Call for Vengeance

The Boston Herald's Ron Borges writes an article today, calling for the Celtics to take revenge on Dwight Howard. Superman hasn't exactly been living up to his nickname. He's been by far the dirtiest player on the court this series. His elbow throwing has effected nearly every Celtic. Most recently, Glen Davis, who lost at least a portion of a tooth and suffered a concussion Wednesday night. Today, SawxBlog posted a video compilation of Howard's dirty Conference Finals elbows here. Borges says that this needs to stop and points to Kevin McHale taking out Kurt Rambis in Game 4 of the 1984 NBA Finals as a way to do it,
"...Rambis got up spoiling for a fight but his team didn’t, and what had once seemed like a Lakers blowout turned out to be a Celtics victory. They tied the series at 2 and ended up winning it in seven games....At the time, Cedric Maxwell explained what resulted when he said, “Before Kevin McHale hit Kurt Rambis, the Lakers were just running across the street whenever they wanted. Now they stop at the corner, push the button, wait for the light and look both ways.”
After the Game 5 loss, Garnett sounded Tedy Bruschi like, saying, "We are upset and we don't take losing lightly around here". They're going to need to bring that Linebacker physicality if they're going to close things out tonight in Boston. Not only to withstand Howard's elbows but to keep up with Orlando's pick and rolls and apply that same defensive pressure employed on their route to a 3-0 lead. Doc echoed this thought saying, "The team that's been the most physical has won the games. I thought it was us for the first three and I think it's been Orlando for the last two".

Whether that physicality will show up in the form of Shelden Williams giving some "hard fouls" to Howard (as Borges suggests) remains to be seen. However, as much as I'd like to see Superman take a couple elbows to the face himself, the Celtics suddenly have a depth problem with their bigs. The possibility of a suspension for anyone is too great a risk to take.

(Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)