NBA playoffs: Lakers have to keep eye on Trail Blazers

Update on the defending champion Boston Celtics' prospects of repeating:

How about those Red Sox?

The sky fell, after all, in Boston, when Kevin Garnett's return was set back yet again . . . possibly until next season, as the local baseball season beckoned.

Garnett was supposed to return for the Celtics' last game, then for Saturday's playoff opener against the Chicago Bulls, before Thursday's surprise announcement by Coach Doc Rivers that he might sit out the entire postseason.

"The guy is a warrior," Rivers told Boston radio station WEEI after watching Garnett work out. "You can see him trying to mask it, but after 20 minutes of running, there's just no way. . . . If he can't get through biking and working out without swelling and stiffness and his leg locking, I just don't know how you play in the playoffs."

Devastating as it was, it was also their version of the Lakers' Andrew Bynum Strategy, getting the worst possible news out so their players don't sit around waiting for Garnett and any positive development becomes a bonanza.

There's still a hopeful scenario in Boston: The team, which was 18-7 without Garnett, gets by Chicago and Orlando, and he's ready for Cleveland in the Eastern finals.

Actually, they're not assured of beating the athletic, young Bulls, who won 12 of their last 16, and no better than 50-50 against the Magic, which is 4-3 against them over two seasons.

For Lakers fans, hoping for a Finals rematch to see your favorites humiliate the Celtics for humiliating them last spring, there are two consolations

1. There's always 2010, even if Ray Allen, Garnett and Paul Pierce will be 34, 33 and 32, respectively.

2. Maybe the Lakers can humiliate the Cavaliers and LeBron James in the Finals, instead.

The Lakers don't actually owe the Cavaliers anything. On the other hand, someone does, because the exuberant young Eastern kingpins are out of control.

Professional and hardworking all season, the Cavaliers erupted at the end, striking poses and dancing in Sunday's rout of the Celtics, carrying on in Wednesday's finale when James and teammates pantomimed lifting a giant championship trophy.

After the Sunday game, Ray Allen said, "I'm always going to remember that."

Commissioner David Stern, himself, said he doesn't want a ban against celebrations but noted, "If I were the Celtics, I would make sure that tape . . . runs every game in the locker room."