Somewhere, David Stern is sweating. Considering how boring the NBA Finals has been for most of this decade, the league desperately needs some excitement in the Finals this year. Stern is praying that the Eastern Conference can at least put up a fight this year. Heading into the playoffs, it looked as if the NBA's dream match-up -- Lakers vs. Celtics -- was also the most likely match-up.
Now, it's starting to look like that dream match-up is in jeopardy.
It's not the Lakers' fault, though. They easily dispatched of the Denver Nuggets in the first round, and by this time tomorrow, they could easily be up 2-0 on the Utah Jazz. Kobe Bryant is playing the best he's ever played in the playoffs, Pau Gasol has made people forget about the loss of Andrew Bynum, and the team as a whole has gelled better than any team not from New Orleans.
The problem is the Celtics. Yes, the same Celtics who ran away with the best record in the NBA during the regular season. The same Celtics that looked unbeatable at the start of the season.
After struggling to eliminate a clearly inferior Atlanta team, the C's "won" Game 1 against Cleveland last night, 76-72. Ray Allen was held scoreless. Paul Pierce only scored 4 points, making only 2 of his 14 shot attempts. The only thing that kept the Celtics from dropping Game 1 at home was the fact that the Cavs were even worse -- LeBron James and Delonte West went a combined 4-for-28 from the field. As a team, Cleveland shot 30%. They scored only 15 points in a quarter twice, and struggled to score 20 points in the fourth quarter.
It could be argued that this was the worst-played NBA playoff game in recent memory. Considering most people thought that the winner of this series would go on to win the Eastern Conference Finals, things aren't looking good for the conference as a whole. With the way both teams played last night, could anyone see either Boston or Cleveland putting up much of a fight against the Lakers or Hornets? Could these teams even beat Utah?
There is something to be said about being able to win ugly games, but it becomes a cause for concern when your team has looked nothing but ugly all month. It's entirely possible that the Celtics know they're better than anyone in the conference and are just trying to get through the Eastern Conference playoffs without any injuries. At this point, however, it's also entirely possible that the Celtics spent too much energy surging through the regular season and are now running on fumes -- especially when you consider that their roster is filled with guys who don't have as much energy as they did in their younger years.
Whatever the explanation is, it's clear that whoever wins this series is going to have to find a way to play better in all aspects of the game. Cleveland needs to shoot better than 30%, Boston needs to shoot better than 42%, and the two teams can't combine for 38 turnovers. It's not just for their sake -- it's for the sake of our sanity. Please, please, please just play better in Game 2. I wish I could point out more specifics, but Game 1 was bad all around. Just play better. Your conference depends on it.