Anything Left In The Tank For Celtics?

The Boston Celtics find themselves in a tough spot tonight down 3 games to 1 against the Miami Heat in the semifinals of the eastern conference playoffs.

As a Boston Celtic fan things have been very grim in the second half of the NBA playoffs.  After sweeping the New York Knicks, it seems like my beloved C's have lost all their momentum.  The Miami Heat have just proven to be too much for them in 3 of their 4 games so far.  Now tonight the Celtics will fight to keep their hopes of another NBA championship alive.

Being down 3-1 in a series is never easy to over come but it is very doable.  For the Boston Celtics it will revolve around point guard Rajon Rondo.  Sure the C's have 3 of the NBA's greatest players in Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce, but when Rondo is on, the team is on.  Kevin Garnett may be the heart of the team, but Rondo is the brain.  The Celtics need him to play smart basketball tonight in order to stay in this series.  In turn the brain also needs to heart to be functioning as well.

One of the biggest problems for the C's in the last game was that Keving Garnett had a very, very off night on the offensive side.  It made Chris Bosh look like a champion, which he most certainly is not.  KG only had 7 points and only shot 1-10 from the field. Maybe if KG had put up his 15 point average the C's would be in better shape.  They wouldn't have needed Peirce to drop a game winning shot at the last second and could have gone back to Miami with a series at 2-2 instead of 3-1.

So now the Celtics have to win 3 straight against a team that just happens to have 2 of the games most prolific players.  Paul Pierce has done an okay job against Lebron so far, but they really need to shut him down.  Dwyane Wade is also a threat so they need to figure out that plan too.  Garnett has done a good job against Bosh, so I don't see him as much of threat.  Celtics and Heat play game 5 tonight 7pm.  ESPN NBA analyst Tim Legler put it pretty good:  You have to kill the Boston Celtics, and the Heat haven't killed them yet.  They are still very much alive.