Last Night's Game was, well, Close

11/17/2007

When Udonis Haslem knocked down a free throw with 33.5 seconds left in last night's Celtics-Miami game, it gave the Heat a 91-90 lead. Haslem then missed the next one and, 33.5 seconds later, after a Paul Pierce layup, the Celtics were walking off the TD Banknorth Garden parquet with yet another win. Eight for eight.

But this one was different. For only the second time all season, the Celtics trailed in the second half. And on both occasions, the deficit was 1 point. The only other time the Celtics trailed after halftime was in Toronto, in the first overtime, for all of 18 seconds. Last night's deficit lasted only 8.5 seconds, until Pierce outmuscled Haslem for a layup. In eight games, consisting of 16 third and fourth quarters and one overtime, or 197 minutes, the Celtics have trailed for only 26.5 seconds. And never by more than a point.

In other words, for the first time this season, the fans in Boston witnessed a game instead of a Celtics-conducted clinic. (Not that the clinics weren't fun to watch. They were.) And there were clinic snippets last night, as the Celtics built a 15-point lead in the fourth quarter. For awhile it looked like this would be Blowout No. 5; Boston's four previous home wins had come by margins of 20 (Washington), 26 (Denver), 23 (Atlanta), and 22 points (New Jersey). The first two of those games were over at the half.

It's impossible to understate how dominant the Celtics have been. Forget for a moment that they remain the NBA's only unbeaten team and that every other team has at least two losses. There's winning and there's WINNING, and the Celtics have been doing the latter. Entering last night's game, they led the NBA in offensive and defensive field goal percentage. You rarely see that combination and you almost never see a team shooting 50 percent and holding opponents to less than 40 percent. The Celtics are doing both.

They led the league in steals and forced turnovers. Perhaps most mind-boggling of all, their point differential after last night's victory is a staggering plus-15.2. (The Raptors game, a 98-95 overtime decision, represented the only game in the first seven in which a team had been within 10 points of the Celtics at the final buzzer.) The Celtics also lead the league in fewest points allowed, a statistic unlikely to change as Miami's 91 represented only a slight increase (to 87.6) from the 87.1 they allowed in the first seven.

That's why last night's game was so intriguing. You had to wonder how they would react if they watched a double-digit lead evaporate, which is what happened. At home, no less. You wanted to see what they'd do if they absolutely, positively, had to have a basket. They just went back to Old Faithful himself, and Pierce delivered. It was, said Shaquille O'Neal, "a fabulous move." It also was a move in which Haslem got no help.

"Every night we're finding out more and more about ourselves, and games like this really help us," said Pierce, who said he was battling a back strain all night and was surprised Doc Rivers called his number. "I wanted to be there for my teammates at the end. It was a good call."

Rivers surely will have plenty of ammunition for his talk before tomorrow's conference epic in Hooterville, such as how his team could shoot 40 percent in the fourth, manage only 16 points, allow the Heat to shoot 55.6 percent in the quarter, and erase the aforementioned 15-point deficit in the final 9:32. Five turnovers didn't help. And, frankly, the Heat could have had this one had they not boinged 12 free throws, including six in the fourth quarter. (Shaq only missed 1 of 4, so he was a veritable Mark Price by comparison.)

"They got three Hall of Famers out there and they do very well together. We had a chance to beat them, but we let it slip away," lamented Shaq, who said the Heat had probably given away five of their eight losses.

It's way too early to write off Miami or to concede anything to the Celtics (except maybe the Atlantic Division). The law of averages tells us there probably are going to be a lot more games like last night's than the one against, say, Denver, where the Celtics led by 39 at the half. Rivers talks constantly about the attention the Celtics devote to end-of-game plays. Last night, he finally got to draw one up (he missed the Toronto game) in the eighth game of the season.

Heck, last night he actually got to coach in the fourth quarter. Prior to that, his big late-game decisions had boiled down to Leon Powe or Big Baby.