"Carlos Arroyo? You thought I wasn't going to destroy Carlos Arroyo? HAH!"

It’s difficult to seriously impact two games while scoring only 18 combined points.  It really is.  But Rajon Rondo, by virtue of his disruptive defense and court vision sent from above, has done just that.

Rondo’s defensive pressure, in particular, has caused the Miami Heat fits.  Things got so bad for that, in the midst of yet another prolonged Celtics run in the second half, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra turned to his assistant and said, “Any other ideas?  We can’t bring the ball up against this team.”  He later described Rondo’s impact to reporters. (CSNNE)

“He’s an extremely quick and as fast a player as we know,” Spoelstra said. “He’s even more of that in the playoffs. He has great physical gifts, with the quickness. He also has a lot of length. He also has enough experience now that he can be disruptive to what you’re trying to run specifically.”

The Heat, thus far, have been Rondo’d.

Not that they have a definitive plan to stop it.  As Spoelstra so nicely put, nothing the Heat has done has worked.  They’ve tried putting Dwyane Wade at point guard, but Spoelstra admits, “We don’t want to do it too much where it wears him out.”  They’ve tried the normal point guards, Carlos Arroyo and Mario Chalmers, and Rondo sees that as taking candy from a baby. Dorell Wright, according to the Miami Herald, could be the next one given the opportunity to handle the ball.  But Spoelstra knows alleviating the pressure isn’t very simple.

“Easier said than done,” Spoelstra said after Thursday’s practice. “But there are adjustments we can make. We’ve been a little predictable the first two games. But we have enough in our playbook to show more versatility. We need a package of everything and to do it under duress when they’re putting pressure on us.’”

Mario Chalmers believes there’s one way to counteract Boston’s dialed-up defensive pressure: Be aggressive.

“Definitely, especially with us being at home,” Chalmers said. “We’ve been sort of robotic. We concentrate too much on trying to work plays all the way through instead of seeing an opening and taking that opening. But you just have to keep fighting.”

Carlos Arroyo agrees that the point guards have to be more opportunistic, and to let loose and have fun.

“You want to be aggressive. You want to make them play us honest. But [the results] have been very disappointing for all of us. We came into this series with a different mind-set, a different type of rhythm. It seems we’ve gotten away from that. We have to find our consistency again, not think so much, have fun and lay it out there.”

Fact of the matter is, in two games in Boston the Heat’s offense was chewed up and spit out.  76.5 points per game.  Two ten-point quarters.  Brick after brick, turnover after turnover. Almost sad, isn’t it?

Not for Boston, though.  The Heat’s minimal offensive output is as good an indicator as any that the C’s have refocused their energy on that side of the court.  The Celtics can only hope that the series’ change in venue won’t harm their defense that has finally begun to regain shape as one of the league’s finest after four months of hibernation.

If the C’s defense is to remain impenetrable, even in the South Beach heat, Rondo will be a big reason why.

"255...256...257... I've got to be strong enough to trample Mario Chalmers next season."

Glen Davis brought the goods last night.  Barring a first quarter rejection fest that had Davis eating his own shots, Davis was sensational.

With his hustle, resiliency and stick-to-it play, Davis led the way to Boston’s 4/20 Massacre of the Miami Heat.  23 points, 8 rebounds, and every play Davis made dripped with the scent of a man who desperately wanted to fill Kevin Garnett’s shoes and send Miami back home down 2-0.  For most of the game, Davis was a stud.

For one play, though, he was nothing more than a snow-plow.

Let me set the scene: About 6:40 left in the third quarter.  The Celtics in the midst of an 18-0 run and clinging to a 62-37 lead.  Ray Allen throwing flames through the net. Ray Allen throwing more flames through the net. Ray Allen throwing still more flames through the net.

So Davis came charging through the middle of the lane, cutting full-speed as coaches teach players to and Davis — The Round Mound of Energy — normally does.  Only, his path wasn’t clear.  There was Mario Chalmers — all 6’1″, 190 lbs. of him — staring wide-eyed at the stampeding bull heading his way.

“I was just trying to get in front of him to get to Ray and he kept going and kept going,” Chalmers told the Boston Globe after the game.  And Chalmers’ life passed before his eyes.  He regretted that he hadn’t yet written a will.  He wished he’d gotten one more chance to say goodbye to his loved ones.

And then he got trucked.

Laying down on the floor with 289 lbs. squarely on his chest, Chalmers heard the referee’s whistle blow.  Though Chalmers had been the one who nearly didn’t survive the collision (“Tell me about it,” he said), the foul call was on him. “I think our feet got tangled up and we both fell and they just happened to call the foul on me,” he explained.

Though the collision brought images to mind of death by personal foul, Davis had a brighter view:

“He tried to hug me,” Davis said. “I think he tried to show how much he loved my game and just hugged me.”

After the way Davis played last night, Chalmers isn’t the only one who wants to hug him.  So does all of Boston.

"Kendrick, just listen. Please listen. It's not you... it's me."

Jermaine O’Neal was careful not to give much credit to the Boston Celtics, even after the C’s defense limited Miami to only 10 fourth-quarter points in Saturday’s Game One. (NBA.com)

“More than anything, [Game 1] wasn’t necessarily about what they did,” O’Neal said. “It was more about what I allowed to happen. And that’s guys shading off me to go help on other guys. And that hasn’t happened in years. And I just absolutely just sat on the other side and let them do it. That’s one thing that I was really disappointed about when I looked at the film. And I can guarantee that won’t happen again.”

To be fair to Jermaine, he wasn’t the only player who the Celtics could afford to help off.  Michael Beasley only scored 6 points and two major bench contributors, Dorell Wright and Mario Chalmers, combined for only 13 points on 3-14 shooting.

“We had a lot of guys who weren’t aggressive,” [Dwyane] Wade said. “I thought we relied on me too much at times to make the plays and get into the paint, when [the Celtics] weren’t allowing me to do that at certain times.”

Was it really Jermaine O’Neal’s fault the Celtics played lockdown defense over the past 20 minutes or so of Saturday’s game?  Not entirely.  But Miami wouldn’t mind if the big fella shot better than 3-14 next game.

South Beach, oh South Beach. No, not the diet — one of the most fun areas in the world, according to everyone who has gone there. South Beach is all about girls, booze, drugs, and more girls, booze and drugs. I asked an acquaintance of mine about South Beach after he returned, and all he could talk about was the purest cocaine he’d ever laid eyes on. I’m not condoning that, and I have never done cocaine in my life; I’m simply trying to paint a picture of South Beach. It’s crazy, out-of-control, sins-and-lawlessness-occurring-everywhere fun.

Unfortunately, it’s also in Miami. Which is fine, unless your favorite basketball team will be playing a playoff series there. On the court, the Miami Heat are all Dwyane Wade, with an improving but nonetheless mediocre supporting cast. But, aside from Wade’s potential to drop 40 points all series long, there is also that perilous South Beach to worry about. (Boston Herald)

Already the nightlife area is being called perhaps the toughest matchup in the series beyond Wade.

“Man, South Beach isn’t just the sixth man,” cracked Marquis Daniels. “It’s like the sixth, seventh and eighth man.”

In Miami’s case, the real sixth, seventh and eighth men are Udonis Haslem, Dorrell Wright and Mario Chalmers. If Daniels is comparing South Beach to them, maybe it isn’t so bad after all.