Jesus Played Some D

June 2008

Jesus Played Some D

The stat sheet told the story of last night's opening game of the NBA Finals.

League MVP Kobe Bryant teed it up 26 times from the field and connected on just nine occasions. That was one of the main reasons, if not the biggest, why the Celtics won, 98-88, at TD Banknorth Garden.



While several Celtics took their cracks at Bryant, the player with the most success was Ray Allen. The two are no strangers to one another, as Allen spent a large chunk of his career battling with Bryant while he was in Seattle. Allen explained that his familiarity with Bryant certainly helped last night.

``Kobe and I have a lot of history,'' said Allen. ``I played against him many years. We've always gone at it. I think (last night) I knew he was going to attack me and I wanted to try to make sure that I just tried to stay in front of him, not foul him, put him on the foul line, and just stay solid.

``He's going to take shots, he's going to make shots, so we just want to keep a swarm around him, and just giving him the easy buckets was something we didn't want to do.''

The Celtics have had as much success as anyone in the league when it comes to defending Bryant. In their two regular-season victories over the Lakers (107-94 and 110-91), Bryant made just 15-of-46 shots from the field.

Allen received a lion's share of the credit for slowing down the Lakers star, though he was quick to deflect the praise.

``We won the game - that's my point of pride,'' said Allen. ``You just can't rest with (Bryant). You can't go out there and think that he's resting and he's going to pop - he's going to flash to the ball and get a shot off, and he's going to cause you to be out of defensive position.''

Allen did his share at the offensive end as well, scoring 19 points. Eight came in the third quarter, right around the time Paul Pierce went down with a sprained knee, including a 3-point play to give the Celtics a 68-64 lead.

``I think the way we've come together as a team throughout the course of this year (is impressive),'' said Allen. ``Whether it's myself coming out of the game and Tony Allen coming in or Paul going out and James Posey going in and Sam (Cassell) going in, everybody on the bench can do the job of the guys on the floor. At any point that I come out of the game, I have confidence in the guy that's coming in that he can do the job just as well.

``When Paul went down, we just said, this is that moment of adversity where we have to suck it up and we have to figure it out. We just wanted to make sure that we continued to attack. It wasn't going to change in our mind because Paul wasn't there. James came in and we just still wanted to make sure that we attacked and we got good shots.'