The Celtics' defense is guilty of regicide ...

... because we're just killing King James right now!

Instead of bouncing back from an absolutely abhorrent Game One outing (which most expected him to do), Lebron put in another subpar performance last night (sports.yahoo.com), shooting just 25 percent from the field (6-24 FG, 0-4 3PTers) with seven turnovers! Never mind that some of those shots weren't even close, as the "Chosen One" airballed a couple of jumpshots, and even blew another easy layup - shades of the closing moments from Tuesday's affair - near the end of the third quarter.

For those of you who are keeping score, that puts Lebron's semifinals shooting numbers at a head-scratching 19 percent (8-42 FG) whilst averaging 8.5 turnovers per game (he's averaging 7.5 assists per game) ... For someone who's supposed to be the best player on the floor, those kind of numbers just aren't going to cut it.

Of course, that all could change in the blink of an eye come Saturday night ... As we all know, this Celtics club has yet to prove that they can put the defensive clamps down come playoff time when faced with a hostile crowd, and the Clevelands fans are sure to give Number 23 their full support.

Hopefully, the C's have learned their lesson and won't give Lebron the opportunity to regain his confidence ... They need to shut him down for the full 48 minutes, get further inside his head and leave his teammates with no hope of coming back from an 0-2 deficit.

Remember, everyone was feeling pretty confident after the first two games of the Atlanta series, so this is no time to start getting cocky again ... Let's say I'm "mildly optimistic" heading into Game Three, and leave it at that (so as not to jinx the whole thing).