I think way too often about the 2012 ECF and I don’t think it’s talked about enough. During the big 3 era:
– 07-08: Championship
– 08-09: KG out with injury
– 09-10: Perk out with injury game 7 finals
– 10-11: LeBron and the Heat beat us. This was fair in my opinion.
– 11-12: Rigged ECF. The last season of the big 3 and they were still very efficient.
That ECF was so fucking rigged. The league wanted LeBron and the Heat to advance to the finals to play KD Thunder. Our big 3 was obviously getting older so fatigue was a factor which was why the league was pushing the series to 7 games. As crazy as it may sound we should have won that series in 5 games. We won game 3,4,5 and had a 3-2 lead. Game 2 was our win but the league rigged that game so bad. Terrible calls! They fouled out Paul Pierce in the 4th, fouled out Pietrus, fouled out Dooling in less than 15 minutes (2 solid bench players and stats don’t tell the story about them), Rondo got smacked by Wade late in the 4th which was so obvious and crucial. I even remember Greg Stiemsma who was a great shot blocker and they gave him 4 quick fouls in 5 fucking minutes?! We had LeBron shooting 7/20 which is extremely solid defense and yet he shot 24 ft’s while we only shot 29?! Don’t get me wrong Miami LeBron was really hard to defend but god damn he shot damn near the same amount our whole team did.
Rondo had 44 pts and he was never once a scorer. How tf we lose that game?! Even Bleacher Report had an article about it and way after when KG retired he talked about. A lot of this is just facts. We would of had a OKC vs Boston series which would have been a really, really good finals. An upcoming superstar talented OKC team against a superstar veteran Boston team. It would be sick seeing Rondo go up against Westbrook. Paul Pierce and KD matchup. KG and Ibaka. Instead, the league pushed the series to help LeBron advance and get his first ring. A rigged game which cost us the series.
by Georgia4life
36 Comments
We should’ve won this series 😭
Dwayne Wade is a dirty POS, that is all.
Fuck Dwyane Wade
Dwade scrapped rondos face, a year after he dislocated his elbow, and kicked KG in the groin. I think about that more than I should.
Game 5 of that series is prolly a top-5 C’s game ever to me
Rondo was a fucking beast.
Prime Rondo is the PG I want on the floor for the all-Celtics team facing the Space Jam aliens (with apologies to Tiny and Cousy.)
Think about game 6 more frequently tbh
Calling this series rigged is pretty pathetic man. Complaining about bad calls that went against your team can be done in every single series in every single sport.
We had an opportunity to win the series at home but had absolutely 0 answer for Lebron. The Heat were a far better team on paper and we shouldn’t have been there with how old our team was. But we were there and had an opportunity. The refs or the NBA was not why we lost the series.
Literally never
Honestly I feel the 11 series was more likely rigged – we punked the Heat 3-1 in the regular season that year but the league was desperate to eliminate the “Celtics own Lebron” narrative and pushed the Heat right along to the Finals.
never.
we got hosed imagine if last year when the heat surprised everyone the refs decided to throw it our way? Thats what happened in 2012 baby lebron needs to be coddled
Rondos a top 3 pure point guard of all time. Severely underrated
We won the next three games in a row including LeBron getting arguably unfairly ejected in Game 4 and a Game 5 that could easily have gone the other way. I think more about Pierce’s shot over LeBron in Game 5 and how the NBA season was cancelled afterward for whatever reason.
2012 was an amazing series. We lost, wasn’t rigged. Heat were better. End of story.
Still so weird to think how close we were to being back in the finals again that year. Remember KG in that phili series? He was insane. Watching uncut gems brought back a lot of awesome memories of being a Celtics fan
I got the 2k4 huaraches just because of this rondo game
They were like wearing two little ovens, but I still loved them
Shoulda had 3 rings.
Definitely the Rondo face scrape still pisses me off. I posted a photo on FB of it and I get the “memory” every year.
I am more annoyed about how Chris Bosh just showed up as a sniper from 3 point randomly in that series.
You bringing this up makes me instantly flash back to watching this series when I was a college kid, and swearing there was some shady stuff going on. Rigged or not, definitely suspicious stuff
D@@@@@mn!!!!!
I don’t think of my last 5ex-wives…
Much less a trivial subject like BB in ’12…
*It’s okay to let go*
Rondo literally got called for a foul that Wade did . Ruined a 44/8/10 masterpiece
16 3pas is wild
I had honestly forgotten about that series until you mentioned it aaand I’m mad again.
We should be in the finals at least four outta those 5 years, maybe 5 straight if KG never got hurt
Pretty often (for Celtics related thoughts). We would’ve beat the thunder jn 5-6. Sucks
Why get emotional over a game you’re convinced is rigged? Masochism behavior
Goddamn our bench was so trash then haha
I try not thinking about that series. I love thinking about 2010 eastern semis though. The origin of “Boston is racist” I’m kidding but it brought me big smiles seeing Le-crybaby rip his jersey off and throw it in the crowd. He was defeated and I loved it. Then he lost in the next years finals 🤣 couldn’t win won without D-Wade and Bosh and because they were playing a young KD, Russ and Harden, Serge Iblocka and wasn’t Steven Adams on that 2012 team? Anyways, a lot stemmed from the 2010 ECSF
Think of 2011 game 3 dwade had to try and break rondos arm to stop him .Quite a bit
My fav series. This cemented Rondo as my favorite player
It would’ve been sweet to deny Lebron of his 1st championship again. The backlash for him failing to win a ‘chip again 2 years into their superteam would’ve been generational.
Finally the quote I couldn’t find. I always thought I may have just imagined that being said. Somehow the refs missed that blatant foul on Rondo😂.
I think about peak Rondo every single day of my life.
What people generally forget about this series was Bosh was injured for the first 4 and a half games. KG was having his way and when Bosh came back it really flipped the series because they got a rim protector.
We had so much bad luck never fully healthy team Jeff green and Avery Bradley down Shaq Jermaine O’Neal not healthy. The FT difference was always insane lebron never ever even close to foul trouble. We get looked at like we just straight up choked every year we were never healthy. I went to one the games that year when we lost to philly on that kg moving screen call. D Wade carrying every time he split a screen or double. I don’t remember a team being as pampered as those heat teams lebron was in that era when every time he got touched he would snap his neck back and they would blow the whistle.
Game 2 was possibly the most rigged playoff game I’ve ever watched.
Actually scratch that, Game 7 of the 2010 Finals was worse.