So glad to be back reading and writing after a self-imposed hiatus while mentally preparing myself for what would have been the most painful loss ever. This, coming off of the to-date-most-painful-loss-ever only 3 months ago at the Superbowl (note: I am not a Red Sox fan so 1986, etc. caused no pain). After Friday's debacle, a loss today would surely have led me to require either massive medication or a lengthy voyage far from any reminders of this part of the world.
Thankfully, the C's produced and I can now (at least temproarily) deal with reading this Blog without overwhelming anxiety.
I am hoping that my evaluation of the Hawks series proves accurate and that the Cavs will prove less of a threat than the Birds of Prey from Atlanta. Here is my simple reasoning:
The Celtics were presented with a constant challenge in the paint in Atlanta. The threat of blocked shots when hoisting within 5 feet was omnipresent -- they began to anticipate high flying Smiths and Horfords on virtually every shot near the hoop. This was from sheer athleticism (often seeming to come from nowhere) rather than the less mobile, but longer/wider threats that Cleveland will pose. Horford, Smith, Childress, Williams were undeniably fast and athletic and handling this type of athleticism has been a Celtic achilles heal this year. When in Atlanta, the flapping birds were not only able to clog the middle, but their shooters were also accurate with the 3 (and Joe Johnson simply had one quarter for the ages) -- and this combination of shooting and athleticism slowed the C's and took away any swagger they had forged from their play in the Garden.
At home, the C's were lifted emotionally by the familiar ambiance and truly dominated the defensve end, throwing Atlanta out of synch on both ends of the court.
The Gents from Cleveland offer more size and experience and one historically great defender in Wallace (though seemingly past his prime). However, I don't see them as defensively athletic as Atlanta and though Lebron will get his points and Z is awfully tall, I think the C's will have too much firepower overall for the Cavs to handle. The Cavs will have 1 or 2 games in which the 3-ball will fall at a high rate (watch for Gibson to make a difference), and they will win 1 or both of those games. So, C's in 5 or 6 is my guess and I wold not be shocked if one of the Cavs wins comes in the Garden.
The only scenario I see working the other way is if the Hawks circumstance was actually not due to a 3-game perfect storm of youth, athleticism and adrenaline, but rather a harbinger of things to come -- namely the harsh reality that the C's are just not as good as the regular season version would have had us believe.
In truth, the only way to fully spew the bad taste of Atlanta would be to win the first 3 games of the Cavs series handily. I am not guessing this will happen. If Cleveland takes care of business at home in games 3 and 4, I'll be worried about this series -- and much moreso than I was worried about Atlanta.
Regardless of how games 1 and 2 go, we must win at least one of games 3 and 4 in Cleveland for me to believe the C's are the team to beat in the East. Detroit will beat us once in Boston -- you can count on it. The C's need to prove they can win on the road in the playoffs long before they hit the road to the Motor City.
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Topic: Boston vs Cleveland - Eastern Conference SemiFinals (Read 7573 times)