Celtics vs. Lakers Reactions

Here comes a plethora of NBA posts in the next few days or even hours, starting off with last night's NBA Finals rematch between the Celtics and Lakers. First of all, the Lakers did not beat the Celtics last night. They beat a “Celtics-Iceberg,” on the surface it looked pretty good, with all five of the Celtics starters from last years NBA Finals starting once again for the Celtics. But below the surface this was not the true Celtics team. This was a team missing three centers! The Lakers only have two centers, Andrew Bynum and Theo Ratliff, on their roster. The one center the C's had, Kendrick Perkins, has played in all of nine games this season. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the Celtics started the game missing their backup point guard. This loss has been extremely understated this season. If Nate Robinson were even six feet tall, nobody would think of him as a point guard. He has good athleticism and can heat up shooting, but his game, especially his mindset and his court vision, do not reflect that of a true point guard at all. Still, he brings enough to the table that he is not the worst option as a third string point guard, it's just easy for people to forget at times that this offense would probably flow much better with Delonte West running the show rather than Nate. But then of course, with the Nate Robinson injury, the C's were forced to call on their fourth string option, Avery Bradley, freshly called up from the D-League. Since the 'tics were hindered at the 1 and 5 positions, it's only fitting they were missing backup 3 man Marquis Daniels as well, who brings a mixture of some size and athleticism that Von Wafer does not. This is a Celtics team who lost game seven last year because they got killed on the boards, and are winning this season because they move the ball so well. If you take away three centers, two point guards, and throw in the fact that Paul Pierce, the team's leading scorer, missed Wednesday's practice due to illness, it's pretty easy to explain the Celtics loss.

All injuries aside, maybe the biggest factor of this one was the Lakers had to win. They needed this game and while the Celtics would have enjoyed sweeping the season series with the team that ended their hopes of an title hopes last season, this was not a must-win. The Lakers came into last nights contest a combined 0-5 vs. the Celtics, Heat, Spurs and Mavs. They had to prove to both their critics and mostly themselves that they were still a team who could go on the road and beat the NBA's best. If they had lost this game, it would've been time for the Lakers to go into panic-mode. Instead, Lakers fans can breath a sigh of relief because their team proved it is good enough to win when it has to, and Celtics fans can breath a sigh of relief as well. This game showed that the injury bug, possibly the Heat and maybe, maybe the Bulls, are the only things that will stop the Celtics from raising banner number eighteen to the rafters following this season.

(Do not think I forgot Ray, more to come on the record.)

Super Sell Out

Last night's Super Bowl XLV was an exciting game in which the Green Bay Packers, defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers 31-25. Everybody should know that because the game was watched by 111 million people, but I decided to restate it because if you do a google search for “Super Bowl,” the top results include stories about; The fans who lost their seats, “Why were the Super Bowl Commercials Extra- Violent this Year,” Super Bowl Social Media Marketing, “Groupon CEO's Non-Apology Letter for Super Bowl Ad,” Christina Aguilera's missed lyrics during the National Anthem, another article about commercials, an article about the half-time show, an article about the episode of Glee following the show, you get the picture. I went through several pages before giving up without finding a single writeup about the game, and very few articles relating to gameplay at all. And herein lies the problem. I love sports. I am an American. The Super Bowl is supposed to be the greatest event in American Sports. To top it all off, I'm a Steelers fan. While football isn't my favorite sport, I still should have been in a level of sports heaven near where I was when my beloved Celtics were in the NBA Finals last summer (before the game that will never be mentioned on this blog), but I wasn't.

Let's backtrack to before the game. This was a matchup between the NFL's two most storied franchises. Aaron Rodgers was the quarterback who had replaced Brett Favre and saved Green Bay, Ben Roethlisberger was rebounding from a shaky off-season looking to win his third Super Bowl. There were plenty of stories for the media to cover, more than in most years. So why was such a large part of the coverage in the week leading up to this game on “Ben Roethlisberger going out to a piano bar not being a story” (They sure covered it like a story!), the weather in Dallas (The game was in a dome for crying out loud!), who was included in the Green Bay team photo and more? Easy. The Super Bowl has sold out. And who can blame it? If sports fans are going to watch it why wouldn't they show it. But unfortunately, with all this hype and advertising and media, its easy to lose sight of the game itself. This year's game was very exciting too. Green Bay jumping out to a large early lead, the Steelers coming back and having a chance to win on the final drive and complete the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history. Classic. You don't need $2 million commercials, the Black Eyed Peas, Usher and Slash, Christina Aguilera, and a bunch of stories hardly relating to sports to make this a great game. This is America's most popular sport, most popular league and biggest game. I understand that the opportunity to make money is there and will almost always be taken when it is, but the Super Bowl is a game, not a giant commercial and the NFL should not turn its back on the glory of the game.

Welcome

Hello, and welcome to my blog. My name is Greg and I will be blogging about just about every sport from baseball to association football to track and field and everything in between. Enjoy.