Positive aggression

Has anyone noticed that Kevin Garnett hasn’t been bullying anybody since calling Charlie Villanueva a cancer patient? Me neither. In fact, KG’s aggression has been anything but negative. And he’s the reason the Boston faithful still cling to their championship hopes.

AP photo

Kevin Garnett has been aggressive from the get-go of every game all his life. He pounds basketball posts, talks to himself and yells at himself before each game and doesn’t keep his yap shut in trying to get under an opponent’s skin while continously burning the other team with high-arcing jumpshots that Kevin McHale taught him. KG doesn’t have a lower gear so to speak. Lowering his gear means he has given up, and being arguably the most tenacious defender I have seen, giving up means death for KG.

And this year’s edition of the playoffs might be the best example of Garnett’s reknowned aggressiveness, but not the bullying kind that he has been eviscerated for (calling someone a cancer patient, for his stature, is out of the line). With Rajon Rondo, KG has been channelling his aggressiveness into positive outputs, such as scoring in the 20’s, hauling down double-digit rebounds and shutting down the lane for any drivers. Ever since the 2004 Playoffs, this has been as vintage as KG can get. He’s being dominant offensively AND defensively. Just ask the Miami Heat after he pounded them inside last Saturday (Philippine time).

While Rondo has been the Celtics best player all season long, KG has been their MVP in the post season so far. Yes, Rondo may have had that ridiculous Game 2, but without Garnett manning the middle and owning it, Boston would be gone fishin’. In the first series, against Atlanta, it was a given. The Hawks have no one other than the remaining Collins twin, Josh Smith and Zaza Pachulia to give KG a hard time, which they did not. Al Horford came back yes, but it was too late as “The Big Ticket” rolled along, pounding the glass, converting putbacks, and letting the ball find the bottom of the net high-arcing jumper after high-arcing jumper.

Against the 76ers, it was vintage KG yet again. It was not the KG of the past Playoffs where he barely cracked 18 markers a game let alone haul in more than nine caroms. It was KG, the All-Star of the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Big Ticket. And he punched his way in and around the burly Elton Brand and the equally game Spencer Hawes. It was, how do you say it, reminiscent of when he dominated the Sacramento Kings in Chris Webber’s final run.

It still remains to be seen whether this will continue with the Heat, what with Garnett burning them for 24 points along with 11 boards. But he surely must continue to defy Father Time for the Celtics to have a fighting chance. Yes he has Rajon Rondo. All he has to do is to make sure it is close with his forays down the middle and let Rondo win it for them. Unless of course, he does both, which I’m pretty sure, with this positive aggression, is not impossible.