The drop today is all about one of the happiest days of the year for NBA fans: Celtic Elimination Day. We didn't get to celebrate the holiday last year, and it was like one of those Year Without A Santa Rankin & Bass specials we watched as children. Of course, with the Association, a year without a Celtics Elimination Day happens far too often, really...
Tonight in Boston, the Celtics played their thirty-fifth Game Seven in the past 13 months. And this time, for the first time in their recent history, they weren't up to it. The Magic won, 101 to 82, to end the defending champions' run in the second round.
(By the way, be sure to check the Lemur to see if it's still open, seeing how the Bruins and Celtics were both eliminated in Game Sevens at home in the same week. Oh, and the Red Sox lost to the Mariner juggernaut today, too. Someone put some Prozac in the water, or the nation might lose some very, very special sports fans to highly dramatic suicides tonight.)
The end of the Celtics tonight was due to one player more than any other: Hedo Turkoglu, the much-maligned ex-Sacramento King and Euro player who has been the main reason why the Magic hasn't been as good in the playoffs as they were in the regular season. Tonight, he unleashed a monstrous 25-5-12 night, carrying the passing mail (the Turk had nearly half of the Magic's assists). He was, clearly, the best player on the floor tonight, and if he wants to play at this level in the Cleveland series, the Magic will put a real scare into the Cavs. (Especially if they want to shoot 65% from the arc.)
He was aided by the sizzling Mikael Pietrus, who hit six shots in a row to help the Magic start the fourth with a 19-5 run to build the lead to 19 halfway through the fourth. And every time the Celtics made a shot -- Paul Pierce with a three to cut it to 14 being emblematic -- the Magic answered, once with an improbable old-school three from Marcin Gortat. The fact that the Magic were able to do this despite foul trouble on Dwight Howard (12 and 16 in 36 minutes) makes it even that more impressive.
As for the Celtics, in retrospect, it's clear that they were highly fortunate to get past the Bulls. When your Game 7 bench consists of 34 non-garbage time minutes from Brian Scalabrine, Stephon Marbury and Eddie House, you no longer represent a basketball team, at least not a professional one. Without a heroic effort from Rajon Rondo (10-6-10 with 4-of-10 shooting), Kendrick Perkins (8-15-1, with 2 blocks, but also 3 of 11 from the floor), or, well, anyone with the possible exception of Paul Pierce, it's hard to see how they were supposed to be a Final Four team, home court and 3-2 series lead after Game Five be damned.
The Garden crowd was good and dead in the fourth, even after a Ray Allen three to cut the lead to 12 with 4:12 left, which lead to a timeout... and an utter dagger of a three from the Turk, and after a turnover, another make to push it right back to 17. By the last three minutes, the place was as quiet as a morgue, Doc Rivers was sending in his NBDL bench, and for all of the hue and cry that you hear from Boston Fan about how wonderful the tradition is and all that, I didn't hear much in the way of Thanks For The Memories late in this game. I'm sure you'll read plenty about that from the media, which is always highly critical of Boston Fan. (I keed, I keed.)
Next year, maybe, Kevin Garnett might return after some high risk surgery... but Big Baby Davis is an unrestricted free agent, and so is useful part Leon Powe, and with Garnett's extension just kicking in, he could completely crush this franchise under the weight of a huge and non-productive contract. It also stands to reason that Ray Allen might finally get old, and it's not as if Pierce has no miles on the tires, either. It's very hard to imagine how, even if Rajon Rondo were to gain a jump shot in the off-season (don't you love how people just assume he's going to get one, like he's never wanted one before?), that the Celtics will be better next year, and they weren't good enough this year.
For the Magic, they get to try to steal a win in Cleveland on Tuesday against the best team in the Association this year, who will have had a full eight days of rest. I suspect they'll be highly competitive in the first half of Game 1, until the rust comes off the LeBrons, and if they hit their threes, some actual worry might hit the home team. But not for very long, because I don't see how anyone on the Orlando roster will be able to do anything with LeBron, and Zydrunas Ilgauskas is the perfect type of center (i.e., one who plays away from the basket) to neutralize Howard on defense. But the Magic did win two out of three games with the Cavs this year, and eight out of their last 11, so it could be competitive. (A lot more than Celtics-Cavs would have been.)
But before we really go to full-blown Magic-Cavs analysis, let's take a minute to acknowledge what poor luck the Celtics had in not continuing to get eternal health for a high-energy defensive big man with well over 1,000 NBA games on his knees. Truly, they were cursed by nothing more than Ill Luck. But don't fret, Celtics Fan -- I'm sure your old pal Kevin McHale will trade Al Jefferson back for Garnett now, since the Association knows that the league just isn't watchable unless your team is good...
Tonight in Orlando, Orlando and Boston played yet another meat grinder of a game, with the home team never getting separation and things looking like they'd wind up as another last-second contest. But then a funny thing happened; the team that can't close did, and Orlando ties the series at 3 with an 85-73 win.
The game turned on Kendrick Perkins' fifth foul, which happened halfway through the fourth. Immediately afterward, Rashard Lewis got to the rack (on a night where no one on the Magic, other than the immortal Mikael Pietrus, was hitting from distance) to push the lead to five. Paul Pierce insisted on slightly more drama than that, and made three straight to give the Celtics their final lead of the game. Dwight Howard then missed a couple of free throws just to prove that he's not a viable fourth quarter option, but a sudden and shocking turn from Rafer Alston of all people -- a steal and three -- tied it back up at 75 with 4 minutes left.
Misses and turnovers followed as both teams ratcheted up the defense, but Howard finally made one to give the home team the lead. For a second, it seemed like Pierce had turned the tide by drawing Howard's fifth. But he failed co convert the free throws, and Alston followed with a three and a block on Rondo (post-timeout), leading to Hedo Turkoglu's only very good moment of the game, pushing the lead to 6. The C's followed with a Rondo turnover and the Magic ran clock, finally getting Lewis to the line to make the final 85-73 score.
Before Orlando starts feeling too good about themselves, someone has to tell me how Rajon Rondo gets a 19-16-6 line with 4 steals (and, whoops, 5 turnovers). Sixteen boards for a point guard in 40 minutes? At some point, some one has to actually put a body on that guy, since he can't actually shoot; you might want to start boxing that guy out. Yeesh.
The real trouble for the road team was that while they held the home team to 36.6% shooting, they weren't much better themselves (41.6%). They also didn't get to the line, didn't shoot well from three, and committed ten more turnovers. It wasn't like the Magic played all that well (Howard had 23 and 22, Lewis had 20, and that's about it for guys having good games), either. But that the thing about the Drama Celtics; this will be their second straight year of going the distance in the first two rounds. You can credit them for closing the deal at home, or you can wonder about their game preparation, or age sapping their legs.
Anyway, Game 7 is Sunday, and the Celtics are 32-0 in series where they've lead 3-2. Magic coach Stan van Gundy, in his post-game press conference, then talked about how someone is eventually going to do this, and cited the 2004 Red Sox as his inspiration. You go, Ron Jeremy, and keep equating your team with the one that Boston Fan idolizes. It won't end any better for you, but at least you'll cause more high blood pressure and hurt feelings from the opposition's fans. And who knows, maybe Allen will continue to be old...
Tonight in Boston, the Celtics had one of those nights where the defense wasn't very good, Ray Allen and Rajon Rondo weren't good offensively, and they were giving meaningful minutes to Stephon Marbury because, well, they had to. The gym was dead, the crowd worried in that way that only a crowd watching Stephon Marbury can be.
And then the Magic went cold, with jaw-dropping misses on wide-open threes, the crowd got into it, and yes, you have seen this movie before.
With 2:30 left, Allen found Kendrick Perkins for a layup out of a scramble. The Magic looked utterly helpless on their next possesion, eventually settling for a Turkoglu turnover. Big Baby missed a wide open short one. Rafer Alston lost his mind for another turnover. Allen shook Turkoglu on a back pick for a catch and shoot three, and the 11-0 run gave the home team an 86-85 lead, their first since the first quarter. Good grief, why does anyone even watch the first 40 minutes of a Celtics game?
Out of the timeout, the Magic got a clean three look from Alston out of a scramble; he, of course, missed, and the Celtics got the team rebound. Rondo missed the rim from 30 feet for a shot clock violation, and the refs missed the call and decided to give the home team the ball anyway. Yeesh. TNT ran multiple replays that showed the ball not hitting the rim, but what the hell, it's the Celtics, give them the ball and the full 24 second clock. When do they ever get any other break? Though, to be honest, I'm not sure the Magic will ever score again, so it wasn't exactly a game-changing call.
After a scramble drill bad possession, Allen missed from mid range, but the Celtics got the board again, and the game got closer to over. With 8.5 seconds left, the Magic put Eddie House on the line, and he hit both. Pierce wrapped up Lewis to prevent a trying three, and after the Dallas Game Three Tragedy, it's not like he didn't do it with authority. Lewis hit both, Allen responded with two makes, and there's nothing better than the last 10 seconds of an NBA playoff game, is there?
The Magic then put the final touches on this gift by barely getting the inbounds pass in to Dwight Howard, of all people, with 5.9 left. He hit the first, intentionally missed the second, but Davis controlled the rebound and hit his free throws -- the Celtics went 21 for 21 from the line tonight -- and that was that. Your final was Celtics 92, Magic 88, and the home team takes the 3-2 lead.
Game Six in Orlando? Well, if the past is any precedent, they'll air mail this and go to a Game Seven, which they will, of course, win. But after the exceptional fold that the road team gave tonight, you do have to wonder if they're even going to bother playing Game Six. After all, you're just going to lose Game Seven on the road, so why bother?
Tonight in Orlando, the Magic took the series lead behind the two players that turned the Sixers series for them -- Hero Turkoglu and Rashard Lewis -- and the home team overcame the one-game suspension loss of Rafer Alston to thump the Celtics. Dwight Howard had 17 and 14 with 5 blocks in just 28 foul-plagued minutes, and the team actually increased the lead with him on the bench. They even got 11 points from Phantom of the Opera Courtney Lee, and held Ray Allen to 3 of 13, and Paul Pierce to 6 of 15. Your final was Magic 117, Celtics 96, and that's about how close it was.
Frankly, this series is starting to resemble Hawks-Heat, in that both teams can't seem to show up for the same game. And the final score could have been even worse if it weren't for another hot night from Eddie House, who went 6 of 7 from the floor and had 15 points in 19 minutes.
But if you really want to know what's going on here, it's simple -- the Celtics don't have the legs, and maybe at this point the heart, to play good defense every night. The Magic shot 60% from the floor tonight, and 50% from the arc. It also didn't help much that their bigs (Perkins, Davis, Scalabrine) combined for 14 fouls in 81 minutes.
There's also this: the Magic are said to have a big problem late in games, because they get scared to give the ball to Dwight Howard, for fear that he'll miss too many free throws. But this really doesn't work, because while Howard is a bad free throw shooter, he's not utterly helpless: he'll make 6 of 10, which is only a point or two worse for every ten shots than most of the other big men in the league. If you play Hack-A-Dwight, you're going to lose; that strategy really only works, if it works at all, if the shooter is sub-.500, especially late. If the Celtics want to win games here, they'll need to ramp up the defense and stop running up big deficits.
I still expect the Celtics to prevail in a long series; no matter how bad you look, one loss is one loss, and Allen and Pierce aren't likely to be MIA for two straight games. But at this point, the series has had 154 minutes, and the Magic might have been the better team on the floor for over 100 of them. If the Magic win Game 4, they will win this series.
I'm not going to dig too deeply n the ManRam story here today. Someone in Blogfrica has to avoid it, and frankly, there's nothing here that we haven't seen a hundred times before, and with each time it happens, it shocks a little less. It also says something that the biggest story here isn't that he cheated, but that MLB caught him, and is actually going to subject him to the same punishment that it has given to the borderline players that have been caught before. JC Romero and Manny Ramirez, equal in the eyes of the law. That's a little refreshing, on some level.
Assuming no further complications (a big assumption, but one that's relatively safe, given the amount of money that's behind ManRam's rehabilitation), he'll return in early July. The Dodgers will still be in first place in the mostly putrid NL West. Given Manny's advancing age and interest in proving the world wrong after this scandal, they might even be better off for this in the long run, given that they'll have a much fresher Ram for their playoff run.
The only thing this does is take the Dodgers down from a 100-win team to a 96-win team, because even though ManRam makes their whole lineup better, it's not like they don't have a good lineup without him, and a weak division to kick around. The biggest hit in the Man Ram saga is all of his fantasy owners, who now get to hate him just as much as his non-owners. It's a bonding moment for all of us, really.
But before we put this thing to bed, I'd like to talk about the New England major sports champions of the last decade, and how every single one of them -- yes, amazingly, all of them -- are now more or less trading in dirty trophies. (And before Boston Fan jumps to conclusions as to how I'm clearly a New York Fan to go here, um, nope. Sorry about that.)
The Patriots, you know about, and the NFL's remarkably tone-deaf treatment of the matter means that we'll never really be able to put that team to bed. The 2004 Red Sox are loaded with guys that fit the profile of Roid Achievers, and their right-handed offensive linchpin is now an admitted cheat. ManRam is still a major contributor in 2007, along with a number of other likely suspects. The 2008 Celtics are the cleanest of the bunch, and they get to the Finals when a Hall of Fame ex-player packages his franchise player for a package of guys that play on just one side of the court, if at all.
This causes me no real joy. A tainted title is a wound that doesn't heal, and makes you wonder, really, why you bother watching the games.
But on the plus side, we get to hear Boston Fan cry about how awful this all is, and how everyone cheated and... zzzzzz... sorry, nodded off there. Enjoy your ignominy, Manny. Especially if, as some in Blogfrica are speculating, your cheating came from sexual performance doping, rather than pure athletic performance cheating. Nice legacy.
Reasons returned in Boston tonight, as the Celtics evened their best of seven series with the Magic with a decisive 112-94 win. The home team overcame what might have been the worst playoff game of Paul Pierce's career (1 for 4, only 16 minutes due to foul trouble) to tie it up at 1-1, and they did it with the same player that iced Game 7 of the Bulls series for them -- back-up guard Eddie House. House shot 11-of-14, with 5-of-6 from the arc, for a game-high 31 points in 28 minutes. He also allowed Rajon Rondo to do what he does best -- penetrate, go to the boards and distribute -- which led to a 15-11-18 line with just three turnovers. (For the worrisome Boston Fan, Rondo was still just 7 of 19 from the floor. If the man had a jump shot, he'd be illegal.)
I suppose I need to get you to the only play from this game that will resonate for the general public, which is when Rafer Alston showed himself to be the Magic's weakest link by reacting to a House make and elbow with a bitch slap upside his head. Spinning the headband makes it especially potent on the visuals. Let's just say that you shouldn't expect to see Mr. Alston in Game 3, and how he wasn't ejected in Game 2 is yet another one of those Man, These Refs Suck moments.
If you want to beat House, who almost single-handedly gave the home team the edge in bench scoring tonight (43 to 29), you do the things that have made 7 other NBA teams decide they could live without him: make him defend and pass, rather than shoot by coming off screens. For his career, he averages 1.6 assists per game (in 17 minutes) against 0.8 turnovers; that's not quite Nate Robinson level, but it's getting there. He's also listed as 6'-1", 175, and both measurements look generous to me. But hey, big ups to him for a great post-game quote. (Skip to around the 50 second mark for ass-busting goodness.)
In Orlando, House will disappear (he shoots 48% from the floor at home, versus 40% on the road), but Pierce will give more, and unless the Magic get Courtney Lee back fast (which gets JJ Redick to the bench), the C's will steal a game and make it a best of three. You know, like what they do every series, really...
Tonight in Boston, as the home team staggered off after a leg-dead first half that created a deeper hole than even the drama boys could overcome, what did Celtics Fan do? Boo. My dears, don't you know that only Philly Fan could do such a thing? Shocking!
As for actual analysis here, the C's aren't going to win games, home or away, when Rajon Rondo and Ray Allen each shoot 2 for 12. I don't see that kind of thing continuing, but it is noteworthy that Kendrick Perkins gave the C's something (6 and 16, with 3 blocks, in 36 non-foul plagued minutes), which is a hell of a lot more than the Magic saw in the Round 1 series against the Sixers. The Magic are now 3-0 against the C's when Kevin Garnett is a spectator, which describes the rest of this series... but I still feel good about my C's in 7 pick.
But before I end on this... what the hell is wrong with the Magic's willingness to piss away huge second half leads? Tonight, they were 28 before crapping the bed with quick misses and turnovers, and needed late Rafer Alston heroics and some awful return turnovers from the C's to ice it. There wasn't even any rampant free throw bricking to explain this; it was just the Magic losing their minds and almost giving away another game. Let's just say the Cavs aren't going to get scared watching the tape on this one.
Next round NBA playoff predictions (and in the picking contest, I'm up 75-50 on the Truth, with both of us going 1-3 in the West in the first round...):
Cleveland vs. Atlanta: Cavs in five. This was going to be Cavs in six originally, but when you add in the fatigue factor, along with how banged up both of these teams have become, it just got easier for the LeBrons. Like they needed the help. The Truth Picks Cleveland in four.
Boston vs. Orlando: Celtics in seven. What, you think the Drama Boys aren't going to go the distance again? Just like in the first round, the visitors have more talent, and will win one of the first two games on the road. They also won't finish, mostly because Dwight Howard is turnover and foul-prone, and the Magic don't shoot free throws well enough, either. Prepare for another 2 weeks of the Bad Tooth obsessing over his team. Don't worry, it won't go any farther than this. The Truth Picks Boston in seven.
Los Angeles vs. Houston: Lakers in six. If this was baseball, I'd like the Rockets; when it comes to putting together a roster with spare parts, glue and a sabermetric eye for talent, they can't be beat. This isn't baseball, the Rockets don't have a point guard that can exploit the Lakers, and Pau Gasol will be much better than Yao Ming. Also, eventually, Kobe Bryant will overcome Ron Artest and Shane Battier. Expect the close on the road to get more than a little ugly; I have high hopes for the end of Good Testy's year. The Truth picks LA in five.
Denver vs. Dallas: Denver in seven. The Nuggets were 4-0 against the Mavs this year, for two simple reasons: Carmelo Anthony is better than Josh Howard, and Kenyon Martin is the prototype defender to drive Dirk Nowitzki to distraction. I also think that Chauncey Billups is going to eventually own Jason Kidd, but that it will take a while, and that the Nugs will show us the knucklehead ways that will doom them to a fast exist in the next round. The Truth picks Dallas in six.
Davis draws JoNo's third foul on a pick and roll, a play that Boston should run more, but when the Babe misses both, it's hard to push that theory. Gordon misses a three. Davis gets Lindsay Hunter on a mismatch as Rose was getting some rest and fouls him effectively. Marbury in, and Salmons gets his fourth and the team's third in under a minute. Pierce with an awkward miss. Hinrich draws a shooting foul on House, and after the makes, the game is as close as its been since the second quarter, 78-73.
House hits a wide-open three as Hinrich falls, but he responds with his first make of the game to make it five again. JoNo's fourth foul is on Davis, who misses yet another free throw, and he's now 3 of 7 from the line for the game. 81-75 with 10 minutes to play. Hinrich hits his second in a row and it's four again; I don't like Pierce's game at all so far tonight. Marbury continues his least valuable effort with a wide open miss. Hinrich misses a three that would have made it very close, and House responds with a three that he over-celebrates to a technical. He's made four of four from the arc, and it's 84-77 as we go to commerce, with Celtics Fan having real issues with Hero House getting that call.
Gordon makes the tech to cut it to 6 with 8:48 left. Perkins back in for Davis, Rondo in for the useless Marbury. Gordon with a bad miss and possession. Hard to see how the Bulls come back with the Celtics being in the penalty for the entire fourth quarter, and Pierce goes to work on that theory right away with a foul on Rose... but another miss is making Celtics Fan grip, their ninth miss of the game. Gordon misses, and JoNo gets number five; he obliges Celtics Fan by crying over an elbow and extra shot from Dirty Rondo. Pierce makes both, and it's 9 again. Salmons misses a three with good defensive switches from the home team. Scalabrine misses a wide open kill shot three. Rose misses over Perkins and it's getting late in the day for the Bulls to have empty trips. Miller with a steal on the pick and roll, and Hinrich makes a big three on a late House close. It's six again.
Perkins exploits a switch mismatch for an easy deuce. Gordon gets it to Salmons down low, who angles nicely for the make. Hinrich with a steal and Rose gets House's second, and Doug Collins wonders, correctly, why Ray Allen is on the bench right now. We go to commerce pondering this questions, along with why TNT has to torture us with the same house ads, over and over again, even though I'm something of a fan of Holly Hunter's tits. You have to admit, they're holding up well for their age. (Hey, what else am I supposed to look at on all of these repeat viewings?)
The refs adjust the scoring on a shot from the first quarter -- wow! -- to make it 89-84. You have to love NBA officiating, you really do. Allen back in. Gordon draws Allen's third, and with 5:39 left, Gordon makes both to cut it to three -- three! -- with 5:39 left. Gordon now has 27. Pierce to Allen, who misses, Gordon misses a transition three that might have been tipped. Pierce misses, but gets his own rebound, and feeds Perkins to the rack, a play that's killing the Bulls, because as good as Derrick Rose is at blocking shots, it's asking a bit much for him to do that against a center. 91-86 with 4:32 left. Allen picks up his fourth.
Salmons misses a drive. Four minutes left. TNT shows Marbury for some reason. Rondo misses at the rim. Salmons misses a three that was wide open and necessary. Rondo makes his fourth turnover of the quarter, careless. The Bulls respond with an ugly turn by Salmons; both teams looked gassed. Pierce misses in the lane, but Allen boards. Perkins is fouled hard down low by Miller, and double technicals are assessed . Miller's fifth foul, and with 2:53 left in regulation, the refs are trying to make sure this doesn't devolve from basketball. Lots of luck with that, gentlemen.
Perkins passes the Miller test by making both free throws; 7 point game with 3 minutes left, and if this were a normal series, you'd think it was End TImes. Nope -- House fouls Gordon, who is just money at the stripe, and he makes a quick two to cut it back to five. 2:45 left. Pierce walks, House walks, then makes a three. Huge, and naive of me to think either walk would be called. Gordon goes one on team and gets Pierce to commit his third. House has not missed tonight, and has 14 points on 5 shots. Good Heavens. After the Gordon make, it's 96-90 with 2 minutes left.
Pierce to Allen, who leans in to Gordon and gets the call, properly. Can one of the best free throw shooters in the game's history avoid the team-wide yips? Because honestly, had the Cetlics hit their free throws, this would be over already. Yes, he hits both... but the Bulls will not go quietly (surprise!), as Hinrich hits a three. The refs are calling every touch foul now, odd for this point in the game, but given the potential for trouble, understandable. Allen hits both to get it back to 7. 100-93 with 90 seconds left.
Gordon again; I'm not saying he scares Celtics Fan, but the arena soils itself when he touches the ball. 100-95.The C's run clock and wind up with Scalabrine calling timeout with 8 seconds on the clock. Not to sound bitter or nothing, but the fact that the Celtics can't get killshot stops is why they aren't going to defend their title. 65 seconds left. Celtics Management plays "Eye of the Tiger" just to remind us all that Celtics Management is Not Hip. Lindsay Hunter can't get in to give his foul. Pierce with a miss. JoNo board, and Gordon finally misses as House gets away with a bump. JoNo's sixth foul puts Pierce on the line, and he makes both to make the comeback very improbable. 102-95 with 46.8 left, and TNT notes how Gordon has really done it all at the line, not from the field.
Collins notes how the early bonus situation might have saved the Celts. Miller rolls to the hoop for an easy one, but then the Bulls fall asleep and fail to foul; Allen gets to the rack and scores, adding the Miller sixth foul. How you fail to foul there, I have no idea. Hunter in for Miller, and it's 105-97 with 36.6 seconds left; if this somehow gets to overtime now, Celtics Fan will slit his wrists. Hey, hope springs eternal.
Gordon misses a three, but a Hinrich tap makes it six. An unconscionable Rondo steal leads to a Gordon miss from three that would have been absolutely freaking unreal, but it stays out, and Salmons can't keep it in bounds. 105-99 with 25.6 left.
Marbury in. Really. Doc Rivers must enjoy drama. Gordon fouls him, his third. Can the Least Valuable Player prolong the drama? Nope, Starchild makes both, and it's 107-99 with 25 seconds left. Gordon misses, House rebounds, and that, Finally, Is That. The Chicago Vampires have had their heads cut off, the stake in the heart, the head removed, garlic placed in the mouth and the entire mess left in the noon day sun. House makes both to make it a 10 point game. Hinrich misses, Pierce rebounds, House throws it to the rafters, and honestly, I think Celtics Fan is too tired to cheer. It's over; Celtics advance, 109-99, with the scariest 10 point win ever.
At the end of it all, the end of the best series in NBA history, it just came down to this: the Bulls weren't ready to win this, and the Celtics weren't ready to die. And for everyone who thinks the Bulls are just going to be back and be better next year... well, Gordon's a free agent, they need to figure out how Luol Deng works with Salmons on the roster as well, and I'm not necessarily buying the idea that time will make Vinny del Negro smart.
Congratulations, really, to both teams for playing the series of the decade, if not the league's history; even tonight's game was riveting, if only for what had come before. Here's hoping we wont spend the rest of the next two months pining for its return.
TNT informs us that the Bulls' largest second half comeback this year was from 10 down; that's not promising much drama, really. Salmons misses, but Perkins turns. Nice ball movement leads to a Rose jumper, and it's 52-40, first field goal in nearly nine minutes. Thomas blocks Davis and foul call is late but correct; I suspect that if Davis had blood on his face, that would have been called a flagrant. Davis makes the first only. Thomas off a drive from Gordon, and Davis is blocked by JoNo. A very long pause before Rose is called on Davis getting the charge call. 53-42. Pierce misses another three, and Noah's 11th board. Rondo with a touch foul, and he's over playing everything now. Rose makes, and it's now to a 9-point game. Crowd was quiet, but then Allen got free of Gordon from a pick. JoNo collects Davis's third foul, and give Sideshow his due; he now has 2 points to go with 11 boards, and you can live with that thanks for the blocked shots.
Davis uses Salmons on a switch; back to 11. Salmons not exactly covering himself in glory in this game. Rose hits his third in a row from good ball movement, and Gordon is more the point guard now. Allen replies with the three, and he's just the safety valve now. JoNo with the o-board on a no-call on Gordon, and that's Perkins' fourth foul: telling. The free throw make cuts it to 9 again.
Rondo to Davis but a miss, and after the Perkins o-board -- surprised he's still on the floor -- Davis turns it. Gordon misses a three that would have made this a lot tighter, and Perkins finally gets of the floor. Davis scores from a Rondo feed; positively Nash-esque, that. Hinrich in for Thomas, and he's another guy who's hurt his team tonight. Salmons misses from three, but the JoNo back tap saves the possession, and Gordon can't convert either; the possession continues with Gordon over-dribbling on an iso on Allen, ugly possession, but it ends with Gordon getting to the line. Two makes gets it back to 9.
Rondo drives, Noah grabs him by the shoulders and spins him to the floor as Celtics Fan goes apeshit. We go to commerce wondering if this is the first of many important referee moments, but for now, no flagrant call. The teams trade points, but with Brad Miller 's make, that's the first bench field goal of the game for the Bulls; the lead is 8, but a Rose turnover in transition is a bad unforced error. Hinrich with a steal on Scalabrine, and Rose doesn't get the call on a drive, but the rim has lids on both sides, and random slop offense leads to a timeout, but not before a Rondo technical from Steve Javie. Some Dumbness Right Now, and the Bulls have taken advantage enough to cut the lead in half.
Davis with a make, answered by Salmons, and the lead is still 7. Rondo picks up his tenth assist on a great feed to Pierce. Miller scores from in tight. Pierce all the way to the hole. Miller with a miss. Allen to the rack and it's 9 again; the Bulls are staying within striking distance, but not a lot more than that.
Allen makes two from the line to make it 11 again. Rose over Davis, and he's making a lot of those now -- 10 in the quarter. Davis to the rack for the old school three, back to 12. Salmons to the rack for what should have been a block/charge call, but the refs wimp out and call a touch foul on Rondo before the drive. Salmons makes both, and it's back to 10. TNT making a big deal out of Rondo's 30 dimes to 0 turns, and, well, they should. Rondo gets to the line on Hinrich's first. TNT also notes that Hinrich and Miller are 2 of 10 tonight, after being huge all series. Well, um, folks? That's what happens to bench players on the road in Game 7. Rondo makes both, and if the Bulls really want to make a run, they need stops. JoNo to the line, makes both, back to 10 with a minute left in the third. Davis misses from distance. Gordon with a huge, beautiful three pointer to cut it to 7. Last possession is Rondo on Hinrich, and he turns it over, and that's it. Celtics 78, Bulls 71.
The worst minutes of any NBA game are the first four minutes of the second quarter; it's where you get your deep bench players and exceptional sloppiness. Will this game follow the same script? Gordon owns Marbury with a 3, and he's got 15 now. Rivers puts Davis back in; risky. Gordon over Marbury again, and the only way he's missing against Marbury is from drooling too much. Scalabrine's second three keeps this back to 6. Salmons picks up his second on a driving foul, and he's pulled for Rose. Marbury takes a wide open jumper and misses it. Miller misses from good ball movement. Davis gets free on a pick and roll and gets an easy lay up; it's 32-28.
Gordon actually misses. Thomas blocks Davis, and Hinrich gets Scalabrine's third foul on a drive, a call that Boston Fan disputes, but that the big redhead does not. When Brian Scalabrine's foul trouble is a concern, you are not possessing a lot of front court depth. He leaves for Perkins, and after two more Hinrich makes, the Bulls are 11 for 11 from the line, and lead by six.
JoNo steal; he's in for Miller. Rose misses over Marbury, a good look. Allen gets to the rack awkwardly and scores in traffic. Thomas makes over Davis, and that seems significant. 36-30, Bulls. Perkins rolls to the rim and scores with more offensive agility then he's ever shown before this series. House steals from Thomas in traffic; Pierce can't score from in tight, but he gets the call against Thomas. He makes both and it's a two-point game, and this game hasn't disappointed for overall play.
Good defensive stop from the Celtics, and it's a shot clock violation. 6:30 left, and Davis dunks off a Perkins pass for the 36-all tie. House turns JoNo for the Bulls' fourth second quarter giveaway. del Negro brings in Miller for Thomas to try to stop the turnovers. Rose misses a step-back. Davis misses from a Miller block, but the sloppiness continues on the other end, and we go to commerce still tied. No denying that the Celtics are getting their legs under them with inside scoring, and that the Bulls aren't really scoring outside of Gordon.
Gordon doesn't get a call on a terrible no-call from the ref on what would have been Davis's third, and House hits a three in transition. Rose misses, and Pierce converts for an 11-0 Celtics run. Miller calmly pump-fakes Perkins and gets to the line, but he misses the first, the first Bulls miss of the night from the stripe. The second is good, and it's 41-37. House hits again, and that's a major worry for the Bulls, from the arc. Rose misses in traffic, no calls tonight for him, but Pierce turns it in half court, and Rose finds Salmons, who draws Perkins second. The Celtics' bigs now have 2, 2 and 3 (there has been some suspicious switching), and Salmons misses the second. Perkins over Noah, and he now has 8 and 8. The Bulls call a timeout, and the inside offense has led to an 8-point Celtics lead, their biggest of the game.
Gordon misses out of the time out. Pierce misses in tight, and Salmons is whistled for his third foul. It's 23-11 this quarter, 12-0 in the paint. Davis misses, and Perkins picks up his third foul, terribly dumb push off on Miller that the older vet sold well. Mikki Moore in for Perkins. Rondo forces yet another turnover. Pierce picks up Rose's first foul as the game gets draggy. Pierce has a nosebleed; quick, get the wheelchair!
Davis misses from outside. Miller drives ugly, and picks up the charge. Nothing looking right or easy for the visitors right now. Pierce spins and gets to the cup, but the ball is spiked loose. Allen gets it down low, blocked, recovers, blocked, and Moore converts the garbage. Hinrich turns, the Bulls' 8th of the quarter, and this is the way that people thought the series would go originally -- the Bulls getting munched by the Celtics' defense, especially in the half court. Moore hits both, and it's a 12-point game. Where's the super drama game we were promised? 20-2 Celtics run. Rondo steal off Miller, and it's hard to tell how much of this is good defense against bad offense. del Negro calls another timeout to try to keep this in reach, but most of the second quarter has just been a nightmare for them.
Hinrich gets a cheap call as Celtics Fan sings off-color; the refs review it, because that's just what happens; Hinrich then follows it up with two misses. Yeesh. Rondo with an easy drive for his first hoop, and it's Coronation Time for the defending champs, as Rondo blocks Rose, Hinrich misses from distance, and it's 52-38 at the half. We're 24 minutes away from this ending with a whimper. More later.
Anyone want to still argue with me on how this is the best series ever?
Tonight in Chicago, the teams went to extra time for the fourth time in six games, which now means they've played seven periods of overtime, or an extra 35 minutes of basketball. After the triple overtime game 7 (what, you think it could possibly be shorter?), they'll have an extra game from just the overtime.
I have no words, really, for how absurd this series has become, how much these teams really hate each other by now, how often the rest of the NBA playoff schedule has been pre-empted by this razor dance, or many times when a team has needed to make a big shot to prolong the drama, they have.
How crazy are these teams? Ray Allen had 51 points in 59 minutes, with any number of flat-out crazy makes in the extra time. Paul Pierce was diving into the stands for loose balls with two minutes left in the third overtime. Brad Miller canned two critical free throws in the second overtime, with the weight of the memories all over him. You got 21 lead changes, 17 ties, nearly four hours of time on the clock, and I'm not even sure this was the best game of the series, because they've all started to melt together by now. The Celtics can't possibly have the legs to win this by now. The Bulls can't possibly complete the upset on the road in Game 7 with such paltry post-season experience. And there's dozens of other ways to talk about it, really. I'm giddy.
With 40 seconds left in the third overtime, Joakim Noah made a steal on Paul Pierce, made it all the way to the rack, and collected the slam with Pierce's ejection foul. The kind of play that, if this is the beginning of the end for the Celtics, will be the signature moment of fail.. but because this series is something that would get you laughed out of an office had you put it in a screenplay, Eddie House then scored for the first time in the game to tighten it right back up. It led to a block for the ages from Derrick Rose on Rajon Rondo that should have ended it, but hell no -- still a one-point game, because this series is just that way. Rose then missed what would have been clinching free throws, but Rondo misses from 40 at the buzzer, and that's your ball game. Bulls had 'em all the way.
How does Rose get that lift for the block in his 59th minute of playing time in this game? How can he then miss the free throws? What was Pierce thinking to commit his sixth foul on the Noah steal and dunk? How much is Brad Miller feeling it for going back to the line repeatedly in overtime and converting over and over again? When did John Salmons become a basketball player, could be possibly do that on the road?
And over and over and over and over, series without end. I hate both of these teams, for the most part, and I still feel like I could write a book about this series. It's been just that good.
I'm sorry for people who aren't NBA fans, when it comes to this series. As much as I love the MLB and the NFL, there just isn't anything that compares to this kind of series, just building and building on itself. Football can't get this level of knowledge of each other as teams, since you can only play the same team three times in 19 games. Baseball doesn't have this level of lather-rinse-repeat hate, since the pitchers constantly change. The closest you get to this is hockey, especially with the extra time, but since so much of that is dependent on your goaltender, and the goalies never face each other directly, even that's not the same. This series is so good, I was almost grateful that my team stopped playing tonight, because even I was having a hard time watching that series over this one, especially at the end.
People talk about how NBA players lose their legs after 1,000 games; by that standard, I'm pretty sure both of these teams are going to still be gassed from this when the 09-10 series begins next November. They also talk about how, if the Bulls somehow survive Game 7 in Boston, how they will have become the mystical Team That No One Wants To Face, because they clearly are about as much fun to face as the Spartans in a tight space.
But all of that is for another day. We're getting a Game 7 for the best series ever, the way we're supposed to, and even the fact that the rest of the NBA playoffs will be anticlimactic after it doesn't matter in the here and now. See you Saturday.
In the halftime analysis of Rondo-Miller Gate, the TNT crew got the call from last night's game right, while the NBA didn't. "He hit a guy in the head and made him bleed," as Chuck Barkley said, and it just had the Chuckster's be-all and end-all air of simple fact.
But there's more, really. I'd also like to point out the hopelessly arbitrary nature of this, for the record, by having you imagine how the play would have been called if:
1) Miller's the guard, and Rondo's the big man.
2) Miller goes to the ground and stays there for five minutes, apparently concussed.
3) The play occurs in Boston, with the game conditions reversed (i.e., Rondo driving to tie, Miller fouling), and
4) It's an elimination game, rather than a Game 5.
(No, seriously, think what it means if this is how Game 7 goes down. Great googly moogly. I hope I didn't just call the shot.)
You see the problem; all of these changes don't really make a difference in the play, but they dramatically change the likelihood of the flagrant foul being called.
That's because, on some level, the flagrant foul call is completely arbitrary and judgmental, and yet, it has a huge impact on the game. No other sport has this kind of physical issue that impairs the judgment of the referee; if a small or big pitcher hits someone with a pitch, the batter takes first base. If a small market NFL team's cornerback gets tangled up with one from a large market on a game-changing pass interference call / no-call, the NFL doesn't lose tens of millions of dollars in lost ratings if the call goes to the non-plus market.
There is, of course, no way to "fix" this situation; it's just the nature of the beast in basketball, a non-contact sport where the best teams use contact to win. It's also going to come up only when the games are being watched the most, which is to say, close games among big market teams. Hopefully, that situation continues, because it's just a better problem to have, since it means we'll continue to have great playoffs. Anyway, moving on.
The drop contains many actual new jokes, I think, but it's late and I just made the mistake of realizing that there's at least 5,000 words of the Bad Tooth tomorrow that will somehow justify everything the Celtics do while taking a thousand-word piss on my Sixers, all while giving me just enough useful insight into the rest of the Association that I just can't ignore it.
The Lemur... it's a controlled psychological experiment designed to shorten my life! (Especially now that I know they read the site. Hi, guys!)
If you're just reading that the Celtics survived another epic battle against the Bulls tonight, go catch some highlights; it's not to be missed. But if you have, read on.
I'm not sure what the Celtics and Bulls do at this point for an encore, really. But the idea that the fourth game in five that goes to overtime, between teams that are clearly so even that "Coin Flip" does not begin to describe the whisper of difference that they've seen to this point... it's been, um, tight really.
Tonight's game is going to get lost in the storm of whether Rajon Rondo got the foul call he should have for bloodying up Brad Miller on what might have been a tying drive in overtime, leading to Miller missing the critical free throws. The trouble is that how you see that call is tied up in what laundry you want to win; my general Masshole antipathy tells you that while I don't really care that much for the Bulls, I'm still going that way. But no one is arguing that it's a flagrant unless Miller is bleeding, which he did. Rondo could have concussed him and it would have looked better. And if you're going to take down the champions in their building, even in their weakened fever state, you have to be more than a coin flip better.
As for the rest of the fourth overtime in five games -- and just by writing that, this has gone far beyond the Are You Kidding stage...
> Um, not to take anything away from Paul Pierce and his team-carrying ways in the clutch, but especially after Ray Allen was on the bench with foul trouble, how do you let him keep shooting the same shot, from the same location, to keep beating you?
If it's my team, I've seen this movie before. I'm tripling the Truth to get anyone else to take the shot instead. Given how scared Stephon Marbury seems of The Moment now, and how genuinely cursed Tony Allen appears to be, the fact that Pierce was able to do his usual late-game magic has to be driving Bulls Fan crazy by now. At the end of this series, the critical difference between these teams might have just been Vinny del Negro at coach, which wouldn't be the biggest possible surprise.
> It was nice, as a Sixers fan who knew John Salmons when he was useless, to see that some things don't change. 17-5-3 in 49 minutes isn't exactly scintillating, and neither is 5 for 15.
> As close as the Bulls came to winning tonight, when you shoot 40% from the field and your opponent shoots 48%, that's just a losing play. Yes, the Bulls got to the line more and made more threes, but that's just too much brickwork to overcome, especially on the road.
> If you don't think this one is going to Game Seven, I've got a bridge to sell you. First off, this Celtics are slaves to the drama, as last year's Hawks and Cavs tilts show. Second is that the refs are going to wrap up Game Six with a bow after the Rondo foul. Third is that the Association is going to want to wrap up the best first round ever with the biggest Game 7 ever. Don't be surprised if the Celts just start the bench players and run the white flag in Chitown.
I want to hate this Bulls-Celtics series; honestly, I do. With Boston Fan being so damned self-involved, I don't want to watch this; I don't want to get sucked in. And yet, it's just ridiculous.
After a legitimately great Game 1 overtime win in Boston, the Bulls-Celtics series had settled down into a case of Champions Schooling Children, the way that just about every neutral observer might have guessed. Game 2 was a tight game in which Ray Allen got the better of Ben Gordon, and Game 3 was an absolute spanking by the road team.
Today in Chicago, both teams played a game for the ages, going to double overtime and more or less making Cavs-Pistons Game Four unwatched outside of its home markets. You had it all: Actual Unpleasantness between Brad Miller and Big Baby Davis (seriously, the latter has absolutely nothing on Vlade Divac; he was right up there with Soccer Player in terms of going down from minimal contact), astonishing defensive lapses from the young home team, startling clutch shots, etc., etc. Finally the home-town team outlasted the older team in double overtime, 121-118, and we've got a 2-2 series.
Let's start with what the Association's haters and Hockey Fan will notice: the fun of hearing Bulls Fan chant Bull S*it, along with Jeff van Gundy (shockingly!) going in favor of the ugliness. Kudos, also, to the game's refs, who reacted to the Davis Flop by ringing up fouls on the road team; frankly, when your team has a player that does something like that, you should get the next half-dozen calls against you on general principles. (Actual telecast transcript: "Rondo does a good job falling down." Yes, good job, there. That's what basketball should be about -- selling fouls.)
You start with the point guards. Derrick Rose and Rajon Rondo are wonderful to watch, and while Rose's game appeals to the purists more, Rondo is the better player, at least this year: when you throw down a triple double with no turnovers, you make up for your lack of a reliable mid-range jumper. Ben Gordon made an unconscionable shot to give the home team the lead with just over 30 seconds to go. Allen replied from distance with just under 10 second left, as the Bulls decided that guarding him at that point in the game might keep them from a longer off-season vacation.
I want to hate this. I'm not a fan of either team. It's not like it's the only good series in the Association this year. It's a first-round series, not a second, third or fourth. It's between two teams that have absolutely no chance of playing for the championship in six weeks. (And before you start, Celtics Fan, your team had Brian Scalabrine playing meaningful minutes today. Next.) At the end of it, I'm still convinced that we're going to have a hard-fought but absolutely predictable Celtics win, more or less how everyone saw this coming before it started.
When I'm watching Kendrick Perkins dueling Sideshow Bob Noah down low, I'm really not thinking that this is something that I'm going to telling my kids about. When I see John Salmons and Kirk Hinrich failing to stop Paul Pierce, I don't think Pierce is going to put this on his highlight reel as one of the defining highlights of his life. When I see Vinny del Negro pacing the sidelines, I don't think Lemur Classic. Sorry.
And yet...
You've got a young team beating on an old one. You've got a champion getting scared out of their jock in the first round. You've got rookies serving notice, live crowds filled with hate, and just enough scumbags on both sides that you expect to see violence before it ends. Watching Kevin Garnett in a suit makes me smile, and if you don't enjoy watching Scalabrine cry over a clear path foul call, you don't have a pulse. It's freaking great.
It's also teeth-rattlingly frustrating, because I'd really like to play the Resentment Card on this. While this is going on, my little 6 Seed That Might (your Philadelphia 76ers) is up 2-1 against the Magic. Unlike the Celtics series, every game has been competitive to the final whistle. Unlike the Celtics' series, the games have seen crazy comebacks (Philly came from 18 down in the first two games to win the first and make the second competitive, and in Game 3, the Magic rallied from down a dozen to make it a single-possession game). In my team's series, there has been two last-second game-winning shots by Andre Iguodala and Thaddeus Young. You've got the best power player in the Association (Dwight Howard), one of the best three-point shooters (Rashard Lewis), one of the best all-around guard duos (the Andres, Miller and Iguodala), and a potentially emerging second-year man in Young.
And what did the Bad Tooth say about this series? That it was the worst in the East this year, if not the worst playoff matchup in decades. That Philly Fan didn't care about his team, and hated them, because they dared to make the Elton Brand Move, which is something no team's fans could ever forgive, giving how incredibly stupid it was to overpay for a low-post scorer and rebounder for a team that desperately needed low-post scoring in its first -round playoff loss last year. Oh, and just for good measure, he also pissed all over the AI 2000 series against Milwaukee, resurrecting the hoary chestnut that the Milwaukee Bucks' kitten-soft jump-shooting team led by Furious George Karl, Glenn Robinson, Sam Cassels and Allen were robbed, robbed I say, by a team with superior team defense and the clear Most Valuable Player.
Honestly, life is annoying enough for Philly Fan; he gets to hear how wonderful New York History is, how someone else's rivalry just always matters more, how wonderful Boston Success is, and how awful he is, really, for daring to boo people who deserve it, or for caring enough about the outcome of the game to try to influence by making the visiting team's supporters and players uncomfortable.
But none of that matters when it comes to what it is in front of you, which is Celtics 2, Bulls 2... and who knows, maybe the double overtime was just enough extra minutes to finally take the starch out of the champions; the game did take over 3.5 hours, after all. We Shall See.
We'll lead off with a mostly irrelevant video that fills my heart with blood. Enjoy.
Tonight in the NBA Playoffs, the old men of the Association (Boston and San Antonio) got back to even in their series against Chicago and Dallas, respectively. But there was a world of difference in how they did it.
In Boston, it was a gunfight between Ray Allen and Ben Gordon, with Allen making the last shot to save the home town team. After 96 minutes of basketball, it's clear that the Bulls have, for perhaps the first time ever in the playoffs (and that includes their Jordan teams), a real edge in the front-court, and that was with the C's getting great games out of Kendrick Perkins and Big Baby Davis.
If Perk and Baby give the Celts that game on the road... well, we should all feel better about stem cell research finding a cure for cancer, since everything will now be officially on the table. The Celts will be tight and probably steal back home-court behind a Paul Pierce uprising, but Celtic Fan isn't suffering from overconfidence anymore, and if Rajon Rondo stiffens up from that scary fall he took in this one, it could be over quickly. Derrick Rose ain't no punk, y'all.
(What will happen? Vinny del Negro will somehow blow a game at home, the C's will ride some highly dubious officiating, and the favorites will advance. But lo, they will sweat hard over it.)
In San Antonio, it was the Tony Parker Show, as the quicksilver point ended this Jo Jo Barea nonsense with 38 points and 10 assists in a going-away win for the home team. It's easy to imagine that Dallas, having gotten Game One, just weren't all that interested in putting forth the full energy in trying to get the 2-0 hammerlock, but after watching what Parker did to them tonight, I'm off the ledge from my Spurs pick for the series.
In the NBA playoffs, it's usually Team With The Best Player Wins, and no one was better than Tony Parker tonight. Ever since the We'll Regret It For A Decade deal with New Jersey to send Devin Harris east for the final years of Jason Kidd, the Mavs have absolutely no one who can keep Parker in front of him. They'll certainly be closer when Dirk Nowitzki gives them more than a 3-for-14 effort, but it's not like the Spurs have seen a vintage Tim Duncan game yet, and I'm just not in the chorus of people thinking that he's done. I also just think that the second-tier Spurs scorers (Finley, Gooden, Bonner) are going to step up and win them a road game.
See you tomorrow night, as the Finalists show up to remind us all why none of this matters...
Classy, Ray Allen, classy. Note also how Anderson Vareajo, who will flop in the face of a strong breeze, goes nowhere under the sharp elbow to the nethers. I'd rather leave it to the reader as to why that is, but my own personal theories are that Sideshow Anderson *liked* it... or that Allen just has such form on his groin elbow that you just have to admire it, really.
Today in Cleveland, you wouldn't give the visiting Celtics much of a chance. They were facing the Cavs, who were a mere 38-1 at home this year. They were without their best player, Kevin Garnett. And they were facing LeBron James on a nationally televised game.
On the other hand, being down 31-9 at the end of the first quarter is a bit much.
The Cavs wound up running layup drills with confetti buckets in this one, winning 107-76 in a game were James didn't have to play most of his 30 minutes.
What does it mean, really, for the upcoming playoffs? Probably not much, although one wonders if Garnett's return is going to matter very much if Paul Pierce is going to unfurl more 4 for 17 games. You just have the feeling this year, after watching James more or less put both hands around the MVP award and crush it like an anaconda, that the playoffs could just be a coronation until we get to the finals.
He even has a bench now, since Darnell Jackson gives good minutes, Joe Smith can defend, Wally Szczerbiak can shoot and Ben Wallace now sits. With Delonte West and Mo Williams providing very good support from the back court, and Anderson Varejao finally getting the starter minutes he deserves (welcome to the conscious world, Mike Brown!), it's hard to see how Boston or Orlando really touching them in a seven game series.
And as for the Finals, it's clear that the Lakers have an open path now that the Spurs have lost Manu Ginobili for the year. Honestly, it's really hard to see how that the Rockets are supposed to win playoff games while relying on Ron Artest, the Blazers before they have any real experience, the Nuggets without any real defensive talent, or the Jazz with the same old half-court offensive issues and road ineptitude as previous years.
So, well, it's up to the Celtics to detail the LeBron Train, and who knows, maybe they can summon up last year's memories to get there. But, well... Garnett's good and all, but is he really that much better, to make up 22 points in a quarter and keep the game without reach?
