November 11, 2008
Doc Rivers admits his bench has often carried his starters over the first eight games - a true oddity for an NBA champion.
The first unit often has started games like a high-maintenance Lamborghini - great looking but with lots of bugs to spoil the ride. Save for a Nov. 1 loss in Indianapolis, the Celtics haven't paid a price for their early mistakes.
At the other end, they have generally finished like Secretariat. But the starters had to correct all of their own mistakes in last night's 94-87 win over yet another quality opponent - a 4-3 Toronto team anchored by the new-look frontcourt of Jermaine O'Neal and Chris Bosh. Paul Pierce, with a 22-point fourth-quarter performance, blotted out every other star on the floor.
The Celtics captain's rise coincided with a slide by both Raptors big men in the second half, when O'Neal scored only four of his 23 points thanks to the bumping and grinding of Kendrick Perkins and Glen Davis, and Bosh once again melted under the glare of a player who seems to have his number - Kevin Garnett.
But first the Celtics had to rattle and gasp their way to halftime, and fell behind by as many as 16 points. That's why Rivers devoted his pregame talk to better starts. It even looked like he was onto something for the first 36 minutes. ``Yeah, that went over well,'' the Celtics coach said. ``Another of my great speeches.'' Despite a sprained (right) shooting hand, Pierce settled the debate over what is more important - starting or finishing.
Or perhaps the Celtics really are masking a problem. Though they outscored Toronto 35-22 and shot 64.7 percent in the fourth quarter, they also shot 32.4 percent in the first half, when the yet-to-erupt Pierce (2-for-10) and Ray Allen (2-for-7) were mostly hitting iron.
``That's the other team coming out hot, too,'' Garnett said. ``We're expecting everyone's best. But Doc said before tonight's game that we have to get off to better starts. Sometimes how you start is also how you finish. We'll get better with our execution. I'm pretty sure we'll get better at that.''
In the meantime, the Celtics continue to defy themselves. They have won the first five games of their current - and brutal - eight-games-in-12-days stretch. Last night, with a 9-2 run, the Celtics cut the Toronto lead to 71-70 with 8:19 left, before both sides bogged down in some prolific shot missing. The Celtics were also hurt by consecutive Tony Allen charges.
But Pierce was beyond hot, answering 3-pointers by Jose Calderon and Anthony Parker with two treys of his own. Calderon missed a layup, and Eddie House brought down the house with a right side 3-pointer for a 79-77 Celtics lead that was their first since a first quarter score of 5-4.
It was 84-84 when O'Neal called for an isolation on Perkins, with whom he had combined to draw a double technical foul earlier in the night, and the Celtics center blocked his elder's shot. Pierce's turnaround 15-footer was good for an 86-84 lead with 1:35 left. After a Toronto turnover, Pierce buried a 15-footer, Calderon missed, and the next time Pierce spun past Jason Kapono for the easy drive and a 90-84 lead. Parker also ran out of ammo, and with 24 seconds left Ray Allen sealed the deal with two free throws.
No comments:
Post a Comment