Gino's Jungle

 Los Angeles Lakers 89 Boston Celtics 67

Staples Center - Los Angeles, CA

June 15th, 2010

Box Score

Going into tonight's Game 6 battle against the Lakers I have to admit I was cocky, optimistic, and ready to celebrate. The Celtics showed us great play in Games 4 and 5 and they had the perfect opportunity to kick their opponents (the Lakers) while they were down. Unfortunately for C's fans everywhere who were preparing their celebrations, the C's came out and laid an egg. Dropping Game 6 to the Lakers by the score of

Right now I am at the point where being a diehard fan is out weighing my blogging. After that loss tonight I really don't have much good to say so I'm going to keep it simple and just give a few bullet points to sum up the loss.

• Celtics failed to show that they wanted to win the NBA championship tonight. They came out with very little effort and the score showed it.
• Rajon Rondo is not being the X-Factor he needs to be. 10 points, 6 assists, and 5 rebounds does not cut it for a guy that needs to be controlling these games.
• The Celtics missed out on TONS of open opportunities. Missed dunks by Shelden Williams and Rajon Rondo, and a missed layup by Ray Allen had me with my back turned away from the TV.
• Ray Allen played well, but he needs to capitalize on the momentum changing three's he is missing out on.
• Paul Pierce showed heart for a good part of the first half, but when your teammates aren't helping you it's very easy to give up. Pierce ended with 13 on 6-14 shooting.
• The bench did absoloutely nothing when it mattered. Outside of a few garbage baskets when the C's were down and out the bench didn't help one bit. For the first 38 minutes of the game the bench tallied ZERO points. Let's just say we will need more in Game 7.
• Perkins went down with a serious injury in the first half. That didn't help, but it's not an excuse for the loss. The rebounding margin of 40-28 in favor of the Lakers showed that Perk was missed. He is questionable for Game 7.
• The referees are not an excuse for the loss, but they didn't help. Early in the second half when the C's tried to make runs the refs started calling "ticky-tack" fouls.

David Stern now has what he has been dreaming about for the past week. Celtics v. Lakers in Game 7 of the 2010 NBA Finals. The amount of people that will be viewing this game will be totally insane. Let's just keep the faith and hope all those people will be watching the C's celebrate on the Staples Center floor.

Boston Celtics 92 Los Angeles Lakers 86

TD Garden - Boston, MA

June 13th, 2010

Box Score

Underdogs

They came into the post season as the fourth best team statistically in the Eastern Conference. Many people thought they could get upset by Dwayne Wade's Miami Heat. Nobody picked them against the #1 seed Cleveland Cavaliers. Nobody thought they could get back to the NBA Finals with a win over the Magic. Now, as you read this, the Boston Celtics are one win away from raising banner eighteen.

Que Gino

Behind a 27 point effort from the captain, and The Truth, Paul Pierce the Celtics were able to take a 3-2 lead in the best of seven series by defeating the Los Angeles Lakers 92-86. The Celtics didn't trail much during tonight's game and they held a lead as big as 13 at one point in the game. Strong defense and a few clutch plays late in the game helped the C's prevail in the end.

The whole truth and nothing but the truth

As noted above, Pierce led the team tonight with 27 points and really took control in the Celtics biggest game of the year. At many points during tonight's game he looked like vintage Paul Pierce, nailing those step back jumpers that we have seen during his whole career as a Celtic. Watching him elevate and nail jumpers over Ron Artest and other defenders was pleasing to the eye.

Kobe comes up short

Pierce was not the only superstar who tried to take over tonight's game; however, he was the only one succesful at doing so. Kobe Bryant used a 25 point third quarter effort to keep the Celtics within reach, He was zoned in, but unfortunately for Lakers fans the same time he was zoned in the entire Celtics team was playing flawless basketball. He ended with 38 points tonight in a losing effort.

Champagne on Ice?

The C's now head back to L.A with two chances to win the NBA championship. It won't be as sweet winning it on the opponents floor, but I don't think anyone will complain if it happens. If the Celtics are smart they will be playing Game 6 as if it was Game 7 because a Game 7 on the opponents floor would be way too much of a risk. If all goes well hopefully we will be seeing the C's celebrating on the Staples Center floor Tuesday at this time. How sweet would that be???

Photos via Yahoo Sports/ Getty Images

 Boston Celtics 96    Los Angeles Lakers 89

TD Garden - Boston, MA

June 10th, 2010

Box Score

Going into tonight's Game 4 battle against the L.A Lakers, Celtics fans (whether they admit or not) were nervous and anxious to see what the troops were going to bring to the table in a must win game. The C's had just come off a rough loss in Game 3 and needed a quick rebounding effort in Game 4 to even up the series. That is exactly what they got, defeating the L.A Lakers by the score of 96-89.

Rough Start

Things didn't start out exactly how the Celtics wanted them to in tonight's game. For the better part of the first half the team struggled to capitalize on great opportunities on the offensive end. According to ESPN Stats/Info the Celtics missed seven layups in the first half and missed 12 shots in the paint. Thanks to a great defensive performance they were able to stay within reach at the half, trailing by only three.

The Takeover

The way this series has gone you just had to expect the C's to make this thing a game in the second half, the only question was if they could take the lead and come away with the victory. With 5:09 remaining in the third quarter the C's took there first lead on a Kevin Garnett jumper.

Three Kobe Bryant three-pointers later the Celtics once again found themselves down, but not out. The Celtics received a huge spark from the bench in the fourth quarter. Nate Robinson and Glen Davis combined for 15 points in the fourth quarter to help the C's even this series up at two games apiece.

Shrek and Donkey

Please excuse me for a moment. I had to make up a corny name for the duo that put the Celtics over the top in tonight's game. It was not until 2:51 remaining in the fourth quarter that Nate Robinson and Glen Davis found themselves removed from the court by Coach Doc Rivers. Both players showed that they could handle the big stage and it made no sense to go away from what was working.

While these two were in the game the Celtics outscored the Lakers 25-15. Davis ended with 18 points on the night on 7-10 shooting from the field. His partner in crime, Robinson, put in a huge 12 points on 4-8 shooting (2-4 from behind the arc). In the post game press conference Davis referred to the two as, "Shrek and Donkey."

There's still more to be done

Celtics fans and players can enjoy the Game 4 victory tonight, but the fun will stop quickly as the C's still have to win two more games to raise Banner 18. After tonight's game I can still say that this team can play a lot better. Each member of the Big Three can play much better and Rondo is capable of putting up better numbers than 10 points and 3 assists.

The guys in green will be back at it Sunday night at the TD Garden in another must-win game. The difference between going to L.A up 3-2 and down 3-2 is huge. Hopefully we can see the same effort from the bench in Game 5 and a much better performance from the starters. Beat L.A!!!

Photos via Yahoo Sports/Getty Images

 

 Los Angeles Lakers 91 Boston Celtics 84

TD Garden - Boston, MA

June 8th, 2010

Box Score

The atmosphere at the TD Garden last night could not be described with words. 18,624 people (minus a few annoying Lakers fans) were ready to draw blood and do everything they could to help put the Celtics up 2-1 in this best of seven series. Khloe Kardashian masks were out, Pau Gasol goat references were there, and of course the Beat L.A chant could be heard by people within a 20 mile radius of the Garden.

Early on the Celtics gave their fans something to cheer for by scoring the first six points of the game and holding a 12-5 advantage early in the first quarter. That advantage was quickly erased by Kobe Bryant and the L.A Lakers when they went on a 26-5 run to take a 14 point lead early on in the second quarter. The Lakers increased the lead to 17 before the Celtics embarked on a second half comeback.

Comeback cut short 

Led by Kevin Garnett and Rajon Rondo the Celtics battled back to close the deficit to six at the end of three quarters. With fire in his eyes Glen Davis scored two straight baskets off the bench in the third quarter and Rajon Rondo put in a layup to put the score at 68-67 with nine minutes left in the fourth quarter. The two teams swapped leads back and forth but the Celtics could never find enough to grab the lead in this game.

Everytime you thought they could put a stamp on the game something went wrong. Whether it was a ticky-tac offensive foul, a missed opportunity, or a lucky bounce for L.A it just felt like one of those games. One of those games that you knew deep down they wouldn't pull off, but still you sat on the edge of your seat in anticipation of the big baskets. Unfortunately those big baskets and important defensive stops didn't happen.

Fisher takes over

Derek Fisher, and no that's not a typo, led the way for the Lakers in the fourth quarter by coming through with clutch basket after clutch basket. He scored nine of his sixteen points in the fourth and killed any momentum the Celtics could establish in the quarter. Kobe Bryant led the way scoring wise for the Lakers with 29.

Garnett rebounds from poor performances

A bright spot for the Celtics was the play of Kevin Garnett. After struggling in Games 1 and 2 Garnett came out behind the Garden crowd looked like a completely different player then we saw in the first two games. Garnett led the Celtics in scoring with 25 points on 11-16 shooting. He scored the first six points of the game and helped the Celtics stay within reach down the stretch by making big basket after big basket. Let's just hope this is the KG we see for the remaining games in the series.

Final Thoughts

Although the loss is disappointing it is no reason to give up on this team. They proved in the Eastern Confrence semi-finals against Cleveland that they can battle back from 2-1. The only difference this time around is that they will have to close the series on the road. Difficult? Yes. Impossible? Not at all.

I'm going to be honest with you right now. I am a fan before a blogger and it will always remain that way. The reason we put together this blog is to interact with other diehard fans like ourselves. We're not into it to be the next Bob Ryan or Dan Shaughnessy; We are in it for moments like the ending of Game 2 of the NBA Finals.

With that being said I'm freakin' pumped up right now. I have two AMP energy drinks in me and after celebrating the last two minutes of the game everything is a blur right now. I'm not focused and I'm not going to pretend to be. Instead of doing a detailed recap I'm going to keep this one simple by just giving you a few bullet points that get the point across, because if your like me you're probably not too interested in a bunch of over-analyzing right now.

And we're off...

• Ray Allen was a freakin' animal tonight.  I stated in my "Keys to a Game 2 victory" post that the C's needed to get Ray involved in the offense. They did just that as Ray lit the Staples Center roof on fire by scoring 32 points on 8-11 shooting from behind the arc.
• The refs were horrible... and the Celtics still won. Lakers fans can whine all they want about Kobe getting five fouls, but they should be thankful the refs saved him by not calling a sixth foul on him late in the game. In the first 46 minutes of tonight's game the Lakers shot 41 free throws, compared to 16 for the Celtics. The ball don't lie, and the box score doesn't either.
• The boys played like they wanted it tonight. All those loose balls and must have rebounds that they didn't get in Game 1 they got tonight. They out-rebounded the Lakers 44-39 and showed a lot more hustle than they did in Game 1.
• Nate Robinson provided another nice spark for the Celtics tonight, this time in the 4th quarter. With Rondo on the bench Nate came in and played terrific. He scored 7 points on 2-2 shooting and had a couple great hustle plays.
• Rondo quietly recorded another triple-double. He did it by doing exactly what he should be doing, running the offense and taking what he can get. He also came up with a few huge baskets down the stretch when the team really needed it.

A few negative points:

• Kevin Garnett still looked like crap. He didn't look comfortable at all taking "his jumper" and he only grabbed a lousy four rebounds. We will need more from him to raise banner 18.
• Shelden Williams got his first chance to play in an NBA Finals game. I guess you could say he didn't handle it well. In the first few minutes he played very physical and seemed to be doing alright. That was until he tallied an assist on a Kobe Bryant three and inbounded it back to Kobe on the following inbounds pass. Luckily Kobe only had .2 seconds and didn't put it in.

That's all she wrote for me here tonight. Back to finishing off an AMP. Enjoy the win and let's keep it rolling Tuesday. Beat L.A!!!

L.A Lakers 102 Boston Celtics 89

June 3rd, 2010

Staples Center - Los Angeles, CA

Box Score

Down 1-0

A statistic I'm sure you will hear quite often in the next three days is 47-0. That is the record of Lakers Coach Phil Jackson in series in which his team wins Game 1. After tonight if the Celtics want to win the NBA championship they will have to make that statistic 47-1.

Going into tonight's game you could feel the hype all around the Boston area. You couldn't go to a Wal-Mart or your local gas station without seeing someone decked out in green Celtics gear. Hopes were high and the countdown to banner 18 stood at four games. Needless to say the countdown remained at four, as the Celtics dropped Game 1 to the Lakers 102-89 tonight at the Staples Center.

Recipe for disaster

Unlike with some games there is not one thing you can zero in on as the reason for the Celtics loss. The recipe tonight included turnovers, lack of hustle points, missed opportunities, and well... an officiating squad that clearly favored the less physical team.

The C's jumped out to an early 2-0 lead on a basket by Pierce at the 11:47 mark. Unfortunately that would be the only lead of the game for the C's. After a quick 8-2 Lakers run following Pierce's first basket the Celtics could never close the gap. They hung around five or six for a while before completely falling apart and falling behind by as much as 20.

The lack of physical play

All the talk about the Lakers being "soft" were put to rest early in tonight's game. Whether it was the Celtics lack of intensity or the refs not allowing them to play tough the Lakers looked tougher than the C's tonight. The combo of Gasol (8 offensive rebounds) and Bynum combined for 20 rebounds on the night, while Garnett and Perkins settled for seven.

I really don't want to get into blaming the refs, but I truly believe they had an impact on the game. They took Ray Allen (27 minutes) out of the game early and often in tonight's game. With Ray on the bench the Celtics offense looked very stagnant. They couldn't spread the floor and L.A was doing a terrific job in clogging the lane when the Celtics penetrated. In total 54 fouls were called in the game. It will be very hard for the Celtics to win games when the officiating crew decides to call ticky-tack fouls like they did tonight.

Captain helps avoid embarassing defeat

Paul Pierce led the charge for the Celtics tonight with 24 points on a 6-13 shooting performance. Not a spectacular performance for the captain, but it was enough to avoid an embarassing defeat. With Ray Allen on the bench and the rest of the squad struggling the Celtics needed every point they could get from Pierce.  

Going into the series I think it is safe to say that everybody expected big games out of Rajon Rondo. That did not happen tonight; He ended with a sub-par 13 point, 8 assist performance. You could argue that these aren't horrible numbers but the truth is that the Celtics need a lot more from Rondo if they are going to win the series.

Garnett gets outworked 

Speaking of needing a lot more, that guy named Kevin Garnett needs to give a lot more if he plans on yelling, "Anything's Possible" again this year. Garnett got completely out worked tonight by his counter part Pau Gasol. He missed a wide-open bunny in the lane during the fourth quarter, grabbed only 4 rebounds, and allowed a guy with the nickname "GaSoft" to score 23 points and grab 14 rebounds.

You can call it fatigue or age, but all you would be doing is making a fool out of yourself. The Celtics just came off of six days of rest, so fatigue in no way should be mentioned following this game. Call it rust, or just call it a bad game, but don't be a fool and blame it on "old legs". Let's just hope a pissed off KG comes out to play for Game 2.

Final Thoughts

The good news for the Celtics is that the series is seven games for a reason. They lost Game 1 against Cleveland and look what happened there; That's right, they went on to win in six games. If you still need more reason to believe, the Celtics are 2-0 this post season after suffering double-digit losses. The Celtics rebounded after a embarassing Game 3 loss to Cleveland at the Garden and also to a Game 5 loss in the Eastern Conference Finals against Orlando. All you can do is think positive and hope that the trend continues.

Beat L.A!!!

Celtics 95 Magic 92

Amway Arena - Orlando, FL

Box Score

Entering the playoffs if you told me that the Celtics would get rid of the Heat in five games, eliminate the Cavs in six games, and win the first two games in Orlando I probably would have given you directions to the closest psychiatric home. Although I never gave up on this team I never expected things to come this easy. I know this is a huge cliché' that has been used way too many times, but the flip has been switched.

The Celtics are showing all the signs that the 2008 team showed and they are winning games in amazing fashion. They have proved they can win games by double digits, they have proved they can hold onto leads late in games, and they have proven they can win both at home and on the road. All of these things add up to create a perfect recipe for success in the postseason.

Tonight the Celtics entered the Amway Arena in hopes to grab a 2-0 series lead and they did just that. Although it wasn’t easy and the Celtics failed to play a full 48 minutes of “Celtics Basketball” they managed to do just enough to come away with a 95-92 victory.

Out of all of the games the Celtics have played thus far in the postseason, maybe outside of game three in Miami, this was the closest game we’ve seen them play. They handled adversity well in this game and came through in times when many teams probably would have folded. A flagrant foul by Dwight Howard in the first half really gave the Celtics some extra motivation and really woke up the captain Paul Pierce.

After coming off a rough series against LeBron and the Cavaliers “The Truth” has really stepped it up in the first two games of the series. Tonight he went off for 28 points on 8-16 shooting and looked much more aggressive then he was against the Cavs. In the postgame press conference Pierce stated, “It is much easier to find energy on offense when you do not have to guard LeBron James”. Understandable, right?

Rajon Rondo also rebounded from his below average performance on Sunday by dropping in 27 points on 10-16 shooting while dishing out eight assists. Although these stats are eye-openers they still don’t describe how much of an impact he had on the game. He was everywhere he needed to be when he needed be and his decision making was unbelievable. If they had a system to determine basketball IQ this guy would be off the charts.

The Celtics will now head back to Boston for game three on Saturday night. A win on Saturday would pretty much guarantee a return to the NBA Finals (But then again the Bruins are still in the back of my mind).

After all this team and its fans have gone through this year this is really turning into a MAGICal ride through the playoffs. I have said this before and I will say it again: a championship this year would be ten times sweeter than 2008.

Photos via Yahoo Sports/Getty Images

(This bathroom may be cleaner than the C's performance tonight.)

There is only one word that can truly describe the performance of the Boston Celtics in tonight's game three matchup against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Disgusting. Watching the game, a game in which I had tons of confident going into, was a complete displeasure and was very disgusting to watch. Going into the game the Celtics were riding the momentum of a game two victory and apparently were too comfortable with what they accomplished in Cleveland.

The hometown team came out tonight without the determination they showed for seven quarters in Cleveland and almost seemed as though they thought they could coast to a victory. Don't ask me why they would think such a thing going against the team who had the best regular season record in the NBA, but it sure looked that way.

Watching the Celtics tonight you would have seriously thought that they weren't the same team that gained a twenty-five point victory in Cleveland. The flow of the offense was... well there was no flow. They settled for jump shots for most of the night, and missed a large quantity of them.

Sadly, the effort on the defensive end was even more disturbing. After allowing only eighty-six points in fourty-eight minutes of play in game two, the C's came out and allowed the Cavs to hit that same mark with 5:09 remaining in the third quarter. Yes, you read that correctly, the third quarter.

In the first quarter the C's allowed LeBron James to do whatever he wanted. He single-handedly outscored the Celtics in the quarter 21-17. So much for that elbow "injury", huh? LeBron's performance in the first quarter set the tone for the game and the rest of the team's confidence went up. As a team the Cavs shot 60% on the night and couldn't seem to miss. Every time the C's would get on a four or six point run the Cavs would bounce right back and destroy any chances of a C's comeback.

Kevin Garnett was the lone bright spot for the Celtics tonight. He ended with 19 points on 8-11 shooting. Paul Pierce was once again a non-factor for the third straight game. He came out looking sluggish and ended the night with 11 points on 4-15 shooting (2-5 from the free throw line).

The team now has a day off before they get back to action on Sunday in what will pretty much be a must win game. There is no way they can afford to get down 3-1 as they head back to Cleveland, that would be a deficit that would almost guarantee a second round playoff exit. Hopefully Doc took some good notes; it's time to get to work at practice on Saturday!

Photo via Yahoo Sports/Getty Images

(The night started like this)

Tonight started out as a big party at the Q in Cleveland, Ohio. The Cleveland Cavaliers and their fans were celebrating with their star player Lebron James as he received his trophy for most valuable player. Commissioner David Stern was in the building, the Cavs had a 1-0 series lead, and they hoped to ride all of this momentum to victory. Too bad for them, even with the help of referee of Dick Bavetta and a small fourth quarter collapse by the Celtics, they were unable to come out on top losing 104-86 to the guys in green.

For the first three quarters of tonight’s game Rajon Rondo was unstoppable. In the game he only scored a total of 13 points but he took the game over in a different way. Rondo did exactly what he had to do to make sure the C’s came out on top. He moved the ball effectively, found the open man, and made the Celtics offense look like that of the Golden State Warriors.

During the same time Rondo was doing this, the team’s effort on the defensive end was stellar. After going into halftime with only a four point lead the C’s increased the lead to 25 points by only allowing Cleveland to score a total of 12 points in the third quarter. Hands were in the passing lanes, the help defense was there, and Cleveland struggled to find ways to score.

(The night ended like this)

In the game the Celtics also saw great performances from Ray Allen and Rasheed Wallace. Ray led the way for the C’s tonight with 22 points, ten of which came in the third quarter. The biggest surprise of the night was clearly the play of Rasheed Wallace. Sheed came out looking like a totally different player than that of which we saw for the first eighty-eight games of the season. In 18 minutes off the bench Sheed dropped in 17 points on 7-8 shooting (3-4 from 3pt). He was hustling, playing within his role, and showing determination to win.

As a result of the win the team that everybody counted out at one point or another during this season now holds home court advantage in the series against the team with the best record in the league. It is becoming clear that this team really CAN compete with any team in the league, it's just a matter of if they do. We will see what they are made of Friday night when they welcome the Cavs to the Garden for game three.

Photos via Yahoo Sports/ Getty Images

It was not until 11pm tonight when we finally found out who the Celtics would be playing in the first round of the playoffs. The C's showed no signs of wanting to win their game by sitting KG, Ray, and Paul. On the other side of things it took the D-Wade-less Heat two overtimes to defeat the New Jersey Nets.

Because the Celtics game was meaningless I am not going to sit here and break it down. Rondo played very well tonight and was the only starter to play. He dropped in 21 points to go along with 15 dimes and 6 rebounds. Marquis Daniels and Shelden Williams chipped in with 13 points and 12 points respectively in the losing effort. Recent acquisition Oliver Lafayette scored seven points in what will probably be his first and only game for the C's this season.

Following the game the C's hung out in the locker room to find out who they would be playing this weekend. Although Miami seemed to do anything they could to try to lose they ended up coming out on top in double overtime 94-86.

With all of this being said it is no official, the Celtics will take on the Miami Heat this weekend in the NBA playoffs. The C's are 3-0 against Miami this season and hope to keep up with that trend. The quicker they can get rid of the Heat the better it will be for them down the road.

Without a miracle happening the Celtics will then have to take on the Cleveland Cavaliers in the second round, followed by either the Magic or the Hawks in the ECF. This is not exactly the easiest road but it is what it is. The guys now will have at least three days off before starting up "the real season". There are now only two things that can happen: they either win, or they go home.