The great mystery: How the two losses affect the Celtics

Before we get to LeBron’s dunk …

The more you think, the more it seems that all the pressure rests on the shoulders of the Boston Celtics right now. They are playing at home. They were supposed to win this series. They led 2-0. They are shooting terribly. They scored 12 points and disappeared in the fourth quarter of Game 4. They know that Detroit waltzed through their series against Orlando in five games. They know Orlando was seeded higher than Cleveland in the playoffs. And they know that the Cavs have LeBron James. Boy do they know it. The home crowd will give the Celtics a lift in Game 5. Of that there is no doubt. But the Cavs have proven they can win big games on the road late in series. Cleveland has won the last two Game 5s they’ve played on the road, both in Detroit. They’ve also won the last two Game 6s they’ve played on the road, over Washington twice and over New Jersey once. The last time they lost a late-series game on the road was Game 7 against Detroit two years ago. That was also the last playoff series the Cavs lost a playoff series in the Eastern Conference. Do not think for one second that the Cavs and coach Mike Brown (the guy everyone wants to run out of town after a loss) are not aware of this fact. It is a huge mental edge to the Cavs. Does it mean they will win? No, but it means they can enter Game 5 in the Garden with confidence. It’s anyone’s guess what attitude the Celtics bring to the game.

Right now the Celtics are not in sync offensively. The Cavs have something to do with that. Paul Pierce is shooting terribly. Ray Allen has taken fewer shots than Rajon Rondo and five more than Sam Casselll, and that’s all out of whack. Kevin Garnett had some hard things written about his MIA fourth quarter Monday night. Garnett has had a good overall series, but Charley Rosen of Foxsports.com wrote that Garnett posted up five times and took the ball to the basket once. “Garnett has exposed himself as being strictly a finesse player who leads the league in fakes-per-shot,” Rosen wrote. Boston’s fans seemed to start this series doing their best Bill and Hillary imitation – acting like they deserve to win merely because of who they are. The sense of entitlement was strong. The Celtics still may win, but they’re going to have to earn it.

Sometimes the words of athletes mean nothing, but Kevin Garnett’s response to Doc Rivers saying the team needs to play better under stress was interesting. “I wouldn’t say we’re lacking poise,” Garnett said. “In a situation like ours, we are trying to do everything that Doc wants us to do .He makes all the calls. He gives us direction. For the most part, we pretty much try to do what he wants.” Sounds like a man not pleased with the calls or direction – or perhaps not pleased that he and Ray Allen spent almost the first five minutes of the fourth quarter of Game 4 on the bench. That one was hard to understand. Here’s Paul Pierce’s comment on Rivers’ stress statement: “I don’t know what he means. I’m stressed every game. Stressed to get a win.” Maybe this book would help.

LeBron James often takes time to get the lay of the land. The Cavs’ overall record in Game 1s in the playoffs isn’t sterling, and part of it is because James takes time to find out how he’s being defended, what will work and what won’t. The Celtics threw an interesting zone defense behind the man playing him, and it took James a little bit of time to decipher that defense. There were signs in Game 4 that he was starting to feel a little more comfortable, that he was not rushing his drives, that he was taking his time;. That started in Game 3 actually, when he had some nice assists by being patient. Then he threw down that dunk at the end. I’ve been saying prior to every game that James was about to bust loose, and he hasn’t yet hit his outside shots. So it’s easy to say that James will have that bustout game tonight – I mean, it’s got to happen sometime, right? But if the signs are correct that he has started to decipher the defense … well that’s certainly a good thing for the Cavs.

Here’s some interesting tape of Doc Rivers talking to the Celtics during the game (persevere through the commercial).

Now for that dunk … for those who somehow have not yet seen it by now, we’ll get to that. But it was much written about the day after the game.

Ian Thomsen of SI.com wrote that James dunked “as if he had jumped down off a roof.”

Chris Sheridan of ESPN.com wrote an entire story about the dunk, saying it was ” one of the more vicious dunks that Kevin Garnett has ever been on the receiving end of.”

Here, NBA.com has Mike Brown and LeBron talking about the dunk.

And here listen to several broadcast voices describe it as NBA.com provides 10 angles.

If you don’t want to link, here’s the video … and I love the statement: “Ooooh … LeBron James with no regard for human life.”

Finally … couple interesting statements from out of town stories … Paul Pierce said “We’ll get the next one” in a Boston Globe story headlined “Celtics collapse … ”

And the Boston Herald started a column with: “The series is now best-of-three. One team has LeBron James and one does not. Who you gonna pick?”