November 29, 2008
Just to set the record straight, it's not like Ray Allen has been struggling this season. He went into the Celtics' Friday night Garden party against the Philadelphia 76ers averaging 17.4 points per game, second only to Paul Pierce for the defending NBA champions.
But he had yet to have one of those oh-my-gosh games this season - and everyone understands what we're talking about by that. When you've had an oh-my-gosh game, it means that everyone - EVERYONE - is saying your name when they step out of the Garden and onto Causeway Street. An oh-my-gosh game is when the 11 o'clock sports anchors talk about your performance with such over-the-top exuberance that they barely have time to point out that, oh, by the way, the Celtics won.
An oh-my-gosh game is what Allen had last night. His shots were clean, precise, as though computer-generated. He wound up with 23 points, but that's just bookkeeping. For what really rocked the place was the performance Allen put on in the third quarter, when he scored 15 points - including 11 straight at one stretch on 3-pointers of 25, 23 and 25 feet, followed by the runt of the litter, a 21-foot jumper.
He wasn't needed in the fourth, playing under a minute. What we're talking about, then, is 23 points in just over 30 minutes. And, oh, by the way, the Celtics rolled to a 102-78 victory over the Sixers.
So is this the way it's going to be now? Are the Celtics going to be THAT good? They came into the game with a 14-2 record, and with Ray Allen being merely good. What he was last night was other-worldly. And if he keeps this up - with Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce continuing to shine, and with young Rajon Rondo continuing to muscle in on the press clippings generated by the Big Three - then we could be on the cusp of witnessing a winter wonderland of historic proportions by this team.
It was really a sort of Allen/Rondo show in the third quarter, with Rondo assisting on every field goal Allen made. And so when the game was over, it was Allen making the pass, only this time passing the credit: ``When you play like that,'' he told Rondo, ``we're a beast to contend with.'' To which Rondo said, ``When YOU play like that.'' ``I feed off you,'' Allen told him. Now understand that Allen's game wasn't so much a case of his getting hot, but, as he put it, ``Whenever (Rondo) pushes the ball like that in transition, I just try to get ahead and play alongside what he's doing, because he's putting so much pressure on the defense.
``And with that,'' he said, ``I'm just trying to find a spot and keep moving . . . and they went to me. Kevin, (Kendrick Perkins), (Glen Davis) when he came in. They set up great screens for me. I was getting open, and all the while I was very aware of where my bigs were, and trying to make the right play. They did. They set screens and got me open.''
Re-read all this quotage and you'd think the Celtics could have thrown the Lucky the Leprechaun guy on the parquet and HE'D have made all those shots. You have Rondo making the passes. The bigs setting the screens. It's, like, just add water. Right? Of course not. The guy still has to make the shots.
Last night, Ray Allen was that guy.
Oh. My. Gosh.
``We didn't play a lot of full-court fast breaks last year,'' Allen said. ``This year we're running more . . . Rondo's pushing the ball up. We are scoring more in the fast break . . . Doc (Rivers) has called more plays for me this year. For me, it doesn't really mean shoot the ball more but handling the ball and making more plays for the team.''
Make them he did.
Oh. My. Gosh.
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