All they do in Beantown: play game sevens.  Add a winner take all showdown between the Magic and Celtics at the new Garden on Sunday Night to the list

SCOTT JACOBS

The NBA: Where Amazing Happens.

Boston, MA: Where Game Sevens Happen.

With the Burins and now Celtics going to game sevens in their second round series’ respectively, Boston is officially the Game Seven epicenter of the sports universe.

Now onto some playoff thoughts:

First of all I officially hate DirecTV for putting Versus (the only station that basically shows hockey) on their Choice Xtra Package, and not their regular package like every other cable provider.  Thanks to their ignorance of hockey central, I’ve been unable to watch any of the game sevens in the second round, and will also be unable to watch the first two games of the Stanley Cup Finals, also on Versus.  Instead, I’ve been relegated to watch the game on my computer, on a 20 minute delay.  Whatever.

Now that I got that off my chest, let’s talk about the second round of the NBA Playoffs which have been very forgettable with the exception of game four in Dallas, and most of the Celtics-Magic series.  The Cavs-Hawks series was an absolute dud, and made the Hawks look like the worst second round team well, ever. None of those games were close with the exception of game four, which was played after the Hawks pretty much knew their season was over.  Look, LeBron is a phenomenol player, but Atlanta turned in such a horrific performance that its hard to say if Cleveland was even tested.

What a poorly played game six in Orlando.  With a chance to move on to the Conference Finals the Celtics committed an atrocious 22 turnovers, on the road nonetheless.  Ray Allen was a no show, Paul Pierce made a cameo appearance late in the game, but was kept in check.  The Celtics still almost won because Orlando shot a lackluster 36% from the field.  And then there was the discrepency at the line.  Boston got there just 13 times, and shot 61%.  The Magic were consistent visitors to the stripe, but couldn’t take advantage.  It’s hard to believe that with their season on the line they could miss 14 foul shots, but that’s exactly what happened.

Dwight Howard had a nice game, and was a force on the offensive boards, but his foul shooting just 5-12, really hurt the Magic.  But we’ll cut him some slack, since he did chip in a not too shabby 23 points and 22 boards.  Howard consistently got touches, even late in the game, but he once again proved that he needs more of an offensive repetoire to truly be unstoppable.  That said, Howard’s relentlessness down in the paint was a big reason the Magic are still breathing.

The Nuggets just might be for real.  They dismantled the Mavs rather easily in five games, and now await the winner of the Lakers-Rockets series.  It cannot be over-staed that the addition of Chauncey Billups has completely changed the culture in Denver.  No longer an offensive show, the Nuggs now look like a complete team.  And how about Billups, who will appear in the Conference Finals for an incredible 7th straight year.  Wow.  Just wow.  A winner, and a class act, and to think, they got him for A.I., who didn’t even play in the playoffs for the Pistons.  What a steal that trade turned out to be.

It seems inevitable that the Cavs are going to the Finals, but they’ll have so much rest time in between the end of their series with the Hawks (past Monday) and the start of their series with either Boston or Cleveland (Tuesday) that they may come out and throw a few clunkers on the board, which gives either team at least a fighting shot.

Finally there’s this: These NBA playoffs have proven that outside of Cleveland there are no dominant teams in this year’s playoffs.  But we’ll chalk that up to the reality that so many injuries have caused it to become watered down.  No Tracy McGrady, Yao, Kevin Garnett, or Jameer Nelson, and that’s just naming a few off the top of my head.  I can’t remember a post-season were so many big names missed out on the fun.  That’s a shame, because these playoffs could have been so much more then what they’ve been so far.

Photo: AP

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