Can I get a Road Win-Ah?

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Amen!

Nobody — sans the Detroit Pistons — can win on the road in the 2008 NBA playoffs. The Boston Celtics can’t do it (they lost 10 road games all year; they’ve already lost five in eleven games). The Cleveland Cavaliers can’t do it. The New Orleans Hornets can’t do it. The San Antonio Spurs did it in the first round but are having trouble adjusting to it in the second round. The Utah Jazz can’t do it. The Los Angeles Lakers can’t do it. I don’t know if I’d be able to do it.

It’s unbelievable. Last year this wasn’t as much of a problem as you’d like to think. Home court advantage means a lot, but I coined it as overrated until this year’s playoffs started. Now I’m beginning to think that if you have it, you’ll win the fourth game in seven (if you’re the home team, of course). Any lower seed than the number one, guaranteed to struggle their way to game sevens to beat teams. Just imagine if the Celtics end up playing 28 playoff games, winning this series in a seventh game, the Eastern Conference Finals in a seventh game, and the NBA Finals in a seventh game. Ironic if you ask me.

Years ago, players fed off of fans’ booing. Now it’s as if it hurts their feelings; they are rattled too easily; shaken like a bee hive being nailed with a baseball bat (or in that case, eviscerated or effaced). Nobody has an answer for it. The Pistons are sitting back, having this thing all ready to rock and roll, waiting for either the Cavaliers or Celtics. They’re heading to their sixth straight Eastern Conference Finals. Experience is on their sides. But unfortunately, so is Flip Saunders and his moral law of choking in the playoffs (F’ed up against the Miami Heat in ‘06 and the Cavs in ‘07 when they were expected to win both).

So how do you strategize a way to win on the road in the playoffs? Gregg Popovich knows how to, because, here’s a stat for you fans who are already writing off the Spurs has a no-chance-in-hell for a game 7: Since Duncan has become apart of the Spurs in ‘97, the Spurs have won at least ONE road game in every single playoff series that they’ve endured. And that speaks volumes for me. The golden age saying is that history repeats itself. I’m still looking for the Spurs to win this series in seven, but with the way road games are emasculating everybody’s masculinity so far, I’m not sure if it can happen.

The James Gang (Cavaliers) are heading back to Boston tonight for game five, a pivotal game (but what kind of game five isn’t?). Though, there’s an issue I have with this game five: everybody’s saying LeBron is due for a big game, and don’t get me wrong — he is — but if you think about guys from the Celtics locker room: James Posey, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett; guys that may be guarding LeBron James or facing him straight up at the basket, those guys are listening to this on the radio and on television, probably reading it online, too! The Celtics have proved all season long that they feed off of critics doubting them. Garnett has heard it his whole NBA career, Pierce has heard it for the majority of his career, and Ray Allen has heard about people talk nasty about his knees and his health. All three of those guys — and the rest of the Celtics — are on a mission. The only downfall I have on them is Doc Rivers’ screwing them up as he has been. He is immune to knowing how to make adjustments.

In the Boston Celtics locker room, adjustments are verboten.

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Tags: Basketball, Boston Celtics, Cleveland Cavaliers, Detroit Pistons, Doc Rivers, Flip Saunders, James Posey, Kevin Garnett, LeBron James, Legends, Los Angeles Lakers, National Basketball Association, NBA, NBA Playoffs, New Orleans Hornets, Paul Pierce, Playoffs, Ray Allen, Road Games, San Antonio Spurs, Sports, Utah Jazz