The Celtics are finally back on track after a spell of
disagreeable basketball.
I say “back on track” because they’ve now lost five in a
row, and I say “disagreeable basketball” because I don’t agree with that
four-game win streak. I mean, what the Hell are they trying to prove, anyway?
This train’s bound for glory and by glory, I mean the NBA Draft Lottery.
Look, I love wins as much as the next guy, but we’re playing
for much more than a handful of W’s. We’re playing for the big picture, and
that doesn’t include making a first-round exit in the Playoffs. Been there,
done that. Now, I’m being a little facetious (emphasis on the
“little”). Of course I want our Celtics to be competitive, which I think they
can be on most nights. And, I’d have to be crazy (or a New York fan) to not
want these guys to start developing a winning attitude so that, when the time
comes and the right team is in place, they know how to win the right way. Tanking
is not an option. It has never worked for the Celtics, and history makes the
strong argument that it hasn’t really helped many other teams, either. That said, the Celtics best chance at near-future contention
is not to please the fairweather fanbase but to draft smartly, trade wisely and
play the style of basketball to match the talents of those wearing the green and
white jerseys.
For those of you who believe that draft picks won’t get the
C’s back into championship contention, that’s just crazy talk. With a draft
that is believed to be as deep as any in recent memory and the Celtics in possession
of six first round picks in the next five years, there is a significant
opportunity to draft a once in a blue moon superstar to pair with Rajon Rondo,
Jared Sullinger, Jeff Green, Avery Bradley and Kelly Olynyk. Hell, they may
even be able to draft two. And, if Danny Ainge and co. believe that the player
they need is already toiling for the NBA, then he can trade off a combination
of multiple picks and a superfluous player (Gerald Wallace, Kris Humphries
and/or Keith Bogans, anyone?) or two (see: “Like 2008 Kevin Garnett and Ray
Allen”).
My point is, as I have said before, true GreenHeadz should just sit back,
relax and embrace the stress-free simplicity of the 2013-14 Boston Celtics. You’ll
be glad you did in about three years.
In the world of sportsblogging, snoozing isn't necessarily losing. Just take the Boston Globe's recent photo tour "Celtics: Catching Up With Old Friends," something I had planned to do a very similar feature on at about the mid-season point.
Sure, it would have been fun to put together the material I started compiling about the Big Three's former teammates, but the Globe did yeoman's work in assembling the photos and text, and lets face it...we have an...um...shall we say, slightly smaller fan base than the folks over at Boston.com (thanks for reading once again, Mom!)
If you get a couple of minutes and want to check out how our former green-teamers are doing, why not go on over to Boston.com and check it out?
Well, that didn’t go so well. After the ring ceremony for the (prepare to hold nose in 3...2...1) Wurdd Chabbiod Biabi Heed (release nose...), the Boston Celtics proceeded to drop their season starter in Miami by an unlucky thirteen points.
In a game marked by the debut in a Heat uni of newly hired gun, Benedict Ray Allen, who put up 19 ultra-nonchalant, "in your green mugs" points on 5-7 shooting – 2-3 on threes (hey, at least he missed one of his eight free throws!), the Celtics seemed more interested in reintroducing themselves to each other than defending "The Other Three" of Dwyane Wade (29 aggressive points), LeBron James (26pts and 10 rebounds in just 29 minutes!), and Chris Bosh – 19 points, 10 rebounds and 3 rejections.
When they weren’t busy avoiding the amorous advances of Brutus Allen (Garnett’s refusal to acknowledge him was both hilarious and somewhat sad), the C’s started out energetically enough with Paul Pierce and Rajon Rondo setting the pace. Pierce ended with a very Truth-like line, scoring 23 points on 6-15 shooting with two threes – one of which he hailed a cab and rode out onto Miami Beach to launch - 9-9 at the charity stripe, 5 boards, 5 assists and 2 steals). Rondo was typically spectacular, if not completely focused, with 20 points on 9-14 shooting, 13 assists (there’s that unlucky number again), and seven rebounds. They even clawed back out of a 19-point hole to get within three (offensive catalyst Leandro "The Brazilian Blur" Barbosa had a very productive night essentially scoring a point for every minute he played – 16 – on 6-8 shooting with 3 threes), but it was the disjointed plays in between, showcasing lackluster defensive cohesion and turnovers (16) that ultimately did the C’s in.
Bright spots – not including the Captain, Rondo and Barbosa – was a workmanlike Brandon Bass who shrugged off all of the "will he start or come off the bench?" blather by scoring 15 points on 6-11 shooting and snagging 11 caroms – second most on the team. Despite a team-high 12 boards, Kevin Garnett looked a bit off his game scoring only 9 points on a still-efficient 4-8 shooting night, however he did have two blocks – one of which was a LeBron shot attempt that found its way to the same spot on Miami Beach that Double-P hit from. Courtney Lee also valiantly battled Wade all night, racking up five fouls to go along with 11 points on marksman-like shooting – going 5-6 from the floor and 1-1 on threes.
Jeff Green nearly managed to undo a pre-season’s worth of praise with a Halloween-esque performance in which he seemed to portray a headless horseman frantically searching about for a pumpkin to rest on his neck-stump. He finished with 3 points – all on free throws – missing all of his four attempts from the floor and he pulled in just 3 rebounds.
But, fear not True Believers...though the media, fans and the Celtics themselves took on extreme pressure by labeling Miami Public Enemy #1 throughout the entirety of the pre-season, the general lack of cohesion should be expected from a team featuring ten out of fifteen players who didn’t play a single game for the Boston Celtics last year. Okay, Chris Wilcox DID manage to play 28 games for the C’s before leaving the team for open heart surgery, which he isn’t completely recovered from, but...
The silver lining: A) The C’s showed flashes of a potentially devastating and lethal offensive dominance, partly based on; B) the running game. Soak that in, C’s fans. The Celtics have a running game. After 6 years quarterbacking a team full of mostly St. Bernards, Greyhound Rondo now has a quick and athletic pack to run the NBA countryside with. In fact, this season, the C’s running game is going to be even more impressive than the New England Patriots’ newfound ground attack. Mark. My. Words.; C) Rajon Rondo carried over his aggressive play from the 2012 Playoffs and didn’t shy away from taking the jumper when it presented itself, and Pierce looks to have his old reliable Truthness back after the sprained knee that drained him of his effectiveness throughout last year’s playoffs. Oh yeah, and Rondo tried to clothesline Wade, so THAT’S nice.
As I told a couple of friends who were texting me their concerns throughout the game, this team’s gonna be alllllrriiiigghhht. Don’t you worry. It’s going to take some games for the new guys to figure out where they’re supposed to be in the defensive schemes and where to be in the offense, but when they do...remember that scene in Space Jam when the little aliens touched the magic basketball?
One game down. Eighty-one left to go. This is gonna be one hell of a ride...
That said, the Celtics best chance at near-future contention
is not to please the fairweather fanbase but to draft smartly, trade wisely and
play the style of basketball to match the talents of those wearing the green and
white jerseys. 
