Celtics-Hawks Game 7: Clowntime is Over

Another clinching game where I can write the lead a long time before the clock hits zeroes, as Boston just simply strangled the Hawks today in a Game 7 final that was close for about 3 minutes. Special goat horns go to the truly terrified Josh Smith, who had more of the Hawks close misses when the game was still in the realm of being a game, but even if he had been Dominique Wilkins II today, the Hawks were going down hard. Al Horford also gave them nothing, but in both cases, maybe the Hawks get better from this. (But not really better, since that would involve a time machine that lets them go back and select Chris Paul, the mistake that Hawks Fan will be crying over for, oh, just a decade or so.)

For Atlanta to win this series, one of the small matchups where you'd think they'd have an edge -- Mike Bibby and his vaunted playoff experience vs. Rajon Rondo and his complete lack of same -- turned out to be their biggest problem. Rondo had a 7 to 1 assist to turnover ratio, and his man-up defense and strong rebounding from the 1 position really made this game drama-free. Once again, CP3 would have made that a much better match-up, but CP3 would also make the Hawks a lot more than an 8 seed.

As for the Celts, one suspects that the damage has already been done by just getting extended this far. The aura of invincibility is gone, especially on the road. Doc Rivers has shown himself to be, well, Doc Rivers, especially in the management of his bench. There's no way that this series should have gone 7... and in the meantime, the Cavs have had rest, and the Pistons have found their legs. I still think Boston gets to the third round, but they have older legs that didn't really need a war of attrition, and the only way they were getting this done was by having an easy road to the Finals.

But when they were up 34 with 3 minutes left to go in the third and still diving on the floor for loose balls, or when Garnett gave Pachulia a Rick Mahorn-esque back screen as his last act of the first round... I'm pretty sure that Celtics Fan had a complete stiffy. So there's that.