Rondo and Perkins are young ...

... so we can forgive them their sins in the closing moments of last night's nail-biter (sports.yahoo.com).

Perk'd-Off had perhaps the best game of his young career, with 18 points (8-11 FG) and 16 rebounds ... of course, he kind of disappeared at the end of the game (only six points and three boards in the second half), and picked up a silly technical foul for arguing with the referee at a point in the game when you MOST DEFINITELY should not be picking up technicals (of course, Rasheed Wallace - supposedly a saavy veteran himself - also picked up a tech at an inopportune time, so maybe we shouldn't be too hard on the big lug for getting emotional).

As for I've Got a Rajon Rondo, he just was not showing much poise out there on the court during a high-pressure postseason contest, throwing ridiculous passes all over the place in the fourth quarter for anyone to get their hands on ... Cassell and House can't buy time on the floor right now (Rajon played all of two minutes in the game), so he needs to calm himself down now that Doc has seemingly decided to give him control of the team in this series; hey Rondo, no need to dish the ball behind your back or lob a high-archer about five feet above Garnett's head when the game's getting close, okay?

However, with all of that negativity out of my system, let's focus on the positive - the Celts now have a 3-2 series lead with a chance to close out the Pistons (gulp) on the road ... Well, lemmee just slide back into a little bit more negativity, as the C's did themselves no favors by nearly choking away a 17-point lead at the end of the fourth while in the friendly confines of the Garden. Seriously, if you looked closely enough, you could see every Celtics players' asshole collectively puckering up through their shorts as the score continued to get tighter in the fourth (my apologies for the graphic visual).

Luckily, the C's were able to survive, and - in the end - Detroit may be the ones who come out of this thing the worse for wear ... In the closing moments, as Rip Hamilton was getting away with putting Ray Allen in a goozle (en.wikipedia.org) whilst going for a rebound, he somehow - even after several replays I still couldn't see how it happened - hyperextended his elbow and actually had to leave the locker room area after the game in a sling.

Obviously, no one wants to see a player get hurt, but (without the services of their leading scorer) the Pistons might have a much harder time putting that home-court advantage to good use come Friday night ... We shall see.