Celtics back in the NBA Finals

Team effort: Paul Pierce and the Celtics booked themselves a ticket back to the NBA Finals.
(Jim Rogash/NBAE/Getty Images)

Beantown has every reason to celebrate as the Boston Celtics finally vanquished the Orlando Magic 96-84, in Game 6 of Eastern Conference Finals. Despite having a few set backs in the last 2 games, the Celtics were able to clinch a spot in the NBA Finals to face their west coast rival, the L.A. Lakers. It will be a rematch of the NBA Finals back in 2008.

Rajon Rondo brought his A-game despite hitting the floor hard during the game with 14 points and 6 assists. Paul Pierce was in usual self as he scored 31 points with 13 boards to his credit. Kevin Garnett chalked up 10 points and sweet shooting Ray Allen also chipped in 20 points. Coach Doc Rivers wasn't at all surprised of his teams performance:

"The first thing we said when we got in the locker room is this is where we thought we would be," Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. "So, don't be surprised. This is what we talked about before the season started.

"I just believed that I saw what they did and what they had. And we kept saying as a staff, 'It's in us. We've got to try to get it back out of us.'"

The Magic's Vince Carter wasn't much of a factor in game 6 having scored only 17 points. Dwight Howard's 20-10 performance didn't much either albeit his 28 points and 12 rebounds. Orlandos' Superman gave credit to their rivals from Boston of their hard-earned victory:

"[The Celtics] played like they wanted to win the championship the whole series," he added. "That's why they're in the position that they're in now."

An unlikely spark plug in the form of Nate Robinson, came off the bench all fired up -- literally helped his Celtics pull off the win -- that's coming from a player who has only made a few appearances in the playoffs. His teammate Tony Allen gives props to Robinson for his performance:

"Here's a guy that didn't play too much all series and gave us a lift," Tony Allen said. "He was ready for his opportunity and he took clean advantage of it."

A breathe of new life indeed for Nate and now has an opportunity to win his first ever championship. Kendrick Perkins couldn't be more happier of Technical Foul called on him in Game 5 at Orlando. He's got the NBA Commissioner David Stern to thank for -- thus he was able to play in Game 6. The Celtics will have 5 days rest before facing the Lakeshow in June 3 (June 4 in Manila).

Now that the Celtics are back in the finals, fans in Beantown are hoping to win yet another NBA title and perhaps add banner number 18 in the rafters of the TD Garden. With C's starting 5 back in shape, there's no stopping the gang green in taking the NBA Championship back to the east.

On that note, check out this play of Rajon Rondo's dime drop to P-Double for a nice two-handed throwdown.

NBA All Star 2010 Thoughts....

Hey folks! First post for this year. Wasn't able to write something here last January 'coz I had to fix my pc. I'm not gonna get into detail on how I fixed it but the only thing I can say is, everything is working perfectly fine and I have my ultra-fast broadband connection again. That means, I'm back in business and updates will be coming more often -- I hope. I sure have a lot of catching up to do. On that note, time for the update(s)....

All Star Friday

I have rather mixed feelings with this year's NBA All Star Weekend festivities. It's nice that the Rookies dominated the Sophomores in All Star Friday. Glad to see Tyreke Evans getting all the love along with Dejuan Blair as they are co-winners of the Rookies-Sophomores game MVP honor. Evans somehow PWN3D Brandon Jennings in the event although Jennings was impressive in his own right.

All Star Saturday

The second day was very interesting to say the least. Dirk Nowitzki and Co. reppin' Texas winning the Shooting Stars event. I'm sure TNT broadcaster and former NBA player Kenny "The Jet" Smith loved every minute of it. And yes, he can still shoot. Kudos to you Jet. Oh, Kevin Durant defended his title in the H.OR.S.E. game by the way.

Steve Nash made sure he'd win the Skills challenge and that's exactly what he did. D-Rose got schooled (literally) by the Nasty one. Guess, he really wanted that hardware so bad. He may be almost past his prime but his handles are still dope, in my opinion. Nash truly deserves it.

And who'da thought The Truth would win the 3-point Shootout? I guess many underestimated his shooting prowess. The haters were silenced as he became the 3-point shooting king for that event -- giving Chauncey Billups a run for his money. Now the Celtics have another clutch shooter they can rely on (not just Sugar Ray, Sheed and Eddy House), P-Double's got 'em covered, that's for sure.

The Dunk contest this year was a sleeper, literally. A lot of people were disappointed in the main event for that day and I'm obviously one of them. Sure, DeMar DeRozan woke us up with one of his dunks but after that everybody went back to sleep. Congrats to Nate Robinson for winning his 3rd and historical Slam Dunk title nonetheless. No more dunk contests for him next year. Bottomline is, it's like each competitor, including Nate was scared to do something new and different. At least one of them tried. Hope this snooze fest never happens again. Dwight Howard and LeBron James better start thinking about joining the Dunk contest (you too, D-Wade). I wanna see these guys bring the fire back in this event and make people jump from their seats next year. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

All Star Sunday

Ah yes. The All Star game was still exciting as ever. Both the East and West teams had fun and brought their A-game to the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium. I have to admit, that I was happy that Kobe Bryant didn't play. For once, it wasn't about Kobe this year. The MVP trophy was up for grabs yet again. Melo, Bron, CB4 were all eyes on the prize but it was Dwyane Wade who won the MVP hardware. The East beat the West 141-139. It sure got close in the 4th quarter especially with only a few ticks left in the game. One of the best I've seen so far. It's rare that a lot of people in attendance were jeering the East All-Stars especially in the trophy presentation -- something that is totally unexpected.

For me, it was a decent All Star event. I pretty much enjoyed watching the events but I can't say the same thing for the Slam Dunk contest. I look forward to next year's All Star and hope it would be even better.

Lastly, y'all gotta love D-Will's breakaway dunk in the All-Star game. Simply dope!

Thoughts on the All-Star Weekend 2009 Part 1.

Nate "Lex Luthor/KryptoNate" Robinson found Dwight "Superman" Howard's
weakness as he won his 2nd Slam Dunk championship in Phoenix.
(Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images)

Yo! I'm back from a bit of blogging hiatus. A lot has been going in for me these days but right now, it's time to get back in business. Time to do some updates. I kinda missed writing here. I'ma be talking about the first part on some stuff on the All-Star Weekend. So, here we go...

The Rookies-Sophomores game was pretty much entertaining. Although I only got to watch the second half, barely a few minutes left of it but it was all good. The Sophomores won of course and Kevin Durant got the MVP award for getting it done for his team. KD deserves the hardware. Did he just score 40+ points in that game alone? Damn! He beat Amare's 36 points (please correct me if I'm wrong on this) and he just beastin' there. D-Howard and D-Wade were assistant coaches in that game, by the way. Howard was in the Sophomores bench while Wade was on the Rookies side. And Wade was wearing a sort of yellow bow tie(!) to go along with his suit. Is he trying create a fashion statement? Oh well. Terrell Owens was MVP in the Celebrity game (which wasn't aired here I believe or maybe it was but I didn't catch it). He was MVP twice in a row? Amazing.

Who can forget the HORSE (is it still known as GEICO) game? Joe Johnson, OJ Mayo and Kevin Durant (!) slugged it out in that event. I only saw the highlights but they didn't show much of the tricks they did there. I was hoping OJ Mayo would win it but it was KD who won it and added yet another hardware to his collection.

Another event that I enjoyed watching was the Shooting Stars. So glad Team San Antonio got eliminated. It was nice to see "Thunder" Dan Majerle join Team Phoenix in this event. I believe he still can shoot y'know. It was a good thing Team Phoenix made it to the final round along with Team Detroit. It would've been fitting to see Team Phoenix win it all but they got killed in the halfcourt shots. All that time they had didn't quite help as Team Detroit were the victors and brought the glory back to the East.

New faces joining the Skills Challenge, except for Devin Harris. I'm not sure if it was Tony Parker's first time to join the event though but he didn't do quite well in the competition. Mo Williams and rookie Derrick Rose made an impact in their first All-Star appearance. If it wasn't for that kid who got in the way of Williams' bounce pass in the first round, he would've had a quicker time than Rose. I'm still happy the rook made it in the finals. The Devin Harris-Derrick Rose showdown was all set. Harris had some trouble shooting the 3-ball and I believe that left the door open for the rookie. Rose consistent all the way and even did a 2-handed reverse dunk for a thunderous finish to seal the deal. Derrick Rose is the new Skills Challenge champ.

Consistency is the name of the game in the 3-point Shootout. Rashard Lewis, Danny Granger(!), Daequan Cook, Roger Mason Jr., Mike Bibby and defending champ Jason Kapono took the stage. I would have to say that Kenny "The Jet" Smith was right all along that Kapono wouldn't win his 3rd Three Point Shootout title this year. Kapono got eliminated in the first round. You gotta trust The Jet when me makes a prediction. How surprising for a dead-eye shooter like Reggie Miller to pick Danny Granger to win the contest. Reggie is my fave player and all but I agree with the The Jet, all the way, that Granger is a "scorer" not a "shooter." He basically didn't belong in the competition and he got killed there as he only made less than baskets (I think he made 7). And that was all it took for him to get eliminated.

Mike Bibby was actually was a much better shooter than Roger Mason. Raw Lew finally got out of the first round just like he promised. Lewis did have a funny follow through in his shot but he still managed to rack up 17 baskets, enough to take him to the final round but it was Daequan Cook that stole show. He was the most consistent shooter of all the participants. Cook he was the leader in the first round and in the final round, he gave Raw Lew a run for his money. He tied Lewis' 15 baskets for a sudden death round. Lewis got tired in the tie-breaker. He was barely making his shots and scored only 7. I could tell his shots were already way off. Daequan Cook didn't look tired at all as fired up 19 buckets as he only need 9 to win. He was on fire straight up. From now on, I'ma be referring to Daequan Cook as "The Chef" as he literally grilled the competition. I'm looking forward to seeing him defend his title come 2010 in Dallas.

The Slam Dunk Contest was the main event. Portland's Rudy Fernandez had a good debut as pulled out a couple of good dunks in the competition. He even rocked the retro jersey of Fernando Martin (I hope I got his name right) as a tribute to the first ever Spanish born player to play in the NBA. The Lakers' Pau Gasol killed Fernandez' 2nd dunk. It seemed like Pau wasn't sure he wanted to give Rudy a good assist though. He would've had a much highers score had he threw the ball in the lower part of the backboard instead of the lower edge of the board right from the start.

JR Smith was not to be outdone in the contest. He made some good dunks as well but not enough to make it past the next round. The Knicks' Nate Robinson was pure highlight. He's got mad hops I tell yah. His first dunk was just ill and his 2nd dunk using Wilson Chandler's back (I'm not sure it was him though) as some sort of jumpoff ledge was very creative. Not sure, if that was legal but whether it is or not, it was still a good dunk. Dwight Howard's oop-to-myself-behind-the-backboard dunk was something new to see, in my opinion that is. But the second one from Howard, like Kenny Smith said, he made it look so easy. He dunked on a 12-foot rim off a Jameer Nelson oop. Ridiculous. He donned his Superman cape before the dunking on the 12-foot rim. I'm lovin' the telephone booth prop for him to change into "Superman."

When the showdown between Nate Robinson and Dwight Howard for the finals was all set, Robinson donned a costume of his own of sorts. He was wearing his green Knicks uniform along with a neon green arm sleeve and green Air Foamposite 1's (those kicks are fire). Howard was still wearing his Superman cape on, Robinson literally transformed himself into "Kryptonite" as he took referrence in the superhero's weakness. Kenny Smith dubbed Nate as "Lex Luthor", Superman's arch-nemesis. It was now the Lex Luthor vs. Superman show. I was going nuts at the idea. The dunk contest was indeed back!

There was even a stare down between Robinson and Howard before the final round. The competition was really heating up. I'ma fast forward to best part of the competition. Nate "Lex Luthor" Robinson dunking over Dwight "Superman" Howard as his winning dunk was just mad insane! Bananas, that's all I can say! The best dunk I've seen in my life! Last year, it was the big guys that stole the show. This year, it was time for the little guys to shine once more. Indeed, it was the best dunk contest by far.

Overall, it has been a night of upsets. Rookie point guard Derrick Rose made a huge impact in the Skills Challenge against three of the best point guards in the L today. The Raptors' Jason Kapono was out of his mark, literally and gave way for the Heat's Daequan Cook to become the new 3-point Shootout king. Lastly, Dwight Howard got PWN3D by Nate Robinson in the Slam Dunk Contest

In case y'all didn't know, King James wants to get some action in next year's dunk contest. The announcement came from the King himself. I'm guessing he was inspired by Dwight Howard's 12-foot rim dunk. LeBron James got some insane hops himself and I think he can easily dunk on a rim that high. With Bron now joining the dunk contest, the competition, I believe, will get even better. Surely, it would be tempting for Carmelo Anthony to join the contest and have a LeBron-Melo rivalry heat up for next year. It would be like Michael Jordan vs. Dominique Wilkins all over again. I hope that happens. It's gonna get crazy come February 2010 in Dallas, Texas.

Now, If only Kobe, Vince and J-Rich would follow suit in joining the competition next year. That would be a dream come true.

The NBA Slam Dunk Contest: Where amazing really happens.