Can't See the Tree for the Forest (Green)

haha, see what I did there? Because Boston wears...nevermind.

I am thankful for a change; I can take issue with the substance of an article than merely the stylistic trimmings. Here, Randy Hill makes a pretty astounding point (or at least alludes strongly to it) we'll get to in a moment, but it's his absolute bravado in throwing away an incredible piece of evidence that simply demands to be in this article that causes me to post today. What is his point? What is that jewel of evidence? Stay tuned!

*Batman wipe*

Doc has to juggle health and home court

have to steal a Simpsons quote here; "juggle health and home court like so many juggling balls...two I suppose."

The prevailing nickname "Doc" was not attached to Glenn Rivers due to any expectation of future medical prowess.

It was a hoops thing we can trace to Rick Majerus.

As coach of the defending NBA champion Boston Celtics, Rivers wouldn't mind being able to summon the gift of healing. But it seems that such hands-on, almighty miracles are limited to the purview of college basketball coaches. Or so we've been led to believe ... by the college coaches.

there isn't a measurement system alive for how little I care.

Anyway

yes, back to what you're paid to write about...

Doc Rivers does not have the skill to fix Kevin Garnett's knee, Rajon Rondo's ankle or even Rondo's jump shot. The first two physical maladies are part of a five-player injury plague that may have transformed the Cs into a team capable of settling into the Eastern Conference's No. 2 playoff seed.

I put it to you, Randy, that they always had that capability. Even with these players fighting fit, I'm willing to stick my neck out and say they have the capability to be the second seed in the East. In fact...I'm not even sure losing players helps them in their ability to achieve such a lofty goal. You do know what capability means right? An ability...being able to do something. Unlike being disabled - a handicap. I'm being pedantic I know but seriously, too clever by half.

And while that may not be just dandy to the team, its support staff or its fans, Doc and his crew are telling us the possibility of losing home-court advantage for a potential conference-finals series is far from a repeat killer.

we're finally getting to the point - this is at least debatable.

It has been posited that by winning two playoff games in Detroit and one in Los Angeles last year, the Cs are immune to a road funk that attended their first two postseason dates for 2008.

immune? So, they can't lose on the road at all? What constitutes a funk? My basic point here is that I think it's considered a pretty absolute truth that it's harder to win on the road than at home. Here I don't think I'm being pedantic - I don't know what "immune" means. Does it mean they will never lose on the road? Or merely that they won't always lose on the road? There seems to be a fair bit of grey area there that in the playoffs, with only a handful of extremely meaningful games, would be a pretty significant sticking point.

You probably remember the great hullabaloo surrounding the eventual champs as their regular-season swagger surrendered to a combined 0-6 playoff run through Atlanta and Cleveland.

I grant you it was only six games, and the big criticism of both myself and Hill here is small sample sizes, but it's the playoffs, all we have at our disposal. But yeah, only six games, true, but 0-6 from a #1 seed on the road has to be worrying...especially when three games were against a 37-45 team - be they close or otherwise. They've also lost as many road games already as they did all last year. It's definately a concern at some level.

But in interviews with Boston-area beat writers, Rivers assured us those struggles were a product of a team that had yet to establish a playoff identity.

oh, nevermind then, their coach thinks they are fine. This is the equivalent of "my Mom thinks I'm cool!". Man, I am all about Simpson's references today - apologies.

Although Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce certainly seem to define the essence of postseason grit now, the collective was playing without June portfolio before joining forces in the summer of 2007.

partial credit.

OK, so now that this identity has been forged in the fires of championship triumph, Boston should be good to go, regardless of venue, eh? Well, that's not a bad concept.

well I think it deserves at least a look at, it's debatable, as I said.

Just to satisfy our curiosity

well no, to write a decent article but I suppose it's good that you are making the effort, irrespective of how flippant you think it is.

let's take a look at how the Celtics are doing on the road during this regular season. Interestingly, with 17 games left to play and eight of those away from Boston, the Cs have as many road defeats as they absorbed all of last season.

right.

Do we detect fraud in this sales job to promote an ability to muscle up while wearing the green jerseys? Nah, the Celtics have had those aforementioned injury issues and are attempting to develop young players into rotation regulars.

It's also no hayride being the hunted.

investigation over. No need to worry about those road defeats! Why, that's merely a product of being a worse team than last year and other teams being better than they were a year ago!

...wait...wait a minute.

But after last week's home-court uprising against the (for now) top-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers and a flop vs. Orlando's Magic two days later, Boston finds itself two games behind the Cavs in what everyone assumes is that season-saving home-court chip.

This means it's time to spit on the hands and get down to regular-season-ending work, right?

Well, Doc insists having home-court advantage is not worth the risk of playing key Celtics before they're completely healthy.

it's another display of that famous Doc Rivers judgement.

That's some pretty nice wisdom, of course, but with KG out for another week and Rondo still gimpy, Rivers' first-seed-chasing option may be obliterated. Or is it?

for fucks sake. I didn't say anything up to now, but this whole "well it looks like this case is closed -OR IS IT?" bullshit is cheap journalism. Stop it. It's really irritating.

After Wednesday's loss in Miami, the Celtics meet (in order) the Memphis Grizzlies, Milwaukee Bucks (road), Chicago Bulls (road) and Heat again (home). Only eight of the last 18 games will be contested against teams with winning records.

Rivers may be able to win a large percentage of these games if the NBA's interpretation of the economic bailout has a positive impact on Boston.

you know, I said I had no stylistic problem with the article, but after the last two segments, honestly, what the hell are you talking about?

By the way, that interpretation is referred to as the "buyout" and enabled the Cs to suit up vagabond big man Mikki Moore and point guard Stephon Marbury, who had been exiled by the New York Knicks.

really? Really? Mikki fucking Moore. You know, this is a trend I'm starting to really hate in the NBA, the whole "Robert Horry/PJ Brown" effect being blown way out of proportion. It's a variant on the "look how subtle I am, how deep I can look into a team" rubbish. It's something that pissed me off about the James Posey fanclub. Mikki Moore, I am here to tell you if you haven't followed basketball for eight years, is fucking terrible. I know all our readers are at least average level sports fans, and I bet even some of you never heard of him. As for Marbury, if you wanna hitch your wagon to that star good luck to you. It's probably a good idea if I don't tell you he's averaging 2.8ppg and 2.4apg so far.

Good "glue guy" though, I hear.

Moore and Marbury were hired to attempt replication of the P.J. Brown-Sam Cassell efforts from the 2008 playoffs.

thats a sad and pathetic sentiment right there Randy.

With the team training room now pushing the fire marshal's limit, the pace of their Celtic assimilation has been accelerated.

Moore: 4.0/2.0, yet to register a block
Marbury: 2.8/2.4, shooting 33.3%

this is "acceleration"?

Rivers may have been planning to use them more than reason would dictate, anyway.

In the process, a game or two may have to be conceded.

Also note that if Marbury can't figure out how to handle on-ball defensive pressure without turning his back on the guy guarding him, we may see Rondo and his ankle in a tent revival.

this is great. As though the key for Marbury is this tiny, nuanced part of the game, and then things will be fine. I see like a montage of Marbury gradually getting better at this, working all night with coaches, practising turning to get milk out of the fridge.

The problem is they are terrible, Randy, terrible.

While faithful Celtics fans grit their teeth at the image of Cleveland's LeBron James dusting off the crab dribble or Wally Szczerbiak channeling Bingo Smith for Cavaliers home games, Doc is preaching big picture and even threatening to create a little down time for Pierce and Allen.

here is your big picture and the promised stat. The home team has won the last eleven straight games in the Cavs/Celtics series. I know I read that somewhere but couldn't find the link, so I just looked at the schedule. The last time the home team didn't win was January 3rd 2007, so this Boston team has never beaten Cleveland in Cleveland. The 28-1 at home Cleveland. That Cleveland also finished 5-1 at home in the playoffs last year. They play well at home, you don't want to play them there. And Cleveland is the only relevant team in this scenario, and Hill hasn't mentioned them once until now.

Whatever, I can't even read the rest of this article, the stat isn't mentioned, nor a real look at how awesome Cleveland have been at home. Absurd.

Also, thank you for everyone for voting on Ben's poll and continued patronage to this site.