Boston Celtics: 10 Reasons This Team Will Win the 2012 NBA Title

Wait, what?

The Celtics winning another championship? 

Yep. It's definitely possible, especially given the way the sea of the Eastern Conference has parted in the past week and a half.

The Celts' hopes for banner No. 18 were dealt a bit of a blow on Tuesday night when they failed to close out the Hawks in Game 5 in Atlanta. But Boston is coming home for Game 6, significantly upping its chances to end this series (the C's are 2-10 under Doc Rivers when trying to close out a team on the road, but 7-3 at TD Garden).

If the Celtics do what the odds say they should do, they will get either No. 8 seed Philadelphia or the top-seeded Chicago Bulls, who are playing without two of their three best players in Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah.

Advancing from either of those scenarios would mean a meeting with either the young and inexperienced Indiana Pacers or, in a much more predictable outcome, the Miami Heat, a team more talented than the C's but who also have a bit of a complex regarding their rivals from Boston.

Of course, getting that far would then mean that the Celts would have to knock off whoever comes out of the West which, just like getting to the Finals, would be a very tall task.

But it could happen and it feels more conceivable now than it has at any point this season. 

Here are some reasons why.

1. Experience

Hey, have you heard? The Celtics are an old team!

Sure, the C's collective age has been beaten to death as a conversation topic or storyline or what have you. But all those years and miles collected by the top guns on this team equal experience. And experience goes a long way in the playoffs.

The Celtics know how to win. They've done it before, they came tantalizingly close to doing it again and probably would have if not for one specific injury. And when you look at the rest of the field, particularly in the East, who else can make such a claim?

The Sixers, who caught the break of all breaks when Rose blew out his knee in Game 1 of their series with the Bulls, sure haven't. Indiana lucked out in getting a horribly dysfunctional Orlando team in the first round and are not going any further. The Bulls have coach Tom Thibodeau, who was a part of those two previously mentioned Celts teams, but that's pretty much it.

Which leaves Miami, a team that had a chance to win it all last year but wound up wilting thanks to a combination of mismatched parts, lack of depth and the curse of galactically huge expectations. Yes, Dwyane Wade has a ring. But he won it when he was the man, not when he was forced to co-star with another guy who can't seem to handle exactly what being the man fully entails.

The point is, the Celtics' credentials, from their coach through their top four guys, features a lot more know-how than the rest of their competition in the Eastern Conference. If they were to get to the Finals, only San Antonio and the Lakers could match them in that department, and the Lakers may have to be taken down a step on that ladder given the guy currently occupying the head coach's chair.

The Celtics have the experience. Don't underestimate how far that can take them.

2. Rajon Rondo

As Rondo goes, for the most part, so go the Celtics. He is the leader of the team on the floor, and his exceptional ability and unique style of play make him invaluable to the C's as they play for another title.

There are two sides to Rondo, as most Celtics fans know. One is the court master, the guy who takes over a game in a single instant, sometimes without even scoring a point. Rondo recorded his seventh career triple-double in Game 3 against the Hawks, scored 20 points and dished 16 assists in Game 4 and single-handedly willed the C's back into Game 5 by having a hand in every point of a 10-0, late third quarter run.

The other is the petulant, childish, immature one who throws the ball at or chest bumps a referee or gets in a cameraman's face simply for doing his job. The Celtics can most certainly live without this side of Rondo, who is now 26 and has been in the league for seven years, making excuses for his behavior sound quite hollow.

But that's neither here nor there. What matters in this context is that Rondo is a nearly impossible matchup for pretty much anyone the C's might see going forward.

His value against the Bulls skyrockets with Rose missing, he's proven to be able to handle the Heat and whatever they may throw at him multiple times over the past couple of years, and there's no one in Philly who can hang with him.

If Rondo just goes out and plays his game, avoids allowing his temper to get in the way and doesn't get himself pinned to the sideline on any make or break possessions, the C's will be a tough out.

3. Doc Rivers

Save the Spurs' Gregg Popovich, there are no coaches left in this year's playoffs with the cache of the Celts' Doc Rivers, and that includes Thibodeau in Chicago.

Not only does Doc wear a championship ring, giving him one more than anyone left other than Pop, he's currently presiding over his fifth playoff run with this same core group of players, giving him another edge over his remaining peers.

And while we're here, let's forget for just a minute that Doc, along with Tommy Heinsohn, is the second best coach in Celtics history. Who would you rather have in the East?

Erik Spoelstra? Doug Collins? Mike Woodson???

If you've been watching the Celts' series with Atlanta and have seen how dreadful the Hawks' offense is, you know that Doc wins in a walk over Larry Drew.

He's a huge X-factor for the C's going forward. There's no one who suits the Celtics better.

4. Defense

If defense really does win championships, the C's should have the inside track.

After leading or finishing in the top three in the league in several defensive categories during the regular season, the C's haven't missed a beat against Atlanta. ESPN's John Hollinger has them first in the playoffs in defensive efficiency, and they have yet to allow the Hawks to break 90 points in any of the five games played (Atlanta's 87 on Tuesday night was a series high).

Looking ahead, if the C's are to advance, they will have to face a team in the Eastern semis that is nearly their equal defensively. Both Philly and Chicago were right at or near the top of the list in defense during the season, meaning that a lot more low scoring games could well be in the Celts' near future.

Still, it's hard not to like the C's chances going further on in the playoffs if they can continue to play the kind of defense they've been playing not just this season but for the past five, in which they've arguably been the best there is.

5. The Field

This came up a bit in the experience section, but it certainly bears repeating.

The Celts' road to the Finals has opened up big time.

Obviously, the C's are flawed. There isn't much depth, they still can't really rebound, when their jumpers aren't falling, they struggle offensively and now Paul Pierce is dealing with knee problems.

But look at what's left. Atlanta got their X-factor, Al Horford, back for Game 4 and still lost by 30. Then on Tuesday night, Horford was the best player for either team (19 points, 11 rebounds, three assists, steals and blocks) and the Hawks still barely escaped with the win.

The Bulls are missing Rose and Noah. The Sixers have no go-to guy. And Miami hasn't beaten the C's since the second game of the season, have nothing to fall back on after their Big Two-and-a-Half and have proven to be limited when the stakes get higher over the past two years.

Even in the West, there are no sure things. The Lakers aren't as well coached as they once were and no one knows what they'll get out of Andrew Bynum on a nightly basis. The Clippers are young, have no experience and their coach is overmatched. Oklahoma City, for all of their brilliance, haven't been where the Celtics have, got nothing from the post in the half court and tend to get bogged down when one of their Big Three is off.

The truest threat to the Celts looks like San Antonio. Wouldn't that be a great Finals matchup?

6. Resiliency

The Celts' prospects admittedly look a bit bleaker after Tuesday night's loss, but there are few teams in the league that have the ability to bounce back as well as the Celtics.

Look no further than the regular season, in which the C's started out 0-3, were 4-8 and sat at .500 come the start of March. 

But from there, they took off, going from 17-17 on Feb. 29 to 39-27 to close out the season.

Furthermore, they've survived injuries to all of their key parts, including a couple that reduced their front line to all of Kevin Garnett and Greg Stiemsma. And more than once during the year, they've turned big deficits into wins, the biggest of which came in late January when they trailed the Magic by 27 in the third quarter and went on to take the game, 91-83, thanks to a 54-25 second-half advantage.

No situation has appeared too daunting for this crew this year, even when they do it to themselves, which has happened more than a few times (hello, Rondo chest bumping an official!). They are such a resilient bunch that it's hard to imagine them going out until it actually happens.

7. Ray Allen

Don't underestimate the power of Ray. He's a giant X-factor here for the Celtics, maybe their biggest one.

Allen missed 20 games for the Celts this season, then two more to start out this series. But even though he will probably need offseason surgery on his troublesome ankles and is now coming off the bench, he looks fresh and as healthy as he's been all year.

In the three games he's played, he's averaged just under 30 minutes and has scored 13.3 points on 51.6 percent shooting. There doesn't appear to be any rust on him despite all the time missed. The guy can apparently just roll out of bed and make big shots.

Having him at their disposal, the Celtics can utilize his strengths and not have to rely as much on Avery Bradley who, for all of his progress during the season, is (a) playing hurt and (b) lacking in the experience that is such a strength for the C's in other areas. 

Plus, there's no one else in these playoffs who can claim to be the greatest three-point shooter of all time except for Ray Allen.

8. Perspective

This one sort of goes hand in hand with experience, but it's still worth mentioning. No one left in the East knows what it takes to win in the postseason the way the Celtics do. Just ask Rivers.

"I've known that for 20 whatever years, whatever I've been in the league," Rivers told the Boston Globe. "It's fragile year to year."

As recently as 2010, when Pierce tweeted, "Anybody got a BROOM?" after the C's went up 3-0 on Orlando in the Eastern Conference finals, the C's showed they weren't quite aware of how easily things can change from day to day. The Magic won the next two games and gave Boston a good run in Game 6 before finally bowing out.

It's a shame that the Celts couldn't finish the Hawks off on Tuesday night. The win had to have given Atlanta at least a shred of confidence after its white flag raising act in Game 4 on Sunday night. And even though the Celts still have the advantage in the series and get to play Game 6 on Thursday night at home, they know that leaving that door open even a crack can come back to bite you.

The Celtics, specifically their core of Rivers, Pierce, Allen, Garnett and Rondo, know how different and edgy things can be in the playoffs. That perspective can only help going forward.

9. Pride

It may be one of the seven deadly sins, but not in this case. The Celtics have a ton of pride. And there's nothing sinful about it.

Go back to Garnett's mini-rant against the media about being called old. That was a very prideful moment for the Big Ticket and was a measure of his heart. The Celtics could have rolled over multiple times this season, both before and after Garnett's speech. But they didn't.

It's a testament to their collective pride as players, as a team and as an organization. They've accomplished too much and worked too hard to not be considered contenders, no matter how old or thin they may be. 

And even though it's been a few years since the raised banner 17, the core of this team still consists of a group of champions.

Never underestimate the heart of a champion.

10. Urgency

In keeping with the season-long theme of the Celtics' age, the odds of them winning another championship as presently constituted are on the slim side and will only get slimmer after the year ends.

Rumors have swirled all year of the impending demise of the Big Three, and even though no one was shipped out at the trade deadline, it's hard to imagine a scenario in which Garnett, Pierce and Allen are all back next year. Maybe two of them, but all three? Unlikely.

There's a school of thought that given how well they've played since mid-February in what has pretty much always appeared to be the last roundup, they should be brought back for one more season.

Whether or not they are, there has to be a major sense of urgency among the three that time is short and winning now is imperative. Even if the Big Three does come back intact next year, they will all be a year older, have even more mileage on their tires and be more susceptible to injury.

So why not now? Why not this year? 

There may not be another chance.