I didn’t write any type of preview for the Celtics- Heat series because almost every conceivable angle was covered well before the series started by various media outlets. Going into the series I could have rehashed the fact that the Celtics are not as good, tough or have as much swagger as they did when Perkins was anchoring the defense. I could have broke down how Rondo is the most important Celtic mismatch in the series, but any NBA fan could tell you the same after he torched the Knicks. I could talk about legacies, but in all honesty the current Celtic’s best chance to boost their legacies crumbled to the ground with Perkins in game 6 of last years finals. So what do you need to know?
I guess what I’d like to convey to the Celtics fans that already started talking about rebuilding and essentially prematurely buried the the second “Big 3″ era in Boston after game 2 is that you simply can’t count this team out until the the clock ticks down on their 4th loss of a series. We have been spoiled with greatness over the last 4 years and regardless of the outcome of the series, I think more people need to appreciate the heart that this team has shown while they are still playing. We are basically rooting for the Black Knight in Monty Python who keeps fighting as each of his limbs gets cut off. You simply can’t measure the heart that the players on this team have with John Hollinger’s statistics, because they don’t make “Big 3′s” like ours anymore. Lakers fans, like Cleveland fans last year, booed their team off the court during their last home playoff game. Their play may have deserved booing at the time, but these same fans just assumed they would see their team come back for another home game. Nothing is guaranteed in the NBA, and when you have seen greatness over a period of time like these fans did, you don’t want the last time Phil Jackson or LeBron walks off home court to be to a smattering of ungrateful boos. So even if the Celtics get blown out during game 4 and you are lucky enough to get tickets to the game, please stand and applaud, because you will never see a team with more collective heart then this year’s Celtic team grace the parquet again; especially since game 6 is never guaranteed.
No Celtics fan knew exactly how game 3 would play out, all we knew is that all the old veterans on the Celtics were acutely aware of what the historical significance of the game was and as KG said had pocket Kings are were going “all in” and would give it their all. There have been times during the last two seasons where this core has coasted through the regular season and have been beyond frustrating to watch. They played as if securing home court advantage against 2 of the best players in the league was meaningless, which may come back to haunt them. What they banked on, is that collectively they have always been more than the sum of their parts as a team and when they have their backs against the wall, each member of the core will fight for each other until the Fat Lady sings.
So where are we right now?
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