Lakers-Celtics rivalry brings pulse back to NBA postseason

http://www.nba.com/2010/news/features/shaun_powell/06/02/postseason.pulse

Lakers-Celtics rivalry brings pulse back to NBA postseason
Jun 3 2010

LOS ANGELES -- The Lakers and Celtics better take this series to a Game 7.

The NBA postseason, you see, needs to be saved. Saved from the Atlanta Hawks, the only team to be eliminated in three games in a best-of-7 playoff series. Saved from Manu Ginobili's hand-made nasal strip. Saved from Kobe patting Alvin Gentry on the fanny.

And saved from LeBron James' presto-bizarro-disappearo act in the Eastern Conference semifinals, the biggest unexplained mystery since whatever happened to Vince Carter.

Those are the haunting images that remain of the last several weeks. Gee, thanks. Seriously. When LeBron's summer plans dominate the postseason discussion, just ahead of LeBron vanishing from Game 5, it's clear the NBA could use a moment or three here on center stage. Thank goodness the S.O.S. (Save Our Spring) was received by the Lakers and Celtics, who know something about drama and entertainment this time of year.

The promise of good basketball is on the way, starting Thursday in Game 1 of the NBA Finals, which for the most part also qualifies as Day One of the postseason. Really, it begins now. No more lopsided matchups, fizzles, blowouts, feelings of deflation and emptiness or televised shots of Stan Van Gundy looking like he's going through labor. At least that's the anticipation, anyway, in a series that seems a toss-up.

The Lakers are so concerned about the Celtics that Phil Jackson started working the referees three days earlier than usual. The Celtics are so respectful of the Lakers that Rasheed Wallace, given the chance, did not predict a certain part of their anatomy will tighten up, as he famously offered up for Orlando.

Above all, these teams bring history. The Junior-junior-sky hook, Henderson-steal, Nicholson-mooning, Rambis-clothesline kind of history. The real kind. The kind they don't whip up anymore.

"The backbone of the league was built on these two prestigious teams," said Kevin Garnett. "You have to have an appreciation for the players who made this rivalry. So it's our responsibility, as Celtics and Lakers, to leave everything on the floor because of the players who came before us."

Well. Doesn't that give you more goosebumps than the surface of a Spalding? KG never said anything that profound before the Celtics-Heat first-round series. Just sayin': We're on another level here. The Lakers are defending champions. The Celtics won the year before. And if you ask them, each team believes it should've won both years. And could make a strong case.

"How could you not, as a fan, want to see us play for the championship?" said Lamar Odom. "I predict a great atmosphere, a great outcome."

The Celtics and Lakers are surging at the right time and, without question, are the best the league has to offer. Here's why:

Rajon Rondo: No, it's not because he came up with The Dive, The Steal and The Layup all in one smooth, shocking motion against Orlando. It's not because he went for 29, 18 and 13 against the Cavaliers in the sickest single-game effort of this postseason. It's not because he's now bossing the Big Three around the floor, as opposed to two years ago, when it was vice-versa. And no, it's not because he has ramped up his game to where he's one of the top five or six point guards around. No, he's now a household name because half of America finally knows how to pronounce the name: ra-JOHN. And Celtics fans will be quick to remind you his last name rhymes with "Hondo."

KG's knee: Do you have it? Maybe your neighbor? A friend, perhaps? Wherever it's at, the balky joint that KG dragged around for almost a year, the knee that required medical attention, the knee that supposedly would transform him into a soft, jump-shooting big man is now on someone else's body. Not saying KG is running bump-free these days. Nobody who goes through surgery at such an advanced age comes out better than ever. Still, KG believes he's good enough to last four more wins. You doubt that?

Ron Artest: Here's where we see if the ghost of Trevor Ariza haunts the Lakers. They made the cost-conscious decision last summer to let Ariza, their valuable complimentary player, chase the dollars in Houston while replacing him with Rodman Lite, who brings more of a defensive swagger. Artest is perhaps the only Laker other than Kobe who can get a rise from the laid-back Laker crowd, which recoils in horror every time he gets a 3-point itch ("Noooooo"). But he does accept the challenge of guarding the other team's shooter. And he did put back Kobe's airball last series. Does he get blamed if the Lakers don't take the title?

Tom Thibodeau: He's only the most famous assistant coach since Shooter in "Hoosiers" (RIP, Dennis Hopper), helped greatly by his role in designing the Celtics' defense. He gets major TV time by leaving his chair and pointing his finger every time the Celtics get into their stance. He'll have his own team next season, either in New Orleans or Chicago, neither of which are ready to contend. So he'd better bling up now.

Derek Fisher: Statistically, he was the worst starting point guard in the league this season, and actually was savaged on L.A. sports radio whenever the Lakers fell into a funk. How soon they forget that Fisher saves his big shots for June. He's the only Laker who Kobe will even look at in the final seconds.

Paul Pierce: I think it's safe to say Pierce is one championship away from becoming one of the all-time greats in Boston sports history. Not quite with Bird and Cooz and Russell and Brady and Orr and Yaz and Big Papi. But close. Funny coming from someone raised in Inglewood, who dreamed of playing for the Lakers and hated the Celtics.

Kobe Bryant: His face is twitching, his eyes are narrowing and his lips are tightening. Must be that time again.

Shaun Powell is a veteran NBA writer and columnist.

Win-win situation

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=aw-garnett073007&prov=yhoo&type=lgns&expire=1

Win-win situation
By Adrian Wojnarowski, Yahoo! Sports
July 30, 2007

The revelation of the rogue official ground trade talks to a sudden stop. As a stunned sport reeled over the Tim Donaghy scandal, NBA executives describe several sluggish days of relative radio silence. The pall of possible point shaving consumed conversations last week, and the league desperately needed something to restore the business of basketball.

"Everybody was in shock over the ref," one Eastern Conference official said Monday. "It was almost like we were waiting for it to get worse."

Even now, they are still waiting for arrests and the damning details about the mob and a referee. It turned out to be two old Boston Celtics out of the game's glorious 1980's, Minnesota Timberwolves general manager Kevin McHale and Boston G.M. Danny Ainge, who gave basketball its biggest trade in years on Monday.

The best Celtic since Larry Bird just walked into the Garden.

As long as Kevin Garnett agrees to his maximum contract extension, he's going to Boston for a package of players and picks, an immense move that restores the Celtics to NBA prominence with the arrival of one of the game's greatest ever players. Maybe most of all, the meeting of Garnett and that dusty old Celtics mystique clogs the vacuum of all-Donaghy, all-the-time within the sport.

This is big for Boston, but perhaps bigger for the sport. Yes, this saves Ainge's job, but don't underestimate how this resonates through the rest of the league. Privately, commissioner David Stern was devastated when neither of his draft day stars, Greg Oden or Kevin Durant, found his way to the Celtics. With the Knicks stuck in the lottery and the Lakers mired in mediocrity, the league is desperate for one of its anchor franchises to flourish. As with Major League Baseball and the Yankees, the NBA is a far more compelling league when the Celtics are a relevant franchise.

For Stern, Garnett's arrival in Boston makes for an intriguing storyline moving into next season. And outside of the Donaghy aftermath, well, the NBA is desperate to find one. This doesn't wash away the sport's shame, its stain, but K.G. chasing a championship on the parquet is a sexy plot for 2007-08 and beyond. Yes, the league can use a few of these now.

For months, McHale and Ainge have been discussing the trade, and finally, with Garnett's apparent nod, the Timberwolves get their wish for young players (Al Jefferson), expiring contracts (Theo Ratliff) and draft picks (a future No. 1). After Minnesota owner Glen Taylor told McHale he wanted Garnett moved near draft day, an initial trade agreement between the two teams crumbled when K.G. insisted he wouldn't sign a contract extension with the Celtics.

Once the Suns exhausted several scenarios with which they would give him his wish to play with Steve Nash, once the Lakers and Warriors failed trying to acquire him too, Garnett had to understand that only Boston could spare him another lottery season in Minnesota. Between then and now, the Celtics traded their No. 5 pick in the draft for Seattle's Ray Allen and still had the wares to convince McHale this was the best deal he could get for Garnett.

His harsh stance on playing in Boston appears to have softened. Truth be told, it makes sense for him. In the Eastern Conference, where LeBron James' one-man team in Cleveland just reached the NBA finals, Garnett had to see that the Celtics give him a chance to chase contention again. Playing with Paul Pierce and Allen should assure 50-plus victories in the East and make them a legitimate conference title contender. Boston will struggle to surround its three stars with pricey role players, because once Garnett gets his contract extension, the Celtics will be paying luxury tax for years to come.

Still, this franchise had no choice. It has been irrelevant in the shadow of the Red Sox and Patriots, never mind the larger landscape of the NBA. No, the Celtics don't have much balance on their roster to support the big three, and it's doubtful they'll spend money for complementary players.

Nevertheless, they have time to reconstitute the rest of the roster. For now, they're talking with Garnett, 31, about signing him into his golden years in Boston, where he'll chase a title beneath the 16 championship banners in the new Garden. They'll love Garnett there because he always plays hard, always cares about his teammates and his city. He never, ever cheats the paying public and it's that NBA which needs those players on the biggest stages now.

Along with Pierce and Allen, the Garnett Celtics would be composed of three future Hall of Fame players who've never reached the NBA finals, who've been dying to play with talent like each other for years. Garnett goes to Boston now, and maybe the Celtics are finally chasing No. 17 again. No, this doesn't spare the sport the shame of this summer's scandal, but if you want to win people back to the NBA, the reclamation of the Boston Celtics is a shrewd place to start.

Adrian Wojnarowski is the national NBA columnist for Yahoo! Sports.