Sweep Revenge

That's Shank half-clever cliched headline after the Boston Celtics bounced the Brooklyn Nets out of the 2022 NBA playoffs:

The Celtics got their sweep revenge, and now it feels like this could be a long, magical spring

NEW YORK — Did anybody really think Kyrie Irving and the Nets actually wanted to come back to Boston?

The Celtics finished off Brooklyn’s latter day Bums Monday, beating the Nets, 116-112, to complete a four-game sweep of a team that was favored to win the NBA championship at the start of this season. It was sweet revenge for last spring’s series loss to Brooklyn when annoying Kyrie stomped on the Celtic logo at the Garden.

All of Boston and NBA America expected Dem Bums to roll over one last time against the surging Celts. It would be not fair to say Brooklyn quit in this one, but the dysfunctional Nets fell behind by as many as 15 and never led. They go down as the Greatest Dynasty That Never Was.

DHL Dan CXXVI - Mr. Mandate

That would be Shank, of course, insisting it's a professional obligation to get vaccinated against the Wuhan Flu virus, side effects be damned:

Say hello to Tanner “Kyrie” Houck, a 25-year-old righthanded pitcher who told us last weekend that he is not vaccinated and therefore will miss his scheduled start against the Jays Tuesday.

“I think it’s a personal choice for everyone whether they get it or not,” Houck said. “I’m definitely bummed that I won’t be able to make that start.”

Wow. Bummer, man.

Kyrie Houck went on to say, “But the starts I am able to make, I plan on giving 100 percent for this team. Anything I can do for this team to help them win, I’ll do it.”

If you really feel that way, just get the shot, big fella. You are a professional athlete. You are part of a team. Maybe this would be a time to forgo your “personal freedom” and do what’s good for the team and everyone around you.

Now, that's a Boston Globe attitude for ya!

Clunker

Shank's first Celtics playoff column focuses on how bad Kevin Durant sucked in Game 2:

Kevin Durant has another clunker against Celtics, and that’s a big problem for the Nets

He has played 14 NBA seasons, which is longer than Larry Bird played. He was in the NBA when Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen were preaching Ubuntu and winning a championship. Kevin Durant has been around so long, he actually played for the Seattle SuperSonics.

But in Wednesday’s 114-107 loss to the Celtics, Durant — for the first time in his career — looked old.

“KD is in the Boston Celtics Correctional Facility,’’ tweeted Durant’s former Thunder teammate Kendrick Perkins. “The Celtics did the same damn thing they did in Game 1 and that’s get physical with KD and Punk’d him.’’

Great Celtics defense, or is it the beginning of the end here for Durant?

Careful What You Wish For

Shank's thinking about the Celtics' possible 1st round playoff opponent:

It’s easy to root for a Celtics playoff match with Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant, and the Nets

Celtics-Nets?

Kyrie Irving coming back to Boston for the first round of the NBA playoffs?

It’s too good to be true. And it’s not certain yet. But if the Nets win their play-in game Tuesday at home against Cleveland, get ready for sage-burning Kyrie to come back to the Garden to stomp on Lucky the Leprechaun this coming weekend.

The Celtics beat the declawed Memphis Grizzlies, 139-110, in their regular-season finale in Memphis on Sunday to secure the Eastern Conference’s No. 2 seed for the upcoming playoffs. Memphis, which had already secured the No. 2 seed in the West, had nothing to gain by winning the game and rested four starters to give the Celtics an easy win.

It will indeed be the Brooklyn Nets in the 1st round.

DHL Dan CXXV - Goners?

Shank takes a look at the contract situations of key members of the Red Sox:

It already seems impossible to get away from Rafael Devers and Xander Bogaerts contract talk, and other thoughts

NEW YORK — Picked-up pieces while back in New York for the first time in 2½ years …

▪ Two days into a new baseball season and it seems impossible to get away from contract talk. Is Xander Bogaerts going to opt out at the end of this season? Is Rafael Devers gone after 2023? Why won’t the Red Sox just pony up and sign their homegrown stars to whopping contract extensions?

Fair or unfair, this is a reality as the Red Sox start their season in Yankee Stadium. It’s been hard to focus on competitive baseball issues — such as the questionable quality of Alex Cora’s starting rotation and bullpen.

Money was on everyone’s minds at Yankee Stadium for Friday’s opener. Bogaerts and Devers had acknowledged that spring negotiations with the Sox went nowhere. Both said they didn’t want to negotiate during the season. And once the game started, everything they did felt like a referendum on their worth to the franchise.

I get the feeling neither one of them will re-sign with the Sox, the way it's going now.

Thud

Shank predictably wrote about the 2022 Red Sox' 1st game of the season - because they lost:

Our daily soap opera of Boston and baseball began with a back-end thud

NEW YORK — They play almost every day. There is always a chance for quick redemption. It’s one of the reasons we love baseball and one of the reasons we are glad it is back.

The Red Sox opened their 122nd big-league season Friday with an 11-inning, 6-5 loss to the Yankees in the House That Jeter Built. On a postcard-perfect Bronx afternoon, the Sox got good work from a raft of no-name relievers before the immortal Kutter Crawford (a man with two innings of big-league experience) surrendered a game-winning single to Josh Donaldson.

That's practically mid-season form right there for Shank!

DHL Dan CXXIV - Off The Brady Bandwagon Again

Shank's a bit put off with Tom Brady's offseason antics:

Tom Brady is making it impossible to root for him anymore, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while packing for Opening Day at Yankee Stadium …

▪ Nothing is ever enough for Tom Brady. It’s not sufficient to be the GOAT, the seven-time Super Bowl champ, the most handsome, most pliable, greatest 44-year-old starting quarterback anyone has ever seen.

He also has to be CEO, general manager, and head coach of his team.

Brady erased Bruce Arians from the Tampa landscape Wednesday, orchestrating the retirement of a coach who occasionally pushed back. Arians will be replaced by Todd Bowles, an estimable football mind who no doubt will let Tom run the Buccaneers for the foreseeable future. I expect Alex Guerrero to be named Tampa’s team doctor any minute.