About Basketball contributor and resident Boston Celtics diehard, Brendan Sullivan, looks back at the Celtics' NBA championship run. Brendan promises this was an easy article to write.
It's hard to imagine a championship run any better than this.
Following a strong finish in the regular season, the Celtics were the favorite to win it all, but after stumbling early against the Atlanta Hawks they suddenly became underdogs. Just as fast as they became media darlings, we began to doubt if the Celtics could hold off LeBron James, not to mention the Detroit Pistons, to become the punching bag for the eventual mighty Western Conference champion. Not long thereafter, the comparisons to last year's Dallas Mavericks started rolling in. Kevin Garnett was too scared of the big game, Ray Allen was past his peak and lost his touch, and Paul Pierce's emotions were getting the best of him. The drama of an aging team of superstars, unsure if they would ever have such a great chance to win it all, had us breathless.
The Cleveland Cavaliers series was a great one featuring great performances by great players, epitomized by Pierce and LeBron's Game Seven shootout. I watched that game from a bar in Madrid, Spain in the middle of the night. The audience was fairly uncommitted to either team, but absolutely riveted and blown away by it. It was really pro basketball at its best, a high-scoring duel between two super humans. In hindsight, that performance by Pierce, overshadowing the most celebrated player in his generation, would be the turning point. The kinks would be finally worked out, and Boston would move forward playing at a whole new level.
The well-rested Pistons seemed to be at an advantage when round three began. The Celtics had already played 14 games in the playoffs, the Pistons 11. When Detroit stole Game Two, handing the Celtics their first home loss in the playoffs, the wave of doubt grew. Could the Celtics win on the road after posting an 0-6 road record in the first two rounds? Not if you believed Dan Shaughnessy. But, the Celtics showed up to the Palace in Game Three and rocked the Pistons, led by 50-32 at the half and never looked back. Although the Pistons came back to tie the series heading back to Boston, it was never in doubt: the Celtics crippling defense was back, and they would not lose again at home. The Celtics were going back to the NBA Finals for the first time since I was three years old.
As if by design, the Celtics met their long time nemesis, the Los Angeles Lakers, in the Finals. True to their reputation, the Lakers were a flashy, quick, high-scoring team that had just ripped through the exceedingly strong Western Conference Playoffs, going 12-3. Plus they had newly-minted MVP Kobe Bryant, who would undoubtedly create matchup problems for a Celtics team that had a hard time containing athletic scorers all season long. The Celtics, sporting a 12-8 record against the inferior Eastern Conference Playoff pool, with their aging stars and scrappy bench, immediately were tagged the underdog. Whoops.
The Celtics would never trail in this series. In fact they would never even be tied. They scorched the Lakers for the first two games in Boston and had Kobe and Company on their heels heading back to Los Angeles. Though they let Game Three slip through their fingers, a 24-point comeback in Game Four would completely obliterate any hope the Lakers had in this series, and the C's closed it out with a 39-point blowout in Boston. The final game may have been the first time the entire Celtics roster played in perfect harmony all playoffs, with Garnett dominating the post, Allen tying a Finals record for three-pointers made (7, take that 'Toine), Pierce dishing nine assists in the first half, and Rondo absolutely saturating the box score with a witch's brew of points, assists, rebounds, and steals. Eddie House hit big shots off the bench as did James Posey. Kendrick Perkins kept Pau Gasol silent in the post, and fan favorites Leon Powe and Glen "Big Baby" Davis thrilled the crowd with their usual mix of hustle and cleverness.
By the time the Gatorade had been mopped up off Red Auerbach Court, the confetti scraped off the Boston sidewalks, and the "Big three" finished up their late night show victory lap, the spotlight had turned to the free agents. Would the C's be able to re-sign James Posey, Eddie House, and Tony Allen? Without them, many worried, the Celtics might not have a chance to repeat. And that's what I love about this team the most – the fact that by season's end, they really had proven that they were a deep team. The Celtics struggled early on in the playoffs with a short rotation, and it wasn't until Doc assigned heavy minutes outside his starting five that this team really lived up to its potential. It's amazing in a way that the Celtics played their best basketball 110 games into the season. While many worried that the long playoffs would wear down Garnett, Pierce, and Allen (all over 30), it actually worked to their advantage, and to Doc's. The grueling schedule forced them to use their bench as a crutch, or in Pierce's case, a wheelchair. And the bench was ready to go. They went out and got it.
And there you had it, championship 17.
