Boston Celtics: The Connect Four Tour

Nothing about the way Boston’s season ended will erase the bad taste and mental anguish from the minds of players, coaches and fans.

Game seven’s gut-wrenching loss to the Lakers raised more worrisome questions than reassuring answers heading into the offseason.

Head coach Doc Rivers found himself stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Would he take a few years out of coaching to spend more time with his family, or would the true nature of his inner basketball being prove too much to dart away from?

Next up, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen both faced career altering matters.

Pierce and Allen became free agents following the NBA Finals, and with the deadline on deciding which way to go, time was precious simply because both are such highly sought after performers.

Of course one other Celtics’ member considered retirement with two years remaining on his contract: Rasheed Wallace.

Doc Rivers on potentially retaining himself as the Boston Celtics head coach.

“I wasn’t coming back unless they were coming back,” Rivers said. “I was first and I thought that was important for them. We all talked. I can tell you that. I made sure. I knew they had to do their business. And Ray scared me a little bit with the money out there. They had said they were coming back and then you see what everyone was getting.”

Pierce tipped the first domino, inking a new four year $61 million deal, and Ray Allen followed suit with a two year $20 million deal.

From that point, the domino rally was well underway with Doc Rivers' eager outlook focused on leading Boston back to the NBA Finals.

With Pierce, Allen, Daniels, and retaining coach Rivers, Rasheed Wallace’s decision was a foregone conclusion.

Sheed is staying.

Plagued by a knee injury during much of the regular season, Kevin Garnett will have the offseason to allow his knees to recover.

Kendrick Perkins will be on the shelf for a while after injuring his knee during the NBA Finals, but Glen “Big Baby” Davis won’t allow for any meltdown.

For a team not expected to surpass the second round series against the Cleveland Cavaliers, similar to the Lakers, Boston returns a remarkably deep team.

Rajon Rondo may be the best point guard in the NBA right now as he’s gone from the quiet turnover prone liability to the alpha male director orchestrating a team running on all cylinders.

Team defense defines the Celtics main staple, forcing the opposition in horrible shot selection.

While only averaging 99.2 ppg, the defense stifles opponents to 95.6 ppg, living up to the reputation of the best defense in the league.

Scoring comes from everywhere on the floor, not just the franchise’s third leading scorer Paul Pierce.

Garnett does most of his best work in the paint, but a knack for dragging his defender away from the basket leaves the defense unavoidably vulnerable.

Now Jermaine O’Neal (coming over from the Miami Heat) has been added to the mix, bulking up an already impressive interior defense.

Boston’s most valuable strength is their all-around unselfish manner run by lightening quick Rajon Rondo.

Not only able to beat anyone to the basket off the first step, Rondo acts as a fiery traffic cop screaming at his teammates on where to go on the floor.

Without so much as a rebellious whimper, the other four fall in line thus resulting in a smooth flow on the offensive end.

Forget modifying Rondo’s overall game.

Keep doing that voodoo that you do.

It’s too much fun to watch his dazzling play now as it is.

What is the Celtics’ kryptonite?

Sluggish starts from the tip-off can be Boston’s undoing. If you watched the entire playoff run, it became painstakingly obvious that periodically forgetting to show up was a killer.

Adding to the slow starts, unforced turnovers haunted Boston, coaxing them to waste key timeouts too early in the game.

Sometimes a team’s most substantial forte can double up as the team’s diluted style of play.

Coupled with the turnovers, the unselfish nature on offense at times resulted in either too many passes or failure to shoot the ball within the 24 second shot clock.

Coaches refer to these as wasted possessions.

As Rajon Rondo persistently developed into an elite NBA point guard, he addressed the turnover issue which makes the Celtics more dangerous than they already are.

Since the 2007-2008 season, the Boston Celtics’ success is an uninterrupted product of coach Doc Rivers.

The momentum of the domino rally is an indication the Boston Celtics will be back and may perhaps be better in 2010-2011.

Is anybody up for an encore Celtics-Lakers NBA Finals rematch?

Of course, but then again, that’s why they play the game.