Celtics Central

Well, it did in the second quarter and the entire first half against Amare Stoudamire, who had 22 by the half way mark.

But it was there for the rest of the game and stopped a high power offense from reaching triple digits. At the same time the Celtics went for a size large in points themselves by winning 117-97.

Green fuel stopped solar power. How could the Suns could shoot .559 for the game and not make 100 points? It happened because they were limited to an anemic 68 shots on goal. The Cs had 86 attempts and a solid shot .523. It was also due to 21 Sun turnovers from pressure defense that is the Celtic’s road to success.

Garnett and Pierce carried the team to victory with 30 and 27 points respectively. Garnett was steady all game and Paul had little explosions of scoring. Sometimes I don’t think I appreciate Kevin Garnett enough. Ditto for Paul, as he was vintage Pierce with 9-9 from the line, with 9 of 16 shooting, often against supposed tough defender, Raja Bell.

The other Celtic road to success is points in the paint. Tonight they had over 50 against the former king of the paint and his associates.

After the Celtics went up by 15 in the first quarter, the Suns came back behind Stoudamire, to even things by half time, 57-57.

A 16 point 3rd quarter punctuated by Amare getting shut out, put the Suns in a hole they didn’t have the means to climb out of this evening. They scored just 40 in second half as the Celtics shut the door.

Meanwhile, the Celtics maintained an amped offense with 60 second half points.

Rajon Rondo had an ankle breaking drive and score against Steve Nash that was so bad, Nash was good naturedly razzed shortly after, on the bench, by his own team mates. Rondo played a tremendous game overall, going for 14 points on 7 of 12, with 6 assists and 6 rebounds, while helping to contain the 2 time MVP point guard. Rondo’s growth is amazing.

Unsung heroes of the game include Kendrick Perkins with solid defense and a double double (13 points, 10 boards) and Leon Powe, who drew a critical foul on Shaq with an attempted lay up. James Posey did his best work off the stat page as well, except for 3 steals. Even Eddie House was active on defense, while contributing 6 points in 12 minutes.

Ray Allen had, what seemed to me to be, a quiet 14 points, on 5 of 10 shooting, but dished out 8 assists to lead the team. He epitomizes the team concept on this team as much as anyone, perhaps more.

In a game that meant much more to Phoenix, Boston evened up the season series with a message win at the right time.

Doc had to ratchet down the minutes and Cassell (6 minutes) and Brown (DNP) took the hit. It also keeps some of the previously established chemistry in place.

How the minutes go from here on will be interesting to see. I know for sure that Doc won’t have a 12 man rotation for the play-offs. But who comes in when might be an open question depending on the circumstances of each game.

Doc certainly has some very different options, and skill sets on the bench for different game and match up situations. Will he go traditional, shorten the rotation, make some hard decisions, and sit a few players for the duration? Or will he break new ground in ‘substitution philosophy’ in a record breaking year and have the ‘flavor(s) of the night’ each night, come play-off time?

The Hornets come to town for a rematch and another big game on Friday night.