Has Jesus Returned to the Garden?

Two straight games of brilliance from number 20.

Well, I'll be dam...

Oh wait.

This is an article about Jesus.

I better not use that word.

How about this:

Jesus Lives!!!

No, no. That is too exuberant.

Alright, let's just go with the facts.

Over the last two games Ray Allen has scored 58 points, shooting 21-34 from the field (.617) and 9-19 from three (.473), numbers hearkening back to the first five games of the season. They are also numbers closer to what we expected to see from Jesus when the Celtics acquired him on draft day and then added Kevin Garnett to the fold on July 31.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say this Ray Allen is the Ray Allen we can expect to see for remainder of the season, or at least much of it.

Four reasons why:

1. Ray Allen is starting to get healthy. Like Larry Bird who played abysmally from October through November of 1985 because of back problems and then came out with guns a blazin' in January of 1986, Ray Allen is starting to move with the ease and freedom of his old self. Not only is he more inclined to drive than earlier in the season, he is moving around before taking his jumper with a lightness of foot I have seen since his Seattle days.

2. Ray Allen is starting to get acclimated. Several observers have opined that Ray Allen has had the most difficult time adjusting to a decreased number of shot opportunities. Ray Allen isn't Larry Bird, but I would bet that even the Legend would have taken some time in adjusting from having just about every play run through him to merely being a cog in the engine.

3. The Celtics are starting to get acclimated to Ray Allen. In Ali-Frazier I (the first Pistons game), Ray Allen was on fire in first quarter and part of the second. He was shooting falling left three pointers with multiple defenders draped over him, and still making the bucket. Yet the Celtics proceeded to forget about Jesus over the rest of the second and part of the third, during which their lead vanished. That wouldn't happen now. When Ray is feelin' it, the Celtics will get him the ball.

4. The Celtics started 2008 by stumbling with Ray Allen underperforming, losing three of four, proving to the Celtics and to Jesus that the Celtics need a healthy and productive Ray Allen if they want to continue the dominant start to their season. Ray Allen needs to perform and this by itself should get Ray Allen's game where it needs to be.

I can't guarantee that these last two games won't be mere blips on the radar of an otherwise disappointing shooting year for Ray Allen.

But I have a feeling that it just might be the start of Chapter II, Book II in the Gospel According to Jesus the Celtic.