No point in dribbling around this one: It’s time to wonder whether the Celtics [team stats] have the necessary toughness to win the 2008 NBA championship.
Still the possessors of a 2-1 series lead over the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Celtics will play Game 4 of their Eastern Conference semifinals tonight at the Quicken Loans Arena. Maybe the Celts will come out and blow the doors off the place. But at this stage of the postseason, the Celts need to show us, themselves and everyone else that they aren’t just a collection of bullies who can batter opponents only when they have 18,000 strong behind them.
Time to show some meanness.
“We’re playing better teams,” Celtics coach Doc Rivers said yesterday. “It’s a playoff game and they’re better prepared. The slipping you can get away with during the regular season on the road, you can’t get away (with) during the playoffs. We’ll get it right. We’re just going to keep trying. That’s the good news.”
Before we go any further here, let’s clarify some things. This isn’t about manhood or machismo. Toughness is more a mental thing than a physical one. In Game 2 of this series on Thursday, Paul Pierce [stats] was hacked on his way to the basket (no foul) and his right thumbnail pulled away from the skin. Pierce showed his hand to officials, then stepped off to the side of the court and tried ripping off the nail altogether before getting the assistance of trainer Ed Lacerte.
Arrrrrrrrrrrgh.
What happened at The Q on Saturday night was a completely different challenge. In what Sam Cassell termed “probably the worst game we’ve played since I was part of the (team),” the Celtics completely caved in. In the postseason, they are now a well-documented 0-4 on the road. More worrisome than the loss itself was the nature of the defeat, a thorough butt-kicking during which the Celtics looked overwhelmed and intimidated.
Were Saturday’s loss anything but the fourth straight on the road to open this postseason, maybe we could chalk it up to nothing more than a bad night. Unfortunately, the schizophrenic nature of this club has become the norm rather than the exception. While each game brings new hope for a change in the pattern, the truth is that the games are going to get only more difficult, not less.
If the Celtics can’t win at Atlanta, how can they win at Cleveland? If they can’t win at Cleveland, how can they win at Detroit? If they can’t win at Detroit, how can they win at San Antonio or New Orleans, Los Angeles or Utah?
“Very uncharacteristic,” Rivers said after reviewing his club’s effort on tape. “(A better performance) doesn’t mean we win the game, but we’re better than that and they know it.”
Said Pierce: “We all need this win on the road, man. It’s like the gorilla on our backs - trying to get a road win. We’re going to play better basketball on the road from here on out, I can guarantee that.”
Given how well the Celtics played throughout this renaissance season, some things might have gone overlooked. Individually, the Celtics obviously have considerable experience, but they are still terribly new to one another as a group. On the court and off, the dynamic and makeup of their team are being tested like at no other point. As such, maybe it is entirely understandable that the Celtics would have a complete breakdown in composure when placed under duress.
In such circumstances, a more experienced team would know where to turn and, more specifically, whom to turn to.
In basketball, perhaps more than any other sport, there is an order of natural selection. Usually, the best players are also the leaders. Rajon Rondo [stats] is a second-year player in the NBA, so some inconsistency is a given at this time of year. But when guys like Pierce and Ray Allen seem weighed down by the moment, it does not bode well for the rest of them, no matter how much stability the Celtics get from Kevin Garnett and James Posey.
In the process, a team gets fractured.
“We believe we’re going to do what we want to do this year,” said Rivers, who acknowledges that his team is in uncharted territory despite a brilliant regular season. “We understand what the process (of team development) is. A lot of teams use the process to get where they want to go (in the long run). We want to use it now.”
“(The challenge) is learning it under pressure. We always talk about character under pressure, and it’s different (now). Anybody can have character when there is no pressure. It’s good for us, but we’ve got to be successful in dealing with it.”
A year ago at this time, of course, the Celtics [team stats] were preparing for the NBA lottery. May 22 will mark the anniversary of the day the ping-pong balls came up snake eyes. The 356 days since have been nothing short of a whirlwind, the Celtics transformed from the second-worst team in the NBA to legitimate championship hopefuls like a homeless man who just stumbled on a winning Mega Millions ticket.
In retrospect, maybe this all happened too fast.
At the moment, the Celtics certainly don’t look ready for it.
