Quick Thought on the Celtics

I saw an interview with Kevin Garnett, I think after their Game 5 blowout of the Hawks, where he was offering an explanation of why the Celtics lost Games 3 and 4 in Atlanta. He said that the team came out slow and uninspired in the wake of two routs in Games 1 and 2.

That may absolutely have been the case, and, who knows, maybe that's the last time they take any of their opponents lightly. But if I were a Celtics fan, I'd be a little concerned. And you know why? Because if there was one thing the Celtics didn't do all year, it was take teams lightly!

The Celtics won during the regular season by decisive margins, night in and night out. Just for a frame of reference, they played the Nets twice in three games towards the end of the season, one in Boston and one in New Jersey. After beating the Nets by 20 in the first game at home, did they take the Nets lightly the next game? No, they won by 12. This might not be the most damning of evidence, but if you consider it in context, it can mean alot more than what it may seem. (And if you want to argue that the Hawks are a better team than the Nets, I'd say that the different between the Celtics and the Hawks and the Celtics and the Nets is very similar; that is, the Celtics are vastly superior to both.)

So now in the playoffs, the Celtics drop consecutive road games to an inferior team, and they blame it on a lack of intensity. It's very easy to brush off losses employing this excuse. But I just don't buy it. For a team to play as intense for 80 straight games as the Celtics did this season, it's pretty hard to imagine that, here in the post-season, they decided to let off steam for not one, but two games. If this was the Pistons, I would understand; they have a history of taking breather in big spots. But the Celtics played harder over a season than any team I can remember watching; and now they want us to think they dogged it in the playoffs.

Celtics fans should not be so quick to take Garnett's word as truth on this one. I think they are either running on fumes or finally realizing they have one of the weaker coaches still manning a bench. A ray of hope for the latter: every year the West weeds out the bad coaches, but that doesn't always happen in the East.

But I think it's more than that. If losing those games did anything, it hurt their confidence. The playoffs will continue to get more difficult, and if the Celtics keep losing games on the road, with 4th quarter leads, to inferior teams, that sense of dominance will continue to recede.

My prediction: If the Pistons make the Eastern finals, they will beat the Celtics. That is the one series in the East the Pistons will wake up for, and if Doc Rivers makes mistakes (like keeping Ray Allen on Joe Johnson in Game 4) he may find himself without any extra games to correct them.