"Rest? Who needs rest?? Our bones/ligaments/tendons are disintegrating as we speak, but fuck it, let's play tomorrow! No no no no. Fuck THAT. Let's play RIGHT NOW...AGAIN! 48 minutes, none of these long national broadcast commercial breaks! Hoo-rah!" --Celtics (except maybe Pierce, who seemed to be the only one who tried for the whole game)

Outscored by 23 in 2nd half. Trick or treat Celtics. Couldn't figure out what to do when KG got double teamed. Pierce never drove to the hoop. Rondo did the ol' dribble for 20 seconds then take a fadeaway jumper offense throughout the 2nd half. Played some bullshit defense in which switches were made on EVERY PICK so that Bradley would end up guarding Thaddeus Young on the block. Lou Williams decided to embody Michael Jordan. That's how to lose a game. Congratulations. Fucking blew a chance to close out on Monday in Boston and get some days off for all your injured players. Nope. That's just not how this Celtics team works. Play like a fucking video game the game before and then like the Monstars took your abilities for 24 minutes in the next game. DID YOU FUCKING FORGET HOW TO PLAY???? DID YOU FUCKING FORGET THE ENTIRE PLAYBOOK??? HOW TO PLAY DEFENSE???? HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN ON A POTENTIALLY TITLE-CONTENDING TEAM IN A PROFESSIONAL SPORT???? Just go the fuck away. And that is my analysis of the game.

Hey. I hate losing. That's all.

LeRobot?

I don't get it. I just don't understand how people can like LeBron. Yeah, you can say he was an asshole for leaving Cleveland. You can say he was arrogant for the WAY he left Cleveland. The whole 2011 Heat welcome celebration (Not 1, not 2, not 3...) was certainly kinda jarring. You can say all those things. But the one thing I've noticed that is just downright inexcusable is his complete lack of emotion. I'm watching his press conference right now, answering questions with generic "gotta give credit to the Mavs...it is what it is" type responses. He literally is expressionless. It's like he just lost a game in November to the Wizards. Think of how KG would be acting at the press table if the Celtics just lost in the Finals on their home court. He'd be absolutely devastated. At a loss for words. Shaking his head. Visibly stunned. Pissed off. EMOTIONAL. You know why I think LeBron looks like he doesn't care? Because no matter what, he's the face of the NBA (for better or worse). Come next season, there'll be more than a handful of "analysts" who will predict the Heat will win the championship because LeBron must've worked on his game in the off season and, hey, more time together builds chemistry! He knows that he's still got his fame, his endorsements--money will be rolling in. I think he's so damn cocky and absolutely sure that a ring's gonna fall into his lap at some point during his career that not winning it all in 2011 is not as big of a deal as it was for KG, Ray, and Pierce, who were past their primes--they knew what was at stake. LeBron, on the other hand, is pretty much saying that he'll look at the tape, work on fixing his weaknesses, and come back next year. Um, okay...it's gonna be that easy? Who wants to root for a guy that is so politically correct that he can't even LOOK upset?! It makes me angry that he's not angry and I don't even like the guy!

I can't fathom that an NBA player of LeBron's caliber wouldn't care too much about not winning a championship, but maybe that's the case. Maybe he doesn't care about (potentially) being called one of the greats ever. Maybe he just cares about being famous, getting money, and just living life.

That's not a guy I want to root for and I can't imagine how anyone could.

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.