Is this the Celtics v. Hawks Series All Over Again?
KGThe visiting team looked like cooked cauliflower in games one and two in the foggy TD Banknorth Garden. Their best player left his game back home – first Joe Johnson hit 11-32 shots in Atlanta’s first two tries, and now LeBron is 8-42 with Cleveland in an 0-2 hole. Offensively, Boston’s bench – namely Sam Cassell and Leon Powe – backed up the Big Three (and the trash talk) with efficient performances off of the bench in the first two games of both series.
So what’s going to stop them from going radio silent as they did when the series traveled away from Beantown to Atlanta, when the Celtics travel to the Q in a must-win game for the Cavs on Saturday night?
“Hopefully we can learn from our mistakes,” said Paul Pierce. “We fumbled a few games down in Atlanta, so we’re going to look at that and see what we can do better. But the main part about playing on the road is we’ve got to bring a lot more energy to the game from the start.”
Celtics fans will insist that their biggest advantage to sealing those memories as episodes of the past is that they’ve already experienced the let-down of skidding to a 2-2 tie. But even if the Celtics collectively pound pre-game Red Bulls to ensure that they’re raring to go, the Cavs might not have the Hawks’ antidote to KG & co.’s amp’d defense. After the Hawks went 3-19 from deep in games one and two, they drilled 10 triples in game three alone, and spread Boston’s D like cream cheese. It afforded Josh Smith an opportunity to knife through the lane for 27 points that night.
So after shooting 6-31 as a team from beyond the arc, can the Cavs’ supporting cast follow Atlanta’s lead and make Doc‘s boys pay for clogging the paint? KG put together an unforgettable defensive performance last night – even if he had only 1 steal and 1 block – he double-teamed the ball on almost every single pass. But he won’t be able to do that if the Cavs are really swinging the ball around the perimeter and getting production from all of their role players.
“We talked in the locker room after the game and the mind-set is one at a time,” said Kevin Garnett. “We want to focus on trying to get this first win in Cleveland. We talked about some of the things that worked tonight – obviously ball movement, rebounding, communication. The defense obviously has to be there. We are going into a hostile building and we know that they play really well at home, they have a lot of confidence at home, and they play with tremendous energy at home. So easier said than done, but some way, somehow, we have to carry this energy over to the road.”
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May 9th, 2008 at 8:05 am
BxBaller says:
Come on, KG send LeBron’s crybaby ass home for the summer. Celts in 5.
May 9th, 2008 at 8:37 am
jz_smoove says:
like i have felt even after their trades, the Cavs have a weak supporting cast. even much weaker than the one they had going deep in the playoffs previous years. the Celts will walk all over them. done in 4.
May 9th, 2008 at 9:25 am
Big V says:
So LeBron goes off for 40. Then what? The next guy is Z with 18 and then nobody else cracks double digits…..Boston in 5…tops..
May 9th, 2008 at 9:36 am
Celts Fan says:
If this series goes that route, I’ll know we’re not winning a title. You absolutely cannot let teams hang around. That was fine with Atlanta, because they’re young and haven’t been there before (though this is year one of many I’m sure, as long as they keep josh Smith) so it still seemed pretty inevitable that they’d win that series. As you get deeper into the Playoffs, games matter so much, you can’t give them away. Championship teams don’t do that. Period.
I’m not worried about Cleveland like that though. It’s just like boxing in that some styles just give you fits, regardless of how much more or less talent you have. Atlanta’s run and gun type style with big athletes that can all pretty much shoot and an anchor in Al Horford is the type of team that can give us fits. Cleveland is a more half-court oriented team. As long as LeBron doesn’t kill us for 50 and/or the other guys don’t start raining down 3′s, the Celtics will be fine. It’s Detroit and whoever makes it out of the West that will be very interesting. Close out some games, get Ray Allen going (it was nice for him to finally show up in the 2nd
If the Celtics keep letting teams hang around like they did with Atlanta, it will be another sad off-season for KG…
May 9th, 2008 at 9:37 am
Celts Fan says:
* “It’s Detroit and whoever makes it out of the West that will be very interesting.”
Assuming we make it there. I’m taking NOTHING forgranted after the first round…
May 9th, 2008 at 9:38 am
stophatin says:
Lebron needs some help!!! What they brought in wasn’t enough to help him. Cleveland needs to bring in some help for him so he doesn’t leave, I would like to see him stay in Cleveland for his career.
May 9th, 2008 at 9:41 am
GO Cavs...but come on James says:
http://deadspin.com/388546/lebron-james-has-obviously-never-been-a-waiter
May 9th, 2008 at 10:07 am
YOUNGFED says:
Good call Celts.
@Stop Hatin
The King Shouldn’t need help, Should he? Huuummmmmm?
May 9th, 2008 at 10:13 am
doc says:
Why shouldnt he need help Young.Mike needed help.Who didnt need help.He should come to Philly for Iggy,Dalemfag,Willie Green,Cal Booth,10 1rst round picks,and 20% ownership of the team.
May 9th, 2008 at 10:35 am
DaPro says:
The King needs help. I didn’t understand what Ferry was doing with the trades. You loose a slasher, a decent rebounder with a decent mid range baseline j for decent backup point guard and declining undersized center and decent shooter who can’t create his own shot because his feet are fu*&&$ up!
Am I missing something??? He needs a second option.
May 9th, 2008 at 10:35 am
DaPro says:
He needs a damn coach too
May 9th, 2008 at 10:57 am
yallallreadyknow says:
cleveland sucks. them bums OVERACHIEVED last year. l train is the shit….but the rest of the squad couldn’t beat an intramural team. their guards cant even dribble.
here is what danny ferry should do in the offseason to improve cleveland (in no particular order)
* make a deal for a point guard. eric snow and damon jones were never the answer. ferry should go after shaun livingston since he’ll come cheap and go after jamaal tinsley as the backup
* get a center. big z is more underrated than joe johnson and david west combined; but he aint gonna play much longer. get his replacement now. go after the best passing/rebouding center….brad miller?
* get a perimeter defender. they had larry hughes, but he cant stay healthy. maybe desmon mason would be a good pickup here
* add a bruiser. lebron has some muscle as does ben wallace, but they need another enforcer. where is danny fortson?
May 9th, 2008 at 11:03 am
yallallreadyknow says:
as for the celtics…
they on a good track, but you can clearly see they put all their eggs into THIS seasons basket. sam cassell didnt come over for rajon rondo; i told yall he came over cause eddie house is a bum. get rid of that chucker in beantown
celts need to move one of their bigs (davis, powe, perkins, scal, pollard) and get an athletic big man. none of those guys are athletic (ask the hawks) and they all seem undersized at pf and center.
get another shooter behind ray allen (and no..not some reggie miller comeback bullshit). perhaps they could move a prospect to land morris almond from utahs dleague team.
hope and pray that tommy t dont leave the bench. if he do…they fucked cause doc rivers is in over his head with the talent level and defense scheme. tommy t made docs job so much easier
and yeah…FIRE danny ainge
May 9th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
Celts Fan says:
great call YAll, though the basket goes to next year too, then that window slams shut.
Cassell is here to take Eddie’s minutes (not that anyone here didn’t get that, but nationally, I think it wasn’t seen that way at first.)
Tom T is gonna be gone (someone’s gonna give him a head coaching job you would think, and great call noticing that. he’s flown under the radar big time this year, and he’s done a hell of a job!) and Doc is in over his head w/out him, but with a veteran team, I’d think guys like Sam, KG, Paul, and Ray could lead the team. Tom was needed this year, now that they’ve played like that, it’s tough to see them reverting back, but who knows…
As for the big men, all the guys you listed are worth keeping except Scal (no one would take him though. NO ONE) and probably Pollard who’s on a 1yr. deal anyway, so it’s done this summer.
I love Powe (great energy guy) and Davis (works just as hard as Powe on the glass with slightly worse results, but you have to love the effort, and actually has a bit of a mid-range game),
Perk is a really good fit for his role, which is just take up space, play good D, and bust his butt on the glass, and make a put back here and there. He’s useless starting on a bad team, but next to a stud like KG, he excells (as much as he ever will anyway!) Powe can be a backup center too and both he and Davis have locked down great players to win games for us this year (Dwight and TD) so I’d love to keep them both and let them keep developing and see what they can turn into.
Regardless, Davis doesn’t have enough value to get anything back for and Powe’s too valuable to our team to trade, so that’s probably not gonna happen w/out a sign-and-trade involving Scot Pollard (who’d want that?) Since we traded EVERYTHING of value that we’d actually be willing to trade, a trade is out.
We need to get a 2/3 through the draft (I was hoping for Brandon Rush and CDR before they conspired to kill that dream in the Nat’l Title Game) and I’ve seen Kyle Singler from WSU as a guy that’d be around at that pick.
Trust me YAll, I was leading the Fire Danny charge last year, but after this year, he should be the Exec. of the Year (just as much for landing Posey, and sticking it out to get PJ Brown and Sam Cassell instead of jumping at Damon Stoudemire.) Having said that, his track record of guys he’s actually wanted in the first round as opposed to guys he drafted cuz those others were gone is pretty terrible. Case in point, he wanted Robert Swift over Big Al. He has found a ton of gems in the 2nd round though, so I don’t really know what to think. His job’s safe now, but I’m not entirely encouraged with him leading the rebuilding effort that’s sure to start around 2010.