Post by Jeff Wilson

The question is am I or is anyone feeling green enough to write anything about the Celtics on a day when the NBA rulers of the hardwood universe have said: “The NBA has cancelled the first two weeks of the regular season”…two weeks gone”. What are we all going to do in this –period of the big no show? So lets trickle this thing down to what it really costs at least in dollars. I know in the Nobel Prize version of the finals, in this case the study of Economics; there are tons of theory leading to published papers on all kinds of devised tools and models to analyze everything from how changes in interest rates and taxes affect growth and inflation. To how households and companies adjust their expectations as conditions and policies shift. (This years award winners subjects. yawn!) But what I would study is how and to what affect this loss of two weeks of regular season will have on Celtic nation across the nation. So I will start with the obvious. Ticket sales – lets take 18,000 at an average of $40.00 each that is about $900,000 now times that by about 6 games missed so far….opps that like 5.4 million dollars. Or as someone said today on NPR (I love that network, don’t just cancel two weeks of news just because the writers don’t like what the announcers are saying) it will cost the NBA something like $700 million dollars each month they do not hoop. 700 Million dollars those are Obama-sized numbers – that’s large.

So what does it cost the rest of us? How much does it cost the doorman, the counterman, the pizza deliveryman, the barman and just the man, man. No I did not forget the women. Man, I just do not remember seeing any women doormen when I come to Boston to see a few games last December. So what is the true cost to the local bars, pubs, and sport’s bars and sports pubs? Not only in drinks and food and stuff that gets bought. But the cost to us, the fans, the little people that put the gold on all of them that is what is undeterminable. I mean some of us ain’t got much else, especially these days to bury our heads into. Nope I will not be buying my cable NBA package. Nope I won’t be buying my Hoops magazines when I go traveling. And nope I won’t be online with that ticket hub place getting tickets. So what is the total cost?  All I can say its way too much in terms of missing out on something we love. Listening to Tommy and Mike. Watching Doc. And seeing, no feeling that pride comes alive when our guys are hooping.

So why can’t the owners and the players figure it out. Can’t both the haves and the haves have enough to keep have not’s in game? It’s more than business. It’s more than dollar signs with some crazy insane many zeros behind numbers, like an unsolvable math problem. Unfortunately the problem is the owners and the players all forgot who got them there, who gave them the power in the first place. So I hope in the words of another, more infamous than famous person with the last name King, this one with the first name Rodney – “can we all get along”? I would ask can we? Or better can they?

Reports out of Celtics camp this morning indicate that injured Celtic center Shaquille O’Neal will not play in tonight’s game two match-up against the Miami Heat.

Shaq reportedly looked great in practice Monday, at the University of Miami, but was unable to shake the soreness plaguing the injured area Tuesday morning. As a result, the Celtics will keep Shaq on the shelf in hopes of having him be able to go in game three.

Rajon Rondo’s 11 trips to the line on Sunday were his most of the series. Rondo’s struggles at the line continued calling into question why teams fail to out right foul him as much as humanly possible? The theory seems like one of  the only ways to shut or at the very least slow Rondo down. Rondo devastated the Knicks with his willingness and determination to drive to the hoop on virtually every possession. Opposing teams need to work to keep Rondo out of the paint in order to increase their odds of hoping to contain him.  Rondo is not going to beat teams with his jump shot, he is the most deadly driving to the lane and either laying it in or handing the ball off for an easy bucket.

The Celtics offense is only as effective as Rondo makes it. His tentativeness over the last few weeks grew apparent as he was not driving to the hoop as much and even when he did, he looked to pass first. This sluggish stretch is what many Boston fans like to refer to as the time when Rondo was dealing with the sadness of losing his BFF Kendrick Perkins.

This sudden wake up call in the playoffs has opposing coaches freaking out as to how they are going to stop the 2010-2011 Boston Celtics. At at least one point in the Knicks series, each member of the starting five was unstoppable and that can only lead to good things this post season. As of right now, a major weakness for the team is Rondo’s inability to convert from the free thrown line and coaches may begin to hone in on this looking to exploit it to their advantage.

On the series, Rondo was 14-for-26 or 53.9% from the line.