its true, though. the boston celtics outplayed the cavs in the 2010 eastern conference semi-finals. i certainly didn't see it coming, and i'd be surprised to find out if many basketball fans did, haters not included.
the series began ordinarily enough, with a cleveland win in game one. they got absolutely crushed in game two after coming out with little passion before turning it on again in game three, where lebron went absolutely bananas. game three, however, seemed to be the only game where the cavs actually played like a team that won 61 games. boston won game four, as lebron committed seven turnovers, and then crushed the cavs on their home court (again) in game five. game six was closer, yet hardly felt like a competitive game as the celtics cruised to a comfortable victory.
nobody could have guessed how this series played out. for all the talk of this being lebron's best supporting cast, it certainly didn't seem that way when it mattered. mo williams had one good half, and was largely invisible. antoine jamieson was pretty lousy (i guess these playoffs taught us a valuable lesson: never trade for any of the washington wizards), and shaq barely played. it didn't help that nobody could stay in front of rajon rondo, whether it be parker, williams, or west. rondo was great this series, though. he's quickly become one of the best point guards in the league. however, maybe the weirdest part is how lebron seemingly gave up on his team, turning the ball over and refusing to drive over and over again. maybe his elbow really is hurting him, or maybe he just decided that this cavs team wasn't going to get anywhere. either way, he sure ripped off his cleveland jersey pretty fast once he got into the tunnel.
mike brown seems to have lost his job with this series, as well. i mean, really. fans have been calling for his head for seasons now, and with this series, its hard to argue against it. the cavs have terrible offensive sets. sure, he had lebron, one of the most gifted athletes and best finishers to ever play the game of basketball, but don't you think that he'd want to draw up something a little more creative than isolation plays? with lebron's size and passing ability, plus all the shooters cleveland has, it would seem natural that the cavaliers would practice all sorts of variations for the pick-and-roll, or at least draw up some cuts or plays involving movement. sure, brown is a good defensive coach (although i can't tell you why he put shaq on kg for game 6), but the offense was so limited. if cleveland's shooters are cold, as they were the entire series against the celtics, all opposing teams have to do is clog the lane and limit lebron.
while cleveland may not have shown up for this series, congratulations are in order to the boston celtics. they played hard, and they played well. ray allen was huge, and rondo was the best player in the series. paul pierce may have been pretty quiet, but kg seemed was energetic and played well. not to mention the fact that the celtics played great defense. really great defense. shooters weren't given space, players were rotating off double teams, and lebron wasn't given any room to operate. for celtics fans and cleveland haters, it was a beautiful thing to see.
the boston celtics are where nobody thought they would be: the eastern conference finals. they face a red-hot orlando magic team this afternoon and look to continue their great defensive play. this just goes to show how effective great team basketball can be and reminds us all that the boston celtics never went away, we just never payed attention.
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