The fans needed it. Not management. Not the coaching staff. Not the players. Not the media.
Nope, the fans were the ones who really needed to see the Celtics win yesterday’s game against the Lakers at the Garden.
The fans needed to be reassured that the Celtics remain an elite team, that the idea of a championship is something that can be discussed in the immediate future and not solely something of the recent past.
But the fans saw something they’ve seen too many times in this increasingly annoying 2009-10 season. They saw their team do what it did against Dallas and against Atlanta (the second time) in this building and against the Magic in theirs. Yes, they saw the Celtics play well, very well, for long stretches.
But they also saw their team unable to hold a double-digit lead in the final quarter, and, in the end, they saw the absolute last thing they wanted to see. They saw Kobe Bryant make a pretty close to unmakable shot from the middle of the lane at one end with 7.3 seconds to go and Ray Allen miss an eminently makable buzzer-beating shot from the wing at the other end, and that juxtaposition meant a 90-89 victory for the Lakers.
The fans saw the Celtics at their best in the sec ond quarter, when they outscored the Lakers, 33-17, and at their worst in the fourth when they had three more turnovers (5) than baskets (2) in the final 9:17. The Celtics put themselves in a position to lose with some sloppy passing and the by-now-predictable failure to keep a comebacking foe from getting some key offensive rebounds.
And they lost two fourth-quarter baskets with turnovers when Rajon Rondo was called for traveling before swishing a floater with 2:23 left and when Paul Pierce was called for pushing off Ron Artest with his left hand before nailing a jumper with 27.5 seconds left that would have given the Celtics a 91-88 lead. (Yeah, the arm was out, but the contact was marginal and the accompanying flop by Artest was artful and professional.)
Cheesy calls? Probably. But give both hoops to Boston and that would have been four baskets in the final 9:17, instead of two. C’mon, you can’t expect to beat a good team playing like that.
The Celtics are no longer reliable. That’s rather evident. They can’t sustain. They can’t hang. They can’t finish. Dare I suggest they’ve lost their confidence as a unit? Hey, why not? Their coach looks at the fourth-quarter collapses and thinks it’s a possibility.
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