You can knock this team down. But you can’t knock them off their game
As with every top team, it is really hard to knock these Celtics off course. Not that the Hawks didn’t try. Just ask Paul Pierce.
Less than 2 minutes into the game, Paul drove, and while going for a lay up, 2 Hawks flew right at him. Besides a hard foul, high flying Josh Smith fell, using Paul’s head as a landing pillow, to add insult to injury. The insult was a headache. The injury turned out to be a lower back strain.
But it would be almost another minute before Doc called time out and got Pierce out of the game. In that time, a somewhat dazed Pierce hit one of two foul shots, got back on defense and waved off Garnett as he inquired about his well being as they set up at the other end. Pierce could walk so he could play, or so he thought.
Doc finally was able to call a 20 second time out to get Paul out of the game, where he immediately went to floor on the sidelines. Pierce was obviously hurting more than he wanted to let on. He was sent to locker room where it was determined it was a lower back strain and he would return. He came back to play in the 2nd quarter. The Celtic warrior played 26 more minutes and scored 11 more points on 5-10 shooting overall. That is the kind of determination the Hawks and any other team is up against when they play this mission driven team.
The Boston Celtics cleaned up their few weak spots from the first game and absorbed everything the young Hawks could throw at them. They held the offensive rebounds to 5 versus the 16 they gave up in the first game, and played better help defense for most of the game. They held the Hawks to a mere 60 shot attempts and .383 FG% on the night.
The Hawks had their last lead at 7-5 before the Cs answered with a 15-2 run to take over for good. Mike Woodson’s team continued to compete to finish the quarter strong with a 11-4 run to close to within 4 at 24-20. The Cs drove the lead back up by 15, before the Hawks closed to within 10 at the half. And that was accomplished with Al Horford and Joe Johnson missing significant time due to early foul trouble.
Half Time – Celtics 8 ‘em up
Four Celtic players had 8 points at half time. 2 others had 6 (Posey, Rondo) in a majestic showing of team work and balance.
Sam Cassell blasted away with 8 in 6 minutes, but the points parade included Garnett, a hobbled Pierce and Sugar Ray. With Paul Pierce out James Posey did more than play defense, adding 9 points and 5 boards, prompting praise from Doc Rivers.
From Gary Dzen, at Boston.com…..
“I was concerned about Paul, but Pose was terrific,” Celtics coach Doc Rivers said after the game. “That guy has a sense of what your team needs sometimes. He’s going to come in and give you the defensive effort all the time. He clearly could see that we needed scoring and cuts, and he got them. He got the two layups. He’s just so important to our team. I don’t think everybody has any idea how important he is to our basketball team on and off the floor, especially tonight.”
Point guard MIA
Celtic Security did call the police, though. Mike Bibby was taken hostage by Rondo again. He was barely seen in the first half, getting shut out on assists, keeping his series total at….one……total.
Mike ‘The Veteran’ Bibby shot 1-5, but did manage 6 first half points. There were witnesses, and they are negotiating with Rajon as I write this. Clues as to where Rajon was hiding him could be determined by the Celtic fans’ boos every time he touched the ball. The maligned Celtic crowd did it all night to “One Assist Mike”. That is the same amount Bibby was able to generate in game one. Just call Rondo “Mike Bibby’s Nightmare”.
Rajon thoroughly outplayed Bibby once again, finishing with 12 points, on 6 for 11, 8 assists, 6 rebounds, 4 steals and one TO. Bibby went 2-7 for 12 points, with 3 boards and his one assist. As Bibby sat in the 4th quarter the Cs fans chanted, ‘Rondo’s Better’. Mike Bibby had made the comments after the last game that Celtic fans this year were ‘fair weather fans. The arena was only 3/4 filled last season.’
The Celtics aggressive defense forced 21 equal opportunity turnovers with rookie Acie Law committing 4, fledgling Josh Smith 5, and veteran Joe Johnson 5. The Beantown Burglars had an incredible 15 steals this evening.
The Celtics outdid the Hawks at their own game with 19 fastbreak points,while the often confused Hawks had only 10. The Hawks game plan was to go the paint and to the line often, which they did, yet the Celtics won the paint battle 36-30. The Hawks did go to the line 40 times to the Celtics 26.
Kevin Garnett led the team with 19 points and 10 rebounds though he did shoot 6-18. As usual, the newly named NBA Defensive Player of the Year anchored the Celtics suffocating defense. Intensity has picked up and things were chippy a few times in the middle tonight. The refs did a good job of keeping it under control.
Ray Allen shot 3-6 from downtown, finishing with 15 points while Glen Davis used all his fouls in just 14 minutes, in mostly garbage time, but contributed a block and 3 steals, though he turned it over 3 times himself.
The Hawks are clearly outmatched, but could put in a better performance in their own arena.
The Celtics would like to end things quickly and move on. They have bigger things in mind. After the game, Pierce said he thinks he will be okay to play Saturday.
The series moves to Atlanta Saturday at 8 pm.
