Bill Simmons doesn't (didn't?) like our chances ...

Let's delve into the archives and see what the Sports Guy had to say about a potential Celts-Cavs playoff matchup back in February (sports.espn.go.com); remember, this was right after the big trade which netted Cleveland their new crop of players (Delonte, Wally World, Ben Wallace, Joe Smith):

Anyway, I thought the Cavs could win the East before this trade, simply because none of the Eastern teams have someone who can match baskets with LeBron in a close game. Now? They're the favorites. Look, I love the Celtics, I watch them every game, it has been the most enjoyable season in 15 years. ... But a playoff series almost always comes down to one question as long as both sides are relatively equal:

Which team has the best guy?

Well, LeBron is better than anyone else in the East. So if you were beating Cleveland this spring, it was happening because your supporting cast was significantly better than LeBron's supporting cast. That's why this trade was so dangerous for Boston and Detroit; it shortened the sizable gap between guys 2 through 12 on Cleveland and guys 2 through 12 on Boston and Detroit. Now LeBron has four shooters who have shot 40-plus from 3-point range at least once in their career (Wally, Delonte, Boobie Gibson and Sasha Pavlovic), three seasoned rebounders (Wallace, Smith and Anderson Varejao), a scoring center (Zydrunas Ilgauskas) and, best of all, no Larry Hughes screwing up everything. LeBron is in a much better place than he was last year, and what's even more frightening is that he has been playing out of his mind since last April. I know the Celtics are 41-11, and I know the Pistons have been there a million times ... but still, how could you bet against LeBron in the East when he's playing like this?

So, will the Cavs' bench be the deciding factor in Game Two? I guess we'll find out soon enough ...

Cuckoo Lebron-za!

Okay, I don't think we can rely on King James putting up those kinds of numbers (sports.yahoo.com) for the entire series: he went for the rare quadruple-double (12 PTS, 2-18 FG, 10 TO, 9 REB, 9 AST) and absolutely blew an easy layup in the closing moments that would have tied the game at 74 apiece.

Meanwhile, Kevin Garnett (whom I described as a "shrinking violet" during the fourth quarter in a previous post) played like the true MVP that he is and attacked the basket in the final stanza to give Boston back the lead ... He became a much-needed source of offense in this game, as Pierce and Allen combined to put up Lebron-like numbers, and in this case that wasn't a good thing (4 PTS, 2-18 FG, 10 TO).

Overall, it wasn't the prettiest game of basketball I've ever seen, but the C's continued their perfect streak at home, and - for right now - that's all that matters ...

Relief: a Game Seven collage

Once again, here are some snapshots from around the Web following the Celtics' decimation of Atlanta in Game 7:

Click for larger image

Screengrabs were taken from the following sources:

forum.connpost.com
sports.espn.go.com
sports.espn.go.com (2)
comcastsportsnet.viewernetwork.net
ajc.com
hotlantahawks.com
celticsblog.com
youtube.com
nba.com
celticsgreen.blogspot.com
squarespace.com
nytimes.com
fark.com
boston.com
bostonherald.com
flickr.com
redsarmy.wordpress.com

Bring on Lebron!

Okay, everyone take a deep breath ... Now that this sordid little business with the Hawks is over and done with - and that was quite the exclamation point the Celtics laid down on Atlanta (nba.com) to wrap up the series - we can all cleanse ourselves of any thoughts about "biggest upset in NBA playoff history" or "first-round chokers" and instead re-focus our energies upon the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Of course, while a 34-point ass-rompin' will certainly do wonders for any Celtics fans' confidence level, we won't do ourselves any favors by completing dismissing some glaring deficiencies which came up during those three road losses ... Namely, the Celtics have yet to win on the road in the postseason.

Let's be realistic, folks - the trepidation and downright confusion displayed by this ballclub in the face of a hostile arena (cheering on a marginal playoff team at best) is not a good sign for upcoming confrontations against the likes of Cleveland and their fans ... not to mention possible future encounters with the cacophony created by boisterious Detroit and Los Angeles fanatics.

On the other hand, I guess we can all take comfort in the fact that - since the C's earned homecourt advantage throughout the playoffs - these difficulties may not even play a factor in Boston's title aspirations ... Why, if my calculations are correct (that degree in mathematics sure comes in handy!), the Celts will simply have to go undefeated at the Garden to guarantee themselves a championship!

That's not asking too much, right guys? Right?

"The wheels are coming off ... "

That's how Mike Gorman described the game after Pierce received a technical for throwing his headband to the floor in the four quarter ... and it's simply mind-boggling to consider a 66-win club falling apart like this against such a young and inexperienced bunch like the Atlanta Hawks (sports.yahoo.com).

Time to face the truth (no pun intended): no matter what the outcome of Sunday's Game Seven, the Celtics are officially "damaged goods." There's just no way to sugarcoat it, they are cracking under the pressure and it's only the FIRST FRIGGIN' ROUND.

How are they going to react when (if?) they're put up against the Cavaliers' home crowd? Or the Pistons'? Or the Lakers'? Or any number of future opponents that they may encounter on the road in the postseason ... again, assuming that they come through on Sunday, and I can't believe that I'm actually entertaining even the slightest notion that they may not.

Now, I don't want to appear like I'm abandoning ship and jumping off the bandwagon (although it certainly must appear that way to anyone out there reading these words), but it would be foolhardy not to acknowledge that all of the confidence and goodwill built up by the C's during the regular season is evaporating before our very eyes ...

We're seeing Kevin Garnett go from hard-nosed psychopath during the games that "don't count" to a shrinking violet that throws horrible pass after horrible pass in the fourth quarter rather than take the shot himself. We're seeing Doc Rivers (who was given a free pass for his past coaching indiscretions) make head-scratching moves like play Sam Cassell in the fourth over Rajon Rondo. We're seeing Ray Allen (a clutch shooter who won us any number of games thanks to his last-second heroics) take a pull-up three-pointer with fifteen seconds on the shot clock in an ill-advised attempt to give Boston the lead, when we could've taken (close to) the last shot to tie the score and send Game Six into overtime.

Seriously, these things just should not be happening, and yet they are; this must be how Dallas Mavericks fans were feeling last year, like the entire basketball world was going topsy-turvy (Cats and dogs living together! Mass hysteria!) ... I must reiterate, even if the Celts go out Sunday and do what we all expect them to do, how is this experience going to effect future performances? Will it toughen them up and make them stronger (as some of the "talking heads" were hoping when it looked like we were headed for four straight blowout victories), or has it "exposed" some very serious weaknesses in the Celtics' armor?

I dunno, perhaps we all need to calm down and revert back to previous expectations ... When Ray and KG were first brought on board, no one was thinking championship right away. It was more like fans were saying "Hey, give these three superstars time to gell, let them put on a good show in the semifinals before being eliminated so that they can build on something for next season".

However, the C's just kept winning and winning and winning ... and suddenly, Banner Number Seventeen didn't seem so far away. Alas, perhaps that was just wishful thinking from a fanbase starving for some playoff success after a twenty-plus year title-less drought.

I guess that (for me personally) I'll just go into tomorrow's contest cheering on the Green and White, and then see what happens from there ... Win or lose, I still think the Pierce-Allen-Garnett triumvirate can lead us to the promised land; it just might take a little longer than some people - including me - would've liked.

The Celtics are a Two-Face (like the Batman villain, if that helps you)

From the Worcester Telegram & Gazette (telegram.com):

The NBA is promoting its playoffs with clever advertisements featuring two half-faces forming one head. In one ad, half of Kevin Garnett’s face makes up one side and half of LeBron James’ face forms the other side.

Apparently, the Celtics enjoy the ads so much, they’ve decided to display a split personality.

At home, Boston makes up one side of the face, playing like the team that compiled the NBA’s best regular-season record. On the road, however, the Green show a different side and haven’t been able to beat the worst team to make the playoffs.


At 8 tonight at Philips Arena, the Celtics have a chance to shed their reputation as a two-faced team. The top-seeded Celtics visit the No. 8 Hawks, needing a victory to capture the best-of-seven opening-round series. If the Hawks beat the Celtics for the third time on their home court in the series, Game 7 will be played on Sunday at Boston’s TD Banknorth Garden.

The Celtics built the league’s best road record (31-10) during the regular season, but have gone 0-2 in Atlanta in the postseason. As Garnett pointed out, Philips Arena has rocked during the playoffs like he’s never seen it before, but every building is loud in the postseason. That’s no excuse for the veteran-laden Celtics not to handle Atlanta’s athletic, but young and inexperienced team.

By owning the homecourt advantage throughout the playoffs, the C’s don’t need to win on the road to capture their 17th NBA championship. But they’d have to be perfect at home. That would be a tall order — and not just later on in the playoffs. The Celtics don’t even want a seventh game at home against the Hawks, and can avoid that pressure-packed situation by ending the series here tonight.

“It’s going to be an amazing atmosphere down there,” Boston coach Doc Rivers said, “and we’re going to have to go in there and play like (Wednesday). If the offense isn’t as good as it was (Wednesday), then we still have to win the game with our defense.”

In winning their three home games in this series, the Celtics have outscored the Hawks by average of 103-81 and shot 47.4 percent. The Hawks have failed to win any of the 12 quarters at the Garden so far.

In losing their two games in Atlanta, the Celts have been outscored by an average of 99-92 and have shot only 42.7 percent. The teams have split the eight quarters, but the Hawks have prevailed when it counts the most. Most importantly, Boston’s defense — the NBA’s best during the regular season — has allowed the Hawks to shoot 47.6 percent in Atlanta, compared to 39 percent in Boston.

Okay, so the Celts have this home-court thing pretty much down pat ...

... now if we can just transfer that intensity and defensive focus over to the state of Georgia (sweet Georgia) then we might actually have a shot at moving on to the next round! Hey, I know it's asking a lot for a 66-win club to come out victorious against a number eight seed that couldn't even eke out a .500 record in the regular season, but I think we can pull it off, right guys?

Seriously, it's been proven any number of times that the Celtics are at least twenty points better than the Hawks; last night's 110-85 outcome (sports.yahoo.com) was just the latest example ... Now, with a chance to finish off the series Friday night, this Celtics team simply has to come out and prove to all of the (suddenly voluminous and stentorian) naysayers that they have the mental toughness necessary for the postseason and will not get rattled on an opposing team's home floor; after all, I'm still confident that the Celts will advance, but they haven't exactly done themselves any favors by appearing "spooked" when put up against an inferior opponent's boisterous crowd (I'm sure the Pistons are just licking their chops at the prospects of getting the C's within the friendly confines of the Palace at Auburn Hills).

Look, you can blame dirty plays and the shot clocks and poor officiating all you want, but the fact remains that a young and inexperienced ballclub stifled the Celts twice in the playoffs already; there's no way we can erase that from the record books now. However, they took care of business at the Garden last night and have now put themselves in perfect position to at least place those forgettable performances behind them and get back on track ... Time to close this one out, boys; on Friday we leave the Hawks in our rear-view mirrors on the Drive to 17 (TM)!