Gorman loving special season
The Celtics have outscored the Atlanta Hawks by a combined 42-point margin in their first two Eastern Conference quarterfinal playoff games, and that has come as a shock to virtually no one. Mike Gorman, the Celtics' play-by-play broadcaster on
"They had such a high bar during the season," said Gorman. "When I used to do the Celtics in the 1980s, I only did the home games. For about the last 10 years now, I've been doing all the games. I have never been around a team that had such focus as this one did. You hear teams all the time utter cliches like 'taking it one game at a time.' It sounds like 'Bull Durham.' But it was real with these guys.
"Every single night they played hard and treated the next game like it was the most important game. To see them kind of systematically take apart Atlanta here in the first two games really doesn't surprise me."
Gorman doesn't believe the team can play a whole lot better defensively than it has, but offensively, the Celtics can pick it up.
"I think the coaching staff believes they can play better and I think they probably will," he said. "Defensively, they just make it so difficult for the other team to score. That just sets them apart from so many other teams. The thing about this first series is everybody kind of wants to make it more interesting than it really is. What it really is is the best team in basketball playing the No. 8 team in their conference, which didn't even win half its games, so you expect it to go the way it is going."
In a crowded sports market where many of the Boston teams are succeeding, the Celtics finally have a big portion of the spotlight to themselves.
"It's been a long time since Celtics fans have had a legitimate expectation of their team, that they were going to be playing deep into the playoffs," said Gorman. "We all got spoiled in the 1980s when the minimum it seemed was that they got to the Finals every year. Then that disappeared for a long time."
Now, it appears the only real obstacle in the East is the Detroit Pistons.
"Whoever comes out of the West will certainly be formidable," said Gorman. "But the Celtics were the best team in basketball this year. They won 66 games, they were the No. 1 defensive team from wire to wire.
"In the East, Detroit obviously is the stumbling block between the Celtics and the NBA Finals. That would be a wonderful series if they wind up playing each other in a couple of weeks."
When the season started, Gorman said there were several question marks regarding team chemistry. He said it starts and ends with Kevin Garnett.
"I don't think there is any question Kevin is the leader of the team," Gorman said. "That's with Paul Pierce's blessing and that's with Ray Allen's blessing. Back in October, all you heard was, 'What's the chemistry going to be like with these three guys? Do they need three balls to play together?' Really, from Day 1, they assumed their roles and everybody was happy.
"Garnett is such a once-in-a-lifetime character. I've been doing this for 27 years. I've seen players have equally intense moments as Kevin Garnett has had, but I've never seen a player who has so many of them. It's been remarkable to be around him. He just raised the bar for everybody. He probably wouldn't like to hear me say this, but he's great theater."
Draft coverage
ESPN will be covering the NFL draft for the 29th straight year. Chris Berman and Mel Kiper Jr. head up the network's 16 hours of live coverage tomorrow and Sunday on ESPN and ESPN2. Tomorrow, ESPN will air a four-hour "SportsCenter Special: On the Clock" at 11 a.m. ESPN's coverage moves to Radio City Music Hall for the draft telecast at 3 p.m. Tomorrow's coverage will switch to ESPN2 at 8 p.m. ESPN will televise eight hours Sunday, from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. . . . Comcast SportsNet will provide an in-depth report on the Patriots' selections Monday at 6:30 p.m. Gary Tanguay and Michael Felger host from Gillette Stadium. On hand will be former Patriots Christian Fauria and Scott Zolak, as well as NBCSports.com's Tom Curran. The show is scheduled to repeat after the Celtics-Hawks Game 4, and at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday . . . If you're eager for information on the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, tune in to MSNBC Sunday from noon-1 p.m. for a taped highlights show on the US Olympic trials of the women's marathon. It is the premiere episode in what will be 13 consecutive Sundays of Olympic trials coverage . . . NBC Sports elected to pick up the option on the NHL, extending the partnership through next season. Dick Ebersol, who is chairman of NBC Universal Sports and Olympics, said ratings were up this season and he believes the sport will continue to grow. According to the network, regular-season ratings for the "Sunday Game of the Week" were up 11 percent over last season. In the men's 18-49 age demographic, ratings were up 33 percent. No doubt the addition of Mike Milbury has helped bring fans to the broadcast and he has enhanced it for those already tuned in. Time to ask for a raise, Mike.Nancy Marrapese-Burrell can be reached at marrapese@globe.com.
