As sure as Kobe Bryant is underwriting the next Pride parade, the Knicks have what it takes to upset the Celtics, it says here.
But no matter which team advances to Round 2, the series is guaranteed to leave everybody in stitches.
Not that I expect NBA commissioner David Stern to find any of it funny when a Boston player tries to wipe Carmelo Anthony’s inciting smile off his face or a New Yorker tries to smack the vulgar smack out of Kevin Garnett’s mouth.
Decorum be damned! Hell, these are your grandfather’s Celtics and Pat Riley’s Knicks.
VECSEY’S EASTERN CONFERENCE PREVIEW
Replay their March 21 meeting at Madison Square Garden. It was obvious in that late comeback victory by the Celtics that nobody on either side had any use for each other or thought twice about inflicting bodily harm.
Anthony’s raised elbow to Glen Davis’ face after engulfing a rebound (no call by a referee three feet away) set the menacing ambiance. Ray Allen later needed his face sewn up following a challenged fast break foray. And a doctor’s darning needle again had to be used when Anthony caught an elbow from Rajon Rondo in an aerial collision for a hanging participle.
Accidents will happen, so they say. But they’re more liable to happen, we have been told once or twice, when the going gets tough and the tough get going.
CONFIDENCE NOT LACKING AS CELTICS SHOWDOWN NEARS
VACCARO: KNICKS GIVE PLAYOFFS BROADWAY REVIVAL
KNICKS VS. CELTICS SERIES SCHEDULE
Long ago, when coaches were permitted to smoke victory cigars on the sideline, the Celtics branded the “t” in toughness on victims’ foreheads and gloated about it afterward. Forcefulness is a family trait, a function of the legendary franchise and a sworn duty by anyone who represents, regardless of era or temperament; those lacking the spirit of the bayonet fighter were quickly dishonorably discharged.
Some Celtics were bad to the bone at birth, their personalities conducive to being an enforcer, like Jim Loscutoff, Wayne Embry or Greg Kite, or a submarine artist like M.L. Carr. But that jagged readiness to get it on, if not provoke proceedings, is hardly confined to the reserves when called up. Some of the team’s most merciless hombres (Dirtiest Gerties) were, and continue to be, its leading men — Bill Sharman, Tommy Heinsohn, Larry Bird, Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Rajon Rondo.
So, the Knicks know what incivility is on tap, and how insolently they have to respond. Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni and his coaching staff don’t have to explain what attitude must be on undeviating display to parry their opponents’ standard operating belligerence and brutality.
We know how ornery and aggressive the Celtics are under ordinary circumstances. So, imagine how crude and rude they’re going to be now with their collective and individual domination in grave danger of being permanently snuffed. They’re going away a round or two sooner than most people think, as I might have mentioned in my lead, but they ain’t going away gracefully or peacefully.
The remodeled Knicks, in the formative months of creating an identity and erecting their own stairway to the stars, fancy themselves — luminaries and lesser lights — as being equally tough. Anthony, Amar’e Stoudemire and Chauncey Billups customarily come across as impervious to repute, coercion and stress. What’s more, they love to bully and instigate — hazardous behavior that seems to come naturally to Shawn Williams and Bill Walker.
In no time flat, the Celtics will discover the Knicks are as physically tough as advertised. If Camp Cablevision’s first round rival were the Bulls, Heat or Magic, I would probably accept alibis about the Knicks being built for next season. But I firmly believe they have got enough whips, chairs, nastiness, loaded ‘bows, and, oh, yeah, talent, to end Boston’s eon on a pungent pitch.
The biggest question in my mind is, can the Knicks stay strong mentally against such schooled players who are infamous for goading a breakdown in opponents. The Knicks cannot afford to overreact to the Celtics’ experienced prodding. It would be just stone stupid — and ultimately destructive — if they come out consumed to seek trouble.
D’Antoni can tolerate no such mindlessness in this series, starting with the opening tip. NBA analysts are notorious for droning the first game or two of a potential seven is a feeling out process and that it really doesn’t begin until a team has won on the other’s home court.
This is so not remotely the case here. The Knicks do not own the luxury to feel out the Celtics. They must emasculate them in Game 1 at home, in front of their nervous fans, render them powerless from the jump. They cannot allow a team that lost 11 of its last 21 games to remember how to take care of business. They cannot allow the Celtics’ knowhow to kick in or permit them time off between games to replace hips, get blood transfusions or let the oxygen masks drop into their laps.
The Knicks cannot allow the Vitamin C’s to regain their offensive confidence that’s been on the blink for over a month. They cannot allow Jeff Green to feel comfortable with the starters who seemingly did not make him feel all that welcome after being acquired for Kendrick Perkins. They cannot afford to allow Jermaine O’Neal to get halfway healthy or give him a chance to coordinate his a 10-foot jumper.
The Knicks cannot afford to let the series go long enough for Shaquille O’Neal to learn how to post up in traction.
The Knicks cannot afford to sleep on the job like some air traffic controller. Sunday’s confrontation is a have-to-have.
In the Famous Amos words of Eddy Curry, “Carpe per diem.”
Seize the day, not to mention the meal money.
The Knicks may not be championship caliber, but, at this juncture, they’re certainly Celtics-caliber. As that noted basketball sage Charlie Sheen pointed out, “Defeat is not an option.”