simplicity

A win is a win.

It doesn’t matter whether you get the win via the starters, the bench, or what it’s come down to at some points in these playoffs the refs. Last nights game again started off well for the starters, but it again felt like they expended all of their energy within the first 5 minutes. Knowing full well this was a must-win for Boston, everyone expected Paul Pierce to have a huge game. He started off the night really well, scoring the first 10 of Boston’s 16? points. But then it looked like he started to get tired. And by the half you could see that Kobe was starting to light it up and some unbelievable Laker shots were going in (Derek Fisher’s flop no-foul jumper). Going into the half, I think everyone was worried even with the C’s down just three. Personally, I thought they were very lucky being down just three. I was at the bar and the mood wasn’t that great, especially after the Sox blew it against Cleveland in the bottom of the ninth. Ugh!

However, the second-half, specifically the fourth-quarter the bench played unbelievable. They scored on nine straight possessions. “Big Baby” played with the same fire he’s played with all through the playoffs. The man, along with the bench, put in some quality minutes. Huge put backs, huge rebounds, huge points. The man is a human redbull.

Obviously I’m happy with the win, but I’m still not seeing the consistency in our offense from our starters. While that does scare me, I think I’d be more worried if I was a Lakers fan. Think about it this way, last night Kobe had what most would constitute his best game of the series and the C’s still won. To top it all off, the C’s starters, 4 out of the 5, have been stagnant in every game:

• Game one: No one showed up for the C’s
• Game two: Ray Allen/Rondo decide to outplay everyone on the floor
• Game three: KG has a stellar game, even with the loss
• Game four: Pierce, while not at his best, was clutch

At some point in this series you have to believe two of the big three or even dare I say all three of the big three are going to have a coming out party. That should frighten Laker fans, especially if Bynum can’t play more then 11 mins a game.

Boston needs to capitalize on this momentum. Game five is a must-win for Boston, no if-and-or-buts about it. You’re already in scary territory by needing to take one game in LA to finish out this series, but taking two is next to impossible. There are a lot statistics against a C’s championship in these playoffs:

• Phil Jackson is 47-0 in the playoffs when his team has won the first game of the series.
• Since 1985, when the 2-3-2 format was introduced the team that won game three won the the series: 100% of the time

So as you can see there’s a lot at stake.

Finally a little about the officiating last night. While there were missed calls both ways I personally thought this was the best officiated game of the series. Not saying it was great, but it was a little above sub-par. They let the players play and that’s all you can ask for.

The two things that have me worried are: Perk and Sheed are one T away from being suspended a game. That would be two huge losses for the C’s.

However, a win is a win…