Eastern Conference Final Preview: Boston v. Miami

There was once a time were I had the Boston Celtics being the dark horse in the postseason. I thought Doc River's team was getting hot at the right time, and with a healthy Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett, I thought Boston had enough for one last run at the title before they would have to seriously re-tool, get younger Point Guards and wait a few years before coming back to the spotlight, and it looked like Boston was going to get that chance: they played great in Games 3, 4 and 6 to bounce out Atlanta in the Fist round of Eastern Conference play, Derick Rose tore his ACL and Joakin Noah left Game 3 with a sprained ankle, and with LeBron James and his well-documented history of choking in the postseason, I thought Boston would have a shot at making it to the Finals, maybe even winning it all.

That was until Boston faced Philly in the Semi-Conference Round, and San Antonio went off sweeping Utah and LAC in the first two rounds. Boston is too old, too banged up (I'm looking at you, Pierce and Brandon Bass), and suffers from a similar mentality the Lakers: the notion that they can "turn it on" whenever they damn-well feel like it, leading to sloppy, inconstent play by the starters, and dragging that series to a decisive and climatic Game 7, when in reality, the Celtics should have wrapped it up by Game 6. Sure, Miami's without Chris Bosh, and the bench is about as useful as the Lakers', but a hungry D-Wade and LeBron vs Boston's Old 3 + Rondo?  Unless "King" James has one more glorious choke job left in him, Wade won't allow Doc and company to humiliate them like they blasted the team 2 years ago, and exposed LeBron in Game 5 back when he was a memeber of the Cavs.

My Prediction: Miami in 6. Also, this thread can be used for real-time thoughts and posts from Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals.

 The Count: Boston had no chance of beating LA in 69, LA in 84, LA in 08, Cleveland and Orlando in 10, No chance of beating Miami in 2012 No none at all. 

The Count: It looks like the NBA has decided to put the Heat in the finals no matter what. This has been the worst officiated game I have ever seen and that is saying a lot. Tell me Stern as a Boston fan is there a reason I should watch the rest of this series? Has it already been decided?