And so it begins.
The Celtic train has begun it’s journey to banner #17 and has begun rolling in impressive fashion. They beat a feisty Hawk team by 23 points.
Winning going away, Pierce, Garnett, Allen, and Rondo all had game impacting, decisive offensive displays in a ‘true to form’ Celtic basketball game. They held Atlanta to 38% shooting and shot 48% overall and a crisp 56% from the arc themselves.
Ray Allen led the team with 18 points. Pierce and Garnett each added 16 points, and Rajon Rondo had 15 points and 9 assists in his very first play-off appearance. Garnett added 10 rebounds and 4 assists while leading the team at both ends of the floor.
Displaying scoring balance, 6 Celtics were in double figures, but none reached 20 points. But it was the team’s trademark defense in the 2nd and 3rd quarters that put the game away. They held Atlanta to 34 points combined in the middle quarters while Ray Allen ran off 10 straight points (12 overall in the third quarter) to run a catchable 13 point lead up to 19 points. Ray displayed his quick but deadly release, including a three pointer that barely touched his hands.
After the Hawks closed again to 12 points at 55-67, Rondo made the Hawks pay for dropping off him with two straight jumpers and added a fall away jumper in the paint to extend the lead to 18 as the quarter ended.
The Celtics were already ahead 8-2 when TNT began telecasting the game because the Detroit/Philly game had run over.
The Celtics went up 11-2 and 17-6 and 24-10 as Paul Pierce hit his first 3 shots from beyond the arc. Rajon started the game aggressively, adding 9 points and 5 assists in the first period as the Celtics held on for a 29-21 lead as the Hawks closed the period strong.
The Hawks opened the 2nd quarter with 6 straight points, capping a 17-5 run of their own to get within 2 at 27-29 on a Marvin Williams jump shot. Shades of Philadelphia danced in their heads as Detroit was upset by the Sixers just before this game.
Garnett answered with a turnaround jump shot and the Celtics slowly pulled away, eventually regaining a double digit lead they would not relinquish the rest of the way. After faltering early, the Celtics bench played well. Posey, Cassell, and Tony Allen were particularly effective as the team extended the lead while they were on the floor. Pierce led the Cs at half time with 13 points.
While playing hard for the whole game, the Hawks were over matched as the Celtics made sure to keep their foot on the Hawks neck the rest of the way. The lead ballooned into the 20′s as the 4th quarter ran down. Leon scored all 10 of his points in the last period, all in traffic underneath, including two monster dunks. Leon added 4 rebounds and 2 blocks and looked good in his first taste of playoff competition.
Sam Cassell scored 10 points, on 3 of 6 shooting with 7 of his in a row to extend a 4 point lead up to 11 at 42-31. Pierce added 3 rebounds, 3 assists and a steal, as he displayed what this year’s Celtics are all about, scoring his points on only 10 shots while playing great defense along the way.
Unsung Kendrick Perkins played goalie and had 2 blocks and 6 rebounds to go with his middle clogging defense in his 20 minutes of time. He was a huge part of the Celtics success while scoring just 3 points.
This game went about as expected. I believe we will see even more competitiveness from the Hawks before the series is through. But it will be for naught. They simply do not have the talent, depth, or will to compete with the league’s best team on its driven mission.
Kevin Garnett mentioned that he and Ray had a strong disagreement about how to do things in tonight’s game, but that it was patched up and everything is fine now.
The next game is Wednesday night.
