The Knickerbockers won a hotly contested game, 94-87, with Zach Randolph leading the way with 23 pts and 5 steals. Paul Pierce led the Celtics with 29 points, 8 boards and 3 steals.
What got into the Knicks? How about a humiliating 40 point loss in Boston just a week ago.
What started out as a preseason exhibition game turned into a game played with regular season seriousness and intensity.
The refs let the boys play tonight, maybe a little too much.
A hard foul on Ray Allen by Jamal Crawford sent Ray to the floor under the hoop where he apparently hurt his arm or shoulder, as he felt for it wincing at the time.
That brought Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett immediately to their partner’s defense as Pierce held Crawford’s arm aloft and then put his other hand under Crawford’s chin. Garnett was right there as well. Refs broke up the gathering crowd. Neither team’s bench players got up off the bench.
From that point on, what was already a physical contest became a seriously contested ‘exhibition’.
Further verbal skirmishes occurred between Leon Powe and David Lee and Nate Robinson and other Celtics.
When Ray did return to the game he wore an arm protector.
In the 2nd half, the Celtics managed to whittle down a 15 point deficit to a single point. In a surprise move, both coaches played to win this contest.
The BTS (Boston’s Three Stars) Express all played around 40 minutes before it was done. Rondo also played 38 minutes in an effort to find the chemistry to get over the hump and take the game back from a team they had embarassed so recently.
What a difference a week makes.
Kendrick Perkins did not play tonight. With Brian Scalabrine and Leon Powe trying to play against New York’s size in the middle, they were soon shown to be overmatched. Both ended up with 5 fouls and lots of bench time in impotent efforts against Curry and Randolph. I’m assuming it was intentionally done by Doc to see how the team will do with Perkins off the court. Mission accomplished and the results weren’t pretty.
Even defensive stalwart Garnett had his hands full against left handed Zach Randolph, who showed why he is one of the league’s best offensive big men. Garnett played very well, recording 5 blocks in a valiant effort to rally his team. But his efforts came up short as his mates did not shoot well for most of the night.
Pierce and Quentin Richardson had something going on all night and Q blocked a few of PP’s shots along the way. Paul made some great shots this evening but he missed too many to get it done.
The fact that the team assisted on only 12 of 28 makes indicates that the crisp and unselfish ball movement we had been seeing so far this preseason was decidely missing tonight. Yes, there were some nice passes by the Cs, but the Knicks defense and the unwarranted attention to individual match ups distracted the Celtics from doing what had gotten them so much success so far.
So the Knicks did what they wanted to, which was to get the Cs off their game and redeem themselves along the way.
In my Celtics 17 blog article I talk about Rondo’s preseason struggles…
Even defensively, there is work to do. Stephon Marbury muscled his way to 15 points and Nate Robinson played a nice floor game, scoring 20 points and even out rebounding Rondo at his own game 9-6. Did the Knicks guards out play Rondo? In many ways they did.
Both teams shot poorly, but New York outrebounded the Celtics with rebound magnet, with David Lee pulling down 14, including a big one near the end with the Celtics closing to within 4 points.
Pierce and Garnett accounted for 9 TOs between them as they were unable to find team mates. Ray Allen hit his first 3 shots and none after that, missing 10 in a row, making you wonder if his injured arm affected his shot.
I’ll be interested to see how Doc appraises this game.
One thing seems to be certain. The Celtics need another big body who can really play. PJ Brown, are you listening?
After tonight’s heavy minutes, I expect the New Jersey game tomorrow night to be starless from the Cs side. That would also pay back the Nets for a similar move when they played each other last week.
T
