Author: Britt Robson

^{(AFP/Nicholas Kamm)}

Game #2, NBA Finals: Los Angeles 102, Boston 108

Series to Date: Boston up 2-0

1. No D in Los Angeles Lakers

After watching the last 2 and a half quarters live and then the entire game on tape, I’ve got to say that for all my babble about the superiority of the Western Conference this season, the Celts lose last night’s game if the opponent was the Cavs, and probably the Pistons too. What a dreadful, dreadful lack of defensive commitment shown by LA, beginning at the top with Kobe Bryant–has an all defensive first-teamer ever mailed it in so thoroughly at that end of the floor in a big game?–and extending down to poor Trevor Ariza, who needed GPS to figure out where Paul Pierce was on the court during his mercifully brief 7:19.

These were supposed to be the old, veteran Celtics, the team whose Big 3 have double-digit years in the league and who bring dinosaurs like PJ and Sam I Am off the pine. These were supposed to be the neo-Showtime Lakers, young and fleet, especially lanky big men Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom and the go-go backup backcourt of Sasha Vujacic and Jordan Farmar. So why did the Celts have more fast break points, 14-10? Why was Doc Rivers correctly telling his team at halftime that every time they forced a miss they could get layups and open treys if they pushed in transition? Yeah, the Lakers were embarrassed on the boards in Game One and determined not to let it happen again, so they hit their offensive glass hard and likewise posted up frequently in the first half. But how many times did we see whatever Lakers bothered to hustle back in transition necessarily play out of position to staunch that early flow, creating all sorts of chaos and mismatches if indeed the Celts had to wait for a second wave of offense on the controlled break–that is if they didn’t score immediately?

Things didn’t get much better when the tempo slowed and the Celts operated their half-court sets. The Lakers’ pick-and-roll recognition and response was pathetic–if Kevin Garnett had hit half of the wide open midrange jumpers he usually knocks down, Boston would have been up 20 instead of 12 at the break. (And BTW, KG very rarely got those looks against Cleveland or Detroit or even on the road against Atlanta.) Of course Boston often didn’t bother with the pick and roll because Vlad Rad and Ariza were totally stumped by the fact that Paul Pierce could put the ball on the floor–that newfangled dribble move! They must have been reading all the breathless hype about how banged up and incapacitated Pierce was from his 96 second absence in Game One. That’s about as far from "the Truth" as if he’d had to tap out from a figure-4 leg lock from Ric Flair in wrestling. In any case, imagine how badly Radmanovic would have looked if Pierce had two good knees.

Kobe? It was hard to tell who he was guarding half the time, although twice running out to slap palms with Ray Allen on the latter’s uncontested treys provided some clues. A couple of times Kobe was matched up on Leon Powe, and we know how that worked out–well, better than when hapless Luke Walton was forced to try and guard somebody.

You really could go right down the Lakers’ roster. Odom totally allowed the wily vet PJ Brown to get in his head at both ends of the floor. Derek Fisher hasn’t gotten the memo that you see if Rajon Rondo is hitting his jumper before you allow him to become a playmaker, especially if you are much slower than Rondo (who had just 4 shots versus 16 assists). RonyTuriaf was too slow for Powe–and for PJ Brown.

Put bluntly, the Lakers played shockingly bad defense, and that, to me, was the ballgame. Consider that the Celts shot 46% in the Atlanta series, 42.5% versus the Cavs, 45.8% against the Pistons, and even 42.1% in Game One against the Lakers. Last night they were 52.9%, including 9-14, or 64.3%, from beyond the arc, and that’s with KG having an off night at 7-19 FG. Boston’s bench shot 11-16 FG–69%.

If Jackson and his crew are smart, they will change their priorities for the next game. Put Kobe on Pierce and tell him to shut Pierce down. Kobe is capable of it and it would get his mind off trying to do too much at the other end. Pierce will try and get him in foul trouble but the refs will have heat on them for the free throw disparity in Game Two and won’t call the borderline contact. Put Vujacic on Ray Allen and tell him that he is only allowed to shoot as often as he makes Allen miss. On offense, Kobe will be taxed from actually playing some defense, so Los Angles should play more inside-out with ball movement, posting up Gasol and running Odom off screens and forcing KG to decide which one he is guarding. Because if a dinged up Perkins or an ancient PJ Brown can stop Gasol in the low block, the series is pretty much over anyway.

2. Overrated: Referee Bias and Laker 4th Q Comeback

Anyone who cares about pro hoops intimately knows the feeling of believing your team is getting screwed by the refs. The violence you wish to do is totally out of proportion (hopefully) with the way you normally view setbacks and petty grievances and injustices in your non-fan existence. I’ve found myself rooting for the Lakers against the Nuggets and the Jazz, and rooting against them versus the Spurs. I favor the Celtics in this series due to my longstanding observation of KG during his time in Minnesota, and my growing respect throughout these playoffs for their team-wide commitment to defense. But I have affection for the Lakers too, and have found that you really detest the refs when you are not only pulling for someone to win, but equally pulling for the other team to lose, and the whistles therefore double down on your passion.

This long preface is meant to stake my claim as a slight, but certainly not blind, Celtic partisan here. To Laker fans screaming bloody murder about the free throw discrepancy, I understand–but don’t feel–your pain. Remember, I’m the guy who claimed the Lakers’ Game Four win against the Spurs was "tainted" due to the referees. Believe me when I say that the anger will subside and perspective will set in. And the perspective that is required here–as was true in the LA-SA Game Four–is that the refs weren’t the difference here.

Let’s get specific. Early foul trouble on Kobe Bryant was to my eyes (and I played back the tape a lot on my second viewing of the game) comprised of both legitimate and questionable calls. The first foul, when Pierce tried to rub him off on a screen and he reached around to keep contact with Allen, was an understandable call and a legit foul. It also could have been a no-call. The second foul–the arm-shove to Allen before he got the ball–was deemed by Van Gundy and Jackson as a cheap foul, but it looked pretty blatant to me and was in any case unnecessary. Whether or not it was called, it was a stupid move by Kobe and a tribute to Ray Allen, whose defense on Bryant has been something of a revelation this series. The third foul on Bryant was an obvious flop by Paul Pierce–that’s not the way players fall, if they fall at all, when someone runs into them. It was a borderline flop if Kobe had the ball and was going to the hoop: that it was whistled as Kobe was trying to move through a pick (and Pierce is a master at slightly moving to the side on his picks) was a bad call, especially so because it was #3 and sent him to the bench. Ditto the technical on Kobe after the layup seemed like a rabbit-eared move. I’m all for ringing up technicals on blatant protests by players, but it is being enforced so haphazardly–hey, Kendrick Perkins could get a technical every single time he commits a foul, and ditto Gasol–that to whistle Kobe, especially when it looked like a Celtic reached in and raked him during his drive, was bad judgment by the official. Also, there was more than once when Kobe got hammered driving the lane–once
Pierce knocked him so obviously that Kobe changed his hand and scored lefty–and no whistle was called. So, yes, I believe there was a pro-Boston bias on balance to the calls. I think even more than Kobe, Gasol got screwed, but some of this is Gasol’s fault–he’s just not very aggressive by nature down in the paint, and that matters to the refs. Nevertheless, I saw Gasol get fouled as often as I saw Leon Powe get fouled and Powe had 13 free throws to Gasol’s one.

So why don’t I think it swung the outcome of the game in which LA only lost by six points? Because the large lead caused the Celts to lose their focus, as happened at least twice before in the Pistons series. These lapses are a weakness, but thus far not a fatal weakness, with Boston. The smaller the lead, the tighter their focus, and while that was indeed an impressive scramble-back by the Lakers, it was that combination of one team’s desperation and another’s nonchalance that makes for second-rate, sort of novelty basketball. I don’t believe that improbable comeback is any more successful if the refs call a totally balanced game.

The ending of that comeback, by the way, was to my eyes poetic justice. On the Celtic end, Boston put the ball in the hands of the person who is their crunchtime assassin, Paul Pierce. (A reader/commenter briefly convinced me that Kevin Garnett has an equal right to that claim for the Celts, but after reviewing some old crunchtimes for Boston in these playoffs, I reverted back to thinking that when it comes to the team needing a basket, Pierce is going to be their preference about 8 out of 10 times.) Pierce drew the foul and hit the crucial free throws. At the other end of the floor, the Lakers’ and arguably the NBA’s premiere crunchtime assassin never touched the ball because Sasha Vujacic mistakenly continues to believe he’s the second coming of Manu Ginobili and got his ill-advised shot blocked by Pierce. Replays showed Kobe getting open on the weak side just before Vujacic launched. A fitting ending to a horrible game if you are a Lakers fan.

3. Worst Assist Ever Called

Hey, I grew up worshipping the Celtics, who won their first ring with Russell when I was five years old, growing up approximately 7 miles from the old Garden, and even I think all this "Celtic tradition" stuff is getting out of hand. Don’t believe the hype.

And speaking of hype, does everyone recall the play that typified LA’s brain dead, foot cobwebbed, approach to defense last night, when Leon Powe dribbled the length of the court and sank a layup while Gasol, Vlad Rad and others had garlands strewn in his path to the hoop? Perhaps you’ll recall that Powe received the ball beneath the foul line in his own end, and thus had to dribble about 85 of the 94 feet. Well, the player who gave him the ball–it could have been an out-of-bounds pass, or perhaps just a "why don’t you bring it up, Leon?" gesture–was Rajon Rondo. And the official scorer in Boston gave him an assist on the play. Sort of puts those 16 assists Rondo tallied, and the 31 allotted to the Celtics team, in a new, less favorable light.

^{(AP Photo/Winslow Townson)}
 

Los Angeles 88, Boston 98

Series thus far: Boston 1-0

1. The Buck Stops With Pierce

I firmly believe that Boston’s postseason prospects took a dramatic leap forward when Paul Pierce went off for a monster performance in Game 7 of the Eastern semis versus Cleveland. Up to that point, the Celtics unbelievably still hadn’t sorted out a pecking order for their offense.

I’ve generally been contemptuous of the way ex-players who do color commentary on NBA games, especially in the playoffs, constantly focus on pushing the alpha status of the stars, or, conversely, blaming those same stars when they aren’t expanding that alpha profile to (in my view) too lopsided and thus predictable levels. But the greater point they are trying to emphasize is legitimate, and particularly acute on the Celts: There needs to be a consensus on the crunchtime assassin, the player considered first as you sort through your options. That doesn’t mean the assassin takes the shot: He might be the decision-maker, or merely the effective decoy. But as things get increasingly tight and emotionally chaotic, you don’t want three or four players thinking they are The Man, and, perhaps worse, all the role players unsure about how they prioritize their trustworthy options on offense.

I don’t tend to watch a lot of coverage directly before or after games, so it is fortunate that I was able to catch what became for me a revealing interview with the Celts’ "Big 3" right before the Atlanta series. The best question was simultaneously put to all three at once: If the game is on the line, who takes the last shot? Garnett and Pierce both said Ray Allen at precisely the same time–and at the same time Allen himself was saying Whoever has the best look. But then Allen went through his wretched shooting slump, and besides, as longtime go-to guys on their respective teams, Pierce and KG themselves didn’t seem totally certain about how they pecking order lay. But then Pierce, despite the enormously taxing assignment of guarding LeBron, went off for 41 in a series clincher that blatantly carried the Celts to victory, the kind of performance that turns a player who is a crunchtime contender into the crunchtime assassin in the eyes of his teammates and, hopefully, himself. It was huge for Pierce, and huge for the Celts.

In retrospect, Boston was lucky to be able to survive in the postseason for so long before this role-defining performance. Part of it was that Atlanta and to some extent Cleveland just wasn’t capable enough to capitalize. But let’s give the bulk of the credit where it is due: Boston’s defense covers for a multitude of their offensive sins. In fact, I’d argue that the phenomenal democracy, teamwork and ego-less trust in each other required to play the sort of suffocating D Boston deploys probably was a factor in their inability to create a pecking order at the other end of the court. Great defenses have no pecking order–they are, as the mostly accurate cliche goes, only as strong as their weakest link.

Now this alpha-dog thing can also get overblown, which is why I get impatient with Magic Johnson and Charles Barkley leaning on it for so much of their analysis. I’d argue that Kobe Bryant’s ability to ratchet back his alpha tendencies played a huge role in the Lakers’ revitalization this season, for example. But I don’t think it can be overlooked that the Celts are a much more dangerous team now that it is clear that Pierce is the straw that stirs the drink for them on offense. We saw it in the clinching Game Six against Detroit, and we saw it last night in the all-important (for the underdog Celts, anyway) Game One of the NBA Finals.

By now, many of you are wondering how I’m overlooking Kevin Garnett. Granted, KG’s break the gates in an aggressive and highly efficient and effective manner on offense gave Boston a great boost and launched their Finals with noteworthy confidence. And to clarify, I’m hardly knocking KG–I picked him as the league MVP (it was a mental tie with Kobe; you can go back in my archives and read the tortuous prose). But that’s because Garnett was the league’s greatest difference-maker on the most important end of the court–the defensive side. As a career 20 ppg scorer, KG is no slouch on offense, obviously–for one thing, he is a criminally underrated midrange jumpshooter. But, as has been said many times, whether in criticism, confusion, exasperation or resignation, Garnett does not have the natural temperament to be the assassin on offense–he’s too selfiless, too legitimately team-oriented, and, by now, both too inexperienced for someone of his NBA tread (I think Bill Simmons initially made that point) and too laden with controversy (a la T-Mac) about his ability or lack of ability to handle the role. Bottom line, when Garnett missed eight shots in a row down the stretch last night, it wasn’t a psychological buzz-kill for the Celts. But if Pierce had been missing those relatively open looks? Yeah, I think the concern would have been heightened.

At the risk of sounding like a grumpy old man, I also chafe at the melodramatization of merely piquant or poignant moments. Thus the Pierce-LeBron shootout had to be anointed as a Bird-Dominique redux and Pierce’s return to the court after his unfounded fears that he had seriously injured his knee was hailed in terms only slightly less hyped than the great Willis Reed legend. So let’s remember two facts: Pierce was sidelined with the knee injury for a grand total of 1:45–just 105 seconds–during which time the Celts outscored the Lakers 6-0. So, yes, losing Pierce for the rest of the game, let alone the series, would have been a steep challenge for Boston to overcome, but the net effect of the whole thing was great bonus to the Celts–players have sat because of foul trouble a lot longer than Pierce was in the locker room, so his actual absence was negligible in terms of court time, yet the psychological advantage of first facing the prospect of going into crunchtime without your assassin, and then having that daunting prospect suddenly vanish was all mental gravy. Cap that with Pierce bookending his injury with the mini-explosion to start the second half and the pair of treys that, to me, permanently shifted the momentum of the game over to Boston. For the third quarter, it rang up as 15 points on 5-5 FGs, two dimes, a rebound, steal and turnover in 9:27. It was Kobe-esque.

(Update: For those of you who usually don’t read the comments, I urge you to scroll down at least this once and check out the rebuttal from reader drza44–at 3:19 on 6/6–who argues that if anyone is the Celts’ crunchtime alpha scorer, it is Garnett, not Pierce. It’s an argument more grounded in factual reality than the one I just offered.)

2. In Praise of Celtic Defense

Of the 15 players who attempted more than one field goal, 12 missed over half their shots. The accurate players? Pierce, who was incredibly efficient with 22 points on only ten shots (7-10 FG). But the other two, at 6-11 FG apiece, were Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom. That’s because the Celtics were determined to pressure the perimeter and the midrange between the arc and paint, a strategy that worked beautifully. I frankly don’t know if Tom Thibodeau is the defensive genius he’s reputed to be or whether Doc Rivers is unfairly shortchanged, but it is obvious that having a veteran team that hasn’t won very often–an experienced, yet hungry team, in other words–is a great recipe for being to execute supple, seemingly complicated defensive sets and rotations with a minimum of blown assignments. I mean, Ray Allen is nobody’s idea of a quality defender, but I counted at least three times when Kobe was spinning away from his man and turned right into a rotating Allen on the double team–twice it caused him to alter his shot. The Celti
cs defended the perimeter with dogged help for each other and they anticipated rather than reacted to Kobe off the dribble–kudos to whoever logged the film time to divine his tendencies and figure out ways to deter it. Kobe shot 9-26 FG and no more than a handful of those attempts were easy. It was a rugged night for the MVP, and I’d wager that in the next game or two he is going to be a lot more aggressive at drawing the foul rather than trying to get clear. When it comes to disarming assassins, how does a pair of free throws in the final 11:48 of this ballgame sound in terms of shutting Kobe down? Two points. Zero field goals after twelve seconds were gone in the fourth period.

Meanwhile, even without Kobe’s 0-3 from behind the arc, the rest of the Lakers went 3-11 3pt FG. Contrast that with the Celts’ 6-19 and the free throw disparity (28-35 versus 21-28) and that’s the ballgame in a contest where the overall field goal percentage was a virtual tie (32-76 for the Celts, 32-77 for the Lakers).

Boston’s luxury of not having to double either Gasol or Odom also has something to do with their superb perimeter and midrange defensive activity–the personnel is there. But the schemes were likewise very impressive. In fact, after watching Detroit miss a bevy of open looks in the previous series, I’d figured the Lakers’ ball movement to be a huge advantage for this series. And it still may work out that way as the teams inevitably keep adjusting to each other. But Boston’s team defense–I’ll hand out an individual kudo or two in the next point–was simply marvelous in its forethought and coordination.

3. Kudos and Brickbats

How good was PJ Brown on Gasol after Kendrick Perkins got dinged and in foul trouble in the second half? The best bench guys deepen the personification of their team’s identity and Brown, as well as Posey, definitely qualify: They are fundamentally rock-solid, defense-first, emotionally intense yet relatively unflappable players.

On the other end, what idiot was lauding the backcourt depth of this Lakers team just the other day? I didn’t like the decision-making of Vujacic and Farmar in the previous postseason series but couldn’t argue with the overall results. But watching Sasha bomb away, and clank, while a frustrated Kobe called for the ball with the Celts up just 90-85 with 2:34 to play, crystallized a game’s worth of bad backup play from the gold and purple.

Actually there wasn’t much backup guard out of the Lakers yesterday, was there? I guess I understand why Phil Jackson flipped Kobe over on to Sam Cassell after Sammy got hot on Derek Fisher in the first half–a temporary solution for a temporary brushfire–but why was Kobe picking up Cassell during Cassell’s second-half rotation? Why not use Jordan Farmar for more than 7:11–at least let Cassell post Farmar up once or twice and see what happens. Because meanwhile, if Farmar could pick up where he left off offensively in the San Antonio series, Cassell would have been in a heap of trouble. Personally, I think the law of averages says that at this point in his career Cassell will follow a boon with a drought, which happened, as we saw, and would have with Fisher or Vujacic or probably even Farmar on him.

^{Photo by Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images}

Eastern Conference Finals, Game #4: Boston 75, Detroit 94

Series record: Tied 2-2

1. The "Little 3"

I’m not the first one to unimaginatively pervert the "Big 3" sobriquet for tonight’s no-show troika of Celtic stars, and the way they are playing, I certainly won’t be the last. Among Boston’s starting five, the two role players stepped up fine, especially Kendrick Perkins. But the stars were all dim bulbs, collectively shooting 11-38 FG and refusing to take control of what remarkably, all things considered, was a winnable game until about 3 minutes left to play.

Begin with Paul Pierce, the man whose guidance of the offense in the half-court is what ultimately swung the Celtic series versus Cleveland. Tonight Pierce had his shot blocked as many times as it went in the hoop, making just 3-14 FG while getting housed three time. Worse than that, though, was that he doled one measly assist compared to four turnovers. Yes, his defense on Tayshaun Prince was stout, and yes he got to the line 11 times and sank ten of them. But in the half-court sets, Pierce, who has become the floor general and go-to creator, never really made anything happen via either the pass or the jumper.

On to Kevin Garnett, who had an embarrassing night first getting his shot blocked from behind by Jason Maxiell on a breakaway, then getting shown up on two straight defensive sets, the first on a spin move and layup for ‘Sheed Wallace, quickly followed by a Stuckey alley oop lob to Maxiell over KG’s leaping fingers. Now with the exception of the ‘Sheed spin, a charitably inclined individual could say Garnett was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. But there is no excuse or justification for Garnett’s disappearance in the first quarter. During the regular season and the first three games of these finals, KG has owned ‘Sheed and the Pistons from about 16 feet on in, averaging 24 points and converting well over half his shots. So tonight the Pistons come roaring out with a 10-0 run and Detroit’s matchup nightmare is MIA. The other nine starters on the floor had all attempted at least one field goal before Garnett deigned to clank a jumper with the score already 16-4 Detroit and the first quarter more than half over with 5:19 to play. His second shot was the breakaway dunk attempt swatted away by Maxiell with 2:22 to play. He sat about a minute later with his team down 20-12.

During that entire first quarter, in other words, Garnett followed through on a post-up move exactly once. That is ridiculous and typical of the self-effacement that crops up enough to stain his reputation. He finished with decent numbers, given the context of the Celtics offense: 6-16 FG, 16 pts, 10 rebounds, 3 assists (vs. 3 turnovers) and two steals. But when your team is up 2-1 on the road with a chance to essentially make your winning inevitable and your desperate, talented opponent races to a lead, and you are the best mismatch for your ballclub, you make yourself available and then you succeed or fail on that availability. You don’t shoot 0-2 FG with one of the shots being a breakout in transition.

Which leaves us with Ray Allen. I am sick and tired of color commentator Mark Jackson (and to a lesser extent his colleagues Breen and Van Gundy) detailing every imagined flaw in Rajon Rondo’s game, especially on offense, while Allen gets a free ride for a stretch of abysmally cold outside shooting that has gone beyond a slump and is entering Nick Anderson or John Starks territory for historic, career-footnoting ineptitude. Less than 6 weeks ago, Allen ranked with Peja Stokjaovic and Steve Nash as one of the NBA’s best outside shooters. Tonight he once again failed to hit a single jumper, going 2-8 FG in four seconds less than 35 minutes, with both buckets being layups. He missed three treys and turned down about 15 other open looks. Compared to the way Allen is shooting, Rondo is Pete Maravich.

I know that none of this is Allen’s "fault," in that he’s been lax or malicious or brought this on by any karmic retribution that would make sense. He’s been forthright and classy about his woes. He’s moved the ball relatively well and has been mostly automatic from the free throw line. But it is getting to the point where patience is appearing to be less and less of a virtue. Allen has already had his breakthrough game to end the doldrums when he shot 9-16 FG in the Celts’ Game Two loss–then promptly went back to abject clanking in the next two games. Tonight’s fourth quarter had to be a bad dream for him: Not only couldn’t he buy a basket, he missed two crunchtime free throws (!) and had Rip Hamilton toy with him on two crucial crunchtime buckets en route to Rip’s 10 4th quarter points and game line of 8-10 FGs. It might be time to experiment with Rondo on Hamilton and either Cassell or Eddie House guarding Billups at the point, at least for brief stretches. That’s two tough matchups on the defensive end, but maybe a little more offense–some shots that go in, in part because they are attempted by someone not worrying about being an albatross every time they pull the trigger. The Celtics as a team shot 31% tonight, and Allen’s 2-8 didn’t elevate that putrid accuracy. I understand that the Celtics don’t win the NBA Finals against the likes of LA or SA without Allen being on his marksman-like game. But that doesn’t mean you can’t rattle the mix–Tony Allen, even?–for four or five minutes stretches, just to see if you can stir a change.

2. A Night For Large Role Players

As in large guys who are role players, but also guys who play large roles. The consensus among those who saw tonight’s tilt would be that Antonio McDyess was the player of the game, and not just because he scored more points (21) and grabbed more rebounds (16) than anybody else. Although he continues to be deadly from midrange, McDyess was perhaps most valuable as the team’s emotional leader. With Rip and ‘Sheed bedeviled by fouls, Billups obviously not right in his hamstring, and Prince experiencing shooting woes, McDyess became the regulator, the one to keep things on a consistent keel that blended both passion and self-control. He came up huge. Ditto Maxiell, who in additon to his signature block and nifty alley oop played staunch half-court D and was a perfect 6-6 FG in 20:28 off the bench. And over on the other sideline, Kendrick Perkins was probably Boston’s best player tonight, ensuring that nobody got anything easily in the paint and warring for defensive boards and putbacks while stoking the desire in what seemed a curiously blase, or perhaps just disspirited, Celtics ballclub. After a horrible series against the Cavs, it has been enjoyable to watch Perkins’s series-long revival vs. Detroit.

3. Quick Observations

If I’ve got a rooting interest in either team, it is Boston, who I picked to win in 7 and who stars one of my favorite players in Garnett. But without the refs blowing their whistles, the Celts lose by 30 tonight, as Hamilton (8-10 FG) and ‘Sheed (6-9 FG) were both limited by foul trouble while the Celts lived at the line, registering more than half of their first 53 points via free throws. That said, the refs are getting wise to Hamilton’s arm-locking manuvers and push-offs to get open, and ‘Sheed still commits some really obvious and circumstantially dunderheaded infractions, like 4th foul showing hard on the pick and roll with more than 7 minutes to play in the third.

Flip Saunders and Mark Jackson seem to want to agree that Chauncey is more rusty than dinged up, but the rest of us don’t have to buy that bullshit. Billups has always moved like a cat, he a bunched-up and spring player with a great first step. That stuff is nowhere to be seen in this series. Instead
we see Billups missing badly on his jumper (3-12 tonight) and walking with a hitch during breaks in the action.

I understand that Lindsay Hunter’s on-ball defense is preventing Eddie House from getting much burn, but have the Celts forgotten that Pierce was frequently bringing the ball up in Game Seven of the Cleveland series? For that matter, KG and Ray Allen also have pretty good handles. It sure would have been interesting to see if House’s microwave act from way outside could have made up that perpetual 5-10 point margin that existed from midway through the first until about 4-5 minutes left in the game. Boston was 1-9 from trey territory tonight, and that was Posey in the corner off a KG double team. I mean, if Sam Cassell is going to chuck a trey with 16 seconds on the shot clock in the fourth quarter and the Celts down 6 without nobody under the hoop for a rebound, is there any justification for keeping House under wraps?