It’s time to give the Celtics their due. Big limb there, eh? Next week: The Arctic is cold! To be honest, I did not think the Celtics were that good. I thought whoever won the West would win the title. Clearly that is not going to happen. The Game 4 comeback by Boston was probably worth two wins. No team can recover emotionally from giving (choking?) away a 24-point lead in the NBA Finals.

The Lakers have proven that a team that does not play defense cannot win, and the Celtics have proven that a team that does play defense does win. Don’t you love these guys who play defense by dancing around, waving their arms, letting their hair fly, acting like just because they’re moving like jitterbugs they’re effective. I refer, of course, to Sasha Vujacic, who did all that to Ray Allen late in the game. Allen’s response was to roll his eyes, back out to the top of the circle, tell his teammates not to even bother setting a pick and then beat Vujacic clean to the basket.

Vujacic is the same guy who made a meaningless three in the series-clinching win over the Spurs. Game was over, all he had to do was dribble out the clock and he put up and made a three that did not nothing but pad his stats. Enough said.

In this Finals game, Allen was by Vujacic before he got to the foul line. It was one of the greatest displays of absurd defense seen in decades. Then, to top it off, Allen drove down the middle of the lane and no Laker even went to stop him. Isn’t Pau Gasol 7-feet tall? Could he not have tried something? Yes, the Lakers were told to stay with their man, but at that point things were a bit desperate. The only thing on the line was, well, the NBA title. So try something.

Nope, instead Gasol and Vujacic combined to give Allen a wide-open left-handed layup that sealed the win. While some Celtics have really shown their mettle – Paul Pierce may be carving a Hall of Fame spot for himself – some Lakers have shown their flaws. Specifically Gasol, who has carried the “soft” label for some time and is earning it in this series. Gasol is a nice player who made the Lakers as good as they are, but in a series like this with the physical players the Celtics have, he’s outmatched. Ben Wallace would shut him down.

The Finals are an amazing experience. In Los Angeles, much is written about the fact Kobe Bryant really has not become a better teammate. And that the role players so vaunted as the playoffs went on now are not good enough. Heck, even zen-master Phil Jackson is being questioned. That’s what happens when a team struggles in a series, especially the last series.

As for Pierce, I remain skeptical about the antics that went on with his Game 1 knee injury, though it seems clear now that Pierce thought he was hurt, which is what led to the wheelchair and forklift and chair ride up and down the steps. But since, Pierce has played fabulously. He’s directed his team, led his team and in Game 4 he defended Kobe Bryant. I hereby remove any doubt about the guy and simply say that he has been great during this playoff run.

Finally, let’s state this one more time: There’s only one team that took the Celtics to the limit in the playoffs. That’s the Cavs, who took them to the final minute of Game 7. And that says something about how close this team was to winning. They didn’t do it, but they sure deserve more credit than they’re getting.

Lakers fans got pretty mad at Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling for this look at Kobe Bryant from the expensive seats.

Have to love T.J. Simers, a writer with the Los Angeles Times who cuts nobody any quarter. Well, like a lot … not love. California is one of those states that legalizes same-you-know-what-marriage. So … have to really, really, really like the writing of T.J. Simers. Don’t have to love him. At any rate, Jim McMahon once blew his nose on Simers’ shoulder, which is a claim to some kind of fame. He had some funny stuff to say here about David Stern’s response to Tim Donaghy. And a funny e-mail about Gasol. And some not so funny stuff about Phil Jackson. He also had took on Schilling’s blogging here.

Is there anything more boring on television than golf? “Looks like he’s got a three-iron Jim.” “I thought he’d use the four.” Imagine that, the three instead of the four. I love when they describe rounds as good “ball striking rounds.” All this time I thought they were hitting pandas? And God knows that the first cut sure can be difficult.

Dadgum it, Adriana Lima chose Marko Jaric. What’s Jaric got that a dumpy Irish sportswriter doesn’t have, other than a million or two dollars, I ask indignantly.

Replay coming to baseball? BIG mistake. Seen the NFL’s oh-so-efficient system lately?

Think folks in New York aren’t convinced that eventually C.C. Sabathia will pitch there? Guess again.

The endless debate in this frail mind right now is about Sirius Radio. Received it for a gift and just can’t decide if using something three times a week in the car is worth the $13 per month. I welcome your thoughts, he wrote in a clever attempt to see if there are more than seven people actually reading this driv … err … blog. And, NO jokes about being cheap.

I keep going back to the Cavs as I watch the Celtics, and I ask a simple question: Will someone please recognize that Mike Brown is not crazy when he says a team can win a title focusing on defense?

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 14th, 2008 at 12:01 pm and is filed under Adriana Lima, Cavs, Celtics, Lakers, McManamon, NBA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.