The City of Boston is Terrified

(BOD - Nikki Reed)

Another start precluded me from watching any sports last night (I also missed the finale of American Idol; however, have no fear as my PVR worked overtime to capture Simon Cowell’s last stand).

I had a much better start last night. I got the win over one of the top teams in the province by allowing only one earned run on two hits through six innings and I was what baseball men deem, ‘effectively wild.’ Now I know what I need to do between starts, so it should bode well for a successful summer (or I’ll tear my rotator cuff on my next pitch, either one).

While I was icing my arm, I was able to catch the final minute of Game 5 of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals. The Orlando Magic were just putting the finishing touches on their second consecutive beatdown of the Boston Celtics, narrowing the Celts’ lead in the series to three games to two.

Truthfully, it doesn’t really matter who wins this series as they will be little more than glorified practice opponents against the winner of the Western Final. However, the circumstances surrounding the possible collapse of the Celtics has tremendous ramifications throughout the city of Boston.

Remember, it was a little over two weeks ago that the Bruins had a 3-0 series lead over the Philadelphia Flyers, only to lose the next four games in a row. Not only that, but Boston had 3-0 lead in the first period of Game 7 and still found a way to lose the series. Choke, thy name is Bruin.

Now, the Celtics are on the precipice of doing the same thing to an Orlando Magic team that dominated the first two rounds of the playoffs. They got complacent in the first three games against Boston, but seem to have found the groove. And I think the Celtics may be too old to stop the bleeding.

Before this year, only two NHL teams have ever rebounded from a 3-0 deficit (1942 Toronto Maple Leafs and the 1975 New York Islanders for you trivia buffs) and no NBA team has ever come back. Could the same city be home to two epic collapses in the same postseason? The chances against that are staggering, but the city of Boston is used to defying the odds.

It was six years ago that the Red Sox became the first team in baseball history to come back from a 3-0 hole when they defeated the Yankees in the ALCS. They then went on to extinguish their 86 year curse by defeating the Cardinals in the World Series.

What happened next?

Red Sox Nation became insufferable. They had fair weather fans everywhere and they thought themselves as the centre of the baseball universe. Really, they are only eclipsed by Montreal Canadiens’ fans as the most annoying people in sports.

Therefore, I think it will be karma for the city to receive two crushing defeats in the same spring. Then maybe they will shut their yaps about what a great sports city Beantown is.

On the other hand, the Orlando Magic have Vince Carter and we all know how he plays in Game 7s.