Best Week Ever’s Adam Cole-Kelly and I are continuing our cutting edge coverage of the Celtics-Cavs series with a Game 5 preview. Well, I guess it’s probably more of a Game 5 review. You know what? I’ll just let Adam explain.

Adam Cole-Kelly: I don’t know if you guys ever buy stuff on ebay but I just scored a pretty sweet item recently: A fully functioning time machine. Amazingly my last minute bid of $45 did the trick. I guess most people were skeptical of its legitimacy. Suckers! Anyway, I just got it up and running this morning and my first order of business was clearly heading straight to tonight’s post-game press conference. When I got there I was saddened to discover that the Celtics had won Game 5 (being a foolish Cavs fan and all) so I returned to present day then went back to the press conference for a second time and lo and behold the Cavs had triumphed! Lucky for you all I captured excerpts from each press conference visit and would like to share them with you now. Also, I brought your faithful columnist Rich Levine along with me because I wanted to focus on Coach Brown’s comments and I figured he would be interested in what Doc had to say.

And don’t worry great-great-uncle Wilkes Booth- I’ll be setting the dial to 1865 and helping you cover your tracks better in no time! What?

Now to recap what we learned thanks to our ability to time travel!

Excerpts from press conference after Celtics won Game 5

Mike Brown (as heard by ACK)

“Branson Wright, Cleveland Plain Dealer. Coach Brown, LeBron’s offensive struggles obviously continued tonight- what can you guys do differently in game 6 to get him back on track?”

Mike Brown: “I don’t know Branson, but if you have any bright ideas, I’ll certainly take ‘em. (It should be noted that Coach Brown was the only person laughing in the room at this point.) I mean Lebron’s been taking shots he’s capable of hitting, and he’s been contributing in ways other than scoring, but clearly (looking down at box score) missing 17 shots from the field and 6 shots from the line is too many misses. But LeBron’s a terrific, terrific, player, and I’m sure he’ll come through for us Friday night and hopefully lead us back here for a deciding game.

Brian Windhorst, ESPN. Coach, would you talk about Z’s minutes. He was probably the most consistent offensive player the first 3 games of the series and since then he’s seen his minutes significantly reduced, particularly in the 4th quarter tonight when you guys couldn’t really get anything going.

MB: “Well Brian, I really liked the way Joe and Andy played in the 4th quarter in game 4 and given the lineup Boston had out there, I thought they matched up best, defensively. So I had the guys out there I wanted, we just didn’t get the job done on offense, like we would’ve liked to. And maybe Z helps us score more, maybe he doesn’t. The bottom line is when you only score 11 points in the 4th quarter you’re not going to win many ballgames. You gotta credit Boston’s defense too, they did a heckuva job as they have all series talking away LeBron’s drive, drawing a few charges on him and also getting out to contest our shooters who weren’t knocking down their outside shots like they have throughout this series.

Patrick McManamon. Coach, Eddie House provided a huge spark off the bench for the Celtics with 14 points. It seemed like you guys didn’t really have an answer for him during that 3rd quarter run they made. Can you talk a bit about that?

MB: Eddie’s always been a terrific streak shooter. He hasn’t played much in this series until tonight, but he was certainly prepared and he stepped up and knocked down several big shots. As far as our defense on him, I think we were a little slow to adjust. We’ve been doing a lot of doubling and sagging off of the 1, especially Rondo, and Eddie made us pay for that.

Doc Rivers (as heard by RL):

“Marc Spears, Boston Globe, Doc, you gave Rondo a public vote of confidence after practice yesterday, saying that he did all the right things Monday night, and that you thought it was his best game of the series. Then Rajon comes out tonight playing with the poise and confidence that we were accustomed to in the regular season. Are you starting to see just how much this young guy is affected by the way you privately and publicly express your opinion on his performance.”

DR: “I’ve been in Rajon’s postion. The Hawks made the playoffs my rookie season. I wasn’t starting yet, but played significant and when I made a mistake, the Czar Mike Fratello let me hear about it. I made me a better point guard and I know it will do the same for Rajon. I can’t change the way I am with him.”

“Steve Bulpett, Boston Herald, Coach you guys dominated tonight, but that’s nothing new when you’re playing in the Garden, How important is this game on Friday now? I mean, even though you lost Game 6 in Atlanta, there was no way in hell the Hawks would win Game 7 in Boston, but with Cleveland, as long as Lebron is on the floor, they have the potential to win any game under any circumstances.”

DR: “Steve, we did a lot of great things tonight. We were really clicking offensively for the first time since the Game 7 you mentioned and guys like Ray, Paul and Perk-who have had their share of problems in this series-really seem to be hitting stride. Winning Game 6 means more than just putting away the Cavs, it means that we’ll be able to head into the Conference Finals with a road win under our belt. And if by some reason we do lose on Friday, I wouldn’t worry too much about Lebron (gets sinister look on his face and begins twiddling his fingers…)”

“John Tomase, Boston Herald, Coach Rivers, any truth to the rumor that your win tonight is attributed to the fact that you bugged the Cavs charter, hacked into Mike Brown’s hard drive and stole his game plan? Also, will you be finishing that sandwich?”

DR: “Yes, John. I’ll be finishing my sandwich.”

JT: “I’m gonna go ahead and assume that “yes” was in reference to both questions (pulls cape over body, and disappears into a cloud of smoke…)”

Excerpts from press conference after Cavs won Game 5

Mike Brown (as heard by ACK)

“Bill Rabinowitz, Columbus-Dispatch. Coach Brown, everybody’s been wondering if LeBron would have a breakout game this series, but I don’t think anybody expected anything quite like this. You’ve seen him do some amazing things, where does this performance rank in your mind?”

MB: (Coach Brown smiles, shakes his head incredulously, searches for words) “Wow. I mean, I know I shouldn’t be surprised by anything he does anymore, but wow. Game 5 in Detroit last year was pretty special, but tonight his overall game, not just scoring the basketball, was probably more dominant tonight. I mean, if you combine his blocks and steals, he was one away from a quadruple double. If this isn’t #1, it’s definitely 1a.”

“Kenny Roda, WKNR Once again Andy seemed to shut down KG in the 4th quarter, talk about his defensive effort tonight.”

MB: “Andy’s done a remarkable job, the past two games. I can’t say enough about what he’s done for us. His ability to lock down Kevin one on one, really allowed us to be more aggressive doubling Ray and Pierce which helped contain those guys as well. Now I don’t want him to get any ideas after he banked in that 3, but defensively speaking, I hope he continues to do the exact same thing he’s been doing the past few games.”

“Adam Cole-Kelly, Wicked Good Sports. Coach, would you be willing to plug a website for me if I could offer you access to a time machine? And if the answer is yes, please tell everybody how comprehensive and entertaining the sports coverage is on wickedgoodsports.com, especially Rich Levine and Adam Cole-Kelly on this Cavs-Celts series.”

MB: “Funny you should mention that site, I’ve been checking wickedgoodsports.com religiously throughout this series for its unparalleled excellence with respect to covering this series. Not only have I taken strategic cues from your keen basketball insights, but I’ve read some hilarious excerpts from several posts aloud to the team before games to get the guys in a happy, loose frame of mind. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go with Adam to the summer of 2010 and find out if LeBron stays in Cleveland or if need to start looking for a new job.”

Doc Rivers (as heard by RL):

“Chris Sheridan, ESPN, Coach Rivers, Sam Cassell played 28 minutes tonight, and while he did hit his first three-pointer, he missed his next seven and was burned by Delonte West on several occasions. I know that Danny picked up Sam specifically for the playoffs, but does that necessarily mean that you have to play him regardless of match-ups or performance?”

DR: “Wow, 28 minutes? I didn’t realize he was even out there for that long. Sam’s just such a pro out there and when he’s on the court I guess I sometimes get caught up in the confidence he exhibits and forget all together that we have both a young stud point guard, and a quicker, more deadly shooting guard wasting away on the bench, I’m only human guys. Maybe that’s something to look at for Game 6.”

“Bob Ryan, Boston Globe, Doc I’d first like to point out that this series is very reminiscent of when the Celtics lost the Eastern Conference semifinals in seven game to the 76ers back in 1977. Ah, those were the days. The Garden was rocking. The players respected the game more and it was more competitive than anything you see nowadays. But I digress, you’re team has yet to win a road playoff game and now your season rests on your ability to do just that. Talk about the adjustments you’ll need to make on Friday.”

DR: “Bob, I’m not sure exactly what you’re referring to when you say “adjustments.” We have a team of veteran, battle-tested veterans, and if they aren’t able to make these “adjustments” themselves, and block out all the difficulties that arise from playing big time playoff games on the road. I’m not sure what I can do. Game 6 is going to come down to the play of our stars. If Kevin, Paul and Ray aren’t able to step up, this really might be out of my hands.”

“Rich Levine, Wicked Good Sports and the Improper Bostonian, Doc, nothing you’ve said so far has made me feel any better about our chances on Friday…”

DR: “No further questions.”

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