its going to be a great finals series. I'm glad LA is in the finals. I hate them but they are the team you want to beat to take the title. I think our team matches well to their type of play. Our D should be able to tone down the 3 point flurries and I thing Pierce will score more points than Koby. It boils down again to Rondo and garnet. Rondo needs to play the fast game with reckless abandon but not smash himself to pieces!
garnet is a mistery to me. I just don't know what's wrong with him but he needs to get into the game more.
The tape about Russel and the 69 celtics is great. I remeber when I was very young , watching the games with my father and sometimes his whole faimily. I was super impressed with Wilt but my father kept saying Russel was the best player in the game and maybe the best I will ever see. As I got into my mid teens I started to see what he meant. Now , after seeing Oscar and Elgin an Hondo and Dr J and Larry and Magic and Michael and Lebron , I still think Russel is the best I ever saw. Its simple , he played as good as he had to in order to beat whoever was on the floor that game. People say the modern players are better but you are only as good as the best guy you play against forces you to be. Russel elivated his game to beat one of the most amazing physical specimins in the history of the game , Wilt, and I have no doubt he would do the same against any more modern superstar.
For anyone who doesn't think Hondo should be mentioned as an altime great on my list above , I say the same think. he beat everyone they put in front of him and palyed whatever role the team needed at the time. If they needed points , he scored them , if they needed D he worked his butt off , if they needed ball movement and assists ,he passed the ball , rebounds , steals , you name it , he did whatever the team needed. Its too bad all the individual stats are what a guy is measured on today. Guys from the past would sacrifice their own stats because in those days , winning as a team was how they defined themselves. The role players on the team , who could play any role the team needed , could have run up any particular stat they wanted but instead they did what it took to win. I think this years team is like those old teams. There's no Larry Bird or Magic Johnson in the bunch who can pull a game out of their butt with miracles like those guys and they know it. They know the only way for them to be champs is to make the team better.
I lump the Celtics history as having 2 kinds of teams who were champs. The Russel and Bird teams had superstars gallore , the Cowens team and this years team do it with hard , hard work.
Obviously I'm fired up about the finals! I love watching the Celtics play LA!