(Apologies to all for the late posting. Computer troubles.) Boxscore
The Boston Celtics began their quest for a NBA title by beating the Washington Wizards
handily, 103-83, at the TDBanknorth Garden. This is the same team the Celtics lost to 3 straight times last year. But..uhmmm….this is not the same Celtics team.
Led by Kevin Garnett’s 22 pt, 20 rebound game, and Paul Pierce’s 28 point explosion, the Celtics broke a close game open in the 2nd quarter.
Paul Pierce began the night welcoming the fans, choking up a bit when he talked about Red Auerbach. “Red will always be with us.”
In fact, the team honored Red by naming the famed parquet floor, the “Red Auerbach Parquet” complete with his signature emblazoned for all to remember his legacy.
Both teams opened tight, as the raucous crowd (18,624) sounded as if it was almost a play-off game. Add the drama of the new team, led by the 3 stars, arch nemesis Gilbert Arenas guaranteeing a loss for the Celtics on this opening night, and you have a great story unfolding right before your eyes.
The Celtics didn’t disappoint. Garnett missed his first shot badly, but started to get under control after he hit a couple of foul shots. Each of the three Celtic stars took turns missing shots to open the game. The first basket made was, fittingly, a Perkins lay-up after a feed from a driving Ray Allen.
Until the offense got untracked, the team’s defense was solid and kept them in the game. After being down 12-14, and finding baskets hard to come by, Ray Allen actually got the team the lead it would never relinquish by busting out for 7 points on 3 straight baskets. The quarter ended with the Cs up 21-18.
Paul Pierce spearheaded the second unit (Scalabrine, Pollard, Tony Allen, and Eddie House) that started the 2nd quarter, as they pulled away from the Wizards, leading by as many a 22 points. Pierce carved up the Wizards with 15 points in a variety of ways as the Cs outscored the Wiz 37-18.
By the time Garnett and Ray Allen checked back in, the score was 38-26, meaning the much maligned bench of the Celtics had administered a 17-8 whipping on the beleagured Washington team. Paul had 10 pts. in the run, supported by offensive contributions by each player save Pollard. From there, the team ran away to a 22 point lead without even looking that good doing it.
But it was the team’s defense that surprised. They held a potent offensive team to 36 first half points. The team’s defense looks every bit as good as it looked bad last year.
Doc Rivers
…”I was most proud of, at half time…..we leaned on our defense until our offense started clicking. Once it did, then everything took care of itself. I though the big stretch of the game, was the beginning of the 2nd quarter, we had our second unit on the floor, and we increased the lead. I thought that was just fantastic.”
Kevin Garnett sets the tone defensively.
Doc…
We aren’t going to win by outscoring people every night. ….We are only going to win, if you play defense..and that’s everyone. Clearly, having Kevin Garnett changes your defense…..He has great energy. He is able to get out on a lot of pick and rolls a lot of bigs can’t….We scored half our points tonight on pick and rolls in transition, in the post. So… Garnett has the ability to stop them. And that’s big for us.”
He also plays a solid interior D as he stopped a number of attempts to attack the middle, just be being there and being ready. His 3 blocks were impressive, especially the block of an Arenas drive that brought down the house. Gilbert was driving and trying to avoid contact with a long extension that KG just leaped up to cleanly get as Arenas tumbled to the ground. Even the replay drew a thunderous 2nd roar.
The green machine accrued 10 steals with it’s tenacious defense led by Rajon’s 4 and Garnett’s 3.
Doc said, “We got steals from playing solid. We were not gambling. We just played solid D and help D. And by playing help D, the ball literally came to us, instead of trying to make steals. We are much better when we play that way. A couple of times that we did try to go for steals, we got back doored for lay-ups and fouls
.”
But even in a victory as solid as this one, the team was far from perfect. Doc
….”We played good, but we can be much better than that….There’s a lot of things and I mean a lot of things that we have to improve on. I thought in the 3rd quarter, our mindset was not right. We kind of relaxed a bit….. And the game got close enough to make me nervous, and I didn’t think it had to tonight.”
Still, the team was far from disappointing. It lived all the way up to its hype. Garnett’s 20-20 game was supported by 5 assists, 3 blocks and 3 steals. Ray Allen finished with 17 pts. and Rajon Rondo contributed 15, including a couple of jump shots sandwiched around some truly torqued drives. That was on top of some stellar defense on high scoring Gilbert Arenas…which reminds me….
Gilbert was booed with passion most every time he touched the ball tonight. ‘Agent Zero’ had guaranteed a Washington win in Boston. He also has said he wants to score 100 points against the Celtics someday.
Here are a few zeros for number zero:
1) Washington record 0-2 (0-3 after tonight)
2) Wizard 3 pt. shots 0-16
3) Arenas’s 3 pt. shots 0-5
4) Arenas predictions that came true 0-2
Gilbert was a believer after the game…
They proved themselves tonight. You know, with the crowd in it?…
They’re just like us..offensively. When you have it clicking, you have it clicking. You can’t double KG on that block…or Ray Allen or Paul Pierce. That’s a dangerous team. Especially when you’re veterans.”You know when I made my prediction, you know..someone has to be the villain. I’ll be the villain. I don’t target the players or the actual team…..Someone has to hype up stuff.”
Once they picked up Posey…I thought that was a great move. Because, you know, when you have a team like that, you need glue players. Perkins is playing glue…. I wanted to tell (Rondo)…. you look more comfortable than you did last year.”
Yet he left the door open to skepticism…”Once you sub those guys out, what can you do? If the starting 5 has to play 48, they will be a hard team to guard.”
Well, the stars played about 38 minutes each tonight and the bench did well
enough to break this game open, and that was without Posey who was suspended for one game for an off court incident this summer.
Things look like they are going to shape up into quite a season. Climb on board for the ride.
