With Kevin Garnett on an NBA-induced one-game vacation, it was, of course, imperative that other Celtics pick up the slack against the New York Knicks last night. Right on cue, Kendrick Perkins, Leon Powe and Rajon Rondo stepped into the breach, combining for 45 points to guide the defending champions to a 110-101 victory at the Garden. Garnett was suspended one game for his Saturday night disagreement with the Milwaukee Bucks' Andrew Bogut.
Paul Pierce went for 22 points (nine in the first quarter, 11 in the last) and Ray Allen went for 15, but this was a night for the Bostonians to show off their depth. Brian Scalabrine left his seat at the end of the bench, started and hit a pair of 3-pointers, the latter to hold off a late New York push.
``It's a good win for us,'' Pierce said. ``Despite not having Kevin out there for us tonight, guys realize - even last year when we were able to play without him (9-2 in his absence) - we can go out there and get the job done with the guys we have.
``Even though Kevin's out, it's not like I'm saying I have to go out and score 30. I know what type of team we have and know we have guys that can step up. We took advantage of the size matchups by going to Perk, going to Leon, and it paid off for us. Scal came off and gave us a big lift in the starting lineup tonight and he was huge.''
With 16 points and eight rebounds, Perkins was almost Shaq-like - right down to the free throws (he made just 2-of-6). Powe had 14 points, six in the first quarter when the Celts were coming back from a seven-point deficit and eight in the second. Rondo finished with 15 points, eight rebounds and seven assists, getting to the hoop whenever he wished.
Coach Doc Rivers leaned on the Hippocratic Oath when deciding how fill Garnett's place. First do no harm, he thought, before reaching for Scalabrine so his bench rotation could stay intact. It worked as four subs (playing with Allen) posted a 30-19 second quarter.
Allen contributed six points as the Celtics opened the second half with a 9-3 run that got their lead to 15. When the Knicks dared to break the surge, Perkins replied with four straight inside buckets.
The Knicks gathered themselves a bit, but Scalabrine slowed any comeback ideas by hitting two straight jumpers, the second a trey. After that, the Celtics only had to play enough defense to keep New York from a tide-turning run. The C's did just that, despite going a stretch of 6:35 with just two points. The Celts let their lead shrink to four, but after a Pierce free throw, Scalabrine hit his large trifecta from the left corner with 1:14 left.
There was no doubt the Knicks would test the mathematical waters, launching 3-pointers at most every opportunity. New York finished the game with 30 trey attempts and 22 free throws, and the visitors were outscored in the paint by the Celts, 50-34.
``I knew we had to put a number on the board tonight offensively,'' Rivers said. ``And it's funny, before the game the number was 110 and we got that. We really thought going in that it was going to be a power game. We just thought they go small a lot. In the first quarter I was upset because we were taking too many jump shots. We had to make this a post game, a power game. Paul, Leon, Perk, Baby (Glen Davis), Tony (Allen) - I didn't care who had it down there; I just thought it had to go down there.''
Perkins hit 7-of-9 shots and Powe bagged 6-of-9. The Knicks chose to party on the perimeter, but once the Celtics cleaned up their turnover issues (6-of-14 were committed in the first quarter), the real fun was inside.
No comments:
Post a Comment