Cleveland writer's observations

No beef with Boston
Story in Yardbarker that I found rather amusing. Do they just want to be crowned and forget about playing in the playoffs?

Rosalie, here is the article: (I think)

http://network.yardbarker.com/all_sports/article_external/no_beef_with_boston/18700331?linksrc=story_sport_nba_module_related_18702605

No beef with Boston

I have no problem with how the Boston Celtics played in their first round series against the Cavaliers. Yes, they were dirty. Yes, they were underhanded. Yes, Kelly Olynyk yanked Kevin Love’s shoulder out of its socket and Isaiah Thomas grabbed at an inbounds pass while it was still in LeBron James’ hands. Yes, Jae Crowder, he who would not be intimidated, clobbered LeBron while Avery Bradley and Marcus Smart raked the arms of Kyrie Irving. Yes, all of this is some Grade A bull spit.

But what were the Celtics supposed to do?

No matter how hard they played, Boston had no chance at winning in the first round. The Cavs had at least the three best players in the series. They had more size and talent and shooting and experience. They entered the playoffs with title aspirations (and perhaps more importantly, expectations), while Boston was a bunch of plucky upstarts not expected to sniff the postseason for at least another year.

Boston was and is ahead of its rebuilding schedule. Even if it was just the East, they made the playoffs. That achievement gets more impressive the longer you stare at their roster. Here’s an unabridged list of Boston’s big men: Tyler Zeller, Jared Sullinger, Kelly Olynyk, Brandon Bass, Jonas Jerebko. They’re a reasonably skilled bunch, and you can talk yourself into the idea that their collective shooting ability fits in today’s stretchy NBA, but come on. How many of those guys would start for any other playoff team?

They needed something more to have any chance against the Cavs, a thumb on the scale to tip things in their favor. A sack full of gorilla thumbs still wouldn’t have been enough, so they did what a great many overmatched teams before them have done. They mucked it up and hoped for the best.

Sure, playing clean would have been the more honorable approach. They could have played the Cavs straight. But if sports — or business, or politics — have taught us anything, it’s that humans have a nasty habit of preferring success to honor. This is surely not true of everyone in these fields, but we have seen enough examples to know that it’s out there, and often on a grand scale: Nixon, Madoff, McGwire.

Don’t hate the player, they say — hate the game.

I don’t have hate in my heart for the game the Celtics played, nor do I have it for the Celtics who played it. I believe that Kelly Olynyk was willfully taking Kevin Love out of the play, and I believe that he was deliberately breaking the rules in the process, and perhaps he was seeking vengeance for a previous scuffle, but I do not believe that he was trying to remove Love’s arm from its prescribed resting place. I don’t think that, in the middle of the game, he stopped to think, Say, I bet I could rip his arm clean out of its socket right now.

I don’t know the man personally, but I do know that he is Canadian and went to Gonzaga, and I do not generally associate those things with malicious intent.

The Love-Olynyk tussle and Jae Crowder vs. Kendrick Perkins and J.R. Smith will be among the most enduring memories of this series, and that is unfortunate. If you love basketball — or presidential debates, or soft drink ads, or any sort of contest — you don’t want to see it degenerate into a mud fight. You want to see the best. You want to see the ideal. You want to see the thing about which legends are crafted. This Cavs-Celts series, save for a few brilliant moments, was not that.

I wonder, though: What if the roles were reversed? What if the Cavs were the plucky upstart and the Celtics the anointed champs to-be? We sort of saw this in 2008 when the Pierce-Garnett-Allen Celtics — the first Big Three, at least in the modern sense — bested the Cavs in the Eastern Conference Semifinals, but comparing that series to this Boston-Cleveland battle would be misguided. Those Cavs had been to the playoffs; been to the Finals. Boston was a juggernaut, but the Cavs could look them in the eye without blinking.

Even if Boston had the better team that year, the Cavs always had a 6-foot-8 ace in the hole: LeBron.

The Celtics had no such weapon, nor did they have a second-rate imitation. For all of the capable players that Boston has, the crucial part that they are missing is that star who can single-handedly change a game. Isaiah Thomas can take over for stretches, but being 5-foot-9 on a basketball court catches up to you after a while, particularly after high school. Evan Turner is plenty clever with the ball, but not truly threatening. Boston has a team of star rowers in a league dominated by speedboats.

All of this is to say that I understand why Boston tried to rough up the Cavs. I even condone it a little bit; I don’t mind a splash of hockey in my basketball. Imagine if you were the Boston Celtics going into the series. Wouldn’t you get sick of hearing that LeBron is the best in the world? Wouldn’t you get sick of hearing about how magical Kyrie is? Wouldn’t you get sick of hearing that your team needs a star? Wouldn’t you get sick of hearing that you’re roadkill?

It might make you play a little tougher. It might make you set stiffer screens and box out harder. It might make you want to prove yourself against these so-called stars on a national stage. It might make you think, to hell with winning, I’m gonna force these bastards to learn my name. It might make you throw a shoulder into someone. It might even make you lose it for a moment and dislocate a guy’s shoulder.

thanks Gyso, yes that was it, I was on my way out the door and just had a chuckle over this Big Bad Celtics. How many times did we say over the year that we needed a tough guy to stand up to some of these players who just push people around

On top of it, Matt Barnes is ripping the NBA for suspending JR
Claiming there was nothing wrong with that play. Huh?????

Oh well, I just thought everyone would like to really know how tough the Celtics are!

Rosalie

I agree with one thing.  The Cavs have a 6' 8" ace in the hole.  Which makes him a 6'8" acehole.

Sam