One of the biggest myths in sports is the whole, “Now the pressure’s on them” thing.  Matt Barnes bought into the myth.

“I think all the pressure’s on them,” Magic SF Matt Barnes said. “They’ve been talking about a sweep and this and that and looking forward to playing the Lakers and everything. We’re staying within ourselves, and if we can come out and put the kind of effort forth that we’re allowed to, then we’re going to have a good chance to win. So, we’re going back to Boston on a business trip. But if we get it back to Game 7 in Orlando, they’re in trouble.”

To say all the pressure is on the Celtics is beyond foolish. Sure, for the first time this series there is real pressure on the Boston Celtics. That’s a given. They don’t want to play a Game Seven in Orlando, not in the least.

But ALL the pressure? Please. It’s the Magic — not the Celtics — who go home to a summer filled with video games and golf if they lose tonight. The Celtics would hate to lose tonight, but the Magic CAN’T lose. Is there any bigger pressure than that?

In a possible prelude to becoming head coach of the New Orleans Hornets, Tom Thibodeau has hired an agent. (CBS Sports)

While Tom Thibodeau remains the front-runner for the Hornets’ head coaching position, the extension of the Celtics-Magic series has complicated efforts by both parties to close the deal.

Thibodeau, architect of the Boston defense that ousted LeBron James from the playoffs, is entrenched in a suddenly difficult Eastern Conference finals with Orlando as the Celtics’ 3-0 lead has dwindled to 3-2 heading into Game 6 Friday night in Boston. In preparation for a contract negotiation with New Orleans, Thibodeau hired leading sports representation firm Creative Artists Agency on Thursday, according to a person with knowledge of the decision. CAA has an expanding coaching business in addition to its dealings with top free agents James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.[...]

The Bulls and Nets also are interested in Thibodeau, though in Chicago’s case, his hiring of an agent could complicate matters since the Bulls are one of the only teams in the NBA that do not negotiate with coaching agents.

I’m so torn about Thibodeau leaving. He seems to be a huge part of what the Celtics have accomplished the past three seasons, but he deserves a head coaching job somewhere.

It looks like he’ll finally get his shot.

“Shoot, you try to get away with murder if you can.” I love that quote. That attitude is why we love Perk, and — along with his vicious scowl — why the rest of the league complains about him.

And, while we’re on the subject, it’s one hundred percent correct that both his technicals weren’t rescinded. (Celtics fans, bare with me.) The one that DIDN’T get rescinded was the one Perk got while trying to help Paul Pierce off the ground. When you try to help your teammate off the ground, your hand slips and you accidentally elbow someone (and it was the weakest elbow ever), that definitely warrants a technical foul. Hell, Perk should’ve gotten suspended on the spot. Actually, he should be banned from the NBA forever!

Thanks to that bullshit tech that wasn’t rescinded, Perk now has six technical fouls and is one away from a suspension. If he gets suspended, it’s just a shame that it’ll be in part because his hand slipped while he was helping Paul Pierce off the ground.

The Celtics have gotten rid of their morning walkthrough, but that doesn’t mean we have to. Here are a few Celtics links, and maybe even an NBA link or two, to help wake you up and get you focused for the day.

Doc's got a point.

Gary Washburn, Boston Globe – “But it seems Perkins realized that the playoffs provided a clean slate, and he has reverted to his old complaining ways. He will never get the advantages of his Orlando counterpart and he has to accept that. Perkins has 22 fouls in the series. Howard has 16. ‘You know, Kendrick has to be allowed to play, and he has to be allowed to be physical,’ Rivers said. ‘It’s amazing how this has gone so far. Kendrick’s in foul trouble, and he’s not the most physical player on the floor. Dwight Howard is clearly the most physical player on the floor. You know, we keep telling Perkins he has to be physical as hell, and he says, ‘Yeah, but I end up in foul trouble.’ We are really concerned about that. And I’m just going to try to get Perk to be Perk and play and not be concerned with techs, not be concerned with fouls, and just go out and play. But that’s very difficult to do.’”

Mark Murphy, Boston Herald – “Rivers doesn’t like the idea that Perkins now must put a stopper on his emotions to avoid No. 7. ‘He does realize that, and he created the problem with his emotional overloads,’ Rivers said. ‘But if you’re a physical player, you’re going to be the guy who gets the call in most of those situations. He has to clean up his emotions. He’s an emotional kid and a physical kid. It’s just amazing now with all of these double techs that are getting called.’”

Steve Ashburner, NBA.com – “The Boston Celtics had the ball, the crowd, the court, 16 seconds left in a tie Game 4, a timeout if they wanted it, flow and spontaneity if they didn’t and a commanding 3-0 lead over the Orlando Magic in the Eastern Conference championship series.Look at them now. The court Friday night will be theirs, the crowd too. But the mood at TD Garden for Game 5 will be heavier, dread lurking in the Celtics fans’ side mirrors. The opportunity to sweep in Boston will be replaced by the pressure not to go back to Orlando. It’s not 16 seconds anymore but four quarters, and then maybe four quarters after that, against a younger and healthier team that has the flow and the momentum on its side now. The Celtics can no longer impress in this series, they can only survive, because they’re still stuck on 3, the Magic suddenly have 2 and everything — Game 7, The Finals, a trophy presentation — is on the verge of shifting down to Florida. It really is a wonder that the Larry O’Brien Trophy isn’t made of papier-mache and championship rings aren’t the kind slipped around cigars, because this business of chasing titles so often is a fragile proposition. A team’s best-laid plan turns out to be written on tissue, all that it knows to be true suddenly pivots on a dime. A few days ago, the Celtics were about to do to the Magic what the Magic had done to the Bobcats and the Hawks. Now it’s the Magic doing the doing and the Celtics getting done to, only more so — because no NBA team ever has come back to win a best-of-seven series after dropping the first three. Yet people are starting to believe.”

A. Sherrod Blakely, CSNNE – “Five games into this series, and the difference-makers remain the men at the point. When Boston stormed out to a 3-zip lead, Rondo was clearly the better player. And now that the Magic have staved off playoff elimination to win the last two games, Nelson’s play has outshined that of Rondo. So for all the story lines and subplots this series has already provided, all indications are that this pivotal Game Six matchup will be decided by which point guard has the better game. For both Rondo and Nelson, stellar play isn’t limited to points and assists. More than anything else, each has to establish the tempo that their respective team can thrive in.”

Rich Levine, CSNNE – “‘Clearly the 3-point shot, we need to take away,’ he said. ‘What we showed them today (on film), some of the ones they got out of their offense, off the pick-n-roll stuff . . . they’ll get a couple of those. But the ones they got off of offensive rebounds, and loose balls and effort plays, 50/50 plays, those have to be taken away. I thought Orlando played harder last night, I thought they were the aggressor last night and I thought they attacked us the entire game. That is something that we can do. That is not a game plan. When we win, we do that, and we didn’t do that as well as Orlando last night. Especially on the glass. They mauled us on the glass last night.’ The leader of Orlando’s three-point attack, along with Nelson, has been Redick. Rivers said they expected Redick to be a factor in the series, but didn’t expect him to be as great as he has been. Through five games in the Eastern Conference Finals, Redick is averaging 12 points, and three three-pointers a game. ‘We didn’t know he was going to be Pistol Pete [Maravich] . . . but we did expect him to be a great player, Rivers said. “JJ Redick has hurt us all year in the regular season. That was one of things we talked about heading into the series, that JJ Redick has been very, very important. Everyone’s talking about Dwight Howard and Jameer but I think Redick has been their most consistent player in this series.’”

Julian Benbow, Boston Globe – “‘It was a very emotional locker room,’ Rivers said. ‘Guys were upset at a lot of stuff. Guys are worried about each other. Guys are injured and sitting in there looking like a M*A*S*H unit at one point. You saw all the trainers and the doctors, and I’m trying to talk, and everybody’s got ice.’ The Celtics were able to re cover yesterday. They caught a break, learning that they will have Perkins available tonight, as one of his two Game 5 technical fouls was rescinded by the league. Still, the technicals were a disappointment to Rivers, who thought neither justified and who knows that with Perkins sitting on six postseason technicals (one shy of a suspension), he’ll be walking on eggshells. ‘Obviously, I’m happy about it,’ Rivers said. ‘I’m a little disappointed that both technicals weren’t rescinded. I thought they both should have been and I’m very surprised that they were not. But I’ll take the one and hopefully we can keep working on it. Unfortunately, we can’t get those calls back. It clearly affected us in Game 5 not having Perk out on the floor.’”

Steve Bulpett, Boston Herald – “Rush ejected Kendrick Perkins from the game just before halftime with his second technical foul and was part of a crew (with Tom Washington and Joe Crawford) that got Heinsohn’s blood boiling. ‘The officiating in that game was incompetent,’ he said. ‘Somebody as incompetent as Eddie F. Rush should not be officiating in these games. Pick the eight best guys and have the same crew on every game in a series. That way they’ll get used to what’s going on. Ed F. Rush is incompetent, and so is Tom Washington. What were these guys doing refereeing a game as important as this?’”

Dan Shaughnessy, Boston Globe – “Enough about the zebras. Let’s go back to the numbers. There have been zero 3-0 comebacks in NBA history. Zero. And that covers 93 series since 1947. The Celtics have never come close. They have gone ahead, 3-0, and swept. They have gone ahead, 3-0, lost Game 4, then won the series. But they have never been forced to play a Game 6 after taking a 3-0 lead. Which is another reason we are nervous. And we are already fast-forwarding with our panic. What if they lose tonight? Can they be expected to win a Game 7 on the road after losing three straight? Are the young legs of the Magic running ahead of the old bones of Boston now that the teams are playing games every other day? Are the Celtics healthy? Where’s KG? What happened to Rondo? Can they win without Big Baby? Can they win with Rasheed Wallace and his creaky back? Have they morphed into the team that went 27-27 over the last 54 games, losing all those double-digit leads? Worst of all . . . Are the Celtics (gulp) choking? No. Keep your heads. The Celtics failed to close this out in Game 4 at home. They were predictably beaten at Amway Arena in Game 5. But now they are home. And they are better. And they will end this tonight. Or they have a Sunday date with history and humiliation.”

Brian Schmitz, Orlando Sentinel – “Van Gundy isn’t so certain that momentum has shifted, but agrees that the pressure has returned to the Celtics’ side. ‘I don’t know if you can say have momentum when you’re down 3-2, going to their place,’ Van Gundy said. ‘I still look at it like we’re climbing a huge mountain. But we are playing better.….Yeah, now it’s a series. I think when you’re rolling and you’re just playing with no pressure and no worries, it’s certainly a different game.’ The Magic have a shot now at returning to give Amway Arena a proper send-off. In 1995, the Magic beat the Indiana Pacers in a Game 7 in Orlando and played host to the first two games of the NBA Finals. ‘It’s just all about believing and really realizing that we can do this one game at a time,’ point guard Jameer Nelson said.”

Chris Forsberg, ESPNBoston – “Marquis Daniels, who still looked shellshocked in the Boston locker room after Game 5, is behind Davis in his recovery. ‘Marquis is not doing as well as Baby, I can tell you that,’ said Rivers. ‘Right now, I’m not too sure if he’ll be ready. I would actually say he will not be ready, but that will be a game-time decision as well.’”
Perry A. Farrell, Detroit Free Press – “Orlando Magic coach Stan Van Gundy paid former Piston Rasheed Wallace a compliment Wednesday night after the Magic rolled over the injury-depleted Boston Celtics [team stats], 113-92. ‘I’ll tell you what, Rasheed Wallace – I mean I’m trying to say this the right way – I hate the guy,’ Van Gundy was quoted as saying after Wallace scored 21 points in a losing cause. ‘It’s like he never has a bad game against a team I coach, you know. So incredible. He’s playing extremely well.’”

Have a link I might want to look at? Send it my way by email (jayking@celticstown.com) or Twitter.

The walking wounded.

Glen Davis is feeling better, but Rasheed Wallace can’t even sit down to watch film. Neither is a definite for tonight’s Game Six. (Boston Globe)

“Baby looks good,’’ Rivers said. “He was talking. He looked fine. He still has to go through a couple of tests this evening with our doctors to get clearance. He didn’t have any headaches today. He had some last night, which was a big step, I guess.’’

Wallace, who scored 21 points off the bench in Game 5 but fouled out in the fourth quarter, was still bothered by a sore back yesterday.

“We watched some film before we got on the plane as a group, and he couldn’t sit down,’’ Rivers said. “So he just stretched the whole time. He’s feeling better. He’ll be a game-time decision as well.’’

Davis, who looked like a whale out of water during his initial wooziness, said he wouldn’t be stopped by the concussion.

“‘I’m all right. I’ll be back next game. That’s all you need to print.’’’

Still, he’ll need the doctor’s permission to play.

The Celtics need at least one of the two to play. They can survive with Shelden Williams taking over for either Davis or Wallace, but can they survive with their only two backup big men being Shelden and Scal? I say no.

After all, they’re playing Dwight Howard. Even when his razor-sharp elbows aren’t knocking out Celtics left and right, Dwight will get the C’s big guys into foul trouble. They need a deep stable of their best and biggest men, not two bums off the bench with no size whatsoever.

This play was more deserving of a technical foul than any play last night.

According to Chris Forsberg of ESPN Boston, Perkins will be eligible to play in Game 6. Forsberg recently tweeted:

The NBA has rescinded one technical assessed to Kendrick Perkins and he will play in Friday’s Game 6.

The Boston Celtics official twitter account confirmed the news, tweeting:

Celtics center Kendrick Perkins’ technical  foul with 36.1 seconds remaining in the first half of Game 5 has been rescinded.

That’s a huge sigh of relief for all Celtics fans. I’m happy that the NBA decided to reverse Eddie Rush’s second technical on Perkins, but I’m more curious why they didn’t rescind the first technical. Perkins’ hand slipped while he was trying to help up a teammate and he inadvertently–barely–elbowed Marcin Gortat.

Of the two technicals, the second one was clearly more deserving. Oh well, at least we know we have at least one healthy (sort of) big man to defend Howard.