In another of our continuing series, five things to keep an eye out for tonight in the Celtics-Cavs Eastern Conference Semifinals Game 6 this evening.

Nowhere To Go But Up. Or ... Home: Demolished in Game 4. Daniel Gibson out. Unable to get LeBron hot. Rajon Rondo shaking off doldrums. Kevin Garnett. There's a mountain of stuff lined up against Cleveland tonight. They are at home, but as much as it's been a saving grace for teams so far in the playoffs, that's got to end at some point. I hate using cliches, but they're unavoidable in this situation. The Cavaliers are in a position to bond together, give 110%, rise to meet the challenge, and let the hometown crowd buoy them to a Game 7 in Boston. It's not quite that simple though.

Delonte's Inferno: Okay, Delonte West. You're up. Gibson is down, you've been great at home, and this team needs a shooter like nothing else. If the Cavaliers are going to push this thing back to Boston against all odds, they need West to do three things. Create, contain, and close. He's got to spark the offense. He's done a better job of that than even Gibson has done, and has done well both in transition and in the half court set of finding the open man and making the right decision. He's got to contain Rajon Rondo and send him back to his dreadful pre-Game 5 ways, and he's got close out by knocking down and defending three point shots.

Whatever hopes the Cavaliers had of winning the final two games of the series against the Celtics just took a huge hit, as sharp-shooter Daniel Gibson has been ruled out of Game 6 with a separated shoulder. Gibson left Game 5 early in the fourth quarter with the injury, which will keep him out of action for at least one-two weeks. Which, you know, is bad news for Cleveland, because this series definitely won't last past Sunday, and might not even get that far.

While Gibson's only big game of the series came in Game 4 where he dropped in 14 points, the fact that he's a long range threat tends to open things up for the all-important one, LeBron James. So even though Gibson's firepower won't necessarily be missed, his presence will be, and that might be just enough to get the Celtics over the hump on the road in Game 6.

Brian Windhorst, who is one of the finest NBA reporters in the land, let alone for the Cavs, has a terrific quote this morning from LeBron James that gives us some insight into where his head at, both with his identity and his team's. After the Game 5 loss in Boston, James was quoted as saying,

"A LeBron James team is never desperate."

Now, there are a lot of ways to interpret this. One is that any team with James on it is going to be confident, because he knows what he's capable of. And you can't really fault him for that. I personally hate it when guys are overly modest to the point of it being facetious. The Cavs are LeBron James. And for them to really excel, to beat the Celtics in a seven game series, especially winning a Game 7 in Boston, if it even comes to that, he has to be the guy. That kind of honesty is kind of refreshing in a league where so many players talk about their teammates but don't actually trust them in the game.

More analysis of the King and "his team" after the jump.

Every now and again there are some stupendous, silly, stupid, or downright outlandish individual lines from around the L. Doing Lines lets you know which one tops the list.

The Celtics came from behind to protect their home floor on Wednesday, which is kind of important considering they've yet to win on the road in the playoffs. Paul Pierce (29 points, 11-13 FT) took over in the fourth quarter and Kevin Garnett (26 points, 16 boards) filled the bucket and cleaned the glass, but the guy who impressed me the most was Rajon Rondo.

Rondo scored 20 points with 13 assists, both personal highs for him thus far in the playoffs. Rondo even hit 2-3 from long distance, which might not sound all that special until you realize he shot just 5-19 from three-point land the entire regular season. Rondo can drive the lane with the best of them but has little to no range -- except when the Celtics desperately needed points to climb over the hump and erase a Cavaliers lead.

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Bad back and all, Kobe Bryant was still able to score 26 (6-10 FG, 13-17 FT) with seven assists and six boards to lead the Lakers to victory. He finished the game with only 10 field-goal attempts (and six makes), but that's a bit misleading when you also consider he went to the line 17 times (converting 13 times).

Entering the game, LeBron James hadn't scored more than 21 points in a single game against Boston. He had that by halftime, but unfortunately his production slowed to a crawl in the third quarter. He finished with 35 points, five assists and three boards -- a rather ho-hum performance given his fast start.

Sorry, Celtics fans, but as of right now the only thing 66 wins gets you is a supporting role in LeBron James' poster. That said, It's not a real series until someone wins on the road, which is what King James and the LeBronettes will be trying to do tonight. The ball tips at 8pm on TNT; my inane commentary follows thereafter. Join me below the jump as I try to survive watching two teams fight, scratch and claw their way to shooting 40% gaining the series lead.

In another of our continuing series, five things to keep an eye out for tonight in the Cavs-Celtics Eastern Conference Semifinals Game 5 this evening.

1. This Is Not Your Momma's House: Let's take a step away from slamming the Celtics' horrific road performances for a moment, as fun as it is. This team is a seven-dagger-tailed demon with light coming out of its eyes at home. And tonight's game just happens to be at the "Garden." While there are certainly a variety of warning signs about this Celtics team and their inability to do that vastly underrated exercise of putting the ball in the little hole with the net hanging from it, this team has still always responded when it needed to at home so far in the playoffs. They have their backs up against the wall, facing a daunting return to the suddenly intimidating Q in Cleveland for an elimination game if they don't hold serve tonight. With so many superstars and Hall of Famers on this squad, you'd have to figure someone or someones will still up tonight.

2. No Regard For Human Life Shooting Slumps: Lost in the dunk that blew doors off hinges was the fact that LeBron James still didn't have a very good game in Game 4. He scored 21 points on 7 of 20 shooting. Not bad, but nothing amazing either. However, he did start to significantly warm up in the fourth quarter of Game 4, topped off by that redonkulous jam in the face of Kevin Garnett. We've been waiting for him to catch the spark necessary to get him going, and if that was it, the Celtics may not be rolling to another home blow out tonight.

NBA Essentials ranks our six favorite stories of the day.

1. Need4Sheed: The patented 'Sheed foul reaction, endlessly looping for your enjoyment.

2. Tim Kawakami's Talking Points: Presenting the first annual NBA No-Defense team.

3. Brian Windhorst on the Cleveland Cavaliers: LeBron James is glad this didn't happen on Mothers' Day.

4. Mitch Lawrence, NY Daily News: Starbury, meet coach D'Antoni. Now pack your bags.

5. Mike Bresnahan, L.A. Times: Ronny Turiaf won't be suspended for that Game 4 flagrant foul.

6. CelticsBlog: I knew Ray Allen was Jesus, but Wally Szczerbiak as Blue Steel?

"LeBron James, with no regard for human life!" Kevin Harlan is fantastic. I'm not sure why KG didn't really attempt to contest this dunk, especially considering this year's Defensive Player of the Year only had one foul the entire game. Maybe he thought the game was over, and maybe he didn't want to get really embarrassed by having LeBron throw it down on his head. Either way, it was a nice exclamation point for the Cavs, who are now headed back to Boston with the series all tied up at two games apiece.

There's nothing worse than Tivo'ing an athletic contest of your favorite team and avoiding gameday discussion about who won/lost. Unless of course you happen to work at a Starbucks in the area around where the game is being played, in which case a slew of customers are parading in, probably talking about everything but the game. That's why a Boston area barista posted the following note on the door of the local 'Bucks.

Customers,

Please try not to talk about the Celtics game. I am recording it and watching it when I get home tonight. I would really prefer to not know the outcome ahead of time.

Thanks.

I find it really, really, really hard to believe that he/she managed to make it through the entire day without hearing what happened. On the other hand, how is it still light outside and this guy/gal is worried about the game? Did the barista happen to skip watching it the night before and is somehow trying to make it through the entire day without finding out what happened? If that's the case, well, tough, champ. I probably wouldn't refrain from talking about it.

But probably only to see the sickened look on his face when I falsely mentioned that Kevin Garnett tore his ACL. Either that or give a double thumbs-up coupled with a cheesy grin and then point at the sign while I ordered my coffee. Yeah, I'm not a nice person.

Via Consumerist

With about four minutes to go in the second quarter, Paul Pierce pulled what is called a "wrap up" foul on LeBron James. He carried it for quite a while -- although it wasn't flagrant -- and some people took exception to it. Including LeBron's courtside mother, who gets in Pierce's face and pushes Kevin Garnett out of the way, before LeBron told her to "chill!" (at least what it looked like anyway).



Doug Collins did have a, gulp, good point though, when he said these wrap up fouls can actually end up being dangerous. Not as dangerous as LeBron telling his mama to settle down, but dangerous nonetheless.