Celtics Central

In the play-offs, it is often the game decider.

Two teams are playing their hearts out and lungs are exploding from the energy. It is a burst that changes the game. In most games, 5 minutes of it is enough.

It is a combo punch. A 1-2 offensive/defensive burst – it either wrestles the lead from the other team or puts the daylight between the teams that requires enormous energy from the opposing team to get it back. It occurred in the end of last night’s game by the Cavs, but it could occur at anytime.

During the year, the Cs displayed those bursts often. On the road, in the play-offs, they have been largely absent or have fallen short of their objective – to gain an arm lock on the lead.

The Celtics: Surprise Team of the Year

First it was for excelling everyone’s expectations during the year Now it is for transforming from the best road team to just another road team in the play-offs.

Everyone’s thoughts are starting to turn worried. But it isn’t about what we writers think. It’s about what the Celtic players think. I can only go by what they say, and what I see. Mentally, they seem ready to go.

They say the things that sound like they are ready to continue the battle. That ability for a 5 minute burst is one play away. Often that is all it takes in a closely contested play-off game.

But I also see a different body language on the court. Offensive sets that don’t look quite the same. Open shots missed. Lack of extra hustle on occasion. They are playing and playing intensely. But so is the other team. That’s not what I’m talking about. It is that extra hop in their step, the wider look at the whole court, the deflections, turnovers and steals are less numerous on the road. They look like the team that is playing from behind, with the weight on their shoulders, though they had the series lead.

I don’t want to call them the Transformers (I’ve thought about it). but they are the Searchers. They no longer have that “We are going to cover your butt.” look on defense, though they have done a reasonably good job anyway. Holding a team to 88 points should be enough to win a game. So everyone believes that it is the offense that needs the work… and it does. But that thought is deceiving.

They caused just 7 TOs and 3 steals in the entire game #4. They had 5 steals and 10 TOs in game #3. Those are notably below the first 2 home games and the entire season average for the year and even on the road. During the season, the were equally accomplished at causing TOs and getting steals on the road as at home. It hasn’t been that quite way in Cleveland. Cleveland has fought back every Celtic attempt to win the game. They aren’t getting game winning stops when they need them and when they do put hold on scoring from the Cavs, they don’t answer with enough offense of their own.

In Boston they caused 15 TOs and 11 steals in game #2, and caused 17 TOs and 5 steals in game #1. Deflections and other signs of harassing team defensive stands have been muted in Cleveland. The Cavs score 20 less points in the last game so eyes are off the defense. And maybe I’m too hard on that part of the game because the offense has obviously been a disappointment.

That expected Celtic run to front and then holding off the opponent has been largely absent, that Hawks game being the exception, and they didn’t hold that lead past the first quarter anyway.

So, signs that indicate that the team isn’t playing as well as it can. But as long as the players believe they can fix the problems, I have hope that they will.

Cleveland’s defense has held the Cs to 81 points per game in this series. Are they that good?
My guess would be no. But I would be wrong so far.

They simply do not look like the same team. The Celtics can’t get stops they need to get and make shots they need to make to win on the road. That part is obvious. “Why?” is the question.

It was a typical ‘play-off close’ game all the way until the Cavs broke it open with a Lebron three pointer with 3:17 left. It gave the Cavs a 6 point lead for the first time since the 4 minute mark of the first half. The Celtics actually took their last lead on a Rondo three pointer with 3:59 left in the third at 63-61.

The Lebron trey was the Cavs first score in over 4 minutes, but they held Boston to two points over the same period. After a Pierce jump shot, Danial Gibson made another three pointer to put Cleveland up seven. James then put the exclamation point on a Cavaliers win with an emphatic jam over Garnett to put the Cavs up 9 at 84-75 with 1:45 left. Anderson Verajeo making a bank shot over Defensive Player of the Year Kevin Garnett, and then hitting a long jump turned the previously close game into a vindication of the Cavaliers.

You could say it is the play-offs. You could say it was the referees early on. But ultimately it belongs on the shoulders of the three stars. The Celtics leading scorer had 15 points this evening, and that was a 3 way tie between Allen, Garnett and Rondo. The three stars combined for 43 points total.

Right now Wally Szczerbiak can guard Ray Allen one on one. Anderson Verajeo can guard Kevin Garnett one on one. Paul Pierce isn’t Paul Pierce on offense.

Of the three, Pierce has the best excuse by having a long 6′ 8″ Lebron James guard him. But Pierce is taking some quick threes, and missing them, and he isn’t attacking the basket as we know he can. Until the 2:55 mark of the game, Pierce had 9 points.

All three are suppose to be able to create shots for themselves when defenses get tough. They did not. Doc may call those hero shots and he may be right. But right now the Celtics need a hero.

People will say Rajon Rondo did his job. He did not. He had three assists and missed shots he should have made – both at the hoop and from distance, his 7-14 shooting and 1-3 from the arc notwithstanding. Now is not the time for Rondo to be practicing three pointers. His defense has been less than spectacular. Rondo is being left laughably wide open.

Minute Monopoly?
But Rondo has a forgiveness factor that is off the charts among Beantown fans. Short of murder he gets a Get Out of Jail pass free. Monopolizing his minutes(supposedly) is Sam Cassell. Loud and new to the Celtic Green Party, Sam Cassell has no forgiveness factor whatsoever and he has played poorly as well. Many would rather take their Chance with Rondo and leave Sam on the Park Bench. While a Cassell fan, I can’t say I agree. But I’m not sure they are wrong either. The Celtics don’t have enough equity to build motels, but…. Eddie House anyone?

It was supposed to be a quick 4 games series against the Hawks and maybe a 5-6 games series against the Cavs, to be rested for Detroit. It looks like 2 straight 7 game series now against teams that were thought to be inferior.

At this point, Cleveland continued the ongoing home court domination of the 2nd round. Make no mistake this was a grind it out play-off game. But the Celtics have been in those kind of games before…and won handily.

The Celtics looked tentative to start the game. Except for Garnett and Rondo, no one wanted to shoot, and Rondo was at the beach all by himself for a few shots. He drove and missed a few more.

This does not look like the Celtic team I watched during the season. They are playing defensive defense. During the year their defense was offensive. Example – they were the 5th leading team for steals during the year, even leading the league for a while. Tonight they have just one at half time, by Rondo. They were 4th in the league for causing turnovers (15.3), they have caused just 4 tonight at half time.

Their confidence, or at least assertiveness has clearly disappeared. They are fairly solid, but tentative at the same time. They are missing that intimidating defensive effort individually and as a team.

The funny thing is that they should be playing loose and confident. They are (were) up and they have home court advantage. Yet they look like they are playing not to lose for the most part. Doc and his assistants need to drive that point home. Somebody needs to get these guys back in attack mode.

Joe Smith continues to play very well (8 points, 6 rebounds) and Gibson was expected to finally break out with some scoring and he did while Delonte was getting checked out for blurry vision i the locker room. Daniel scored 14 points and added 6 rebounds and 4 assists. Wally Szczerbiak helped again with 14 points, 9 in the 3rd quarter.

PJ Brown was the best off the meager Celtic bench tonight with solid defense in the middle, 2
blocks, and 8 points on 4-4 shooting with 6 rebounds.

LeBron James shot only 7-20 but continued to draw defenders to him and directed a strong Cleveland attack with 13 assists and 6 rebounds.

I’m never a guy who gives up hope, but things look decidedly less likely that this Celtic team
has the make-up to overcome adversity all the way to the Finals. They still can, but not if they continue to play the way they have on the road. They need to get things to click in again.

This is clearly a mental thing. Or is it an emotional thing? How about a coaching thing?

The Celtics were 31-10 on the road during the season.

1) Not getting some calls hurts.
2) Not being a team before this year hurts.
3) Loud hostile crowds hurt.
4) My head hurts.

Mental Thing
One of the cogs not playing up to his abilities is point guard Rajon Rondo. This is his first play-offs. Much is expected of him. Is he mentally prepared to play through a few bad games? Is this team mentally prepared or are they still finding themselves in their first second season together?

Rondo’s certainly not the only reason for the Celtics uncharacteristic play in game 3. The Cs played Cleveland about even after the first quarter, but even that was somewhat misleading. The best defensive team in the league looked terrible defensively. What ever happened to ubuntu? How about perimeter defense? Help defense?

While Garnett played reasonably well, and Posey held his own, the Celtics defense looked terrible for long stretches. It certainly didn’t look anything like it does at home or anywhere else during the season. There was much daylight for Cleveland shooters in game # 3. And the Cavs were ready for what the Cs did on offense.

Coaching Thing
While I expected a battle from Cleveland at home, I expected the attack to come from LeBron, not Delonte, Wally, and…gulp…Joe Smith and Ben Wallace. Z will always be a problem. The Cavs defense was good, but it was defeatable. They often ran two guys aggressively at the perimeter guy with the ball, and stayed at home in the paint.

The Cs tried to counter with Pierce driving, drawing coverage and dishing. Sometimes it worked but sometimes it didn’t, as it seemed that Cleveland was often ready for that and recovered nicely. Powe or Perkins weren’t able to get the open looks and free baskets that normally happen.

Delonte West and Wally Szczerbiak both said that playing for the Celtics helped them understand what Doc Rivers and the Celtics try to do. Naturally they would communicate that to their new coach. While that case would be hard to make just a game ago, it could help explain what happened yesterday. Doc Rivers admitted his was an outcoached team yesterday.

Emotional Thing
Is it time for a team leader to call out this team? Or is it too early for that? Who would be the guy to do it?

The fact of the matter at this point, is that the point guards have to score some points, in addition to effectively running the offense. With Perkins in the game as an offensive liability, the team can’t have another one at the point. It means they play 3 on 5. Even for the talented threesome, it becomes a problem with a good defensive team like the Cavs.

In the beginning of the year, the Cs had Rondo bring the ball up and hand it off to Pierce or Ray Allen. That would allow Rondo to roam and perhaps find an open seam to the hoop. Even if the Celtics reverted back to that, (and they shouldn’t) it wouldn’t work this time of year. Why?

Part of the problem last game was that the Cleveland defense won’t let Rondo be a driving machine. Even if he gets by Delonte, Lebron has blocked a few of his shots as a help defender and Ilguaskas has been too tall to shoot over. Rajon hasn’t hit the mid range to open things up. But neither did Cassell. That means some collapsing defenses on the Celtics stars.

Ray Allen is 8-26 and 1 for 11 from the arc in this series. Paul Pierce is 3-for 13 from downtown. While defenses won’t drop off Ray or Paul, that adds to the problem and means the Celtics aren’t able to establish an effective outside game to make the Cavs pay for clogging up the middle. While the Cs did score a number of times in the paint, their shooting percentage was unCeltic-like.

This team is still driven by and for the three stars. Ray, Paul and Kevin must step up their games to lead the team to victory on the road. As always, it all starts with defense.

6:00 a.m. The alarm goes off. Sonny and Cher start singing ‘I Got You Babe’ from the bedside radio.

For 4 road games running, the Celtics have been reliving this. Instead of Bill Murray, the Celtics wake up, get out of bed, wash their faces, and go on the road…..to lose another game.

Actually it looked like they didn’t wake up until the 2nd quarter. Alas, in this game that meant they were staring down the wrong of the barrel of a 32 -13 deficit. The Cavs came out firing, while Boston slept.

The Celtics, to a man, keep saying they know what they need to do to get it right next time. Yet, like a bad dream, it keeps happening, except they are awake and yep, it is real. So far ‘next time’ hasn’t arrived. It is getting to be a bad road game rerun.

Okay. Maybe each road game isn’t the same. But the results are. And like Ground Hog Day, we keep hearing much the same thing each time. It’s getting a little eerie. I’m starting to look around for the Ned Ryerson, the gratuitously obnoxious insurance salesman to approach me.

Life Insurance? Hey, that might be just what the Celtics need. They need a little more life, to ‘insure’ a victory. Term or whole life, Ned? Term, I think. Do you have a policy for road trips only?

Sometimes the Celtic starters have a hard time….starting. Maybe they should be called Boston’s ‘late’ starting five. Maybe they should get the NBA to start the game a half hour later. Call it East Coast Boston Savings time.

The 2nd best team in the NBA on the road this season is now 0 for 4 in the post season as they lose to the Cavaliers by an embarrassing 108-84. It may not be a comedy, but it’s not like it’s a mystery. Reference the following non-fiction:

They led 4-0 and never again, as they missed shots they make at home and didn’t play defense with nearly the focus and energy that they do in their own backyard, let alone with the energy needed to win on the road.

Ray Allen opened the game with a missed three, and after baskets by Garnett and Perkins, 7 straight misses by Garnett, Perkins, Pierce, Rondo and Allen combined with 2 turnovers put the Cavaliers in front with 14 straight points of their own.

With foreshadowing, previously cold Delonte West opened the Cavs scoring with a 3 pointer. Led by Cavaliers not named LeBron, Wally started 3-3, as West dished for 5 assists and 6 points of his own, Ben Wallace added 6 points in the paint, and the ‘Big ILL’ Zydrunas Ilgauskas added a lay up and an uncontested dunk while Boston napped.

Delonte finished with 21 points and ‘sharp shooters’ like Joe Smith and Ben Wallace combined for 11 for 14 on the night. West and Lebron James tied for game honors with 21 points but James continued to have trouble hitting his shots, making only 5 all night. He took 16 shots as his shooting slump continues. It turns out all he needed to do on this night, was to find his open team mates and open they were. Lebron filled the stat sheet with 8 assists, 5 rebounds, 4 steals, and 3 blocks with only 2 TOs.

While Delonte West has been inconsistent with his shot, he considers himself a clutch shooter.
Before the previous game, he was asked if hitting the three pointer to win the game against Washington helped his confidence.

Yeah, yeah. I’ve hit big shots in the past. Throughout my career, I’ve hit big shots to win a game, or big shots in the 4th quarter when big shots are needed.

Tonight, he was on and kept the Celtics from getting within striking distance, finishing 7 of 11 including 4 of 6 from the arc, adding 7 assists and 5 rebounds.

He also talked about Rajon Rondo and it was prescient for tonight’s game…

With Rondo in the game, we’re doing a lot of helping off of him. You know, allowing him to shoot the ball. With Sam, we can’t do that. But it’s pick your poison.

Tonight neither guard played well enough to give Cleveland a bad rash, let alone requiring an antidote.

Rondo did not have a good game at either end, and has been getting his lay-ups blocks quite often lately – 6 times in these last 2 games if you’re counting. He needs to look behind himself when going in, wait for the defender to go by, or having a passing option ready when he drives. He is 3 for 16 over the last two games shooting to add to his offensive misery. He can get around West, but LeBron James, the ‘Big lLL’ or someone else is providing help. He is passing up jump shots and missing more than not when he does shoot.

Unfortunately, ‘Have Gun, Will Travel’ Sam Cassell was shooting blanks himself tonight, going 0-6. Garnett had 17 points to lead Boston, followed by Paul Pierce with 14. The team, as a whole, laid an egg. They could not get stops to make a serious run.

The closest the Celtics could get the 26 point deficit down to was 12 points in the 3rd quarter, Each attempt to get closer was met by a Cleveland basket or two.

The Celtics are giving up 100 points a game on the road and when they weren’t missing assignments in the middle this evening, they were giving up open looks from the 3 point line, as the Cavs shot .523 from the field and 10 of 19 from the arc.

The papers and websites will be filled with Boston players and Doc Rivers telling us what they did wrong and what they need to do to get it right. It will all sound very familiar. Just have breakfast at the diner with Andie McDowell, and wait for the oom-pah band to strike up ‘Roll Out the Barrel’. Don’t try to fight it.

The alarm goes off again in Punxsutawney, I mean Cleveland, on Monday night at 8:00 p.m. Will the Boston Celtics finally get past their own version of Ground Hog Day?

Kevin Garnett made First Team All NBA for the 4th time in his career and Paul Pierce made the 3rd Team for the third time.

Garnett had the 3rd most first place votes and finished 3rd in the voting overall, closely behind Kobe Bryant and Chris Paul.

Paul Pierce certainly appreciated the recognition. In many ways, among the three stars, Paul has become a ‘first among equals’ offensively. When defenses clamp down on Boston, and baskets are tough to come by, Paul is often the player they turn to, to create something from nothing. And he often does. But in a year where defense has driven this Celtic Love Train, he had defense on his mind too – his own.

I was in the locker room right after Pierce got the news.

Is this one of those honors where you have to have the team around you to get it?

Definitely, it’s a team award. When I look at it statistically, there’s a number of guys who out played me if you go by statistics throughout the year. A couple who come to mind are Carmelo…you could easily say Caron Butler. But I think those type of awards are due the team’s success and without the guys around me I definitely wouldn’t have gotten the award.

That’s a given this year. Not a single player voted to the list on the 1st through 3rd All NBA teams were on a losing team. In fact the team with the worst record is LeBron James’ Cleveland
Cavaliers at 45-37. The rest are all on 50 plus win teams.

Paul received 2 first place votes. That is as many as 2nd teamer Steve Nash and fellow 3rd teamer Yao Ming and one more than 2nd team Dirk Nowitzki.

Do you think your defense had something to do with it? People paid attention to it this year?

Well, I hope so. If I could make the Defensive Team that would be great!

Paul has indeed opened eyes with a total defensive commitment that many say was missing except in spurts in previous years.

In a previous interview, Paul disagrees.

I can’t agree with that. I think I’ve played (solid) defense all along.

At the same time, Paul admitted in a pre-season interview that he would concentrate on defense more this season. This is from NBA Europe when the Celts were there…

Q: Are there certain parts of your game that you’ve focused on more this off season?

A: Probably just my defense. I know that I can play a bigger role defensively this year. I think a lot of offensive pressure is going to be taken off me so I can focus on my defense. I am going to go out there and guard some of the best guys in the NBA and guard them well so that’s my main focus this summer.

Even Doc Rivers noticed his commitment early on to playing consistently well at both ends of the floor.

His defense on LeBron in this series has been good, as he and James Posey have had the primary responsibility of keeping LeBron down. Paul will draw charges. He added to King James’ increasing frustration that way. Paul has enough foot speed to stay in front of his man enough to change his direction. He is also good for steals, swipes around the hoop, multiple deflections and a few dives to the floor when necessary.

The Celtics perimeter defense was among the best in the NBA. Guards and small forwards are mostly responsible for that area. Paul still nimbly gets that solid body of his around the court with savvy and the will to defend and defend well.

Tough defenses, a team centered approach, a strained back and a deeper commitment to defense has played into Paul’s lower offensive numbers this off season – 16.6 points. And he doesn’t seem to care.

Yet, Paul is the team’s go-to guy when points become scarce. Few can shed a defender and shred a defense like Paul Pierce can. A number of spectacular offensive possessions have registered high on the Richter Scale already this post season. A three pronged attack doesn’t require the spectacular from Paul all the time. He has finally eliminated diving or dribbling into three defenders hoping for a miracle or a ref’s help to bail him out.

Paul picks his spots now offensively and he plays defense all of the time. My how things have changed.

Maybe he will get recognition for it someday. As he said…That would be great.

The game started at 7:00 p.m but King James and the Cavs didn’t see much daylight as the Celtics put a lid on the Cavs basket en route to an 89-73 victory.

And the Celtics once again had a 6th man rattle the opposing team into missing shots and hurrying their offense. Red Auerbach once called the fans in attendance his best 6th man of all time.

The Celtics’ defense crowded the Cavs all night, took away the perimeter shot and collapsed on LeBron from every which way, leading to another horrible shooting for the Cleveland star and his team. Only Big ‘Z’, (Zydrunas Ilgauskas) was able to muster any consistent offense (19 points on 9-12) for the beleaguered Cavaliers.

LeBron went 6 for 24 after going 2-18 the game before for a total of 8 for 42 for the series so far.

Pierce….

When you got guys 6’10″, 7′ putting their arms out, showing on the pick and rolls, crowding him on traps, it makes it tough for him…..he has to start forcing things and that is what we try to do.

LeBron agrees…

I think defensively they are very very aggressive. They’re very good.

But as it happens when things go bad….they go very bad. LeBron was even missing the open shots he was getting.

I’m missing shots I normally make. They haven’t fallen in this building the last two games. The lay-ups that usually go down for me are just jumping out of the rim. The jumpers that I usually make are not going down for me.

But that wasn’t the only ‘crowd’ing that bothered the Cavs. The Celtics home court has loomed large so far in the play-offs as the Cs are undefeated in Boston and have yet to win away from their friendly confines. The Garden crowd gets busy from the very start of each game and they make their presence felt all night.

LeBron on playing in the Garden….

It’s a very hostile environment. The fans definitely come out to support their Boston Celtics this whole season. So, it’s a pretty good home court advantage.

Doc Rivers…

We’re home. We’re comfortable. They’re cheering. That’s why you fight for home court for us. If it wasn’t important, you wouldn’t fight for it.

Paul Pierce admits he and the team feed off of the crowd…

Get behind our crowd, build off the energy from it, and when we get the crowd in the game and we are flowing, and our adrenaline is flowing, it is tough to beat us here

.

And so it has. The average margin of victory so far in Boston in these play-offs is just over 20 points. Tonight’s score could have been much worse, but the Celtics bench played much of the 4th quarter and gave a big chunk of a 24 point lead. Boston was up 80-56 with about 8 minutes to go.

The Cavaliers jumped out to an early lead of 10-2. Rajon Rondo was having an uncharacteristically tough game on both ends of the court, as he had his shot blocked 3 times on drives for lay-ups and was not defending very well. The game turned instantly when Sam Cassell came with the score at 21-9.

The Celtics went on an 8-3 run to close the quarter and just kept right on going in the 2nd period, putting together a 30-9 run to get to 39-30 with Cassell at the helm and with Posey, Powe, and PJ Brown.

Surgar Ray Gets His Groove Back
Ray Allen, scoreless in the first half, giving him 6 straight quarters of shut out basketball, finally lit a small fire with a lay-up early in the 3rd, and went on to score 11 points in the period and 16 in the second half.

Paul Pierce led with 19 points, adding 6 rebounds, 2 steals and a block. KG had a double double with 13 points and 12 rebounds to lead the Cs. Perkins and Rondo went scoreless from the field but Rajon made 7 of 7 4th quarter foul shots, including 3 of 3 after getting fouled by Anderson Verajeo while shooting a 3 point shot, and played solid defense when he returned in the second half. He finished strong with 7 rebounds, 5 assists, and 2 steals, as well as 4 TOs.

The bench was huge in getting and growing the lead and contributed 31 points led by Leon Powe with 11 and Cassell with 9.

Ben Wallace left the game with dizziness after just 4 minutes and never returned. He says the doctor will look into it on Friday. Before the game, he wouldn’t let a cameraman record him and when asked for a pre-game comment moments later, he wouldn’t give one. He appeared agitated.

Former Celtic Delonte West said before the game that he considers himself a clutch shooter. He then went out and did a little bit of everything except shoot well (1-5) . He had 7 rebounds, 5 assists and an amazing 4 blocks, to go with 3 TOs. He got Cassell 3 times, once solid and twice tipped the shot after it left Sam’s hands.

LeBron James led the Cavs with 21 points on 24 shots, putting together possibly his worst two shooting nights ever.

Will the Celtics figure out how to win on the road, something they did handily all year long before the play-offs started? LeBron won’t be expected to continue missing at home. Will they be able to keep Cleveland’s crowd out of the game and win their first road game of the play-offs?

Next game is Saturday.

For anyone who isn’t aware, I started in the blogging world under the moniker of “tenaciousT” (and I’m still referred to that way by my cohorts) The Celtics have the biggest blog presence in all of the NBA – by far. It is a fanatical, but surprisingly literate world. But it is also a small world.

One of the promising up and coming young writers is Steve Weinman. He started plying his trade on MVN.com as their all around NBA guru. Then he got the call to move up to the big leagues, the clearing house of all Celtic blogs, aptly named….Celticsblog.com, founded by Jeff Clark. I’ve been a fan of Steve’s writing since I first encountered him on MVN.

I thought it would be good to get another point of view from time to time from a hard core follower of the team. While doing general NBA stuff, Steve is a die hard Celtics fan. I asked him to respond to a few questions after the first Cleveland game. Here are his answers:

1) Game #1 Cavs Why was it so crazy?

You say tomato, I say to-mah-to. You say crazy, I say sloppy (vintage
T positivity). Both teams earn points for working very hard at the
defensive end to shut down the other star scorer(s), but the offenses
get plenty of blame, too. It was the first game of a new series, so
these teams don’t have a real feel for each other yet. Further, the
Celtics jumped into this series just two days removed from winning Game 7
against the Hawks, so it’s hard to imagine they put in too much
Cleveland-specific prep beforehand. It’s going to be a grind-it-out
series, but I still think you’ll see a far more fluid type of basketball
as the series progresses.

2) How do you see the match up between these two teams? Better or worse
than Atlanta?

This is a Cleveland team with Finals experience and LeBron James.
They know what it takes to win in the playoffs, and there is a lot to
be said for that. And they have LeBron James. While I think the
Celtics could beat Cleveland in less than the seven games it took them to
dispatch of Atlanta, it remains my contention that this is the tougher
match-up, simply because Cleveland is a far better team than the Hawks. I
do like the fact that very much unlike last round, the Celtics will be
the aggressors in this series when it comes to pace. Doc talked in
his interviews about how important it was for the Celts to look to get
out and run this series, and given that they have the superior pure point
guard in Rajon Rondo and more offensive weapons than Cleveland
does overall it could be a lot of fun to watch them force the pace out
of Cleveland’s half-court game as they try bait the Cavs into a
shoot-out. Could be quite successful as well. But there is one other
point of caution that I don’t recall getting a chance to mention yet:
Cleveland has LeBron James.

3) Game #2 – what does it look like to you?

A very similar contest to the first game, but the scores will be a bit
higher and the shooting percentages a bit better. While both teams
submitted solid efforts defensively, the key offensive stars, LeBron
especially, also did plenty of extra missing. Just as James isn’t
as great a shooter as he looked to be in his epic Game 5 against Detroit
last year, he isn’t as much of an atrocity from the field as he
appeared on Tuesday. We’ll see the Celtics come out with another
concerted defensive effort (particularly from Pierce and Posey), but LBJ will
more than likely make a few more of his long jumpers just as PP and
Ray will theirs.

4) Any special observations?

I love James Posey. Absolutely adore this guy. Wrote about him (and
SamIAm) yesterday over at CelticsBlog and can’t stop gushing over him.
From the hours-long pre-game hugs to the cheerleading on the bench to
the toughness, deceptive speed, shooting and defense he adds on the
floor what a pleasure to watch. I’m thoroughly convinced that our
boys have the best individual perimeter defender in the series on their
side, and watching him go at it with LeBron may quickly become my
favorite plot of this series.

5) Did the Atlanta series remove the Celtics cloak of invincibility?

No, but only because the Celtics never had a cloak of invincibility.
If there was ever a time that educated us about that, it was last
year’s playoffs, with the Warriors knocking off the Mavericks in the first
round. There is talk all the time of how truly minute the talent
difference between the teams in this league is, and despite the vastly
differing records, it really is true. It’s extremely hard to beat another
team in this league four times in a two-week span, and that reality
was simply reinforced for the Celtics in the first round. This is still
a very good basketball team with the potential to etch itself into
Celts and NBA history as a great basketball team, and that’s what
matters. No one in this league, perhaps in sports at large, is
invincible.

6) Series prediction?

T may insist that I’m a pessimist, but I’m a fan as in fanatic
first and foremost. Picking against the green isn’t a part of my
range of capability. In a football-style one-game playoff, it would
be a bit tougher to lean against LeBron, because any sort of lightning
can strike once. But in a series that requires four wins in seven
tries, I’m taking the balanced team: Celts in six.

Much thanks for having me on, T. It’s always a pleasure to chat, and
here’s hoping we’ll be discussing a Celts win in Game 2 when we
complete this little home-and-home of ours at CB this coming
weekend. Go green!

-sw

A 76 -72 Celtic first game victory showed immediately that this series will be different than the Hawks Series.

First, the Cavaliers can defend. Second, the pace is slower, resulting 148 points total last night.

Kevin Garnet’s 28 points was by far high total in a the game that Lebron James was held to 12 points. I was unable to watch the second half and will give a more complete recap this evening. Here’s what I saw in the first half:

It was a strange first half. Looking at it, you don’t have to wonder why the Finals had low audience ratings last year. It was slow ball, filled with missed shots and turnovers. No offensive rhythm for either team meant strong defense was in operation for both teams.

It was the Garnett and Rondo show as they combined for 31 points on 12-15 shooting. Garnett led with 16 but Rondo went into the locker room at halftime having made 5 of 6 foul shots. The Celtics took turns with Pierce, Garnett and Posey on Lebron. James Posey did a solid job keeping Lebron out of the middle, and getting a travel called him on one offensive set.

Wally Szczerbiak missed his first four shots and made 3 of the next four as Cleveland climbed within 2 at 30-32. Pierce had 2 points and Ray Allen none as the Celtics turned it over 12 twelves times.