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It took 22 years, 4 GMs, 3 Presidents of Basketball operations and unfortunately 2 untimely deaths, but the Boston Celtics finally hoisted banner #17 to the rafters the other night. It was a very touching ceremony that involved former Celtic greats passing the trophy/championship baton to a weeping Paul Pierce. And the whole thing only took 15 minutes!
- Could Bill Belichick be having his best coaching year in 2008? Tom Brady, Lawrence Maroney, and Rodney Harrison are all out for the season yet the Patriots stand at 5-2 while the Colts and Chargers are only 3-4 and 3-5 respectively. At this point in the season the Pats amazingly have a better record than over-hyped 'Brett & the Jets' team down Route 95, as well as, the highly-touted and Superbowl favored Dallas Cowboys.
- Thank goodness the Phillies won the World Series! Miracle year or not, there was no way a team like Tampa which has only been in the league 10 years, barely gets any fans, and whose top player only makes $6M deserved to win it all.
- Don't look now but the Boston Bruins are a young and talented team. After back-to-back shut outs by Goalie Tim Thomas the B's are also 5-2 on the young season and just 1 point out of first place. Unfortunately, Thomas is 34 yrs old and as the elder statesman of the Bruins, he'll be hard-pressed to keep up this pace throughout the long season.
- "Industry sources believe the Yankees will make a serious push for Manny Ramirez to play right field next year." That industry source is simply agent Scott Boras trying to drive up the price and/or years for Manny's next contract which puts Dodger's GM Ned Colletti lose-lose situation because the bidding will probably start at 4 yrs $25M.
- Celtic Banner factoid; The word "NBA" is stenciled over a white basketball background if the Celts clinched their championship title at home and over green if it was done on the road.
Celts' Coach Doc Rivers has decided to give the PGA tour (Pierce/Garnett/Allen) a rest before the NBA play-offs start. A couple of weeks ago Rivers said the team would practice less as the the grind of the season wore on the team. Then he said he would just alternate the practice routines to keep everyone fresh. Now Doc has decided to give his starters (other than Kendrick Perkins) games off during the last 6 games of the season.
True, chasing the best record all year long has been a grind, but the only player that probably needs the rest is Paul Pierce who has played every game this year. Both Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen have already missed time due to injury and are averaging less minutes per game than in previous years. Rajon Rondo is young and still needs his playing time to improve his game. At this point, any unnecessary rest could derail the team's momentum heading into the playoffs. Coach Rivers has done very little wrong this year, so let's hope he doesn't start now.
So how good are these Celtics anyway? They were 16-0 against Western Conference teams before their West coast road trip after the All-Start break. During this recent trip the Celts went 2-3 against teams who, except for maybe the Nuggets, are currently not playing their best ball of the season. On top of that, the Celts' two victories were against teams who had or sustained major injuries to their top players. Brandon Roy got injured when the Celts were coming back from a 17 point first half deficit against the Blazers and the Clippers were without 4 of their top 6 players when the Celtics beat them to close out the trip. The three teams that beat the Celtics (Suns, Nuggets, and Warriors) all lost their next game and to make matters worse, the Suns were blown out at home on National TV by fellow Eastern Conference rival Detroit. Now one can argue that these teams all brought their 'A' game against the team with the best record in NBA but you also can't deny that the Celts' defense and shooting is becoming more inconsistent as the year goes on. Also, it seems that if 2 of the 'Big 3' (Allen, Pierce, KG) have bad shooting nights, then it's nearly impossible for them to win. Even more discouraging is that the Celtics were 7-2 without Kevin Garnett and now only 2-3 with him back in the line-up. As the Celts return home to play the improved Cavs, I guess only time will tell if this trip was just a blip on the radar or a major turning point in the season.
It took 22 years, 4 GMs, 3 Presidents of Basketball operations and unfortunately 2 untimely deaths, but the Boston Celtics finally hoisted banner #17 to the rafters the other night. It was a very touching ceremony that involved former Celtic greats passing the trophy/championship baton to a weeping Paul Pierce. And the whole thing only took 15 minutes!
