Boston 96, Orlando 84

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Back East for a wedding, with no time for a real post.

Thank your deity of choice for Nate Robinson! He was the key to the game tonight.

We're back in the Finals, a spot I really didn't think we'd be in when these playoffs started. Opponent TBD, but it's certainly looking like you-know-who.

First game is Thursday, in LA or Phoenix. It's nice to have a little break to rest and to get healthy.

Orlando 113, Boston 92

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I'm afraid that I've got little to say about anything other than the ejection.

Late in the second quarter, Eddie F. Rush whistled Kendrick Perkins for a very dubious reach-in foul on an entry pass to Dwight Howard. Perkins reacted in disbelief, turned and walked away from Rush, and voiced his displeasure.

It was a run-of-the-mill reaction by NBA standards. You see as bad or worse in pretty much any NBA game you watch. Rarely does it earn even a warning from officials. Wednesday night, in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals, it earned a technical foul.

And not just any technical foul. A disqualifying technical. A scuffle earlier between Perk and Marcin Gortat resulted in double technicals, and so when Rush rang up the big fella this time, it meant an early shower.

I can only assume that it was a mistake, that Rush wasn't intentionally sabotaging the Celtics, that he momentarily forgot that Perkins was carrying one technical, that he wouldn't do so much to decide the outcome of such an important game. But what a mistake it was. Perk is the Boston starter that gets the least attention, but his presence is vital to the Celtics' success against the Magic. Not only does he guard Howard better than any center in the league, he's Boston's only true center. Without him, Boston's chances of winning a given game against Orlando, while they don't completely disappear, drop dramatically. That's particularly true when Boston's thinnish front line is beset by foul trouble, as it was by the time Perk was shown the door.

The mistake was compounded as the game wore on. Later, one of Perk's key replacements, Glen Davis, caught an (apparently unintentional) elbow from Howard flush in the face, suffering a concussion. Without him, without Perk, and with Rasheed Wallace in foul trouble, Boston really had no chance.

Not only that, but Davis' status for Friday's Game 6 is up in the air. If he can't play, Boston will be shorthanded. Had Perk not been ejected, they would have only had to survive a quarter or so without Davis; now they may have to go a whole game without perhaps their most important bench player (at least in this series).

It could actually get worse for Boston. Perk's technicals were his sixth and seventh of this post-season, meaning he's due for a one-game suspension. The NBA rescinds technicals fairly regularly, and I frankly believe that both will be taken away. His first on Wednesday appeared to be an elbow into Gortat's midsection; further review showed that his arm actually slipped as the teammate whom he was pulling up lost his grip. Given that the officials' mistakes have already cost Perkins and Boston a game, it seems like it would work an injustice to force him to miss Game 6. But you always get nervous when these things are left in the hands of the NBA.

To mix in at least a little basketball-related analysis, let me get to some bullets:

• On Wednesday, the Magic did the one thing I was afraid of heading into this series: They got hot from downtown. The Magic are a scary team precisely because they can go 13-for-25 from behind the arc. They can only beat us in the next two games if they keep shooting that way, but it's a little disconcerting that they are fully capable of doing so.
• For the second straight game, Rajon Rondo got into early foul trouble. He really needs to cut back on the silly reach-ins early in the game. He needs to be a game-changer on both ends of the floor, and foul trouble stifles that both offensively and defensively.
• Rashard Lewis had a second straight "better" game, with 14 points, but he still doesn't look anything like himself. He had all of five points until the fourth quarter, when the absences of Davis and Perk forced Pierce into covering him. Pierce is simply too short to guard Lewis, and Lewis drained a few jumpers over Pierce.
• I can't decide if Game 6 is a must-win. One the one hand, I have absolutely zero interest in returning to Orlando tied at 3, with the specter of becoming the first NBA team to blow a 3-0 series lead hanging over our heads. On the other hand, we've been as good or better on the road as we've been at home all season, so a road Game 7 isn't the disaster it seems like. Obviously, I want to close it out in Game 6, but I am not sure I'll be panicking if we don't. That's especially true if Davis and/or Perkins can't go.

Orlando 96, Boston 92 (Overtime)

Darn.

[recap] [box score]

The good news is that if this is all Orlando has, if we've now taken their best shot, we're fine. We'll close them out in five games and this will be nothing more than a bump in the road. Obviously, the Magic are a better team than this, and by "taken their best shot," I really mean that at least they haven't completely woken up: They won, but Jameer Nelson and Dwight Howard were the only two guys who played well. Rashard Lewis had nearly as many points as he'd had in the previous three games, but still only scored 13. Vince Carter was terrible. Matt Barnes hit a couple shots early, but that's it. Orlando showed some fight Monday night, but they still didn't look terribly like the team that they had been all year.

The bad news is that we let a chance to close the series slip away and now still have to beat a very good team one more time. The Magic are still dangerous, and you don't want to give a dangerous team a second chance.

Offense down the stretch is what killed us. We relied too much on isolations for Pierce and didn't run anything for the first several possessions of overtime. It was only after Jameer Nelson had hit a couple of threes did we dial something up for Ray Allen. Too often, we wait too long to call Ray's number. His baskets are worth the same amount when the score is tied as when we are down six. The other big offensive mistake we made was looking too hard for the three-pointer once Ray knocked down a couple. We hadn't been able to get the big stop on the other end, but Ray's shooting had it to within four with about a minute to go. I'm not sure what the play was, but it was clearly for some sort of three-pointer that we didn't need. Kevin Garnett passed up a wide open 20-footer, took an awkward dribble and then sailed a pass over Pierce's head and out of bounds. We just didn't have any continuity on offense for all of overtime.

I thought that at the start of this one, Boston didn't quite have the same intensity that we saw in the first three games. Nothing that suggested that they were dogging it or that they thought the series was already over, but they didn't have that something extra they'd had previously. I thought we didn't really come alive until the dust-up between Garnett and Howard.

Hopefully, we come out and take care of business in Game 5 in Orlando on Wednesday. With each game, the pressure mounts and the Magic gain confidence, so the sooner we can take care of this, the better.

Boston 95, Orlando 92

Huge win. Huge. The series is far from over and there's plenty of work to be done, but wow, this is big. I've been saying since the Cleveland series that I was more worried about the Cavs than the Magic, and even I didn't expect us to go into the Magic Kingdom and win the first two games.

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In honor of the (former) Washington Bullets winning the draft lottery (more below), let's do some bullets:

• Big game tonight offensively from Dwight Howard, but to echo a point ESPN's Mark Jackson kept making, Orlando can't beat Boston if Howard on the block is its first option. Boston is (rightly) willing to let Howard shoot jump hooks. Anytime he wants one, he can have it, as far as I'm concerned. For one, his buckets are worth two, not three. And for two, he's not polished enough offensively to be a consistent option, and he's too bad at the free throw line for Orlando to get comfortable going to him in the clutch.
• A lot will be made of Vince Carter's two misses from the stripe with around half a minute to go, but just as bad, in my opinion, was the shot he took a few minutes before that. He had hit a very nice J on the previous possession to put his team up one, and they got a stop on the other end. A bucket would have been huge. But Carter drove left and came up well short on a drifting, fading 13-footer with two hands in his face. Boston got a nails-tough turnaround from KG on the other end to take the lead for good.
• Huge mistake from J.J. Redick to dribble upcourt after rebounding Garnett's miss with under ten seconds to go rather than call an immediate timeout, obviously. He wasted several seconds and when Orlando finally did call timeout, they had to inbound from a disadvantageous position. The combination of those factors, plus some good D from the Celtics on the inbound pass, forced the ball into Jameer Nelson in the backcourt, which meant nothing but a desperation heave to tie. Stan Van Gundy said they went over the proper play in the huddle before Boston's possession, and ESPN talking head Tim Legler said the instinct to call timeout there is or should be wired into every NBA player's DNA. I wonder, though: Redick's been a bit player his entire career, until this year. He has little, if any, experience in these situations. Might the moment have gotten to him?
• Redick's turned into a nice player, by the way. Shoots exceptionally well and does everything else well enough. He still under-penetrates a bit; he's not willing to go to the basket and he doesn't go deep enough to draw the D before kicking it out, but that should come. I've never really liked Redick, but I give him a lot of credit for working hard to improve.
• Speaking of Orlando's final possession (see two bullets ago), as the teams were setting up, Jackson commented that were he the Celtics, he wouldn't bother guarding anybody inside the three-point line (the idea being that only a three will tie the game, so you don't mind a two). But he missed a key reason why you guard everyone, and it played out afterwards right in front of him. You guard Howard inside the arc because if you don't, he becomes a safety valve for the other team to inbound to and then cut off of.
• Right after Howard's flagrant foul on Pierce in the second quarter, I tweeted that you could book Paul for 40 points (he had 15 or so at the time). He came up a dozen short after only six points in the second half. Put the cuffs on me. We still won.
• We won in large part due to Rajon Rondo's big offensive night, including a huge jumper late to put us up three. I thought we went to Rondo a little too much early in the fourth -- leaning heavily on one guy isn't the kind of basketball I like to see us playing -- but that kid is a bona fide star. Not future star -- star, right now, and for the foreseeable future.
• This series might be too physical and too intense for the officials. It's a very difficult series to officiate, a lot of contact on and away from the ball. They missed a bunch, and I'm not just talking about stuff they let go. Kendrick Perkins' disqualifying foul, a moving screen with nearly eight minutes remaining, jumps immediately to mind (I can't figure out what Perk did that Howard and Lewis weren't doing nearly every time they set a screen), but it's not just that. Pierce's fifth foul really should have been KG's fourth, which became significant when Pierce fouled out sending Carter to the line for his two big misses. And just before that, a late foul on Redick should have been given to Nelson. They also called a bad offensive foul on Redick when he crashed into Glen Davis on the way to the basket -- Baby was still getting set when Redick went up -- though that's probably karmic retribution for all the bogus charges Redick drew at Duke. I'm not blaming them; the players are just making the game that difficult to officiate.

Game 3 isn't until Saturday (8:30 p.m. Eastern, ESPN) so Orlando has a lot of time to regroup. We obviously have them right where we want them, but I'm not ready to declare us Eastern Conference champs. Orlando came back from the dead to beat us last year. Still, I go to bed a very happy and confident Celtics fan tonight. I didn't believe all the "we'll turn it on for the playoffs" bullshit during the regular season when we were struggling, but I believe it now.

Muy Beno: As mentioned above, the Wizards won the draft lottery tonight and with it, the right to draft John Wall. A few points:

• Most importantly, Washington's luck is also my luck. I'm in a somewhat complex fantasy-league-slash-GM-simulation and our rookie draft lottery is keyed to the NBA lottery, and I had Washington and New Orleans. 2010-2011 is the year of the Revs!
• I don't care what anyone says; this draft isn't that good, certainly not better than last year's. You'll see me write more about this during the days leading up to the draft this summer, but look at the mocks and tell me where the impact guys are. Wall is good, but he's not Derrick Rose or Tyreke Evans. The big guys are projects. Evan Turner is a helluva player, but you have to be a truly special talent to excel at the wing right away in the L, and I'm not sure Turner is that special talent.
• Finally, congratulations to the Sixers for jumping ahead into the second slot, but did they really think they'd get Wall by sending J'rue Holliday as their lottery representative? You can't send your current point guard of the future off to get the point guard of the future! With Holliday and the new Russian owner of the Nets as her competition once it was down to the final three, there was no doubt that Irene Pollin, wife of the late, great Wizards owner and NBA fixture Abe, would snag the top pick.

X X X X X X X X X 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

It's time to acknowledge what this post-season is all about for the Celtics: chasing another championship.

"Well, duh" you might be saying. But if you're saying that, you're probably not being honest with yourself. Because heading into the playoffs, the best you could realistically have been asking for was a first-round triumph over Miami and then a good showing against Cleveland -- something like stretching the Cavs to seven games.

But then the Celtics dispatched the Heat rather easily in the first round, and then, lo and behold, looked like they could hang with the Cavs while splitting two games in Cleveland. And when Boston decisively closed out Cleveland by winning the final three games of the series, well, we all should have known.

But we didn't. At least most of us didn't. We were too caught up in the euphoria of beating Cleveland, or too fascinated by the apparent collapse of King James and the Cavs, or too impressed by Orlando's consecutive sweeps of Charlotte and Atlanta.

But now? After the Cs wrested home-court advantage away from the Magic on Sunday? We're on notice. Boston's playing for a ring, and they're championship aspirations are just as realistic as Orlando's or LA's.

Some quick notes on the game:

• A rather pedestrian game for Rajon Rondo, who is the Celtic most responsible for the win over Cleveland. Rondo wasn't bad until the final two or three minutes, when he made a couple of very poor decisions forcing the action, but he wasn't spectacular, either. I give credit to a couple of things. One is the presence of Dwight Howard; Rondo looked spooked in rushing his shots when he got into the lane. The second is the fact that the Magic guard him more or less straight up. I've always thought it was a mistake to play off of him the way the Cavs did; he's so quick and crafty that giving him a running start is a mistake. (This strategy was more or less born in the 2008 Finals, when the Lakers used it successfully for a couple of games. I attribute its effectiveness simply to Rondo not being accustomed to having that kind of room to operate. Now that he's seen it a fair bit, it's rarely effective).
• The two miscues I alluded to above came on consecutive possessions in the fourth with Boston trying to hang on to a lead that had, at one point, been 20 points. Rondo first picked up a charge trying to drive through three Magic players -- one of whom was the lurking Howard, who was probably even money to block the shot. The next time down, Rondo forced a runner that Howard batted away. But Rondo's brain freezes weren't the only ones that plagued the Celtics late. With a minute to go and Boston up five, Ray Allen chose to go one-on-one with Jameer Nelson in the open court, with Howard trailing the play. Allen dribbled the ball off of Nelson's leg, it resulted in a tie-up, and the Celtics lost the ensuing jump ball. Allen also failed to block out Nelson from the top of the key on a missed free throw with about eigh seconds left; Nelson's putback cut the lead to two. (Allen, to his credit, sealed the game with a couple free throws on the ensuing possession.) Eliminate those four silly mistakes and there's less of an Orlando comeback to speak of.
• 22/9/5 for Paul Pierce and 25/7/3 for Allen. I'm not 100% sure, but I believe that Stan Van Gundy's decision to put Vince Carter on Pierce and Matt Barnes on Allen represents a shift away from the status quo. If that's the case, or even if it isn't, I can't see this for the whole series. Guys like Barnes are in the NBA pretty much solely to guard the opposition's focal point on offense, to get under a star's skin during a seven-game series. Pierce will torch Carter if allowed to.
• It's amazing to watch an athlete as powerful as Howard try to score around smaller guys like Kendrick Perkins and Glen Davis, rather than through them.
• Rasheed Wallace came up big off the bench with 13 points, and really got under Howard's skin a bit.

Game 2 is Tuesday night at 8:30 pm Eastern on ESPN. If you're interested in tracking the West (some advance scouting, knock on wood?), the Lakers and Suns tip off their series at 9 pm Eastern on Monday on TNT.

Bring on the Magic

Well, I can't say I expected to be here, but I'm certainly happy to be.

The Celtics take on Orlando in the Eastern Conference finals, with Game 1 today at 3:30 p.m. Eastern. The Magic are 8-0 in this post-season, sweeping Charlotte and Atlanta in the first two rounds. Those of you who recall Boston's struggles against the Hawks this season might be a little scared by that statistic, but don't be; for whatever reason, Orlando consistently blew Atlanta out this season.

The truth is that I've been too busy with exams (now complete) that I haven't had time to watch the playoffs, other than Boston games. So I can't really tell you too much about how the Magic are playing now, whether they've turned a corner or just had some favorable matchups.

What I can do is give some more or less random thoughts heading into the series.

• I believe that if Boston advances to the Finals, Paul Pierce will be the reason. He was more or less neutralized in the Cleveland series, a casualty of an unfavorable matchup with LeBron James. His job gets significantly easier against Orlando. Stan Van Gundy has said that Matt Barnes will start out on Ray Allen, which means Pierce draws Vince Carter. The book on Carter on defense is the same as the book on Carter on offense; good when he wants to be, but he doesn't seem to want to be consistently. Pierce let the other guys do the heavy lifting against the Cavs, but it's now time for the Truth to shine.
• There really are favorable matchups all over the court, on both ends. A big one is going to be Kevin Garnett and Rashard Lewis, who basically shouldn't be able to guard each other now that KG's a step slower than he used to be. The Big Ticket was as assertive on offense as he gets against Cleveland, and I'd like to see him keep that up by taking Lewis into the post. The more Lewis has to work on defense, the more tired his legs get, and the smaller the basket looks in the fourth quarter.
• What's interesting about the apparent mismatches on both ends of the court is that in at least two of the matchups during the regular season, neither team could put the ball in the basket for huge portions of the game. It's a testament to how good both teams are defensively that this many talented offensive players have such a difficult time scoring on each other. Some credit goes to the players, but a great deal of it goes to the coaching staffs for their defensive schemes.
• Boston beat Cleveland despite some serious foul trouble among its bigs. Like Cleveland, Orlando is deeper than Boston, but I think a quick whistle may actually favor us in this series. Dwight Howard has not become the offensive force his physical gifts suggest he could be, and Kendrick Perkins guards him better than anyone else in the league does, but he's a game-changer on defense and on the glass. He's also consistently shown that he'll allow the officials to take him out of the game mentally, complaining that he doesn't get the same calls on offense that they hit him with on defense. A couple quick ones on Howard would change the tenor of any game.
• I think Doc Rivers needs to be willing to go to Shelden Williams earlier than he did against Cleveland. On at least one occasion, Doc let Rasheed Wallace pick up four first-half fouls before bringing Williams in (I believe Perkins and Glen Davis had three at the time). I know Doc likes to keep his playoff rotations short and Davis has really stepped up his game in the post-season, but Williams has performed well enough on the rare occasions his number has been called and I think we may want to conserve Wallace and Davis a bit more.
• This is going to be a contentious, physical series. Both teams are packed with egos; Orlando doesn't think we respect them; and we're looking for payback from last year, when Orlando took the last two games (including Game 7 in Boston) to advance to the Eastern Conference finals. Expect a lot of talking and a lot of technicals. Keeping our heads about us will be vital.

**** yes!

Game 6 Tonight

Game 5 was a stunner, a 120-88 blowout in which everyone played well on our end. Boston led by six at halftime, a low number when you consider that LeBron James hadn't yet made a field goal. Watching the game, I couldn't help but feel that James and the Cavs would wake up in the second half, and feared that we hadn't taken full advantage of their sluggish first 24 minutes. But James wouldn't make a bucket for the first six minutes of the third quarter, either, by which time the Celtics had extended the lead to 13. It was 17 at the end of the third, and still Cleveland never put up a fight -- despite the fact that Boston's blown big second-half leads this year, including in Game 1 of this series (and nearly Game 2).

The Cavs seem to be in disarray. For the second straight year, James' strengthened supporting cast -- now with Shaquille O'Neal and Antawn Jamison in addition to Mo Williams -- has not performed up to expectations. Their coach is on the hot seat. Their owner was in the stands for Game 5 and has voiced his displeasure. And James, while he is allowed a bad game now and then, is being (rightfully) pilloried for his lack of humility and focus.

It's tempting to say, then, that all of this adds up to a pretty strong chance that Boston closes it out tonight at home. I can't help but be reminded, however, of last year's Eastern semis with Orlando, in which the Magic seemed on the verge of collapse after Game 5, only to come back and shoot the lights out for two games, taking Game 7 on our home court. The Cavs are professionals the way the Magic are, and they still have the most dangerous player in the game. I expect a full effort tonight. No, if we win tonight -- and I think we will -- it will be because we've been a better team than Cleveland; not during the regular season, but during this series.

Viewing Alert: Game Five

By now, you've probably heard about Game Four, in particular Rajon Rondo's singular performance: 29 points, 18 rebounds, 13 assists, a gaudy stat line matched only by Wilt Chamberlain and Oscar Robertson in NBA playoff history. Rondo was absolutely spectacular on Sunday, controlling the offense, tirelessly clearing the glass and pushing the ball in 47 incredible minutes. Big props to Tony Allen, too, who contributed 15 points off the bench, including a number of steals and buckets during a decisive 10-0 run to start the fourth quarter.

Boston's performance -- Rondo's performance -- sent this series, the only competitive one of this second round, back to Cleveland tied at 2-2. What I loved about Game Four is how Boston bounced back from the Game Three thrashing, even when they went down a quick seven points to start the game.

Rondo's dominance of the game and the series has led Cleveland to at least ponder the possibility of putting LeBron James on him. From a Celtics standpoint, I think I like this; Paul Pierce has struggled the entire series, not a little bit because of James' defense. If James is on Rondo, Pierce will have a more favorable matchup, and perhaps he'll get off the schneid in Game 5.

Tip is at 8 p.m. Eastern on TNT. Enjoy.

Boston 104, Cleveland 86

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I caught only the fourth quarter of Game 2, which means I missed most of the good stuff and only saw the Celtics come closer than anyone would have liked to blowing a 25-point lead in nine minutes. I'm pretty sure Cleveland never actually got closer than ten, but an Antawn Jamison jumper nearly made it seven and it was really starting to look like the Cs weren't going to get a call or make a bucket at all the rest of the way. But Pierce exploited a mismatch with Mo Williams for a bucket and things seemed to get easier from there.

I've had a few people say to me things along the lines of "It should be 2-0," referencing the fact that Boston blew a double-digit halftime lead in Game 1. While it's undoubtedly true that the Cs should have won the first game of the series, I have to doubt that Cleveland would have been as flat as it was for most of Game 2 if they had been in danger of falling into a 2-0 hole after two games in Cleveland.

The series now moves back to Boston, which usually would be a comforting thing. I say "usually" because this hasn't been a usual year. The Celtics were actually two games better on the road than at home during the regular season, making them the only playoff team with a better home record than road record, and the only NBA team this season, other than Philadelphia, to win more away games than games in its own barn. Things looked a bit better once the second half of Game 1 against Miami started, so hopefully we can keep that going.

Game's on Friday on ESPN (7 p.m. Eastern tip). I don't have another exam until Monday, so hopefully I'll have some more X-and-O related stuff after that one. For the last several weeks, I haven't been telling you much of anything you don't already know. Thanks for sticking with me.

ESPN steals my idea (plus Game 2 tonight)

Loaded up ESPN this morning, and this is what I see. (I am not at all photo-savvy, so apologies for the tiny picture and the MSPaint-ness of it.) If you can't quite tell what's going on, it's a picture of LeBron James above the headline "Rhymes With Royalty." The story's about James gushing about Akron and the increasingly overwhelming probability that he'll remain a Cav this offseason.

Whatever. C'mon, ESPN; not even a hat tip?

Game 2 is tonight in Cleveland (8 p.m. Eastern, TNT). I don't have time to really talk about Game 1, but my thoughts can be summed up in two points. First, the closeness of the game suggests to me that we have a chance in this series. Second, the fact that we have a chance in this series means that letting this one slip through our fingers hurts that much more.

Let's keep the goal in mind, though. The mission is to win the series. To win the series, we need to do two things: Win three games at home, and win one in Cleveland. The former is hardly a given, particularly the way we've played in Boston this year, but if we can't hold serve at TD Garden, then how we play in Cleveland is immaterial. We've got up to three more chances to win on the road in this series. Tonight's one of them. I'd like to get this one, but I won't panic if we don't.