In my long and personally-storied sports-watching history, I've yet to see my favorite team capture the prize. Oh, like everyone around Buffalo, I've come close, yet my misery seems to surpass even those who are simply Sabres and Bills fans:
1) The Chicago Cubs: Steve Bartman becomes a scapegoat.
2) UB basketball: Reggie was calling time-out!
3) Michigan basketball: Time out, Chris Webber.
4) US Soccer: Where did you disappear to against Germany, Landon Donovan?
So it stands to reason that without Cubs in first place and the Celtics holding the best record in the NBA with 66 regular season wins, it would play out like this. Seven games against the No. 8 seed, Atlanta. Seven more against Cleveland, including a rout loss I attended in Cleveland in Game Three (wearing my "I Hate L.A." shirt, ironically enough). A somewhat scare from the Pistons, and now 9 p.m. tip-offs against a team featuring the best player in basketball, a guy who could overcome a 20-point deficit himself.
Did I mention I work at 5 a.m. every morning?
It was with great trepidation that I dared put off sleep Thursday evening, after being inundated with my fill of Euro 2008 and the Paul Hamilton slow-pitch softball team (4-0 after another win). It was time to watch my beloved Celts and root for my favorite player, Paul Pierce.
It started ugly, down by an NBA-record 21 points after one quarter, but something told me to stay tuned, even after an umpteen point halftime deficit.
By the end of the third, the green fellas had thrown down a gauntlet of defense that even Bryant couldn't solve, and after a seemingly-endless five-minute stretch in which neither team seized control, the Celtics went "bananas in pajamas." They "made it happen, cap'n." It was "on like Tron." (I used those phrases because they confuse Howard Simon most mornings).
Before the series, I told anyone who would listen that Ray Allen was the X-factor, and that that was precisely what made me nervous. He was shooting a career-low percentage in his deepest playoff run ever, and the Lakers were going to stick like Elmer's to Pierce and Kevin Garnett (I was just reminded that my dad never let me work on anything that required a hot glue gun, and while that may have saved my life, I'm still a little bitter about it).
The thing is, and bare with me fellow championship-less folks, this whole season has felt a little, well, correct. Like the Celtics are repaying me for the years of losses (I was a fan during the Bird titles, but I was also five, and a fan because of hand-me town tee-shirts). Allen's been legit, Eddie House stepped in for Rajon Rondo and P.J. Brown is rebounding with Garnett can't. All this, and Glen "Big Baby" Davis has barely been called upon.
I guess this is all a long, fairly pointless way of asking you not to tell me that the series is in the bag. Everything feels a little too comfortable for me.
However, if the Celts do pull it off, look out! I may be a personal city of Boston, and UB, the Cubs, Bills, Sabres, Bisons, U.S. Soccer and Newcastle United might all make legitimate title runs for the next several years.
I'll talk to you all Saturday morning from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. with Corey Griswold, and then bleary-eyed Monday morning after a sleepless night of hoop-watching.
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