Steve Bulpett has an interesting spin on perspective for this series.

If they continue to perform with little inspiration and even less perspiration, the Finals will be, for Celtic fans, unbearable.

But before you go setting up diving boards on the Tobin Bridge, it might be calming to know this could have been worse.

The Celtics could have lost Game 1 by 34 points. They could have been down 14 after one quarter and surrendered 79 points to trail by 30 at the half. They could have been the laughingstock of the basketball universe in a game that would come to be known, were it played on a different date, as the "Memorial Day Massacre."

Think of how badly you'd feel if all that happened to your team in the opener of the championship series.

If you can't conjure the image, call a few Lakers fans from the mid-1980s and ask them for their recollections. They probably won't mind discussing the gray day in purple and gold history because their team survived that beating.