Most of the game was pretty forgettable last night (Wade scoring, Rondo doing his thing, too many turnovers, etc.) but I won't forget those last few seconds for a long time.
The closing moments of last night's game actually remind me of the summer of 2007. Consider the situation: We had the ball in a tie game with about 5 seconds left. You have to think that we've got this game. All we need is a bucket or a foul shot to win it. Ray had been hitting daggers and the ball went to him. In 2007 we had the 2nd worst record in basketball and there were two supposed superstars coming out in the draft. Chances were real good we were getting one of the top 2 picks.
Then came the stomach punch. Normally reliable Ray Allen slipped, Wade grabbed the steal and took it down the court for a dunk. Game over right? I slumped in my chair and announced to my wife that the Celtics lost in dramatic fashion and explained the play to her. (She just nodded with a look of half interested pity.) Dwayne Wade ran down the court pulling his shirt over and pounding his chest but it was the C's fans that felt the pain in their torso. Not unlike the feeling of watching the NBA guy pull the Celtics logo out of the number 5 envelope.
In what seemed like an act of desperation, Doc drew up a last second lob pass to Rondo. I mean, with just a fraction of a second left, you would think that they'd protect the rim, right? But Chalmers got caught on a pick and Rondo was freed for a perfect lob pass from Pierce. Many things had to happen on that play for it to actually work right and you couldn't have asked for it to happen any better. Similar to Danny's master double stroke of genius bringing in Ray Allen and then Kevin Garnett (not to mention Posey, Baby, and House).
Which led to overtime. I mean, you still have to play out the game right? Just like they still had to play the season in 07-08. Thankfully in both cases they took that momentum and ran with it to victory. Both were great examples of why you can never give up on a game or on a season or on a team. You just never know what could happen next and sometimes that old cliche of "its darkest before the dawn" proves true once again.
Just a memorable night and a fun win when we least expected it.