NBA Playoffs 2012: Kevin Garnett Has the Boston Celtics Looking Like Favorites

The way Kevin Garnett looked when he first got his hands on the Larry O'Brien trophy following the Boston Celtics triumph in Game 6 of the 2008 NBA Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers—infamous rivals of the Magic-Bird 1980s classics—is how we should all look when we've achieved something truly spectacular.

To see him clutch that golden trophy with near-manic ferocity brought back memories of Michael Jordan celebrating his own first title back in '91. Like Garnett, Jordan knew exactly what had gone into making that trophy a reality. He looked like he wanted to hold onto that trophy for dear life, as if he could transfer all that sweat into the trophy and make it stick, making sure he would always be associated with that iconic mark of glory.

For Garnett, that NBA championship had been 13 seasons in the making. Then 32 years old, it was a verification of a professional career that had seen him make the audacious jump from high school to the NBA—the first to do so in the modern era.

Garnett had posted 26 points and 14 rebounds in the Game 6 clincher—just another top-tier performance from The Big Ticket in a game that required nothing less.

He'd done it his whole career, but now he was finally reaping dividends he had so thoroughly deserved.

The past three seasons have seen the Celtics fall short of grabbing a second title—they made the finals in '10, only to fall to that same Lakers team in seven—all the while looking as if their time frame for grabbing that second title was steadily dwindling.

Garnett and sidekicks Paul Pierce and Ray Allen (heralded as Boston's "Big Three" before Rajon Rondo's emergence) were all on the wrong side of 30. How many more seasons would they have left in the tank to make another sustained run at a championship?

Many viewed this current campaign as their last hurrah, at least while sporting that illustrious Celtics green.

Garnett and Allen are both free agents after this season, and general manager Danny Ainge has shown he is willing to break up his triumvirate, as he turns an eye toward building for the future. Keeping two elder statesmen on board for large sums of money simply doesn't make too much fiscal sense from a responsible point of view.

With the kind of money Garnett has commanded throughout his career—he is making $21.2 million this season, according to Rotoworld, and famously signed a six-year, $126 million contract with the Timberwolves in 1997—it seems highly unlikely that he will be around in Boston come next season.

Which brings us to the urgency of the current postseason. With the way Garnett has been playing, it looks like he's raring for another title charge, age be...well, you know what.

Garnett is averaging 20.3 points and 11.0 rebounds through nine postseason games while shooting 55 percent from the field. In his last four games (one against the Atlanta Hawks, and the other three in the ongoing Eastern Conference Semifinals against the Philadelphia 76ers), he is posting 24.8 points and 12.5 rebounds while shooting a blistering 60.3 percent.

Those are the kinds of numbers that elicit MVP talk, which is exactly how the 36-year-old Garnett has been playing.

The Sixers' post players have looked helpless when posed with the task of slowing his production. Spencer Hawes and Elton Brand, while talented offensively, simply cannot hang with Garnett in the post.

It is a resurgence that would seem perfectly paired for a Finals matchup with San Antonio's own aging big man, Tim Duncan. Duncan has also been playing stellar basketball for the red-hot Spurs, with 44 points in his past two games against the Los Angeles Clippers.

With the way the playoffs are looking, that finals pairing might not be too far-fetched.

With Chris Bosh out indefinitely for the Miami Heat, a path to the Finals that might not otherwise have existed out of the East has been blown open, like dynamite through drywall.

One look at the Heat's hapless performance against the Pacers on Thursday night—they were blown out 94-75 at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, looking clueless as how best to contain a Pacers squad now billowing with confidence and how to run an offense without Bosh in the post—dampened the once buoyant confidence that this was the year LeBron would grab his own first ring.

It is no stretch of the imagination to think that the Celtics, who took a commanding 2-1 series lead over the Sixers on Wednesday—and play them again in Game 4 Friday night—could be facing the Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals.

While those two teams are evenly matched—they split the season series 2-2—Garnett and company   look as if they can take on anyone. And beat them.

It would seem fitting that Garnett would get a second title in this, his last year with the team he first found ultimate glory with. He's one of the greatest competitors in NBA history, and don't think for a minute the magnitude of this postseason hasn't dawned upon him.

What better way to bid adieu to Boston than by gracing TD Bank Garden with yet another championship banner—the 18th in franchise history.