The Road to 18

[Brooklyn Zoo]

If nothing else we can take heart that we have likely witnessed the last appearance of Mikki Moore in a Celtics uniform. Thank god.

In my heart of hearts I know the C's woud likely have been steamrolled by Cleveland, so the sting is taken away a bit by that, but still a sad end to the season.

Teams take on the personality of thier best player, and we saw in these playoffs the Paul Pierce (or maybe Rondo?!?!) Celtics strengths and weaknesses. Paul has always played with an air of casual, almost lazy confidence, and as much as it has won games in the past you knew it was going to burn them eventually. KG adds the consistant defensive fire to this team, and it was sorely missed.

Remember in last years finals, the pride Pierce took in guarding Kobe? I don't remember a single game in this post season where Paul played consistant energetic defense, let alone took the challenge of locking down the other teams best player. The same can be said of the entire team. No one seemed to feel responsible for anything specific, and this attitude became pervasive at both ends of the floor.

I remain hopeful that KG will have a couple of years of star-quality basketball, and if he does, I think the C's are right there agian next year. That said, the LeBron era is already underway (in marketing if not with a trphy yet) and the team will need to reload with some youth and toughness.

In my book, Tony Allen, Prewitt, Moore, Steph, and Giddens can all pack up. House and Davis should be brought back, and we'd better hope a hungry vet or two are wiling to climb aboard. The window is still open for a couple seasons, but Ainge needs to act as aggresively as he did in 08 to get them over the hump.

Anyway, it's been a fun season. In the last 2 years the C's have won more total games than any team in back-to-back seasons since the Jordan era Bulls. If nothing else, the extra free time and lack of stress should do wonders for my relationships.

[Joekickass2008]

Can we turn this into a "GET 'TOINNE" thread??? They always made me smile.