Celtics

A quick reminder: Last year, when the Celtics brought together Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen, most pundits stated that while the Celtics were obviously improved, they would struggle to get these three superstars to mesh and their bench would be too weak for them to be a true championship contender. This was a fair reason however - bringing star players together did not guarantee anything, in fact, there are very few cases where a team with one superstar acquired two more superstars to join him and it garnered success.

What a game, what a season.
I've had the pleasure of attending several Celtics games with my dad, a Celtics season-ticket holder since 1979 (he got them the day after the Celtics drafted a fellow by the name of Larry Bird, you may have heard of him). Game 6 was the most enjoyable experience of my life as a sports fan. There is NOTHING that compares to seeing your favorite team win the championship. It is the ultimate fan reward. Being there with my dad was extra special as well; he's raised me as a Boston sports fan, to the point where I don't even know when my love of the Celtics, Red Sox & Patriots began - it was just always the way.

Boston is up 2-1 over the Lakers and Game 4 is tonight in LA. The Celtics will win one of the next two games in LA and finish the series up in Boston and take home banner # 17. The Lakers shouldn't even bother to show up tonight because this series is already over. I know the Laker fans are going to piss and moan about this bold statement but the truth is the Celtics have this wrapped up and I'll tell you why.

10. Kobe Bryant had to score 36 points for the Lakers to barely pull off Game 3. Not an easy task to repeat 3 more times against the Celtic's defense.

The NBA Championship is upon us. I won’t hype the hooplah surrounding the dreamlike match up between the two most vaunted franchises in the association. You can get that on ESPN in fact in between updates on Big Brown’s cracked hoof and the latest Joba related event it’s just about as suffocating coverage as you can get. Instead I’m going to tell you why all the experts are wrong and how the C’s will win the series.

What’s my name?
Rondooo
And who am I rollin’ with huh?
My Celticssss

Let's look at the situation the Celtics faced last night: They were playing their 3rd game on an 8-day, 5-game road trip, their 2nd game of back-to-back nights, they had exerted lots of energy making a huge comeback against the defending champs the previous night, they were playing against the Western Conference leader, who also had won an incredible 22 straight games, and they were without their 3rd best player, Ray Allen. The deck wasn't exactly stacked in their favor.

Sunday night at 9:30est the Lakers and the Celtics will face off in a highly entertaining match up at the Staples Center. The teams are relevant again, it's going to be a whole lot of fun, but this isn’t the playoffs. It’ll be sports entertainment at its pinnacle. Expect brilliant emotion rousing montages of Bird and Magic and the good ‘ole days, followed up by the new look Celtics and reemerging Lakers storming onto the court with the fervor of a German Blitzkrieg through Poland.

I must say, last night, the Celtics put on a clinic. I'm the son of a die-hard Celtics fan who raised me to love them all the same, and I've been attending Celtics games for longer than I can remember, and I honestly cannot remember going to a game and seeing the Celts completely and utterly destroy their opponent quite like the Celtics did last night. And I remember going to games in 1986, when the C's went 50-1 at home (regular season and playoffs). I saw those legendary teams of the 80s, and I don't remember and ass-whooping like that. The final score doesn't tell the whole story.

WOW. That sums it up. The C's are back. I can't remember being at a C's game with the stadium buzzing like that in sometime. KG did not disappoint and introduced himself to Boston to the tune of 22 points, 20 rebounds, 4 assists & at least 5 sneers & screams. He is a beast - every rebound seemed to go to him. And with KG in the mix, Pierce saw very little double-teams, and made Caron Butler his personal whipping boy. Isn't Butler known as a good defender?

Danny Ainge made some serious moves this past off-season that should make the Celtics matter in Boston, again. Can the new big 3 (Pierce, Garnett, and Allen) bring back the glory days of championships that the old big 3 (Bird, McHale, Parrish) were able to do?