By Mike Conway
This year the NBA playoffs are almost over and it is still unclear who will reign supreme over all. The four teams left in the playoffs are the Boston Celtics, the Miami Heat, the San Antonio Spurs, and the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The Thunder, who are a relatively young team are looking to make a name for them, in an attempt to win their first championship in NBA history. Their only opponent left, are the experienced Spurs. Led by Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginobili, the spurs won the first game in the series, but only beat Oklahoma City by a few points.
The Thunder, while they are down in the series are not a team to be counted out as they beat the prominent Los Angeles Lakers four games to won, in the previous series. Led by superstar Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook this key duo is the main reason for the overall success of the team.
Over on the other side of the country, the Heat and Celtics square off to try and reach the NBA finals. While both teams are filled with championship players, the Heat are looking to return to the finals for a second straight time but this time to win. As last year they reached the finals on the skill of their big three, LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh. While it seemed apparent that they would win, they were defeated by the Dallas Mavericks, who beat the Heat for their first NBA championship ever.
LeBron James, the key factor to the Heat’s success is still without a ring and having been to the Finals before is eager to try and win a second time.
The Boston Celtics, who rely on their rich history of winning, are very used to playoff pressure as they have overcome teams like the Lakers to become champions. The Celtics though are good at winning are sometimes very inconsistent when it comes to shooting and they have problems capitalizing in important situations.
To get to the Eastern conference Finals the Celtics had to beat the Philadelphia 76ers, who proved they were a tough team to beat. The Celtics-76ers matchup got pushed to a game 7, as the Celtics blew a huge lead during one of their games.
While this disheartened many Celtics fans, the Celtics got their act together and finished off the 76ers for good, winning the chance to compete against the Heat.
The Celtics usually rely on their big three, Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen. While Allen had been injured the past few games it is no excuse as Chris Bosh is also injured, turning the Heat’s big three into the big two.
Besides the fact that LeBron James, had a crushing 32 points it seems other Heat players are stepping up and doing their part in Bosh’s absence. Players like Dwayne Wade (22), and Shane Battier (10). Another player who did exceptional last night was Heat Guard Mike Miller, who came off the bench and put up 8 points or the Heat. While eight is a small number of points in basketball it is pretty helpful considering he came off the bench.
With a strong bench, and powerful starters it seems that the Heat are unstoppable, but if there is anything the Celtics have proven it is that they love to have a comeback.
One thing during the game that was very shocking was the amount of technical fouls that the Celtics acquired during the game. While they were in Miami, even the commentators on ESPN disagreed with the referees calls.
Rajon Rondo and Ray Allen where both called on technical fouls, also Boston was called for two more technical fouls. Then as unusual as it seemed Boston head coach Doc Rivers, was called for a technical foul. With a total of 5 technical penalties, some thought that the game would have been different, or a lot closer.
But at the end of the day you cannot blame fouls (whether bogus or not) on a loss like that. While the Celtics had a bad loss it is still early and for both matchups it is anyone’s game.
