Celtics Central

The Boston Celtics, led by their three stars and some mighty defense, beat Dallas by 94-90 in another meat grinder of a game.

These have all been ‘grind it out’ games. Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett have both used that term this season. It is one of Tiger Woods’ pet phrases to describe how he goes about a round of play and a tournament. “I’m just out there, grinding it out.” It is the best way to describe these three Texas games.

The Celtics are now an impressive 3-0 against the Texas Triangle (San Antonio, Houston and Dallas) in this toughest of road trips of the year for the Men in Green. They haven’t accomplished that since 1987. The Celtics now stand at a league best 55-13 and are on a 14-1 tear since their 3 game losing streak on their last west coast swing. They have a modest 4 game winning streak to put on the line against the Hornets on Saturday.

We have come to expect great defense from the Celtics. The defensive effort by Dallas wasn’t far behind in this game. Yes, the Celtics missed some open shots. But Dallas earned the ‘D’ in its name in this game.

The Celtics demonstrated the fortitude necessary to gut out yet another tough, tough win. They shot just .345 from the field in Dallas’ house where they were 29-5, tied with Boston as the 2nd best home court record in the league. Dallas is now 29-6 and the Celtics are 6-0 against the three Texas teams this season. Most of the statistical battles were dead even, as neither team could control the game for very long.

While the trip is slowly wearing the Celtics down, or so it appears at times, they have dug deep and found the will and energy to pull out 3 difficult wins against 3 potential title contenders on their home courts. They have kept to the game plan, had a few strong performances from the bench, kept their poise under pressure and willed themselves to these wins.

In a very evenly played game, Paul Pierce led the Celtics with 22 points on 6-14 shooting and 10-13 foul shots. He had two season highs with 13 rebounds and 3 blocks, to go with 3 assists. His assist total should have been at least a few higher as he continues to draw the coverage on drives and passes to open big men around the bucket. Perkins and Powe both missed shots that would have meant more dimes for multiple threat Paul Pierce.

Paul drew fouls at critical times all night while hitting the deck often. He was getting up slowly each time, but found the energy to put together enough points to engineer a few comebacks. He scored eight 4th quarter points, all on free throws, including 8 for 8 at one point.

James Posey added 12 points, including 8 in the decisive 4th quarter while doing a credible job guarding Jerry Stackhouse and Josh Howard all night.

Garnett and Perkins teamed up to played tough defense on Maverick big man Dirk Nowitzki. Though Dirk had a big night with 22 points and 19 rebounds, he only shot 8-20 and missed two big shots in the final minute. Perkins fouled out in the 4th quarter. The Celtics held Dallas to a combined .393% shooting.

Meanwhile Dallas did a excellent job on Kevin Garnett with aggressive double teams as Garnett had to work very hard for his points, scoring 20 on 7-22 shooting. He added 13 boards and 3 big steals.

It was Ray Allen who came in after sitting for most of the 4th quarter, to hit a big 3 point basket to give Boston a 90-88 lead with 32 seconds left. He redeemed himself for throwing a bad pass on a sure fast break lay-up to Sam Cassell on the play before. Ray was 7-17 and 3-9 from downtown on the evening, finishing with 20 hard fought points.

The Celtics finished off the Mavericks by hitting 4 clutch free throws by James Posey and Kevin Garnett sandwiched around a Dampier lay-up that brought Dallas back to within 2 points at 92-90.

It was an off night shooting for the point guards from both teams as Kidd, Rondo, and Cassell shot a combined 2-24. Kidd at times was wildy off on his shots, though he added 11 boards and 9 assist.

The Mavericks have yet to beat a team over .500 since the Kidd trade.

Boston’s win was even more impressive considering the off nights from both point guards and the poor overall team shooting. The team is developing the timing of a successful boxer that musters up the energy at the right time to flurry and score to take the fight away from his opponent.

Boston next opponent is the league’s 4th best team, the 46-21 New Orleans Hornets, on Saturday in this unofficial Starbucks Grind-It-Out (bait and switch metaphor alert!), 5 game road trip.