NBA Playoffs 2012: Five Celtic Expectations Against the 76ers and Beyond

In one way, Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers finds his team exactly where he expected them to be heading into a Game 3—even.

Of course, the original script featured a stolen rather than squandered home court advantage.

However, as another powerful potential foe is afflicted with a key injury, the window of opportunity for these battered but resilient Celtics refuses to shut.

Sixers Nation may or may not resurrect the ghosts of Luke Jackson and Andrew Toney.

Here are five Abacus Revelations you can expect to see in the next week or so.

Shift Work

Perhaps necessity (an epidemic of illness and injury) has been the mother of invention (a patchwork line-up and rigid rotation), but coach Doc Rivers deserves credit for magnificent game management.

He has been able to shrink 48 minutes of play to a final and decisive 10 or 15 minutes during which his thoroughbreds can play unencumbered by fatigue or foul.

Experience and execution tend to carry the day.

The Pierce Factor

Kevin Garnett’s play may exude the old school, but Paul Pierce is the silky thread that connects the dots. 

Count on the Truth, balky knee notwithstanding, to win one game per series single-handedly—probably in their building.

An “Attractive” Point Guard

Early in TNT’s game cast of last Saturday’s series opener, long-time Boston talking-head Dick Stockton referenced Rajon Rondo as an “attraction.”

While there is indeed a “wow” factor to the play of the Boston triple-double machine, the most encouraging aspect to the Rondo game of late has been his willingness to take and make the mid-range jumper when it matters most.

Maybe he’s saving it for LeBron and Wade, but can you not foresee a 40-point game in the post-season from this “attraction?”

Is KG a Red-Head?

In the Game 6 funeralizing of the Atlanta Hawks’ 2011-12 season, Kevin Garnett was the most dominating physical presence to don Celtic garb since the hey-day of one Dave Cowens.

Too big or too quick (or in many cases, too both) for anybody anywhere on the court, Garnett was in that proverbial zone, a step ahead of everyone else, friend or foe.

That kind of mind-game alone should influence at least three fourth-quarter opponent possessions—enough to win a game or a series.

Speaking of Red

First there was Rose and Noah.

Now Chris Bosh sustains an injury.

If something should happen to one of the Spurs’ studs, then all doubt will have been removed.

Mr. Auerbach sits at the right hand of the Almighty.