The Boston C Party

Well, it's all over. A great NBA Finals, especially since the team that defended better and played together took down the nets. For me, game 6 was three hours of pure joy. I swear the Celtics made every shot, grabbed every rebound, and stole every ball, if my shamrock-rimmed lenses were in focus, that is. It really was a slaughter though. It looked like a high school basketball practice with the Varsity team dominating the JayVees, or, even worse, Billy Madison versus Ms. Lippy's first grade class in dodge ball. (minus Ms. Lippy and the paste, of course)

Originally this post was going to cover lots of specific in-game analysis, but doing that two days after-the-fact would feel like drinking milk 2 days after the expiration date. It's not so sour that you can taste it, but once you see the date, it doesn't matter. All I want to know now is how the Celtics won. Everybody had the Lakers coming in, but that didn't exactly pan out. Here are my "BIG 3" reasons why the Celtics won:

1.) They played consistently tougher. This is comprised of how well your bench plays against the other team's starters, and how well you rebound, defend, and hustle. It was obvious that Boston edged out LA in these areas. I have to give props not only to the Big 3, but also to what I'm calling the Little 3 (Eddie House, James Posey, and P.J. Brown). These free agent veteran pickups made a crazy amount of clutch shots and played stifling defense against the Lakers starters. The Big 3 don't win a title without the Little 3.....Not only did Boston out-rebound LA, but they were out-tipping them too--it seemed like every missed jump shot was tipped on it's way down by a series of Celtic players until one of them eventually handled the rebound. It looked like keep-away with how often they tipped potential Laker rebounds into the hands of their teammates....FYI, Rajon Rondo had twice as many assists as Derek Fisher...I'm pretty sure Pau Gasol's bones are made of elementary school pipe cleaner. Consider the contrasting inspiration factor between Pau and KG. Garnett in my mind is pounding his chest and slamming the ball down the rim's throat. Gasol is sitting outside a bistro, wearing a beret and smoking one of those plastic-tipped lady cigarettes.



2.) They had a significantly better home-court/crowd advantage. It's pretty simple if you think about it--the fans at the Garden were a significant part of the experience. You could hear them scream and feel their passion. In LA, you couldn't even see what the fans were doing because the Staples Center shuts off the house-lights past the 4th or 5th row. I'm not sure why they do this--when it's dark, people get tired--but I honestly believe it had a huge impact on the series. I did some digging and created a stat to back this up. The Lakers had 8 QTs (Quarters in which their point-total was in the Teens), while the Celtics only had 4. Now, that's huge right up front, but there's something beneath that. While all of the Celtic's QTs naturally occurred on the road (games 3, 4, and 5), half of the Lakers QTs occurred at home. So not only did Boston have a home court advantage, LA didn't!



3.) They consistently stopped Kobe in quarters 2, 3, and4. I wish I could find more official stats to support this but they're not available yet. Kobe was on fire in the first quarter in so many of the games during the Series, only to fizzle out down the stretch. Blame this on fatigue and Tom Thibodeau's brilliant five-on-one defensive scheme. Bryant's poor offensive game not only had a direct effect on the games themselves, but a negative psychological effect on his teammates and fans. You could see them put it in neutral when he early on appeared to be going "MJ" on the Celtics, expecting him to carry them the rest of those games. Once Kobe fizzled though, it was too late.

And finally...
Don't you think the connection between the Shamrock (3 becoming one) and the Celtics Big 3 becoming one this season are eery?

Goosebumps...pale, freckly goosebumps.