Drafting works just fine in NASCAR, and it did the Celtics well earlier in the week against Toronto and Atlanta. But after coming back from 16 down in each of those affairs, they were still a few lengths behind when last night's game with Denver hit the checkered flag.
Though they came back repeatedly to tie, and even lead, the Shamrocks were breathing Nugget fumes at the end, 94-85. The hosts got behind by 15 in this one and ultimately did not survive. At least no one can call them front-runners. ``It's going to catch you at some point,'' coach Doc Rivers said. ``It just has to. I don't care how good you think you are, if you're going to play with fire eventually you're going to get burned - and that happened tonight for us.''
Ray Allen had a personal comeback with 26 points and Eddie House did likewise off the bench with 13, but Denver, despite playing the night before in Cleveland, was fresh enough to score 10 straight points down the stretch and end the Celtics' winning streak at six. The record is still pretty, but the Celts are aware that everything is not as sweet as it may appear. Not after getting outscored 42-20 in the paint. ``The good thing is we're the most miserable 8-2 team you've ever seen,'' Rivers said.
``We're not happy with the way we're playing. That's a good thing. I'm probably leading that pack with our guys because all I talk about is what we're not doing at times. You know, we're winning games but we're not playing well enough to be the winner. We get that.'' The Celtics played their fourth game in six nights but still were even at 84 after Kevin Garnett dunked with 3:11 left. From there, the locals produced just one measly point (a Patrick O'Bryant mop-up free throw), going 0-for-5 from the floor with a turnover while the Nuggets scored on four straight possessions.
The Celts went up by three early in the final quarter, but, as had been the case all night, as soon as they reeled the Nuggets in they let them go. J.R. Smith hit a pair of treys as Denver produced 11 straight points. House and Allen hit back-to-back 3-pointers as the Celtics tied the game with a 12-4 reply. But again the C's let the Nuggets get away, and this time they couldn't rehook them.
``That's not something we plan,'' Paul Pierce said of falling behind. ``We've just got to be prepared with teams coming at us. We played in spurts. We went up, and they caught and took the lead, and we'd come back. Then they take the lead again. We can't play in spurts. Teams are coming at us for 48 minutes, and we've got to find a way to put 48 minutes together.'' According to Rivers, the key stretch may have occurred shortly after the Garden patrons took their seats. The Celts scored the game's first eight points and appeared to have shaken off their bad starts of late.
``Then I thought we got cute with the ball,'' the coach said.
The C's committed turnovers on six of the next eight possessions, sparking a 13-5 Denver run.
``We could have really stretched that game early,'' Rivers said, ``and with a team that's just come off a back-to-back, you've really got a chance to make them go away early - and we didn't take advantage of it. To me that was the turning point of the game.'' The Nuggets went on to shoot 48.8 percent from the field - a single-game high against the C's this season.
``We're not going to use fatigue as an excuse,'' Garnett said. ``I just felt like we were a step slow to our rotations. I thought we started the game the first few minutes really well but never got into a flow. That's not us. We're usually on top of our assignments. Just for some reason tonight we never could get that momentum defensively.''
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