Vulnerable Celtics get needed deja vu at home

ShareThis

BOSTON -- Wednesday night was Game Five. Basketball dij` vu. It was just two weeks ago that the Boston Celtics had been in the same game with the upstart Atlanta Hawks, back when that series was inexplicably tied, 2-2, and the Celtics went into that game as if the sky was falling. So it was again on this night. Only it was different, too. The Celtics are more vulnerable now than they were two weeks ago, no longer wearing the cloak of invincibility. We've seen too much. We've seen too many losses on the road, the road that's become a trail of tears. We've seen them disappear in the fourth quarter of the fourth game, when Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen were nowhere to be found, Paul Pierce settled for too many jump shots, and the offense looked like it belonged on the back of a milk carton. We've seen them lose control of this series, when all they had to do was win one game in Cleveland, bringing them to Wednesday night, once again tied, 2-2, in a series they're supposed to win. We've seen a rotation that's very different than the one during the regular season. In short, we've seen too much. "This team has been questioned all year," Doc Rivers had said before the game. "We will continued to be questioned." So it was again last night, another must game, another Game Five. Basketball dij` vu. Only this time it came against LeBron James, the most dangerous player in the series, the Cavaliers version of the Big Three all rolled into one player. Without him, the Cavaliers' season would be as gone as disco. Without him, the Celtics would be rolling towards the Eastern Conference finals, this series little more than a lay-up drill. He is the centerpiece of this series. Yes, the Big Three certainly have pressure on them, for to lose this series would tarnish this season, would leave everyone with a sense of a promise unfulfilled, all those regular-season wins -- for what? But it is LeBron who competes against his own legend, his own myth, the one who's been there ever since he was a sophomore in high school, back when the word already was out on this man-child from Akron, this kid who already had a body that seemed sculpted by the hoop gods. That's the thing to remember about LeBron. He may only be 23, but in basketball terms, it's as though those years are dog years. The only thing he lacks is an NBA title. He's got everything else. Last year, he got the NBA Finals -- close, but not there. So here he was in a Game Five, here in the same building where he had been 8-for-42 from the field in the first two games, as if his jumper had already gone home for the summer. He had been downright awful in the first game, the game the Cavaliers almost won, anyway. If the Cavs lose this series, that was the game that got away, the game they almost stole, no doubt would have stole if King James had just been average, never mind good. He came out with a vengeance Wednesday night, making the first two baskets of the night, and by the end of the first quarter, he had 11 and the Cavs were up five. They were up three at the half and LeBron already had 23. Was this going to be the game the Celtics had feared, LeBron going off and winning it by himself? That always had been the fear at the start of this series, the theory that if it came down to one game the most explosive player on the court is in a Cleveland uniform, the sense that LeBron had a 40-point-plus game within him and it was only a matter of time before it came out. But not this night. In the end, this came down to another home win, the story of these NBA playoffs. The other thing we've come to know? The Celtics are very tough at home. The crowd. The energy. All those old ghosts from the past that now live inside this new Garden the way they used to live inside the old one, all those old ghosts that all seemed to come out to play in the second half last night, just when the Celtics needed them most. This was just the latest example. The Celtics toughened up on LeBron in the third quarter, preventing him from getting to the hoop and holding him to only a deuce, preventing him from taking over the game in the second half the way he had in the first. And without his scoring, the Cavs simply don't have enough offense. Not last night, anyway. And at the other end of the court, Garnett was knocking down his jumpers, and Rajon Rondo seemed to be everywhere at once, his best game of the series by far, a marvelous game to go along with Pierce's big scoring game. And, once again, we saw the Celtics put their stamp on this game, and take control of this series. Not that it was easy. Not that it answered all the questions. "I would love to win one on the road," Rivers said, "but you have to win them at home first." Yes, you do. Ah, the home court. My kingdom for the home-court advantage. For once again, it bailed the Celtics out, this team that's become one team here in the Garden, and another one on the road. Once again the Celtics won another big Game Five, a win that, once again, now gives them control of this series. Basketball dij` vu.(Contact Bill Reynolds at breynold@projo.com.)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)