Unconvincing

It was nice to see the Celtics go ahead in the series with a 3-2 lead, but C's fans shouldn't be comfortable with that win. There was a lot of good to go with a lot of bad - let's take a look at the bad first...

The Celtics appear to lack a killer instinct. Up by 17 in the third quarter, the team got sloppy in the fourth, letting the Pistons get as close as one with little more than a minute to play. This didn't happen due to sterling play by the Pistons. Not to take anything away from Detroit, which capitalized when the Celtics got sloppy. And boy, was Boston a mess - passing in to traffic (Rajon Rondo, Kevin Garnett) when they had open jump shots, passing to the other team (Garnett), and turning over the ball with thoughtless penalties.

The fourth quarter was ugly and should inspire no confidence in Celtics fans.

The good? Ray Allen looked like...well, Ray Allen for the first time in the playoffs. Allen shot 60 percent and scored 29 points. Garnett, while having trouble protecting the ball at times, put up 33 points. But Kendrick Perkins might have been the biggest difference-maker for the Celtics.

Perkins played like a man possessed. Perkins had a double-double, putting up 18 points, had 16 rebounds (11 on the defensive boards), two steals, and two blocked shots.

I can't help but think that they need to close this out in Detroit, because a win in game seven is nowhere near a gimme.

Staying with the playoffs, I just need to comment on the following statement regarding the ending of the Lakers-Spurs playoff game -

"With the benefit of instant replay, it appears a foul should have been called," NBA spokesman Tim Frank said.

It took the league instant-freakin'-replay to figure out that one player landing on top of another constitutes a foul?! I'm sure that statement is a great consolation to Spurs fans everywhere. The Lakers get away with a blatant foul on an 87 percent free-throw shooter as time expires while up by only two. I keep hearing how the refs shouldn't decide the games, but let's face it, if they're not going to call that as time expires, then why shouldn't players body check shooters at the ends of playoff games? I commend the NBA for admitting the mistake - but trying to claim, by saying ""With the benefit of instant replay," that it was call that easily could have been missed...well that's just embarrassing and disgraceful.