Category: News

The Big Story – Celts Hold Serve: All we can tell you at our Memorial Day-induced (very) early deadline is the Celtics did what they were supposed to do in the first two games of their series with the Pacers: maintain home court advantage to go up two games. The first was a completely lucky Game 1 OT escape after blowing double-digit leads twice, and the second a methodical 16-point beat led by the series star so far Jaylen Brown.

It could be over by the time you’ll actually see this or tied 2-2. But there’s not much I can do about that with my Friday deadline.

Sports 101: Jayson Tatum just became the seventh Celtic to be named first All-NBA for a third time. Name the other three-time first teamers.

News Item – Real Baseball Season Begins: Once Memorial Day has come and gone, the real baseball season begins. Though the prospects of the Red Sox making a run to win it all are getting dimmer by the day there are still some stories of interest to follow, like whether the stellar work of the starting pitching can continue and how young players like Ceddanne Rafaela and Wilyer Abreu progress, whether Kenley Jansen or Tyler O’Neill will still be Red Sox come Aug. 1 and whether any of their promising minor-leaguers make it to Boston by year’s end.

The Numbers:

35 – all it took in seconds into Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals for the NBA refs to blow an obvious class in calling a goal tend on Al Horford while taking away the fast break attempt in the process.

40 – career playoff high for Jaylen Brown in the Celtics’ 126-110 Game 2 win over Indiana.

… Of the Week Award:

How Old Do I Feel Moment of the Week: Thanks to ABC analyst JJ Reddick, pretty old after he admitted during Game 2 he didn’t know who Cheers main character Sam Malone was. Then he made it worse by guessing he was just a “bartender” on that famous Boston TV show.

Baseball’s A Strange Game Stats of the Week: It’s seeing Red Sox starters Tanner Houck and Kutter Crawford putting up stellar earned run averages of 1.97 and 2.17 over 20 starts in the season’s first two months and their collective record being under .500 at 6-7. Granted their 68 and 58 innings pitched do not put them on an Iron Man McGinnity pace, but it does beg the question what does a guy need to do to get a win?

In Case You’re Wondering Award – Joe “Iron Man” McGinnity: The New York Giants hurler was 35-4 in 1904 with 38 complete games, five saves and a 1.67 ERA in 51 starts for the 107-win Giants while pitching an astonishing 406 innings.

Thumbs Up – Raffy Devers: For his team record-setting streak of homering in six straight games when he knocked in nine runs.

Random Thoughts:

Anyone besides me notice that the team in Philly that was put together by the guy John Henry fired two GM’s ago — Dave Dombrowski — had the best record in baseball by far at 37-14 after going deep in the playoffs the last two years?

There was John Havlicek’s 90 mph line drive banker to take the lead in the second OT vs. Phoenix in triple-OT thriller Game 5 in 1975, but the only buzzer-beating shot I can come up with that was a better/bigger major clutch shot in Celtics history with a higher degree of difficulty than the corner 3 Brown stuck with Pascal Siakam draped all over him is Sam Jones’ runner over Wilt Chamberlain to win Game 4 (89-88) and send the C’s back to Boston tied 2-2 with L.A. instead of down 1-3.

Sports 101 Answer: Joining Tatum as members of First Team All NBA three times or more are Bob Cousy with a most-ever 10 followed by Larry Bird (9), Havlicek, Bill Sharman and Easy Ed Macauley with four each and Bill Russell just three times.

Final Thought –A Little History – The Memorial Day Massacre: The ultimate lesson that no matter what the score is in a playoff blowout it’s just one game, nothing more. Wipe the slate clean and move on to the next game.

The one in question here happened on Memorial Day 39 years ago in 1985 when the Celtics annihilated the Lakers 148-114 in Game 1 of the NBA Finals.

Which got a lot of so-called experts saying the series was over. Especially if the migraine that rendered Kareem Abdul Jabbar useless persisted.

But guess what? L.A. wasn’t dead and neither was Kareem, who went for 30-17-7 in leading L.A. to a 109-102 Game 2 win in Boston and 24-14-7 in L.A.’s Game 3 blowout. Boston regrouped to win Game 4 behind 28, 27 and 26 points from Kevin McHale, DJ and Larry Bird. But the Lakers took the next two with the rejuvenated Jabbar being named MVP after passing his debilitating migraine on to the fellas in green.

Email Dave Long at [email protected].

The Big Story – Celtics Start Round 3: So much for our first real New York–Boston playoff series since 1984. Instead the gallant Knicks fell to the Indiana Pacers after they took the last two games to earn their ticket to Boston for the Eastern Conference Finals.

They’ve met seven times in the playoffs before, with the C’s winning the last four meetings, including the last time in 2019. But this is the first time it’s been outside of Round 1.

Game 1 happened on Tuesday, with Game 2 coming tonight (Thursday) in Boston.

Sports 101: Who was the first person ever to hit a homer off the first pitch thrown on opening day?

News Item – Sox Falling: The Sox surprised almost everyone with a solid April. But, helped by a boatload of injuries, reality has set in as they’ve gone 6-11 in their first 17 games in May, which had them starting the week in fourth place, 9.5 games behind Baltimore.

News Item – The Party’s Over For The Bruins: For the second straight year the Bruins’ season was ended by the Florida Panthers. This time in six games, after the B’s coughed up one-goal third leads in Games 4 and 6. Now come the second-guessing and the finger-pointing, along with all eyes on Jim Montgomery to see if he’ll be the latest coaching scapegoat.

The Numbers:

.354 – unexpected batting average for Sox catcher Connor Wong, who no one thought would be the last player standing among the three guys they got back for Mookie Betts.

21 – record-setting under par score carded on Sunday by Xander Schauffele to win the PGA Championship and his first major title.

… Of the Week Awards

Who’s Hot – Raphael Devers: The team may not be, but he is. When the Sox downed the Cardinals 11-4 on Sunday in St. Louis he went deep for the fifth time in five games.

Jailbird of the Week – Scott Scheffler: It’s not everyday that a guy goes from a jail cell to the top of the leaderboard of a major. But that’s what the defending Masters champ did after allegedly assaulting a police officer at a traffic incident on his way into Round 2 of the PGA. After getting his mugshot and fingerprints, he was back on the Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky, to shoot 65 and grab a piece of the lead during his round.

Random Thoughts:

Imagine how good Luka Doncic would be if he ever got within area codes of actually being in primo shape.

It ain’t like the old days when you look at the Patriots schedule and the toughest decision faced was if you’d give them 12 or 13 wins. Unless the 12 or 13 you’re figuring on is losses for the upcoming season as could be the case as the just released 2024 schedule suggests.

A Little History – 1984 Knicks–Celtics: Believe it or not the last good seven-game series between New York and Boston was 40 years ago. Even with having the great Bernard King at his absolute peak, no one gave NY much hope in the Conference semi-final because he didn’t have much help. Except after going down 0-2 New York won all three games at MSG, including the 106-104 barn burner Game 6, to give most in these parts a scare. But Larry Bird was in the first of his three straight MVP seasons, and he delivered one of the signature games of his Boston career: a 39-point, 12-rebound, 10-assist triple double that sparked the C’s as they cruised to a 121-104 Game 7 win to move on to face Milwaukee — who they ran out in five games.

Sports 101 Answer: It happened in 1986 when Sox lead-off hitter Dwight Evans hit the season’s first into the left field stands at Tiger Stadium off Hall of Famer Jack Morris.

Final Thought – Celtics vs. Pacers: Don’t expect an easy series, because Indiana’s not afraid of them. They split their last four games, including eliminating Boston from the (who cares) in-season tournament.

They have difficulty with Tyrese Haliburton and he looked ready in his solid 26-point Game 7 effort vs New York.

Indy, not Boston, led the NBA in scoring, and has the same bombs-away from deep center in Myles Turner the C’s have in Kristaps Porzingis. So they can go toe to toe on offense.

Aaron Nesmith may be a bull in a china shop who fouls on every play, but he’s the kind of physical defender that gives Jayson Tatum trouble where if he’s not aggressive against that from the jump he can disappear into one of his infuriating and hurtful to the team passive starts.

They have a better bench coach in Rick Carlisle, who won January’s 133-131 victory by saving his challenges until the final minute to overturn two calls that decided the game, rather than Joe Mazzulla regularly using his to challenge on meaningless calls early in games.

Prediction: Celtics in a scary seven games over Indy.

Email Dave Long at [email protected].