The Garden of Kevin

Paul Pierce, with his 10-year loyalty and superb Finals performance, deserves to have the TD Banknorth Garden’s name attached to his. But even Pierce has to admit that without Kevin Garnett (we’ll discuss Ray Allen later), the Boston Celtics would still be languishing in the Eastern Conference, drinking cold beer in the warm summer months, enjoying the playoffs in front of the TV.

Pierce, though, truly earns the Finals MVP title. His 17 points, 10 assists (nine alone in the first half), and three rebounds are proof of his Game 6 all-around court command. Pierce made like Kobe Bryant, slashing to the paint for a lay-up and when he found himself caught in the trees, passed off to whoever Celtic was free in the perimeter or the 3-point arc.

Also playing his best in the series today, Boston’s starting point-guard, the sophomore Rajon Rondo, a good five inches shorter than Pierce, had four rebounds more than the Finals MVP. More importantly, Rondo had six crucial steals, two on Bryant alone, and had just one turnover in 32 minutes of play. Doc Rivers may still be eight championship rings short of Phil Jackson’s Red-Auerbach-tying nine, but he out-coached Jackson in the Finals.

Consider Rivers’ second-quarter decision to go small with Eddie House, Pierce, Leon Powe, James Posey, and PJ Brown. Garnett was on the bench, while Allen, his eyes poked by Lamar Odom during one of Allen’s daring lay-ups earlier in the first half, was being treated in the locker room.

OF ROOKIES AND RISKS. Practically, no matter who from the bench Jackson puts on the floor will still outsize that Celtics batch. When Garnett came back to replace Powe at 7:32, the Celtics still had the lead, 32-29. The break gave Garnett not only a breather but also kept Garnett from committing more fouls as he is wont to do. Now, how about Glen Davis, how many coaches out there are willing to take the risk on a rookie playing in the Finals for the very first time. Trust and prescience are two of the hallmarks of a very good basketball coach.

Davis played for almost 15 minutes and had a measly three points, a field goal and a free throw, but with Kendrick Perkins not a 100 percent, Davis played a minute longer than Boston’s starting center.

Overall, the Los Angeles is the better team, man for man. Almost nobody thought Boston would last more than five games. Indeed, Rivers did better than Jackson. The Celtics beat the Lakers. By 39 frigging points! You need more proof than that? Likewise, it was the first time in the Finals that the winning margin was more than 10.

So it was, the Celtics reclaimed NBA Finals on the 17th of June year of our Lord 2008 for the legendary team’s 17th title, with one of the greatest Celtics ever in the audience, John “Hondo” Havlicek, who sported a No. 17 jersey. Hang it up on the rafters of the TD Banknorth Garden, KG! along with Havlicek’s retired jersey number. Superstition may just be a combination of gut feeling and statistical mumbo jumbo, but also consider who won the jump ball. The Lakers did, same as the Celtics in Game 5. The Finals teams who got the ball in the first seconds of the ballgame eventually lost.

Reserving their best for last, the Celtics had almost total domination of a Lakers team that despite the just four-point Celtics lead (24-20) after the first quarter, had the seeds of the Lakers’ destruction planted on the Garden. Since Game 1, it was the first time the Celtics led after the first quarter, proof that Boston makes a habit of coming back.

RIFLEMAN RAY. Oh, sorry. Ray Allen. Sorry, Ray. You did very well, Mr. Rifleman. Allen had 26 points, including 7-of-9 from the arc, which tied a Finals record, 8-of-12 on field-goal attempts, and not surprisingly, was perfect from the line, 3-3. The stats don’t tell the whole story. They never do. Allen showed the warrior in him by getting back into the game despite Odom’s long fingers invading his eye sockets. There are those who mistake Allen of being soft just because he is soft-spoken and prefers to shoot from the outside with that picture-perfect textbook-model jumper. But Allen can drive to the hoop just as gracefully, with or without a defender.

Boston’s Big 3 all played big. But five makes a basketball team on the court. Whoever played with the Big 3 were just as important in winning No.17. With an intact line-up next season, No.18 wouldn’t be too difficult to visualize.

Same time next year, Lakers? Bring Big Andrew Bynum with you. The Celtics aren’t worried. They’ve got Big Baby Davis.

myPOST-ITS:
“Regal,” ESPN color commentary team member Jeff Van Gundy called John Havlicek “regal” for sporting thicker, though, white hair at age 68 than Van Gundy at 46. Van Gundy has a few strands he combs across his pate. Van Gundy is one of the most knowledgeable and perceptive, if not the most incisive, NBA commentators now working, and definitely the funniest. He is even funnier than Charles Barkley.

Linux is the Word; Ubuntu is the magic word

I don’t know if the South African man that Boston Celtics head coach Doc Rivers asked to talk to his team uses a Microsoft or Linux operating system on his computer, but when he tried to psyche up the Celtics with the mantra ubuntu (“a philosophy of life that promotes the greater good rather than individual success,” from the “Bantu group of languages” of Africa – thank you, Wikipedia), it was like a schoolmarm teaching a wide-eyed class of fourth graders the wonder word magic (not Earvin Johnson). Rabbit out of a hat drawing smiles and claps, Chris Angel impaled on a fence smiling, drawing disgusted oohs and ahhs. Tells you lots on generation gap on wonder level there.

My computer’s OS used to be Linux Ubuntu, not because I liked it that way. No. I didn’t even know what Ubuntu was until I spent hours struggling over an operating system that was supposed to be “user-friendly.” But for someone who has been using a Microsoft OS for the good part of a decade, shifting, or trying, or better still, forced to try (it came with the laptop I just bought) a Linux OS was like being forced to sleep in the same bed with a woman I had only met an hour ago at an anti-government rally…in Zambia. And she doesn’t even speak the same language (or languages, I know three, one of these is English, as most Filipinos with a high-school education) as I do. OK, the prospect of having a strange woman in your bed is exciting, especially if she keeps saying to you, “Ubuntu! Ubuntu! Ubuntuuuuuu!!!”

In my first language, Ubuntu rhymes with a very sexually-charged word. But we just met! I like my conquests smiling and able to say words to me like: “How about this one, sir…Not too expensive…Thank you, come again.” Who doesn’t like to shop in a store with a very accommodating sales lady?

Ubuntu and the Celtics. From the regular season to now, the Celtics have had remarkable success. Ubuntu rulz! That’s the most important thing …it works. So, no more digs on this Ubuntu thing. I had a friend replace my OS with Windows XP. I am back in familiar surroundings but I kind of miss Ubuntu's quirks and novelty, though. I have an older laptop and I plan to find a place for Linux Ubuntu there.

JACKSON’S MIND GAMES. Lakers head coach Phil Jackson is at it again. Playing mind games is a big part of Jackson’s success as coach in the NBA. Nine Finals championships and counting. But after a heartbreaking Game 2 loss, despite coming back from 24 down in the fourth quarter to just two in the last 7.55 minutes, the Lakers failed to upend the Celtics, 102-108, and Jackson again digs deep into his bag of tricks.

Harping on the 43-17 free-throw disparity, using seldom-used Leon Powe, who had 21 points, more than either Allen or Garnett, as a peg for his criticism of the officiating, Jackson is of course aware that the far-from perfect (and it will never be) refereeing will not always be to his team’s advantage. Jackson doesn’t have to think far back into history for images of the Sacramento Kings complaining of biased officiating (if you saw the game, you might just agree it was horrendous) for the Lakers after the still-notorious Game 6 of the 2002 Western Conference Finals, where the referees in their eternal wisdom and fairness, called 27 fouls on the Kings and only nine on the Lakers in the fourth quarter alone, when it was the Kings who were more aggressive going to the basket.

History has a way of biting you on the butt, Mr. Jackson, if you ignore it. Or conveniently forget it. Learn your lessons well.

Celtics head coach Doc Rivers, on the other hand, is right to say that his team was more aggressive (sounds familiar?) in going into the paint. Naturally, they gave the referees a lot more reason to call the fouls. The referees cannot be everywhere all the time. Even God rested on the seventh day. It was a Sunday when Game 2 was played in Boston’s TD Banknorth Garden, so maybe the Supreme Being was watching the game, too, even though it was His day off. Unfortunately, He wasn’t activated to officiate the game, so, sorry, Mr. Jackson. Maybe next time. Games 3, 4, and, “if necessary,” Game 5 will be played at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Who knows, the calls might go your team’s way by then.

Where was I? Yes, the Celtics, who at the time of this post are up 2-0 over the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals. Retired and semi-retired Celtic fans come out of your shells! Game 3, 4, and 5 may be at the arena that Jack Nicholson built, but if Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, and the rest of the Celtics cast steal just one in LA, our beloved green-clad heroes will look like the DC superhero Green Lantern in a cabbage patch. Green, green all the way.

Now, who said the Pau Gasol-reinforced Lakers are too tough for the Garnet-and-Allen-reinforced Celtics? If I remember my math, two is bigger than one. But a basketball team is bigger than the sum of its parts. And an NBA Finals journey doesn’t stop until one team racks up four wins over the other. OK, two to go, Celtics. You do the math.