Bearing Witness

Admittedly this post has little or nothing to do with the Celtics, but I don't care at all.  Last night I got to see something special and I haven't got to fully express myself about yet, so this will be m forum to do so (and it's not like anyone's going to read it anyhow).  I was present last night at the Rose Garden when LeBron James singlehandedly dismantled the Portland Trail Blazers and COASTED to a tidy 41/10/8 and a double digit victory in the same building where the Blazers blew the doors off the Los Angeles Lakers just two nights earlier.  The Rose Garden is not an easy place to play, regardless of how injured the Blazers may be.

To say that LeBron was dominant last night would be selling him and his effort short by a considerable margin.  He simply did anything and everything he wanted to and got it whenever and wherever he wanted it.  The line of 41 points, 10 rebounds and 8 assists doesn't do him justice, not even when I tell you that he shot 13-19 from the floor, went 12-14 from the charity stripe and 3-4 from downtown.  What's most impressive to me is that LeBron did all of this within the flow of his team's offense and didn't need to shift into a higher gear all night long.  After an absolutely dominant start (he had 20 points in the first quarter alone!), he relaxed a little and worked on doing all the other little things to help his team win, looking for his shot only when he was obliged to by the flow of the game.  It was absolutely incredible to behold, and after seeing a performance like that from him I can only quake in my boots about the prospect of having to face the Cavs at some point later on this season.

The Blazers were buried before they knew what was happening, as LeBron seemed to effortlessly score every time he touched the ball (he went 8-8 in the first quarter).  He started by overpowering the Blazers and poor Martell Webster with his strength and speed, penetrating the middle off the dribble and scoring around the rim or finding teammates on the perimeter.  Then for good measure he started bombing threes in from all over the floor (my memory may be flawed but I believe he hit 3 in the first quarter, though it may have only been 2) to deliver a soul crushing blow right out of the gate.  Again, the craziest part is not that LeBron had 31 by halftime (which was pretty mind blowing, mind you), it's that he never seemed to force the action or take a bad shot while all of this was going on.  

And then, with a double digit lead at half and the game mostly in hand, he deferred to his teammates and trusted his system instead of relentlessly gunning for his own stats and going for 50 or 60 points.  No, instead of expending energy on stuffing the box score with more points and shot attempts, LeBron shifted his focus to defense, rebounding and passing to seal the win for his team.  Throughout the course of the game, I saw LeBron check every Blazer on the floor except the Juwan Howard/Jeff Pendergraph tandem at center.  How many superstars would be willing do that, especially in a game where they have incentive to keep jacking up shots and coast against a lesser team?  This guy just gets it, and you feel like if they had somebody other than J.J. Hickson to throw at opposing power forwards (the times that the Blazers went to Aldridge with that match-up he absolutely ate Hickson alive) or a point guard who could defend anyone, they might never lose again.

In my brief life as an NBA nut I've seen my fair share of exciting and awe-inspiring performances live, but never in have I ever borne witness to anything like what I saw last night.  I mean, I've seen Paul Pierce abuse quality defenders and teams on the way to 38 point outbursts, and Carmelo Anthony drop 35 without hardly breaking a sweat, and LeBron hit 2 (!) buzzer beaters (including a 75-foot bomb) before, but none of these performances are even in the same building as LBJ's 41/10/8 last night.  Still need convincing?  LeBron was so dominant that he made Brandon Roy's 34 points on 14-23 shooting and LaMarcus Aldridge's 18/13 on 8-11 shooting look pedestrian.  On any other night against any other team, if the Blazers get those numbers out of their two best players they win easily.  But not against the runaway freight train that is LeBron James.

Ultimately Portland just had no answer for LeBron with their depleted line-up/MASH unit.  I realized this morning that LeBron is as tall as/bigger than every active Blazer except for LaMarcus Aldridge, which just isn't fair.  The Blazers actually did a good job of contesting LeBron's shots and pressuring him whenever he drove, but he was just too big and strong and was always able to make a play.  He actually didn't get any dunks (no small feat) and made a series of incredibly challenging lay-ups with both hands look ridiculously easy.  With a healthy Batum/Outlaw combo or anyone to protect the rim things may have gone differently for Portland, though LBJ was pretty keyed in so I'm not sure it would have mattered.

A few other random notes from the game last night:

The Blazers could have been right there and possibly won if they had made their free throws.  Brandon Roy went 3-8 and missed freebies on both of his 3-point plays from the first quarter (he did an admirable job of matching James' effort and poured everything he had into keeping the game close in the first quarter).  Those misses will hurt you anytime, but against one of the best teams in the league they are often the difference between winning and losing.

Brandon Roy scored his 5,000th point last night on a ridiculous lefty lay-up in the first half, very nice!

Even though I'm only 24 and my entire basketball life has been in the jumbo-tron-extensive-and-ridiculous-player-introduction era, after sitting through the Blazer introductions last night I think things have gone too far.  Let me paint this picture for you: after the Cavs are introduced the P.A. Announcer tells everybody that the Rose garden is our house and on your feet and blah blah blah, the music starts pumping and the fans get into it and start clapping and getting loud.  This is a good thing, but what follows is a 2 or 3 minute video featuring "O Fortuna" from Carl Orff's Carmina Burana (but you probably remember it from any number of pop culture situations, like this one for all you Celtic fans).  

Now this is a great piece of music that'll make the hair stand up on the back of your neck, but it isn't exactly your typical pump up the crowd type of music, and it is too long.  What happened as they queued it up last night?  The video played and the music was loud but the crowd couldn't keep up the intensity or the rhythm they'd established earlier, so everyone sat down and when the Blazers finally came out, there was less excitement and energy from the fans.  The crowd noise was gone for the tip-off and the Cavs never looked back.  

What the Blazers need is to have the P.A. Announcer fire the crowd up with some more popular music that the crowd can get behind (i.e. something with a simple beat that us poor rhythmically challenged white folks can clap along to) and then to go right into the player intros so the crowd HAS to stay into it.  Give them an opportunity to sit down and watch a stupid video and the atmosphere vanishes.  Let the crowd get raucous and have that energy carry over to the tip-off and ultimately the game, and an already hostile environment could become the most feared environment to play in since the heyday of ARCO Arena or, dare I say it, the old Boston Garden.  Right now, it's like a false start for the crowd and on a Sunday when everyone was lethargic to begin with, I feel like it had a negative effect on the crowd.  If they don't can the video completely, they should at least play it first and THEN ask the crowd to cheer loudly once they start actually introducing the players.  

Marquis Signing?

Though I was initially sour on Boston signing Marquis Daniels to fill another roster spot at the swing position, a bit of research has the tides of my opinion changing.  In my mind, the best approach is to wait and see.  The only thing I'm questioning for the Celtics is the number of guaranteed contracts they have on the roster at the moment which could hurt their flexibility as the season goes on.  On the other hand, the price Ainge and the Celtics are paying for him is fair, and my ulcers will hopefully be able to recover because he'll be taking most of Tony Allen's minutes.

So who is Marquis Daniels?  He's a strong 6'6" wing who does all the little things that can help a good basketball team be better.  He can't shoot much better than Tony Allen, but he shoots a lot more jumpers (ugh) anyway.  He's a slasher without a conscience, willing to crash into the lane head-on every time even though the defense knows what he's doing.  He deflects balls on defense, and he can bring the ball up the floor in stints.  He can facilitate for others and makes plays for his team on both ends.  He was very successful in his rookie season playing point guard for Don Nelson in 2004.  He does all the little things that make coaches smile.  And he can give Paul Pierce a rest when the captain needs it.  

In Indiana he had to do so much more and his team struggled, and thus he comes off as a questionable player.  But the Celtics won't ask him to do much.  The floor should be spaced enough for him and he's plenty talented enough to find a cutting Eddie House or kick the ball to 'Sheed in the post.  Call me cautiously optimistic, but it's also true that Doc Rivers was interested in him when he was with the Orlando Magic in 2003 when Daniels was in the draft.  He gets positive reviews from the media (the media that actually knows, not the media that talks the loudest) and Danny Ainge has done a fine job keeping the ship on course thus far, so the least we can all do is reserve judgement until the season begins.

Also, it's great to see that Leon Powe has landed with another contender, signing with the Cleveland Cavaliers and interestingly enough, reuniting him with his former AAU teammate, LeBron James.  Powe will miss more than half of this season because he killed himself playing for the Celtics this past year and is by far the most likable player in the NBA.  If I ever get a Cleveland Jersey, it will be his.      

So It Goes

For those of you who don't already know, it appears as if Kevin Garnett will be out for the entire postseason.  I think I speak for everyone in Celtic land when I say "SHIT!"  Let me preface what I'm about to say by telling you that I am in no way abandoning these Celtics or giving up on their hopes to have success in the postseason, but I cannot in good conscience make the argument that everything will be all right for Boston this spring.  I would be a delusional liar if I believed that, and I've watched far too many Celtic games that haven't had Garnett in them to believe that this team can still win a playoff series on the road against Cleveland (not to mention LA).  Sorry if I'm bursting any bubbles out there, but you had to hear it sometime and in the end it will teach you a lesson about life.

Was that a lesson about life being unfair?  Or about triumphing over adversity?  Or about managing a superstar's minutes early in their career so injuries like this don't happen down the road?  No, the lesson is that all professional sports (and some of the college ones), not just the WWE and the NFL, are scripted.  Take a second to figure out where that truth blind sided you from (left field) and then think about it for a second.  I can go as far back as you like, but let's start in the offseason of 2007 to see this plot line fully develop...

After the end of the 2007 NBA Finals (where the Spurs dismantled LeBron James and the Cavs without even breaking a sweat), the NBA was in a panic about how to make their product relevant, compelling and interesting to the general public.  Stories about San Antonio and their machine like execution of an ingenious coaching system (post, slash, kick, hit the open shot and defend, how novel!) as well as the completely dull greatness of Tim Duncan were getting quite stale and it seemed as though nobody was anywhere close to challenging the Spurs for supremacy in the NBA.  The Spurs were so good, in fact, that they made the regular season into their preseason, and the playoffs into a formality.  Their methodical excellence and precision sucked all of the uncertainty and excitement out of basketball, which for everyone outside of San Antonio made basketball almost unwatchable.  

Counterbalancing the rise of San Antonio to new heights of dominance in 2007 were the Boston Celtics, who lost nineteen freaking games in a row in 2007 and were the league's worst team that year.  The Association's most storied and winningest franchise was on display with their pants around their ankles, making it hard to believe that the likes of Cousy, Russell, BIrd and Hondo ever donned the green and white.  Though they were well stocked with some tantalizing young talent, the Celtics were more than twenty years removed from their last title and still seemed to be years away from raising banner number seventeen to the rafters, despite the best shot at a top pick in an especially loaded draft class.  To make a long story slightly less long, the ping pong balls bounced with a sense of cruelty normally reserved for detainees in Eastern European prisons and Boston ended up with the fifth pick (the worst possible outcome for them) and we as Bostonians seemed to be doomed to only celebrate the three Superbowls and two World Series recently won by the Patriots and Red Sox forever.  Little did we know that David Stern had big plans for the Celtics during the coming summer.

Up until now, everything that I've described could have easily been coincidence and as unscripted as your average episode of "Reno 911."  What happened to the Celtics next makes it clear that the NBA is, in fact, as scripted as your average episode of "Survivor" or "the Hills."  Magically, Ray Allen fell out of the sky and into Danny Ainge's lap on draft night, costing the Celtics only Delonte West, Wally Szczerbiak's reanimated corpse and the number five draft pick (which turned into Jeff Green).  That was a lopsided deal to be sure, but there were questions about Allen's health and Seattle was currently acting out the movie "Major League" in real life, only without the Hollywood ending, so I wasn't that surprised by the deal.  Still, the Celtics weren't an over-the-top team with the tandem of Allen and Pierce together.  

And then, as Lloyd Bridges would say, it happened.  In the summer of 2007, a perfect storm appeared from a confluence of separate plot lines that fit together perfectly and created the ideal climate for the NBA's return to glory.  Kevin Garnett finally wanted out of Minnesota and had the nerve to say so.  David Stern needed some way to reconnect the current manifestation of the Association with its golden age.  Boston is a significantly larger media market than St. Paul and Minneapolis.  Minnesota's GM Kevin McHale and Celtics GM Danny Ainge were old friends from that era.  Boston had one legitimate young star left to trade (Al Jefferson), and the right combination of supporting pieces and expiring contracts to make the deal work.  And finally, with Ray Allen and Paul Pierce on board, the Celtics were talented and experienced enough to be a good fit for the Big Ticket.  Eureka!  

This is where, I believe, Stern at least coaxed both teams in the right direction and started scripting the Celtics' return to glory.  Using his influence, Stern pushed McHale to make the trade, lopsided as it was (how Ainge managed to hang on to Rondo in that deal I will never know).  Suddenly, the Celtics had a championship quality core in the weakest division in all of professional basketball and a legit shot to burn a swath through the 2007-08 NBA season.  Seeing the opportunity at their doorstep and with some coaxing from Commissioner Stern, no doubt, the Celtics went over the luxury tax and brought the final two pieces of the puzzle together in Eddie House and James Posey, and the Celtics were poised for an epic return to greatness.

Stern had laid the groundwork for the NBA's return to glory, but still, there was that pesky problem of San Antonio's stranglehold on the Western Conference.  Though it was true at this point that the Celtics would compete with the Spurs in the Finals and thus improve the quality of the postseason play overall, Stern was dreading another rehashing of the 2005 Finals where Detroit and San Antonio slugged it out in a brutally defensive series, that despite being close close throughout was largely unwatchable for most casual basketball fans.  Clearly, the Commissioner would have to take more drastic steps if he was to save his league from itself.  

Enter Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers.  Here's where the coincidences go from being plausible to outright ridiculous.  Why?  Because during that offseason, Kobe Bryant was doing everything he possibly could to get out of Los Angeles.  Unsatisfied with the quality of teammates around him and too impatient to wait several years for their young talent to develop further, Bryant made several trade demands in between publicly demeaning his teammates and sulking throughout the course of the summer.  Rumors swirled, but the Lakers stood fast and resisted trading the league's best player for cents on the dollar in spite of threats of a holdout from their star player.  

The rift between Kobe and the Lakers seemed wider than Eddy Curry's fat ass, yet somehow Bryant came into training camp happy and dedicated to sharing the basketball and making the teammates he had around him better, even if it meant sacrificing some of his own personal glory.  How could this have happened?  My theory is that David Stern came to Kobe with his preliminary idea for the upcoming season, which included his Lakers toppling the Spurs and heading to the Finals to face off with the new "Big 3" of the Boston Celtics.  Having already engineered Derek Fisher's release from the Utah Jazz and reunion with the Lakers, Stern assured Kobe that his days of playing with Smush Parker and losing to the Suns in the first round of the playoffs were over.  Stern guaranteed him an easy path there and an even shot at claiming his first title as the center of his team, an offer too rich and tantalizing for Kobe to pass up.  At this point Stern also revealed to Kobe that he'd gone back in time and stolen Kareem's mojo Austin Powers style and injected it directly into Andrew Bynum, transforming the thus far unproven youngster into a beast of a center capable of going toe to toe with the best big men in the Association.

There was just one problem with all of this: the Celtics were too good.  Like way too good.  Playing perhaps the best defense the NBA has ever seen, the Celtics burned a swath through the regular season General Sherman style (yes, a civil war reference.  Finally, my history degree is paying off!) and transformed into an unstoppable force that was poised to make the Finals as boring as they were with the Spurs dominating, only this team was backed by a horde of insufferable Bostonians instead of rowdy Texans (not sure which is worse, and I'm one of the insufferable Bostonians, what does that say?).  The Celtics easily handled the Lakers twice during the regular season, in addition to becoming the first team in a while to sweep the dreaded Texas Triangle of Dallas, Houston (ending their 22 game winning streak in the process) and San Antonio on the road.  In order to make the postseason more than a formality, the Lakers had to get better in a hurry.

Enter Pau Gasol.  After losing Andrew Bynum for the year with an unfortunate knee injury (the jury's still out on whether or not this was scripted or just an unfortunate occurrence), the Lakers pulled off perhaps the most lopsided trade since acquiring Wilt the stilt from Philadelphia back in the 1960s.  I know that the Grizzlies are a cost-conscious team and famously inept, but even so, there is no way that they would have traded their best player to the Lakers for nothing (Kwame Brown????????) unless David Stern somehow had a hand in the deal.  

It's not very subtle, I know, but then again, subtlety has never been Stern's strong suit.  Seeing the giant, gaping hole in the middle of the rotation, Stern had one of those moments where he said to himself, "my god, I'm going to have to go so far beyond the shenanigans 2002 Western Conference Finals or the 2006 Finals to get the match-up I want unless I can fix the Lakers.  I know, give them Gasol!"  And so it was that Pau Gasol came to Los Angeles and the Lakers were back on track to meet the Celtics in the Finals in what would no-doubt make for great television.  This plan worked so well, in fact, that Stern only had to fix one game against San Antonio (no call on Derek Fisher's foul of Brent Barry, horrendously crappy officiating or conspiracy?  You decide) for the Lakers to claim the Western Conference crown.

After months and months of meticulous planning and manipulation, Stern and the NBA had achieved their goal, a reprisal of the league's greatest rivalry, Celtics v. Lakers.  Only Boston was way too good for the Lakers and proved it in the world's first six game sweep.  Despite the predictions to the contrary from nearly everyone with a soapbox to stand on (Timmy Legs and Simmons, my hat's off to you for seeing the light), the Celtics dominated LA, burying them in game six with a barrage of relentless defense and three-pointers.  If these Celtics had so thoroughly exposed Kobe as a flawed player and beaten LA so resoundingly without any experience playing together, the prospects of having a competitive NBA for the next three years were grim.  

On the surface, the Lakers seemed to make a series of it, and the television was outstanding to be sure, however the 39 point loss in the clincher and the 20 point fourth quarter choke by LA were strong warnings to Commissioner Stern that something had to change.  The Celtics were far too good to lose to this Laker squad, and to make matters worse, their fans got even more obnoxious and full of themselves, leaving David Stern scrambling for a solution.  Using all of his cunning, Stern came up with yet another ingenious plan to take his suddenly revitalized league to the next level: let's have our two best players play each other the title! (like I said, subtlety isn't his strongest suit).  And thus, the chain of events that culminated in KG's lingering injury were set in motion to secure a Cavs/Lakers Finals.

Cleveland's acquisition of Mo Williams along with Andrew Bynum's recovery and the Celtics' loss of James Posey (Stern engineered this one too, he made Ainge put the checkbook away) set the stage, but unfortunately it seemed as though the Celtics were determined to play even better than last year despite the improvements made by the rest of the elite teams in the Association.  One mysterious knee injury later, the Celtics are now officially underdogs heading into this year's postseason.  Despite getting the best basketball from Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and everyone else on the Celtics, the Celtics don't appear to have enough to beat the Cavs a seven game series that features four games in Cleveland.  

For now, it appears as though Stern will get his wet-dream of a Finals, Kobe vs. LeBron.  They've been at the center of the MVP debate this year (rightfully so) and it seems like a force stronger than fate is pushing them closer to a match-up in June.  Boston will still compete valiantly and be spared a humiliating defeat in the Conference Finals at the hands of NBA officials, losing instead to a team that is legitimately better than the Celtics are.  The deck has already been stacked, there will be no miracle ace on the river to save Boston's hopes of repeating as champions.  I was skeptical all year long based on the quality of the opposition, but now it seems that I have almost no hope at all.

Am I angry at David Stern for writing us out of the drama so early?  A little, but I understand that we had our shot last year and benefitted greatly from it.  Now it's time for us as Celtic fans to root hard for our team and accept the inevitable defeat with grace and dignity (look those words up sometime before the Conference Finals).  We're playing with house money at this point, expectations for success couldn't be lower.  It's time to make the most of it, and for the Celtics prove that ubuntu is more than a word.  This team has thrived on adversity and the past, and I expect nothing but their best effort for as long as they're in the playoffs.  But it is already written that we are not to taste sweet victory again this June.  So it goes.  

Not So Fast...

I don't know how many of you read my short post from yesterday (don't be lazy, just scroll down!), but I may have gotten ahead of myself in my attitude towards the game.  In all honesty, I expected Cleveland to win in Boston last night.  Perhaps I underestimated the importance of Ben Wallace to the Cavs, but I thought that Cleveland had a significant advantage over Boston because of the injury to Kevin Garnett.  Add to that the way Cleveland had been playing all season (significantly better than the team that took last year's championship Celtics team to the brink of the seventh game last year) and the Celtics' uncharacteristic inconsistency for stretches of this season, and it looked to me like it was a game that Cleveland needed to win and would.  

In retrospect, I was probably hedging my bets like any true Red Sox/Cubs/Cleveland/Jazz/Mariners/etc. fan would (old habits die hard) so I could avoid the disappointment of the inevitable loss and let down, but that only partially accounts for my bad pick yesterday afternoon.  The truth is that while I knew both teams were very, very close and that the game likely would be as well, I leaned towards Cleveland because it's infinitely more pleasant for me to eat my own words when the Celtics win (I'm totally torpedoing myself here).  I'd also like to excuse myself on account of the fact that the majority of the media out there thought LeBron and the Cavs would win, but then I'd probably have to commit seppuku on the spot.  I'm a bit disappointed in myself for falling into such an easy trap and not realizing that the Celtics would protect their house and rise to the occasion, but I've learned my lesson and will sprint to the bench the next time my sub comes in... or something like that.

But enough apologizing for myself, let's talk about the game!  First of all, the defense against LeBron James and therefore the Cavaliers as a whole was spectacular from start to finish.  The Celtics were physical, aggressive and energetic for the first time in a week, hounding LeBron wherever he went.  Rotations were crisp, help always seemed to be on time, and aside from some extremely hot shooting by Mo Williams (I still have a sinking feeling that this guy will KILL the Celtics at least once in the playoffs), the Celtics did a great job of disrupting Cleveland's offense.  The Cavs did shoot a respectable 45% from the field and 50% from behind the three-point line, but any time you force LeBron freaking James into 5-15 shooting and almost as many turnovers (4) as assists (5) or rebounds (6), then you deserve some recognition.

The defense last night was good, but the offense was what carried the Celtics to victory.  Against a defense that rivals the Celtics in most categories, the Celtics shot 54% from the field and compiled 31 assists on 45 field goals.  Most impressively, the Celtics took great care of the basketball last night, coughing the ball up only eight times for a paltry nine points for the Cavaliers.  While Paul Pierce and Rajon Rondo deserve the bulk of the credit for taking care of the ball and running the Celtics' offense (19 assists and only three turnovers combined), Stephon Marbury deserves a nod of approval for his role in shoring up the Celtics' biggest weakness this year.  Although he's still knocking off the rust from his year-long hiatus, Marbury did a great job during his time on the floor, dishing out three assists in 16 minutes while only turning the ball over once.  While those aren't eye popping stats to say the least (especially when you throw in the 1-5 shooting to go with it), Marbury played well within the offensive system and has already improved the ball movement of the Celtics' second unit.  A lot of what I saw Marbury do didn't appear in the box score after the game, however one noticeable area of improvement did show up in the form of a "0" in Eddie House's line under turnovers.  I'm trying not to get excited too soon, but I can't help but feel like Marbury could be (strangely enough) just what the doctor ordered for the Boston Celtics this year.  

Oh yeah, and then there was Leon Powe.  Once again making his case for the put-me-in-coach award this year, Powe came up huge last night off of the bench, exploding for 20 points on 9-11 shooting, 11 rebounds and one huge block on Mo Williams down the stretch.  The undersized power forward from Cal punished the Cavaliers for relentlessly trapping Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and the other perimeter players for the Celtics, finishing strong around the hoop time after time and always appearing in the best spot for his teammates to find him.  In perhaps his best game since last June's NBA Finals where Powe exploded in similar fashion, Leon proved to be invaluable last night and contributed as much as anyone did to Boston's victory.

To say that Leon Powe made the most of his opportunities would be an epic understatement.  After Glen Davis was ejected for a flagrant foul on Anderson Varejao in the second quarter (which, by the way, was a hard foul but not worth an ejection.  At least it shouldn't be if Zydrunas Ilgauskas is allowed to keep playing after he instigated a scuffle after the play by bumping Davis into the crowd of photographers underneath the hoop).  This made the Celtics razor thin at power forward, as Boston was already playing without Kevin Garnett and Brian Scalabrine (I'll let you guys debate who of those two is more important to the team, har har).  But Powe stepped up in a big way, playing his heart out for 26 minutes (his season average is 16 per game, by the way).  Though Leon surely wouldn't have been as productive without his teammates creating opportunities for him, Powe deserves more adulation and respect than he'll get for doing his job flawlessly and helping his team to victory (on a related note, why the hell doesn't he start when KG is out or get more minutes off the bench all the time?).

I said yesterday afternoon that this game would have atmosphere and intensity, but ultimately would be only one of 82, mattering as much as a Tuesday night game against the Grizzlies.  Although I said that before the Celtics won, I'm still sticking to that sentiment despite the rest of the sports media hyping this game as a huge statement win for the Boston Celtics.  I know, I know, everything counts in a playoff race this tight, but getting too high or too low on any one game is a recipe for let-downs and stumbles down the stretch of this season.  Sure, the Celtics have put the onus back on the Cavaliers to play harder down the stretch and to defend their home court when these two teams meet again on a Sunday afternoon five weeks from now, but realistically, Cleveland was already going to do that.  Now they just have that much more motivation to focus and maintain their intensity throughout the rest of their regular season games.  Is this what the Celtics really want?

Don't get me wrong, it was great to see Boston come out with some serious championship swag and put Cleveland in their place on national TV, but winning this game doesn't mean that the Celtics will beat the Cavaliers in May.  There's still a long way to go between now and then, and Boston will have to work just as hard if not harder than Cleveland to emerge victorious once again.  While it was reassuring to see the Celtics contain LeBron without James Posey, anybody who follows the NBA even a little bit knows that he and the Cavaliers will be back bigger and better the next time these two clubs meet.  That's the bad news, but fortunately, the Celtics have more room to improve at this point than Cleveland does.  If (and keep in mind, this is a big IF) Kevin Garnett can come back to full strength and Stephon Marbury continues to improve and play within his role in the Celtics' offense, then Boston could be well on his way to another championship.

Not to be a Debbie Downer...

While the media would have you (and me) believe that tonight's nationally televised contest between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Boston Celtics is a HUGE deal that has far reaching playoff implications, as of today I am choosing a more sober and less hyped perspective on the whole ordeal.  Don't get me wrong, I am still watching, and this game will have more energy than your average Tuesday night tip-off between the Grizzlies and the Thunder, however it ultimately counts no more or less than any of the other 82 games that the Celtics will have played this year.  To clarify, I am excited for this contest, but not because it's allegedly an Eastern Conference Finals preview or anything like that.  No, I am excited to watch this game because the Celtics and Cavaliers are arguably the Association's two best teams and therefore tonight's contest should be a display of basketball at an incredibly high level.

Now I know that the promoters over at ESPN will have you believe that this game will determine playoff seeding and can tell us who is ahead between these two titans of the hardwood, but it just isn't true.  First of all, the Celtics are still missing Kevin Garnett, which puts them at a significant disadvantage against a team that's clearly as talented as the Cavs are.  Though Boston is 4-2 without Garnett this year and have shown the ability to win games without him in the lineup, they sorely need him back to measure up to the NBA's elite teams.  Without KG in the lineup, this game simply can't be one of those "yardstick" types that allows one club or the other to measure themselves against a rival.  Besides, we already know that these teams are about as even as they can possibly be at this point, so there's really no need to measure up against each other.

As for the question of playoff seeding, it's true that this game could play a role in determining seeding between these two teams, however it won't be as big a role as many would have you believe.  Although head to head record is a tiebreaker in the NBA's playoff seeding formula, it won't matter unless both teams end the season with identical overall records.  And while these teams are neck and neck right now, it is unlikely that they'll finish with the same record, rendering the head to head record a moot point (for the record, these teams have split the two games they've played this year).  Ready for the icing on the cake?  These teams play twice more during the regular season, meaning that there's a very good possibility of the season series ending in a 2-2 tie and that regardless of tonight's outcome, these teams will play again to determine their head to head record.  

But what about the possibility of gaining a psychological advantage after a game against one of your biggest rivals?  Honestly, I can't completely discount this aspect of the match-up simply because I don't know exactly how both teams think (one day I will, but not yet), but to me this game doesn't seem to have the potential to carry that much weight for either squad.  If the Celtics lose tonight on their home court to LeBron and the Cavs, it will hurt no doubt, but they can rest easy knowing that they had to compete against the best player on the planet without arguably their best player.  For the Cavs, a victory would be a nice boost, but they'd have to be thinking the same thing.  If it goes the other way (I'm fairly skeptical, by the way), the Celtics can't be too excited because they are the defending champs and should win these type of games while the Cavs can't get too down because, well, the Celtics are the defending champs.

Still, it should be a great game.  At this point, I feel like there's actually more of a burden on the Cavaliers to perform at this point because Boston is missing the Big Ticket.  Despite being on the road against a bitter rival, the Cavs should win this game.  Yes, Boston is still very good even without KG, however the Cavs have LeBron freaking James and should come out on top.  In some ways, I'd almost rather the Cavs win just for the outside chance that they'll sleep on the Celtics down the road.  I'm already getting excited for the tip-off which is just under five hours away (get psyched!!!!!!).  Knowing me, there probably won't be any analysis tonight after the game, but I'll do my best to have something ready on Saturday.

Better Days

I just checked and it turns out that I'm contractually obligated as a journalist to spend at least 500 words writing an "oh shit" column about Kevin Garnett's right knee and the Celtics' ugly (and I do mean ugly) loss to the Jazz last night in Utah.  My heart was in my throat last night and my mind was racing after Garnett came up lame in the second quarter and struggled to put any weight on his right knee, however after some sleep, hookah, beer and an afternoon sitting in the sun I'm not feeling nearly so heartbroken today as I did last night.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not sunny on the injury, but I'm not exactly going to declare the Celtics' season over because of it.

In case any of you didn't know, KG has flown back to Boston for an MRI, and at this point it seems as though the Celtics are wisely erring on the side of caution with their superstar forward.  Boston will miss him during the remaining games of the road trip, but this option is better than letting a warrior like Garnett (who'd play on a bleeding stump of his leg if you let him) tough it out and risk making a minor injury worse.  This injury seems somewhat similar to Garnett's abdominal strain from last year, with one significant wrinkle that could cause problems down the road for the Celtics (more on that a bit later).

First of all, the Celtics have shown that they can win without Garnett in the lineup.  They proved this last year around this time, and I expect them to be able to do so again this year.  In fact, losing Garnett for a week or two could end up being beneficial for the Celtics in the long run.  Without the Big Ticket in the lineup, both Glen Davis and leon Powe are going to get more touches and more minutes in the rotation, providing the team an opportunity to get more out of two role players who will need to play big in the playoffs.  Giving Davis and Powe more time with the starters now is just a warm up for May and (hopefully) June.  This is an opportunity for both players to grow and develop, hopefully they can take advantage of it.

The important thing to remember is that no one player has to shoulder the load that KG normally carries, and that even without their emotional leader the Celtics have a good core of veteran players that have proven to be tough enough to carry a team by themselves.  If Kendrick Perkins can step up a bit with the other front court reserves, the Celtics should still be able to win games, even against some of the Association's tougher defenses.  The early prognosis is that Garnett may be ready to play against the Pacers at home once the road trip is over, so with a little bit of luck the Celtics should be back to business as usual in a week.

But let's not count our chickens before they hatch, people.  When Garnett missed time last year, the Celtics were way ahead in the standings and had a very small chance of losing the best record in the league and home court advantage throughout the playoffs (which, as it turns out, was HUGE with a capital HUGE).  That was then, this is now.  Today, the Celtics trail the Lakers for the best overall record and aren't even first in the East (the Cavs are two one-thousandths of a point ahead of Boston right now), trailing Cleveland by a small margin.  The Celtics were having their fair share of issues just keeping pace with the NBA's best before Garnett's injury, and now they have to make up ground without their best player (definitely a different discussion for a different time, but I stand by this).  

The implications of this race for the best record both in the Conference and in the NBA are twofold.  First, having home court advantage is a big boost, especially for an emotional team that relies heavily on falling jump shots to get wins (I'm no stat geek, but I believe that a home crowd can focus players and help make shots fall).  Cleveland took the Celtics to the last possession of the seventh game last year, and given their off-season improvements, the Celtics will need every edge they can get against LeBron James and the Cavaliers.  Although the Celtics were able to win road games in Detroit and Los Angeles last year on their championship run (including the huge comeback against LA in game 4 of the Finals), having game sevens in Boston will be vital for the Celtics' success this year in the playoffs.

Secondly, and most importantly, having the best record matters because favorable playoff match-ups on the road to the NBA FInals.  If the Celtics can't pass Cleveland for the best record in the East, then Boston is looking at #3 Orlando in the second round of the playoffs, while Cleveland would get the winner of the Hawks/Heat series.  Although I firmly believe that Dwight Howard is extremely overrated and that the Celtics can beat Orlando in a seven game series, they aren't a team that I want to play in the second round.  With Turkoglu, Rashard Lewis and now Rafer Alston on the perimeter, the Magic are a dangerous team that's as talented as any in the NBA.  Not having to play them while simultaneously forcing Cleveland to take them on would be huge for Boston's hopes of repeating as champions.  

In other news, Joe Smith wants to play for the Celtics, which would be just what the doctor ordered for the Celtics' bench, the Blazers failed to make a move for Gerald Wallace (which has me so steamed that I may start a Blazers blog too just to write 3,000 words about why the Blazers should have pulled the trigger), Tyson Chandler is a Hornet again, and Amar'e Stoudemire's eyes are falling out.  Also, Ray Utech is unreliable and despite his firm assertion to the contrary, should always choose will-call for his Blazer tickets from now on.  The last two thirds of that Blazers/Grizzlies game was awesome, though.

Keep Your Eyes on the Road

The Celtics have the Kings tonight in Boston, which should be an easy win for the NBA's best team, right?  You'd think so, but these are the types of games that can kill you as a team for a variety of reasons.  Most people call a game like this a "trap game," and even the most professional and disciplined of teams can fall victim to them at times throughout an 82 game season.  I don't think it will happen to the Celtics tonight, but in the NBA, as Kevin Garnett can tell you, "anything is possible!!!!!!!!!"

In my mind, the main reason that there are trap games in the NBA is because even the worst teams are still talented enough to rise to the occasion on any given night and topple even the mightiest of titans (even Jordan's Bulls lost every once in a while).  So even though the Kings are an abysmally bad team (they're worse than the Warriors AND the Clippers for cryin' out loud), they could still play spoilers tonight and end the Celtics' winning streak at 8.  Even a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and again, and if that blind squirrel has Kevin Martin to shoot and make plays for it, I'm not prepared to rule anything out.  

While I don't believe that the Celtics will lose this evening, there are a few specific reasons that do give me pause and may be bordering on cause for concern.  As I said, the first reason to be wary is Kevin Martin.  Now he may be inflated by the good-player-on-a-bad-team (for further case studies see Zach Randolph circa 2006) to a certain degree, but this kid can flat out play, and despite his funny looking form can fill it up with the best of them in the league.  He's been hobbled by injuries this year and is languishing in the purgatory that is Sacramento, California, but he can still be effective even against some of the Association's toughest defenses (against Cleveland last night Martin posted 35/7/7 on just 17 shots).

Secondly, the Kings lost to Cleveland last night and had to endure a triple-double from LeBron James and an astounding 43/8/11 from Mo "I'm putting Cleveland over the top this year" Williams.  But the Kings only lost by seven points, and managed to hang 110 on the tough-as-nails Cleveland defense, showing that they can hang with some of the NBA's elite teams and players.  Now, I'm not calling this a moral victory (I'm not big on those in general), and frankly, I think that this game was only going to be as close as the Cavs let it be, but that kind of mentality is the crux of the trap game problem.  What if a few buckets here or there go the other way, or a crucial call goes for the Kings?  Sacramento could have easily won last night because of Cleveland's failure to take them seriously, and while it's unusual for the Celtics to underestimate an opponent, it has happened before (seven game series against the Hawks last year, anyone?  Even I counted the chickens before they hatched on that one...).

And finally, tonight's game is a shot at redemption for the Kings, who were obliterated 108-63 by the Celtics earlier this season in Sacramento (their rear ends are still a little red from the whupping they got back in December of 2008).  In their last meeting, the Kings shot 28% and made only 19 field goals in the game (that's the fewest in the shot-clock era in Kings history), got pounded on the glass 53-31 and turned the ball over 18 times which turned into 25 points for Boston.  That game was a smack-down of epic proportions, and after being embarrassed in front of the dozens of fans in ARCO Arena, you'd better believe that the Kings are going to give the Celtics their best shot tonight.

Normally, I'd also point to a nationally televised game against Detroit this Friday as a potential pitfall for the Celtics, however this team is too good to look ahead and the Pistons aren't the same team they were last year, so I doubt very much that the Celtics feel the same way about Detroit now as they did last year.  I fully expect the Celtics to win tonight and continue their streak of dominant play through this week and into next Thursday's match-up with the Lakers in Boston on February 5th.  Come to think of it, I'd say that next Sunday's early game against McHale's Navy (that's the Minnesota Timberwolves, by the way) is a much better trap game scenario for the Celtics, because the Wolves are more talented than the Kings and have been playing great basketball since the New Year.  Oh yeah, and they have Al Jefferson and co. who could have a classic "revenge game" against their former team.