As of Thursday, May 5, 2011 at 4:14 PM, Shaq will play in Game 3.

Hallelujah! Good news! (Maybe...Probably?) Whatever it is, this is the closest thing to good news to happen to this team in the past week or so. I quote Doc Rivers:

“Everybody’s good,” said Rivers. “Everybody is feeling pretty good. Shaq went through practice, we didn’t do anything today, we just watched film and walked over some stuff, and then the second unit [not including O'Neal] worked on their stuff. Right now, we expect every single guy, including Shaq, to play [in Game 3].”

Doc went on to say that the only thing that would potentially keep Shaq from playing in Game 3 is if something happens to him in practice or an injury flares up between now and Saturday. Obviously, it's perfectly likely that this could happen... But for now, I think we should all revel in the good news. Even if he can only play 10 minutes... He'll still be huge- both literally and figuratively. And he'll still be physically able to intimidate anyone driving to the basket. People have been saying that the Heat are beating the Celtics at their own game- intimidation and physicality. I think Shaq being out there could go a long way in reversing that trend, and I have a feeling that he has some unfinished business he'd like to finish with the Heat and with Lebron from his days as a Cav. And that, I will gladly take.

I'm so glad Ron Artest just won an award honoring his great citizenry.

Fresh off being honored by the NBA for his tireless dedication to mental health awareness, community service and other acts that make one an exceptional citizen, Ron Artest decided to throw a temper tantrum because the Lakers were about to go down 2-0:

It's just perfect. So congratulations, NBA, for once again demonstrating a complete and total disconnect from all things sensible, realistic and pragmatic.

The Celtics are down 0-2. Let me be clear: I'm not throwing the towel in on this team... At all.

Is being down 0-2 ideal? No. Is it where the Celtics would ideally be? Of course not, sillies. But is it all over? Nope. It's time for them to clamp down, dig deep and ball their hearts out. They're perfectly capable of doing all of that, so let's just hope that they do. In the meantime, I felt like this song (OLD and obnoxious as it is) was the perfect anthem for the fight that lies ahead:

Let the speculation end: Ciara and Amar'e are officially a couple.

And I've officially been spelling his name wrong for months. I didn't realize it was Amar'e, so my fault for writing Amare for months and months. Anyways, what a great distraction mechanism for ignoring the 0-2 Celtics-Heat series: Ciara herself recently confirmed she and Amar'e are an item. Stop the press! Teehee, no, I'm kidding. I think they're a ridiculously good looking couple. They wasted no time in making their first official appearance together as a couple:

Again. A ridiculously good looking couple. I just left the gym, but Ciara makes me want to turn around and go back for a couple more hours. 

The saga of Shaq continues

It would be great to get Shaq back. Seeing as how physically the Heat played last game, it would be extremely beneficiary for the Celtics to get Shaq back in to plug the middle and make people think twice about driving to the basket. 

Upon further review (not that it was needed)... The league admits its referees messed up. Repeatedly.

C/O Chris Forsberg

Case #1: A foul initially ruled as flagrant on Jermaine O'Neal was downgraded to a run of the mill personal foul. You know why? Because it was blatantly not flagrant. This botched call had serious repercussions: "O'Neal's flagrant led to a five-point possession for Miami and helped the Heat stem a third-quarter Boston rally." 

Case #2: A personal foul whistled on James Jones was upgraded to a flagrant. It's merely conjecture at this point, but maybe if Jones had been correctly whistled for the flagrant at the time of the incident, the recognition by the refs of the excessive nature of the foul would have served to calm Paul Pierce's nerves, and avoid his ejection. But who knows? It's all history now. 

When talking sh*t goes wrong.

HILARIOUS!! The Hawks played Jameer Nelson's life with this one: apparently Mr. Nelson was so confident in the Magic's ability to beat the Hawks and advance to the second round to play the Bulls, he went on the radio talking about how he was going to "see Derrick Rose in the second round." The Magic, as we all know, lost to the Hawks 4-2, but one employee of the Hawks remembered that Jameer had mentioned seeing Derrick Rose in the second round... So he took it upon himself to leave Jameer tickets to the game, so that he could see Derrick Rose... From the stands, as the Bulls played the Hawks. Way too funny!