C's May be Enough to Get By

After a difficult winter semester, after all of the papers, final exams, and oral presentations, the average student often finds themselves waiting with sweaty palms for their final grades before the summer can begin. In the sporting world, fans can relate. Now into the thick of the baseball season, with the smell of Italian sausage and the sound of ticket scalpers in the air, it is that time again for Boston sports fans to receive their report card. This year, B's will be hard to come by, but C's may be just enough to get by.

There is nothing like a perfectly cheesy metaphor that falls into sports writer's lap. I apologize for the report card analogy, but the fact that the Boston Celtics and the Boston Bruins can be abbreviated as common report card grades is just too good to pass up. And it's true. This season, Boston fans that have been starving for some B's are going to have to settle for C's instead. Beggars can't be choosers.

After the Bruins passed up a route to the Stanley Cup Finals that was served on a silver platter, it became clear which of Boston's winter teams has the right attitude in the playoffs. The Celtics' three game lead against the Orlando Magic in the Eastern Conference Finals is a testament to hard work, sticktoitiveness, confidence and determination, qualities that the Bruins lacked. Both of the teams' runs into the playoffs were unexpected to most. Few expected a Bruins team that underachieved all year and carried only 91 points into the post season to go far, nor did they have much hope for a Celtic team that went 27-24 in the 2010 regular season. Both teams stumbled down the stretch, and both kicked off the dust in April.

It's a good quality to have, to be able to flick the switch and perform in the playoffs. If that is how a team expects to act however, it had better be prepared to keep it up for the long haul. If that team can't bring home the hardware at the end of the season, their late performances will have been for naught. Take the Bruins. I'll be the first to admit that I fell for the team that the Bruins put on the ice against the Buffalo Sabres and the Philadelphia Flyers in the first one and a half rounds of the playoffs. Maybe it's because I want a Stanley Cup for Boston that badly, and maybe it's because they were up 3-0 in the Eastern Conference Semifinals, but I was wrong about the Bruins. When a team shows, time and again, that they have a poor work ethic and attitude in times of success and failure, they cannot be trusted to have changed that attitude until they have done so for a full season.

I don't blame Boston fans for hoping that that attitude had changed during the 121 point 2008-2009 season, or the remarkable first nine games of the 2010 playoffs. They want it that badly in Boston, but the record simply shows that the Bruins will find a way to break our hearts (funny how that used to be the Red Sox' catch phrase).

The Celtics, on the other hand, should not have been doubted. Fans gave the team less of a shot than the Bruins, and look what happened: The team with the history of winning, experience, determination, and drive is still alive and kicking. A team of veterans like Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen needs to be given the benefit of the doubt when they stumble down the home stretch of the regular season with the intent to rest for more important games. Like I said, I don't generally buy such a strategy, but the Celtics had a much more valid reason for it than the Bruins.

Now, having defeated one man teams in the Miami Heat and the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Celtics are on their way to proving why basketball is Boston's failsafe right now. The NBA is a turnoff for some sports fans. Teams that are dominated by one player and games whose outcomes are so violently affected by referees and foul calls have put a bad taste in their mouths. Two years ago, the Celtics' run to the promised land was truly magical. It stunned the naysayers, revealed the futility in one-man-teams, and allowed the NBA to embrace the policy of 'Ubuntu,' or team chemistry. After last year's return to the doldrums with Kobe Bryant's run to the top, the NBA returned to it's ugly form. Things have been testier. Pink hat fans have been more pronounced, Nike commercials and highlight reel dunks have seemed more important than team chemistry, and sandpaper-dry stories like Lebron James and Kobe Bryant have stolen the spotlight. Celtics coach Doc Rivers, the guardian of ubuntu, has been noticeably tired this year, talking about retirement, as have the big three. The four of them were the afterthought, the old guys, the dead in the water team.

And just when we needed them to, the C's came to the rescue. And here's how: ubuntu regained its meaning. After two seasons without standout bench men James Posey and P.J. Brown, the Celtics team grew one dimensional, nearly as bad as the Cavs and the Lakers. From game to game, fans hoped to steal a victory on a good performance from one of the big three. The bench did not contribute like the 2007-2008 Celtic bench did. And then, at the start of the playoffs, they exploded. Enter stage right Rajon Rondo, with an in-your-face triple double in Cleveland in the Eastern Conference Semifinals to slam the door in their face, enter stage left Glen Davis and Tony Allen, complete with excellent defense, even stronger passing, and just excellent chemistry, and, believe it or not, enter center stage, Rasheed Wallace, with the experience and the grit that the Celtics have needed to close out games. All of a sudden, the big three are surrounded by a team. And they have looked great.

What is so great about a well-rounded team? Two things are easy to pin down: unpredictability and team chemistry. Example: at the end of a game, it is anybody's guess what kind of play the Celtics will draw up to get the buzzerbeating basket. Maybe they will try an allyoop from KG to Tony Allen, or a back-them-down post shot from Paul Pierce, or a kick-it-out three from Sugar Ray or Sheed. The possibilities are endless. Against the Lakers or the Cavs, all any team needs to worry about is one player. No player, no matter how talented, can carry a team all the way. Multiple dimensions are essential. Example: It may not be everybody's favorite example around here, but the championship teams that Kobe Bryant has been a part of have won, not because of Kobe himself, but because of the players around him. Kobe has always needed teammates to perform as well as him to succeed. He needed Shaquille O'Neil at first, and he needs Pau Gasol now. In between those years, the Lakers have underperformed because of their lack of team chemistry.

This year, the Celtics may not have a superstar who can stand toe to toe with Kobe Bryant (maybe Rondo). As individuals, they are just past their prime. But nothing can stop a group as experienced and willing as the Celtics except themselves. It would require an attitude of supremacy, like that of the Bruins, in the face of success, to lead to a failure on the part of the Celtics. This team has earned the benefit of the doubt. Up two games heading home on Saturday night, the Celtics embarrassed the Magic 94-71 to take a 3-0 series lead. This one will not be squandered.

A recent locker-room interview with Kevin Garnett revealed this team’s thick skin and team work. Asked about what the Celtics would do with multiple days off between games two and three of the conference finals, Garnett responded by describing how the team watches film of other teams together, talking about a strategy and, “shooting the crap,” before actually practising. If that isn’t telling, I don’t know what is. Maybe I’m wrong, but you don’t just ‘shoot the crap’ with a group of people with whom you play professional basketball unless that group is pretty tight knit. Maybe all ‘shooting the crap’ denotes is water-cooler conversation that any working person can have with another, but the way KG described the locker room, it sounds an awful lot like these Celtic players are a real team that cares about winning and not pure personal gain. The discord that seemed to be taking hold as the regular season wound down was merely an illusion caused by media that needed an answer for the Celtics’ under-performance. In reality, people were panicking and giving up on an old team while they were building their chemistry and strategy for when it would really count. None of those things can be said about the Cavaliers or the Lakers. That’s for sure.

The Bruins are lucky in this way. They are getting off a lot better than they could be because of the Celtics’ success. If the Celtics had missed the post season this year, Boston would still be stuck in the mud of the Bruins’ stinker of an eastern conference semifinal. While you still hear passing remarks about the monumental collapse, they are coming in a far smaller quantity than they could be. If the Celtics can finish what they have started, C’s will look awfully good on that report card, and people will relax all the more about the B’s… until next season of course.

If there is one thing we have learned over the years in Boston, however, it is to never claim something that isn’t rightfully won until it has been won. I have not written off the Magic or either of the teams that could play the Celtics in the NBA Finals at all. The C’s will have to battle and scrap for every game until they can hoist banner number 18. The good news is simply that, like the Bruins, the Celtics have their fate in their hands. If they do not win, it will be because of a mistake on their end of the court. Keep up their recent play, and the C’s are looking at a mighty fine end to their season.

…

Very quickly now: the Red Sox are going to get a lot of coverage once the C’s are done with their run, but they do deserve a quick blurb. Here’s my take: We should have foreseen what we are getting now in the preseason. Unlike past years and other teams we have seen, the 2010 Red Sox are built on individual players, and they have suffered because of it. Newcomers Marco Scutaro, Mike Cameron, and John Lackey have not clicked into the team like Trot Nixon, Kevin Millar, and Orlando Cabrera used to. This preseason was completely quiet. That’s not indicative of a strong team, but rather a group of individuals too focused on themselves to acknowledge the team as a whole. Maybe that’s a little harsh for the situation, and I’m not trying to say that I expected such a patchwork team to fit together right away, but clubhouse drama from individual players has dominated the beginning of the season, and the Red Sox’ record has suffered. Dustin Pedroia’s ‘laser show’ quote in defense of David Ortiz was a huge step in the right direction. Pedroia single handedly took the reigns of the team and jerked them tight, putting himself on the line for a teammate. Without the Kevin Millars and the Bill Muellers of the baseball world with the Red Sox anymore, the team will need to redevelop some of that team chemistry that championship teams have enjoyed. It may be happening as we speak. Red Sox pitching may still be inconsistent, but the resurgence of Ortiz at the plate and the rallying of the team around Daisuke Matsuzaka’s near no-hitter against the Philadelphia Phillies on Saturday are good signs that the team is coming together. They are in a difficult position, facing Philly and the Tampa Bay Rays in back to back series, but strong team-wide performances now may translate into a salvaged season later. Failure to build that team will have the Sox playing catch-up all year long.

Also, the Boston University softball team scored a 10-4 elimination game win against Northeast rival UMass Amherst. The Terriers’ spunk has carried them through bouts of injuries and has solidified a team with many new players. They have come a long way from a slow start to their season, building one of the top offenses in the country and winning the America East Championship for the second year in a row. After losing the Arizona State, BU faced UMass in a do or die game in the NCAA regional tournament. After losing twice to the Minutewomen in the regular season, the Terriers sent Freshman pitcher Whitney Tuthill to the mound against Terrorizer Sara Plourde. Plourde shut down the Terriers and most of the country all year, but this time, she only lasted one inning, allowing four runs and taking the team’s final loss of the season. What a story for a team whose head coach has never beaten the Minutewomen and their excellent program since taking over. Shawn Rychcik has built a strong team and has rallied them to strong performances. After taking out UMass when it mattered most, there is no telling what the Terriers might do next.