtics are playing so well right now, and you really wish it was May. But it's not. With the suddenly trifling schedule it is almost inevitable that the C's peak play will disappear; it actually will be disturbing if it does not. This is not a team that ever mails it in, but there is no way the intensity level will remain the next few weeks. Again, no big deal, that fire will be brought back by whatever first round opponent they proceed to destroy, but it is interesting what April means to a great team. You have to keep the foot on the accelerator, but drive calmly and with care. You won't be pushing 100 like the last few games. So it's gonna be a bit of a change, and you might find yourself antsy.

Saint Tom

2008-03-28T16:53:00.012-04:00

Really, there hasn't been enough written about Tom Thibodeau this year. Yes, he has gotten a lot of credit for the Celtics' amazing defense, but honestly he deserves more. That's why it was nice to be able to actually read an in-depth interview with Thibodeau recently; I highly recommend it. My feeling (non-surprisingly)is that much of great coaching this year comes directly from Tom. While Glenn has exceeded my wildest expectations, there is no way the defense would be as good without Thibodeau's guiding hand. I'm very afraid of what next year will look like sans the defensive guru, who certainly deserves whatever head coaching job he gets this summer. My dream scenario is the Bulls poaching Rivers away and Ainge handing the keys over to Tom. But that is unlikely to happen. A situation like that is the only way Rivers can be ceremoniously removed and Thibodeau remain. So bring on the hate, Glenn-lovers. We all know who's doing the real x and o coaching night in and night out.

Don't Leave Me Alone In The Twilight

2008-03-26T23:27:00.027-04:00

The Suns horrify me. And I think the main reason why is my ego. Back before the season started, I picked the Suns to win it all. Since then, all types of crazy things have happened - the Celtics have far exceeded expectations, the Lakers got Gasol, and Phoenix traded Marion for Shaq. Yet in my own exasperating mind, I still get the scary feeling that Phoenix will be holding the trophy in June. In defense of myself I will say I have predicted the champion before the season started for two years running - but that hardly makes me a Kreskin, more just like a cocky bastard. And it is highly unusual for so much turbulence to happen during the playing year, which you would think would effectively minimize any such predictions.

Yet my faith in the Suns remains. I was rather blase about the Shaq trade (on a talent level at least, the money is another thing) and it is now pretty clear as to where Kerr was leaning: he only cared about the playoffs. He figured (probably correctly) that it is more worthwhile to have a serviceable center than a star swingman who often disappears in a big series. Especially when you have Grant Hill to almost duplicate what Marion does anyway. And make no mistake - the Suns are a dangerous team, at the end of the day they still score as efficiently as anybody, and are as hungry, too.

All of these strong points were hammered home in the first half tonight. Try as they might, the Celtics' defense couldn't contain the Suns' attack. Phoenix can hang with you because their offense is that good, and if they play solid D you're in trouble. For the first time since microfracture, you can argue Amare looks as important as Nash, and that is quite a spectacle to behold. Offensive sustenance and veteran stamina are why they have yet to lose more than two games in a row. And stylistic grace has been replaced with veteran grizzle. What the Celtics can do to opponents defensively, the Suns can do offensively. The term "transition team" is now completely misleading, and almost mocks the hardened offensive thoroughness this team can present.

Amare really appears devastating, there is little he can't do within fifteen feet. Yet KG & gang were somehow able to contain him in the second half, and Pierce led the way offensively with his exceptional driving. So the game turned into a blowout. The Celtics by the end of the evening did indeed look like the better team - more grounded and opportunistic. And maybe Phoenix really isn't that frightening - with inconsistent defense, no backup point guard, and creaky veterans -but maybe that was just tonight. All I know is that if the Celtics are to meet the Suns in the Finals I will be terrified of destiny knocking.

Some Things Can't Be Said Enough

2008-03-24T23:24:00.009-04:00

Don't be bummed about losing to Philadelphia. The Sixers are just plain good right now, needed the game much more than the Celtics, and got an absolutely stellar fourth quarter out of Andre Igoudala. That is nothing to frown about. When you're kicking the shit out of everybody, eventually the other shoe is gonna drop. Two hard-fought losses to New Orleans and Philly hardly qualifies as anything troublesome. Be done with it, if you aren't already.

So let's talk about Leon. I know he seems to be about the only subject I write about these days, and you wouldn't think he would need that saying he already has a namesake website, but I keep having to sing it to the hills: Leon Powe is a monster. He was the best Celtic on the floor tonight, and he continues to amaze with his inside offensive arsenal. I doubt if Powe is even 6'8'', but he works so well in the paint that you never worry about it. This man knows how to find his room. Yes, he gets his shots blocked, but usually he finds a way to put the ball back in. As good as Cassell can be for this team, it is Leon who is the primary focus of the second team's offense. And well it should be. Guys know to get him the ball, because he will score. His production has been consistent and devastating. He is an efficiency machine. As much as I love Posey I am almost ready to say that Powe is more important to this team. I don't mean to be redundant, but it seems like most people still are unclear as to how good Leon has been. Make no mistake - he's been great.

This One Stings

2008-03-22T22:31:00.002-04:00

It's hard to complain about much as a Celtics fan these days, but man, this was a rough one. The C's appeared to have the game pretty much in hand through a good part of the fourth quarter, then squandered a double-digit lead thanks to some poor decision-making and lackadaisical defense and ended up dropping this one to the Hornets, 113-106. I'm not really sure where this one went wrong: generally speaking, nobody on the Celtics played particularly badly, and while Leon was unfortunately neutralized by some shaky officiating (4 PFs in 12 min), the C's still shot 56% to NOLA's 50% and commanded the boards by a 44-29 margin. Turnovers weren't so pretty, 20 for the C's against 9 for those other guys, and too many of those came in a fourth quarter when were outscored 32-17. Doubly painful is the fact that we were oh-so-close to sweeping a road trip that was unquestionably the toughest stretch of the season; while I don't think this loss changes the Celtics' position as provisional title favorites, a win would have served as some pretty delicious icing on the proverbial cake.

From an individual standpoint, this game belonged to New Orleans' criminally underrated David West, who poured in 37 points while more or less singlehandedly keeping his team in the game for most of the night. Chris Paul had a relatively unspectacular outing (19 points and 7 dimes) but made some absolutely huge plays down the stretch. For the losing side, Pierce had 28 while Rondo added 23, and KG notched a double-double with 19 and 12.

All in all, it's hard to complain; this road trip's featured some of the best ball played by the Celtics all season, and that's saying something. And make no mistake: New Orleans is DAMN good, and must be reckoned with in the vaunted Western Conference playoffs. Things get easier (to say the least) for 2 1/2 weeks, so try and remember these glory days of basketball purity when you're watching Scalabrine log 40 minutes against the Knicks a few weeks from now.

Powe Boy

2008-03-21T11:33:00.020-04:00

After my glowing assessment last night of the state of the team, let's get back into the brine. Glenn briefly talks about rotations today in the Globe, and his remarks are mildly alarming. What stands out to me is that Glenn still seems a little reticent in proclaiming Leon a lock for considerable minutes. This is a terrible mistake. You can make a solid argument that Leon should be the first guy off the bench. His PER is 20.5, second highest on the team. There should never be nights where he doesn't play if healthy, which is exactly what happened Monday in San Antonio. Powe should be getting all of KG's backup minutes, plus be on the floor some when KG plays center. Glenn, in short, should utilize Leon as much as possible.

Leon really has been remarkable. He is an offensive force, and defensively he seems to make a few standout plays each game. I can understand the logic of juggling P.J. Brown and Big Baby, but Powe deserves much better than that. And while Glenn seems happy using a ten or eleven man rotation, come playoff time he might be better served to give considerable playing time to only three non-starters: Powe, Posey and Cassell. While House, Baby, TA and Brown all will get minutes, none need to be guaranteed.

Look In The Mirror

2008-03-20T23:18:00.027-04:00

Tonight's victory makes me say something I would have said anyway: The Celtics are the favorites for the NBA Title. This has nothing to do with me being a homer, and I have oddsmakers to help me attest to that. The C's might not win the championship, but objective analysis brings us to the conclusion that they seem to have a better shot than any other team. The Texas road trip has only reinforced this point, and drilled in how fantastic this squad is.

Why the Green are superior to the other contenders is their great defense and incredible consistency. This Dallas game was case in point: the Celtics just wore the Mavs down and then made key plays down the stretch to win. It wasn't remotely surprising to see them do this. At this juncture it has been established over and over again - no one is tougher defensively than the Celtics, and when you have three stars on offense complementing merciless D you win most of the time.

So Boston has less to stress about than anyone else. Yes, there is reason to be horrified of Glenn, but his coaching this year has been sound. While I will always be fearful of Glenn Rivers, other teams seem to have more worrisome issues. San Antonio is still great but has been plagued by inconsistency. The Lakers are tremendously potent but are relatively young and finding their chemistry. Phoenix could pull it all together and go all the way, but they just as easily could lose in the first round. Dallas looks off-kilter. Detroit is very good but simply doesn't seem quite as robust as the C's. I don't consider anyone else a serious contender.

Meanwhile the train keeps rollin' along. The argument that the C's don't have enough playoff experience seems nitpicky given the team's clutch play throughout the year and the large veteran presence. They beat opponents indiscriminately - now 23-4 vs. the West and 32-9 vs. the East. They have a favorable schedule down the stretch and early in the Playoffs. And they just plain seem to get it. So while any number of things could go wrong, we are no longer dreaming when we say the Celtics are the odds-on favorite.

Woo Woo!

2008-03-18T23:53:00.002-04:00

I was tempted to title this post something like "22 and DONE" but I'll leave that hackneyed pun to the brain-geniuses over at ESPN. Anyways, the Houston Rockets' monumental 22-game winning streak came to a shuddering halt tonight courtesy of the Celtics, who not only won but blew them out in cold and methodical fashion, 94-74. The C's have now won 13 of their last 14, which isn't 22-0 (or even 22-1) but is still damned impressive. This one will undoubtedly be thoroughly diced up by the national media, but I'll break down some highlights, starting with Leon Powe's robust 21 points off the bench. KG and Pierce combined for 44 (22 and 20, respectively), but watching the game the biggest story seemed to be Houston's inability to grab rebounds and defend inside when it counted. This Rockets team has been playing undersized for weeks now--it's definitely been part of their charm--but tonight it finally caught up to them, which is interesting considering that the conventional wisdom on the C's at the beginning of the season was that they lacked the size to bang with the West. Who's laughing now, I ask. Anyways, to sum things up, this was a great win and we ought to bask in the national ass-kissing the Celtics will have coming to them at least until the Mavs game on Thursday.