Brooms in Beantown

A case could be made that the Celtics just ripped through their ideal first round series, after polishing off the New York Knicks on Sunday afternoon at Madison Square Garden.

New York never really bothered to adjust to this. Miami might want to to take notes. (Actually, what am I saying? Hey Spoelstra, leave Ray open. Total choke artist. Jesus Bricksworth, we call him in Boston.)

To recap:

• In Game 1, the Celtics were tested early, overcame a monster game from Amar'e Stoudemire, battled back from a double digit halftime lead, and ended up winning on a super clutch shot from Jesus Shuttlesworth himself.
• In a second straight wake up game for Boston, Game 2 saw the Celtics up against one of the premier athletes/scorers in the NBA on a career night, and refusing to fold, pulling out the tough win.
• In Game 3, Boston led wire-to-wire, and showed the kind of play on both offense and defense that could propel them to an 18th banner, if sustained.
• And in Game 4, Boston started off with the defense and the offense to destroy the Knicks. They then (predictably) let their guard down, watched the lead slip away, and ultimately demonstrated their ability to shut down inferior teams.

Individually:

• Most importantly, Rajon Rondo just submitted a vintage Playoff Rondo performance, averaging 18 points, 12 assists, and 8 rebounds against much inferior Knicks point guards. Best of all? Next round, he faces Mike Bibby's corpse. I'm currently drooling like my dog faced with a prime rib.
• Ray Allen was...well, out of this world. 75% from three point range for the rest of the playoffs isn't going to continue, but late in the regular season, Boston was having trouble keeping Ray-Ray involved. From the looks of things, Boston's offense seems to have straightened out this particular rather inexplicable flaw.
• Pierce is still a killer. Every time New York really threatened to come back, Pierce was able to knock down a big jumper to kill the rally. Plus he submitted a flashback performance in Game 3, dropping 38 points. 
• KG continues to put forward performances that smell much more like 2008 than 2010. And believe me, the 2008 product was a much better fragrance.
• Jermaine O'Neal has been the most pleasant surprise of the playoffs so far for Boston. Nobody really expected him to come back this season, so to see him moving so freely on defensive rotations and hitting jumpers over shorter post players is enough to make Celtic fans cautiously optimistic that he could be an impact player on both ends of the floor as well. Pardon me while I shake my head a little to clear it.
• The bench mob of the Celtics was terrible in Games 1-3, but Game 4 saw some encouraging signs from Baby Davis, who seemed to get his jumper back on track in the first half, Nenad Krstic hustling on defense and on the offensive boards, and Delonte West striking up some combative swagger that he desperately needs to perform at a high level.

In other series:

• Chicago is getting exposed as a one-trick horse on offense in a tough series against the Pacers. Admittedly, their one trick is Derrick Rose, which is a bit like saying that Secretariat was a one trick horse, but still...
• Miami is facing a tough test from an inferior team and, after losing Sunday afternoon, has given Boston's aging stars one of the things they covet most: a few more days of rest. 
• Atlanta has positioned themselves very well to knock off Dwight Howard's Magic, and Howard is the one player who could single-handedly hurt the Celtics the most.

I'm not saying the Celtics are by any means the prohibitive favorites to come out of the East; they spluttered their way through the end of the regular season a little too much to claim that status after four straight wins against a hobbled, out-of-sorts Knicks' team.

But it never hurts a championship contender to be tested and woken up a bit in the first round, especially a team full of vets like Boston. And with Shaq likely to come back against Miami, adding to a frontline that includes Jermaine and Krstic, as well as a baaad mismatch at point guard, and over a week's worth of rest before the series starts, Boston has to be encouraged by what it has seen so far in the postseason.

Now join me for a second...