Please pass me a dose of reality.

To anyone who thinks that the C's have this one locked up or thinks that the Lakers are done, I prescribe a large reality pill. The extremely large opera singer has been spotted entering the building but is nowhere near the stage yet, she may not have even reached her dressing room. No team has ever blown a 3-0 lead in the NBA but ask the most successful team in baseball if it's possible. The Celtics will win this thing iff (a little mathmatical lingo) they outscore the Heat once more...don't even have to outplay them just outscore them. Anyone think the Lakers will simply roll over? Neither series is over and both could easily go 7.

Today was the Heat's last gasp. Wade played out of his mind and if the Celtics make their free throws, they still win.

No chance they come back and take it to 7....sorry.

As for the Lakers, they look terrible and are ripe for the taking. Even if they dont lose in the end...going 7 games will take a lot out of them. They have a terrible bench and Kobe and Gasol cant do it alone all the way to the Finals.

I think the Lakers chances of repeating are ZERO.

lac

if the lakes dont slow down the pace they may lose. They got to slow it down and get the ball in flow to their bigs. Celts look good but got to close.

mrkleen09 wrote:Today was the Heat's last gasp. Wade played out of his mind and if the Celtics make their free throws, they still win.

No chance they come back and take it to 7....sorry.

As for the Lakers, they look terrible and are ripe for the taking. Even if they dont lose in the end...going 7 games will take a lot out of them. They have a terrible bench and Kobe and Gasol cant do it alone all the way to the Finals.

I think the Lakers chances of repeating are ZERO.

We can revisit this in the near future kleen, I hope to be eating my words with a large fork, again...not saying that they will go 7, saying it wouldn't be much of a stretch...If I was a betting man, I would bet the Lakers come out of that series and that this year's Celtics will make this a more interesting series than either you or I want.

Calm down, this their way of leaving Miami fans with a good taste in their mouth. Would have been terrible for them to get blown away in their own home court. Tuesday will be the closer, I guarantee it. Just look at the game Pierce and Allen had. If KG keeps it up and they pick up their pace, we may see a great game. I really don't think it will go any longer. Personally, I think Wade is going to run out of gas if he has to keep up that pace.

RELAX!! ENJOY THE FUN!! CLEVELAND IS LOOMING!!

RosalieTCeltics wrote:Calm down, this their way of leaving Miami fans with a good taste in their mouth. Would have been terrible for them to get blown away in their own home court. Tuesday will be the closer, I guarantee it. Just look at the game Pierce and Allen had. If KG keeps it up and they pick up their pace, we may see a great game. I really don't think it will go any longer. Personally, I think Wade is going to run out of gas if he has to keep up that pace.

RELAX!! ENJOY THE FUN!! CLEVELAND IS LOOMING!!

Duly noted, Rosalie...I'm relaxed, by the way...and looking forward to C basketball however it all turns out.

if cleve gets production from mo and jamison they are going to be a very hard out. Rondo must stop mo.

There is no guarantees with this Celtics team! They have played well in this series, and they have shown their dark side as well.

The disappointing thing about this Celtic team is their inability to finish at the basket. Perkins, Big Baby, KG, even Pierce are not finishing at the basket. Getting their shots blocked or missing bunnies. This is a very good shooting team. Just think how good it would be if they could finish!!

Don't underestimate the Heat. The Celtics will have to be at their best to finish this thing off. They have no one to control Wade. Hope he has a bad game Tuesday!!

My prediction: Celtics in 5; Lakers in 6.
And Cleveland over the Celtics in 6. This is the year of the Cavs. They are loaded and they are hungry.

I'd have to say I'm inclined to agree Pumpsie with your assessment of Cleveland, by the way your underwater photographs are most impressive... LA CELT

cleve goin to have to show me

mrkleen09 wrote:Today was the Heat's last gasp. Wade played out of his mind and if the Celtics make their free throws, they still win.

No chance they come back and take it to 7....sorry.

As for the Lakers, they look terrible and are ripe for the taking. Even if they dont lose in the end...going 7 games will take a lot out of them. They have a terrible bench and Kobe and Gasol cant do it alone all the way to the Finals.

I think the Lakers chances of repeating are ZERO.

I really hope your right,I don't know how a veteran team can come out in a close out game so not ready to play and throw the ball away so many possesions in a row,were they reading too many press clippings how great they are? did they think Heat was just gonna roll over?

sdceltfan wrote:There is no guarantees with this Celtics team! They have played well in this series, and they have shown their dark side as well.

The disappointing thing about this Celtic team is their inability to finish at the basket. Perkins, Big Baby, KG, even Pierce are not finishing at the basket. Getting their shots blocked or missing bunnies. This is a very good shooting team. Just think how good it would be if they could finish!!

Don't underestimate the Heat. The Celtics will have to be at their best to finish this thing off. They have no one to control Wade. Hope he has a bad game Tuesday!!

noticed that too,was saying to my son how many layups are we gonna keep missing? on a few occasions,plus we turnover the ball way too much,how many alley opps has KG blown,don't even want to get into Perk.

Pumpsie Green wrote:My prediction: Celtics in 5; Lakers in 6.
And Cleveland over the Celtics in 6. This is the year of the Cavs. They are loaded and they are hungry.

and Lebron is so routinely great it is really scary,now hes proving he can take over on the perimeter,he never gets tired it seems,just wears you out,hes so much better than 2 years ago with a better supporting cast.

LA,

I like the mathematical reference of "iff", which for everyone else on the this site means "if and only if". I haven't seen that since I took Intro to Abstract Math @ Davidson, a prereq for math majors.

As for the Celtics and Ray missing free throws at the end, no biggie. I can promise you he won't miss another one all the way through to the finals. The only problem I have with not putting them away was now they have to come back home where we have no idea what will happen. Ray, being the true professional he is, will be pissed and take it out on Miami Tuesday. Celtics played well enough to win twice down there. No big deal. We're not going 16-0.

As far as CLE goes, when they get knocked out, Mike Brown will be fired more than likely for not having enough timeouts at the end of Game 3. They would have won and be waiting on the Celtics had they moved the ball to half court by calling TO. Sign of more incompetency to follow. Beginning signs of doubt creeping in. Will be manifested next round.

LA is in big trouble. I know they want to come back to OKL and shut those fans the eff up, but the announcers made some astute observations about "skipping" some steps for a "young" team in the maturation process of the playoffs. KD has an early Mike Tyson no nonsense look on his face the way he answered questions after the game. This team is for real and I'm sure Phil is kicking butt and taking names this AM. OKL has two chances to win on the road. They have only two questions to answer now. Can they win one on the road and then close it out?

Although, LA, just to get your goat, your if/then statement is a tautology, or simply a given. If they score more points, then they will win or if they win, they would have scored more points, by definition. They is nothing to prove. I'm just messin' with you. Your point is understood. Just win the damn game Tuesday! Don't give us any more heart attacks!

dbrown4 wrote:Although, LA, just to get your goat, your if/then statement is a tautology, or simply a given. If they score more points, then they will win or if they win, they would have scored more points, by definition. They is nothing to prove. I'm just messin' with you. Your point is understood. Just win the damn game Tuesday! Don't give us any more heart attacks!

Some tautologies want of proof. This just isn't one of them

Your analysis of his original comment reminds me of a John Madden like insight hahaha-- "If the quarterback throws the ball to the receiver, and the receiver catches it in the end-zone that's going to be a touch down!" or something ha.

dbrown4 wrote:Although, LA, just to get your goat, your if/then statement is a tautology, or simply a given. If they score more points, then they will win or if they win, they would have scored more points, by definition. They is nothing to prove. I'm just messin' with you. Your point is understood. Just win the damn game Tuesday! Don't give us any more heart attacks!

Thanks for the feedback dbrown....I'll let you know if I'm really trying to prove anything...I think that the only thing I could prove here is that when it comes to basketball I'm an opinionated sob....and I don't think I'm alone.

Were you a math major as well? I'm just glad to see someone else in the world besides me knows or remembers that bs from many years ago. I've never had to use it since!!

We are just die hard fans hoping for the best. You are right though, I bet Ray was in the gym this am practicing free throws for two hours. That had to really get him ticked. I say "it happens". How many has he made for the Celtics in the last three years. Last Tuesday when I was at the second game in the Garden, he had that look on his face. He would have gone for 50 if they had found him earlier in the game. Anyway, it will be over tomorrow, I feel it in my bones!

dbrown4 wrote:Were you a math major as well? I'm just glad to see someone else in the world besides me knows or remembers that bs from many years ago. I've never had to use it since!!

Are you sitting down? Okay....I'm a math major NOW...about 40 years after I started college...late bloomer.

Back to iff: The C's did what they needed to do...Win.....
Can they beat Cleveland without the bench playing a bigger role?
Does the C's bench matter much in this next series? How much does the Celtic bench matter in capturing banner 18?
Are both teams, Lakers and OKC going back to LA ...or are the Lakers going back alone? Any thoughts?

I think the bench has got to come forward and play the way everyone expected them to play from the beginning of the year. That first 25 games they all played together were terrific. Where did it all go? Daniels is an important cog here. He is the one who will take over for Pierce in guarding LeBron, if that is at all possible. His biggest problem since returning is getting into foul trouble fast. I know that Rasheed needs to come forward also, I am just leary now about that.

I can't imagine the Lakers losing this series, but anything is possible.

lacelt

tempo. If its fast back to la...

Several things here. Some more math lingo here, but by definition, the bench clearly will have to step it up. Once the playoffs start, most teams, if not all, shorten their bench players to about three players. Their play becomes magnified simply because there are less of them playing. So if they come out and stink it up, everyone blames the bench.

If someone can explain why teams shorten the bench in the playoffs after going the whole season with 10+, I would greatly appreciate it. The only reason I can think of is each team is afraid the other may leave their starters in longer and run them out of the gym. Do teams that are focusing on the playoffs during the regular season actually do all the bench combinations simply to prepare for the teams they will be facing in the playoffs, determining which 3 are going to work best?

This will be where Rasheed will need to break out his bag of tricks. This series is what we brought him to Boston for. He knows it. He will show up. Watch him carefully on D, denying the entry pass. Daniels as well. BB will be big as well. Throw Nate in there to antagonize the crap out of CLE's second unit and you have a recipe for disaster for poor, poor CLE. Finley can be used as a back breaker for short stints. No one on the opposition is expecting anything from or out of him. But two well placed 3's will spell doom for LeBron and Co. The bench will step up. I don't think they will have to beat CLE's bench each game, but do keep it close and don't blow any leads.

LA, Congratulation on going back to school and for a degree in Math no less!!! That really takes guts. I know your head is pounding!! I always had trouble proving why 1+1=2 in Real Analysis. Like the applied side more than theoretical, but mastering proofs always made me feel more accomplished than solving a problem. Where are you studying? What courses are you taking?

I digress. (Sorry, guys. Math geeks have to stick together!) I do want to see LA sweat. That crowd in OKL is ridiculous. Great atmosphere. Great for the NBA. I say it will go back to LA, then anything is possible. But LA should win it. Hate to see OKL go. I wish OKL could skip a step, though.

I did like Paul's confidence about maybe winning two in CLE over the weekend. (I think he said it) We got the series we wanted, with four possible road games and when we wanted it, early. The table is set. I think we are going to really like the outcome. Maybe, just maybe, Milwikkie will torch ORL and give us a cakewalk to the finals. ATL is the Celtics of two years ago. Only difference, we needed homecourt and didn't blow a game when we really needed it in the first two rounds. ATL can't win on the road and their season will end tonight. That will be one huge threat gone for us, maybe the biggest. Now we must take care of our biggest threat and push those rice eaters back to the Great Wall of China. (OK, I make myself laugh!)