When Nate Robinson was traded from New York to the Boston Celtics most fans said "Huh"?? Nate Robinson??!! just didn't seem to be the player this team needed. Not young, not tall, not playing very much and he had never played in a post-season game. The team was hurt,tired and playing ugly and the move just didn't seem to make any sense...til last night. This team that all the pundits said was too old, too banged up and on their way out shocked the basketball planet and are now on their way to where only they believed they would be heading-the NBA finals.
The Celtics did this by playing like Champions and looking like the best team in the NBA which they just may be-a far cry from the team that couldn't win a game down the stretch. Seven weeks ago if anyone had said the Celtics would not only be in the NBA finals but would get their in a commanding way no one in the basketball world, or even the greenest fan, would have believed it. The team had a 27-27 record in the last 54 games of the season, consistently blowing leads in the 4th quarter and looking like they just couldn't finish a game. The Celtics were not on the radar screen as the playoffs approached..sure because of an early season win streak we would be there but it would be a train wreck...but this team was good in the early season, nothing changed with who they were, they didn't suddenly wake up and get old, but they looked it and we all were thinking its time to rebuild...Unless you were living inside the Celtics locker room and Doc Rivers was your coach.
Doc knew that winning games then wasn't what it was about --whether they liked it or not he sat his key players and limited their court time in those last weeks of the season, the team lost but Doc knew he just needed to get his team to the end, get them rested and get them healthy and then he would have the weapons he would need to sleigh the giants of the NBA one at a time including the King-LeBron James. He was right. By the start of the playoffs his group of banged up octogenarians looked like kids, Kevin Garnett played like he was 18 and the Big Three moved aside just enough to let the future roll through as Rajon Rondo led the team and blew away the competition. The Celtics were where only they believed they belonged and they knew what they had to do as they startled the teams they met...the Heat and the Cavaliers were taken care of and with a commanding 3-0 lead in the Eastern Conference finals it looked like a done deal-Beat LA. The Celtics,however, suddenly lost their defense and their drive and found themselves up only 3 games to 2. Somehow someway The Orlando Magic came back from the dead and won two straight but Game 6 was on the garden floor-where real Magic can happen. This town was a nervous wreck..deja vu all over again?? Injuries, fatigue,age,karma..The Bruins were up 3-0 after all and look where they landed. No one wearing green last night exhaled til the final 60 seconds, even with a lead as much as 22 it just never felt secure, we were just waiting for that 4th quarter crumble...but the Celtics had no intention of going back to Orlando-this was their 7th game.
We had not seen a whole lot of Mr. Robinson and what we saw just left us shaking our heads, but with his starting players in early foul trouble and his star point guard shaken up in the first quarter Doc Rivers brought in the player that he had told reporters would win "us a playoff game" and with 13 second quarter points he just very well may have done that. Nate Robinson had only played about 16 minutes total in the playoffs but Doc Rivers kept telling him "Stay engaged. At some point you're going to win a game for us. I can't tell you when you're going to play, I can't tell you if you're going to play, on what night at least, but at some point you're going to win a game for us." Last night the player most people didn't even remember was on the team became the spark that sent the Magic home and this morning Boston is Mr. Robinson's neighborhood and the Celtics are in the NBA Finals! where they DO belong.
