Celtics Four-Point Play 5-15

I decided to hold off the Celtics Four-Point Play until after Game 5. I’ll devote a couple points to the Celtics’ 96-89 win. I’ll also look at Danny Ainge winning the Executive of the Year Award and offer up my prediction for the rest of the Celtics-Cavs series.

1. The Celtics defeated the Cavaliers 96-89 in Game 5 of their second round series. The Celtics now lead the series 3-2.

• Well, I will say I expected a win based on the Celtics’ playoff trend. The C’s are now 7-0 at home in the playoffs, and 0-5 on the road.
• It seems when the Celtics play at home, they get back to doing the right things offensively: leave Kevin Garnett and the post and have him crash the boards. The result? Kevin Garnett finished with 26 points and 16 rebounds. That’s more like what we should be seeing.

2. Rajon Rondo finished Game 5 with 20 points and 13 assists.

• This was a bigtime performance in a bigtime game for Rajon Rondo, who we all keep forgetting is just a second-year player in the NBA.
• I was hard on him at the beginning of the season, and I was right. He was not performing well, but it seems in just a few months he has transformed into a future all-star point guard for many years. Chauncey Billups who?
• As Rajon Rondo goes, so goes the offense. There would be no successful Big Three without someone to dish the ball to them, and when Rondo is good, he can do just that.

3. Celtics Director of Basketball Operations Danny Ainge was named the NBA’s Executive of the Year on Wednesday.

• What’s most surprising to me is that Danny Ainge didn’t win this award in a sweep. I know Lakers’ GM Mitch Kupchak had himself a nice season when he ripped the Memphis Grizzlies off to get Pau Gasol for a lot of crap including Kwame Brown and Gasol’s young brother, Marc. But 14 first place votes?
• What I want to know is what Hornets GM Jeff Bower did to deserve 12 votes? I mean…trading for Bonzi Wells was a huge move? He already had Chris Paul, David West, Tyson Chandler, and Peja Stojakovic. Maybe the sportswriters are giving him credit for assembling the team the year before? They were injured for much of 2006-07, so he couldn’t win the award then. I guess he deserves credit now. But that much credit???

4. Game 6 between the Celtics and Cavaliers is Friday night in Cleveland.

• How could I predict a Celtics victory in Game 6? I said this series was going to seven games, and I still believe that.
• BUT…The Celtics showed a lot after coming back from an early 14-point deficit. Could the Celtics carry that momentum to Friday night and win the series in Cleveland? Possibly. I can see the Celtics winning a game thats very close late in the fourth quarter on Friday.
• Game 6 in Atlanta was different because the Celtics murdered the Hawks in Game 5, where in this scenario the Celtics had to fight to win a Game 5. Hey, I guess I’m feeling pretty optimistic this early morning.

Tags: Celtics, Cleveland Cavaliers, Four-Point Play, Kevin Garnett, LeBron James

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