This should probably go without saying but I'm a big Rod Benson fan. Cracks me up. And I enjoyed his most recent post at Ball Don't Lie, particularly the mask he made in honor of Rip Hamilton's mask extravaganza from last night's halftime. In reading that post and following some links I stumbled upon his description of Boom-Tho-Ness. You should check that out and watch the embedded video. Eventually Benson defends his former Cal teammate for a play that happened in the Atlanta series. Although in hindsight I think the floor was wet.

Last Saturday I was hoping the Celtics would come back to Boston with the series tied 2-2. That's exactly what happened. And yet now I am disappointed. I've narrowed my disappointment down to three reasons:

1. In my last post I ran a poll about whether or not the Celtics would win game 5. There have been spurts of participation and throughout it has been close to 50-50. While I'm assuming that some of those who responded don't like the Celtics the end result feels a lot like how I view this team right now. I have no idea what to expect from this group on any given night.

2. Every time the Celtics have an opportunity to establish themselves as a group of guys people should fear they seem to take a step backward. It has been a maddening sub plot to the the 2008 playoffs. Monday night was no exception.

3. The Celtics still don't have a rotation. That strikes me as troublesome.

Random Thoughts on the Series/Tonight's Game

- If Boston's point guards continue to struggle the ball has to go through either Paul Pierce or Kevin Garnett on every single offensive possession that one of them is out there. If they are both out I'd like to see them run the pick and roll as well.

- Antonio McDyess has been awesome. He hits that mid range jumper with consistency, contends on defense, rebounds and won't back down from anyone. Detroit fans must look at him sometimes, then look at Rasheed Wallace and then enter a confused state.

- Count Rip Hamilton on the list of guys - Joe Johnson and David West are a few others - that I drastically underestimated. He's deadly from all over the court and is a lot tougher, nastier, and more physical than I realized.

- Paul Pierce has labeled this a must-win game and I'm not sure I entirely agree with him. There are 2 Celtics teams. One of them I can envision winning games 6 and 7 to advance to the Finals. The other one I have very little faith in. Which one is going to show up tonight?

I'm not going to blame Doc Rivers for this loss. Rajon Rondo was off, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen struggled from the field and it it were not for a ton of trips to the foul line (39) it would have been a blow out. However, tonight was tailor made for Leon Powe and Eddie House. The Celtics needed something to combat their listless play. And I really believe Powe and House would have helped. Also why did Rivers put Tony Allen in with House and Rondo to close out the half defensively, inadvertently negating a Rondo free throw in the process?

One more thing on Powe. He has great hands. I thought about that several times as P.J. Brown and Glen Davis struggled handling passes in the post. And if you want to know what Powe could bring to the table consider Jason Maxiell's contributions.

Once again I don't want to blame Rivers. Yet a couple of times I wondered if he had wagered on the game. That's about as low as it gets as a fan.

The Celtics offense alternated between over dribbling and over passing. It was difficult to watch.

Celtics fans, myself included, should admit that we would be furious if Detroit shot 39 free throws to Boston's 26. 

Critics of Kevin Garnett point to quarters like tonight's first and wonder why KG refuses to take over offensively. I'm not going down that path again. But it is puzzling.

Boston looked a bit like a team that was content to go home 2-2.

Antonio McDyess and Rip Hamilton are Detroit's top performers right now and it's not even close.

Just a frustrating loss all around. Boston really had an opportunity to look like a serious championship contender. Man it has been a long playoffs.

Arron Afflalo – A rookie out of UCLA, Afflalo may be best known for his collegiate career and announcers stumbling over his last name for some inexplicable reason. To be honest I was a little surprised to see that he played in 75 regular season games (12.9 MPG) and 9 of Detroit’s 11 playoff games thus far. Afflalo entered the Association with the reputation of a defensive stopper that could score as well. Playing 9 minutes per game in the playoffs to this point Afflalo’s statistical contributions have been modest across the board. For what it’s worth he is further along than his former Pac-10 rival Gabe Pruitt. Remember him?

Chauncey Billups – Billups appeared in 3 games against the Orlando Magic but for all intents and purposes was only a factor in 2. Allegedly he is healed and ready to go. Regardless Rajon Rondo should attack the 11th year player and test that hamstring. On the flipside Billups is a match up nightmare for Sam Cassell, Eddie House and Rondo. That’s why I’d like to see the former Celtic work on the defensive end of the court. In closing check out what I wrote about Billups prior to Boston’s first game against Detroit, way back in December:

"On a team full of Celtics killers he might be the number one guy. He's a big point guard that creates all types of match up problems. And we all remember how the Ricktator shipped him out of town after 51 games. But here's my question. Why did it take him so many teams to finally emerge as a player? Billups is not a system guy like Matt Harpring who just had to catch on with the right team. I know his field goal percentages were rough over those first four seasons (39%, 35%, 37%, 34%) and point guards take time to develop. But you're lying if you saw this coming. Finally, Billups is yet another player that was robbed this year. Robbed of the chance to dominate Sebastian Telfair four times a season."

I enjoyed that Telfair joke. And if you click on that old post you’ll notice I recycled the pronunciation point about Afflalo. In closing Billups is supposed to be good friends with Kevin Garnett. Check that best friends. For some reason Tyronn Lue always stands out for me in that story.

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"He doesn't know it's a damn show! He thinks it's a damn fight!" - Apollo Creed's trainer

So I'm watching game 3 of the 76ers/Pistons series and Philly is leading 80-59 as I type this. In fact points 77 and 78 were just scored by Andre Miller on a fast break in which he was flanked by 3 other sprinting 76ers. It was something to behold. More importantly how about the Rocky I parallels? Doesn't Detroit's collective arrogance match Creed's? I think that quote is perfect for this series. And what happens if Philly somehow pulls this series out? All of the sudden Orlando is downright giddy as Detroit is the one team that really seems to have its number. Only time will tell. That's it for now.

Interesting aside. Rip Hamilton and Rasheed Wallace have 41 of those 59 points. Samuel Dalembert is blowing up!