NBA

Why Celtics Fans Should Be Freaking Out (And Why They Shouldn’t) After Game 5

We like getting fan perspectives on big sports stories – like the Eastern Conference Finals, for example. To that end, we’ve enlisted Boston fan Dan Spritz to share his Celtics-related thoughts during the series. His Game 5 postmortem is below.

Led by Kevin Garnett’s 26 points and 11 rebounds, the Celtics beat the Heat 94-90 to take a surprising 3-2 series lead. While none of the other Celtics played particularly well, the Heat once again relied heavily on LeBron James, who had 30 points and 13 rebounds. Dwyane Wade added 27 points, while Udonis Haslem had 14 rebounds.

Why Celtics Fans Should Be Freaking Out

Rajon Rondo’s backcourt violation halfway through the third quarter was truly distressing. He’s one of the league’s elite point guards, and he possesses court vision and awareness that few people can even imagine. It would be an understatement to just call that play obtuse. Children don’t make that mistake. I have trouble even comprehending it.

That was only a single mental error, though, and Rondo was out of sorts all game. The more worrisome trend was the way he and Boston’s other non-Garnett stars shot. Rondo, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen were a combined 11-43. That’s 26 percent! It is exceptionally tough to win games when the players responsible for so much of a team’s offense shoot so poorly.

Why Celtics Fans Should Be Feeling Good

With that said, they did just win an away game most people expected them to lose to take a 3-2 series lead. Even though Pierce’s massive three-pointer was the most decisive play of the game, the foundation for the win was in the third quarter. After clawing back from the Heat’s various runs in the first half, this seemed like the time the Heat would finally make a run the Celtics couldn’t come back from. After all, that has been their trademark this series. But instead of letting the Heat win the third quarter like they had so often, the Celtics outscored Miami by seven, and closed the quarter on a 15-1 run. That gave them a five-point lead and put them in a good position to make the plays they made late in the game.

The Celtics wore their god-awful green and black alternate uniforms in Games 1 and 2, and have worn normal uniforms in every game since. They’ve also won every game since. Burn those uniforms.

You know what else makes me feel good? This kid.

How I Actually Feel

I feel like I should be worried about Chris Bosh, but I’m not. He is a certainly an improvement over the other big men the Heat have been playing, but he played limited minutes, and he still doesn’t solve the Heat’s inability to cover KG. In fact, no one on the Heat worries me. LeBron can only do so much, and once again he was hiding in the corner down the stretch. Wade is more aggressive, but the Celtics also do a better job of taking good looks away from him. It may not be fair to contrast their late game play with Pierce’s three, but at this point it seems pretty clear that the Celtics have better finishers.

It is this confidence that worries me. The Celtics have won the last three games and are going home to potentially eliminate the Heat. The momentum is entirely on their side and the conversation has already turned to blowing up the Heat and jettisoning Erik Spoelstra. Even if they’ve been struggling, Miami still has two of the best players in the world. It’s too soon to write them off, and I’m terrified of LeBron throwing up a 41-13-11 while Wade adds 30.

Agree? Disagree? Be sure to follow Dan Spritz on Twitter, and write shouty, all-caps tweets at him about being a Masshole.