North Station Sports

The Boston Celtics have come to the most pivotal stretch of the season to date. After the first two contests of a three game stretch that included Orlando, Atlanta and the Lakers on Sunday, the C’s are 0-2 against the Magic and Hawks and it’s apparent their problems run deeper than injured knee’s, technical fouls and a sidelined symbolic savior possessing a much needed boost of athletic versatility off the bench.

This NBA season has certainly been the Celtics worst since Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett came to Boston and now, on a team possessing five past and present all-stars, the Celtics explanation of inexplicable play is getting very old. Sounding like a broken record, Doc Rivers seems devoid of any reasonable answer for why the Celtics look so bad.

The C’s are not just struggling, they are absolutely embarrassing themselves with a lack of focus and competitive fire. What is it going to take to motivate players that only one season ago were considered among the toughest team’s in the NBA? Is it not motivation enough to have your championship grit challenged nightly? Is it not enough to have your rank in the standings drop faster than the Dow Jones? Is it not motivation enough to avoid being swept by an upstart Atlanta team that can’t wait to embarrass you?

No need for answers, the tale being told on the court is quite enough for me.

I stated, in detail, during my appearance on 4 Sport Boston’s podcast that I felt the Celtics started the game in Orlando showing, for the first time this season, the fire of 2008. It was in their eyes, smoldering, showing us glimpses of greatness. The first half boasted a Celtic team confident and in full stride. I felt good. My text messaging was going off with words of encouragement from spectating friends and I sat on my couch absorbing the intensity and hatred these two team’s felt for one another. For the first time in over a year, I felt the fire of 2008 building in intensity. Paul Pierce went head to head (literally) with Matt Barnes as he showed off some of that toughness and emotion that the C’s have been lacking thus far. I felt the pride building in my chest as memories of 2007 through 2009 began to come to the forefront again and the feelings of invisibility began to again be on display. I sat back in my chair at the half and said to myself, “okay, maybe we are back.” My over-confident sentiments must have infected the Celtics’ locker room.

During the half time break, with the C’s up 51-40, Charles Barkley stated that Kevin Garnett looked nowhere near 100 percent. I, always nit picking the Ticket’s every move, laughed Chuck off as I felt KG looked decent. He may have looked “decent” in the first half but as the intermission concluded and the action drifted towards the court again, we saw a different Celtics team hit the hardwood. An alter-ego that has haunted the team’s few glimpses of the championship culture that dominated two NBA seasons in Boston. We all know the out-come of Thursday night’s implosion at the hands of the Orlando Magic. The alter-ego of the Boston Celtics has been the developing profile of this team throughout three months and it reared it’s ugly face again one night later against the dreaded Hawks.

Yes, I said “dreaded.”

The Hawks hate the Boston Celtics and though the feeling may be mutual, the hatred swelling in the soaring Hawks veins boiled over as the ever tepid Boston Celtics seemed to lower the heat and watch the fire of 2008 again extinguish into a smoldering memory. It’s now a memory that is quickly fading and the more it comes to mention, the more it seems to make this year’s team a joke of the past.

As the Atlanta game  had approached I had stated over and over again, “The Celtics CANNOT be swept by the Atlanta Hawks.” On The Celtics Late Night Show, my claim of the Celtics not ever being able to drop four games to a team that they faced as the eighth seed in 2008 and swept in the regular season of 2009 were countered by, co-host Brandon Paul’s, quick rebuttal of “these Hawks are for real” and I can now say that I agree with him.

In the past, their was no team that came to memory as unbeatable when going up against the C’s. No team possessed more fire, toughness, savvy, grit and determination than the guy’s in green. On a team that was “older”, even back then, the intangible qualities that defined the culture in Boston was the determining factor against equally talented or exceedingly athletic opponents. As a team that has drifted into the category of antiquity, those qualities are totally missing from this team.

When are the Celtics going to get pissed off? What does it take for this team to say, “the buck stops here”?

The Celtics dreaded defense can now be considered officially broken and the team looks absolutely vulnerable to inferior opponents and beatable to contending team’s. Kevin Garnett is seriously hurting. Regardless of what Doc, his teammates, the Herald or the man himself says, Kevin Garnett has a noticeable limp, is leery of paint play and has ZERO lateral movement on defense. Though, against Atlanta, he showed slight improvement over his poor performance in the Orlando game, the man/beast looks to be so focused (understandably) on getting himself back to comfortable that he is missing the emotional outbursts that motivates his teammates.

The captain is grasping at thin air, trying to keep his team in contention. Paul Pierce resembled his old self Friday night as he knocked down shot after shot and got the free throw line at ease. Pierce’s deadly pump fake was used to full potential at drawing fouls and it was those fouls alone that allowed the Celtics to keep the game from being a complete laugher (cryer). Pierce scored 35 points on 11-15 shooting but his efforts were simply not enough as he lacked some re-enforcements from his silenced teammates.

The Disgust…

“Once the playoffs start it’s all 0-0, but you know they feel like they have the edge.’’ –Paul Pierce’s reactions following the loss to the Hawks

Friday night was the first time since 2006-07 that I contemplated switching the channel on the C’s. Had it not been for the irreverence of Hawks’ players like Pachulia and Crawford or the rowdy rudeness of the Hawks crowd chanting “the Celtics Suck,” and at long last, as the Celtics did the walk of shame back to the locker room, the Hawk PA man asking, “is it a rivalry now?” that made me watch this game to it’s finality.

Is that not disgusting enough to piss off the Celtics? Doc quipped the same useless rhetoric after the game but Paul Pierce’s reactions were a bit more encouraging moving into a showdown with the Lakers. Pierce was not dissappointed, not dejected but more embarrassed and angry. It was a welcome image of emotion this morning.

(courtesy of ESPN.com)

Disillusions…

Paul dropped in there,  “…they took care of business, like we did last year.” Pierce’s remarks about last season seem to be, in my estimation, one of the problems this team is encountering. This team’s struggles are being justified by the past team’s domination. The past is just that… it’s gone.

2009-10 has posed it’s own set of challenges and obstacles and, at the moment, this team is ill-equipped to handle them. Though each player seems to be handling this year’s struggles in their own way, that may be the problem. I have stated over and over since the initial period of poor play in November that this team does not possess the chemistry needed to be a championship contender. I feel that chemistry is the big problem in bold print. Injuries, poor officiating, minutes and players struggling through slumps are just a part of life in the NBA, they cannot be provided as explanations of the Celtics poor play or lack of competitive fire. On a team that has been decimated by injuries and slumps, only a collective effort of the heart can be drawn upon to compete with our next opponent.

In what’s considered a “hinge game”, the Los Angeles Lakers are coming to town ready for a battle. The out-come of Sunday’s marquis match up of the season can be the determining factor on whether this team can gel together to build momentum going into the second half of the season.

The daggers from out west are already being launched as the “zen master” has shot the first bullet. When asked about playing the C’s on Sunday, Phil Jackson replied,

“It’s a Sunday afternoon game, I love Sunday afternoon games. It doesn’t matter where it is.”

In an absolute dig thrown by the master of mind games, Phil Jackson knows of the Celtics struggles on Sunday afternoon’s and is playing on that weak point. Sounds like a coach that is confident and awaiting more retribution for game six of 2008– a memory that may remain in the mind of the Lakers until they get another shot at the Celtics in the Finals.

Fire, Determination, Feisty and confident. The Lakers are looking to get back on track on the road and who better than against their dreaded foes. Is this a set up for another nationally televised testament to the Celtics let downs of 2010?

I have no predictions or proclamations, only time will tell but I can say that I am not very confident.

If your really pissed off…

…tune in at 8 pm for the Celtics Late Night Show’s “free-for-all” call-in show to allow frustrated fans to get everything off their chest before our show-down with the Lakers tomorrow afternoon!

There is no agenda for this show, no format, no segments, just a free-style bitch session for Celtics fans to call in.

No call will be left behind!

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