The Morning Walkthrough is a set of links to Boston Celtics articles throughout the internet, designed to get your day started the right way.

Paul Flannery, WEEI – “To watch the Celtics play at their best is to wonder how they ever lose. How can a team with this many weapons, that is this unselfish, that plays this kind of defense ever come up short? The obvious reasons include health, focus and the unrelenting NBA schedule. Put the Celtics in a game they really care about, with all their players available and a day off in-between, and it’s almost impossible to pick against them. So far this season they have defeated the Heat (twice), Bulls, Magic, Spurs and now the Lakers, who they beat 109-96 Sunday. They are now 17-5 against teams with winning records. The Magic, Heat and Lakers all have losing records against .500 teams, while the Bulls are a respectable 10-9. Only the Spurs at 18-6 have a comparable mark, but only the Celtics have recorded wins against the other five. The Celtics didn’t just beat the Lakers, they beat them in every phase of the game.”

Chris Forsberg, ESPN Boston – “‘It’s another game, but it’s definitely an emotional game, especially since losing Game 7 here,’ admitted Celtics captain Paul Pierce, the offensive catalyst, who scored 14 of his team-high 32 points in a third quarter that helped Boston create its initial separation. ‘The thing is, when you win a game here now, it’s not for the championship. It’s a regular-season game. When we play against the Lakers, it really gets our juices going, because they are our rivals. It’s a big game just knowing that we can come into this building and get a win.’ … The Celtics wanted it more. They needed it more. They fully expect to see the Lakers again down the road and they needed to start the process of asserting that there won’t be a repeat of last year.”

Ramona Shelburne, ESPN – “Afterward, the Lakers found ways of coping with the loss. They spoke of getting back to work, of the need for patience and perseverance during a long season. They reminded themselves that the playoffs are still three months away, that there’s still time to get this right. ‘It’s not the playoffs yet, is it?’ Jackson asked with a hint of defiance. ‘We’re still playing regular-season games, right? We’ll get there in time.’ But beneath those proclamations of confidence, bubbles of urgency began to rise. ‘It’s definitely a work in progress,’ Walton said. ‘But it’s getting later and later in the season. At some point the work in progress has to become an identity, has to become to where other teams come in and they’re afraid to play us, where they’re not looking forward to it. Right now that’s not happening. We’re losing at home, we’re losing to all the other elite teams in the league and that’s not like us.’”

J.A. Adande, ESPN – “In the 2008 NBA Finals the Celtics showed the Lakers that the tougher team wins championships. The Lakers learned their lesson and were able to stand up to the Celtics in last year’s Finals. And it wasn’t as if the Celtics smacked the Lakers around Sunday. (In fact it was Kevin Garnett who shed the most blood and needed multiple stitches after catching a Pau Gasol elbow to the head.) The new standard the Celtics have established that the Lakers haven’t reached is in the decidedly less physical but more aesthetically pleasing category of teamwork. ‘When we play together as a team,’ said Paul Pierce, who led the Celtics with 32 points, ‘we’re tough to beat.’ There was none of that from the Lakers, with Kobe Bryant taking as many shots as the Lakers’ entire starting frontcourt. Even though Bryant was more efficient than usual — he made 11 of his first 18 shots and 16 of 29 on his way to 41 points — the Lakers still couldn’t hang with Boston. Bryant’s offensive outburst caused his teammates to check out and stop participating in their sets.”

Julian Benbow, Boston Globe – “Bryant was piecing together his latest scoring binge, shot by difficult shot, dueling — in his mind, at least — with Paul Pierce, who was working on one of his own. Midway through the fourth quarter, Bryant drove into Pierce, stopping to release a floater that made it 89-82 Celtics, as Pierce tumbled backward to the Staples Center floor. Bryant shot a quick stare as Pierce picked himself up. It was almost a challenge to go one-on-one. But Pierce had long withdrawn from the individual battle. Ray Allen became Pierce’s reinforcement on defense, doing his best to blanket Bryant down the stretch. Kevin Garnett and Rajon Rondo played a two-man game, and no matter how many times Bryant shot the ball, he found himself trying to beat the best team in the Eastern Conference as an army of one.”

Julian Benbow, Boston Globe – “‘I think everybody knew it was going to be a physical game,’ Garnett said. ‘It’s always interesting when you play Kobe and the Lakers, so that was no surprise, how tough it is to play in the Staples Center. We knew that. When you look at the wins, whoever’s won out of this series, it’s been the one that’s controlled the boards,’ Garnett added. ‘Doc , for about two days now, has been talking about rebounding, rebounding, rebounding. Having Shaq [O’Neal] back helps, having Perk back helps, having Paul and Ray in there on the boards helping the bigs out helps a lot.’”

Gary Washburn, Boston Globe – “[Rajon Rondo] looked that way at times yesterday, making silly mistakes, taking some inexplicably poor shots, and refusing to attempt layups. In other stretches, he ran the offense with daring and not precision, taking far too many chances and wasting scoring opportunities against a team that possesses the most explosive scorer of this generation. The Rondo who orchestrated a masterful second half and enabled the Celtics to pull away in the fourth quarter is the one Rivers adores and trusts. The Rondo who recorded 11 assists and 13 turnovers in his previous two games is the Rondo Rivers has to closely watch. The one who appears to play mind games with himself, sometimes creating on-court quandaries; making the spectacular play and not the simple one, like a shortstop with too much trust in his cannon arm. Rondo has too much trust in his instincts and ability to thread passes into minuscule creases. Rondo is the NBA’s best at making the pinpoint pass at the precise moment, but he relies too much on that skill. In the second half yesterday, Rondo made matters simpler for himself and his teammates. Very rarely does Rondo play an entire half, but yesterday he played all 24 minutes and the Celtics shot a mind-boggling 69.4 percent from the floor.”

Julian Benbow, Boston Globe – “After the game, Celtics coach Doc Rivers made it a point to tell the team that it was one of Rondo’s best games of the year. ‘I thought he called an absolutely perfect game,’ Rivers said. ‘He’s our pitcher. I thought he called a sensational game. Coming out of timeouts, he made sure guys were in their spots … I thought Rondo tonight played with a great speed. When he plays with speed, he has power and I thought he did that tonight.’”

Steve Bulpett, Boston Herald – “‘I don’t want to get into a gunfight with Kobe,’ said sheriff Doc Rivers after the 109-96 victory over the Lakers. ‘I don’t care who it is. I just would prefer not to. But at that point we needed Paul, and we told the guys that. It wasn’t because Kobe had it going; we just needed Paul in that stretch.’ Pierce had 16 points in the first half to keep the sinking Celts afloat and 14 in the third quarter when they were making their move. Each possession seemed almost a one-act play. Pierce would slink around a pick and squeeze in a shot. Kobe would hit a floater in the lane and pointedly look down at Pierce, who had fallen. ‘It was like being a little kid at the playground watching a great one-on-one game,’ said Nate Robinson. ‘Both guys got it going. Paul’s one of the best players in the league, and Kobe, as well. Just watching two greats go at it like that, it’s clash of the titans. But today we had more firepower to help out with our team. We had a complete team, and it just looked real good out there.’”

Mark Murphy, Boston Herald – “‘When he was going on his run, he was going both ways into the paint,’ said Allen. ‘When you look at the dynamics of their team, he was taking tough shots and making tough shots, but we were keeping everyone else out of the game. When we made him miss, we were able to run.’ But don’t call him a Kobe stopper. There probably isn’t a player in the league who carries those credentials. ‘No. The same thing that makes you laugh makes you cry,” said Allen. “It’s always more than a one-man effort. In this league you’re definitely not guarded by one-on-one. I got in foul trouble early, and then they had to put Paul on him with a bigger body. Make him shoot over the top. Paul and I play defense differently, so make him try to guess.’”

Chris Forsberg, ESPN Boston – “Robinson said he was unaware of any sort of short leash Rivers had with him, but responded by scoring 11 points on 4-of-7 shooting with a trio of trifectas over 13:47. Over his previous eight games, Robinson had connected on a mere 16-of-54 shots (29.6 percent) and the start of Boston’s four-game road trip hadn’t been very friendly to him. Robinson was a combined 2-of-11 shooting, including 0-for-7 from beyond the arc. ‘Honestly, I was going back and forth on whether to play [Robinson] at all,’ said Rivers. ‘But he was huge for us.’”

Mark Murphy, Boston Herald – “Two days after that ugly loss in Phoenix, the C’s returned to the efficiency that’s made them the best-shooting team in the league. They’re the only squad in the NBA shooting over 50 percent (50.1). ‘That’s phenomenal,’ coach Doc Rivers said. ‘We lead the league in field goal percentage, and we didn’t act like that in the last two games. Tonight, our execution was great coming out of timeouts. We had a focus tonight, and it’s amazing that we played with that. We don’t do that every night, unfortunately. As a coach I would like that.’”

Mark Heisler, LA Times – “Whether it’s good news or not in Lakerdom, this was a special effort by your team. Of course, if the Lakers played this hard all the time, they would be two or three games behind San Antonio instead of 7½ and Sunday would have felt more like a loss in January than the latest sign the end is near. Before Sunday’s game, the question was whether the Lakers could play at the Celtics’ level. I guess they settled that.”

A. Sherrod Blakely, CSNNE – “Bryant’s 41 points came on 16-for-29 shooting from the field. The rest of the Lakers shot a combined 20-for-52 from the floor. ‘I didn’t think anybody else wanted the ball,’ said Lakers coach Phil Jackson. ‘We did run a couple other plays to get guys into position, but I thought those times he had the best opportunities when other people were moving to the ball. But, a lot of times it didn’t look like we were running anything out there offensively.’”

Mike Bresnahan, LA Times – “Jackson chose his words carefully when asked about it, cognizant that Artest yelled at him during a practice this month because Jackson continually criticized him to reporters and in front of teammates. ‘Ron took a couple shots that I thought were, like, perhaps not in the context of what we were trying to do,’ Jackson said. ‘I thought maybe we’d go another direction.’ Artest said he was slowed after getting kneed in the right thigh on a first-quarter drive by Shaquille O’Neal. ‘I wasn’t able to continue to take [Pierce] and be aggressive,’ Artest said. Artest, however, wasn’t disappointed that Bryant gave the team an ‘F’ grade for its defense against Boston. He took the optimistic approach. ‘I got ‘F’s in elementary school,’ Artest said, ‘and I still went to college.’” Got a tip? An article you think should be included? Send an email to jayking@celticstown.com or hit me up on Twitter @CelticsTown.

For what it’s worth, here are my rankings (in descending order) of the Team USA players I’d most want on my team if I were an NBA GM. This list includes the withdrawn Rajon Rondo and is based on how these players perform in the NBA, rather than how their games translate to international basketball.
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He may not be a king, but he sure does live like one.

Depending on who you are, Lebron James’ party will either make you sick with envy or sick with ego-induced disgust. Or maybe a little bit of both.

I’ll run down the details for you.

UPDATE: ESPN has pulled the story. Why? Beats me. Anyway, here’s a recap.(ESPN)

1. It was at a “bustling hotel” in Vegas call the Tao.
2. Lebron had five security guards surrounding him at all times. Said security guards wouldn’t let anyone get anywhere near Lebron without Lebron’s approval.
3. A “scantily  brunette with a tattoo of a heart on her right shoulder” was able to secure Lebron’s approval to approach him. She then asked for a picture, to which he replied “I can’t right now. Maybe later, upstairs, I’ll remember you’re the one with the tattoo.”
4. Lebron was given a cake. It was in the shape of a massive crown. Lebron also wore his own initials around his neck. I want to say the initials were life-size, but what size are life-size letters? Anyway, they were ginormous.
5. After dinner, Lebron and his crew were directed “to a roped off section on the dance floor of Tao next to a couple of apparently nude women in a bathtub full of water and rose petals.” Not the worst spot to be, unless the apparently nude women were real heifers. Something tells me they weren’t.
6. Lebron wore sunglasses inside the dark club. Ya know, designers shades just to hide his face. He must think he’s cooler than me.
7. Glen Davis either wasn’t invited to the party or thought it was too crazy for him. Either way, at one point Davis walked by, looked at the crazy scene, shook his head and kept on walking.
8. Remember Lebron’s crown-shaped cake? Well, it was delivered by “go-go dancers dressed in skimpy red and black outfits” who raised four letter placards spelling K-I-N-G. I think they were looking for me, guys.
9. Countless bottles of champagne were delivered to Lebron’s table by a costumed man flying on a wire from above. To which Lebron said, “I wish they’d have one of these girls with no panties do that instead of the guy.” Don’t we all?
10. Lebron out-Dougie’d Lamar Odom, then celebrated with a shot of patron. To which fans of Lamar’s simply pointed to their ring fingers. Which, as most of you know, is where Lebron has nothing but a finger.
11. For his role in the three-day party, Lebron was paid six figures. If anyone would like to pay me that much to be serenaded by half-naked (or fully naked) women and fed bottles of champagne by a flying, costumed man, my email is jayking@celticstown.com. Something tells me I’ll say yes to any such request.

After I hearing about this party I want to be Lebron and  I want to pop a pin through his oversized head, all at the same time.

P.S. – While Lebron was busy living the good life, I am willing to bet Kevin Durant was completely without the entourage, the go-go dancers, the six-figure payday and the nude chicks. In fact, I’d put my life on it that he was either a) working on his game or b) sleeping, so he could wake up early in the morning to work on his game. Different styles for different people.

Forgive this piece, before you even read it. This isn’t a real rumor, nor is it even a fake rumor. It’s simply a what-if scenario J.A. Adande offered up on TrueHoop. And a scary what-if scenario, at that.

It’s not that hard to envision a scenario that brings Paul to the Lakers. It starts with Jackson retiring, a move he said he is “leaning toward.” Then bring in Byron Scott to replace him, as has long been rumored. Out goes the triangle offense, which probably wouldn’t suit Paul. In comes Paul, who maintained a good relationship with Scott even after Scott was fired by the Hornets. (That’s more than could be said with Scott’s previous two point guards, Baron Davis and Jason Kidd.) Meanwhile, Scott and Kobe Bryant go way back to Kobe’s rookie year, when they were teammates, so that would work, too.

Why would any of this work for the Hornets? They need to shed salary, with the four years and $52 million remaining on Emeka Okafor’s contract sticking out on their spreadsheet like a nun on Bourbon Street. The best way to entice a team to take on that contract would be to include Paul in the deal, painful though it may be for the Hornets. Besides, if they really like Paul and want to repay him for everything he’s done for that franchise and the New Orleans community they’ll give him a chance to play for a championship contender.

They could send Paul (owed $14.9 million in 2010-11) and Okafor ($11.5 million), with contracts totaling $26.4 million, to the Lakers for the combined $27.5 million in 2010-11 contracts of Andrew Bynum ($13.8 million), Lamar Odom ($8.2 million) and Sasha Vujacic ($5.5 million).

The Lakers are scary enough with Derek Fisher running point and Andrew Bynum limping his way through a semi-productive Finals. Add Paul to the team and a center with two functioning knees (although Okafor is no healthy Harry either) and suddenly that offense is lethal. My knees are shaking right now like I’m Chris Webber at the foul line during crunch-time.

Losing Lamar and Bynum would hurt the Lakers, but the thought of adding CP3 to that squad is enough to make me seriously consider a drug binge.

Fresh off registering a doughnut in 27 minutes of listless play during Game 6, Glen “Big Baby” Davis let the press know the Celtics aren’t going to have two miserable efforts in a row. (LA Times)

“I love it,” he said. “This is what it’s all about. It’s what you guys are going to talk about for years. You guys are going to remember this moment. You’re going to remember Thursday forever.

“I can’t wait. I can’t wait to step up on the floor and win here in L.A.”

Come again?

That last part sounded a tad cocky, but Davis, who grabbed nine rebounds but didn’t score at all Tuesday, was just clearing his throat.

He continued with his postgame speech, which ended with a few more lines that bordered on boastful, such as “We’ll come to play, we’ll compete, and we’ll be there at the end holding the trophy.”

Davis continued to explain WHY the Celtics will win the title.

“We’ve got to go get it,” Davis said. “We went through too many ups and downs to lose like this. Out of all the teams in the league, we’re the ones who struggled.

“We went through the bumps and bruises. We went through the ‘we’re old.’ We went through the ‘oh, they can’t play, they’re the fourth seed, they’re going to get beat by Cleveland, they’re going to get beat by Orlando.’

“And we’re here now, despite of what everybody else thinks. So you think we’re going to just let this go? No. We accept the challenge, and we want it. That’s point-blank simple.

“We could have gave up a long time ago and look forward to next year. But no. We’re here. So we’re going to take it while we’re here and understand that we’ve been through ups and downs and we deserve it more than them.”

Never to be outdone, Kobe Bryant offered up a guarantee of his own, though he did it behind closed doors. The Orange County Register’s Kevin Ding reported that “Bryant told [the Lakers] flat-out in the locker room [after Game 5] that the Lakers would go home and win Game 6 and then win Game 7.”

Back to Big Baby, he said not to be too concerned if Kendrick Perkins doesn’t play tomorrow. The Ticket Stub will come to the rescue if he has to. (NBA Fanhouse)

“If Perk can’t go, ‘The Ticket Stub’ will be here,” Davis said. “I’ll call him and make sure he’ll come in on his flight, a flight early, probably in the morning. So I’ll come and see how he’s doing.”

I know exactly where The Ticket Stub is. He’s still in Boston, where he was left in the locker room after Game 4.

During the first five games of the NBA Finals, the Wall Street Journal conducted an observation of players’ reactions to fouls called against them. According to the study, which “looked at every foul in the series that wasn’t intentional, tracked the observable reactions and gave extra weight to the more blatant complaints,” Ray Allen complained more than any other player on either the Celtics or Lakers. (via TrueHoop)

It didn’t take a study to realize that both teams complain a lot about the referees. In regards to Ray, I think the high level of his complaints is due to the fact that most of his fouls have been either 1) offensive fouls after Derek Fisher spends an entire possession mauling Ray and Ray finally retaliates, or 2) fouls of Kobe Bryant that may or may not be influenced by Kobe’s superstar status.

Also, this study has holes in it because — as far as I can tell — it only takes into account when a player is whistled for a foul. That means no-calls didn’t count. Ray Allen almost never complains about a no-call, while Kobe can often be seen swinging his fist and threatening referee’s lives after he misses a shot while anyone is in a 10-foot radius of him.