We knew that Glen Davis did a stand up comedy routine in college. Tonight, he broke out his best impressions….. of the Big Three. As they say, he killed them in Memphis.
The Boston Celtics beat the Memphis Grizzlies, 105-87 with Glen Davis coming off the bench to lead the way with a career high 24 points. Ray Allen, playing with a healing elbow, supported with 20 of his own. Eddie House continued his torrid outside shooting with 15 more, as the bench scored 51 of the team’s total points.
Rajon Rondo chipped in with a typical, unheralded Rondo-esque game of 10 assists, 9 points, and 7 rebounds.
Kevin Garnett started, playing 17 minutes, scoring 10 points, with 4 rebounds, but blocked two shots, anchored the defense, and inspired his mates to a higher level of play.
Kendrick Perkins roamed off Darell Arthur to double other players, scored 9 points, 5 rebounds and added two blocks.
The Celtics’ revitalized defense laid waste a solid effort by Memphis’s own bench star, Hakim Warrick, who led the Grizzlies with 20 points. They held the young, athletic Grizzlies to .393 shooting, in spite of giving up 17 offensive boards.
Glen Davis – Impressionist
When the Grizzlies decide to leave a Boston player open, they pay the price with career games. Leon Powe had 30 points in their last meeting and Glen “Big Baby” Davis followed that up with a back breaking 24 points of his own.
Glen was uber efficient, making 8 of 11 shots, while doing his best KG imitation by knocking down open mid range jumper after mid range jumper. He also said, ‘here’s my KG power dunk’, rim rocking right through 7′ Darko Milicic.
For My Next Act….
Glen did his best Paul Pierce imitation by drawing multiple shooting fouls on a combination of jump shots and drives. Baby had at least three ‘and one’ situations. Then Glen his best Ray Allen impression, as he made the foul shots count, hitting 8 of 9.
After making the game winning shot last night, Glen comes back with his career best in this game.
A long year of growth on the court is starting to pay dividends for Glen and the Celtics. As Davis gets his confidence back in his jump shot, it will be huge come play-off time. We are starting to see some of that. This time it is incorporated into a more stable all around game.
With Leon Powe, Brian Scalabrine and Tony Allen still out, the bench’s contributions were well needed in this game. Only Ray Allen played more than 30 minutes (35:37).
This was a quiet night for Paul Pierce offensively with just 6 points on 2 of 6 shooting, but he had 6 rebounds and 3 assists.
What was a close game at half time slowly turned in the Celtics favor in the third quarter. Ray Allen had 7 points and Garnett and Perkins 6 points each, while Rondo added 4 points with 4 assists in the pivotal 3rd. The Celtics shot a simmering 12 of 19 in the quarter.
While Mikki Moore and Stephon Marbury (4 assists, 3 turnovers) didn’t contribute much statistically, they were part of the bench’s positive impact. Bill Walker had 6 points on 3 of 4 shooting in 10 minutes, including a dunk that drew an awe inspired reaction from the Memphis crowd.
After shooting a solid .514 in the first half, the Grizzlies made just 8 of 23 shots (35%) in the 3rd period, and 6 of 24 (25%) in the 4th. That combined for just 14 of 47 (30%) in the second half. Consequently, the Celtics outscored them 53-39 in the final half to end the game.
Next up: the Clippers in Boston on Monday
