Quote from Leon

In a teleconference yesterday, Leon had this to say about the Celtics organization not resigning him:

“I thought I did everything I could to prove to them that I am loyal and a hard worker. And it didn’t work out. I put that on their heads.’’

I guess Sheldon Williams is a better option.

In all honesty though, even when Leon comes back at some point this season, it's unclear what kind of player he'll be. Before he blew out his knee the first time, he was an explosive force who could fly down the court. He adjusted and morphed into a banger down low who never stopped hustling. He's still relatively young and I hope he can really stick it to Boston (especially come playoff time) but his skill level will most likely be decreased from the glory days of the NBA finals against the Lakers. I'm just glad Cleveland took a chance on him.

Would have loved to see him in a Heat jersey though...

Powe close to deal....

..... with the Cavs.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer is reporting that the Cavaliers and Powe have agreed to the framework of a two year deal.

Good for you, Leon! Sucks to be the Celtics.

Petition to Resign Powe

Do this!

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/powe-tition/

Surgery

Leon went under the knife today at New England Baptist Hospital and the procedure was deemed "successful" by the team. He had his torn ACL and meniscus repaired in his left knee. Even though he's only 25, this is the third surgery he has had on that knee. He's worked hard before to rehabilitate but there is only so much reconstruction that the body can withstand. I continue to be bummed out by this and can only hope a team takes a chance on him this summer.

And in other sports news, there is stuff going on.

UPDATE: Apparently he also had microfracture surgery. Can't make this stuff up. That combined with the ligament repairs could mean that Leon might not be able to play until well into next season assuming everything heals correctly. Microfracture surgery isn't as serious as it once was (see Stoudamire, Amare) but I'm sure the rehab isn't a walk in the park. I've been reading some other sites saying that we shouldn't feel too bad since he's made roughly $2 million in three years. To that, I quote the great Mark Wahlberg. "Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe fuck yourself."

Welcome To Earf (Day)

The Boston Globe continues to lurch toward its demise, but they have a feature on Leon and his lifetime of bad luck.

"The number of lucky breaks the Celtics' tough and tireless backup forward has had through the years is right there on his jersey -- 0."

As Chad Finn points out, this latest setback for Powe probably makes it likelier that he'd be resigned by the Celtics. They know what he can do, despite a history of injury problems. Unfortuantely for Leon, he'll probably lose out on the type of big money deal that Baby might land this off-season. Just another tough break for the Show.

Happy Wednesday that feels like a Tuesday.. thanks fake holidays!

Another one bites the dust

Leon Powe is expected to have surgery on his left knee, which was injured during last night's victory over the Bulls. He'll miss the remainder of the playoffs.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.


Scrob: post-jack away.


Oh boy-

Honestly, between not even being able to watch most of these damn games (Dallas vs. San Antonio really doesn't count), the Heat looking like a high school team, and now Leon tearing his ACL, I don't have it in me to make the effort to post about the NBA playoffs any further. When I think about where the Celtics were at when I started this site last year, to where they are right now, it's kind of sad. I really hope this doesn't cost Leon a decent contract. He'll probably have to take some crap deal from Boston because other teams will now see him as injury prone. When is this guy ever going to catch a fucking break? This sucks. A lot.

Out until the playoffs...

From everything I've read today, it looks like Leon is shut down for the rest of the regular season in the hopes that he can rehab his knee and make it back for the first round of the playoffs. Details are still pretty vague as it seems like the Celtics front office have recently attended classes at the New England Patriots Injury Information Chokehold University. This obviously sucks but considering the way the top of the Eastern Conference is looking, Danny and Doc might want to consider doing the same with KG. Watching Leon put up those great numbers while Garnett was out makes this harder to take. Leon's contract is also up the end of the year so going into free agency with an injury history isn't going to help his chances on landing a sweet deal. (On boston.com's sports section right now, there is a local interview with Leon discussing his injury and the team's overall health that's over seven minutes long. I tried posting here but the media player didn't fit properly. Also the audio is pretty wack. But do check it out if you're trying to kill the last 14 minutes of your workday...)

By the way, I REALLY don't want to see the Heat play the Celtics in the first round.

Matchup Tonight

So naturally, on 311 Day, the Miami Heat are playing the Boston Celtics, and I won't be able to see the game. With the Celtics only dressing ten players and starting a point guard who up until two weeks ago was a punch line to numerous jokes throughout the NBA, some believe it's a foregone conclusion that the Heat will cruise to an easy victory. Yes, Dwyane Wade is the best player in the league right now (all year?) but don't count out the reigning Finals MVP and Jesus Shuttlesworth. It might not be a pretty game, but I really want to see it, if for no other reason, than to see Leon and Udonis Haslem battle it out down low.

He'll be all up in Leon's grill tonight as well.

With tip-off a little over an hour away, I'd like to take a quick look at the two players and how similar their games are, as well as their similar roles on their respective teams. Basically their two of the best "dirty work" guys in the entire league. They don't have the height of most power forwards, but have the strength to body up on guys much taller than them. (Ask Ilgauskas about how fun it is to play against Leon.) Both guys have a knack for grabbing offensive boards. Both guys are soft spoken and prefer their play on the court to so the talking. I'm not forgetting when Haslem got ejected after throwing his mouth piece at a ref once, okay. But other than that transgression, Youuuuu-donis has been well behaved. Leon does get to the line way more often, even with his limited minutes, but Haslem has the better percentage. Both shoot around 50% from the field. I think Udonis has a better outside shot, but Leon is a bit more explosive and is a better finisher, especially on fast breaks.

Now while the Heat and Celtics play each other four times a year, this is the first occasion that Leon will get serious playing time with Haslem in the lineup for Miami. He'll be starting for Doc's squad tonight. I think this will be a true test for Powe to really see him go up against a four spot instead of guys like Yao Ming. Udonis has also been forced to play out of position at certain points in his career, so this could really bring out the best in both players. Flash and The Truth will get most of the attention for sure and looking at the box score tomorrow, you might not be able to tell that Leon and Udonis played great games. But that's the kind of players they are. Michael Lewis of Moneyball fame recently wrote an article about Shane Battier and how a lot of the stuff he does during games is hard to quantify. Leon Powe and Udonis Haslem are pretty much in the same boat in that respect. (Now that I'm thinking about it, if Lewis ever wrote a book about The Show, my head might explode.) But just remember, both the Celtics and Heat won a championship with the aforementioned guys contributing in big ways. Just sayin'.

"There's no break in the rhythm."

Celtics vs. Clippers 2/25/09

Nothing like a live NBA experience to break up the work week. No Garnett (and Scalabrine) meant more Leon. Since I'm swamped at the office, seriously, I'm going to list my 10 favorite things about the game in no particular order. Oh, and since I don't own a camera and my cell phone is from 1988, I don't have pictures. What a blog!

1. RED PANDA ACROBAT!

2. Sitting in the Premier Level area (thanks Mike) and not being able to afford anything on the menu. Great view of the game though.

3. How many different Celtics shirts/jerseys/jackets people were wearing. To the jersey t-shirt that had "Chief" and the dub zero on the back, to the 350lb. Irish dude wearing a Pierce jersey with no shirt on underneath. Even the little girl with the pink 2008 championship shirt was cute.

4. But none of those compare to the guy in my section wearing an authentic MICHAEL JORDAN WHITE SOX JERSEY! Speechless...

That went well...

5. The sequence of Zach Randolph slamming his shoulder into Leon, Leon flying to the floor, Randolph dribbling over his prone body, then the ref calling a foul on Powe. You can't make this stuff up. It's one thing to watch the refs on TV and complain. But you really don't know just how awful the officiating is until you have good seats at a live game. Unbelievable. Anyway, Leon was a trooper last night grabbing nine boards and defending a guy with at least three inches and 75 bills on him. Randolph had his way early on but Leon really buckled down in the second half. Plus Leon's only field goal was a MONSTROUS alley oop dunk. I mean, he really got up there. But Leon, seriously, work on your free throws dude.

6. Baron Davis fouling out and proceeding to bitch at the refs for a good 45 seconds straight but not getting a technical with less than two minutes to play.

7. The French kids sitting next to us flipping out and trying to take pictures of Adam Sandler who was sitting courtside. Next to Marcus Allen which was quite the odd pairing. Also, Sandler was shaking hands with people at halftime and seemed like a pretty likeable guy. Too bad he hasn't made a good movie since 1996.

8. Knowing that the game could have been over if Pierce hit a wide open three following a sick block by Leon. It would have put the Celtics up by 12 with 8:42 left. Trust me, even with that much time left, Randolph was getting tired, Eric Gordon couldn't hit the water if he fell out of T-Pain's boat (He finished with 4 points. Gordon, not T-Pain.) and Camby and Davis were inconsistent all night. But Pierce bricked it and the Clip, to their credit, hung in there and forced Pierce back into 2006 mode at the end of the game where he just dribbled at the three point line for about 10 seconds, then drove towards the foul line and launched an off balanced jumper. Which he also missed.

9. As Rondo drove the length of the court with five seconds left, Big Baby whiffs on setting a screen but pops out to the three point line anyway and holds his hand up motioning that he's open while Rondo proceeds to dribble the ball out of bounds, ending the game.

10. Realizing that out of the 15 total wins the Clippers have this year, I was there for two of them.

6 20 17 12 9 18 11

No this isn't some crazy new Lost number sequence. It is actually the number of minutes Leon has played in the last seven games dating back to 11/26. Only one of those games was a back to back so Doc can't use that excuse. In fact, there is no discernible pattern to his playing time. Nine minutes against the Pacers at home in a 114-96 final? (Scalabrine had 15 for those of you keeping track at home/hating life.) His total number of minutes is down to 16.3 on the year. Celtics fans can't be complaining too much since the team is a ridiculous 20-2 but I'm not going to let up on Doc. One negative thing I can say about Leon's game though is his free throw percentage is down. (Fun fact: Leon has gotten to the line every game except one so far this season.) Other than that, why is he only getting two more minutes per game than last year? Is it matchups? Is Garnett refusing to leave games? By the way, KG's numbers are all down across the board except FG% and FT% so it's not like he's lighting it up.

Halp Plz.

Quick note

I realize I haven't been writing about Leon all that much so far this season but I wanted to pass this along. I was reading through some Bob Ryan posts on boston.com and came across this excerpt from a couple of weeks ago:

"You have to love the bench. Man-for-man, they don't seem that imposing, but they have really developed a group rapport and it's really fun when they get into the game. How can you not appreciate Leon Powe? That is one inside scoring, rebounding, and hustling kid. You say, "Wow, wouldn't it be great if he were 6-foot-11?" but then you realize he might not try so hard if he were 6-11. He's just right at 6-8."

The Celtics host the Pacers tonight who are coming off a gigantic last second win against the Lakers. Indiana is also the last team to beat Boston...on November 1st.

OH MY GOD DOC!

I guess myself, espn.com, and common sense weren't enough to sway Doc Rivers. He started BRIAN SCALABRINE tonight! He played in the first 6 minutes with Garnett suspended and did jack squat. Leon mercifully came in to replace him and this better be one of those things like Doc pulled last year. Start someone and have them play roughly half of the first quarter and sit them on the bench for the rest of the game. There is no excuse for Leon to not start and as long as he doesn't get into foul trouble tonight, there is no reason why he shouldn't get upwards of 28-30 minutes. You can even make the lame argument that Leon is more effective because he comes off the bench and provides a spark but that doesn't fly after what he accomplished in the finals last year. That's the biggest stage there is, coming off the bench or not. And it's his third year in the league. Further proof that Doc is going to bail after the Big Three move along and has no interest in grooming the young guys for future success. Honestly Doc, just because your team is 9-2 and are the defending World Champs doesn't mean you can pull crap like this. Prove me wrong buddy.

Oh yeah, I just checked the play by play. Leon scored 6 points in the final minute of the quarter on two jump shots and two free throws.

P.S. If someone can come across an actual, real reason that Doc provided to start Scalabrine, holla.

EDIT: According to Boston.com, Doc wanted to "keep the second unit in tact." Yeah, a good way to do that is by putting a guy in who is below the second unit. They also reference the whopping 13 minutes Scalabrine played against the Bucks where he went 2-2 and had 1 assist. Great. The website also provided this gem that I addressed during the finals:

"After a 21-point effort in Game 2 of last year's NBA Finals, Powe put up a dud when he started Game 5 in place of Kendrick Perkins, going scoreless in 5 minutes of play."

Ugh.

Anyway, with 1:45 left in the 3rd quarter, Leon is leading the team with 14 points in just 15 minutes.

Checking in with Leon and the C's

Tonight marks the first time that the Celtics will face the Hawks since their riveting/blood pressure raising first round playoff series last season. Sooooo much trash talk in a series that went down to the wire. Don't think Paul Pierce has forgotten when brash Al Horford got all up in his grill-piece. Dude was a rookie! Flash forward to our current situation. Boston is 7-1 right now coming off huge wins against Detroit and Toronto. And check this: Atlanta has a better record. They are 6-0. They even beat the Hornets at New Orleans. However, they just played a close game in Chicago last night and are without "The Box Score Superstar" Josh Smith. And all of the Celtics' wins in the aforementioned 7 game clash, were at the TD Banknorth Garden. Should be a good one. Look for more of the same where Atlanta's youth and athleticism keeps them in the game until Boston's skill and experience allows them to pull away in the fourth. Plus, the Hawks' bench is pretty slim.

Meanwhile, Leon's last two games haven't been eye popping statistically, but not everyone can score 41 points every night. One quirky thing to note: Monday's game against the Raptors was the first game where Leon didn't have at least 3 personal fouls. He actually had none. Hey, just throwin' it out there... Contractually (not really) we have to look at his PT. In the eight games so far, there have only been two that Leon hasn't played at least 17 minutes. Doc has been sticking with a nine man rotation of the usual starters complimented by Leon(17.5 mpg), Tony Allen(20.9 mpg), Eddie House(16.8 mpg) and Big Baby(16.5 mpg). I can't get too mad at that but I think as the season goes on, Leon's minutes will go up simply due to the wear and tear of an 82 game season on a guy who just played in his 1000th game.

Fun NBA Fact: The Western Conference has more teams under .500 (8) than the Eastern Conference (6).

SHOW-stopper!

Yup, I reward Leon with that horribly unoriginal headline. As AdamMan astutely observed, Leon had a monster game on opening night helping the defending champs to a 90-85 victory. Would you expect anything less? The performance was punctuated with a two handed slam right into Verejao's fro-piece to seal the win. Unfortunately my internet is failing miserably yet again (seriously California?) so I have to resort to this quick post. Of course I would have liked to write some extravagant NBA preview type deal, but let's be honest, there's about 8 trillion of those floating around the interwebz. Besides, just go back to my baseball midseason predictions and see if you want me forecasting things like who the Defensive POY will be. In an effort to keep the posting futility at bay, I will have to resort to posting at my new job. Not the brightest move to be sure but Leon and the NBA deserve better. Kiss baseball and football goodbye kiddies, it's BASKETBALL time!

Oh, did I mention I drafted Leon in my fantasy league? Because I did.

That's a wrap on the preseason

Last night at Madison Square Garden, Leon dropped a 19 point, 12 rebound spot on the Knicks in the last game of the preseason. That brings his 8 game average to:

10.6 points
3.9 rebounds
19.6 min

and

33-45 FT

The Celtics kick off the NBA's regular season Tuesday, October 28th against the Cavs and LeBron who they've already faced twice in the past few weeks and who figure to once again be a top team in the Eastern Conference. Also, with the release of Darius Miles, Boston has solidified their 15 man training camp roster. That sound you heard was everyone in the Trailblazers organization breathing a sigh of relief.

There he go again...

There's nothing like waking up in the morning, turning on Sportscenter, and seeing Leon Powe block a game tying shot with ten seconds left. He once again led the team in scoring with a 17 point performance in 19 minutes of play. With Perk back in the starting lineup, the surprising Patrick O'Bryant moves to the bench, but I can easily see him being part of a 10 man rotation. Big Baby has been very disappointing so far this preseason so as long as Leon keeps up his strong play, Doc will have no choice but to give him steady minutes throughout the year.

Right?

Also-Boston just picked up the option on Rondo's contract for the 09-10 season. What kind of money do you think he'll be worth by then?

Getting Buckets... Even in the Preseason

The Celtics kicked off their pre-season schedule against the 76ers last night out in Amherst, and our boy Leon led the Green with 12 points in the 92-98 loss. His turnovers (5) and low rebounding output (2 in 23 minutes) will be something to work on... but Leon still did what Leon does best, and that's get to the line. He got to the stripe more than any other Celtic and shot 6/8. Nice to see some things don't change.

Another nice surprise in the stat line was from high-potential, low-output backup center Patrick O'Bryant. The big guy got the start with Perk sitting this one out, and he shot 4/6 on his way to 10 points, 8 rebounds, 3 blocks and a steal. Not bad when he's going up against bigs like Sam Dalembert and Elton Brand down in the post. If he can keep this up, O'Bryant and Powe backing up Perk and Garnett could look like one of the deepest front-courts in the league.

One more note: I love the idea on having pre-season games in smaller gyms and different locations. As a Pats season ticket holder, it's always bothered me that the NFL charges full-price for all their pre-season games when the on-field product isn't full-value. The C's will also be playing on-location in Providence on Friday night and in Manchester, NH on Saturday, and I like that they're bringing their games around New England. Not that tickets are cheap (prices are between $25 and $100), but it's more affordable than regular games and at least they're treating the exhibition season like what it actually is.

Leon update

No one ever said I was punctual. Here's an article written on hoopsworld.com about a month ago that a reader named Rick emailed me.

http://www.hoopsworld.com/Story.asp?story_id=9953

Leon totally deserves a vacation in the Bahamas. Another quick note. The team's first preseason game is against the new look 76ers tomorrow night. Powe vs. Brand anyone?

Celtics Championship DVD Review

Okay, I know how these things work. The NBA (and the other leagues) churns out a fluff piece about a month after the Finals are over for fans of the team that won. It's essentially just a recap of the season's highlights and then a little more in depth look at the playoffs. But since it was the Boston Celtics, with arguably the most storied history in all of basketball, and since three players had never really come together like this on one team, I was hoping for bit more than the run of the mill DVD. Three players who were multiple time All-Stars, were all the same age (roughly) in their early 30s, but had no championship rings to show for their efforts. Plus, you know...Leon Powe is on the team! Well, to the NBA's credit, they did appear to take some steps in the right direction, especially with a few of the bonus features, but it still felt a little flat to me overall. Maybe it's because all of this was still so fresh in my mind. Who knows, maybe watching it a few years from now will make me appreciate it a little more.


The main feature was roughly an hour long. It started with a montage of Boston players from years gone by in a segment called, "What it means to be a Boston Celtic." That was definitely a good way to kick things off to pay tribute to all the great players that roamed the floor at the Boston Garden. There was so much success for one franchise up until the late 1980s. Then the feature takes a complete 180 and shows the infamous Rick Pitino speech. (http://youtube.com/watch?v=ICdXAmd1TWA) That short outburst epitomized why he failed in the NBA. What a pompous ass. The feature switches gears again by going from a hated part of Boston's past, to their most loved. Red Auerbach died before the start of the 2006-2007 season. I was actually at opening night that year. He was involved in all previous 16 championships and to have him not there was really odd. (To put this into perspective, the team I root for just played their 20th season. The Celtics have 17 championships. That's crazy.) Red's passing was surely an omen because the DVD then touches on those next, awful 82 games. An 18 game losing streak capped off one of the worst seasons in Celtic history.


But then Danny Ainge brought Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett into the fold to join a justifiably frustrated Paul Pierce. The "New Big Three" they were called. The feature then goes on to detail the team's preseason trip to Italy. We see just how big this trip was for everyone on the team to bond. The trip was also where Doc, searching for some kind of motto or phrase to bring to the team together, came across the word, "Ubuntu".


"You live Ubuntu." Doc says.


The word (very loosely translating into togetherness/selflessness) was said by the whole team before running through the tunnel before every game. It was also demonstrated on the court when Ray Allen got the extra pass twice and nailed buzzer beaters versus Toronto and Charlotte. The team is shown celebrating (the Raptors game was only the second or third of the season) and you could see the beginnings of a team that would go on to win 66 games. The focus then shifts to Perk and Rondo as the two men who completed the starting five and ended up growing by leaps and bounds this season. Posey and Leon were then featured briefly as role players who do a little bit of everything - both with great D, Powe dominating on the glass and Posey's outside shot.

We are then treated to the All Star break. The Big 3, Doc and Rondo all took part in the weekend. Not too much coverage here which was a little disappointing. They did show Garnett rooting for Rondo in the rookie/sophomore game though. It was at this point that I noticed Tommy Heinson and Mike Gorman were no where to be found on the dvd thus far. Pretty odd considering they were the tv announce crew in addition to the fact that Tommy was very successful in his playing/coaching days with the Celtics. In fact, I only recall seeing Tommy once and it was on one of the Bonus Features. For all the live action footage (mostly in the playoffs, more on that in a sec) they cut between Grandy and Maxwell (the radio broadcasters) and the Breen/Van Gundy/Jackson crew. Maybe has something to do with with tv channel the Celtics are broadcasted on. Also, does anyone actually listen to sports radio broadcasts besides when they're in their car? Baseball might be the exception because a lot of people grew up listening to radio broadcasts and prefer it to television. (Especially when a certain former Reds second baseman is on...)

Anyway the feature coasts a bit touching on the additions of Cassell and PJ Brown and focus on how the Celtics just had the biggest single season turnaround in NBA history. They did show a "candid" conversation with Doc and Garnett during a practice. They were disagreeing on how early Doc took him out of a particular game. It was light, but in the end, Doc said, "I know I'm right, that's why I did it." and they both chuckled but the point definitely got across. Now when I started this blog before the Finals, I was very critical of Doc's coaching ability. While it is clear he isn't much of an X's and O's guy, he is a player's coach. He's still young enough that he can relate to his guys but old enough that they listen and respect him. He also doesn't appear to talk down to them at all.

Playoffs: This was the best section of the feature part of the DVD. There were some great quotes both during timeouts and recorded later. After Game 2 of the Atlanta series, Leon said, "We looked unstoppable" but had that look on his face of a guy whose team almost got upset by an eight seed. Going into Game 6 versus Detroit, PJ Brown said, "Pierce and Garnett said we are not goin' back home" which would have been their third straight seven game series. They covered the teams inability to win at home but stayed away from how mightily Ray Allen struggled.

Then came the finals versus the Lakers. The "Beat LA" campaign is shown in full swing. A few of the guys talk about how it felt being the underdog. I remember on espn.com's Finals page, only 1 of the 8 "experts" picked the Celtics to win. (I believe it was Tim Legler.) I was at the Garden for Game 1 and it was interesting to see how the broadcast managed to capture the insanity in the building. I never thought in a million years that Paul Pierce would come back out on the floor after he hurt his knee. It's been debated about how severe the injury was if an injury even existed. Whatever. If a guy isn't hurt, he's not going to go back to the locker room just to come back and give his team a boost when he could have been playing that whole time. The Leon Powe Game was next and Doc almost redeems himself by saying during a timeout, "Tell everyone to look for Leon, he has Luke Walton guarding him." They show a few of his dunks but that was pretty much it for Leon for the rest of the dvd. I thought it would have been nice to put the feature ABC did on him during halftime that game on as a bonus feature, but it was not included. So it goes.

Raise your hand if you can't guard Leon...

After the Celtics almost won Game Three, we get a look at their practice the next day. Some of the guys were definitely looking a little spent but were still going full speed. It paid off because they somehow managed to engineer the biggest comeback in NBA Finals history. During all of the Finals coverage, the feature gives a fair shake to the Lakers even though they pretty much sucked. Kobe was definitely made to look like a superstar as all of his great plays were highlighted and none of his faults were touched on.

Another thing I noticed is that Garnett and Eddie House talk in the huddle...a lot. And they have very constructive things to add too, it's not just lame stuff like, "Hey, let's play our game." Celtics fans watching this should be breathing a sigh of relief that House resigned with the team. The Game six blowout was fun to rewatch as this time, my head was...a little clearer let's say. And while they show the celebration on the court and in the lockerroom afterwards, there was no addition coverage of the team's parade through Boston a few days later. I know the parade didn't make any stops and no speeches were given like many other teams like to do but I don't think it would have killed the NBA to send a couple of cameras.

Lastly, during the credits they showed a funny post game press conference from a game during the season with KG and Pierce. Garnett talks about how they took a class on how the handle press conferences and how to avoid saying, "you know" and "like" all the time. The two then start busting on each other on who says "you know" more. Garnett answers a question and Pierce keeps butting in with "you know". Then Pierce answers a question and KG counts on his fingers how many times Pierce says it. It reminded me of when comedies play the gag reel at the end of the movie. It was a nice touch.

Overall the feature served its purpose in retelling the season and using the dramatic music in the right places. I could have used a little more player interviews weaved in throughout, but the editing was smooth and the highlights that were chosen fit the overall narrative. I'll touch briefly on the special features in an upcoming post as I didn't count on writing so much about the feature. I would say that the dvd was good enough that every Celtic fan should pick it up, but I really don't think anyone needs my endorsement. It was their first championship in 22 years.

Twenty four point lead ain't no thang!

My dad always says that NBA games aren't worth watching until the fourth quarter. While that may be true for most games, (and strictly regarding results, last night counts too) I think Game Four could be appreciated that much more by watching that awful first half. Sure the Celtics looked fairly despondent after the first quarter but then they just started chipping away. You could sense it going into the fourth, and then, LEON POWE ties the game for the first time at 73 all.

He had another relatively quiet game stat-wise but with Perk and Rondo but hurt big time, the bench played quality ball while The Big Three took their play into the stratosphere. Powe was strong on the glass, Posey nailed some dagger three pointers, and House cooly ran the offense. I still can't believe that the Lakers put zero pressure on Eddie bringing the ball up the floor. Zen Master indeed.

By how does a team come back from two dozen on the road? Simple.

The Lakers didn't have home court advantage in their own arena.

It's a well known fact that LA crowds aren't the most boisterous in the league, but last night was embarrassing. Simmons talked about it after Game Three but Game Four was much, much worse. You can talk all you want about how these guys are grown men and should be focused on what's happening on the court. But if 19,000 of your "fans" are lifeless when the opposing team is mounting a ginormous comeback, it'll get to you. This Laker team is pretty soft as it is, but getting outscored 57-33 in the second half of a Finals game? Incredible. The crowd was like the bizarro Golden State crowd from last year when they beat Dallas. By the time Leon hit the tying shot, I think rigor mortis had set in.

I still remember watching the press conference introducing Kevin Garnett as a Boston Celtic. He, along with Pierce and Allen sat at the table with huge smiles on their faces. I thought how nothing short of getting to the Eastern Conference Finals would be a huuuuuge disappointment. After they put Detroit away in 6 games, it was sort of like playing with house money. Sure it would be great for those three to finally win a championship, but the West was just so dominant. Right? So here we are now. One game away from the greatest franchise in NBA history adding yet another banner to their already impressive collection. It's been a long road for Leon and I'm pretty stoked he's gotten to where he is. It's also been a long road for Pierce, Allen and Garnett. It would make quite the statement if they all came out and dominated Game Five. But I don't think anyone would be complaining if the Celtics won their 17th championship back on Causeway St. on Tuesday...

Leon's line from Game four:
9 minutes
3 points
5 rebounds
1-4 FG
1-2 FT
1 turnover



P.S. Ray Allen played the entire game. Holy crap!