For some reason - besides the fact that as I write these very words, it is 33 degrees outside - it just doesn't feel like April for me.
This is supposed to be the month that baseball grabs my attention, holds on tight and doesn't let go before November. I'm supposed to eat up every box score, every article, every post from every asinine sports blogger I can find. Especially now, with the Red Sox setting out to defend their second World Series title in four years, I'm supposed to be obsessed.
If that were actually the case, I'd probably be stressing out right now. Curt Schilling is out for at least four months, Jon Lester has piled up 15 walks in 20.1 innings, Mike Lowell began the year 6-for-30 before taking the plunge to the DL, Mike Timlin looks more qualified for a nursing home than a major league bullpen and David Ortiz is so far from the Mendoza Line he can't even see it anymore.
Good thing I'm barely paying attention.
This is the best Celtics team I have witnessed in my lifetime. This, I would argue, is the first time I've ever looked ahead to an NBA postseason with a legitimate reason to anticipate the Larry O'Brien Trophy landing in Boston in two months. This is new. This is refreshing. This is giving April an entirely new meaning for me.
This past Saturday - when the Red Sox won a beauty at Fenway, as Jonathan Papelbon waited through a two-hour rain delay for his chance to whiff Alex Rodriguez, silence a Yankee rally and preserve a 4-3 lead - the highlight of my day came not in Boston, but instead 1,000 miles south.
On Saturday night in Atlanta, the Celtics beat the Hawks 99-89, polishing off win number 64 and sealing the third-best record in franchise history. After a third-quarter collapse from the starting five, the Celtics took the floor tied 74-74 to start the fourth, and Doc Rivers had benched all five starters. That's when five Boston backups - Glen Davis, Tony Allen, P.J. Brown, James Posey and the enigmatic-to-say-the-least Sam Cassell - took over, dominating the final period to the tune of a 25-15 beating and on paper, an easy win.
I watched it twice. Once at 7 p.m. when the game first aired, and then again at two in the morning when FSN reran it. I couldn't get enough. It's games like this that make you drool with playoff anticipation.
Seeing Cassell, who normally makes my blood boil, shoot 6-for-9 in the quarter for 15 of his 20 points was a thrill. So was seeing Big Baby grab every rebound in sight, and so was the stalwart defense of Allen and Posey on the wings denying Joe Johnson the open looks time and again. Seeing the Celtics' second unit take the floor and manhandle a good young Hawks team made me truly realize how much there is to appreciate about this year's Celtics.
This team is much more than the Big Three. And it's a good thing, too, because no one can win an NBA title with just three good players, no matter who they are. When you add up the trinity of KG, Pierce and Allen, the much-improved Kendrick Perkins and Rajon Rondo, the aforementioned second unit, and the not-to-be-forgotten Eddie House and Leon Powe, this team is legitimately 12-deep. No one else in the NBA can say that and really mean it. And that, more than anything, is what excites me with the regular-season finale tipping off tonight and the postseason three days away. All the ingredients are in place for title number 17, and it'll all begin with a Hawks rematch this weekend. I can't wait.
I also hear Boston has a baseball team. But this April, I've got my priorities straight.
Evans Clinchy is a junior majoring in English. He can be reached at Evans.Clinchy@tufts.edu.
