Celtics Go Down Fighting

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Scott Cordischi, GoLocalProv Sports Editor

You can question a lot of things.

You can question their age and athleticism. You can question whether or not their skills have deteriorated with age. You can even question their general manager for a horrific midseason trade.

But the one thing that you cannot question is the heart of the Boston Celtics.

The final score read Miami 97 Boston 87. But that doesn’t tell the whole story of last night’s game.

Credit the Heat for making the plays down the stretch which is something Boston did not do for the second straight game. They were the better team in the series and deserve to be moving on to the Eastern Conference Finals.

But this Celtics team went down fighting as we thought that they would. LeBron James showered Boston with praise when it was over and it was clear that he meant it. “They make you fight for everything,” he said on TNT. “You can never take your foot off the gas. You can never take off a second against that team. So, uh, a lot of respect to that team.”

Make no mistake about it. James and his teammates dislike the Celtics. The word “hate” may not be too strong of a word to describe their feelings toward Boston. But they respect the Celtics because of their heart. They have the heart of a champion.

In the end the Celtics were done in by a confluence of things. Their age has stripped them of some of their skill and their athleticism. At the start of the season they enjoyed big advantages at both the point guard and center positions over Miami. But thanks to an awful trade which sent Kendrick Perkins to Oklahoma City and elbow and back injuries to Rajon Rondo, those advantages were turned into disadvantages.

The Celtics, uncharacteristically, also failed to execute down the stretch both in games 4 and 5 of the series. Did age have something to do with that? Or did they simply just miss shots? Whatever the case, their season is now over with and, as many believe, so are their chances of being considered a legitimate championship contender.

When the Celtics swept the Knicks, no one said that they were too old. Now, that’s all that everyone can talk about. Somewhere in the middle lies the truth.

What it comes down to is that Boston was a better team than New York and Miami was a better team than Boston. Plain and simple.

Maybe the most encouraging thing to come out of last night was Doc Rivers saying after the game that he was leaning strongly toward returning as the Celtics head coach next year. “I’m leaning heavily toward coming back,” he said. “I haven’t made that decision, but I can tell you that I probably will. I have kind of come to that over the last couple of weeks.”

Rivers also talked about the future of the Celtics and continually use the word “we” when referring to the team. “I don’t believe this team is done,” he said. “We have to add some people but, other than that, I love the guys in that locker room.”

For Danny Ainge, the offseason priorities are obvious. Boston needs a low post presence and someone who can rebound like Perkins. The Celtics also need a much better bench than what they finished the season with.

For now, though, we lament the end of the 2010-2011 season. But we do so knowing that the Celtics gave us everything that they had. Even if it wasn’t good enough.