As a Basketball Fan since the first time I have held a basketball, I still can’t help but think about how Boston finished their glorious season against their closest Rival, The Lakers.
Words can’t really describe how they dominated, obliterated, massacred, or any word that you can possibly think will best fit, on how their opponents lost on the last game of the NBA finals. But they made sure that even if the Celtics had a comfortable lead, they imposed their will to win to the last second. And how did they do that? Because of Defense.
In the world of sports, the most underrated side of each game is the defense. And for every championship coach, the neverending subject that they always preach is defense. It’s very cliche that our earbuds get hurt a lot when we hear it. Somewhat like how it hurts how we get told off by our parents of our mistakes. But in both senses, both of them says like one thing, even though it hurts, it is the truth. And only as we accept the truth and how we learn by it makes us better. That’s how the Celtics turned last year’s doormat team into a championship team. By embracing the truth, or shall I say by embracing defense.
How do you explain 18 steals in an NBA finals? How do you make Kobe not score for more than 10 minutes in a game? How do you explain the blowout game against a Lakers team that needs a desperate redemption in a series the team’s down 3-2? To make it more interesting, how do you explain the reason behind these questions were made against a team known this year to be the best, I stress the best, offensive team in the NBA, might as well say the whole world?
All those critics even before the Finals series started all predicted that the Lakers to win. Don’t get me wrong, I have some doubts too due to the fact that they are up against a team that is captained by Kobe Bryant, that the Lakers had the best everything even though the Celtics had PP, KG, and the Jesus. The final game emphatically put a stomp on the fact that it wasn’t a question about the superstars but it was about a team that can cohesively stop the other team. A group of people that embraced how much defense meant to them and how those 5 people merged as 1 team.
In All postseason games, the celtics were not consistent with one thing, which is their offense. They said Rondo is the type of guard who can’t shoot, Paul Pierce was tentative with his shots, Garnett was always critcized on how he played lackluster basketball on the dying stretch of the game and Ray allen who was known for how a deadly marksman he is came to his low. How Eddie House was supposed to be only a shooter and how ancient Sam Cassell and PJ Brown looked on the wooden parquet. But yet again, the one thing that they had, kept, and believed in is how great a team they are, assembled last American summer, denying easy baskets, contesting every shot, sacrificing their bodies, tracking down loose balls, and at the most giving only 1 shot per possession to their opponents. They all did this willingly without no excuses, accepting their own individual shortcomings and crediting the whole team for their successes. In other words, playing scrappy, suffocating and defensive team basketball. They showed that even though they struggled they have matured and relied on that fundamental. Even though their bodies are tired, short of breath and have waited long enough to finish what has always eluded them, up to the last second they never quit giving all they’ve got to defend.
As far as I am concerned, I have no question how good a coach a Mike D’Antoni is, a Don Nelson fastbreak/offense is, or a George Karl-guided Nuggets team is. But never will it cease that a great coach emphasizes what the big D will do for a team. Even the great Michael Jordan will never concede to the idea that he won his six championship rings without Defense and how Tim Duncan and his spurs stood up against the rest of the Western Team on their way to their Championships. That Behind all the stars in Boston gathered so quickly just last year, you don’t hear about how great how they scored this season. You’ll only hear how great they gave Kobe and Lebron a question on how really great these individuals can score against their Team.
Just the resounding chants of those Garden faithful on how they drowned Doc River’s speech, and what the Celtics Players always answer on interviews how strong the sports cliche will always be: Defense will, and always, give you championships.