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.

Can the Celtics continue to hold off Lebron? Can I continue to come up with corny captions? Who knows, on both accounts.

John Schuhmann, NBA.com – “Last season, the Cavs swept their first eight playoff games, winning them by an average of 16.8 points per game. They manhandled a Pistons team that didn’t care to be there and then slapped the Hawks, who were banged up and just happy to be in the second round for the first time in 10 years. That’s not the case this postseason. The Bulls backed into the playoffs, but had postseason experience, an All-Star point guard and a lot more heart than the Pistons did last season. And as the Cavs are finding out, the Celtics are on another level than the Hawks when it comes to experience, defensive intensity and desire. ‘They believe,’ Cavs forward Antawn Jamison said of Boston after its Game 2 win. Yes, despite what has been written about them over the last few months, the Celtics believe they’re a championship team. So far in this series, they’ve looked a lot more like it than the Cavs have.”

Steve Bulpett, Boston Herald – “‘Just do your jobs,’ Rivers said. ‘That’s all we talked about (Monday) was just doing our jobs. I told them. I said, ‘Don’t try to do more. If you do your job, you’re good.” The Celtics were, in fact, very good in Game 2 of this Eastern Conference semifinal series with the Cleveland Cavaliers. By keeping their foot (wrapped in support hose and corrective footwear) on the pedal in the third quarter, the C’s avoided a rerun of the Game 1 swoon and ran off with a 104-86 victory Monday. As they return to practice today, the Celts are feeling buoyed by the 1-1 series count while the Cavaliers are staggered by the same scene. It’s 1968, and the Celts are Harvard after the 29-29 ‘win’ against Yale. And had they not lost their aggression and focus (see above) in the opener, they quite easily could be coming home with a 2-0 advantage and a chance to close this series out. ‘Yeah, but we take it one game at a time,’ Kevin Garnett said. ‘If, could’ve, would’ve, should’ve – it’s what it is. We’re 1-1. Now we’re going back home . . . to the jungle.’”

Rich Levine, CSNNE – “I remember sitting in the Celtics pressroom, watching a dejected Rivers, Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce futilely try to make sense of pathetic losses to the Nets, Grizzlies, Wizards and Bucks, and thinking that they didn’t have a donuts chance in Big Baby’s kitchen of making it out of the first round. And now I just know that things have changed. And maybe that’s my answer to how we all got here. That sometimes in sports, things just change. And when it comes down to when they will or how they will, we just don’t know. And, really, that is, and always will be, the single greatest part of being a sports fan. You just never know.”

Ron Borges, Boston Herald – “‘There were times I actually wanted him to attack a little more,’ Rivers said. ‘There were times, especially when we lost our way a little bit in the fourth quarter (allowing Cleveland a 15-0 run that proved meaningless only because the C’s held a 25-point lead at the time it began). But he just had a great floor game. I call him (Jason) Varitek. I thought he called great balls and strikes, if you want to put it that way.’ Rondo was in command of the floor all night, but it was when he struck with the ball in his hand that he was most effective, driving the middle with a darting quickness that broke down the Cavs defense. It is what he did in the first half of Game 1 but didn’t do in the second. That’s when a great opportunity to knock the Cavs back on their heels was lost, but Monday night he showed for all of the 45 minutes he was on the floor what has to be done to beat the Eastern Conference’s top seed. The Little One has to become the Little Big Man. If he can, LeBron James will have another MVP trophy to add to his mantle, but nothing more than that. ‘We get the ball to him as much as possible when we get stops because he can create havoc,’ Paul Pierce said of Rondo. ‘He is one of the fastest point guards in the league when he gets into the lane and finds guys. He can also finish, and that’s what we need.’”

Julian Benbow, Boston Globe – “If Game 2 proved anything, it’s that Cleveland won’t be able to win with one player alone, and it will take more than three — or even five — for the Celtics to win. ‘That’s pretty much the game plan for how we’re going to have to beat this team,’’ Kevin Garnett said. “We’re going to have to do it together and collectively.’ ‘That’s how our team is right now,’ said Celtics president Danny Ainge. ‘Not any one person has to carry the load, and we don’t rely on one person to have a great performance. Every night it can be a different person, and that’s the strength of our team.’ It’s no secret that as the starters go, the Celtics go, but there’s a limit on how much of the load they can be expected to carry.”

Dan Duggan, Boston Herald – “Growing up in Berkley, Gaffney watched countless Celtics games from the Garden balcony. But since signing with the C’s on the final day of the regular season, Gaffney’s vantage point has been the team’s bench. ‘I couldn’t count how many times I’ve been to the Garden when it was the (original) Garden,’ Gaffney said. ‘Even while I’m not dressing right now, to be able to sit on the same bench that Paul Pierce [stats] sits on and Larry Bird sat on and Kevin McHale and Robert Parrish – it’s like a dream come true.’”

Mark Murphy, Boston Herald – “Though the C’s bench tied its Cavs counterpart with 27 Game 2 points after barely causing a ripple in Game 1, there’s no doubt which side made the biggest dent. Rivers’ disappointment earlier in the week obviously had an effect. ‘The bench, collectively as a group, said we had to do something,’ Davis said. ‘We feel like we’re one of the best bench teams in the league, and we’re capable of games like this. Game 1 was Game 1. We just have to deliver and that’s what we did (Monday).’ Wallace, perhaps stung by the criticism of his play over the second half of the season, allowed his silence to do the talking Monday. That wasn’t a problem – not when teammates like Davis were willing to grab the microphone. ‘Rasheed Wallace,’ said Davis, as if by simply intoning the name he was saying all that was necessary. ‘That was the difference in the game. Rasheed Wallace did huge things for us (Monday), and each night it’s going to be somebody different. If we can keep up this level of play, step up and deliver, we’ll be fine. Rasheed is just that type of player. I always expect Sheed to play. Sheed never sits down, he always practices. He plays the game like it’s supposed to be played, and (Monday) was his night.’”

Kirk Minihane, WEEI – “Easy call for the Celtics. Anytime they have a lead in double-digits I just assume that it will be gone before TNT can get to its next “Are We There Yet” promo. They just get way too Pierce-happy in those spots, moving away from what got them the big lead. Put it another way: When a 25-point lead is trimmed to 18, usually it isn’t a big deal. But with this team you just knew it was going to get close on Monday night. And if Antwan Jamison hits a wide-open three that would have cut the lead to seven points with six minutes left, I wonder if this column is even being written.”

Mary Schmitt Boyer, Cleveland Plain Dealer – “The Cavs likely would have taken Tuesday off had they won Game 2 on Monday. Instead, Brown brought them in to watch film and talk about what went wrong. ‘When I don’t feel like I did a good job with something, I’m the type of guy who wants to attack it and see what I can do to help these guys out to better the situation,’ Brown said. The coach said he had been more angry after games than he was on Monday. ‘I just think we can play better,’ he said. ‘I know we can play better. You don’t want to be satisfied. Not only can the guys play better on the floor, but I can help them better. I have to do a better job of that. We have to do a better job of that on the floor in Game 3.’”

Brian Windhorst, Cleveland Plain Dealer – “The Celtics have identified the Kevin Garnett vs. Antawn Jamison matchup is one they want to exploit. During the regular season, Garnett took 20 shots in a game just two times. Working on Jamison in the post relentlessly, Garnett has taken 20 shots in each playoff game so far. On Monday, the Cavs, an in attempt to keep passes from going to Garnett, had Jamison stand in front of him to deny entry passes for a stretch in the second half. Rondo simply lobbed the ball over the smaller Jamison to Garnett for three consecutive baskets in the third quarter as the Cavs made no adjustments. Garnett had 18 points and 10 rebounds in each game after having just one double double in the past 11 games. It is clear the strategy the Cavs have been using with Jamison is not working well.”

Chris Forsberg, ESPNBoston – “When asked by Cleveland reporters about Mike Brown’s rise from buzz-worthy assistant in San Antonio to coach of a Cavaliers squad that finished with the best record in the NBA this season, Rivers took the opportunity to shine the spotlight on Thibodeau. ‘I had heard of [Brown] because he was in San Antonio, and knowing [Spurs coach Gregg Popovich] and that group, then he went to Indiana [as an associate head coach], so I knew about him,’ said Rivers. ‘You hear all a lot about assistants. I have one, Tom Thibodeau, that, in my opinion, should be a head coach now and should have been one. Hopefully he gets a shot as well.’”

Brian Schmitz, Orlando Sentinel – “Who knew that the Orlando Magic would end up taking another day off? They certainly couldn’t have expected it to be this easy or their play to be this crisp once they blew off the cobwebs. But with their game in mothballs for seven days, the Magic showed none of the rust they expected, whipping the Atlanta Hawks 114-71 on Tuesday night in Game 1 of the second round. ‘I was a little surprised with that,’ coach Stan Van Gundy said. ‘It was good to see.’ And bad for the Hawks, who appeared to have trotted out their junior varsity. How bad was it? The Magic’s biggest lead was 46. They led by 41 points at the end of the third quarter — and the Hawks had scored just 44. And it might not get much better for Atlanta now that they’ve seemingly sprung Dwight Howard from playoff purgatory.”

Mark Bradley, Atlanta Journal Constitution – “The Hawks really believed they had a chance to steal Game 1, but the only crime committed here was fraud. The East’s No. 3 seed performed as if it were back in its glory days of Billy Knight burning lottery picks on guys named Williams. The Hawks were tied after 14 minutes. Ten minutes later they trailed by 20 points. And it would — oh yes, it would — get doubly worse. It’s no easy feat to trail a Round 2 playoff game by 41 points having played only 36 minutes, but the proud conquerors of Milwaukee managed it. They were down 85-44 after three quarters. And I say it again: This is why so few folks outside Atlanta, and many folks in Atlanta, don’t take seriously a team that won 53 games this season and has survived a Game 7 in each of the two springs. The Hawks tried really hard those first 14 minutes. Then the home team got going, and the visitors decided trying to play sound basketball really wasn’t worth the effort. So they ceased and desisted. Joe Johnson kept losing the ball. (He had four turnovers against five points the first half.) Jamal Crawford looked scared. (His first half: Two points, two points.) And Mike Woodson’s grand scheme to control Dwight Howard worked for a little while, but the sheer weirdness of it — deploying the forgotten Jason Collins before the NBA’s sixth man of the year and the ancient Joe Smith in the first quarter — undid the team it was supposed to bolster. The Hawks were so consumed by trying to bump and bedevil Howard they stopped running any semblance of an offense. (Collins made a basket and seemed shocked.) They scored 23 points in the first quarter; they managed 21 in the next two. They tried to go Iso-Joe and that didn’t work, so everyone decided to hoist jumpers. And the lead grew — it would peak at 112-66 — and the humiliation deepened, and the East’s No. 3 seed became something a No. 3 seed should never be: pitiable.”

Mike Bresnahan, LA Times – “Any way to change this to a best-of-five series? The Lakers continued to get the best of the Utah Jazz, turning a Western Conference rivalry into a playground version of sixth-graders against fourth-graders, the latest after-school scuffle transitioning into a 111-103 victory Tuesday at Staples Center. It wasn’t easy — nothing seems to be for the Lakers in these playoffs — but they took a 2-0 lead over the Jazz in the conference semifinals. The numbers are getting overwhelming, the Lakers now two victories from eliminating the Jazz for a third consecutive season while moving to 20-6 against Utah over the last few years, including playoffs. Andrew Bynum and Lamar Odom brushed off recent injuries on the way to double-doubles, and Kobe Bryant almost had one too, but before the Lakers pat themselves on the back, they have plenty to study before Game 3 on Saturday in Utah. They gave away most of a 15-point lead, committed 20 turnovers, made four of 17 three-point attempts (23.5%) and failed to coast despite double-doubles by three players. Only when Odom found Ron Artest with a long lead pass for a dunk could Lakers fans begin celebrating in earnest, their team ahead by eight with 28.3 seconds to play. ‘Somehow, we managed to win that game,’ Lakers Coach Phil Jackson said, sighing a couple of times at his postgame news conference.”

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

The All-Star break was great. A chance to forget about the blown halftime leads. A few days to escape the harsh reality of missed opportunities and lost games. Paul Pierce won the Three-Point Shootout. Rajon Rondo suddenly couldn’t miss from three-point range. Injury troubles were nil. Not even the worst dunk contest in the country’s history could make things seem bad. For a few days, the troubles of an under-performing team were put on hold.

But vacations don’t last forever. Breaks come to an end. And the troubles remain, as do the questions surrounding the aging and struggling Celtics. Read more »