Hail to the victors: Celtics claim NBA Title

June 18th, 2008 | Posted by PostmanR

Seeing as any good blogger/Internet writer had something up last night on the Finals, this is all old news by now, but hey, hats off to the Celtics. It was rough sledding making it to the final round, but they proved they were better than the listless Lakers when it mattered most. (Seriously, Kobe, all you guys could muster was a 39-point trashing? And have you ever played defense before? Ever?)

As a fan, I was torn before the series started. On the one hand, I’ve always been a KG backer and used to rock his Minnesota jersey in middle school. But Kobe is otherworldly, and he and the Lakers stomped through the West on their way to the Finals. I wouldn’t have minded seeing Kobe and crew take out the Big Three.

But it was not to be. Paul Pierce was the m’fing Truth. Rondo was solid after he couldn’t walk last week. And KG, I don’t know what the hell he was talking about here …

… but it was awesome. And the Gatorade dump on Doc Rivers? MAN LOOK HOW COOL IT IS IN THAT SUPER SLOW MOTION CAMERA.

So yeah: Boston wins another title. Blech.

Bill Plaschke, M.D.

June 6th, 2008 | Posted by PostmanE

There are a few things to remember about last night’s Game 1: Kobe weirdly switching things up from the first to second halves, Garnett’s ferocious put-back slam that sealed the game, Paul Pierce’s consecutive threes to open the lead, and, yeah, OK, Pierce’s injury. It wasn’t much of a turning point — the whole thing felt a little anticlimactic to me, and no, this is not Willis Reed — but without the benefit of retrospect, it was a pretty big deal.

Of course, Pierce was just faking. Totally faking. So says the Plaschkenator:

The “Rocky” theme played. The crowd roared. Pierce hobbled out with drama dripping from every step. He was so hurt, he immediately began sprinting around the stunned Lakers defenders. He was in such pain, he hit consecutive three pointers late in the period that gave the Celtics the lead for good.

Beyond the obvious rejoinder here — the fact that people sometimes do play extremely well under pain — Bill is aware of the concept that some injuries heal quickly, right? As he notes, the Celtics diagnosed Pierce with a strained meniscus. So are the Celtics faking the diagnosis? Or is it an injury prone to short bursts of pain, followed by a fast recovery. Ballhype commenter Jahneevotz explains all:

With that kind of injury mechanism, you can flip the corner of a meniscus over within your knee joint.  The meniscus is the moon shaped fibrocartilage structure between the femoral and tibial articular surfaces.  This results in some excruciating pain similar to stepping on a sharp piece of glass.  But since your muscles are contracting across the knee and pulling the joint surfaces together, the pain doesn’t immediately go away when you unload the limb.  Then, given relaxation or manipulation, the joint space can be opened up and the meniscus can flop back flat and the pain is gone.

That sounds like an educated, scientific explanation for Pierce’s game last night. But no, I’m going with Plaschke on this one. Pierce faked it for the drama. Totally.

Noted Boston white people stacking for the bloods

May 1st, 2008 | Posted by PostmanE

Well, this is awkward. At the intersection of Paul Pierce randomly throwing up the pinched thumb-index glory that is the Blood calling card — or something like that; I’m in way over my head here — and actual gangsterism comes these photos, via Injury Rate at FanIQ. Little known fact: Tommy Points are like white people’s reppin’. Really, this makes total sense.