Taking on Water

Despite the sunny weather in Portland (no, you didn't misread that), the Sea of Green is darker and more tumultuous than ever.  News broke today that Leon Powe will miss the rest of this year's postseason with a torn ACL.  The formerly razor thin Celtics' front line is now approaching Kate Moss territory, which is quite ironic when you remember that Glen "the Ticket Stub" Davis has been starting in place of Kevin Garnett and now represents half of the Celtics' healthy power forwards (considering the other power forward is Mikki Moore, I'd say Davis is closer to 2/3).  In spite of some inspired play from Davis, it seems that what little was left of the Celtics' playoff chances have evaporated into thin air.  

At this point, beating Chicago would be an accomplishment for a team this thin.  At this point Boston is effectively down to eight rotation players (though we will probably see Bill Walker for the remainder of the playoffs) and Paul Pierce is now legitimately the third tallest healthy body on the Celtics roster.  Short of undergoing a transformation into the 2005 Phoenix Suns and playing microscopically small ball, I don't see how the Celtics can contend with this roster.

Low post scoring will be almost nonexistent without Powe, as both Davis and Moore are mid-range shooters and Perkins' post game, underrated as it is, won't carry a top quality team.  Powe's energetic low-post game yielded high percentage shots and often times created foul trouble for opposing defenses.  Add to that his effective defense, particularly his knack for drawing charges and I have a hard time seeing Boston beating Orlando, with a series against Cleveland looking like it could end in five or even four games.  Losing to the Bulls is now a distinct possibility...

...

Sorry, as I'm writing this Brandon Roy is going one on eight (I'm counting Joey Crawford's officiating crew members as Houston Rockets based on the way they've called the game) and schooling Houston.  The game is very tight, and you can see the Blazers are still learning and adjusting to this level of play.  Aldridge has 26 and 11 and Roy has 39 with twenty seconds left to go.  Brandon looks like a young Paul Pierce tonight, hitting impossible shots time and again and makes it look easy in spite of a TON of contact from the Houston defense.  The game just went final and Roy finished with 42 points on an efficient 15-27 shooting and seven rebounds to boot.  Fear the Blazers if they can fully adjust to this level of play.  

I could go on all day about Brandon Roy or how done the Celtics are, but I think I'll wait until Thursday to do.  Once I've had a chance to fully appraise what's left of the Celtics, I'll either finish laying them to rest or devise some unholy scheme to steal the championship from LeBron.