Tonight will reveal which team will have the opportunity to be swept by the Miami Heat beginning next week. The Sixers and Celts are about 2 hours away from tip-off in a do or die game 7 at the Garden. I won’t pull a KG and call the Celtics fans “fair weather” even though for about 10 years a significantly less amount of people went to the games because they were bad and even this year I did not hear one word about the Celtics from fans until about one month remaining in the regular season because they had finally taken first place from the Sixers. Quite frankly, I think any team that is bad for a long period of time is bound to lose fans and have low attendance. Why would you buy season tickets or pay to go to games to watch your team put on a bad show? That’s like hearing every critic tell you this movie was the worst they have ever seen and you still paying 14 dollars to go see it in the movie theater. Anyway, I don’t care what KG says, he is a thug who would have been booed out of Boston this year if he did not have an epiphany at the beginning of the playoffs and found some way to play like he had in his prime. 
This series has been ugly, brutal at times, and I do not think either of these teams has any chance at beating the Heat. You cannot honestly call yourself a championship contender and consistently have multiple quarters a game scoring under 15 points. That is unacceptable and will not get you a sniff at the championship. I am extremely surprised the Sixers have managed to get to a game seven. Maybe the NBA really is rigged and was telling the refs not to call anything for the Sixers all series. I am leaning towards the fact that the refs have no respect for any of the Sixers players yet and that is why they are getting no calls. During the regular season the Sixers were a mid-range jump shooting team, that rarely drove to the hoop. In these playoffs, Lou Williams and Jrue Holiday have been attacking relentlessly. However, the back of their jerseys do not say Pierce or Garnett so they have not been getting any calls. It’s a sad trend in this league, and I think the NBA needs more teams like the Sixers to bring respectful play and gamesmanship back to the league. You don’t see them falling down when getting bumped at the 3 point line just to emphasize the fact that they got fouled, or see them complaining to the referees every time a foul is called on them. The league is full of floppers and embellishers, and the Celtics have one of the worst offenders in Paul Pierce. Pierce is a good player, but to constantly drive to the hoop and throw your arms up in the air with no expectations of the ball ending up anywhere near the basket is embarrassing, especially when he gets calls from the refs every time. Why can’t he take the ball to the hoop and go up strong without flailing his arms and screaming like he just got hit by an 18 wheeler? In the 3rd quarter of game 6, he was dribbling 4 feet behind the 3 point line and got bumped by Lavoie Allen. It was a clear foul, and it would have been called yet he felt the need to flop to the ground.
I’m not trying to pick on Paul Pierce, because there are many other players in the league who do it, but I can honestly say nobody on the Sixers plays that way. They play hard, honest basketball which is something every team should do. You wouldn’t catch Julius Erving and Larry Bird flopping around the court or snapping their heads back when a guy puts his hand on their chest. The Sixers might not be as talented as other teams, they might not have as much experience, but they play as a team and play the game the right way. That is why I think the basketball God’s are looking down on them tonight and helping them fight through the adversity of being in a game 7 at the Garden where the refs will continue to be favorable for the Celtics. If they lose, they lose and it won’t be the refs fault. The whole series the refs have been against them and they’ve won 3 games, so there is no reason they can’t win game 7. I honestly think the Celtics have realized once Avery Bradley went down for the season that their chances of beating the Heat or one of the West teams was slim to none. That is why I like the Sixers to come out smoking tonight as they did in game 5, but they won’t relinquish the lead this time. Sixers advance to the East Finals to get swept by LeBron, but tonight is every Sixers fan’s championship. The chance to end the Big 3 era. It will be sweet.
Game 3 was an utter disappointment to Sixers fans all over the world, yes all ten of us. The Sixers flat-out did not show up defensively, allowing the Celts to shoot a ridiculous 50 percent from the field. While every part of me hated the fact that the Sixers got blown out at home where they were perfect so far this postseason, a little bit of me is optimistic about the blowout. The Sixers for the most part had been playing extremely poorly offensively since about game two of the Chicago series, yet they had been in every game and were finding ways to win without putting the ball in the hoop. The Sixers have the ability to score, they were doing it all year, and maybe this will serve as their wake up call. If you want to win in the playoffs, you need to play well on offense and defense night in and night out. You can’t afford to take nights off, and I think the young 76ers learned that lesson on Wednesday night. With that being said, I expect the Sixers to come out tonight strong. I think the every other day format the Celtics have been playing over the last 2 weeks will take its toll on the old timers and we could see a double-digit win for my Sixers tonight. Thad Young was the lone bright spot for the Sixers Wednesday night, and if he has truly found his game which he hasn’t been able to do since the playoffs began, and that can be a huge advantage going forward in the series. I think the Sixers bench had been their biggest advantage all season, and it had been shortened in the playoffs because quite frankly, Thad and Jodie Meeks had seemed to have checked out. Another positive for the Sixers is that realistically speaking, KG won’t hit every shot like he did the other night. I think Doug Collins can use the last games loss to inspire his team to play well tonight, which is something he has been doing all season. Look for the Sixers to play a strong first half, and to have a 3rd quarter like they had been used to all season where they come out from halftime and out-hustle and out-work the other team. Let’s see a 2-2 series heading to Boston on Monday, Sixers 87 Celtics 74.
It’s more than likely that John Erskine is going to suit up tonight for the Caps which will inevitably mean the Bruins have the series in the bag. I have watched this series and many other series going on right now, and it’s the least physical of all of them. Maybe the Capitals have never been hit before this season, but the hits the Bruins are putting on guys are clean and quite frankly this isn’t even the most physical they can play. We all know the rational thing to do when your down in a series is to dress your goon fighter who hasn’t played in two months to get on the ice for 8 minutes and spend 10+ in the penalty box. Sure he will probably take Lucic off the ice for baiting him into a fight but trading Backstrom for Erskine is just stupid. Game four isn’t the time or place to try and make a physical statement in the series. You had your chance the first 3 games and the best you could do was have one of your best players take a stupid match penalty at the END of the game which meant nothing. Caps you missed your chance.
I know it’s only a few weeks into the new NBA season, but how worried should Celtics fans really be right now? 4 wins in their first 11 games, and all four coming against the leagues 3 worst teams (Washington, Detroit, New Jersey). It seems they are having an extremely hard time scoring points, having not cracked 90 in their last six games. KG has definitely lost a step on, and it’s showing on the defensive side of the ball and the Celtics not being able to come up with stops when they need to. I have to admit, as much as I hate the Celtics, I still thought they would come around, but after the game against Dallas a few nights ago I completely had a change of heart. The Celtics were 4-4 and looking to get back on track after a loss to the Pacers, and the Celtics had 5 days off to get ready for the Mavericks game. Yes, five days off which in this shortened season is like a 2 week vacation. If you can’t beat a team who played the night before, at home, after you had five days off then there are some serious flaws in your team. Doc needs to evaluate his team right now and find out a solution quickly before it’s too late. This team is old and needs to get young real quick seeing as the rest of the season is filled with back to backs and even a few back to back to back games.
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