The agony of defeat

Another one of these games, and I'll be rooming with Danny Ainge down at Mass General.

With the exception of Game 3's blowout victory, neither team has had any breathing room at all in this series. And as I paced around the room with my heart in my throat while the teams traded blows, I realized that this could be a matchup we'll be seeing in the NBA playoffs for a while.

It was a matchup that the Celtics did not deserve to win today. Rajon Rondo and Ray Allen each played great basketball and Kendrick Perkins was solid down low, but despite his 29 points, Paul Pierce looked sluggish and made some critical errors that were very uncharacteristic of him. His Twitter update yesterday extolled the virtues of Portello's italian sausages in Chicago. He looked like he had eaten a few before the game today. 

Adding to that, the only thing Glen Davis could finish today was a sandwich. There is no excuse for shooting 4-16 from the field as a power forward, especially when most of his shots came 3 feet from the hoop. 

Finally, outside of some great hustle from Brian Scalabrine, the Celtics bench gave them literally nothing today. Last year, you put James Posey and PJ Brown in the game and there was hardly a drop-off in production. But Mikki Moore adds nothing and isn't qualified to clean the sweat off the floor between plays, let alone guard Joakim Noah and Brad Miller. Stephon Marbury looks like he's playing hot potato out there with the way he shies away from taking shots. This guy averaged 20 points a game for several years, but for some reason refuses to shoot the ball or create any offense whatsoever. This is NOT what we thought we were getting when the Celtics acquired him from the Knicks, and he's not going to have too many suitors come the offseason if he keeps playing like this. 

There - the frustration is out. That felt good. 

Some home cooking will be good for the Celtics. Big Baby and Pierce will of course bounce back in Game 5, and if the Celtics can control Derrick Rose as they did in Game 3, they should be fine. The key for the Celtics is bench production. It has become pretty clear that the Celtics are just not deep enough to compete for a title, with or without Kevin Garnett, but they should be able to get past the Bulls if House and Marbury can give them anything at all off the bench. Mikki Moore also has to be able to play quality minutes without racking up fouls.

Judging by today's performance, I don't see it happening.