Celtics Central

Fist things, first – Kevin Garnett is suspended for tonight’s game. Why he was suspended but Shaq was not, once again shows the unevenness of officiating and punishment from the NBA.

Shaq took down Rodney Stuckey in the Suns/Pistons game while Stuckey was in mid air and with two arms. Stuckey had no protection from hitting the ground hard. Kevin merely swiped at Andrew Bogut with his arm as they both were flailing at each other while they made contact on a Bogut shot attempt under the hoop.

Garnett is suspended, but Shaq just gets a flagrant foul call and no suspension.

Hmm…..

About the Knicks
I thought that D’Antoni would do much better with the Knicks than his predecessors. But I didn’t think it would be this soon.

At 6-4, they are one of the early surprises of the league.

His decision to sit malcontent Stephon Marbury and out of shape Eddie Curry, were both brave and necessary to move the Knicks forward sooner rather than later. The early results are good.

Coach D’Antoni even has half court specialist Zach Randolph playing better in his faster pace system.

Wilson Chandler has been a pleasant and versatile surprise as MIke calls him his “Shawn Marion”. Wilson supplanted crowd favorite David Lee, who has had trouble adjusting to the D’Antoni style of play.

Crawford is geting up to speed quickly, and Chris Duhon appears to be capable as the team’s point guard. Diminutive Nate Robinson has been a sparkplug and produced well for the Knicks off the bench.

Can they keep this up?

Time will tell.

Marbury is said to be close to a buy out. They are trying to trade the overweight Curry.

Either way, the Knicks have moved on from both players, it seems. And that has done wonders for the rest of the team. It’s also gotten their new coach the players’ respect as they try to become the Suns of the east.

Knicks/Celtics games are always interesting. Richardson will probably be talking. Kevin Garnett is always talking. Maybe we’ll see a good game in between the on-court debates.

The Celtics are working out the kinks this season. Defense is solid. Offense is not. Finally having 2 days of rest after a long series of games should help the Men in Green.

The Celtics are ripe to be beaten without KG in the line-up, though the team played very well with Garnett out last season. Should be interesting and maybe we’ll see a face or two from the deep end of bench.

Maybe they should be called the Boston Dodgers. They once again dodged another bullet.

Or the Dr. Frankensteins. They keep bringing the dead back to life.

The Celtics record is now 9-2, but it doesn’t look like championship ball at the moment.

They won last night in overtime against the Milwaukee Bucks, 102-97, but not before giving up a 15 point 3rd quarter lead, 30 something second chance points, 18 Buck offensive rebounds and 19 Celtic turnovers (The Cs lead the league in TOs.)

They were once again outplayed in the paint 42-22.

Boston had the game well in hand at half time 50-38. They were shooting 55% to the Bucks 36% and had a slight edge in rebounds 18-17. They even had things in hand until late in the 3rd period with the 15 point cushion that should have been much bigger. The Celtics shot 39% in the second half and were outrebounded by 13, while they turned the ball over 12 more times.

Paul Pierce and Ray Allen led all scorers with 28 and 27 points, including combining for all nine of the Celtics’ overtime points. Pierce had another critically solid offensive game with 5 of 9 shooting, 4 of 4 from the three point line, 14 of 15 foul shots, 7 rebounds, 6 assists, a steal and a blocked shot. As the Celtics endure their own offensive recession, he provides the bail-outs.

Yet the team is not exhibiting the unselfish, ‘defense destroying’ passing and well rounded offensive balance that they employed last season.

All is not well in Celticland
The Celtics got exactly three shot attempts in total from two thirds of the starting five. Reluctant Rajon Rondo took one shot and Kendrick Perkins had just two shots. They scored 4 points total between them. Rondo has scored 2, 2, 5, and 4 points in his last four games. Perkins has 2, 6, 2, 9, and 0 in his last 5 games.

An undermanned Bucks team came back from a 15 point deficit with one minute remaining in the 3rd quarter to tie it up with 2:58 remaining in the fourth period when Luc Richard Mbah a Moute was fouled making a lay-up. The Bucks took the lead with his ensuing free throw at 89-88.

Paul Pierce then made 2 free throws and a big three pointer to regain a 4 point lead with 2 minutes left. Ray Allen missed two shots, Pierce and House one each down the final stretch as the Bucks forced overtime.

The Bucks tied the game with a Jefferson jump shot and Luke Ridnour drove by Ray Allen from the right side of the key to score the tieing basket with 1 second left. Rajon Rondo inadvertantly elbowed Paul Pierce in the head while they collided underneath trying to come over to help on the drive.

Paul Pierce hit some crucial three pointers and Ray Allen and Paul both made clutch free throws in overtime to put away a pesky Bucks team that had little reason to be in the game.

Even in the overtime, the Celtics tried to give the game away with three turnovers in their first 4 possessions ( Powe 3 second call, Pierce traveling, Garnett 3 second call). Kevin Garnett fouled out with 1:38 left on OT when he tried to impede a dribbling Luke Ridnour at the left side three point line.

No Excuses
The Bucks were without leading scorer, Micheal Redd and starting power forward Charlie Villanueva. They lost guard Charlie Bell to injury during the game and Andrew Bogut was throw out of the game in the 4th quarter with his second technical foul from a mix-up with Kevin Garnett.

The Celtics seemed more interested in trying to intimidate the Bucks with jawing and unnecessary physical confrontations than in outplaying them. Last year they would have just played through any physical attempts to throw them off their games and let their game do their talking for them. There were 9 technical fouls in all.

While a chippy game, this was a game the Celtics would control from beginning to end if they were clicking as they were last season.

Eddie House made a few big shots but was mostly off again from distance (1 for 6). He finished with 10 points on 4 of 12 shooting. The Celtics bench played well at times and outscored the Bucks bench 28-25

Brian Scalabrine saw daylight and played well, going 2-2 with a big three point shot (his first of the season), while playing solid defense in 13 plus minutes, mostly as the small forward, giving Pierce a rest.

I must give credit to the scrappy Bucks. Andrew Bogut hit numerous tough hook shots over a tightly guarding Kendrick Perkins and led the Bucks with 20 points before being ejected with his second tech. Luke Ridnour was second on the Bucks with 19 points and played a smart and productive game.

Luc Richard MBah a Moute played a high energy game, defending KG well and corraled 5 offensive boards and 14 points. Ramon Sessions put up some ill advised shots (17 in 25 minutes) but added 14 points and 6 assists to lead the Bucks.

The Celtics have things to address at both ends of the court. Until they do, they have enough talent from the big three to navigate their way to victories over lesser opponents that they should have beaten (for good) by the third quarter.

But they are clearly not in control of games with the precision at both ends of the floor that they displayed last season.

Looks at Gabe Pruitt, Patrick O’Bryant and possibly even Bill Walker may be in order. And yes, it appears they are in fact missing James Posey at the moment.

Next up: the Knicks in Boston on Tuesday night

The Denver Nuggets, renewed by the re-acquisition of Chauncey Billups, played toe-to-toe with the NBA Champs. The Celtics have been playing with fire for a while now. It was the 3rd team in a row to really challenge the Green Team. This time the challenger won 94-85.

The Celtics can’t seem to put a strong 48 or even 36 minutes of basketball together this season. They used to dominate for 24 to 36 minutes and that was the game. This is 2008.

They are getting off to slow starts or giving leads away, always playing catch up, and looking unimpressive as they do so, only to claw back into the game with solid, determined play. It looked like they could turn it on anytime they wanted to…until the Hawks game. Now Denver hopefully sends a wake-up call to the Green Team.

Denver went up by 15 points at the 8:37 mark of the third period. Just when the Celtics looked like they were out of the game, they clawed back to take the lead on an Eddie House three pointer in the final period at 70-67. Denver would build another 8 point lead, before Boston would come back to tie again at 84 for the last time with 3:10 left on a Garnett dunk.

Those would be Boston’s last points until Patrick O’Bryant hit a meaningless free throw with 35 seconds left. J. R. Smith had 9 of his ten points in the period.

Boston loses its first home game and Denver goes 4-1 since the trade for Billups, as Boston’s offensive woes continue. They scored just 36 points in the middle two quarters.

A “bought -in” Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups led a balanced Nugget attack with 18 points a piece with 6 players in double figures total. They responded to numerous Boston challenges and re-took the lead a number of times.

The Bad News
Denver controlled the paint, unusual in a Celtic game as they outscored the Cs there by an astounding 42-20. That never used to happen to these Celtics. They out ran the Cs with 18 to 8 on fastbreak points. They outrebounded the Celtics by 50-40 including team rebounds. All three numbers are highly uncharacteristic of this Celtic team. And the Celtics had a day’s rest while the Nuggets played last night.

The Celtics were led by Ray Allen’s 26 points, 18 of them in the first quarter. Paul Pierce had 19 points, and Kevin Garnett added 16.

Bench Needs to Improve
They are not getting the support they were earlier from the bench. But it goes beyond that.

The simple answer is that the Nugget bench outplayed and outscored the Celtic bench 26-16. But that was only part of it. The Celtics were actually outplayed by 16 points with Eddie House, Glen Davis and Leon Powe on the floor. But it was worse than the points scored differential.

With between 6 to 8 minutes each, on the floor in the first half, Tony Allen, Glen Davis, and Eddie House had registered goose eggs in rebounds, assists and steals – combined. Not a single one. Leon Powe added 2 rebounds. The four of them scored 3 points total in the first half.

Davis, Allen and Powe finished 0-8 shooting combined on the night. House heated up shooting with 11 second half points, but wasn’t able to make the defensive effort to contain Denver. Leon Powe, particularly, did not have a good game.

This was a night the plus/minus numbers would not tell you all of what really was happening.

Rondo in Slump
Rajon Rondo is in a scoring slump. 1 for 7 tonight but he is just 5 for 23 over the last three games, and is exascerbated by low output from Kendrick Perkins. And most of that is at the hoop. His outside shooting is almost non-existent. He put a few jumpers up tonight without success and one wasn’t even close.

Kendrick is not getting the easy dunks he got last season and his FG% shows it (48% vs 61% last year). Props to JB of CelticsStuffLive for pointing that out a few games ago. Perk also had a critical turnover when Nene took the ball away at the top of the key with Nuggets leading only 87-84. It led to a fast break two points and the Celtics were done.

Kevin Garnett is usually setting up at the high post to hit the jumper, to open things up underneath, and to facilitate his passing. Perhaps he needs to make more shots from there early in the game for it to work right. He also doesn’t seem to play down low as much as last year.

As a result, KG is not getting to the foul line as much either. He is at less than half of last season with 2.2 vs 4.7 free throw attempts.

With the bench unable to get points on the board and Rondo and Perkins not scoring, it is putting tremendous pressure on the Big Three to score. They can’t keep this up for long, if they want to be fresh at the end of the season.

If things don’t get better in a few games, I suspect we will see Patrick O’Bryant, Bill Walker, and possibly Gabe Pruitt or Sam Cassell getting a chance to help and get some valuable playing time. Maybe it happens sooner than that.

One game is an exception. Two games means pay attention. Three games is a mini-problem.

The season is long. It is only game nine. Will Doc take the Greg Popovich approach and just look for better execution from his anointed 9 player rotation? Or will he experiment with his other roster options?

One thing that almost never happened last season was getting outhustled by their opponents. Tonight the Nuggets were the aggressor and were far more energetic for most of the night.

The lack of scoring support will take a toll on the three stars as I see it. With two nonscorers and two poor foul shooters in Rondo and Perkins, something had to change soon.

At 8-2 it probably looks like I’m doing unnecessary hand wringing. But I’m looking at the improved competition this season, both in conference and out. The Celtics have time to figure things out, but so far this not quite the juggernaut we saw last season.

Unusual Stat of the Night
Tony Allen – 13;50 minutes – one point, zero rebounds, zero assists, zero steals, zero turnovers

Basketball bloggers need things to write about. The economy is certainly big news.

The Celtics are 8-1. What’s the problem there?

The answer right now is…nothing really. They are winning. They are beating good teams and bad. The defense is clicking.

But if there might be problems going forward, here are two things to look at.

1) The Celtics are starting games in a low gear and staying there until things get away from them a bit.

2) The Celtic offense has lost about 6 points a game this season.

Sub prime mortgage problems? How about sub prime shooting problems?

As far as starting faster, an alarm clock set 15 minutes ahead should do it.

Seriously, early deficits at this point has merely gotten the team some experience in playing from behind and the experience has been a rousing success. It is a fine line to walk though, and that could come back to bite them at some point. I think they will figure it out soon enough.

In an effort to discover where the points went, I put this together before last night’s game against the Hawks.

The Boston Celtics were scoring 7.2 less points than last season after the Toronto win, 100.6 vs 93.4. It’s still 6 points less after the Hawks game.

By the standards of today’s economy, that would be considered a recession. The Celtics are aware of it. But with an 8-1 record, including wins over 3 er…4 conference play-off teams, things can’t be of too much concern.

Yet, I wonder. Where are those points?

Doc Rivers answer?

“The ball’s just not going in as much it was last year.

We’re behind a little bit offensively. It’s not a concern though.”

They had them last year. Did they lose them when Posey left?

At this point, while not a satisfactory answer to a statistician, I suspect the main reason scoring is down is…. just because.

The Celtics know that they can go the distance with anyone. The 10 point average margin of victory just won’t be there this season. The Celtics are becoming a ‘green’ team and would conserve a bit more energy than they did last year when they were trying to prove things to themselves as much as the to the world.

They aren’t in top scoring form because they don’t have to be…yet. Is that a good reason? Probably not.

But a snapshot of the team’s scoring tells us where things are up…. and down

First: the team field goal pct was 47.5% LY vs 44.1% TY

Up is easy:
Tony Allen is up. In 2 minutes more, he more scores 9.9 TY vs. 6.6 LY and at a higher pct (49.2% vs 43.4%) than last season. Well done Tony.
Powe is up slightly…. on slightly more minutes 8.4 to 8.0. And that’s with Powe showing more of his offensive game.

Edit – Paul Pierce has now moved into positive territory. Stocks reacted strongly on the news.

Down:
Everyone else.

I initially thought that the big three are being less assertive this season to incorporate the rest of team into the offense. They may be and that assertion may still be true, in that they are shooting at different times in the offense as opposed to being the first option at all times. But….

Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett are taking more shots, yet making less of them.

A classic case of 1970s inflationary recession? Where are my disco shoes and Jimmy Carter button?

Pierce = +2.3 attempts but is 7.3% less accurate in FG%
Garnett = +1.1 attempts but is 7.2% less accurate in FG%

But if we are looking at deficits, possible losses, and bail outs, Paul Pierce is the man doing the bail outs. Anonymous sources tell us that American car makers are asking for Paul’s phone number at this very moment.

Pierce is hitting some huge last quarter shots to bail out the Celtics. Is that Barack Obama on the phone for Paul?

More indicators on the Celtic points recession…..

Ray Allen is:
1) getting less attempts (-1.6)
2) taking less threes (- 1.3),
3) and hitting them less 30% vs 38% LY,
4) but he is getting to the line a bit more (+.8)

Ray’s scoring is down -1.9 pts
Paul’s scoring is down -.8 pts. (even after his big night) (edit- not anymore, after TWO big nights)
Kevin’s scoring is down – 3.4 pts.

The following players have the same or more minutes yet…

Rajon Rondo is shooting and scoring less.
Glen Davis is scoring less.
Kendrick Perkins is scoring less.
Eddie House is scoring less.

The Celtics are taking less three pointers (14.5 to 19.1) and making less (4.1 to 7.3)

Doc Rivers…

“I don’t look at that number a lot, honestly. We were making a lot of them, too, last year. (laughing)

But I don’t look at that number as much as people would think. We’re fortunate. We had Posey, at times, you know we got…. early in the year last year, we got out 8-0, we were almost the reverse as a team. Our offense was bailing us out….and our defense caught up.

We went small, if you remember, and I decided at about game 20 to stop using the small line-up because I just felt in the long run, you’re not going to win in the play-offs with Posey at 4 (power forward). And so that’s why that three point shot number was up.

When you got Posey, great, Paul, and at times Eddie with Kevin you’re gonna get a lot of great open looks and so… just that dynamic has changed.”

Well..what Doc is saying is true, but… the three point attempt number is a whole year number and while Posey is gone, Kevin Garnett is still here to get distance shooters open looks.

So it is partly due to the loss of James Posey. But is it part of the problem? – not that there is one.

This just in (I always wanted to sat that) from Hawks post game: Go figure. The Celtics bombed away in this one with 24 three point attempts and made just 5 (.208%), though Doc said most of those were open looks, giving a sense of approval. The recession continues. Or rather inflationary recession again. More shots. Less makes.

The Celtics simply aren’t shooting as well as last season overall. Why?

Overall shot attempts are just about dead even. Foul shot attempts are up 3 per game.

BTW….This “Quest for Fire(power)” began with a short board discussion with former CelticsStuffLive host Jim Metz (JB).

I thought the Celtics stars weren’t taking their shots in the same way as last season. He thought they were.

The Celtics’ offense is running a bit differently so far.

Where as I thought the Cs were trying to include the other players more, Rajon Rondo is actually taking less shots (6.1 vs 9.3) though he is getting to line more – 4.3 times vs 2.3 times a game.

Even after Monday’s game, where the Big Three scored 76 of the team’s 94 points, they averaging only 49.7 pts. TY per game versus 55.8 pts. LY.

Where am I going with this?

Nowhere. Just laying out how things are right now.

Conclusion:

Boston’s three stars aren’t in a groove yet. The threes are not dropping. Many have been open
looks. Doc said it is largely rhythm. Who is to argue? Not me.

This could change in a few strong offensive showings. Right now the Celtics Offensive Economy is recessionary and inconsistent. Will the Celtics need more bail outs?

As Frank W. Kodak said, “Let’s see how this develops.”

Paul Pierce put on his Superman cape, scored 34 points, and brought the house down by hitting the winning shot over Al Horford with .5 seconds left, delivering a championship performance for the second game in a row. That is…. the Truth.

Eddie House on Pierce:

Superstar, man. Superstar….Man, he’s got a cape on his back sometimes. We got to get off his back, taking a load. …It’s been the Paul Pierce Show for the last two games in the fourth quarter. I’m glad he’s on my team.

The winning shot came just after Marvin Williams hit a pressure packed three pointer from the corner to give the Hawks the lead with 7.5 seconds left.

Kevin Garnett had a huge game himself with 25 points, 12 rebounds and smothering yet another league stud power forward in Al Horford.

Ray Allen added 17 points but he and Eddie House must not have paid their long distance bills as they could not connect from the arc. They combined for 2 of 16 from downtown.

This was a hard fought game for 48 minutes, as the Hawks put forth an effort worthy of their undefeated (until last night) record.

Coach Rivers:

It was a hell of a game. If you were a fan, you probably enjoyed it. Woody(Mike Woodson) and me, I don’t think it was as fun for us as it was. Because it was frustrating just trying to get a stop.

You’ve got two of the four top defensive teams in the league and every possession the other team kept scoring.——-I mean, they made amazing shots. For the fans, it was fun.

I think he means Celtic fans, though Atlanta fans and players can take a lot from this game, too.

Joe Johnson led the Hawks with 28 points, but got big help from bench players Flip Murray (14 pts.) and Maurice Evans (13 pts.). Mike Bibby added 16 points.

The Hawks are transforming into a nasty team. Nasty. And the Celtics transform from one thing in the first quarter, to the real Celtics after that.

So, there are two major stories here.

The first is that the Celtics continue to find the will to win, though they aren’t playing their best basketball yet.

The second is that the Hawks are indeed for real.

Paul Pierce…

The Hawks have been playing really well and with the wins that they’ve got this year, we knew it was going to be a tough game. We watched film on them, how hard they play. They are one of the best defensive teams this year. They have a lot of talent.

With Joe Johnson as their leader, he’s playing MVP type basketball. We knew it was going to be a tough game.

Even though they came on a back-to-back they’re a young team and they play hard and they have their defense together and we know what they can do offensively. So we didn’t expect this game to be easy.

The Celtics won the battle, but they were metaphorically bloodied by the Hawks in the effort.

The Hawks jumped on the Celtics from the opening bell with a tenacious defense previously unseen from them before. In fact, they looked a lot like the Celtics. Pack it in the middle and aggressively defend the perimeter. It works. They have learned their play-off lesson well.

Speaking of diggin in, the Celtics dug themselves yet another first quarter hole, 31-24. In this case, the bench players were no better, as the deficit grew to 16 at 44-28 at the 7:07 mark of the 2nd. The Hawks came ready to play. The Celtics were running late again. Doc calls a time out.

Enter the starters, I mean the Transformers. The real Celtics were now on the court, the ones who play as a team and defend always, not their first quarter doubles. They held Atlanta to just two more points until there was a minute left. They ended the half tied at 51, due to a 23-7 closing run.

The third quarter was played about dead even (26-25) with eight ties and umpteen lead changes. Lots of physical play meant the whistles blew for both sides, especially in the 2nd half. Pierce and Garnett lead the Celts in the 3rd with 12 and 10 points.

The Hawks mounted numerous charges in the final period to regain the lead early in the quarter, tied it 4 times and appeared to steal a win on Williams shot with 7.5 seconds left.

Garnett…

The final play was drawn up, get the ball to Pierce, get the hell out of the way. Superman is in the booth. Let’s go home. That was the play and if you don’t believe that, ask Doc Rivers, and he’ll say exactly the same thing.

Coach Woodson…

Well, you know they have a great team, and you got to tip your hat to Doc and his staff and what they have accomplished over the past year. A great player hit a great shot. But I applaud my guys. You know, we never quit. We got in late this morning and we competed from the beginning to the end.

Though Coach Woodson denied that it was a a moral victory, the mood in the Hawks locker room said differently. It is like they are discovering how good they really are. And they are very good.

It is early in the season, but add another name to the list of teams that Boston will have to truly contend with in the east. Remember, the Hawks did this on the road on the second night of a back-to-back and with Josh Smith in street clothes. They lost, but compared to where they were last year, they won.

The Celtics pass another test, but just barely, as another gunslinger measured himself against the NBA’s best.

According to Doc Rivers:

But overall, I just thought, a good win for us. And another win were we didn’t play great. But we’re still winning games. And that guys….is a good sign, not a bad one.

It is too early to make judgments and they are winning, but…I hope Doc is right.

In any event, things are getting downright interesting in the East.

Next up: Denver Nuggets come to Boston on Friday. They are 3-0 with newly acquired Chauncey Billups.

The Atlanta Hawks are undefeated. It doesn’t even sound right, saying that.

They are the upstart team of the league right now. A team few one thought would improve on their ‘sham’ series against the vaunted Celtics in round one of the play-offs, is back in Boston for some unfinished business – in their minds.

They played over their heads. They can’t carry it over to the new season. They lost a big piece in glue guy Josh Childress. Their coach is questionable. Josh Smith is a reluctant Hawk.

Welcome to the 6-0 Hawks.

And it hasn’t been all cake wins either. They beat Orlando. They beat Toronto. But the most eye opening win had been against the Hornets in New Orleans. Time to rethink the Hawks?

They lost Josh Childress to Europe. They just lost Josh Smith to injury a few games ago.
Reasons to fold? No way.

The Hawks still won those games. That is a very good sign for team trying to make a jump forward. They appear to be committed and on a mission this year.

They admit it was going the distance with the eventual champs in the play-offs that lit their fire. ‘We can be somebody.’

I don’t know why, but I like this team. At least, I find it intriguing.

Veteran Joe Johnson’s game improved once they got a legit point guard in veteran Mike Bibby. In fact, the whole team improved.

But no one thought they would push the mighty, mighty Celtics to 7 games.

Some say it is the youthful athleticism of their bigs that cause the older Celtics such trouble. No doubt Al Horford and Josh Smith are a handful.

Few credit the coach, Mike Woodson. Sounds a bit like the Doc Rivers saga before last year. Likeable guy, but not a very good coach. But both have had very young teams to grow up with. Hard to judge those situations, and Woodson’s re-signing was met with thunderous silence, criticism, or even – meh.

Doc’s Atlanta roots aside, he and Mike seems to be friends. Woodson said the Celtics are a good model to follow, because they play defense for 48 minutes and 82 games. The Hawks would like to imitate that.

So far they are a doing a pretty darn good job, as they are 4th in the entire league in points allowed (89.5), 3rd in field goal defense (41%), and 5th in three point defense (30%) Lesson learned, as that is how you build your team.

More important, the Hawks are 2nd in the league with a 9.3 point win margin, second best to the Lakers. The Celtics’ win margin in their incredible season last year was about 10 points. T

The Celtics are experiencing a bit of a power outage so far this season. They are 6th worst team in scoring with 93.4 per game.

The Celtics made The Trade. The Hawks made A Trade – for Mike Bibby. That was the catalyst for the Hawks turbo charge forward late last season. They maintained their youth and balanced with do-it-all, 27 yr old, guard Joe Johnson and wily, 30 yr old point guard, Mike Bibby.

Maurice Evans has done a credible job replacing Childress. And Flip Murray helped win the recent game against the Thunder, with a strong 4th quarter, when Joe Johnson was having a tough shooting night.

But Al Horford is a key player and has been mature beyond his years and is averaging a double double while playing both the center position and now power forward (his natural position).

Zaza Pachulia has proven to be an adequate back up with Josh Smith out.

So, the Hawks are trying to prove they can win on the road and in Boston, something they were unable to do last year.

This is big early season test for a team trying to make the jump to serious contender. The Celtics are good at being tested. In fact, it seems they play their best when they are challanged.

The Celtic big three are coming off their best combined offensive showing and have a day’s rest. The Hawks are playing the 2nd game in a back-to-back.

Both Paul Pierce (hand) and Rajon Rondo (groin) are nursing nagging injuries, but will play. It would be nice to send a message to the Hawks that they have more work to do before they can play with the Celtics in Boston.

I’ll be there for the event.

The Truth got his groove back…and then some.

Paul Pierce was 3 of 13 after three quarters and 14 points. He finished with a team season high 36 and was a one man wrecking crew, pulling out a late game win against a conference play-off rival.

Near the end of three, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen brought the lethargic Celtics to within three points for the first time since the first quarter. Then Paul Pierce made the fourth quarter his own.

Pierce overcame another out of sync shooting evening, (3 of 13 up to then, he was shooting just 32% over the last 5 games) by coming alive right when the Celtics needed it most.

In a masterful scoring exhibition, Paul was 7 of 9 from the field, 2 of 3 from the three point line and 6 of 7 from the free throw line in the 4th quarter for 22 points, just 2 away from the franchise record.

The Raptors didn’t know what hit them. They had been in control of this game since the start as the Celtics once again began slowly. It is the 6th of 8 games that they have lost the first quarter and had to play from behind. They are now 7 and 1 on the year. As league Champions, they continue to rise to the occasion.

The Celtics were behind by as much as 16 points before they went on a 17 to 4 run to close within 58-61. Garnett breathed life into the comatose Celtics as he started trash talking to the Raptors and scoring 8 points of the run. Pierce started to come alive himself with 5 points.

He arose the ire of Jose Calderone, taunting him as he guarded him while brining the ball up in the back court. Jose continued the conversation as the quarter ended.

Jermaine O’Neal led the Raptors with 19 first half points, but finished with just 23. The league’s 3rd leading scorer with 26 points per game, Chris Bosh, could muster only 9 against Kevin Garnett.

Jason Kapono hit two big threes each time the Celtics closed to within 3, had another critical jumper and an assist to Parker on a big three when the Cs closed to within one at 74-74.

But Kapono was no match for Paul Pierce at the other end, as Paul hit a number of big jumpers, got into the lane for lay-ups and even put one in over an outstretched arm of Chris Bosh, after losing Kapono.

Pierce score 14 of the Celtics first 17 points on the 4th quarter, including back to back threes, sandwiched around a Parker three, that got the crowd going. He then scored eight of the Celtics’ last ten points to win the game.

Eddie House got the Celtics the lead for the first time since the first quarter with a three at 79-77. Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen each answered Toronto scores with jumpers, (Ray’ s was a
three) to tie it up at 84.

Pierce then delivered the knock out punches with a turnaround fadeway, a fadeway and a
reverse lay-up to give the Celtics a 6 point lead they would not relinquish with 34 seconds left.

It seems that Toronto coach Sam Mitchell knew that a 16 point lead wasn’t safe, as he was constantly trying to get the team to play with more urgency and less carelessly, as they turned the ball over 16 times. In the end, he was correct.

The Celtics’ bench did not impact this game as they have previously. Perhaps it was a good thing, as the three stars carried the team, with Ray Allen scoring 19 points, Garnett scoring 21 and Pierce’s 36. The next closest Celtic was Eddie House with 7 points.

The three stars, especially Paul Pierce, have been letting the offense come to them as the team works the rest of the rotation in to the scoring. Tonight it was the Pierce, Garnett and Allen show.

The Numbers
Paul Pierce finished 10 for 22 shooting, 4 of 7 from the arc, 12 of 14 from the free throw line, 9 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 turnovers.
Kevin Garnett finished with his 4th double/double with 21 points on 10 of 19 shooting, 10 rebounds, 3 assists and a blocked shot.
Ray Allen had 19 poimnts on 5 of 13 shooting, 1 of 7 from the arc, 8 of 8 free throws, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, and a steal.

Unusual Stat of the Night
Anthony Parker played 32 minutes, scoring 15 points, but no assists and no rebounds.

Next up: The undefeated Atlanta Hawks (5-0) in Boston on Wednesday evening

This was supposed to be a showdown in Motown, but Tony Allen score a game high 23 points and tied his career best in field goals made (11) as the Celtics took control in the 2nd quarter and never looked back.

The lead was as high as 23 points in the two teams’ first meeting since the Eastern Conference Finals. Prolific scoring machine Allen Iverson recently joined the Pistons in a trade that sent Chauncey Billups and Antonio McDyess to Denver.

Reluctant to shoot and defended solidly by Rajon Rondo, Allen Iverson was unable to get untracked as he scored 10 points on eleven shots in 31 minutes.

The Green Machine was rock solid defensively, as they held Detroit to 25% shooting in the first half, 31% after three periods, while making another strong 2nd and 3rd quarter stand. The Beantown Ballers allowed just ten 2nd period points and 32 points total in the middle periods.

The Pistons also missed most of the open shots they did get with Rip Hamilton, Rasheed Wallace and Jason Maxiell shooting a combined 0 for 15 in the first half.

After that it was academic, as Detroit really did not demonstrate their usual never-say-die pluckiness. Once the Cs got the big lead it stayed around 17 points for most of the game, until near the very end. Only Tayshaun Prince got untracked for the Pistons with 23 points tying him with Tony for game honors.

Former Celtic preseason invitee, Wil Bynum got in the game for the Pistons during garbage time and score 11 points in 12 minutes, including a lay-up right at Kevin Garnett.

Slow Start for Both Teams
Neither team could buy a basket to start the game, as the first points were scored on a Rip Hamilton assist to Allen Iverson with 8:48 left in the first. Detroit would see only one more assist the entire half.

The Celtics shot 5 of 21 (24%) and Detroit shot 7 of 24 (29%) in the ice cold first period.

Solid shooting and the Tony Allen Explosion
The good news for the Celtics is that they would shoot 53% (28 of 53) the rest of the way, led by Tony Allen’s game high 23 points, Ray Allen’s 17, and Rajon Rondo’s 13.

If you added the total footage of the range on Tony Allen’s eleven made shots it might not be more than eleven feet. Most of them were right at the rim or short range layups as a result of his relentless slashing to the hoop.

Tony manufactured 5 rebounds, 2 steals, an assists and a blocked shot to go with his highly efficient offensive evening.

The Cs were up 23 points when Ray Allen was on the floor last night. Ray added eight rebounds, three assists, and made 2 of 3 three pointers to complete his solid evening’s work.

The Celtics carved up the Pistons for 44 points in the paint, including 13 fast break points, while allowing only 24 inside points to the Pistons.

The four man bench of Leon Powe, Glen Davis, Eddie House and Tony Allen put in their 4th straight strong performance with 43 of the Celtics 88 points, and extending the lead while they are in the game.

Nit Picking a 6-1 start
The Celtics’s three stars were not needed to provide all of the offense once again. But should Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce each scoring in single digits be a bit of a concern? Pierce is in somewhat of a shooting slump of 32% over the last 5 games and has not been aggressively seeking his own shot lately.

It could be that the team’s focus on finding out how much the other players can be counted on offensively, is a bit of a disruption to the rhythm of Paul Pierce especially. All three stars scoring are down this season even over the reduced numbers of last season. Doc Rivers is in the process of discovering what his rotation players can accomplish on a consistent basis.

Four of the last five games the starters have begun slow and have lost the first quarter. Over confidence? Sure, it is largely that.

Maybe, just maybe, Doc should concentrate on getting his stars involved offensively more deliberately. I know. If they are monopolizing the shot attempts it isn’t a good thing either. It is hard to find the right balance, and it absolutely great that the bench players are doing so well, but perhaps it would be wise to let the big dogs work through and carry a few games.

Anyway, the Celtics completely dominated the Pistons as they went to 0-2 with Allen Iverson.

Unusual Stat of the Night
Kendrick Perkins and 10 rebounds and 2 blocks, but zero point and zero assists in 28 minutes.

Next: The Celtics play tonight in Boston against the 4-2 Toronto Raptors at 7:30