Another day, another obstacle for Celtics

Nobody, not even the most dedicated Atlanta Hawks fan, could have possibly predicted that the Hawks would take the Celtics to Game Seven. Round One of the NBA playoffs was supposed to be easy, child’s play. As Celtics fans know by now, Round One was an old-fashioned, knock-down, drag-out fight between a heavyweight fighter and a group of kids unaware that they weren’t supposed to be there. Following yet another road collapse in Game Six, a still-confident Celtics captain Paul Pierce never lost faith.”You kind of saw it from the guys after Game 6 on the plane,” Pierce said. “There wasn’t a lot of talking and we knew that we let a couple games get away in Atlanta and I just knew we were going to take care of business tonight.”Taking care of business is exactly what the Celtics did, and by the time the final buzzer sounded, the Celtics were focused on dethroning King James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.As hard as it may be to believe, just 48 hours removed from their dramatic seven-game series, the Celtics must refocus and reenergize. The Cavaliers will present a different set of challenges. Celtics head coach Doc Rivers knows that as LeBron James goes, so go the Cavaliers.”LeBron is a great player,” Rivers said. “I think we should start there; it’s going to be a tough series. They were in the Finals last year. One of the things I told our team all year, every time we played them, is that we’re trying to catch them, not them trying to catch us. The record means nothing.”Celtics star Ray Allen echoed the coach’s point, saying, “(James is) going to have the ball in his hands, and with that, he’s going to make shots and he’s going to get to the free-throw line, but it’s key that he doesn’t have a cast of characters with him where they’re taking over and giving him some breaks.”Celtics fans know LeBron’s cast of characters all too well. The Cavaliers’ former Celtics include fan favorite Delonte West and former Boston sharpshooter Wally Szczerbiak, who thinks he may have the Celtics figured out.”They try and hit people early, a la a lot of heavyweight prize fighters who try to knock people out in the first round,” Szczerbiak said. “(This) team has a lot of solid veterans that are able to do that.”After a trip to Rome, seven exhibition games, 82 regular-season games, and now seven playoff games, the Celtics find themselves a step closer to the NBA Finals. Pierce knows that the road to the championship goes through Cleveland.”The Cleveland Cavaliers are the Eastern Conference champs from a year ago, the team that went to the Finals,” Pierce said, “so we know it’s going to be a tough road, and you’ve got to go through the Eastern Conference champs, a team that has a lot of experience, a team that has been to the Finals and that knows what it takes.”The next step for the Celtics: Dethroning a King. Child’s play, right?