The Celtics Don't Make Sense

If I told you in January, when the Celtics looked old, busted, and done that Mickael Pietrus — a new arrival who’d gotten off to a hot start — would help win a crucial game in the Eastern Conference Finals by draining two clutch threes and going 5-8 from the field, you’d have replied that I was crazy. Sure Pietrus can shoot, but there’s no way the Celtics could make it to the Eastern Conference Finals. And if I had told you in March or April, when the Celtics were on fire and beginning their rampage toward the playoffs, that Mickael Pietrus would help win a crucial game in the Eastern Conference Finals by draining two clutch threes and going 5-8 from the field, you’d have replied that I was crazy. Sure the Celtics could get there, but it’s been three months since Pietrus has been able to hit a shot. The guy’s been so off he might have missed Boston Harbor if he tried to dump tea into it. At no point during the season would the outcome of last night’s game made sense. Especially not with Rajon Rondo, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen going a combined 11 for 43 from the field. And yet, here we are. The Celtics are up 3-2 on the Heat, with a chance to close it out at the Garden.

And that really is the great thing about the Celtics’ season: nothing makes sense. It doesn’t make sense that 36-year-old Kevin Garnett is playing some of his best basketball since he got to town, it doesn’t make sense that Ray Allen, with bone spurs in his ankles, has been able to learn how to not only knock down shots with bum feet, but keep up with his man on D, and it doesn’t make sense that Paul Pierce has basically made us all forget that he’s playing on a sprained knee.

The role players have made no sense either. Marquis Daniels, who played truly awful all season long, came up huge in Game 3. And now Keeyon Dooling and Pietrus are both draining threes.

And then, of course, there’s Rondo, who just generally defies logic in pretty much every way possible.

So what could sum up this jumble of wonderful bizarreness? How about a play where Dwayne Wade makes a spectacular block on a Brandon Bass dunk attempt, only for Rondo to make the most literally unbelievable pass I’m pretty sure I’ve ever seen by tipping the ball to Pietrus so that he could drill a three, despite having only shot 24.5 percent from distance in the playoffs. Oh yes, and all of this will totally turn the momentum of the game with 6 minutes left in the 4th quarter and the Celtics falling dangerously behind. As a wise man once said, anything is possible.