Foil in the Oven: Working For It

When you get to the playoffs, winning is the only thing that matters. And, despite their poor play on the offensive end, the Celtics have something very valuable that they can take away from last night's victory: this was the first playoff win that did not come easily for them. The most disheartening thing about the series with the Hawks was not that it went seven games, not that the Celtics let Joe Johnson run all over them, or that they were unable to win on the road. The most disheartening thing about that series was that the Celtics showed us no evidence that they have what it takes to pull out close games. When everything's clicking for them and baskets are coming easy, they can blow out anybody. But, when things got a little tougher, they seemed like they didn't know what to do. Those games in Atlanta were all there for us to take, and we didn't. Not once.

Now, you can certainly argue that if LeBron James had made a couple of those layups last night and a couple of possessions had gone differently during the games in Atlanta that the results might have been different all across the board. But, again, this is the playoffs. At this point, we are only concerned with results. Great teams know how to win in close games. This Celtics team, and all of us (their fans), have gotten so used to 20 point blowouts that it seems like none of us know what to think when we see some adversity. Well, it's very possible that the Celtics might not win another game by more than 11 or 12 points for the rest of the postseason. We might not see any more games in which the outcome is already in hand during the third quarter. That's not what playoff basketball is about. Playoff basketball is about close games that go down to the wire. The teams that survive are the teams that are able to pull out close wins even when they aren't at their best. I didn't think that this team could do that before. Last night they showed us that they can. The significance of this cannot be understated.


All of that said, they need to play better in game 2. For starters, the pace of that game was WAY too slow. Doc Rivers talked about this when they interviewed him during the second half, and yet they were never able to speed things up. I am the same guy who said last week that they needed to slow the pace against Atlanta, but things are a little different now that we're dealing with Ben Wallace, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, and Wally Szczerbiak. These guys can't run.

Second, I don't know what was going on at the offensive end last night, but it was ugly. Have you ever seen this team look more out of sync than they did in the second and third quarters? The turnover total was absurd. It goes without saying (but I'll say it anyways) that they need to take better care of the ball and shoot better on the offensive end.


Third, they did a great job on LeBron. Paul Pierce and James Posey were in his face all night, and he got very few clean runs at the basket. This needs to happen all series long. LeBron is going to come harder in game 2, you can bet your life on that, and the Celtics need to be ready.

I will state for the record (and my girlfriend can attest to this) that when Sam Cassell came in to the game in the third quarter I said out loud "You know what, this might actually be good. It's not like the offense is clicking. He can't come in and disrupt our rhythm because we don't have any. Maybe he can just hit some shots and help keep us in this." And, he did. He even hit some three pointers, which I wasn't expecting. Last night showed me, once again, that Cassell could prove valuable to us, particularly in games when our starting 5 aren't in sync on offense. Stay tuned for game 3 in Cleveland, when I will most likely flip-flop on him again and call for him to be benched for the rest of the series.


As my last note on this game, I just want to say that the referees have sucked throughout this entire postseason and last night was no exception. The flagrant foul that they called on Sam Cassell was totally absurd. To watch Rajon Rondo get hammered to the deck from behind TWO GAMES IN A ROW (4 and 5) and not have a foul called in the last series, and then to see a flagrant foul called when Cassell hits LeBron on the shoulder, is incredibly frustrating. Things did improve, and I was pleasantly surprised to the officials calling fouls AND traveling on LeBron. Hopefully this will continue.



The Hornets have made a believer out of me. I can't stop watching this team. The performances that they put on in games 1 and 2 were incredible. David West and Tyson Chandler are both better than I thought. All season long, I've heard people say "yeah, Chris Paul is sick, but remember that he has David West." I've kind of shrugged and said "yeah....but, you know man...." Well, fuck that. David West if legit. This team is for real. Watching Chris Paul run that team gives me an excitement that I've only gotten watching MJ and Kobe. He dominates all facets of the game. He makes his teammates shine. He steps up in every key moment. When you see those fans in New Orleans, who almost lost this team to Oklahoma City, totally pumped for playoff basketball and rocking that arena in their yellow playoff shirts, I don't know how you can think that this guy was not the MVP. If you haven't yet had the pleasure of seeing this team, tune in tomorrow night to see them attempt to take one in San Antonio. I think it's safe to say that I'm riding the Hornets bandwagon in the West. And, I'm pretty sure that David Stern is driving.