It’s been a while since we’ve heard from Dr. Jon Niednagel-better known as Danny Ainge’s brain doctor. But with the second round of the playoffs in full swing I decided to reach out to Niednagel to see if he could help me get into the psyche of various Celtics and Cavs. He obliged and what follows are the inner monologues of various players in the hours after Saturday’s Game 3.

Underneath my own findings, our old friend Adam Cole-Kelly chimes in with some discoveries of his own. Turns out Ben Wallace’s dizzy spell and “inner ear infection” was actually caused by a chip ACK had placed in Wallace’s ear to relay his inner thoughts. Luckily said chip was contagious and it spread to all the other players granting him unprecedented access to their thoughts through the first three games of the series.

Rich Levine (Celtics fan):

Cleveland Cavaliers

Wally Szczerbiak: I have been shooting the lights out baby! I can’t wait to get home and watch how great I looked doing it on SportsCenter. You know, sometimes the shots just… ooh, look! I can kind of see my own reflection in that window. I look sharp.

I trust Celtics general manager Danny Ainge, and I trust Celtics coach Doc Rivers. Still to this day, it amazes me how people were jumping down Ainge’s throat while he was in the midst of constructing a foundation for this team to be built on. You have to admit, when he came here, he was given a 100-year-old foundation that was destroyed by a one-man wrecking crew (Rick Pitino).

I know that Danny has made some unpopular moves in the past, especially when he traded forward Antoine Walker and guard Tony Delk to the Dallas Mavericks for center Raef LaFrentz, guard Jiri Welsch and forward Chris Mills during his inaugural 2003 campaign. But if you look back at it, he did what he needed to do; the combo of Walker and forward Paul Pierce was done, extinguished and downright tiresome. He also made a draft day trade in 2003 to get center Kendrick Perkins and point guard Marcus Banks from the Memphis Grizzlies.

In 2003, the trade of forwards Eric Williams and Kedrick Brown and center Tony Battie to the Cleveland Cavaliers for center Chris Mihm, guard Ricky Davis and salary dump Michael Stewart was deemed a fairly brilliant move. Davis at the time was a true scorer and still is, just not for us.

The very intense Kevin Garnett sits down with Greg Dickerson. Warning: KG may or may not hurt you at any time during these interviews.

KG is the MVP. End of subject. C’mon, have you forgotten 20 something wins so quickly? Do you miss wondering if Gerald was going to come around ? That was just 11 months ago.

They’re about to win 60 something games. Last year people felt sorry for the C’s, now they’re afraid of them. Sure Paul Pierce is having his best year and Ray is an assassin and Rondo’s a talent and Perk and Powe are all one could hope them to be. But without KG they’re fighting for first round home court advantage. KG raised the first time he sat down at the table. He makes everybody around him work harder - get better. That’s what MVP’s do. Kobe, Lebron, CP3 all great players, maybe even better than KG. But more valuable, no way, not even close.

In the Boston Celtics’ last two games; they’ve been outscored 61-36 in the fourth quarter, which is very odd. In addition, over the course of the two mind-boggling contests, they’ve turned the ball over 35 times and had 54 fouls called against them. New Orleans (21) and Philadelphia (16) combined to have the whistle blown against them an intriguing 37 times. Boy, the National Basketball Association does not want to promote defense at all. I guess P.J. Brown-like blocks and breakaway windmill dunks off of a Rondo steal don’t sell tickets.

New Orleans Hornets point guard Chris Paul made a habit out of using Boston players as a cushion for his elaborate uncontrolled skirmishes towards the hoop. But the savvy third-year “veteran” only had five fouls called against him. Can someone please explain?

However, the Celtics had no reason to lose the Crescent City clash. They were ahead by an astonishing 15 points at one time. Unfortunately for the green wearing warriors, the game of football was allowed to seep into the contest by the whistle-blowing maniacs. Who’s counting? But I saw New Orleans “phenom” Bonzi Wells shoulder thrust the Celtics’ big men at least 10 times.

Is there any doubt that this year’s Celtics squad can’t win it all? The last two games have arguably been the best back-to-back games since the ‘Big Three’ roamed the fabled parquet. Seriously, one blogger termed it the ‘best 30 hours in the last two decades’ and why not?

Two games… Make that… two BIG games and two resounding wins! After the last 72 hours does anyone NOT have the C’s atop their NBA power rankings? We’re not talking beating up the Sonics and Grizzlies here- we’re talking about the defending World Champion Spurs and the mighty Houston Rockets on back-to-back nights and on the road no less! There was a time in my life when I don’t think the Celts ever beat the Spurs. I mean, I think the streak lasted a decade or something. Tim Duncan had never even felt threatened by us, and now we’ve won three straight against the Riverwalk Ballers. Who knew?

Monday’s twenty-two point come from behind win was the first this season for the Celts facing a deficit of 20 points or higher… and we did it against the Spurs… and on the freakin’ road! As Matt Damon said in ‘Good Will Hunting’- “How do you like them apples?” Then, on the following night in Houston…

The Celtics once again exceeded expectations and beat both the Spurs and Rockets to begin a brutal West coast trip. Here are some assorted thoughts from the last week or so.

De-Fense

As usual, the secret to the Celtics’ success has been defense. Tracy McGrady was impressed. “I’ve never seen defense like that. If they play defense like that night in and night out, then the NBA is in trouble because that defense was at its finest.” (Boston Globe)

Most of the credit has gone to Kevin Garnett, but don’t overlook the man with the plan, Assistant Coach Tom Thibodeau. Doc has given him free reign on the defensive side of the ball and the players have all bought in to the system and the team concept. Tom’s contract is up at the end of the year, and we can only hope that he doesn’t get a head coaching position somewhere. I’d like to see him patrolling the sidelines in Boston for quite some time.

March Madness?

Check out this video from a few years back of Kevin Garnett impersonating Sam Cassell, found by our friends at CelticsBlog.com.

The bottom line here is that Paul Pierce should undoubtedly be on the Eastern Conference All-Star team when the tip-off commences in New Orleans.

Currently, the 6-foot-6, 230-pound University of Kansas product is averaging a tasty 21.5 points per game with 5.4 rebounds and 4.9 assists thrown into the mix as well. Pierce has proved to be an imperative part to the Celtics this season and his value has never been higher as he has morphed into the quintessential team player.

To me, Pierce’s supreme value comes on the defensive side of the ball as of late. He has begun to do the little things that don’t show up in the Boston Herald’s box score every morning. He’s always in the right spot; he has begun to create havoc and has shown an intensity that has begun to seep through Pierce’s seams which has ignited a fire under the Celtics’ 27-3 spotlight.