Celtics Central

It was bound to happen. This was the team that was expected to do it.

Detroit ends Boston’s 9 game home winning streak, 103-97, and evens the series at 1-1. They did it while giving up 75 points to the new big three. Boston’s bench added 8 points – total, while Rondo and Perkins were kept in check, as well. Kevin, Paul and Ray shot 29 for 51 (57%), while the rest of the team shot 6 for 21 (29%)

Boston now has to do what it has not done. Win away from home. They picked a tough team to try to break through against.

This was a classic game of ‘making plays’. Big time players ‘make plays’. There were a number of big time players on both sides.

With many things being equal, it appears that Rodney Stuckey was the difference maker. He hit for 13 points off the bench including a number of shots that helped the Pistons keep their lead when Boston made moves to close in.

The Celtics bench conversely, was quiet offensively, in a game where offense was needed from someone other than the big three. This would have been a good game to try Sam out. He thrives in these kinds of games. He was a DNP-CD.

Even Ray Allen finding his jump shot couldn’t stop the Pistons.

It will go down in history. Mark the time. I was an eyewitness to it. At 9:10 of the 3rd quarter, Ray let yet another jump shot fly. He was 4 for 11 with no jump shots made up to that point. The entire arena erupted when his 17 footer actually dropped through the net. It was as if it was a buzzer beating, game winning shot.

Even Ray was surprised at the noise explosion….

I did hear it, and I had to look around to see if they were cheering for me because it was so loud.

Ray finished with 25 points on 9 of 16 shooting with 2-4 from the arc. Paul Pierce led the team in scoring and big shot making. For a while he looked like he might be alone again. But Kevin Garnett made a number of tightly defended, highly difficult shots while Allen’s 12 point outburst in the 4th, included a huge, long distance three with 2 Piston defenders on him in the waning seconds of the game to close within 3 at 97 -100 with 10.7 seconds left.

Detroit played better defense. Paul Pierce…

I thought we were a step slow tonight.

Rip Hamilton led Detroit with 25 loud points. But it just seemed to me that Rasheed had a twenty point game as well. He only had 13. They were all loud baskets, including 2 back breaking threes.

Detroit did what Detroit does – spread the offense and the wealth with 6 players in double digits.

Boston did what many thought they would do from day one – get scoring aplenty from the big three and little from anyone else. The shutdown of all supporting players was more than Boston could even consider to get a win.

While the stat line on Rondo looked good, it was deceiving. He had close to a triple double. He obviously shot poorly (2-9). While he ended up with 8 assists, his passing was less effective than you might think. At the end of the 3rd quarter he was 1 for 7 with just 4 assists for the entire game. He went where Detroit wanted him to go for most of the game. While not performing his point guard duties well at all, (the team had 5 assists at half time) he did rebound like a star with 9 total and 3 offensive.

Now Boston has a ‘must win’ situation on the road. Ray Allen….

I’m excited about it. We have to come out swinging. We’ve been good on the road all year. But in the play-offs, we have to pick it up.

They will attempt to return the favor on Saturday at Auburn Hills.

Fodder for the “Refs control the score” theorists:

As I have said before, late game calls are more far important, more magnified and leave a team little to no time to recover from them. A non-call, and a call that shouldn’t have been made, played a big role.

a) non call on Ray’s three that missed everything.I have to check the replay, but it looked like he was fouled on the shot.
b) Rondo was called for minor contact shortly after

Again, I’ll check replays later, but they looked like two calls that were unfortunate and definitely affected the game. After watching the tape. I’ll re-assess and report later.