RED AND GREEN WITH ENVY

Good time to be a sports fan in Boston. Well, when is it not? The Celtics defeated the Hawks in the first round of the 2008 NBA Eastern Conference Playoffs...............but it was not easy. The series was difficult to explain. On paper, and more importantly on the court, the 66-16 Boston Celtics were far better than the 37-45 Atlanta Hawks. So how in the world did the series go to the max? The Celtics won all 4 home games by total domination blowouts, while the Hawks used a combination of athleticism, free throws, home cooking and desire to win all 3 games at home by the slim-est of margin. Garnett, Pierce, Allen, Perkins and Rondo battled the likes of young stars in Atlanta such as Smith, Williams, Johnson and Horford to a surprising great and very physical series. Many physical altercations occurred as the fast and exuberant Hawks tested the veteran Big Three for the green. Strange this was everyone watching the two teams saw a Veteran All-Star team(Celtics) battle a young rookie All-Star team and yet it went 7 games. The disparity in free throws, 204-133 Hawks advantage through the first 6 games, kept the series alive. But in the end, the Celtics did what was expected of them; defeat the Hawks and move on to the 2nd round. But nobody thought it was going to go to a 5th, 6th and even 7th game. Onwards.
The Celtics move on to play CLE with BOS with home court advantage. The results vs. ATL:
Game 1 Apr. 20 Boston wins 104-81
Game 2 Apr. 23 Boston wins 96-77
Game 3 Apr. 26 Atlanta wins 102-93
Game 4 Apr. 28 Atlanta wins 97-92
Game 5 April 30 Boston wins 110-85
Game 6 May 2 Atlanta wins 103-100
Game 7 May 4 Boston wins 99-64

Meanwhile, despite the fact it's now May and Big Papi is still around the Mendoza Line, injuries to key players (Schilling, Moss, Drew, Casey, Ellsbury, Cora), Mike Lowell with 0 HR and 0 RBI as of May 4th and a tough March-April road stretch, your 2008 Boston Red Sox are alone in first place(what's new) with a stellar 20-13 mark. After getting swept in Tampa last weekend, things looked bleak. But home cooking changed that this week. The Red Sox got swept by Toronto and Tampa earlier this season and had a chance at redemption for both clubs this week at the Fens. And that they did. The club used great pitching and some late game heroics to take 2-of-3 from the Jays then smashed the Rays for a 3 game sweep! The team is doing this mainly due to starting pitching, as the club has the best 5 man staff in baseball. Lester, Dice-K, Beckett, Wakefield and Bucholz are all throwin' gems. The team will hope to continue that as they head to Detroit for 4 this week. Lowell, Drew and Beckett all recently returned to action and the team hopes to poise themselves for a strong May. Schilling will be tossing soon with an eye on a September return. At this point, the team is doing fine without him. Go Red Sox......and Celtics!
In other news, those Habs lost in 5 games to the Flyers bringing a grin to all our Bruins fans still upset from last week. This certainly softens the wound and makes things better. Meanwhile, the Bruins gave offers to Ward and Metropolit. The Baby B's (Providence) are in the 2nd round of there series and lead 2-1 with future Bruins backstopper T. Rask manning the pipes. The Patriots kicked off there rookie mini-camp this week with last weekend's draft picks.