CelticsBlog and Adam at Universal Hub have pointed us to plenty of reading material today. We thought we'd spotlight some of our favorite bits: -- "Garnett, close to tears, said to Russell, 'Did I make you proud? Did I make you proud?' Russell said, 'Yes, you did.' Garnett embraced Russell even harder, leaned in close to his ear, and said, 'I got one of my own. I got one of my own.' I bet I......

This was just about as sweet as anything could ever be. Was there a time when we wondered if Danny Ainge knew what he was doing when he swung the Ray Allen trade on Draft Day? (Well, yes, we did.) Was there any worry that three guys, who were used to being the big dog, would learn to share the ball? Was there frustration and terror after being pushed to the brink by a neophyte......

Objectively, the Celtics are right where we want them. They did their job and took one in LA, and have two chances to finish the Lakers off at home. Realistically, though, the C's had a golden opportunity - just waiting there - to snatch another game, and thus the series, away from the Lakers last night, but just couldn't finish it off. The Celtics did themselves no favors by digging another monster hole in the......

12:02: Allen fouls Kobe to stop the clock. He's gone, and so is this game. Anyone who really thinks this LA team can win two at the Garden? We see a Game Six where the Celtics don't dig themselves into an early 19-point hole, and this sucker ends Tuesday night. We'll keep our fingers crossed... 12:01: Fisher's free throw makes it a 5-point game. Good thing each team has 14 timeouts, there was a chance......

NOTE: We're going to try to liveblog the Finals again tonight, so check in around 9 to make sure everything's working. It may get a little incoherent near the end. We hope so, anyway. With the Red Sox doing their Interleague Tour, Terry Francona has to juggle the lineup a bit, and give guys days off that they don't need or want, since they have to play by National League rules, which don't allow the......

All right, fess up. Who went to bed at halftime? We confess, we spent a good chunk of time planning to ditch the bar (sorry the liveblog didn't work out, but the first hour would have just been a steady stream of cuss words anyway), as the Celtics played a first quarter that would have shamed the 1997 "let's get Tim Duncan" team. The offense was inept, the defense was inept, Doc stood there watching......

Bullpen troubles? Late inning collapses? The Sox have been dealing with these issues lately, so the offense did the helpful thing and staked starter Bartolo Colon to a 5-run first-inning lead last night at Fenway. Jason Varitek, woozy and eventually replaced, capped the first off with a 3-run homer (his seventh) and JD Drew (now hitting 1.043 in June) doubled in a run as well. That gave Colon all he needed, as he cruised through......

We, to be honest, had the exact opposite of high hopes for last night's game. The Lakers were going to be in front of their home crowd, energized, with the referees desperate to be on their side to avoid another four-hankie Phil Jackson press conference. And if you'd told us before the game that Paul Pierce would be a train wreck, KG would be way off his shot, and Rondo would get hurt, we'd assume......

If you were with us all last night, you know what an intense game it was. The Celtics struggled at first, then spent the middle two quarters blowing LA off the floor, before getting silly and sloppy and watching LA take a 24-point lead down to two before Pierce and Posey iced it, 108-102, from the free throw line. We could talk about all that. But we'd rather talk about Leon Powe. The guy who......

Well, sending the JV squad out against Felix Hernandez didn't work. Noted. It still wasn't the full Murderers' Row on display at Fenway yesterday, but it was plenty enough, as the Sox' bats awoke to clobber the Mariners 11-3. The most important element of the lineup was Manny, who finally deigned to hit one in front of the Fenway fans. Number 504 gave the Sox and Tim Wakefield a 2-0 lead in the first, which......

One quarter of the way there. And in the matchup of the MVP versus the defensive team of the year, the Celtics shook off some first-half shakiness to put the defensive hammer down on LA, flummoxing Kobe Bryant and company and taking Game One of the Finals 98-88. As electric as the Finals atmosphere was (most of the drunks and pink hats seemed to have been replaced by actual basketball fans), the Garden was treated......

Does this game really have to start at 9? The fretting, the pacing, the worrying, the shot after shot of tequila - can't the NBA string this brutal and glorious anticipation out for three more hours? How about midnight basketball? No, it's going to start at 9. Or 9:07 or 9:15 or whatever. The Celtics and the Lakers are finally going to play basketball. It's almost impossible to sift through all the previews and projections,......

A June battle with Tampa Bay for first place? Is that what we've got tonight? Really? Well...yeah. And the Sox had to scramble yesterday to put first on the line tonight. Down 4-3 in the sixth (three runs on homers by Lowell and Drew), the Sox hit the Rays for four game-winning runs. The Sox loaded the bases unconventionally (HBP, error, walk), then got an RBI single from Varitek and a 2-run double from the......

The pressure's off. We thought Manny Ramirez was the one guy on the planet who pressure couldn't get to, but he obviously had the Quest for 500 on his mind the last few weeks, in between radio signals from Neptune. Now that that's done, Manny can just do his thing, which he did yesterday, homering again and going 3-5 with 3 RBI in the Sox' 9-4 win at Baltimore. Manny broke a 1-1 tie with......

All right, guys. You've done this 77 times this year, in every corner of the country, against everyone that's come to the other side of the court. Play your game, find your shots, play defense, don't be shy, and the Pistons will be nothing more than a series of bruises and a memory. We love going to games at the Garden, but we're happy to wait a week to see you again. Seal the deal......

We wish we'd thought of this first: the perfect metaphor for these Eastern Conference Finals. Everybody's exhausted, everybody keeps fighting, and everyone streaming out of the Garden last night felt like they just went 15 rounds with a giant chicken. Yes, really. But in the end, it's the Celtics with a 3-2 lead after last night's 106-102 knock-down, drag-out, stomach-punch Game Five. And with the Celtics' bench almost completely useless, they had to turn to......

Let's start with the good news. Manny Ramirez finally broke out of his home run slump, and cracked career shot #499, a three-run shot off Seattle's Miguel Batista. Um, that's about it. The bad news is that Seattle won, 4-3, on a Jose Lopez single off Mike Timlin in the ninth. Julio Lugo got tossed for arguing a check swing, and Terry Francona was dismissed early when he came out to challenge it. "'Bout time,"......

Is it possible the Celtics somehow transferred their Amulet of Not Being Able To Win On The Road to the Red Sox? True, the C's need it more right at this moment, but the Sox have to play better than they recently have in Minnesota, Baltimore, and now Oakland. Jon Lester's bid for his second straight no-hitter ended with the leadoff hitter, as Jack Hannahan singled to open things up. The shutout ended a few......

And just like that, the epic story of the Celtics' postseason road failures is over. The C's built a big lead, survived a Detroit run, built another big lead, survived another Detroit run, and walked out of the Palace of Auburn Hills up 2-1 with a 94-80 win. Home-court advantage is back, the haters and doubters are quiet, and all is more or less right with the world. Until we get to the Sox, that......

Outnumbered? Well, if you count Motown Steve Javie as wearing a Detroit jersey over his referee's uniform. Endless moaning about the refs is for losers and Spurs, so we'll keep it brief. We'll just say that if you have the desire to send Richard Hamilton any fan mail, just address it to the free throw line at the Garden; it's the one place he's sure to be found. Outgunned? Well, yeah. The Pistons, who have......

Remember during rerun season a few years ago, one of the networks, instead of trying something different, since there are 300 million people in the country and we still can't come up with anything better than Two and A Half Men reruns during the summer, trotted out the ham-fisted, "if you haven't seen it, it's new to you!" promotion? Well, Bartolo Colon may not be a loveable kid with a brilliant backstory like Jon Lester,......

Kinda feels like we stole one, doesn't it? The Celtics were supposed to be drained, physically and emotionally, from two long series and an emotional, close Game Seven win over Cleveland. The Pistons - bloodless, businesslike, and used to this - were well-rested after dispatching Orlando back in late February (seems like it anyway). Instead, the Pistons played like a rusty old team with a banged-up superstar, and the C's dispatched them 88-79. Or maybe......

Most of the attention this year was on Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen got his share. But there was always a sense that Paul Pierce, lifetime Celtic and underrated fierce competitor, was just biding his time, waiting for one of his patented take-over-the-game fourth quarters, waiting for the time machine to 2002. Fourth quarter? Try the whole game. LeBron James, left high and dry by his woeful teammates, played about as well as one man......

Maybe a scheduled day off and a rainout were the tonic the Sox needed to find themselves again. Maybe the Brewers were just incredibly overmatched. Whatever the reason, the Sox find themselves back in a virtual tie for first after sweeping Milwaukee yesterday at Fenway. Game One, which had to start at 3:55 because God forbid anybody do anything that would upset Fox's precious stranglehold on the Saturday schedule, belonged utterly and completely to Daisuke......

Who can forget September 7, 1997? Just in case you did, it's the last time the Milwaukee Brewers played at Fenway Park. The Sox staked Butch Henry to a 6-0 lead after three innings, and the hits kept on coming as the Sox won 11-2. John Valentin homered twice, and homers also came from Troy O'Leary, Jeff Frye(!), Bill Haselman and Wil Cordero. So you can see why Milwaukee was anxious to get the hell......

This was borderline ugly. And for about fifteen minutes, there was no borderline. For much of the first half, the Celtics looked like every dire prediction about them was going to come true: they were bound to let a home game slip away, nobody had the guts to take a shot, LeBron was eventually going to step up and start carving through them. But late in the second quarter, Ubuntu kicked in. Rajon Rondo, who......

"...full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing." - Shakespeare, Macbeth Matt Walsh had his moment in the sun, and it turned out to be a whole lot of nothin'. The ex-Patriots employee promised tales of treachery and devious deeds, and hinted that he had shelves full of damning evidence. Just before the Superbowl, the Herald bit, and published Walsh's claim that the Pats taped St. Louis' final walkthrough before Superbowl XXXVI. Yesterday, Walsh met for......

With all the recent sterling performances by Red Sox pitchers, for some reason they decided to try something different last night. Tim Wakefield didn't finish three innings, as he gave up homers to Craig Monroe and Adam Everett to help stake Minnesota to a 7-1 lead. But the Sox don't go away that easily. They scratched out three in the fourth, and the suddenly-red-hot Coco Crisp's homer in the seventh cut the lead to 8-6,......

It might be important to remind yourself this morning that the Celtics have home-court advantage, and they could still go 16-12 in the playoffs, 0-12 on the road, and still hold up a trophy in June. But the sad and sorry fact remains that they're 0-4 on the road in the playoffs, and last night they committed the worst sin of all: they were defensively rotten and just plain uncompetitive. With LeBron James still way......

Hey, remember when the knock on the Celtics was their depth? Remember when everyone assumed Ghidorah would play great and then all hell would break loose when the second unit came in? Think Cleveland is remembering those predictions wistfully? The first quarter last night was a hangover from Game One. Ghidorah was still struggling (we were ready to call for a wheelchair to escort Ray Allen off the floor, if not a gurney). LeBron James......