For the first time in the Kevin Garnett era, the Boston Celtics are down 0-2 in a playoff series after Tuesday night's Game 2 loss to the Miami Heat, 102-91. The series is not over -- the Celtics have the next two games at home in Boston (Game 3 isn't until Saturday, 8 p.m. ET) -- but it's certainly not looking good for Banner 18 right now. And it has CelticsBlog asking: are we witnessing a changing of the guard in the Eastern Conference?
Sure, Boston won the first three regular season meetings, but the Heat won the final game between the two in the regular season, and now are playing like the better team. So what happened?
Boston, on the other hand, peaked early. As is their custom, they came out of the gates firing on all cylinders. They still had the bad taste of game 7 in their mouths and they got the gang back together again for another shot at a banner. Everything was clicking, including dispatching the upstart Heat, until the realities of an 82 game season set in. Injuries, age, wear and tear, and the overall mental drag of a long season got to the team. They flipped the switch thinking that they could just duplicate what happened last year with another shot at the Lakers in game 7. That's fine against the Knicks, but the Heat are a different story.
They say a series doesn't start until the home team loses a game, which is exactly what the Celtics need to do in Game 3 and 4 to make sure this series is over before it begins.