Knicks Get No Payback As Celtics Avoid The Sweep

Silly, Melo...Sweeps Are For #1 Seeds.

Okay, now veeeery slowly...put the brooms down and back away slowly...

Well...the Celtics may have lost a 20-point lead. They may have found themselves forced to go all the way to overtime in a win-or-season's-over game. And they may have done it with sharpshooter J.R. Smith out of the lineup for the Knicks due to suspension (in what amounted to a flashback to his former and frequent lapses into stupidity, Smith elbowed Jason Terry in the face at the close of Game 3)...but, dammitt...this one felt GREAT! Especially sweet was the return of The Jet getting revenge in the best way possible at a time when the C's needed him most.

With the Snickerbockers going ballistic on every form of social media available calling for GreenHeadz to roll in an effort to exact some measure of revenge for being swept in the first round two years ago by the C's, it was great to see so many Noo Yawkuz holding brooms and having no clue what to do with them (as usual. Haaaave you SEEN the city?).

This, of course, in no way diminishes the desperate situation in which the Green still find themselves in. It was nice to see Doc go back to the lineup that took 'em to the dance if for no other reason than continuity. The Celtics are going to be best with the lineup they played in Game 1 and Game 4 -- no question about it. It was also nice to see Doc letting Terrence Williams play significant minutes. He is as much a steadying force as Jordan Crawford is an offensive tempest.

I do still have a bone to pick with the coach about keeping the door locked to the doghouse that Courtney Lee is obviously residing in these days. I think Lee has a game waiting to break out of him and at worst, he's a legitimate opposing force that can help to keep Smith under control. We'll see if he gets some burn with the return of Smith in Game 5 on Wednesday.

One of my favorite moments of the game? Paul Pierce faking Jason Kidd out of his sneaks and flushing it as a too-late Prigioni whizzes by just in time to catch posterization.

One last note of discord between me and the coach...count me among the outraged believers that the "shortened playoff roster" is one of the most ludicrous artificial constructs in the game of basketball. Why in the world would a team with a possible contingent of ten legitimate offensive and defensive weapons cut minutes and even bench any single person who might help them in a game? Ludicrous.

Message to Doc and the fellas for Game 5 in MSG? You know what you did there for most of Game 4?

Keep doing that.

Go Celtics.

Tale Of The Tape (Now Isiah Thomas fresh!)

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