Smell The Coffee

The Celtics won’t need a wake up call for Game 2 of the NBA Finals Sunday. They already got that call during Friday morning’s film session to review the disaster that was their Game 1 performance. Soft, passive and a host of other words were used to describe the Celtics’ performance in a game.

“We needed that,” Celtics reserve guard Tony Allen said Friday afternoon before practice. “We need to smell that coffee, and realize that this is the NBA Finals. We need to approach every game like this is the NBA Finals. We played (Game 1) like this was a December game and we were just going through the motions.”

While the Lakers looked fresh, energetic and aggressive after a nearly week-long break, the Celtics seemed out of sorts from the start. “We looked like that because we were out of sorts,” Kendrick Perkins said. “It was a mess. Normally, we’re on defense and we know how to play off of each other but it was just off this time. It didn’t make sense.”

It didn’t help that the Lakers landed most of the clean punches early and throughout the game. The Celtics weren’t surprised to see that type of effort from the Lakers, “I expected that,” Allen said. “They understood it early, that this is the Finals and we’re going to come out here early and throw our best punch. And we need to be ready to respond.”