It ain’t easy being Celtics green in Lala land

-- Sasha, get your goat; Ray of light; God; Fear of the unknown --

Game 3:

“He lost a goat…no big deal.”

There are seemingly inconsequential things in this world that reinforces my hardened belief (faith, if you will) that there is a God. Watching a Los Angeles Laker dribbling the ball while waiting for the final buzzer, and the Boston Celtics losing, 81-87, I pressed the TV remote jump button and saw the caption text of the quote above by a grizzled old man in a National Geographic feature on Iranian nomadic goat herders.

The Celtics lost Game 3. Big deal. They were expected to. Some quarters might even expect the Lakers to win Games 4 and 5 after the euphoria of that victory. I have publicly (to friends and colleagues, at least) spoken that I would love to see a Game 7 at the TD Banknorth Garden/Fleet Center.

But that was a troubling win for the Lakers. Even in their homecourt, even with naysayers earlier declaring that the Celtics were overmatched (despite a 2-0 regular-season record against the Lakers, despite having the best regular-season record at 66-16), Mr. Kobe “Ballhog turned passing superstar now MVP” Bryant and Co. had a tough time earning that win.

Now we have a Finals.

Game 4:

If by some unjust quirk of the cosmic forces, and saintly Ray Allen is sent to hell, the Boston Celtics shooting guard will still stay cool.

This game will forever be entrenched in the minds of basketball fans and conspiracy theorists. Comebacks from 20-plus points in any quarter in an NBA Finals are not just rare but heroic. Did the referees swallow their whistles to give the Celtics the edge?

This game will forever be remembered for Allen’s superheroic moves: an up-and-under reverse lay-up from the left wing past the defense of Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom, and a one-on-one cha-cha-cha lefty lay-up past a hapless Sasha Vujacic to up the Celtics’ lead to five, 96-91. Allen’s expression didn’t even change after those baskets. His Big 3 teammates Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett and the Celtics on the court and on the bench, and the whole of Massachusetts, were whooping it up as if they had already won the series. Who could blame them? By the looks of it, with 16 seconds left, they had. Eddie House sank 1-of-2 free throws for the final score, 97-91.

History is on the Celtics’ side. No team has ever come back from a 3-1 deficit in the Finals. The Celtics are 30-0 after winning the first two games in the playoffs.

By some quirk of the cosmos, as I was writing this piece, Steely Dan’s Change Of The Guard was playing on my PC. It is the second to the last song on the band’s classic 1972 debut album, Can’t Buy A Thrill. (Plug time: check out steelydanfanmach3.blogspot.com and poetasterix.blogspot.com for more of this blogger’s follies). Lakers head coach Phil Jackson should have changed the guard on Allen. There is no way jump-shooting self-declared “machine” hair-farm Vujacic can take on the bald-headed brilliance of playground-maestro Allen one-on-one. Don’t argue. You saw what happened.

Leon Powe’s (him again, Mr. Jackson) jumper tied the score at 73-all not two minutes into the fourth quarter. After coming back from 24 points down in the second, 21-45, the Celtics took the lead, 84-83, for the first time on Eddie House’s basket in the final 4:07. They kept it until the final buzzer.

OK, it’s not over ’til it’s over, the fat lady hasn’t been sited yet on stage…provide your own cliché here. All right, let’s wait and see. But as always, Free-For-All is sticking to the Boston Stranglers.

Until Larry Bird flips the bird on Red Auerbach, make mine Celtics.

Game 5 is still at Lakers territory. A lot of good it will do the Lakers. They may win Game 5 but they will still be a game down with the last two games in Boston. No more stats! Just figure the odds yourself, and more importantly, whether you are for the Lakers or for the Celtics, to enjoy the games.

It will be fun.

Especially if you are not green-eyed with envy. Apologies to The Bard. Smirk.

Game 5:

I have openly said that I would love to watch a Game 7 of this series. After that historic Game 4 turnaround by the Celtics in enemy territory, I don’t relish the thought of a for-all-the-marbles encounter anymore.

Being three games up over one in an NBA Finals series is something to crow about, yes, but it is not an impregnable advantage. As Sasha the hairy goat said, “This should be a good test for us if we are ready to win the championship,” citing that the Phoenix Suns did it in the 2006 playoffs.

Mr. Vujacic is right. The Suns did it. The Phoenix Suns, Sasha, sir. Who did the Suns beat the stuffings out of to earn that distinction? Your team, Sasha. The Suns with slippery smart eel point-guard genius Steve Nash and a motley support crew of Boris Diaw, Leandro Barbosa, Raja Bell, Tim and Kurt Thomas, and the now sorely-missed Shawn Marion. Amare Stoudemire was recovering from an injury at the time but the Thomases, Marion, and Diaw, filled the vacuum down low admirably.

Who do you have with you in this playoffs, Sasha? You as a sniper from the wings (.522 FG% and .545 3P% against the Celtics in the Finals) and regular season MVP Kobe “Still a Michael Jordan wannabe but never will be” Bryant, a great one-on-one player but just good in this Finals. You have late-season addition Pau Gasol, inconsistent Lamar Odom, and Andrew Bynum on sick bay (shades of Amare Stoudemire). I am biased, admittedly, but the only players in the present crop of Lakers, after Bryant, that I admire are Luke Walton and the seemingly ageless and very resilient Derek Fisher. Fisher never gives up. His high-arching 3-point shot is thing of beauty and grace. Walton doesn’t have the height and skills of his father, Bill, one of the 50 Greatest NBA Players of All Time and future Hall Of Famer, but Luke has inherited the fighting genes of his dad. Bryant, Fisher, and Walton will never give up, even if two points down with a second to go in the game, even with a two-game deficit in a seven-game series.

They are the Lakers' Big 3 (Gasol and Odom are playing like bench players at this time), in my estimation. They can make things turn around for their team. Getting out of a deep hole they have dug for themselves is a daunting task. It is not impossible but highly improbable. Only one sure way to find out if the Lakers can do a Lazarus -- let’s see them play in Game 5. If they force a Game 6, let’s see if they can force a Game 7.

This is one of those times when I wish I were more careful with what I wished for. I just might get it. Get it?