The only team that could have given the Cavaliers a problem in the Eastern Conference lost their best player for the entire playoffs and are now looking at an early exit. It was announced on Wednesday that Kevin Garnett will miss the entire 2009 NBA playoffs with a serious knee injury. Garnett who suffered the injury a few weeks ago was both the teams emotional leader and star defender. He was also having a solid statistical season averaging 15.8 points and 8.5 rebounds a game.
On paper the Celtics were the only team who could beat Cleveland in the eastern conference and their chances were slim. Of the entire eastern conference there are only 3 teams worth mentioning, the Orlando Magic, Cleveland Cavaliers, and the Boston Celtics. Now some might argue with previous statements and say that Orlando is a better team than Boston. I would disagree on offer this in response: if Orlando struggles to hit 3's can they win? The answer is an obvious no. Orlando lives off the 3-pointer and Dwight Howard inside. Howard can't score enough on his own to carry a team. If the 3-point shooting is off then Orlando is done. Also they lack experience in the later rounds of the playoffs.
Boston was also in for a tall order as they key to the series would have been who would guard LeBron James? Last year James Posey did it and did an amazing job. This year the task will fall on Paul Pierce who at 31 with nearly 900 NBA games played just can't keep up with LeBron in a 7 game series. Therefore the Celtics would have been forced to shut down everyone else on the team and hope LeBron can't win 4 games on his own.
The problem that the KG injury exposes is no longer is it the Big 3 + Rondo. Now it is Pierce, Allen, Rondo, and no one. The Celtics have a terrible bench that boasts the likes of Big Baby, the pound for pound biggest scrub in the league. The Celtics scoring would take a hit not only from the loss of KG but if Pierce is playing defense on LeBron how can he also carry the team offensively? It cannot be done.
This is all of course assuming that the Celtics make it to the Eastern Conference Finals. First they have to get back the Chicago Bulls. While Chicago was only a .500 team for the season they finished 14-6 with some impressive wins at home over Orlando and New Orleans. The Bulls can run and they have a much deeper bench than the Celtics. Point guard Derrick Rose looks like the consensus pick for Rookie of the Year and guards Ben Gordon and John Salmons are playing really well as of late. Forward Tyrus Thomas has also been playing well over the past few weeks and is starting to turn into the player everyone thought he would be when he was drafted 4th overall in 2006.
So forget making it to the NBA Finals the Celtics have to make it out of the 1st round first. While they may be a better team than most they will face you have to wonder how the loss of KG will affect the team mentally. The Celtics can either rally as a team and show that they are more than just one player or they can fold and walk away quietly. The only thing I know for sure is that this year no one will be yelling "anything is possible!"
Random Youtube Video
No comments:
Post a Comment