They were the current champions, but they were on the ropes. It was the situation that the Celtics were experiencing in the first round of the 2009 Eastern Conference playoffs. The conquest of the title the previous year gave room for a possible new dynasty that never arrived. And that was, in part, due to the knee injury that Kevin Garnett suffered at the time, the absolute support of that team even though the MVP of the Finals fell to Paul Pierce in 2008, in the first green pride ring since 1986. The February 19, in the first game that the Celtics played after an All Star to which Garnett had returned for the 12th consecutive time, the power forward fell. Between March 20 and 25, he tried to return with limited minutes, adding 4 more games… but the relapse made it impossible for him to return that season and it didn’t take long for what was an open secret to be announced: he would not be in the playoffs. Bad thing.
The Celtics were left orphaned by Tom Thibodeau’s defense general, now coach of the Knicks and then assistant to Doc Rivers and promoter of a system of which Garnett was the epicenter. The absence of the star promoted Glenn Davis to the starting position, with all that this entails on both sides of the court. And it forced Rajon Rondo, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce to exploit, who in those playoffs added an extraordinary wave of minutes on the court. The rotation is shortened in the playoffs, but the Celtics’ rotation became almost nonexistent. And the defeat in the first game of the first round of the playoffs against the Bulls, after overtime and at the Garden, predicted a difficult path full of difficulties. Plugging holes was very difficult without Garnett on a tactical level, but the fact that he was missing also affected the greens mentally, orphaned by the spirit of a player who watched all the games dressed in a suit from the bench, something that partially helped, but did not It reached the level that its presence provided.
The rival didn’t help either: those Bulls were young and beardless. Almost neophytes when it comes to playing in the playoffs, with nothing to lose and a lot to gain, a complicated combination. Even more so if the challenge invites revolution: the Celtics won 62 times that season and were favorites for the title along with LeBron James’ Cavaliers and Kobe Bryany and Pau Gasol’s Lakers. That nomenclature further encouraged the Bulls who had a rising Derrick Rose, a consolidated Ben Gordon full of experience, the contribution of Brad Miller from the bench and an administration that invited the challenge: Joakim Noah, John Salmons, Tyrus Thomas or Kirk Hinrich were around. Luol Deng’s loss due to injury was important, but not as important as Garnett’s. And the project was sought to be raised by Vinny del Negro, a coach dedicated almost entirely to evil, as questioned in form as in substance, but who was chosen during that time to promote projects in their beginnings before stepping aside to give room for a better technician, something that was not complicated either. In the Bulls he was replaced by Tom Thibodeau and then, in the Clippers, Doc Rivers. He never liked her much and never cared. He used to be into other things… and then he had an opportunity for revolution, a situation in which coaches (quite) more outstanding than him have not been able to find themselves.
Data from an amazing series
The tie did not disappoint anyone: there were seven overtimes in total, there were seven games, five of them were decided by 3 or fewer points, in the seventh there was a fight until the end and only the third allowed a comfortable advantage, in favor of the Celtics (86-107). The fourth game had two overtimes, the fifth one and the sixth, with three, featured 51 points from Ray Allen and 9 triples, a record at that time. Until exhaustion, the Celtics fought and stayed afloat out of pride and honor, entrusted to a heavenly Rajon Rondo, who at 23 years old had no problems taking over the baton of the team and showing his best defensive version, which began the previous season and he remained intermittent when he left the Boston entity, back in 2014. The point guard averaged 19.4 points, 9.3 rebounds and 116 assists, in addition to 2.7 steals for only 2.1 turnovers, in addition to achieving 2 triple-doubles. Tremendous.
And he was not alone: Ray Allen averaged 23.4 points with more than 46% in triples, Paul Pierce stayed at 23.1, Glenn Davis supplied Garnett well with 18.1 points and 6.7 rebounds, while Kendrick Perkins He showed the most dominant level of his career (13.3+11.6), even resembling a good basketball player. Rondo, with more than 45 minutes per night and a maximum of 57:30 in the three overtime duel (out of a possible 63), while four Celtics players went more than 40, all of them mentioned except Perkins, who It reached 37.9. This was also a common denominator in the Bulls: Ben Gordon, Derrick Rose and John Salmons exceeded 40 minutes per night, the first went to more than 24 points (the top of the tie) with 37% in triples and 42 points in the second round; Rose went to 19.7+6.3+6.4, Salmons to 18.1, Brad Miller played at a good level (10.3+7.9) and Noah showed that he could be a very tough interior and that In his role he did it like no one else: 10.1, with more than 13 rebounds on average. Very good statistics.
The Celtics win… but lose
In total, the Celtics scored 788 points in the series compared to 758 from their rivals, an average of 112.5 compared to 108.2 from the Bulls, who scored this whopping amount against a team that in the regular season received only 93.4, being thus the third best defense in the NBA. Garnett’s loss was noticeable in that and Doc Rivers’ team had to overachieve in attack to survive a young team, with fresh legs and a lot of future potential, which came to nothing when it seemed like it would have everything because of the injury. that Derrick Rose suffered in the 2012 playoffs. That was the end of the aspirations of said project, which with Thibodeau on the bench reached the Conference finals in 2011, but fell by the wayside when it was thought that it was its time because of those things that They escape people’s control, injuries that deprived us of seeing, as in the case of someone else (do you remember a certain Brandon Roy?) to one of the most promising careers of the 21st century.
The Celtics, who won that series, remained in the next round. They went 3-2 in the series against the Magic, who beat the Greens without Garnett and then the Cavaliers with LeBron, whom they tied up in an ode to basketball that today remains the pinnacle of Stan Van Gundy as coach and the memory of a heavenly Dwight Howard. The favorable result was not enough for the Celtics or Doc Rivers, an expert at losing favorable leads. They lost the sixth game in Orlando (83-75) and entrusted themselves to the power of the Garden and a fan who knows and understands basketball and was about to breathe their last breath from the stands. But it was not enough: 82-101 was the confirmation that the forces had run out and that Garnett’s loss was too painful to ignore. A setback for which no one is to blame, but which prevented the Celtics from winning more rings, even though they remained competitive until 2012 (they fell 4-3 in the Conference finals) and even though they played in the 2010 Finals (also 4-3, this time against the Lakers).
The pools did not go completely wrong, since the Lakers took the ring, the fourth of a Kobe Bryant who achieved his long-awaited redemption and had an eternally postponed reconciliation with Phil Jackson. The Black Mamba finally won without the long shadow of Shaquille O’Neal at their side and won one more title to complete the hand in the following season, with that victory against the same Celtics that feature in these lines. A team that failed to extend the success of 2008, but that in 2009 gave us one of the most exciting qualifying rounds of the 21st century, one that came in a fast-paced first round, full of hot flashes and tense situations, and in which the experience It allowed them to emerge, no matter how much the legs said that another similar feat was unthinkable for the next round. Of course, those overtimes remain to be remembered, that clutch time, the impossible shots, the capacity of an immeasurable Rondo who overcame the constant physical burdens of his rivals (Noah savagely threw him to the ground in the seventh game) or those 51 points from Ray Allen. A fantastic series that managed to show that in the NBA anything is possible. Or almost.
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2023-12-26 11:18:25
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