GREEN 17 IS HERE

I’m a sports fan.  A former basketball and baseball player.  From Massachusetts.  So I’m not one to forget the possibility of jinxing a team.  But it’s not happening.  Not to this team.  The Boston Celtics will be your World Champions in 2008, and from someone who watched them lose 18 straight games, loved Al Jefferson and Employee #8, appreciated Eric Williams and Walter McCarty, was raised on Tommy Points, and wishes he could physically bleed green, this is it.

Captain Clutch came through again.  He owned Kobe.  Ray Allen was a revelation–there’s no way you saw this coming after he walked around like a ghost against Cleveland and for part of the Detroit series.  KG rebounded from a poor first half to do what he does–play defense and pure offense, passing and scoring when given the appropriate option.  The role players stepped up as well.  Eddie House showed why he should have been playing throughout the playoffs, P.J. Brown physically demonstrated the attitude that the C’s lacked in the first half, and James Posey cemented himself as Big Game James.

Even Doc Rivers was phenomenal.  He subbed properly and never let his team down.  His turnaround during the playoffs has mirrored Ray Allen’s, and together they have given the rest of the Celtics a chance to do display their talents in the way they did during the regular season. 

There’s not much more to say, and in this euphoria I’m not thinking or writing clearly, but this is the moment.  This is what we watched the lottery for, this is what we believed in developing the kids for, this is what we believed in keeping The Truth around for.

The Celtics are about to complete a full season of wins–they stand one shy of a whopping 82.  We will probably never see a collection of talent and personalities equal to the team that Danny Ainge assembled this past offseason, when the Green Rennaisance started. 

My advice?

Savor it, it’ll never be this sweet again.

Sporadic Live Thoughts in the Fourth

• Pierce mugged Kobe on the offensive boards and got away with it as the ball squirted out and the Celtics got control.
• Vujacic just tried a scissor move Jenna Jameson couldn’t pull off.
• Ooph.  Leon almost gave the Celtics a statement bucket in the paint, only to see Kobe answer.
• Pierce and Kobe are battling for L.A.’s heart.  But, in the end, we know Kobe will just take it anyway, regardless of whom it truly belongs to.
• Bring KG back in before L.A. can get on a run.
• No matter what happens the rest of the series, Boston appears to have finally arrived after a four day layover in Logan.
• I don’t believe Ray Allen has sat for a minute the entire game.  And unlike during other postseason games and in pointless regular season contests (or lackthereof), Doc’s decision to abuse those 32-year-old ankles has been perfectly justified.
• There’s no way for me to express how much I want to be on the Japanese Rip Off Show that ABC is throwing out there.  I think I could two-foot it over those crazy man-sized bouncy balls.
• The Celtics have owned the defensive boards (this is not going to be backed up by any facts), and Eddie House has done a great job of helping there the past two games.
• I don’t like Eddie taking shots insdie the three point line unless they are lay ups.
• I hate how KG fades constantly, but damn he can make it.  The problem is you don’t get fouled when you fade away and he’s a great free throw shooter so that’s nice for the other team.
• Another big rebound from House.
• How was that not a foul when P.J. Brown went up for a dunk and was prevented from dunking but the ball was not blocked?
• I wonder how many typos I’m making right now, I could set a record for a one quarter live blog.
• Crap.  Paul Pierce does not need to further damage that right leg at this point.
• JUST TO GET THIS OUT OF THE WAY: if I’m the NBA I want the Lakers to win this game, and from then on I’m happy with whatever happens.  If the Celts win tonight the series won’t be over, but it will likely end in game 6 in Boston.  If L.A. wins tonight, it’s very probable that we see a game 7 and millions more for David Stern’s mob.
• Based on my previous bullet, why in the world does Kobe ever do anything other than drive to the basket and create?
• HUGE THREE FROM BIG GAMES JAMES.  That’s my attempt at emulating Big Shot Rob’s moniker.
• I LOVE that aggressive drive to the basket by KG.  The C’s need more of that.
• How absurd is the NBA?  In no other sport/league/athletic level can a team not even show up till halftime and have a shot.
• Eddie House gives us the lead.  I’m not at all surprised he would do something like that, except for that I didn’t know if he was even going to play because M.D. Rivers likes to cut his rotation up like his name ought to be DJ Doc Slice.
• Ray Allen rebounding!!!!!!  Now go get a la…literally as I was typing lay up Ray Ray took it to the hole for a pretty up-and-under.
• OK, so this is too good of a game for me to miss anything typing, so now it’s time to savor the five point lead KG just gave us.

End of Third Thoughts

• P.J. Brown says, ”Back the $*&# off us, L.A.”
• The Celts moved the ball extremely well in that late 21-3 run there.
• Kobe should stop taking deep, fade aways.  If he goes to the rim the refs will bail him out, no questions asked.  And that’s even assuming he can be stopped at all without help from the refs.
• I love the aggressiveness from the Big Three.  KG is asserting himself on the boards and PP^2 and Ray Ray are striking quick and aggressively.
• Tony Allen?!?!  I don’t even know what to say.  For those of you who have followed The Sports Beat, you know I’m a sucker for the lesser known Allen, but wow, bringing him out in this scenario is crazy.
• I love that Eddie is still playing over Cassell.  Thank god.
• Can’t wait for Phil Jackson’s interview.  Could be jokes about cowboys and mountains.
• The Celtics were a running, bank three pointer from Jordan Farmar away from leading the game at the end of the third.
• Phil Jackson’s interview didn’t disappoint.  Momentum is a strange girl.

 

Halftime Thoughts

There’s no time for prissy prose, so it’s block thoughts time:

 

• I can’t possibly stress the importance of changing the pick-and-roll defense.  The Celtics continue to trap high and allow Kobe to pass the ball off to the his versatile big men, who aren’t missing.  Let’s make Kobe be the ball hog he truly wants to be, and see if it can get us back in the game, or at the very least give us something to work off of for game 5.
• Sam Cassell need not play ever again.  Unfortunately, I fear that Doc left Eddie House sitting on the bench so long his shot has gone lame.  Hopefully I’m wrong.
• Leave KG in the rest of the game.  Who cares if he picks up another foul?  Seriously, just as Van Gundy said, you needed to leave Garnett in the game during that last minute of the first half in order to not lose momentum and blow the comeback–as Jordan Farmar’s running bank three just accomplished.
• KG must get the ball where he wants it and go to the basket.  Hard.  At least 5 times in the first 6 minutes of the third quarter.  At least establish some attitude.
• The game is probably over, but just as L.A. did in the fourth quarter of game 2, it’s time for the Celtics to wake up.   
• Oh, and stop turning the damn ball over every two possessions.