I'm not going to rehash too many of my pre-draft thoughts. Here's the running notes I kept during the draft:
"With the first pick of the 2008 NBA Draft, the Chicago Bulls select ..."
1. Derrick Rose, CHIM
No surprise here, although ESPN was anxious to report this was definitely going to happen a few minutes before the draft, like they were brilliant for "reporting" the worst kept secret in the past couple weeks. And I still believe they should have taken Beasley.
2. Michael Beasley, MIA
I want to get a few of my thoughts down about the upcoming NBA draft (which is pretty much the most meaningless draft of my life as a Celtics fan - the first draft I can remember was 1986, which was very meaningful - and very painful). You heard it hear first, so when I'm right about something, remember, it was a pre-draft thought from yours truly.
What a game, what a season.
I've had the pleasure of attending several Celtics games with my dad, a Celtics season-ticket holder since 1979 (he got them the day after the Celtics drafted a fellow by the name of Larry Bird, you may have heard of him). Game 6 was the most enjoyable experience of my life as a sports fan. There is NOTHING that compares to seeing your favorite team win the championship. It is the ultimate fan reward. Being there with my dad was extra special as well; he's raised me as a Boston sports fan, to the point where I don't even know when my love of the Celtics, Red Sox & Patriots began - it was just always the way.
So many things about last night’s game piss me off:
Boston is up 2-1 over the Lakers and Game 4 is tonight in LA. The Celtics will win one of the next two games in LA and finish the series up in Boston and take home banner # 17. The Lakers shouldn't even bother to show up tonight because this series is already over. I know the Laker fans are going to piss and moan about this bold statement but the truth is the Celtics have this wrapped up and I'll tell you why.
10. Kobe Bryant had to score 36 points for the Lakers to barely pull off Game 3. Not an easy task to repeat 3 more times against the Celtic's defense.
Now I say preview, but what I mean is my predictions on how the C’s should/could adjust the game around Rondo’s injury. I have no idea if the Lakers are even thinking of ways to improve other than to just allow Kobe to go nuts, and hope someone, like Vujacic, can step it up.
Since I bitched about the referees before Game 3, I figured I'd comment on tonight's assigned referees for Game 4. Steve Javie (one of the best refs), Joe DeRosa (part of the 2006 mugging of the Mavericks mentioned previously) & Tom Washington (don't really know him, which probably means he isn't that bad) are the assigned referees.
Who is this team in the finals…these LA Lakers? Well they can certainly cry me a river, but as far as a basketball team I haven’t seen it yet. They find themselves out of their element playing against a superior defensive team, and have nothing but excuses. We all know about the foul disparity, but horrible officiating has been the rule rather then the exception these playoffs, so what exactly is this teams problem?
I must say, I am loving what I am seeing so far in the Finals. Game 1 was well played and featured the huge, epic comeback by Pierce. Game 2 was 3 ½ quarters of just domination before holding off a furious comeback (way too stressful). The Lakers can cry about the foul shot disparity, but you don't get to the line without taking it to the rack.
The NBA Championship is upon us. I won’t hype the hooplah surrounding the dreamlike match up between the two most vaunted franchises in the association. You can get that on ESPN in fact in between updates on Big Brown’s cracked hoof and the latest Joba related event it’s just about as suffocating coverage as you can get. Instead I’m going to tell you why all the experts are wrong and how the C’s will win the series.
