If the Celtics lose out on HCA by one game, they need look no further than losing to the New York Knicks as a reason to make their stomachs turn.
I was at the game at the Garden when we beat the Knicks by 20, and I was upset that we only beat them by that much. No matter what ESPN would like you to believe, the Knicks are a horrible basketball team, and for the Celtics to score only 88 points (35 in the second half) against that pathetic defense is horrible.
I'm not jumping off a cliff. I still feel that the Celtics are the best team in the league, and maybe we were spoiled by the team giving 100% during pretty much every regular season game, but against a team like this, even a C effort would get the job done. But we played with absolutely no intensity, and settled for threes against a team that couldn't stop a chair.