1987 Redux?

Ever since the injury bug began rearing it's ugly head this season, I've been thinking about how this 2008-09 Celtics team seems, in some ways, to be the mirror image of the 1986-87 Celtics. Both breezed through the regular season the prior year. Both went through those seasons relatively unscathed (McHale did miss a dozen or so regular season games). And both won NBA Championships. A year later, however, fortunes changed. Having grown up during the original Big Three Era, I can still remember the '87 Playoffs. And, outside of Magic's baby hook in the lane in the Finals, the images that stand out are ones of the beat up defending champions, somehow willing their way to the NBA Finals. Parish's gimpy ankles. Ainge's bandage-wrapped hamstring. Walton's foot injury. And McHale's broken foot. That team played it's guts out, but would eventually fall to Lakers in the Finals.The same parallels can be drawn now, in this New Big Three Era. Coming off a dominant year prior (outside of being pushed to the brink twice in the playoffs), the Celtics are facing much of the same adversity (I am, of course, leaving out the Len Bias tragedy prior to that 86-87 season). Kevin Garnett is out with a bum knee, and may not play at all in the playoffs. Leon Powe, a vital piece to the suddenly short Celtics bench, is out for the rest of the playoffs. Rajon Rondo, while playing tremendous basketball, is doing so on a gimpy ankle. And there is speculation that Paul Pierce is playing hurt as well. As was the case in 1987, when the Celtics relied heavily on bench players like Fred Roberts, Jerry Sichting and Darren Daye, the '09 Celtics are leaning heavily on Big Baby Davis, Eddie House, and Stephon Marbury.While it's still only the first round of what is a long playoff season, it's hard to ignore the similarities between the two teams, and what it did, and will, take for Celtics to advance for a chance to defend it's crown.