Sports, Pop Culture and Random Musings…

No matter what happens in game four of the Eastern Conference Finals on Sunday night, a pivotal game that both teams desperately want, many people will consider the season a success for the Boston Celtics. This is the fifth year of the new “Big Three,” era in Boston, an era that was originally anticipated to run its course after three years, so the Celtics are essentially playing with house money at this point. Even with a lockout-shortened regular season, this was a team that was not expected to make it deep into the playoffs and, after losing sixth man Jeff Green for the year because of a heart condition and a 15-17 start, there were questions about whether the Celtics would even make the playoffs. But make the playoffs they did, and now find themselves trailing the Miami Hear two games to one with the chance to knot up the series coming on the parquet floor…..the exact same scenario as last year’s failure of a season.

True, this year’s matchup with the Heat comes one round later in the playoffs than last season’s Eastern Conference Semifinal defeat, but that is due to luck and favorable opponents just as much as it is due the to Celtics’ play. With Dwight Howard and Derrick Rose knocked out of the playoffs with injuries, the skids were greased for the Celtics to make it to the conference finals and, to their credit, they beat the teams they had to. You can only play who is on the schedule and it’s not Boston’s fault that the teams they had to defeat to get to the finals were the underwhelming duo of the dysfunctional, talon-less Atlanta Hawks and the happy-just-to-be-here Philadelphia 76ers. That said, for an organizations that prides itself on hanging championship banners, not division title pennants, another series loss to the Miami Heat, in the conference finals or not, should be viewed as a failure.

Sure the Celtics are old and banged up but they also have a roster with three surefire Hall of Fame players on it and another rising young star, Rajon Rondo, who is playing like one. They have showed grit and heart and passion and perseverance and any other cliched term you can think of to describe when a team plays hard and gives it their all. For some teams that would be good enough, but not this one, not this year. With the way they played in a game two loss to the Heat in Miami and the bounce back effort they gave in a victory over the Heat in Boston during game three, the Celtics showed that they are not only capable of beating the heavily-favored Heat, but that they should.

The Celtics three most important players, Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Rondo are all healthy as can be expected at this time of the season and Ray Allen appears to be breaking out of the funk that his bad ankle has immersed him in for much of the playoffs. Meanwhile, the Heat are still without the services of Chris Bosh, leaving the bulk of the load on both ends of the court to be shouldered by Dwayne Wade and Lebron James.

James has been an absolute monster in the series, averaging 33 points, 10 rebounds, five assists with two blocks and a steal per game, but has also shot horribly from the line and done his patented fourth quarter vanishing act to perfection, scoring just 10 points combined in the fourth quarters of the past two games. James has all the ability in the world but the jury is still out on whether he has the other intangibles that make a player not only great, but also a winner. The Celtics got in his head and exploited this when he was in Cleveland and he may have brought those ghosts, along with his talents, with him when he headed for South Beach.

On the other side, Rondo is not being consumed by the demons that have long been whispered to be floating around him, he’s exorcising them. Putting aside off-season and trade deadline rumors that had him leaving Boston and reports of a temper tantrum during last season’s series loss to Miami, Rondo has been James’ equal in terms of dominance. Averaging 27 points, nine assists and nearly eight rebounds and two steals per game while inexplicably out-shooting James from the field, the foul line and three-point territory, Rondo is proving (once again) that not only can he play with league’s elite, he can beat them.

With Rondo playing out of his mind, Garnett really knuckling down and playing as if this is his final season in the league (and indeed it might be according to multiple reports), and the franchise’s second all-time scoring leader Pierce always having the potential for a breakout game, the Celtics clearly have the talent to beat Miami. As has been evident throughout the playoffs, they also have the balls Now it’s just a matter of putting those two things together so they can win game four and ensure that the series will extend to at least six games, something they were unable to do last year.

A win on Sunday night will put the pressure back on the Heat and, more importantly, back on James. Pressure bursts pipes and the Celtics have seen him crack before; they need to make it happen again. Based on the way the Celtics have raised the bar for themselves with their play and their resolve, anything short of a game four victory and a series win against the Heat will be a failure. After that, who knows?