Sticking to the (non-)script

OK, OK. So this time they had even the Blob hornswoggled.

This time even Mr. One Game, People, Just One Game bought into the notion that maybe, maybe, there was a trend at work here, and it favored the Celtics. They dominated Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals. They dominated Game 2, even with LeBron James on the Hero Setting for the Cavaliers. Surely now the Cavs were in trouble, right? Finally?

Fast forward to this morning, and, hey, look, the series is all knotted up at 2-apiece. The Cavaliers came home, LeBron turned his personal gauge one more click to the Advanced Hero Setting, and the Cavs won by 30 in Game 3. Then they won again last night as James went for 44 -- his sixth 40-point game of the playoffs, his second in the last three games -- and what we've learned from that is what we should have learned by now. Which is two things:

1. One. Game. Everything is one game. Momentum in the NBA playoffs is a mirage, there are no discernible patterns, the only script you can follow is no script.

2. LeBron James is the greatest basketball player in the universe, probably the best ever to play the game, and when he decides it's time to go win a game he goes and wins a game.

The Blob, of course, has been saying both of those things all along, and then it forgot its own instruction after the Celtics won the first two games so handily. It should have known. It should have said "Pffft. This series is just getting started" after LeBron went for 40-plus in Game 2 and the Celtics won by 13 anyway because they put all five starters plus Marcus Smart in double figures.

Last night?

LeBron went for 40-plus, the Celtics put all five starters in double figures again, and this time the Cavaliers won by nine.

This a couple of days after the Warriors, blown out by the Rockets in Game 2 of the Western Conference finals, came home and thrashed the Rockets by 35 in Game 3.

Momentum is a myth. There is no pattern. The only script is no script.

So what happens next?

You know what happens next.

The Celtics go home and win handily, and everyone declares again that Brad Stevens is Hardwood Einstein. The Rockets find a way to win Game 4, and everyone declares again (as they did after Game 2) that the Warriors are not unbeatable after all.

Or not, of course. Or not.