Damn, Eddie. Damn.

Eddie House has signed with the Miami Heat. (Adrian Wojnarowski)

Eddie House has reached agreement on a two-year, $2.8 million deal with the Miami Heat, his agent, Mark Bartelstein tells Y! Sports.

I’ve got only one question: Does Eddie House signing with the Miami Heat make him kind of like Johnny Damon? Because though I came to hate Damon and everything he stands for, I always wanted to love House. But now he’s signed with the NBA’s Yankees, where he will flank Dwyane Wade and Lebron James and combine with Mike Miller and James Jones to form a sick line of long-range assassins at the Three Am-egos side.

By the way, I’m now going to answer my question. No, House is nothing at all like Johnny Damon. He had no loyalty to the Celtics whatsoever after they shipped him away. House signing with the Heat does nothing to change the fact that he gave his all for years in a Boston uniform, and I will always appreciate House and wish him the best. His teammates, on the other hand? Well, they can go to hell. On their way to hell, though, they’ll probably pick up at least a few championships. I’m all for making a team earn its rings on the court, but the Heat are surrounding their stars with perfect complementary pieces. If their big men can stop anyone defensively, this team might win 86 or 87 regular season games. No joke.

No way Eddie can share the floor with Nate. Right?

Weird story: I was in an airport yesterday in Hartford CT when I saw someone wearing a Luol Deng jersey walk past. That wouldn’t have been weird except it was, ya know, a Luol Deng jersey in CT. I would not have been more surprised if I’d seen Tupac — the real Tupac — alive and sitting next to me at my gate.

Anyway, it was around that time when I got the news that the Celtics were in discussions with Eddie House.

In the process of surrounding their core with a solid second unit, the Celtics have had discussions about bringing Eddie House back to Boston.

House, whose shooting streaks helped the Celtics win the title in 2008, was shipped to New York at the trade deadline last February for guard Nate Robinson.

“It’s something [Celtics president] Danny [Ainge] and I have discussed,’’ House’s agent, Mark Bartelstein, said. “But nothing’s imminent.’’

Call me crazy, but I just don’t see how Nate and Eddie co-exist on the same bench.

P.S. – Why is every single free agent the Celtics talk to represented by Mark Bartelstein?

Eddie House and the Celtics have had discussions about the free agent returning to Boston next season. (A. Sherrod Blakely)

You can add ex-Celtic Eddie House to the list of players the Celtics have had some discussions about signing this summer.

Intriguing. Eddie would have helped last season, and he’d help again next season. He’s 6’1,” slow, and can’t really dribble a basketball but Eddie can, and will always be able to, shoot the bejesus out of the basketball. Plus, I think I speak on behalf of Celtics fans everywhere when I say we love the guy.

Speaking of guys Celtics fans love, Ryan Gomes has signed with the Los Angeles Clippers. Sorry to ruin your wet dream of having Gomes return, C’s fans.

P.S. – Blakely also tweeted that Kwame Brown will probably be out of the C’s price range. Damn it! Kwame would have assured a championship!

A sprained ankle requiring surgery and keeping someone out two months? That's one hell of a sprain, no?

Avery Bradley’s ankle surgery will keep him out six to eight weeks, according to Danny Ainge, but Bradley should be 100% by training camp. (Boston Globe)

On draft night, Celtics president Danny Ainge said he was surprised to see Bradley slip so far, but acknowledged the injury might have been one of the reasons. Ainge said the rookie would have surgery and rehab in Boston.

“Avery will need a scope of his ankle,’’ Ainge said. “It will be about six weeks. He’ll probably say three weeks, but probably six to eight weeks but he’ll be 100 percent by training camp.’’

I’ve got a question about this injury — if it’s only a sprained ankle, why does he need surgery that will require six to eight weeks of rehab? I’ve seen a lot of sprained ankles in my life and they’ve never, ever required surgery, and certainly not such a long recovery. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it comes out that Bradley’s injury is worse than we know.

In other Bradley news, SI’s Ian Thomsen said Bradley is the next Eddie House and could potentially play both backcourt positions. (WEEI)

The Celtics got a better version of Eddie House. They got a guy who’s a terrific shooter; he’s got great range, but he’s a very good defender. The one thing he doesn’t do [is] he doesn’t drive the ball great. He’s a much better shooter than he is a driver. And is he a true point guard? They’re going to have to hope he can come off the bench and be the backup point guard they needed.

A lot of teams looked at him and wondered if he ever would be a true point guard. You’re going to have to think of him as more of an off-guard. If he’s your third guard and he can come in and play some point guard minutes, and then he can bring the ball up, he’s your deep shooter that they used to have with Eddie House.

They sort of have this hybrid, all-for-one thing that works well with what the Celtics have been the last few years. It’ll be interesting to see what the Celtics are a couple of years from now, if they’re operating on the same formula. I think that there’s always that need for an Eddie House kind of threat.

If Bradley is a better version of Eddie House, if he’s such a ”terrific shooter,” then why did he average 11 points per game last year? Down the road, Bradley could become a very good player. Given Ainge’s track record and Bradley’s potential, I wouldn’t be at all surprised. But for now? I wouldn’t expect anything out of the combo guard.

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.

So many uncertain futures.

Mark Murphy, Boston Herald – “But as the disappointment settled in from Thursday night’s Game 7 loss to the Lakers, most of these players weren’t thinking about themselves. Almost to a man, they have quaffed Doc Rivers’ Ubuntu Kool-Aid for the last three years, and the possibility that their great motivator may now be stepping down with a year left on his contract is a painful thought. Though Rivers said he wasn’t ready to deal with the issue following the game – the loss to the Lakers was still far too fresh and numbing – he can count on a lot of calls over the next month while he retreats to Orlando. ‘Doc’s everything – everything,’ Kevin Garnett said. ‘It’s going to be a rough one.’ ‘I think everyone wants him back – that’s not even an issue,” said Garnett. “It’s just a matter of whether Doc wants to come back and whatever decision he sees fit to make for him and his family.’ ‘It’s tough. I can’t reflect on it right now,” said Rivers. “Probably in a week or so I’ll go hide somewhere for a while. But it was the craziest, most emotional group I’ve ever coached in my life. I told them that they made me reach places I never thought I needed to go – had to go. But through it all, we were the tightest, most emotional, crazy group that I’ve ever been with in my life. So that’s what makes it tough. I don’t know,’ he said. ‘I’m going to wait. I’m going to go and watch my kids play AAU basketball. Just wait a little bit.’”

Chris Mannix, SI – “Things don’t have to change. Rivers could be back. Top assistant Tom Thibodeau, who will be on the Bulls’ sideline next season, will need to be replaced, but there is growing support within the organization for the candidacy of ex-Nets coach Lawrence Frank, a Thibodeau-like workaholic who is respected by both Rivers and Celtics general manager Danny Ainge, to fill his seat on the bench. After the game, Rivers made his opening pitch for the players to return, reminding them that the ’08 championship team — the one with a healthy Perkins — had still yet to have a true chance to defend its title.”

Ian Thomsen, SI – “They’ve known all season that coach Doc Rivers may not return — my hunch is he won’t be back — but now comes a potential curveball from Phoenix. Doesn’t it make sense for the Suns to make a run at Celtics general manager Danny Ainge? His family was living happily in Phoenix before his 2003 move to Boston, and Ainge has done everything the Celtics could ask while winning a 17th championship and reaching the Finals twice in three years. With GM Steve Kerr and his lead assistant, David Griffin, announcing this week their decision to leave Phoenix, owner Robert Sarver will be looking for a new administration. People in the league expect Ainge to be at the top of his list now that the Celtics’ season is done. Ainge played for the Suns and then coached them for three seasons through 1999, and he would provide the franchise with a successful link to its traditions of winning with up-tempo play. Ainge is one of the top GMs in the league, with a longstanding record of finding talent in the draft, as well as showing no fear in making big trades. He remains under contract with Boston, so if Sarver is interested, he will have to go through the Celtics’ ownership group led by Wyc Grousbeck.”

Bob Ryan, Boston Globe – “Now let it be said that some among us — OK, me — were less enthusiastic about instant championship possibilities than others. I looked at the remainder of the roster and declared it to be the worst 4-12 in the league, a judgment that proved to be about as prescient as Dan Duquette’s proclamation that the 1996 Roger Clemens was in the twilight of his career. Please. At times you’ve got to man up and admit you’re wrong. I did like Rajon Rondo, but could never have projected his quick ascent to stardom in his second year in the league. I was totally wrong about Perkins, who looked like a career backup to me. But I will say I made that judgment before Danny Ainge signed Eddie House, James Posey, or, for the stretch drive, P.J. Brown. Absent any of them, the team would not have won. But the Celtics did win. They provided fans with one of the great start-to-finish experiences of their lives, going 66-16 in the regular season and then concluding the season with a 131-92 conquest of the hated Lakers. I can tell you for sure that no other Celtics team in my experience ever put the pedal to the metal on Day 1 without ever taking it off until the final buzzer of the final game. In that regard, the 2007-08 Celtics stand apart. Really. Need we say any more? They delivered. They ended a 22-year championship drought, and they did so by giving their fans the closest thing to a perfect season imaginable. A fandom cannot ask more than to see a team give them a nightly home show in the regular season before doing whatever it takes to get through the two-month grind of the playoffs. That’s the complete package.”

Gary Washburn, Boston Globe – “‘I’ll deal with that when the time comes,’ Allen said when asked about his pending free agency. ‘But it’s obvious I don’t want to be nowhere else.’ Asked whether the Celtics could push for another title, he said, “I believe Kevin [Garnett] will be healthier next year. We go a lot around what he does and Paul [Pierce] is going to be better and just more experienced. As guys get older the efficiency goes up. I don’t see why [we can’t be back].’ ‘If Pierce does not exercise his early termination option and returns at $21 million next season, the Celtics will remain over the salary cap, meaning Ainge will have to use creative financing to replenish the roster. He still has a mid-level exception and both Allens’ Bird Rights. The free agency pool will be full of capable players. There was a reason Ainge had a wry smile on his face Thursday night, because he realizes the run is not over.”

Chad Finn, Boston Globe – “Trades or no trades, it’s going to be different around here next year. Ray Allen may not be back, and maybe that’s just as well. His defensive effort on Kobe was noble. But his beautiful, deadly jump shot, the main reason he will be feted in Springfield someday, suddenly had the look and effect of Tony Allen’s last night. If just two more had dropped . . . Paul Pierce can opt out of his deal, and with the uncertain labor situation, it might be the prudent thing to do, at least in his agent’s mind. Rasheed Wallace, who played his best when it mattered the most, just as he told his would in the midst of his 82-game paid holiday, might retire, and I sincerely hope he does not, something I could not have imagined writing six weeks ago. The man knows how to play intelligent, efficient basketball. And when he chooses to, he is a marvel to watch, with his high-arcing bank shots and sack of sneaky defensive tricks, including the old Rick Mahorn deception of pulling away when an offensive player tries to lean on him, sometimes leading to an embarrassing fall to the floor, a turnover, and a good laugh. And there’s the coach, Doc Rivers. I’ve written this before, but it bears repeating given that last night’s postgame press conference, during which he spoke of his team emotionally and in the past tense, certainly felt like an exit interview. He is the perfect coach for this proud bunch, shrewd enough with the Xs and Os, always on point when delivering a message (‘keep being aggressive’ and ‘trust each other, don’t be a hero’ were two of his spot-on go-to pleas last night), and an absolutely gifted and genuine people person.”

Chris Forsberg, ESPN – “Pierce clearly didn’t want any reminders of what had just occurred. But he wasn’t particularly keen on looking toward the future quite yet, either. Asked about next season and the early contract termination option he holds, Pierce remained noncommittal about whether he’d definitely be back. ‘Man, stuff’s going so fast, truthfully, I don’t really know what to think right now,’ said Pierce. ‘I’m just reeling from this loss. I’m going to sit down with my family, wind down a little bit, then figure it out.’ It’s hard to imagine Pierce not finishing his career in a Celtics uniform, but it’s clear that he’s going to take a wait-and-see approach to the process, watching how the first dominos fall before making a decision. Pierce’s uncertainty highlights an offseason of questions for the entire Celtics organization. At the onset, it appears that everyone is waiting for the first shoe to drop, then things will trickle down from there.”

Ron Borges, Boston Herald – “A lot of people who don’t know as much as they profess to know about basketball owe Doc Rivers an apology. There have been few better coaching jobs than the one Rivers did this season with his too old, too young, too often injured Celtics [team stats], marshaling their energy through a 27-27 finish so as to pose them for a remarkable run through the playoffs. While they came up short of a second NBA title in three years, he showed an acute understanding of his team and how to match it up against four of the best players and three of the best teams in the NBA. Rivers did much the same the previous two years when he led the Celtics to an NBA title and Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, respectively. To put it simplest, when Rivers had enough players to be competitive, he made his team the most competitive one in basketball. Thursday night, with his center in street clothes because of a knee injury, Rivers mixed and matched what he had left brilliantly and, along with “defensive coordinator” Tom Thibodeau, put together an inspired effort that left the Lakers shooting 32.5 percent from the field and 20 percent from beyond the arc.”

K.C. Johnson, Chicago Tribune – “Eighteen days after accepting the Bulls’ three-year, $6.5 million offer to become the 18th coach in franchise history, Tom Thibodeau will be introduced to the media Wednesday morning at the Berto Center. Roughly 33 hours later, the Bulls could be announcing the 17th pick in Thursday’s NBA draft. And in less than two weeks, LeBron James headlines the greatest free-agent class in league history on July 1. Ready for a busy Bulls summer?”

Steve Buckley, Boston Herald – “Don’t take the bait, Boston sports fans. Don’t look for silver linings because silver linings are for suckers. And do not, under any circumstance, rationalize the Celtics’ loss to the Lakers by accepting the lovely consolation prize of how these have been grand times for a sports fan here. Once you accept yesterday’s success as a cure-all for today’s failure, that’s when complacency sets in. If the Red Sox, Patriots and Celtics decide to go the Bruin Way – not knowing or not caring about how to win a championship – that’s when the Duck Boats never again will be used for anything other than to haul tourists from the Back Bay to the Old North Church. A little more than two years ago, when the Patriots’ bid for an undefeated season crash-landed against the Giants in Super Bowl XLII, it mattered not one bit that three Super Bowl banners already were on display at Gillette Stadium. See, in a big league sports city that’s the way it’s supposed to be. It explains why Yankees fans were boiling over from 2001-08, and why Steelers fans don’t fluff off a postseason defeat by telling stories about the Terry Bradshaw years. In a true big league sports city, there is, or should be, an annual mandate to win. It was a good sign, then, when Celtics general manager Danny Ainge made it known minutes after the Game 7 loss that he was livid about what he had just seen.”

Dan Duggan, Boston Herald – “But the fact is the Celtics and Lakers were tied at 64 with 6:13 remaining in Game 7. If the C’s were a little better in those final six minutes, they’d be raising Banner 18 to the Garden rafters next opening night. Of course, the Lakers managed to make the necessary plays down the stretch in Game 7 to claim the title and revenge for their loss in the 2008 Finals. In a series decided by such a slim margin there were a lot of little reasons the Celtics weren’t able to prevail. Here is a look at five main reasons the Celtics came up short:”

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

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.

Doesn't that guy standing up look really pissed?

Brian Kamenetzky, ESPN Los Angeles – “Phil Jackson loves the game within the game. Heading into Thursday’s Game 1 of the NBA Finals with the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics, one piques his curiosity more than the rest. ‘I’m intrigued by the [Kevin] Garnett-Pau Gasol matchup. I think that’s a really good one,’ he said Wednesday after the Lakers completed practice. ‘Kevin is like the force of [Boston's] defense, he’s really the glue that kind of holds their defense together with his activity level, his ability to help and recover on guys,’ Jackson continued. ‘Pau is the guy we have to have be a part of the scoring combo with Kobe. So he has to provide some of that for us in this series against probably one of the top defenders in the game.’”

Dan Shaughnessy, Boston Globe – “Now it’s all about Kobe Bryant. Do not forget this. The Celtics and Lakers tap off in Game 1 tonight, and it’s impossible to understate the Kobe factor. Bryant won’t admit it, but he is on a mission to solidify his legacy by winning a championship against the hated Celtics. He has won with Shaq and without Shaq. He has beaten the Indiana Pacers, the Philadelphia 76ers, the New Jersey Nets, and the Orlando Magic in the Finals. But he’s never beaten Boston. You can’t be the best player in the world if you lose two championship series to the Celtics. You can’t be the greatest Laker of all time if Magic can say he beat the Celtics twice in the Finals and you never beat them.”

J.A. Adande, ESPN – “‘Phil always has that ulterior motive, that hidden message,’ said Will Perdue, who played on Jackson’s first three-peat teams in Chicago and was Rivers’ teammate on the San Antonio Spurs. ‘I think 90 percent of the time the players never figure it out. He guides them without them even knowing. Doc is very to the point, very blatant, very honest. ‘This is what I need you to do, this is what your responsibility is, this is how you do it.’ Some coaches can’t pull that off, because they either didn’t play or they don’t have the respect of the players or whatever reason.’ Perdue points to Jackson’s comments about Ron Artest taking too many 3-pointers early in the playoffs, which caused Artest to complain on Twitter that Jackson hadn’t spoken to him privately about the issue first. But what happened after two days of a minor media flareup? Artest produced his best game of the playoffs to that point, scoring 20 points in the Lakers’ victory over the Utah Jazz in Game 3 of the Western Conference semifinals. Another subliminal success for Jackson. Rivers doesn’t have to operate that way. ‘Everybody here, we’re at the stage where we kind of patrol ourselves, so Doc doesn’t have to do a lot of worrying about it,’ Ray Allen said. ‘He can throw the X’s and O’s out there, tell us what to do, how we’re going to do it, and everybody can do their job.’”

Chris Dufresne, LA Times – “The definition of a rivalry depends on whom you ask. A Celtic, sipping suds on a bar stool, could look a Laker square in the eye and say, ‘What rivalry?’ Notre Dame versus Navy in football was a rivalry, maybe, for Navy. It wasn’t for the Irish, which won 43 straight until Navy turned the ship in 2007 (and 2009). Was it a rivalry all those stretches the Yankees clobbered Brooklyn in the World Series … or just same time next year? Angels fans looked at the Dodgers as adversaries 25 years before Dodgers fans knew the Angels had been awarded a franchise. It is, frankly, impossible for a Celtics fan to wish a contagious skin rash on a Lakers fan more than the opposite is true because Boston has the half-baked bean facts in its can. Any L.A. sports fan born in the early baby boom, who went to bed crying after most NBA finals, and refused to wear green on St. Patrick’s Day, knows this. When one team owns the other, as the Celtics have owned the Lakers, what you think is a rivalry may actually be ‘Oh, You guys again?’ vs. ‘Oh, YOU GUYS again!!’ It took the Lakers nine tries before they beat the Celtics in the NBA Finals. That’s misery, not rivalry.”

Jerry Thornton, WEEI – “But for me, there’s one thing above all others this series is offering up. And I thank God and David Stern for it (though that’s probably redundant). This series is giving us something Boston fans have been sorely lacking of late: a true hated enemy. But this series has it. Kobe Bryant: The ideal nemesis. The pluperfect sports jerk. The Ultimate Villain. I promise you I’m not just trying to talk some attention-whoring smack here. This isn’t some lame-ass, obvious attempt to answer back to Ted Green of the LA Times for trying to mine the comedy gold that was the near murder of Paul Pierce. Having weak cheese like that be published is the perfect punishment to him for having written it in the first place. No, I mean this sincerely, honestly, and from the bottom of my heart: Kobe Bryant is the biggest, most insufferable dink in all of professional sports. And we’ve had more than our share of villains over the years. A rogue’s gallery of miserable, unlikable misanthropes, vicious, head-hunting psychopaths and cheating, mentally-defective scumbags. From Ulf Samuelsson to Bill Laimbeer. Jack Tatum to Albert Belle. Thurman Munson to Alex Rodriguez. And every Dennis Rodman, Joey Porter, Joba Chamberlain and Mickey Rivers in between. But you could harvest body parts from every one of them and sew them together into one detestable package, reanimate it, teach it to jump shoot, and you’d end up with Kobe Bryant. He’s Frankentool.”

Julian Benbow, Boston Globe – “A David Ortiz jersey was nowhere to be found, so Celtics coach Doc Rivers asked for the next best thing. The Celtics were walking off the floor at Staples Center after outlasting the Lakers, 87-86, Feb. 18 and Rivers turned to his administrative right hand man, Jeff Twiss. ‘Do you have an envelope?’ Rivers asked. Twiss was puzzled. The game was over. There was no need for tickets. But Rivers wanted an envelope. So he got Rivers an envelope. They walked into the Celtics locker room, which was booming after breaking up the Lakers’ four-game winning streak. Rivers got their attention. He told everyone in the room to give him $100. The people in the room were more puzzled than Twiss was. Rivers took $100 from everyone in the room – players, coaches, managers – to the tune of $2,600 and put it all in the envelope. He then hid the envelope in the locker room. ‘The only way you’ll get it back,’ he told them, ‘is if you come back here and get it.’ The challenge was set months ago, and when the Celtics returned to Staples Center today, a day before Game 1 of the Finals, Rivers made good on his part of the deal, opening the envelope and giving each player his reward.”

The Hyperbolic Chamber – “You see, when you love a team that deeply, the ecstasy of winning a championship after years of misery (see: Red Sox, 2004) is unparalleled. That’s why I rooted for the White Sox in 2005 and the Phillies in 2008. There are only so many passionate sports cities in the U.S–I knew what those fans were going through, and I wanted them to feel how I felt in June 2008. I spent my teenage years (when I first discovered a love for sports) rooting for a punching bag that wore the same colors as former proud champions but shamed their legacy. To see them bring it back to its deserved glory made me an emotional wreck, but in the best possible sense. So now my favorite sports team is headed to the Finals, and potentially their second championship in three years. I love them but this year has been a struggle; they were a truly unlikable group of guys for several straight months. But that didn’t stop me from loving them. They say love is blind, but I’d like to offer a different opinion: love has correctable vision. During the Pitino Era, my love was far-sighted: the Celtics were an awful team, but I loved their glorious past and the hope in an unseen future success. Right now my love is near-sighted: I adore how this team is currently playing, but I am choosing to ignore that we will be in serious salary cap hell in the near future. This love sees clearly, it is anything but blind. I can see their warts (apathetic during the regular season, a star without a jump shot, several players with anger management issues, Hall of Famers on the down-slope of their careers) but that makes them all the more real. Love, of any kind, is about recognizing the good and the bad. So while we may lose, I’ll continue to bleed Green and I will scream until my voice goes hoarse. My favorite team is imperfect, and I wouldn’t dream of viewing them any other way. After all, that’s why I wear glasses, to see the world more clearly.”

Julian Benbow, Boston Globe – “The Lakers matched Kobe Bryant with Rondo, letting Bryant roam on defense without much regard for the young point guard. Other teams have copied the blueprint. And even though Rondo has learned to make teams pay, he still gets the treatment. The Heat’s Dwyane Wade did it in the first round. When Rondo made barebones out of Anthony Parker in the second round, the Cavaliers threw LeBron James at him. In the Eastern Conference finals, the Magic sagged off of Rondo, giving him the jumper. And as much as Rondo has changed as a player in two years, Rivers expects the Lakers to defend Rondo the same way. ‘They’re going to put Kobe on him at times, and they’re going to sag off him,’’ Rivers said. “I think teams still think at the end of the day, he’s got to make shots. He’s got to make decisions. They’re going to use his guy to roam the floor. I don’t think that’s going to change at all.’ The difference, Rivers pointed out: ‘Now, Rondo’s better-suited for it.’”

Bill Plaschke, LA Times – “Welcome to a series where the Lakers aren’t playing the Boston Celtics as much as both of them could soon be tangling with the one of the most majestic, maddening statistics in sports. It’s all about a number. A number so trivial that half the players in the series are unaware of it, yet so powerful it could end the series almost before it starts. A number with as much lore as Kobe Bryant’s 24, as alive as Kevin Garnett’s 5, even more important than the number of the paramedics that Paul Pierce will phone the first time he is gently pushed to the wood. You’ve probably heard the number. You’ve probably thought you heard it wrong. You haven’t. When Phil Jackson’s teams have won the first game of a postseason series, they are 47-0 in that series. Think about that. When Jackson’s teams win Game 1, it’s Series Done. If they win the first one, they will win the last one. Nineteen seasons. Every single time. [...] So I called the folks from Caltech. A couple of grad students in applied and computational mathematics —Stephen Becker and Mike McCoy — figured that the odds of going 47-0 by coincidence were less than three in a billion. ‘I would be demoralized if I were the other team,’ Becker said.”

Henry Abbott, TrueHoop – “Zach Lowe of CelticsHub has been on the Rondo’s shooting story all year, and last night wrote ‘Rondo’s shooting percentage on long two-pointers dropped significantly this season (and fell below even his ‘08 numbers), and he’s just 16-of-49 on long twos so far in the playoffs, according to NBA.com hot spot data.’ Synergy Sports lets you watch all of his jumpers, and finds jump shooting in the half court to be the one method of scoring at which Rondo is below average. He took nearly 300 jumpers over the course of the regular season, and made just a third of them. That’s not good. He was two percentage points better a season ago, and nine percentage points back in 2007-2008, when the Lakers decided to leave him open in the Finals. What’s more, his career 3-point field goal percentage is a miserable 24%. This season he lags behind even that, at 21%. It’s hard to find any evidence that his jumper has improved at all.”

Julian Benbow/Frank Dell’Apa, Boston Globe – “Kevin Garnett’s appreciation for the Celtics-Lakers rivalry originated with a meeting with Bill Russell. ‘You definitely have to have an appreciation for the ones that came before you, respect this game,’ said Garnett. ‘I think you have to have an appreciation for the players who built this rivalry, if not this league, and you can’t go in nothing short of that. I think it’s our responsibility as Celtics and as Lakers to leave everything out there on the floor — just because of the coaches and players and the personnel of the organizations that came before us. And that’s the responsibility of putting that jersey on, that’s what you take on.’”

Ron Borges, Boston Herald – “Fortunately for his mental health and the Celtics chances against the Lakers, [Tony] Allen doesn’t see it quite that way. He understands his role, which is to play the kind of pressure defense on Bryant that James Posey did in the Finals two years ago, but he also knows he is not alone in this job. He is a part of the whole, a piece that, if properly fit, will make a difference. But X factor? Take it easy, now. ‘I don’t know about that,’ Allen said yesterday during his last relaxing day at Staples Center. ‘I don’t know nothing about me stopping Kobe. All I know is all the heavyweights we went through has been about team defense.’”

Mark Murphy, Boston Herald – “It’s not a question of whether Rajon Rondo [stats] has achieved confidence in his second NBA Finals in three years. The Celtics point guard, known for cockiness and for self-belief that is often off the charts, was feeling his oats two days ago during a practice at UCLA. ‘I’m probably at an all-time high in confidence right now,’ he admitted.”

Dan Duggan, Boston Herald – “When the Celtics beat the Lakers in the 2008 Finals, the second-year point guard mostly was along for the ride. Rondo still was trying to figure out his role alongside three future Hall of Famers, and that led to inconsistency. Rondo showed flashes of his potential when he had 21 points, seven rebounds, eight assists and six steals in the Celtics’ clinching Game 6 win. But he was also a nonfactor in Games 3, 4 and 5, when he totaled just 16 points and was benched in favor of backup Eddie House for long stretches. ‘It was a little different,’ Lakers forward Pau Gasol said. ‘He wasn’t as good a player as he is today.’ Now, Gasol calls Rondo the Celtics’ ‘motor.’ It’s a fitting description, because when Rondo’s engine is in high gear, the Celtics typically are at their best. ‘He’s gotten better at a very fast rate,’ Lakers point guard Derek Fisher said. ‘He’s become arguably the most important guy on their team in terms of when he plays very well, they’re harder to beat.’”

Kirk Minihane, WEEI – “The real question, of course, is how much we’ll actually see Fisher defending Rondo in this series. My best guess? Phil Jackson will give Fisher a chance on Rondo to start each game. But it’ll be a short leash, because Jackson knows that when Rondo sets the tempo of a game it usually leads to a Celtics win. So you’ll see four or five guys — Fisher, Kobe, Shannon Brown, Jordan Farmar, even Ron Artest — taking a shot at slowing down Rondo. I can’t imagine Jackson uses Kobe for more than a couple of minutes at a time on Rondo. Can’t afford to wear Kobe out in a series that he’ll almost certainly play north of 40 minutes a game.”

John Powers, Boston Globe – “The similarities, across more than four decades, are striking. Both were veteran teams that finished fourth after arrhythmic regular seasons. Both beat considerable odds to reach the NBA Finals against Los Angeles. Both were built around a Big Three and emphasized defensive essentials. ‘Both were old and somehow knew how to win a little bit,’ says John Havlicek, who won the most cherished of his eight title rings 41 years ago. Yet there is one decided difference between the 1969 and 2010 Celtics. The 1969 team marked the end of the greatest dynasty in sports history, 11 championships in 13 years. The 2010 version is trying to prove that its triumph two years ago wasn’t a one-hit wonder.”

David Wharton, LA Times – “Things get a little more complicated for Pierce, the 6-foot-7 forward out of Inglewood High who used to catch glimpses of Magic Johnson driving to the arena and sneak into games. ‘The Lakers were always his team,’ said Sgt. Scott Collins of the Inglewood Police Department, who coached Pierce in a youth league and became his mentor. ‘He loved Magic.’ These days, Pierce says all the right things about being a Celtic, about meeting legends such as John Havlicek and Bob Cousy, about establishing himself among the greatest scorers in franchise history. And when it comes to the Lakers, well, this rivalry doesn’t allow for fence-sitting. ‘I really don’t have any friends on the Lakers. No one on this team does,’ Pierce said.”

Jessica Camerato, WEEI – “[David Ortiz on Kevin Garnett]: ‘KG is the monster down there. KG, he puts everybody in the mood. When he’s [trash talking] people out there and getting mad, that pumps me up. That even gets me ready to play baseball. I love it. I love it. I’m telling you, when I see KG doing that, I want to jump on the court and [kick butt] with him. It’s not a secret that his game is something else.’”

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