The Sadaam Hussein character from the Southpark Movie never, ever fails to slay me. In college talking in that distinct Sadaam voice was tremendously entertaining. I still break out the "Reeeelax Guyyy" comment whenever my wife starts yelling at me to take out the trash or what have you, but that's not the point of this post.
My point is directed to those nervous Celtics fans I saw in the chat room Sunday night, and I'm sure exists throughout Celtics Nation. To all of you who may be in that category, I say: "Reeeeelaxx guy." While I too am not a fan of nearly blowing a 24-point fourth quarter lead on the grandest of stages, it's not a necessarily bad thing. What really would have been accomplished if the Celtics had maintained that lead and finished turning the Lakers into pulp? Yeah we all would have felt great Monday morning, certainly making those first few hours at work more palatable, and the glowing, effusive press coverage would have been a joy to read. However, in the long-run, an epic blowout like that would have been bad for us fans and probably the Celtics as well. Lest we forget, this is what the Celtics did after getting blown out by the Lakers in the previous game.
The simple reason why: Complacency. By blowing that lead and hanging on by the skin of their teeth, the Celtics shattered any thoughts about being fat and happy with how they played. As was repeated throughout the post game pressers the team was very, very disappointed with their performance in the fourth quarter. Listening to some of their comments one might think the Celtics actually lost Game 2. In blowing the lead, the Celtics now have motivation going into Game 3 in L.A. They will want to show that the fourth quarter was simply the result of one team thinking the game was already over, and not a Laker epiphany regarding how to crack the vaunted Celtics defense. If the blow out had happened, I'd actually be somewhat surprised if the Celtics won Game 3. Now, I think the C's are going to be annoyed at how they finished and have that extra spark they've seemed to need to get an important win.
Go get this series guys. Take Game 3. BEAT LA!