Wednesday, March 12, 2008

10 things: The Crepes of Wrath

1) The Crepes of Wrath

The Celtics are performing like they did at the beginning of the year. Efficient. Angry. Flattening opponents to pancakes. Philly came into the Monday night game playing extremely well and intent on using the Celtics as a "measuring stick." It didn't matter. For Boston their high level of play has returned at the best possible time; just as the Texas road trip of doom approacheth. (Huh. I seem to have developed a temporary keyboard lisp.)


2) Speaking of That

The coming five game junket was supposed to have San Antonio, Dallas and New Orleans on top of the marquee. A funny thing happened along the way: Now the road trip brochure reads, "Five Fabulous Games in Eight Nights, Featuring the Awesome Houston Rockets!" The Rockets have shockingly strung together 19 straight victories. One more and they tie the 70-71 Bucks with the second longest winning streak in NBA history. I don't care what their schedule's been, that's really impressive. Plus they've recently been doing it without Yao Ming (and without Gerald Green).


3) Showdown

Meanwhile the Celtics have completely extinguished their only three game losing streak by running off 9 straight wins themselves. So here's where we are: Houston plays three more times before the teams meet up; at Atlanta, then hosting Charlotte and the evil Lakers. The Celtics have Seattle and Utah at home, followed by Milwaukee and San Antonio on the road. In the event that both clubs win out, the two teams will meet in Houston on March 18th with the Rockets on an incredible 22 game streak and the Celtics on their own 13 game run.


4) Arrogant

Now that every excuse from opposing fans about the Celtics success has been utterly debunked, they've retreated to the last barricade: They call us arrogant. Such as, "I would really like the Celtics except their fans are so arrogant."
Us? Arrogant? Please. They could not be more mistaken. It's simply that they do not recognize the obvious truth that of all the people on Earth we have been chosen by the Almighty Hoop Gods for a noble destiny that they can't possibly share. There's nothing arrogant about that is there?


5) Rondo's three

It wasn't exactly Danny Ainge dribbling through the entire Notre Dame team, or even Ray Allen's game winner against Charlotte, but it was pretty cool: Rajon Rondo's three at the end of the half in Memphis was my favorite early-in-the-game play of the season. With about 5 seconds on the clock and Rondo on the bench in foul trouble, Doc Rivers inserted the young point guard into the game. Rondo responded by dribbling the length of the court through traffic, squaring up, and draining the three. No one else on the roster was both fast and nifty enough to make that play. It was a great substitution by the coach and even better execution by Mr. Rondo.


6) 50

50 wins that is. It's great that Doc Rivers and the team don't care and don't even seem to know the number of wins they have. But for the rest of us those numbers are a fine indicator of how far the club has travelled in one year.
Let's flashback. One year ago on March 11, 2007 the Celtics lost to the Chicago Bulls 94-78. Boston's leading scorer was Gerald Green with 15 points. That game made their record 18-44.

(By the way I want to point that out that my own preseason prediction of 50 total wins has already been met and I'm ecstatic to be so ridiculously far off.)



7) 61

I wrote about this in the fall. The Celtics have to get to 61 wins to surpass the 97-98 Duncan Swipers for the greatest season to season gain-in-wins total in league history. The way they're going the team might get comfortably above that mark. It could be a record that stands for many decades.


8) Irony

Sam Cassell was once Rondo. In 1994 and 1995 it was Cassell who was the young point responsible for leading a team of veterans to the NBA crown. Yes he had Kenny Smith by his side, but his situation fourteen years ago was very similar to what Rondo faces today: a highly talented team laced with all stars such as Olajuwon and Drexler, aching for a title, dependent on the poise of an inexperienced but talented guard running the club's offense. This is obviously history repeating itself.


9) Ray and Eddie

Funny thing. Ray Allen's got his stroke back and Eddie House has lost his. Before Eddie was taking his time shooting, which was good. Now he's rushing, which is bad. Conversely, before Ray was taking his time shooting, which was bad. Now he's rushing, which is good. Does that make sense?
Unlike most guys including Eddie House, Ray just does better when he quick releases.


10) Purity

It's been many many awful, miserable, unsufferable bad-drafting bad-trading years. That's all behind us now. The first 3/4 of the season have been a beautiful experience. A lot of us had to shake the losing, lottery-bound thoughts from our heads. We've undergone a healthy catharsis, ridding ourselves of ping-pong poisoning and spiritually purifying ourselves for the coming post-season. Now we're ready to head down the stretch. Bring on Texas. Bring on April. Bring on the playoffs.

Saturday, March 8, 2008

10 things

1) Seeds Of Springtime

Beyond the sweet sensation of Piston pummeling, the result of last night's contest put the teams on new paths. Had Detroit won, the rest of the season would have been a steel cage Hillary/Obama fight to the end; but that didn't happen. With only 23 Celtic games left the Pistons are now 5 back in the loss column and also lose the head to head tiebreaker.

The race is not over but the big lead will surely change philosophies for both clubs the rest of the way: Detroit won't kill themselves on the now longshot cause of gaining the top seed. They will prepare their squad for the playoffs, continue to play their bench and make certain their starters are healthy even if it costs them a few games. This allows Boston to do the same.


2) Furthermore

Other than that homecourt advantage in the conference finals, there's no reason for Detroit to attempt a late season sprint. Looking ahead to potential playoff matchups, I don't think the Celtics have all that much preference about who they play in the second round, whereas the Pistons probably do: They want to avoid Cleveland. The Cavs beat them last year and wore them down the year before. Detroit can out-poise Toronto or Orlando, but they have no magic wand to use on the Cavaliers. So they're probably just as happy to sit in the #2 spot and deal with the Magic, rather than fight like hell when the reward is a rematch with LeBron James.


3) As For Boston

I mentioned before on RealGm that the Cavs recent trade helps Boston in a potential showdown. Specifically Drew Gooden could go outside defensively against KG and take him outside on the other end. Ben Wallace is still too short and now too slow to deal with Garnett.

You can't discount LeBron. He can beat anyone himself, but Cleveland is a little less scary to Boston now.

There's a long way to go before the playoffs but odds are in the second round Detroit will take on Orlando and the Celtics will face the survivor of Toronto/Cleveland.


4) Bob

Bob came over and watched the game last night. This is not new. For decades Bob's come over and watched Celtic games. You know what was really nice? Bob and I haven't seen a game in March that had any sort of remote championship implications for two decades. Of course we're not alone. None of the great green nation has. But last night me and old Bob sat there and thoroughly enjoyed the Celtics putting a headlock on the league's best record. We talked about bygone days and watched Rondo slam it through. We remembered Bird and Hondo as Perkins grabbed his 20th board. While KG racked up his Celtic high in points we gleefully speculated about May and June.

May and June. They play basketball in May and June— REAL PLAYOFF BASKETBALL. Championship ramifications. The long sought holy grail of the 17th banner is there in the distance. Me and Bob? We were happy. I bet the rest of you are feeling a lot of joy now too.


5) That March Schedule

Back in November and December Celtic critics claimed the 29-3 record was an illusion. "Wait until March," they said. "The Celtics will get theirs in March." These ill-informed miscreants were referring to the stretch of games from March 14th to 22nd. Six games in nine days featuring Utah at home and a brutal road swing against San Antonio, Houston, Dallas, and New Orleans...


6) Health and Depth

...A funny thing has happened since November though. The Celtics have gotten deeper and better. Powe and Baby have emerged as a dangerous energetic tandem off the bench. Rondo can now cancel out a player the caliber of Chauncey Billups. Perkins can outplay McDyess. The Celtics will soon incorporate Sam Cassell and PJ Brown. Ray Allen has found his stroke. Garnett is healthy. Pierce is passing. The team is deep and it's hungry.

I look at the upcoming schedule and all I can think is, "Wow, it's gonna be tough for those other teams."


7) Doc

I keep bringing up Doc. He's coaching. I mean REALLY coaching. He's managing all these powerful personalities, adding another in Cassell, and the team just keeps getting stronger. The young guys are all markedly better players than they were four months ago. Everyone's on the same page. This team is beautiful to watch, and Doc deserves as much credit now as he got blame the last few seasons.


8) Cous and Pete

Which brings me to this: Earlier in the year the formerly and justifiably cantakerous Bob Cousy was rhapsodic in discussing the merits of these Celtics. Recently even Peter May has joined the ranks of the converted. He wrote a KG for MVP column and just seems giddy about this team. It's almost surreal.


9) Sing a Song For Those Owners

Wyc, Steve, and the rest of the ownership really deserve some congratulations. They always said they'd fork over the dough when it mattered, and they have. They paid for Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett, for House and Posey, and now they've brought in Cassell and Brown. It turns out they're anti-Paul Gastons. The team has come first. None of this could have happened if they heisleyed around at this critical moment. After all those cheap years in the 90's all I can say is, "Thanks guys."


10) Eye Of The Needle

Only one western team can fit through that tiny opening that leads to the NBA finals. I have no idea which one it will be. San Antonio and the Chris Wallace fortified Lakers look the most formidable right now, but I wouldn't fully discount Phoenix, Utah, Dallas and New Orleans. There's a lot of time between March and June. The beautiful thing is, the Celtics will be favored in the second round. Then if they take care of business only Detroit and the one team from the west will remain. It will not be easy but the Celtics are very capable of winning those two series, and if they do banner number 17 will finally rise.