Hardball Heaven

It's been like watching a Dice-K pitching performance, this tractor-pull of a playoff game between the Celts and the LeBrons. We're currently in the 4th quarter, with just over 4 minutes left, and the Celts are leading by a slim 3 points. It has truly been ugly, and when you consider that the Cavs are this close despite LeBron having only 4 points, it's a little scary. Mr. James could go off at any moment.

For the Celts, Garnett has been a one-man show, and Allen and Pierce have mostly been no-shows. Rondo has also played a good game so far. With 3 minutes now left, Pierce and Allen need to contribute down the stretch. Gibson just hit a three for Cleveland and we're all knotted up at 68. Pierce and Allen still can't get anything to drop. Allen looks, well, old.

The Cavs take the lead briefly, but KG nails a long-range jumper to tie it at 70. For a big man, Garnett's shooting range is pretty damn impressive. Uh-oh. LeBron's driving and slicing, and that big Russian dude - Z - is there to gobble up any rebounds. Celts now lead 74-72, and James Posey - who's been superglued to LeBron all night - hits two free throws to make it 76-72. Eight and a half seconds left, and let's hope we don't have a Detroit clock moment. And it's over. C's win. It wasn't pretty, which all the idiots on sports talk radio tomorrow will remind us, but they got it done. To be honest, this was the game I was worried about after the big win over the Hawks. Now the Celts can re-load and Pierce and Allen can get their shit together and take some of the load off KG. By the way, Allen scored zero points tonight, the first time he's been shut out since his rookie season in 1996. LeBron finished with 12 points on 2 for 18 shooting. Just a weird night all around.

Word has it some other pro sports team from Boston was also playing tonight. The Sox - on a quietly efficient little winning run here - beat the Tigers 5-0 behind Tim Wakefield. Wake's a notoriously quick worker when he's in a groove - tonight's game lasted only 2 hours, 10 minutes, or roughly the same time it takes a wicked fast Kenyan to win the Boston Marathon. It's hard to believe that the Tigers - who made a big splash by getting both Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis - are this bad. I'm liking how the Sox are looking - they're deep. Oh yeah - almost forgot - Papi and Manny both hit bombs tonight, back to back in the seventh inning. Manny's at 497 and counting.