| Believe In The Celtics Authored by Randolph Charlotin - June 20, 2008 - 11:09 am
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That’s the gamble Boston Celtics executive director of basketball operations Danny Ainge took when he first traded Wally Szczerbiak and Delonte West to Seattle for Ray Allen. A month later, Ainge sent Al Jefferson, Ryan Gomes, Sebatian Telfair, Gerald Green, and Theo Ratliff to Minnesota for Kevin Garnett.
That’s more than half of the 2006-2007 roster. The remaining players were Paul Pierce, Leon Powe, Kendrick Perkins, Tony Allen, Rajon Rondo, and Brian Scalabrine. Even with Garnett and Ray Allen, that’s not much of a team.
Is it possible to add a few journeymen to the team and reach the playoffs? You wouldn’t think so with the remaining spare parts of a roster. Eddie House is a great shooter, but he’s an undersized two-guard, not a point guard. And James Posey is a great role player off the bench for defense and occasional three pointers, but not much else. Scott Pollard provides depth at center, but he was coming off of an injury. Will he stay healthy and contribute? The team looked like it had holes.
But there was a bigger problem than pulling together enough bodies to have a team: Chemistry. With so much change-over, is it at all believable to get all the players on the same page in a short period of time? Having training camp in Rome might had been a great way for the team to bond off the court, but will it translate to the court?
There’s also the issue of clashing egos. Up until the trades, Ray Allen, Garnett and Pierce had been the face of their respective franchises, the leading scorer, the Man. That approach wouldn’t work anymore now that they were teammates. How would they co-exist? Could they be convinced to play defense? Is it beyond belief that they would make the sacrifices necessary to make it all work?
It looked that way as they opened the season with a eight-game winning streak. By the end of the first month Boston was 13-2. It didn’t take long for the Celtics to have the best record in the NBA.
Best record in the league? Big deal. The Celtics play in the Eastern Conference. How would they do against the elite teams? Well Boston split the season series (2-2) against the defending Eastern Conference Champions Cleveland Cavaliers. And they won the season series against conference favorite the Detroit Pistons, 2-1.
Critics remained skeptical. Winning in the East doesn’t compare to defeating Western Conference foes. Can Boston tame the West? They did so with surprising success, winning all 15 games against Western Conference teams before the All-Star break. Overall they lost just five games to the West. It included sweeps of the Los Angeles Lakers, Houston Rockets, Dallas Mavericks, and the defending champions San Antonio Spurs.
The formula was working, but did they have enough to win in the post-season? With Pollard done for the year, Boston lacked depth along the front court. There was also the question of whether a second year point guard (Rondo) could keep his composure in the playoffs. For the stretch run and second season, Ainge signed PG Sam Cassell after the Los Angeles Clippers released him. That move was followed by signing a then-retired C P.J. Brown.
Could these graybeards even help at all? They had better days to say the least. Will they be able to keep up with players a dozen years their minor and even younger?
The Celtics finished with the best record in the NBA and the top seed in the East. Congratulations, but where you finish in the regular season doesn’t matter in the playoffs, doubters said. Can Boston win when the intensity rises? Can they play playoff basketball? Few believed they could because this Celtics team never played together in the playoffs.
Skeptics thought their suspicions were confirmed when Boston struggled to dispatch the eighth-seeded Atlanta Hawks in seven games. It was the same story as the Cavaliers proved to be stubborn adversaries. That series also went the full seven as the Celts needed a 41-point game seven performance from Pierce to edge the Cavs.
A troubling trend emerged as well. Yes, Boston won both series, but they failed to win on the road. They were 0-6 as they welcomed a surging Pistons team that already won three times while traveling. General opinion proclaimed that a team can’t win a championship without winning on the road. It made choosing Detroit as the favorite easy.
And when Detroit won game two in the TD Banknorth Garden, it assured those who expected the Pistons to come out on top. But then Boston won game three on the road. Even more surprising was the Celtics clinched the series in game six, another road win. They would play for the NBA Championship.
Much to the satisfaction of long time fans, the Finals pitted long time rivals the Celtics against the Lakers.
At least the match-up was historic. Many believed the Celtics had no chance. While Boston struggled through the playoffs, L.A. cruised through the Western Conference. The Lakers had the best offense in the post-season and were led by the league MVP, Kobe Bryant. On top of that, Boston had already played 20 games. Fatigue would eventually catch up to the Celtics.
Some thought it would be no contest with the Lakers winning in as few as five games. Those educated guesses were thrown out the window when Boston won the first two games at home. Even more stunning was the 24-point come from behind win in game four.
And the coups de gras was absolute. A 39-point thrashing of the Lakers made the Celtics NBA Champions.
It all happened. Half the team traded, worst-to-first in just one year, developing chemistry, defense first, sacrifice, a championship. It all just happened.
And I’m having a hard time believing it.
For more by Randolph Charlotin, check out his New England Patriots blog at http://www.newenglandpatriotsnews.com/randolphc/weblog/. He also posts for http://www.bostonscore.com/. Please send comments to lordrc@netzero.net. |
