By now you’ve watched enough television and read enough articles to know more than you ever have known about the Celtics and Lakers. I’ll spare you the 5,000 word match up breakdown and sum it up short for you: Nobody matches up well with Kevin Garnett. Kobe Bryant is the best scorer in the league. Paul Pierce can do it all, and will. Lamar Odom is underrated and overrated at the same time, I’m not sure how though. If Kendrick Perkins can stay out of foul trouble, he will dominate Pau Gasol down low. Rajon Rondo is much better than he thinks he is. Both teams’ benches are pretty equal in talent; I don’t see a huge advantage either way. There’s your breakdown, fill in the blanks as the game goes on.
This summer has been strange so far for me. Balancing Celtics games and maintaining a social life has been somewhat difficult. It hasn’t helped that the Celtics have pushed each series to seven, seven, and six games. That being said, aside from a few minor heart attacks during certain Celtics playoff games, I wouldn’t trade this playoff experience for anything. The idea of watching meaningful basketball games in the summer was foreign to me up until this season. Wait a second… I don’t have to finish all of my homework before the Celtics game in order to have time to talk and blog about the game all night? Brilliant!
When I wrote an article on opening night of the Celtics game I was so pumped. I joked about being the other team in Boston trying to finish the season undefeated. Hell, I was just excited to watch a winning basketball team. Looking back a year ago from today, it is honestly amazing how far this team has turned around. I am as equally mad now when the Celtics lose a game as I was happy when they won a game last year. If there is one thing I’ve learned about this season, it is that prior to this season, I almost became numb to the feeling of losing. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t enjoy watching a team lose 18 straight, but there were just so many losses that I didn’t have time to dwell on just one. It was great if we got a win, but I never really expected one. This year, I expect wins (and it is still great), but the losses hurt ten-fold. The Sox and the Pats are expected to win, but it wasn’t always like that. I feel that from this point on, the Celtics will be held to the same standard as those teams, and that is a great thing.
Back in December, I asked the question, “Do the Celtics have what it takes to slow down the Patriots and conquer Red Sox Nation?” Everybody I know scoffed at the idea, and rightfully so. At the time we had an undefeated football team bound for another Super Bowl win, and a baseball team that won the World Series two months prior to the article. Today, the Celtics are about to play game one of the NBA Finals against the longtime rival Los Angeles Lakers. Even with the recent news on the Patriots taping incident (I will not say “spy gate” ever again), and the Red Sox playing relatively well, the Celtics dominate the headlines.
David Ortiz just tore a tendon in his wrist and at best he will be gone for a month, at worst, the entire season. Think about that for a second- David Ortiz, Boston’s biggest clutch hitter of all-time, could miss the remainder of the season. Would this not be talked about 24/7 in Boston right now if the Celtics weren’t in the NBA Finals? Cripes, the city would be on emergency lockdown. It’s not though, because Celtics basketball is what everyone cares about right now.
It’s been a great season, but we aren’t content with losing, especially to the Lakers. I wrote an article before the playoffs started admitting about my Pre-Garnett-era-syndrome, which is basically a disease that diehard fans got because of the fact they were fans before KG and company came. Basically we can’t shake the “worst case scenario is about to happen” feeling at any point in the game because we’re so used to it. Trust me, there were times during the playoffs that it kicked in, but with every win it recedes a little more. It will take 16 playoff wins this season to cure the disease. With four games left to win, we’re almost free of it.
Post-champions-syndrome is the disease that spreads across the fan base once your team wins the championship. Red Sox fans definitely have it and Patriots fans still have it. Basically, once fans of other teams start hating you simply because you’re a fan of a great team and you know it, you have the disease. The disease feeds off of other fans of the same team and it takes numerous years of failure before it wears off, which explains why Sox and Pats fans still have it and why Celtics and Bruins fans don’t.
The idea that someone will be jealous of me because I’m a Celtics fan excites me. Beat L.A.
Keywords: boston celtics, kevin garnett, kobe bryant, los angeles lakers, nba finals, nba playoffs, patriots, paul pierce, red sox
