The Finals the entire basketball-watching world is praying for, Celtics-Lakers, is still on track. Sort of. As long as Boston figures out how to win on the road, because it couldn't do it against an Atlanta team with the most tepid home-court advantage in the league, maybe in any of the major sports. Good luck in Cleveland in this round -- and, if the Celtics get that far, in Auburn Hills, Mich., in the East finals. If the Pistons get that far, considering how they slept through major portions of the Philadelphia 76ers series and the first half of the opener of the semifinal against the Orlando Magic.
It's worth repeating every postseason: The NBA isn't using the officials to engineer matchups, and refs aren't trying to protect stars. The whistle-blowers are just really, really bad at what they do. Incompetence, not fraud. Problem is, they've done nothing so far to debunk the old theories. Case in point: exactly one suspension has been handed out, to the Washington Wizards' Darius Songaila (against the Cavaliers' LeBron James; more on him later), for what was at best the fifth-most flagrant foul of that series.
Meanwhile, in Game 4 of the Celtics-Hawks series, players literally went face-to-face, Kevin Garnett shoved a ref, and at least one player from each team left the bench to get a better view -- and no league discipline. Consistent application of punishment -- what's that?
The Wizards are gone, which pleases those who tired quickly of their nonstop LeBron-baiting. But in exiting, they provided a valuable service -- they showed it's disturbingly easy to get under King James' skin. The same for his coach, Mike Brown, who begged for calls like the guys begging for spare change downtown, expressing daily and nightly his belief that James is not only the epitome of American manhood, but also the greatest victim of injustice since Nelson Mandela was released.
It all helped make the Cavs the postseason's nails-on-the-chalkboard team. If the D.C. crowd pushed Cleveland's buttons, what do you think is in store for it in Boston?
Of course, that's a question we all can ask about the entire remaining NBA postseason. What's in store for us? Should we hope for the best? And what do we do if, as in the first round, we don't get it?
david.steele@baltsun.com
Listen to David Steele on Wednesdays at 9 a.m. on WNST (1570 AM).
