Can the Celtics close it out tonight?

Pressure.

Some men, like Stephen Jackson, make love to it.  Others, and I’m looking at you Vince Carter, fear its very existence.  Performing under pressure can make a career (just ask Robert Horry) or it can break one (Chris Webber, you listening?).

Pressure is what it’s all about for the Celtics tonight.  If the Celtics don’t rise to that pressure they’ll be headed to Orlando for Game Seven — and the C’s want to play a road Game Seven as badly as I want to pass a kidney stone.  They want this series finished tonight — they want to be the first team to print its ticket to the NBA Finals.

Two games ago, the Celtics were almost untarnished in the playoffs.  Sure, the C’s were smoked by the Cavaliers in Game Three — but they rattled off three straight victories after that loss to close out the series.  The Celtics were terrific in closing out Cleveland and even better in racing to a 3-0 lead against Orlando.  They were the league’s hottest team.  Two games ago, the Celtics seemed like the class of the NBA, ready to sweep the Magic with ease.  They were on a collision course with the Los Angeles Lakers and the destiny of a 2008 Finals rematch.

Now, the Celtics are just trying to avoid becoming the first NBA team to lose a playoff series after winning the first three games.  Two games ago — just two games ago — the Celtics were playing carefree basketball, searching for dominance as well as wins.  Now, the pressure builds with every game and the C’s have switched from dominating to simply trying to survive.

One of my favorite quotes ever states the following:

For the world is like an olive press, and men are constantly under pressure. If you are the dregs of oil, you are carried away by the sewer; but if you are the true oil, you remain in the vessel. But to be under pressure is inescapable. Observe the dregs, observe the oil, and choose; for pressure takes place through all the world., We all know people who crumble under pressure and complain, but they speak as the dregs of oil which will later run away to the sewer. Their color is dirty, for they are cowards. They lack splendor. But there is another sort of man who welcomes splendor. He is under the same pressure, but he does not complain. For it is the friction which polishes him. It is the pressure which refines him and makes him noble.”

Will the first true pressure of this entire season refine the Celtics?  Will it make them noble?

Or will they show themselves as cowards?

A loss tonight won’t end the Celtics’ season, I realize that.  It would simply be one more big step towards the grave.

Here is a great pump-up Celtics video we found on Youtube.

Check out other video’s by bananbooy; he has some great Celtics videos.

If this doesn’t get you excited for Game 6, I don’t know that you’re a true Celtics fan. Sorry.

After Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals, Boston was in control and most every analyst and sportwriter expected a sweep. Then, Orlando won Game 4 in overtime and routed Boston 113-92 in Game 5 at Amway Arena.

Now, those same writers who proclaimed Orlando’s season dead and halfway buried are writing about the resurrection of the Magic. Some Orlando Sentinel writers–George Diaz and Mike Bianchi– have gone so far as to predict the greatest comeback in NBA playoff history and  a Finals berth for Orlando.

George Diaz wrote:

This time, the accountants have added up all the misery of NBA teams trying to crawl out of an 0-3 hole in a 7-game series, and they say the Orlando Magic have no prayer. The other 93 teams that came before them all failed.

But as coach Stan Van Gundy keeps reminding everyone, somebody has to be first.

It will be his team.

It will be his team because the Celtics are suddenly old, beaten and battered. Even though Kendrick Perkins will play tonight after having one of his technical fouls rescinded, he is no longer the smooth veteran frustrating big man Dwight Howard.

I don’t have a promise with optimism for the home team, but declaring the Celtics “suddenly old” after just two losses and one poor game (Game 5)? Diaz certainly wasn’t calling the Celtics “old” after they took a 3-0 series lead. It’s funny, when the Celtics are winning they are called a “veteran team” but when they start losing they are “suddenly old.” What hypocrisy.

But at least Diaz didn’t go so far as to stupidly compare the Boston Celtics to the Boston Bruins, who collapsed with a 3-0 series lead against the Philadelphia Flyers.

His colleague Mike Bianchi, however, thought the comparison was a good one:

Teams can absolutely feed on the synergy and psyche of another team in town. Especially when that other team — the Bruins in this case — own and play in the same arena you play in.
The seats in Boston’s TD Garden are painted Bruins gold and black, not Celtics green and white. The ushers and concessionaires in the arena are employed by the Bruins. And up in the rafters, the Bruins banners hang side by side with the Celtics banners.

I’m sorry Bianchi–and all the other idiots comparing the Celtics to the Bruins– but one sport has NOTHING to do with the other.

The Boston Bruins were an overachieving team who rode a hot goalie and good team play as far as the wave would take them. The Boston Celtics are former champions who almost beat Orlando Magic last year without Kevin Garnett–and if you happened to forget–still hold a 3-2 series lead with Game 6 being played in the TD Garden in BOSTON.

So for everyone out there, relax with the hyperbole and disaster warnings about the Boston Celtics. Home court advantage tonight is a big edge. The Celtics are still in the driver’s seat.

As always, take what Tim Donaghy says with an ocean of salt.  (WEEI)

Do officials know what’s best for the NBA when they’re in the middle of the action in a playoff game?

There’s no doubt about it, I write about this at length in the book “Personal Foul.” It’s a situation where officials are well aware of what goes on and what’s best for the league. Obviously, in this series, what’s best for the league is putting Orlando in a little bit of an advantage and it seems to me that’s certainly what’s taking place. When you talk about Perkins being suspended, I think you have to look at the fact that [Dwight] Howard is looking at a possible suspension for the way he flailed his elbow off and hit Big Baby [Glen Davis] in the face.

I don’t know if you guys remember, but there was a situation a couple years ago where Kobe Bryant was consistently doing that and he was suspended during the regular season. I know the playoffs and regular season don’t follow the same set of rules, but I think that Boston should be looking at the fact that if they’re going to suspend Perkins, why isn’t Howard going to be suspended for that flail of the elbow?

Firstly, let me just say it was nice that Donaghy plugged his own book while answering this question.  ”I write about this at length in the book ‘Personal Foul.” Plugging your own book in an answer to a question clearly has to take away some credibility from the answer, right?  And considering Donaghy had zero credibility to begin with, I think he said this statement with negative credibility.

As far as the Dwight Howard elbows go, I understand he throws a lot of them.  I just didn’t think his shot at Davis was intentional.  I would love to be as worked up as every other Celtics fan about the elbow but, to me, it just didn’t seem purposeful.  That said, he throws a ton of elbows and — at some point — you have to wonder how he throws so many goddamn accidental elbows.

Donaghy compared Dwight’s elbows to Kobe’s back in the day, but there was never a question that what Kobe did was intentional.  With Dwight, you can’t tell whether it’s intentional.  That’s the difference.

If you’re looking for referee conspiracy theories, Donaghy says Game Six should favor the Celtics.  A Celtics-Lakers finals would be more beneficial to the league than a Celtics-Magic Game Seven, says Donaghy.

Anyone else shocked Big Baby can play?

Glen Davis has been cleared to play in tonight’s Game Six. (CSNNE)

Multiple sources have confirmed that Glen Davis, who suffered a concussion in the Celtics’ loss at Orlando on Wednesday night, will play tonight in Game Six at TD Garden.

Davis has recovered from the injury and has been cleared by the team’s medical staff.

I’m stunned.  I mean, just Wednesday night Davis was stumbling around on the court like Vin Baker during happy hour.  I’ve seen people get concussions and be out for weeks, and Davis’s looked like a bad one.  And now he’s going to play?  We can finally forget about the crying episode and consider Davis one tough bastard.  With the same concussion, Vince Carter would have been out for five years.

Eddie Rush knew he'd made a mistake. Why can't Tim Povtak understand the same thing?

I really, really despise almost everything I’ve ever read from Tim Povtak.  Povtak is the guy who said his MVP vote went to somebody besides Lebron James because Lebron rested for a few games at the end of the season.  He’s like Fanhouse’s Dan Shaughnessy, only with a little Skip Bayless sprinkled on top.  THAT’S how bad some of Povtak’s stuff is.

But damn, he might have topped himself when talking about the NBA rescinding Perkins’ technical foul. (Fanhouse)

The NBA wonders why it has such an image problem, why hard-core fans still believe that outcomes are influenced by the desires of the league office, why most everyone thinks there are different standards for different players when it comes to officials.

It’s because of rulings like Thursday’s, allowing Celtics center Kendrick Perkins to play in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals against the Orlando Magic. It’s not a surprising move by the NBA — it was almost expected — and it certainly feeds the conspiracy theory.

A Lakers/Celtics Finals is best for everyone.

It’s called selective enforcement of the rules, which the league has mastered, which leads to improving the odds of one team over another. Is it right? No. Does it happen? It just did.

The league did itself no favors with this one, taking back the technical foul it called against Perkins Wednesday night in Game 5, which allows him to play Friday.

Why does it have a rule that triggers an automatic one-game suspension when a player reaches seven technical fouls in the playoffs if exceptions like this are made without explanation?

This is entertainment, that’s why. It’s not just about competition. It’s show business, television ratings and encouraging outcomes for the overall good of the league. Perkins sitting in street clothes isn’t good for the league if the Celtics get stomped in Boston.

Why is a technical foul on Wednesday not a technical foul on Thursday? Did Perkins take back his boorish, childish behavior that prompted the technical in the first place? Or did official Eddie Rush forget that Perkins already had one technical earlier in the game, leaving him one slip away from an automatic suspension?

Povtak, that bumbling idiot, must have gotten hit by a Dwight Howard elbow harder than Glen Davis did the other night. Did he even see the two technical fouls Perkins received? Does he realize that the first technical — the one that wasn’t even rescinded — happened when Perk merely slipped while trying to help Paul Pierce off the ground? Does he know that the league reviews EVERY SINGLE BORDERLINE TECHNICAL FOUL ALL YEAR LONG?

Listen up Povtak, you drunken fool: Last season, with the NBA on the verge of a dynamic Kobe-Lebron Finals, Dwight Howard’s sixth technical foul was rescinded. Did the NBA do that because it wanted to stop a Kobe-Lebron Finals series? Because those damn puppets were getting a little annoying? No Povtak, you imbecile, the NBA rescinded Howard’s technical foul last year for the same reasons it rescinded Perk’s two days ago — because his actions didn’t warrant a technical foul.

So shut your dumb-ass mouth, Povtak, you’re good for nothing but stirring the pot. You and Skip Bayless enjoy all the publicity you get, but you guys garner less respect than more or less any sports figure in the United States of America.

Oh and one more thing: Is it any surprise that Povtak spent 29 years as a writer for the Orlando Sentinel?