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A day after beating LeBron James and the Miami Heat, the Boston Celtics fell to the LeBron-less Cleveland Cavaliers. Huh?
How do the Celtics look like the Eastern conference champions they are in Game 1, but struggle mightily against a team that will fight to win 30 games this year?
Age.
Look at the Celtics starting five: Shaq (38, 19th season), Garnett (34, 16th season), Allen (35, 15th season), Pierce (34, 14th season) Rondo (young). The first four guys have 60 years of NBA experience and 141 years of age -- and that's fantastic. But it means that on back-to-back nights, it's completely conceivable that they might struggle. To compound this, the Cavs had something to prove last night in their first game without the King.
As Hayden at
RhymesWithHondo put it, "[c]oming off an intense game the night before, in Cleveland against a Cavaliers team eager to prove itself without LeBron James, it stands to reason that the Celtics might have a little bit of a letdown."
So, while the irony may be there, and it may feel a bit like 2009-2010 rather than 2010-2011, this shouldn't come as a huge shock. The Celtics are built for the playoffs--when it really counts--to compete with LeBron and Miami, Dwight and Orlando, and Kobe and L.A. These regular season games are important, but they really can't be seen as
too important.
Labels: basketball, Boston Celtics, etball, Garnett, Lakers, Lebron James, NBA