Last Regrets and A Look Forward
Posted by Brian Robb on Jun 18, 2010
It’s been about 15 hours now since the end of the 2009-10 Boston Celtics campaign, and well I’m still in a state of flux. How bad are things for me right now? Let’s just say it took me about 30 minutes to try to think of an opening line to this post before just giving up the fight. Watching your team lose plays tricks on your mind, especially when they were just one wrong turn from reaching the ultimate destination.
That’s really all it came down to. There are so many plays that singularly could have changed the course of this contest. There’s no need to go back and rehash them now. Brendan and Zach already did a terrific job with that anyway.
I was never comfortable last night though. That bothered me from the start being an unabashed Celtic optimist. I wanted to feel good when getting text messages in the first quarter from my buddy Bobby stating, “Here’s your article title: Celtics win Championship despite getting zero rebounds.” My guts told me otherwise. The offensive rebounds, injuries, free throws, turnovers home court advantage, athleticism, the obstacles were piled up so high as the game wore on, it just became too much for this team to overcome.
In order to beat this Laker team in LA, you need someone to carry the load, to go out and take the game with brute force, since the team in gold certainly wasn’t going to give it to you. Ray Allen did just that for the first half of Game 2, before Rajon Rondo took over down the stretch.
Last night, the Celtics had five players in double figures, but no one who scored more than 18 points, no one who could be counted on for a basket when the transition opportunities dried up. Of all people, it was Sheed for awhile, but he became too hobbled to post up as the game wore on. When times got tough through crucial portions of the third and fourth quarters, the offense had nowhere to turn scoring just 14 points in 14 minutes of play, before getting hot from 3 in the closing 90 seconds.
Everyone of the starters looked flat out gassed during this stretch and who could blame them? This was Game 106 of the season. They had been playing hellacious defense. It was the type of game they were going to need to force to steal this win on the road but they odometer came up empty.
This was tougher to realize watching in real time, but a look at the box score upon returning home from watching in the wee hours of last night, made me find this painful realization. The bench, most notably the TA and Nate Robinson really did not play…..at all. 5 minutes for Tony, 3 for Nate.
Now I hate going back and playing the what if game. Because quite frankly, you can’t blame Doc at all for giving either of these guys any real run. They aren’t reliable and that became painfully obvious with the zero they put up through three quarters of Game 6. Doc lost faith in them at that point on the road and had to ride his thirty-something horses and young point guard to play 45 minutes of unreal defense, all the while going against a defensive juggernaut themselves. It was not to be.
A part of me wondered what would have happened though if Nate was given some leash? Remember Game 2 when he came in for Rondo at the start of the 4th and scored 7 quick points, while allowing a rested Rondo to come in and take over the final stretch of that game? Not having that possibility hurt last night. And there’s no one to blame for it really.
So this one will sting….for awhile. Don’t be fooled into thinking that the window has closed on this team though. There is a lot of retirement and free agency talk out there last night, but it’s easy to fall into that trap in the moment. Everyone will take time to think and reflect on this.
Make no mistake though, the Celtics NEED to have their core back next year if they want to compete for a Championship and you can bet this ownership wants to take one final crack at it. That means Ray will be back. Paul too. Sheed, who knows about that, maybe he pulls a P.J. Brown with us. All I know is the Eastern Conference will likely still be wide open heading into next year and C’s still have a solid draft pick (#19) and a bit of money to throw around to fill a few gaps. I trust this management group to get it done. I can hope that our ringleader Doc Rivers has a sour enough taste in his mouth from last night to come back for one last crack at it with this crew.
For now though, do your best to appreciate the ride this team gave us the two months. They played with house money and almost cashed in big.
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