Frustration, transition, and expectation

Frustration, transition, and expectation
January 13, 2010 by admin

As I began the long descent from my seats in the Garden’s balcony down to the arena’s North Station exit after Monday night’s loss to the Hawks, I found myself awash in a sea of downcast faces, of murmured profanities directed towards Joe Johnson and Jamal Crawford, and of more vocal (and colorful) criticisms of the evening’s officials. At one time, I might have been right there, unified in sentiment, invoking the name of Tim Donaghy, seething with pessimism and with my symbolic cub brimming with disgust at the home team’s performance. For a few minutes, my nostrils tingling with the stale cologne of a Heineken spilled on my sweater during Doc’s memorable ejection from the game, I indulged my disappointment. But as the concrete stairs of the Garden yielded to the familiar sights, sounds and aromas of Causeway Street, I found to my surprise that I was as calm as the ill-informed airline passengers in Fight Club described scathingly by Tyler Durden as Hindu cows.

I won’t pretend that the C’s 0-3 record against the Hawks, who they are likely to see again in this year’s postseason, doesn’t carry with it some ominous undertones. Atlanta gave Boston all it could handle in 2008, with the Big 3 closer to their respective primes, and that was before the arrival of Jamal Crawford or the ever-more-obvious maturation process undergone in the period since then by Josh Smith and Al Horford. The Hawks are exactly the kind of freakishly athletic (whatever that actually means) and increasingly polished young team that one would expect to give the Celtics trouble in theory, and it’s played out that way this year in practice. So the fact that they won a close game at the Garden against a veteran team missing it’s defensive stalwart and emotional rudder, as well as their most important bench player (brought in, ironically, for exactly the kind of game that he was unable to suit up for on Monday night) shouldn’t really come as any great surprise to anyone.

This is becoming something of a theme in my posts, but I feel it warrants repeating: I don’t watch basketball the same way I do baseball or football (or, in rare instances, hockey). Despite putting far more time into watching basketball than other sports, I don’t feel the same instant gratification in a single Celtics win, the same minor despair in a loss, as I do with the Sox and Pats. Baseball and football seasons are, for me, a collection of snapshots, whereas the NBA seasons ends up resembling something more like a collage. I enjoy the storyline of an NBA season far more than any sport, and that impacts the degree to which I react to individual contests.

So on Monday night, while I saw the Celtics vanquished, I also saw in the Hawks a kind of bizarro-Boston team. Whereas Danny Ainge opted to deal away his young assets for veteran talent, this Hawks team, assembled largely by Billy Knight and inherited by Rick Sund, represent what can happen when a few things break right (ignoring the indefensible selection of Marvin Williams over Chris Paul and Deron Williams), and young players are allowed to grow together. There’s a pleasure to be found in watching young players cohere as a unit: it’s like the rewarding experience of watching Rondo and Perkins go from “guys who didn’t hurt the Celtics’ chances” in 2007-2008 to valuable contributors last year and, in my opinion, players worthy of an All-Star selection this year, only expanded over a large portion of Atlanta’s roster. I wholeheartedly believe that Danny Ainge made the right move in dealing for KG and Ray: the fact that seeing three just-past-their-prime stars come together and win wearing Celtics green was the most emotional and enjoyable sports moment of my life doesn’t mean that watching a young team go from tanalizing-but-raw to up-and-coming to, now, a top-tier team in the league can’t also be a thrill. Moreover, I find a lot of the Hawks’ players to be likeable (much like Joakim Noah, I love to boo Al Horford, but I’ve love to have him on my favorite team even more), and the ones who aren’t, namely Mike Bibby and Mr. Square for a Head himself, Zaza Pachulia, are even more fun to hate.

As Nick pointed out yesterday, there’s always a certain degree of frustration that accompanies the act of rooting on a team for which there is set a high level of expectation. We’re caught in a strange period of not-quite transition, where the success of the 2008 Championship team is still fresh in our minds and the team we see on the court boasts many of the same names, despite having undergone a substantial metamorphosis since then. The reigns of the team aren’t yet being handed over to Rajon Rondo and Kendrick Perkins, though we’re moving ever closer to that day. Monday night’s game, in which Rondo dominated the first three quarters before pulling off a remarkable disappearing act in the fourth quarter, served as a keen reminder of the fact that he’s not yet the consistent offensive player he may one day become. But that doesn’t diminish the explosiveness he displayed early in the contest, which inspired me to turn several times to my friend in the seat next to me and gush that “every game, Rondo seems to do something I’ve never seen before.”

2008′s regular season dominance is a sight we’re increasingly unlikely to see this year, as KG continues to be sidelined by an injury that I find equal parts disturbing and ambiguous. But in a season which could potentially be Ray Allen’s last, regular season results aren’t the only thing worth monitoring. We need to see to what degree Kendrick Perkins is able to serve as the team’s main defensive presence, as KG’s health becomes more and more of a question (and his contract more frighteningly onerous). We need to see how much of the scoring load Rajon Rondo is able to shoulder if there’s any chance that the team moves forward next year without Ray-Ray (the wisdom of which is very much open to debate). And we need to keep in mind that seasons like 2008′s, or that of the 1996 Chicago Bulls to whom Rasheed Wallace prematurely compared this year’s Celtics, are far and away the exception and not the rule.

Seeding for this year’s playoffs is going to be important given the way the Cavaliers and Magic are playing, but this team’s regular season record won’t fully reflect their potential, if the team is relatively healthy come May. Much like the 2006-2007 Spurs, the Celtics could easily fly under the radar down the stretch while still having what it takes to win a title: they can play great defense and hit big shots when it counts, and they’ve been there before. To make another Fight Club reference, the Celtics could be the NBA’s equivalent of “a predator posing as a house pet.” And of the other contenders (in my mind, that’s Orlando, Cleveland, LA, San Antonio, Dallas and Atlanta), only the Spurs boast the kind of dizzyingly fast and tantalizing talent in Tony Paker that the Celtics have at the point in #9, whose continued growth could prove to be what makes or breaks the C’s title hopes. But if we invest too much in the results of individual games played without Kevin Garnett, the duration of the season could prove to be more frustrating than it needs to be.

Maybe it makes me naieve like those aforementioned Hindu cows, but I still feel that NBA fans were robbed of a Lakers/Celtics rematch last year, and hope wholeheartedly that we’re treated to it in this year’s Finals. This Celtics team is well aware of what is at stake now, and as the season continues to play itself out. They’re experiencing more than their share of adversity, but it could prove to be a blessing that it’s occurring sooner rather than later. Super Bowl XLII serves as a somber reminder of what can happen to team, and their comfort level, when they steamroll their competition over the course of a regular season. I wholeheartedly hope that this season ends with all steak, and none of last year’s anti-climactic, fading sizzle.The Celtics have not yet played the kind of basketball they should be capable of, which gives us something to look forward to. But whatever happens down the stretch, this season isn’t our favorite franchise’s last, and everything that happens now, win or lose, will resonate down the road.