Certainly these upcoming series have to be better than the boring matchups we watched in the first two rounds as the Celtics toppled tomato cans from Miami and Cleveland. How did the Fort Wayne Pistons and Washington Generals not wind up on Boston’s dance card?
In Round 1 against Miami, the Celtics had leads of 34, 29, 28, and 37 points in the games they won. In Round 2, their average margin of victory was 15 points and they lost Game 2 by 24.
Let me ask … were any of you on the edge of your seat, or otherwise entertained for one perfunctory second of those two series? It’s always great to see the locals advance, but this was dreadful competition. Those were series that only Johnny Most, Tommy Heinsohn, Sean Grande, and Scal could love.
We won’t punish the talented Celtics for taking care of business, but I’ll hold off on organizing a parade for a bunch of easy wins against a Heat team playing without Jimmy Butler and a mediocre Cleveland team that was down to two starters by the time the Green finished things at the Garden Wednesday.
Does any of this prepare the Celtics for close games in hostile arenas, which we traditionally expect en route to a championship?
No. It does not.
So here we sit, seven years into this Jayson Tatum/Jaylen Brown Experience, and we still don’t know whether these guys are championship-worthy.
After last spring’s flameout against Miami, Brad Stevens dumped Marcus Smart, delivered Jrue Holiday (he has a ring) and Kristaps Porzingis, and the result was a 64-win regular season in which the Celtics (statistically) presented as one of the best teams in the history of the NBA. Now they are set to play in the conference finals for the sixth time in eight seasons. Danny Ainge and Stevens should be applauded for this model of sustained success.
But the Celtics have always been about championships, and these guys haven’t won one. Progeny of the greatest dynasty in the history of American professional sports, the 21st century Celtics haven’t won a banner since 2008 (Al Horford’s rookie season with the Hawks). Tied with the Lakers for most NBA titles (17), the Celtics have won only one in the last 38 years.
Here’s hoping the Green get the Knicks in the conference finals. The backboard-eating Knicks are playing without three starters but have demonstrated great grit in their first two playoff rounds. Jalen Brunson is playing like a top-five MVP guy, and Madison Square Garden has been rocking the way it was in the golden days of Willis Reed and Walt Frazier. The Knicks haven’t been in the conference finals in 24 years.
Looking ahead to June, either Denver or Dallas would be a wonderful Finals opponent. The Mavericks have Kyrie Irving, probably Boston’s top basketball villain since Bill Laimbeer roamed the parquet. Denver is the defending champ, has dancing bear Nikola Jokic, and defeated the Celtics in both regular-season matchups.
The Heat and Cavs are mercifully gone.
Let the playoffs begin.
▪ Quiz: Name five Red Sox who hit 40 or more home runs in a season at least twice during their years here (answer below).
▪ The Bruins’ Game 3 home loss to the Panthers — when Sam Bennett’s goal was allowed to stand even though he maybe cross-checked Charlie Coyle, who fell into Jeremy Swayman and took the Bruins goalie out of the play — inspired millions of words about incompetent officiating and an NHL office that’s rarely a friend of the Spoked B’s.
I reached out to former Bruins boss Harry Sinden (still on the team’s front office masthead), who muttered, “I mean, you got a commissioner [Gary Bettman] who never skated in his life, so I don’t know if he understands … ”
Harry was measured compared with some of the commentary around here. It reminded me of the 1970s when passions ran deep and our teams always seemed to be on the wrong side of the zebras.
In the 1973 NBA Eastern Conference finals (won by New York, primarily because John Havlicek hurt his shoulder and had to sit or play lefthanded), there was much outrage when the Knicks beat the Celtics, 117-110, in Game 4 at Madison Square Garden in a game officiated by Jack Madden and Jake O’Donnell. New York shot 38 free throws to Boston’s 23.
“You should be ashamed of yourself,” coach Heinsohn yelled as he chased O’Donnell after the game.
Young Globe hoop reporter Bob Ryan wrote, “Either the NBA actually wants New York or LA to win (if either has a chance) or the league has a problem it cannot control in the Madison Square Garden crowd … Visiting teams simply cannot get a fair shake in Madison Square Garden.”
Two years later, the Red Sox were victims when home plate umpire Larry Barnett did not call interference as Reds batter Ed Armbrister dropped a bunt in front of catcher Carlton Fisk in the World Series. Fisk’s throw to second went awry, allowing Cesar Geronimo to move from first to third. Moments later, Geronimo danced home with the winning run, and the Sox cried foul.
Sox lefty Bill Lee was loudest, stating, “If it had been me, I’d have bitten Barnett’s ear off. I’d have Van Goghed him!”
Then came the 1976 NFL playoffs when referee Ben Dreith made a bogus roughing-the-passer call on Patriot Sugar Bear Hamilton, paving the way for a 24-21 Raider win at the Oakland Coliseum (the Raiders went on to win the Super Bowl).
The Patriots didn’t get even until January of 2002 when Walt Coleman reversed course and imposed the “Tuck Rule,” enabling the Patriots to beat the Raiders and go on to win their first Super Bowl.
▪ Ribbon cutting for the Larry Bird Museum in Terre Haute, Ind., is scheduled for Thursday, May 30, and Bird is expected to be in attendance. The museum will be open to the public the following day. The NBA Finals start one week later, on June 6 (in Boston, we presume).
▪ Here’s Mets designated hitter J.D. Martinez talking to the New York Post about his disappointing 2020 (COVID) season with the Red Sox: “I go out there, they take my video away from me. I don’t have anything to look at … And had a bad year in a year that nobody even thought we were gonna play baseball and the media in Boston just absolutely destroyed me, told me they needed to trade me, that I’m terrible, I’m washed up, and this and that, and it was just nonstop. That was probably the most unfair thing that happened.”
▪ Alex Cora should be a candidate for Manager of the Year for keeping this collection of Red Sox castoffs near the .500 mark. Stat guru Bill Chuck tells us that, going into the weekend, the Sox infield was batting .202, lowest in the majors, with 192 strikeouts, most in the American League. The Sox allowed a baseball-high 34 unearned runs in their first 43 games.
▪ I am no Walter Hriniak, but the super-talented Ceddanne Rafaela (zero hits in 20 of his first 43 big league games) needs to cut down on his swing.
▪ Pacers coach Rick Carlisle on the Knicks’ offensive rebounding: “They have a cold-blooded desire to get the ball.”
▪ Cleveland’s Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, home of the Cavs, has an interesting big scoreboard feature: The Diff. The Diff keeps track of the exact margin of a team’s lead. When the Celtics lead the Cavs, 20-8, “The Diff” is 12. In case anyone has trouble counting.
▪ Best of luck to Boston University’s powerhouse softball team, which went 52-4-1 in its regular season, including 18-0 vs. Patriot League competition. The Terriers are in Norman, Okla., for an NCAA regional this weekend. Texas goes into the tourney as the top seed, replacing Oklahoma, which has won the last three NCAA softball championships.
▪ A local baseball film, “Eephus,” will premiere at Cannes Sunday. The film was shot at Soldiers Field in Douglas, Mass., and features the voices of Lee and Joe Castiglione.
▪ The New York Daily News’s Mike Lupica (a Nashua and Boston College guy) declares Brunson to be the Big Apple’s best free agent signing since Reggie Jackson. Boston’s top free agent? I like Manny Ramirez, who delivered 7½ great seasons on an eight-year, $160 million contract. Thank you, Dan Duquette.
▪ Former Hanover High School and BC pitcher John Leonard died at the age of 34 last weekend. Prayers go out to his wife, Keryn, their three children, Jane, Ian, and Sunny, and John’s parents, Paul and Cheryl Leonard of Hanover. John was a Globe All-Scholastic, played two summers in the Cape Cod League, and was drafted by the Angels in 2011. Visiting hours are 1-5 p.m. Sunday at the Sullivan Funeral Home in Hanover.
▪ RIP Don Fredericks, the longtime Braintree baseball coach who died Monday at 79. Fredericks won 11 Bay State League titles and three state championships in his 21 seasons as head coach of the Wamps.
▪ The 28th Patrick’s PALS 3-on-3 basketball tournament, raising awareness for Fragile X syndrome, will be Saturday, June 1, at the Track at New Balance in Brighton from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. For information, contact James Vershbow at Patricks.PALS@comcast.net.
▪ Quiz answer: Jimmie Foxx, Carl Yastrzemski, Mo Vaughn, Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz.
Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at daniel.shaughnessy@globe.com. Follow him @dan_shaughnessy.
Source: The competition thus far isn’t helping the Celtics prepare for a title run, and other
