Editorial

The Boston Celtics took an early exit this year from the playoffs in surprising fashion.  Early in the series they seemed like they had a very good chance at advancing but as the series went on the youthful Miami Heat proved to be too much.  The Boston Celtics had many injuries throughout the playoffs including an elbow injury to their all-star point guard Rajon Rondo.  The Celtics have a young gunner in Jeff Green but in order to make a push pass the Heat next season they’re going to need to pick up a few more young legs to keep up with the Heat and to give Pierce, Garnett, and Allen some breaks.  The aged Celtics couldn’t keep up with the younger James, Wade, Chalmers and Jones.  Also, the trade the Celtics made earlier in the year had a positive but it also came with some negatives.  They did pick up Jeff Green to give some rest to Allen and Pierce but it came at the loss of Kendrick Perkins.  Perkins was an original member of the “ubuntu” group and was a heavy anchor in the Celtics defense.  He was able to get 10-12 rebounds a night and provide an inside presence when Garnett was getting a rest.  The Heat were able to attack the basket all series without having to worry about anyone inside the paint stepping up to stop them.  Another problem the Celtics had during this series was figuring out how to calm a run and keep the game under control.  In game 5 the Celtics had a 7 point lead with 5 minutes to go in the game.  A James Jones three pointer gave the Heat momentum as they used the crowd to get back into the game and put the Celtics to rest.  The Celtics need to find a way to be able to weather these runs and stay in games.  While Pierce has the power to put a team on his back, he wasn’t able too this series costing the Celtics big time.  For next season Boston also needs to find a way to stay healthy.  With the old body’s they have they must do anything they can to stay injury free as that has a big impact on them towards the end of the season.  With them out of the playoffs though it’s now onto the offseason where they need to fix a few things before the start of next season.