Oscar the Grouch's alter ego takes a temporary sabbatical.

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A Daily Babble Production

By definition, this is not an easy piece to write.  That's because it will be the final edition of the Daily Babble to come your way for the foreseeable future.

I received an offer from the National Basketball Association for temporary employment this summer, and I have accepted what I consider an opportunity I can't pass up.  For the next couple of months, I will be working in the league office, completing a myriad of tasks for the NBA's marketing communications department.  I'm thrilled to have the chance to expand my understanding of the league's operations and sports media relations, and I'm looking forward to meeting any number of new people and engaging in a set of new experiences in the time to come.  Thanks to Heather Roberts, Michael Bass and Adam Silver at the NBA for helping make this possible.

I'm proud to say the offer from the league came about largely as a result of the work I have done since arriving at CelticsBlog nearly a year and a half ago.  However, while working for the Association, I will be unable to continue writing for a team-oriented site such as this one.

At this point, I expect to be with the NBA through early August. As WFAN's Eddie Scozzare once told me, there are no guarantees in this life, and I have no idea what the next couple of months will hold for me on a personal level.  But as it stands now, I have no reason to doubt that I will return to my role as your humble Daily Babbler here at CelticsBlog during the latter portion of the offseason's dog days.

But as long as I've got your attention one last time for now, if you wouldn't mind, please indulge me for just a few more minutes for some scrambled thoughts as I offer you my temporary farewell.

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A Daily Babble Production

Over a three-day span in the final week of February, Danny Ainge added the last two pieces to the roster with which the Celtics attempted to defend their title this spring.  One of them caused me great internal tumult beforehand, and the other struck me as most likely to make a marginal positive impact rather than one significant enough to merit his round-the-clock news cycle among Celtics fans in the week leading up his acquisition.  With free agency impending for both of them, it's time for an evaluation of the respective green tenures of Mikki Moore and Stephon Marbury.

In Moore's defense, the Celtics signed him with the expectation that he would be the fifth or sixth big man (depending on Brian Scalabrine's role) if the team reached full health for the stretch run, which it never did.  The various injuries to Kevin Garnett, Leon Powe, Glen Davis and Scalabrine forced Moore into a more expanded role than projected, and averaging 19 minutes in 24 regular season games no doubt accentuated his flaws.

But the blame deflection disclaimer ends there, and it doesn't change the fact that Mikki Moore is a subpar NBA player who did not do a good job as a Celtic this season.  Rewind for a moment to February.  In his writing at FanHouse, top-of-the-line Kings blogger Tom Ziller offered us a scouting report before Mikki came to town:

Moore has springs in his legs, but he does not block shots (6'6 Francisco Garcia had more per-minute last season). He can do three things well: take charges (though he'll also rack up a ton of fouls trying to get those), hit the elbow jumper and finish at the rim, provided the ball is handed off to him within five feet of the basket and there are no defenders within 10 feet.

While TZ drew the ire of Celts fans by referencing Mark Blount (whose effort level is nowhere near Mikki's), albeit strictly in terms of rebound rate (where the two are comparable over the courses of their careers), his assertions about Moore proved spot on.

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A Daily Babble Production

In an Eastern Conference Finals series that has thus far made me look every bit the idiot I so often am, the latest installment provided a cherry on top: Rafer Alston submitting a huge performance in yet another victory for the Orlando Magic.

As our archives demonstrate, I have made no secret of my distaste for Alston's game, and I have berated him at just about every turn in this postseason.  While one night won't turn me into the president of his fan club, it seems the least I can do is omit the usual preface of laying out my case for not liking Alston's game.  Because the Magic's 116-114 overtime win in Tuesday's Game 4 came on a night that belonged to him as much as anyone.

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A Daily Babble Production

The Denver Nuggets head back to Los Angeles having evened the Western Conference Finals at two games apiece, and they have their bench to thank for that.

When Denver took over last night's Game 4, Carmelo Anthony had yet to make a field goal.  Chauncey Billups spent a five-minute stretch on the bench.  But an energetic unit featuring four reserves set the tone for the rest of the game by stretching a three-point first quarter lead as high as 15.  Though the Nuggets took a seven-point lead into recess, the Lakers spent the rest of the evening playing catch-up.

It began with J.R. Smith, who is known for his ability to do three things: shoot, shoot and shoot.  He got around to doing some of that, but he got himself space on the floor by attacking the rim and demonstrating surprising passing vision early on.  Three times in the first six minutes of the second quarter, Smith set up dunks for his teammates.  He opened the period by forcing Pau Gasol to help on his drive in the middle of the lane and lofting the ball to a cutting Chris Andersen for an open finish.  He followed this four minutes later by penetrating through the middle again and flicking a picture-perfect no-look pass to Nene for a slam.  Two possessions after that, Smith drove right, drew more help and dished to Nene for another flush.

After indicating himself a threat to find the open man, Smith had that much easier a time finding space later in the quarter.  A ball-fake, one-dribble move at the three-point line freed him to can an open jumper from 20 feet.  Another drive to the basket resulted in an acrobatic lay-up in traffic.  Smith finished with nine points in the period en route to 24 for the game, but the renowned gunner really made an impression as a distributor on this night.

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The Cavs send Dwight Howard to the line. Again.

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A Daily Babble Production

Given that LeBron James has never been confused for Ray Allen at the free throw line, I wouldn't call what happened in the fourth quarter in Orlando last night a full-fledged role reversal.  But it had that feeling.

With the Cleveland Cavaliers trailing by six points and a shade outside of four and a half minutes to play in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals, James drove to the basket and was fouled in the act of shooting.  Two shots.  Clang.  Clang.

On LeBron's second miss, Anderson Varejao committed a foul trying to take the rebound away from Dwight Howard.  With the Cavs in the penalty, the notoriously inaccurate (albeit not on this night) Howard headed to the line for two shots of his own.  I wouldn't describe them as "swish and swish," but the results were just as good.  Eight-point game.

Less than two and a half minutes later, after the Cavaliers had cut the deficit to four, the situation repeated itself in reverse order.

Howard drew a shooting foul from Zydrunas Ilgauskas.  Again, not swish and swish, but good and good.  Just as effective as swish and swish.

At the other end, the Cavs lucked out when the Magic tipped the rebound of a missed three-pointer out of bounds.  Shortly after the ensuing rebound, Bron drew a tick-tack foul from Mickael Pietrus coming around a screen outside the top of the circles.  Penalty situation, two shots.  Miss.  Miss.  Orlando ball, leading by six, less than two minutes to play.

There are a lot of reasons why the Magic left Amway Arena late Sunday night with a 99-89 win, and most of the ones on the Cleveland end had little to do with LeBron James.  But with the game's outcome hanging in the balance in the fourth quarter, each team's respective star contributed to an eight-point swing.  The 60 percent career free throw shooter made four biggies (and 14 of his 19 attempts for the night) right around the time the man who shot a career high 78 percent this season missed four of his own en route to an 18-for-24 performance.

As promised, the Cavaliers hacked Dwight Howard all night long, and he got the job done at the stripe.  In the meantime, the league's best player missed as many free throws in the fourth quarter alone as Howard did for the game.  In a series that has shown itself to be far more of a competition than some idiots (read: me) predicted, that can make all the difference.

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A Daily Babble Production

In the likely event that you haven't spent the last 36 hours ensconced under a rock, you don't need me to tell you that a certain 32.8 percent career three-point shooter happened to convert a catch-and-shoot with one second left from two steps beyond the arc to win a rather important playoff basketball game on Friday night.

If you did happen to play the rock card this weekend, well, that's a nutshell version of how Game 2 of Magic-Cavs ended. Among other things, the unabridged version features some intrigue surrounding the Cavs blowing a 23-point lead at home and Hedo Turkoglu hitting a big shot to put the Magic ahead by two with one second to play.  Rather compelling stuff.

Besides the general insanity of how great LeBron James is, three other thoughts struck me first after a game for the ages:

• "Hey, Craig, man, we just couldn't afford to go down 0-2 in this series going into Orlando.  Once again, Orlando kept their composure being down and made a run, and uh, that's just a great shot, man.  You know, we gotta get ready for Game 3.  That's a great shot, but we got a lot to clean up."  That would be LeBron's answer verbatim to the impeccably dressed Craig Sager's question about how he kept his composure in the final second and what type of shot he expected to get.  High comedy on a number of levels.  Something about the way he made the "0-2" comment would have tempted me to follow up, "So you decided to make the shot because you lost the opener?  Am I to take it you mail it in on this possession if that doesn't happen?"  Add this to the list of reasons we have professionals with restraint instead of wiseacre Celtics fans on the sidelines at NBA games.  Further, in one 17-second answer to the first postgame question, this man referred to his own shot as "great" twice.  And was absolutely right in doing so.  I thoroughly enjoyed this exchange.  Thank you, Messrs. Sager and James.
  

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"I went there with the intentions of just telling Kobe, 'You got to relax. You're hitting the wrong person. Don't you know you're hitting Ron Artest?'"

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A Daily Babble Production

[Note: We're going with the originally planned Saturday Babble because we're still in complete shock over the end of Magic-Cavs, Round 2.  There will be thoughts forthcoming over the next couple of days on a series that grows curiouser and curiouser by the second.]

Ron Artest has engaged in his share of reprehensible behavior on and off the basketball court.  He also plays as hard as anyone in the league, does a fantastic job at the defensive end and has his moments with the ball in his hands as well.

But love him or hate him, it's hard to deny Ron-Ron one title: As he spent the last month reminding us, the man gives the most consistently dynamic interviews of any player in the league.

I chatted last week with Detroit Bad Boys' Matt Watson, and we agreed that eventually, someone needs to devote a blog to a cause along the lines of Things Ron Artest Actually Said On the Record.  As Matt says, Artest has no filter and knows no cliche.

In lieu of actually starting that site, but in the interest of doing my part to help the cause and to have some Saturday morning fun, we submit to you a collection of Crazy Pills Artest's memorable moments at the mic for the 2009 playoffs alone:

The Best He's Played Against (04.29.09)

Not only does Artest list Brandon Roy as the best player he's played against, he reasserts it when Craig Sager brings up LeBron James and Kobe Bryant and then takes a backhanded stab at Roy's defense also. 

Bonus: shouting out the formerly best opponent, a buddy from Queensbridge who got incarcerated during his teenage years.

Double-bonus: potshots at Charles Barkley.

(via batkins1823)

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A Daily Babble Production

Though the Lakers fell to the Nuggets last night to cede homecourt advantage in the Western Conference Finals, it was a member of the purple and gold who caught my eye with his wise play at the offensive end.

It has been evident for some time that Trevor Ariza can defend, hustle all over the floor and use his leaping ability and speed to make himself a finisher.  His shooting odyssey remains a mystery.

Prior to this postseason, nothing about Ariza marked him a potent outside shooter.  He shoots a shade less than 30 percent for his career behind the three-point line and never averaged so much as an attempt per game in any of his first four seasons.  This year, with an increased focus on making himself an outside threat, Ariza took 2.3 treys per game but hit 31.9 percent of them.  That doesn't scream sharp-shooter.  He didn't shoot as well as 35 percent from deep in any full calendar month for the 2008-09 campaign, and he finished the regular season with a miserable 3-for-16 mark across eight April contests.

But the playoffs have brought out a brand-new Ariza from behind the line.  He entered Game 2 against Denver checking in at 21-for-44 (47.7 percent) on threes in 13 playoff games.  With opponents focused on limiting Kobe Bryant's penetration and the Lakers' huge front line's opportunities inside, Ariza continued to get open looks from the outside and somehow started hitting them with far greater proficiency than ever before.  His confidence rose, too, as evidenced by his increase to launching 3.4 attempts per game in the postseason.

This brings us to last night, when the Nuggets started taking a more aggressive approach defensively after Ariza knocked down his first three-pointer in the first five minutes of the game.

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A Daily Babble Production

In evaluating the 2008-09 version of the Boston Celtics, it's worth remembering that this team didn't just have to defend a championship.  It had to follow up a season that came straight out of a storybook.

During the few times that the 2007-08 Celtics ran into adversity - mostly during those first two playoff rounds when they couldn't win a road game and had to go the distance to advance - I wondered a lot about how important it was for that team to win a championship.  Not a team during this star trio era but that particular group that season.  The thought came about because of the realization of just how hard it would be to follow up the sort of season that Celtics had enjoyed.

Last year's team wasn't merely great.  It was a great team that had just about everything go right, both inside and outside of its control.  From day one straight through the final romp of the Lakers on June 17, the stars, the role players and the coaching staff jelled as though they had played together for years.  There was not a single extensive chemistry or attitude problem that became publicly known over the course of the season.  No questions arose about effort levels because this team literally played harder than everybody else close to every single time out.

The 2007-08 Celtics won 66 regular season games and for the most part dominated those games.  They won 21 contests by margins of at least 20 points.  They posted an average point differential of plus-10.3 points per game.  Exactly zero other teams posted positive double-digit differentials over the decade prior.  All six games against the three Texas teams resulted in wins.  These are not normal occurrences. 

It didn't hurt that the Celtics enjoyed nearly impeccable health last season.  While Kevin Garnett went down for a couple of weeks, it happened at the perfect time (during the 'dead air' lull of mid-January into February), and he still played more than 70 games.  In fact, each of the Celtics' top eight players in average minutes played at least 70 games last season.  With the exception of the couple-week run without Garnett, this team was never without a single key rotation player for an extended period of time.

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A Daily Babble Production

Eastern Conference Finals: (1) Cleveland Cavaliers vs. (3) Orlando Magic

Congratulations to the Orlando Magic for knocking off our beloved then-defending champion Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Semifinals.  The Magic were only clearly outplayed in one game out of seven and earned the right to take on the Cleveland Cavaliers for the chance to represent the East in the 2009 NBA Finals.

But all signs point to this Orlando team finding itself in a situation over the next two weeks in which it is simply outclassed.

It wasn't by some accident that the Cavaliers won 66 games with an average margin of victory of nearly nine points per, or that they blew through the first two rounds of the playoffs without losing a game.  My understanding is that it has something to do with the fact that they are really, really good.

This begins of course with the league's top performer and newly crowned Most Valuable Player, LeBron James.  In case James' 28-7-7 regular season production wasn't enough, he averaged nearly a 33-10-7 over the first two rounds and did so on an incredibly efficient 64.4 percent true shooting.  Like most teams, the Magic don't have a defender singularly capable of doing much to prevent LBJ from getting to the lane or the foul line at will.  The fact that he is knocking down more than 36 percent of his threes in the postseason (including a 13-for-27 effort against Atlanta) is downright terrifying.  If James can continue to make defenses pay for pushing him to shoot from the outside (the only area from which they can afford to give him a shot at this point), there won't be much the Magic can do to stop him.

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