Waiting for the bottom to drop...

It hit me last night as I watched Rajon Rondo writhing in pain on the hardwood after this mid-air collision with the Knick's Tyson Chandler sent him crashing to the ground, tailbone first:

I've been waiting for the bottom to drop out.

I have dismissed. I have tempered. Unlike one Mr. Rod Stewart, I have looked to find a reason to disbelieve. So, here I stand, guilty as self-accused, ready to confess my sins.

For the better part of the last month and a half, as I've watched my beloved Celtics win 21 of their last 30 contests - many against some of the top teams in this lockout shortened NBA season - I've been curtly and systematically dismissing endless streams of, "You know, the Celts might have one run left in em..." comments. In fact, I've been doing it so often, it's developing into a perfectly rehearsed monologue:

"Yeah, I know they look good right now, but nothing has changed... they still can't rebound... they're offense still relies too heavily on their jumpers falling... they still lack depth... the bench can't score and blows leads... Sasha Pavlovic is being counted upon for meaningful minutes... the same problems that existed pre- All-Star break persist, they just haven't been exposed. They will be. Ultimately, they'll give up too many offensive boards to a team they should have put away in a must win playoff game, and an abundance of second chance points will propel said team past the Celts and into the next round and relegate Danny Ainge to a long summer of, "Should I? Shouldn't I?," in regard to resigning KG and/or Ray Allen."

In fact, as recently as two and a half weeks ago, in a conversation with a friend, I stated that the only playoff-bound team the Green could take in a 7-game series was Orlando. I don't believe that now, and I didn't believe it then either.


You have to understand, this particular Celtics squad was dead back in mid-febuary; a barley .500 team limping toward the All-star break, an aging has-been looking to trade whoever they could to salvage some semblance of a future.The Big 3 era was over. Garnett, and even the ageless Ray Allen, looked old. Peirce was out of shape and playing poorly. Rondo's brilliance was persistent, but inconsistent enough to raise doubts about just where the franchise was headed. Jeff Green's absence due to his heart condition was just a cold reminder of what had transpired in the previous two seasons: the Perkin's injury, the Game 7 I've all but "Eternal Shunshin-ed" from my mind, the trade that slapped Unbuntu in the face.

This was how it was all coming to an end. I was angry. I was defiant. I was grief-stricken. I was saddened. I, along with many of my friends who bleed green, mourned the end of Big 3 era, and then laid the team to rest. We moved on and looked to the future.

Then March and April happened. The Celltics, the Big 3 Celtics, were back from the dead. I saw. But I did not believe.

The games rolled on, and I made excuses.

They went 9-4 out of the break? The only quality team they beat were the Clippers.

They beat the Heat in Boston? The Heat shot atrociously and beat themselves.

The almost, shoulda, woulda, coulda beat the Spurs? But they didn't!

They beat the Pacers and the 76ers? Ok.

They beat the Heat in Miami? I... I ain't sayin' nothin. They can't rebound.

They beat the Hawks, in OT, 22 hours later? ...............

It wasn't until Rondo went down last night, in the brief seconds when I thought "Oh shit, what if this is season-ending?," that I fully realized what had been going on in my head - why I had been making excuses for the teams they were beating, and why I had been trying so vehemently to convince myself that what my eyes were seeing wasn't real. I was just afraid, like a person seeing a long-lost loved one for the first time, that if I reached out an touched it, it would all just disappear.

Look, the Celtics still can't rebound. They still need to find more scoring off the bench. They still rely too heavily on their jumpers. But, I don't care. Fact is, they've been playing the best basketball I've seen them play in a long time for the last 6-weeks, and they've even got some of that old swagger back. And Mikael Pietrus and Ray Allen could both be coming off the bench for them come playoff time.

Yeah, the Celtics lost that game to the Knicks last night. But Steve Novak and J.R. Smith shot the lights out, and the Celts still managed to put up over 100-points.

And we always make excuses for the ones we love.