Celtics Central

On a day that NBA TV showed clips and games of this greatest of basketball rivalries,
you could say the rivalry is back.

You would be half right. The Celtics are back anyway.

Laker fans saw that with a resounding 4th quarter fireworks and exclamation point tonight.

Playing the 4th game in 5 nights a long way from home, against the team of rivals coached by the arch rival coach of Red Auerbach, Phil Jackson, the 2008 Celtics sent a big time message.

You’re not getting that win tonight. Don’t even think about.

The Celtics won going away 110-91, having led by as many as 25 in the 4th quarter.

The Lakers started the game in throwback 1980′s era short shorts. By half time they changed back into their regular uniforms. It didn’t help.

Great “Scott”, the only “Magic” those brought back were a Celtic thrashing ‘Worthy” of their old rival. In the end, the Lakers got “Kareemed”, and ended up (A.C.) “Green” with envy. No one will say this game was “McAdoo” about nothing.

I’m sorry. I had to get that out of my system.

The Lakers must have gotten confused. They thought they were the old ‘bad boy’ Detroit Pistons.

It can be said that the refs let them play. The boxscore says it was pretty even – Lakers 31 fouls, Celtics 30 fouls. That’s why boxscores don’t tell the whole story.

If it wasn’t the quantity, it was the quality.

Remember ‘No blood, no foul’? Even that rule was missing tonight.

Kevin Garnett was hacked and bumped often, usually without a call. He shot just 4 foul shots all night. For his effort his received a technical foul and a bloody gash along side his eye that required 2 stitches. Kevin kept saying, “That’s not a foul?” and pointed to his head dripping blood.

Scot Pollard was creamed by Odom on a lay-up attempt. As Scot lay on the ground, you could hear him yell, “What the -expletive deleted-!” It wasn’t a question and he didn’t really say expletive deleted. He said the expletive. Even the NBATV announcers who favor the Lakers thought that particular foul by Odom was an ‘intentional foul’ to send Pollard to the line. No call whatsoever.

Ray Allen was body blocked to the ground, and out of bounds, by Lamar Odom simply for coming up with the ball after Garnett blocked Odom’s shot. Ray Allen too, received a technical, for doing nothing. Odom was called for a flagrant foul. He will probably be suspended upon further review.

Ray also received quick and early foul calls from defending Kobe for much less. For example, Tony Allen gets called for a forearm to his defender, Derek Fisher. Kobe did the exact same thing to his defender, Ray Allen, and Ray gets called for the foul.

In truth, there were missed calls on Celtics players, too. I can think of a few that Pierce got away with. But it didn’t seem evenly called. Though the foul shooting disparity doesn’t indicate it, it appears that the Celtics could have received far more foul calls than they actually did.

There were 7 technicals called in this game including one on Doc Rivers defending KG. Both teams were up for this game.

It seems that the new pattern of attack floating around the league to try to stop the Celtics is to get very physical with them. It hasn’t won any games yet for opponents, but it dented the Celtics shooting statistics for awhile.

The Cs have shot .462 – .462 – .395 – .408 (most recent to least) in their last 4 games against this type of treatment. It appears that they are learning to play through most anything now, even away on tough home courts with Rondo out and Ray Allen limited to 28 minutes due to foul trouble.

The teams responds well to adversity. Especially Paul Pierce.

Paul Pierce’s recent run.

He has been the biggest single reason why the Celtics have won the last three games. He has scored 37, 24, and 33 very big points in the last three games.

His defense against the Lakers was on the level of Tony Allen or Rajon Rondo when they are at their ball hawking best. Paul stole the ball 3 out of 4 possessions late in the 3rd quarter when the Lakers were trying to make a move. They had closed to within 6 points, the closest they had come since the first half. Paul becomes a one man wrecking crew, scoring 10 straight points to end the quarter. He converted the 3 steals for 5 of those points.

Paul is diving for balls and jumping for deflections as has have rarely been seen. He is doing it more and more regularly. Pierce once again led the team with a plus/minus of +21 (tied with Tony Allen of course).

He said he could do it. People laughed when he said he could be a great defender. They aren’t laughing anymore. Paul’s defense is heading north towards great as you read this. The funny thing is that he is sacrificing some but not much offense along the way.

So Paul, Ray, and Kevin are coming through in large ways every night, in the face of rougher and rougher play.

While they must learn to play without getting the calls in hostile arenas, and I believe it ultimately helps the team grow tougher, a few of the non calls might deserve a closer look by league officials.

What is happening at the moment, is that it is just getting the Celtics more focused. That is a good thing, because many of these contests had been over before half time. This team is becoming that good. But I would hate to see an unnecessary injury due to laissez faire refereeing.

Playing through this kind of contact will only help them come play-off time. Opponents are finding out that it doesn’t translate to wins for them now, either. Ask the Lakers. It only gets the Celtics madder and more motivated. I’m not sure you want to do that.

The Celtics might get ‘short’ with you, and that’s not good.