And That's That

Well, folks, that just about does it. And not just for the season, but from what I'm feeling, for this era in Celtics history. Shaq effectively announced his retirement after we shut him down for this game and the rest of the way. I'm guessing KG will retire and so will Doc Rivers (either that or he'll move on to another team). I can't fault them if they do. They gave us everything they had for 4 years. KG was totally dedicated and completely transformed the team and city in a way no one thought he'd do. Old age eventually caught up to him and although he still has the ability to tap into the well for a vintage performance every now and then, he can't do it consistently. Whether that has to do with simply age (probably) or his knee injury that slowed him down a couple years ago (perhaps), he is one of the greats ever. If you've watched the Celtics over the years, Doc has proven his play-making skills and ability to coach egos of superstars (KG, PP, and Ray), and budding superstars (Rondo). Can't fault him for anything (especially the way it ended tonight. See below: Ainge, Daniel).

Looking ahead, I do see Pierce and Ray sticking with us. Because he's primarily a shooter, Ray can be effective for another handful of years. He was probably our most consistent player this season and shot career highs in FG% and 3P FG% this year. His work ethic is a testament to that. For some reason or another, Pierce doesn't appear to have lost a step. He was still the highest scoring guy on the team, hit clutch shots, increased his 3-point shooting, and can still bang down low. Now, if we can somehow integrate Jeff Green into a starting spot somewhere, I'm gonna go ahead and bank on him returning to his productive form from OKC. He's shown it in spurts at the end of the season when Doc was resting our starters, so let's hope he can get it going in the starting role.

Glen Davis has to go. I never really trusted the guy, even when he was the Ticket Stub in 2009. Ainge should've shipped his ass out instead of Perk.

If we can finagle Dwight Howard out of signing with LA or whatever other team is on the docket, can you imagine the amount of alley oops Rondo would be throwing to him each night? That'd be insane. Rondo, Allen, Pierce, Green, Howard. Pretty solid.

And now, to commemorate the New Big Three Era, here are some YouTube clips of the biggest plays that were made:

Ray Allen











Paul Pierce













Kevin Garnett

Danny Ainge sucks for relying on an overweight 65-year old and completely disregarding chemistry and cohesion as important factors for a team. He said "hit me" while holding two face cards and clearly busted. He felt the need to do *something* at the trade deadline even though our team was fine.

Thank you for effectively closing our window.

Game 1 Suckage

That was painful. We played maybe our worst basketball of the season for the whole game...only Ray Allen had it going, KG was off all night, Rondo did jack shit, Pierce was iffy (until the 4th quarter), our bench was incompetent, the the refs made a couple of idiotic calls that ruined momentum for us, we got down by 20+ points...and yet despite all that, only lost by 9. We were able to cut their leads down to 4, 7, 8, etc. more than just a couple times despite playing like we had downs.

Any consolation can come from the fact that James Jones had a career game (actually, a historical game for the Heat), and that it simply won't happen again (at least to that extent...and I'm not just saying that optimistically--Law of Averages baby). Rondo decided after getting a couple of his shots blocked that he wouldn't assert himself and ended up being the Rondo of the end of the regular season. He made Mike Bibby look like Bill Russell out there. Who knows with him. We'll see how he responds. KG had a rough shooting night the whole game. His shot just wasn't falling, which has happened a handful of times this season. From what I remember, he usually rebounds well after such games. At least he played great D on Bosh, who I think had the same measly amount of points. Regardless, I guess if those two guys can cancel each other out, no matter how crappy they play, that's a good thing, right? Pierce was shit the first 3 quarters, but he got it going in the 4th. Unfortunately, he also got ejected then too. Sucks not having one of the best closers in the league out there when we're cutting the Heat lead down to single digits. Once again, Law of Averages says he'll be there the whole game next time and shoot better than he did, so again that's something we can look forward to.

If I was unable to see the score for the whole game, by the end of the 4th, I definitely would have thought we were down by 25 points, not 8 or 9. A loss is a loss, sure, and I'm not happy about it. But when you lose by less than 10 points when Miami SHOULD HAVE blown us away by 25+, that's something Doc and the Celtics should maybe look at and say, "Hey, if a few balls would've bounced our way...if the refs didn't think the game was about them and try to appease the home crowd with 2 atrocious calls...if we had Pierce in as our closer just as he was heating up...maybe things would've been different. Let's get off to a better start in Game 2 and play consistently." I mean, that sounds encouraging, right? Of course, I'm sure that's what Mike D'Antoni said to the Knicks after Game 1 in the first round, but whatever they actually lost that game and that's neither here nor there.

Bottom line: tough loss, awful execution, but hopefully shook the rust off. We'll be back in Game 2 and then we get some home cookin' and you know the Garden crowd will take it to the Real Housewives of South Beach.