The new Big Three version of the Boston Celtics just played the shortest playoff series in their three years together. They beat the Miami Heat 4 games to 1 with an 96-86 win last night.
That it took three years to say that, says something about a very talented team that just rarely seems to do things the easy way.
They will be glad they did as the Cavaliers are next up as the Cavs finished off Chicago last night as well.
Celtics Feasted on the Heat
With just a few sputters, The Green Machine is living up to its name in this first series, as they clearly out matched the Miami Heat and made them look like little more than Dwyane Wade and The No Help Quartet.
Even in this close out game, the Beantown Ballers got a bit of basketball indigestion in the 3rd quarter. After fashioning what should have a game and series ending lead, they burped up some far too familiar uninspired basketball, reflective of a year playing ‘hard and well’ only on occasion. They coughed up all but 3 points of a 21 point lead before righting the ship.
The score shrunk to 73-70 with 10: 14 left in the game before Ray Allen pushed the Celtics back in the right direction with a lay up on a goal tending call and a three pointer. Ray has hit more big shots for the Celtics this season than any one and he would not let the Celtic combine revert to regular season form by relinquishing another double digit lead.
Giving a despondent and beaten Miami team new life, the Cs then fought off the Heat’s Dwyane Wade (31 points) and Mario Chalmers (20 points off the bench) to cement the win in the final minutes of the game. ‘Measley’ Michael Beasley scored 2 points on 0-3 shooting, signaling the possible end of his stay in Miami, while equally dreadful Jermaine O’Neal looked completely washed up against Kendrick Perkins and the Celtics.
It was really a pathetic playoff showing by two players who were expected to be key contributors to this team. Next year will see O’Neal gone and the Heat are rumored to want to trade Beasley after seeing this performance.
3rd Quarter Blip Blemishes an Otherwise Fine Effort
This was a game where all five Celtic starters contributed at both ends of the court in a true team win. It was encouraging to see, and bodes well heading into a much tougher series coming up against the Cavaliers. So does getting a quick elimination and some needed rest.
The Celtics had 28 assists on 35 made baskets and held Wade to 10 of 24 shooting and the Heat to .394 % overall. Miami couldn’t hit from downtown and finished just 5 of 20 from the three point arc. The Celtics were 7 of 12 from the arc.
Rajon Rondo led the way with a near triple double, scoring 16 points, to go with 12 assists and 8 rebounds. Rajon added 4 steals and had a number of defense-slicing passes. Though his jump shot was off and he was dared to shoot it, he made all four foul shots and distributed the ball masterfully all night.
Ray Allen knocked down 11 huge 4th quarter points with a number of big threes down the stretch. Ray shot 9 for 15 and 5 of 6 from the three point arc while scoring 20 of his team leading 24 points after half time. Ray also played credible defense on Wade, and had 3 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 steals in a solid all around game.
Paul Pierce also filled up the box score with an old fashioned Pierce game with 21 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 great blocked shots.
After Miami closed to within 76-82, Garnett made a jump shot on a Pierce pass and Pierce followed that with a lay up off a Rondo pass to push the lead back up to 86-76 with 6:33 left in the game. Paul hit the final Celtic basket of the game with 1:17 left to ice the game at 98-86, on a Glen Davis pass.
The Celtics had their biggest lead of the game 67-46 with 6:56 left on a great Rondo ball fake and behind the back pass to Kendrick Perkins for an open two in the paint. Rondo has taken that ‘And 1’ street style ball fake move and various versions of feign of direction and made it a staple in his arsenal of weapons.
After that, they stopped playing aggressively nor very smart, and the lead shrunk to 6 at 71-65 on three Mario Chalmers free throws after being fouled by Pierce on a three point attempt to close the 3rd quarter.
Kendrick Perkins played well as the Celtics built the big 3rd quarter lead, highlighted by a sensational block of Dwyane Wade from behind with the Celtics up 62-46. Kendrick played 26 minutes, scoring 8 points, while grabbing 6 boards (2 offensive), dishing 2 assists, swatting 3 shots, while adding 4 turnovers.
It was Ray’s 11 point (4 for 6 shooting) 4th quarter, sharp shooting barrage backed up by 5 points each by Pierce and Davis, and 4 more by Kevin that kept the Heat at bay the rest of the way.
Davis Over Sheed
Call it effort over height…or hype. Rasheed Wallace has been a big disappointment this season. The playoffs are what the Celtics got him for. If the Celtics plan to go far, they will need Wallace to play big before too long.
Glen Davis has moved ahead of Rasheed Wallace in the rotation this series and he was on the court with the starting 5 for the 4th quarter as the guy Doc trusted most to help close this game out. Davis contributed 7 points on 2 of 6 shooting, but 3-3 from the line, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 steals. Davis also drew a couple of big charging calls for Heat turnovers.
Rasheed Wallace has played more than 13 minutes only once this series and managed only 9 minutes and 2 points in the finale. Davis played 24 plus minutes and he averaged over 21 minutes a game in this series.
When the Celtics play Cleveland (first game is Saturday), it remains to be seen if that will continue. Davis plays Shaq pretty well, but they may need more height, interior defense, and interior scoring against the Cavs. Still, Davis has been a definite spark off the bench for the Celtics in this series.
I think the Celtics may be expecting more from Rasheed Wallace in the next series.
So, ‘the team that got bored’ with the regular season has begun the second season, the NBA playoffs, looking rather good.
The next opponent, the LeBron led Cavaliers, will be a much stronger test, as some believe they could be the next NBA champions.
Boston matches up well against the Cavs and this should a long series between two teams that split the season series 2-2.
Though Boston’s A game has been lacking for large chunks of time this season, their confidence rarely was. Saturday we begin to find out if they will be able to refute their detractors and give hope to a skittish fan base waiting for more tangible evidence that this team is ready to fight for another title.
Ray Allen and Glen Davis, starting in place of the suspended Kevin Garnett, combined to rock the Heat for 48 points and lead the Celtics in a devastating destruction of Miami at the TD Garden, 106-77. It was an impressive display of everything that has been missing since Christmas, perhaps even all season.
Both Ray and Glen played extremely well as the Celtics slowly pulled away in the second quarter. The newly minted Green Machine scored 21 straight points and led 49-33 at half time. With the Allen/Davis 1-2 punch the lead eventually got as high as 33 points. Kevin Garnett was never needed.
The blow out got so bad that TNT switched to the Portland/Phoenix game early in the 4th quarter. I don’t even know what happened in the 4th.
Glen Davis was highly active all game attacking the middle and eventually off set 4 Jermaine O’Neal first quarter blocks of his shot to produce 23 points on 7 of 14 shooting, including 9 of 11 foul shots, 8 rebounds, an assists and a steal. Davis was drawing attention inside opening up things outside for Ray.
Ray Allen started cautiously as he was often being trapped, but eventually found the sweet spot on the left baseline three point line. He drilled 5 of 6 three pointers in shooting clinic the third quarter from there. Ray finished 7 of 9 from the arc and led the Celtics with 25 points on 9 of 13 overall, with 5 rebounds and 3 assists.
Rajon Rondo made it difficult for Miami point guard Carlos Arroyo to bring the ball up, while dishing out 12 assists of his own to go with 7 rebounds, and 8 points.
The Celtics dominated in nearly every aspect for a confidence shattering 2-0 series lead while their suffocating defense keyed on Miami superstar Dwyane Wade. No one else was able to pick up the slack for Miami and they look woefully like a one man team. The Heat have been unable to break 80 points nor 40% in shooting in either game.
The Boston Celtic players intimated all season that they were basically bored and that things would change come playoff time. They said don’t worry about that 27-27 record after Christmas Day. It is beginning to look like they were right.
After working all year to get Kevin Garnett as healthy as possible, as well as numerous other Celtic injuries healed, they played with head shaking inconsistency, lack of focus, and even of competitiveness right until the season ended. This Celtic team’s feelings were hurt or angered by the amount of doubters among the Celtic faithful. They felt, especially Garnett, that they were the Celtic faithless.
Flip the Switch
Most fans and pundits felt that you can’t just ‘flip the switch’ come playoff time.
Celtic fans and naysayers everywhere… the switch has been flipped.
Starting in the second quarter of game one, this Celtic team’s defensive effort has held Miami to 124 points total over the last 7 quarters, an average of 17.7 points a quarter.
On top of that, the Celtics controlled both boards, out rebounding the Heat 50-33 overall and had more offensive rebounds 10 to 6. Both were issues all season with the Celtics dead last in offensive rebounding this season.
Two normally deliberate offenses, the Celtics had 27 fast break points to the Heats 2.
I can’t see this Miami team recovering from such a beat down to come back and win the series. But I do expect Dwyane Wade and the Heat to get the calls at home in Miami. The only thing in doubt at this point is the length of the series and it looks like it could be a short one.
That would be good for an aging Celtic team that could use the extra rest. Any saving of energy in this series will be valuable in the next one.
Davis Gets Up for the Playoffs
Though Davis went through his now normal struggle to get the ball up inside early, (he was 3 of 9 shooting at one point with 5 shots blocked), the Celtics continued to go to him and he never got down nor lost his hoop aggression. It eventually paid off, as he was able to put in a running baby hook, a number of lay ups and got to the line numerous times. He made his first 7 foul shots before finishing 9 of 11.
Just as important was Davis’ defense on Heat power forward Michael Beasley as well as Glen’s team defense. The entire Celtic team was locked in as a unit on defense as we have rarely seen since ‘before Garnett’s injury’.
Perkins’ Great Game
Kendrick Perkins great job in the middle will be lost among the ink spilled on Davis and Ray Allen. But he was probably more instrumental to the solid defensive effort than any other Celtic. Kendrick has been in recovery himself from leg and foot injuries. He looked very good in this contest.
The Celtics were up a ridiculous 41 points over the Heat in the mere 26:33 minutes that Perkins was on the floor.
Kendrick took game honors with 9 rebounds (3 offensive), and added 13 points on 5 of 8 shooting, 4 assists, with 2 blocks. He (primarily) held Jermaine O’Neal to 2 points on 1 of 10 shooting on the night. O’Neal was just 3 of 14 in the first game for a combined 4 of 24 shooting in the series so far.
Miami’s attempts to trade O’Neal and efforts to find a solid big man and point guard in the off season were made evident as to why so far in this series.
My only question right now is… if this series continues along the same road, could it have an effect on a Wade decision to return to Miami next season? He has a player option for $17 mil. to return for one year. He could opt out and see what offers come up.
Yes, Pat Riley is persuasive. Yes, the Heat will have plenty of money to sign a max player to play with Wade and another player around $9-10 million. Yes, Wade likes Miami.
But, with only Beasley, Daequan Cook and Mario Chalmers signed, who knows what a pathetic showing, if it continues, could do? Just a thought.
Pierce-Richardson
After the Quentin Richardson incident at the end of the last game, then calling Pierce and Garnett ‘actresses’, the expected Paul Pierce fireworks never materialized.
Paul was just 3 of 8 for 13 points with 4 rebounds, 2 assists and a block. Pierce was content to hold down arch-nemesis Q-Rich to just 2 of 7 shooting and 5 points on the evening. As Butch Cassidy once said, “Just so long as we come out ahead.”
So, the Celtic starting five, maligned and under performing for much of the year, put on a dominating exhibition against a team that finished the season 18-4.
Rasheed Wallace was whistled for a dubious technical shortly after he first appeared, for pushing Jamal Magliore when the two were entangled, and played 21 largely ineffectual minutes. But he appeared to get hurt at one point, was slow getting back and doubled over once he got back. That may have impacted his game
Sheed scored 6 points on 2 of 6 shooting with 5 rebounds while defending Jermaine O’Neal well.
Shelden Williams played 18 solid minutes garnering 2 points and 6 rebounds.
Tony Allen had a quiet, but effective 17 minutes with 4 points, 4 rebounds, 2 steals and an assist. Tony continues to know his role and plays it well.
Dwyane Wade led Miami with 29 points on 11 of 18 shooting and 5 of 8 three pointers.
The Celtics look like a new team. They played an extremely impressive game. The next test is to do it in Miami on Friday.
Tony Allen played a superb game when the Celtics needed it most.
On top of that, the playoffs are here and emotions are running high right out of the gate. A minor tussle occurred between both teams with 40 seconds left and the Celtics up 6, leading to three technical fouls being assessed.
It was highlighted by a yapping Quentin Richardson and a well placed elbow by Kevin Garnett. Garnett will be suspended for game two and Richardson was fined $25,000.
The Celtics held on to well deserved win 85-76, by crushing the Heat in the final quarter 21-10. They held Miami to 47 points total for the final three quarters, though they had problems scoring themselves.
After being down 14 and looking as if even good energy and effort by the aging Celtics would no longer be enough, the Celtics’ old fashioned defense busted out of nowhere and held Wade and the Heat to 32 second half points.
The opening game of the series turned into a gutty performance by a Celtic team at home that should help their confidence and perhaps put doubts into the Heat players’ psyche. Boston has now beaten Miami 4 straight times this season.
Tempers Flair
With 40 seconds left, a small melee broke between both teams near the Heat bench that could have cost the Celtics the lead. They were up 81-76 at the time. Kevin Garnett received two technicals, and there is some concern for further repercussions upon league review.
Quentin Richardson, an old Celtic and Paul Pierce nemesis, received one technical as well and appeared to be an instigator of the whole confrontation when he came over to KG and a horizontal Pierce. Q is famous for his mouth and trash talking with Pierce more than his play when he was with the Knicks.
Paul Pierce had been dribbling and went to pass when his shoulder was injured on contact with a Miami player. Paul continued out of bounds where he collided with a referee trying to brace him. Pierce was in obvious pain on the ground by the Heat bench.
After Pierce tumbled to the ground in pain, Kevin Garnett stood over him and Richardson came over and began to say something to Garnett. Kevin responded by slightly elbowing Richardson away and talking back. Other players started to get involved and before they could get Garnett away from Richardson who went right in Garnett’s face, KG elbowed him again.
During the sequence, Glen Davis tried to intervene to get between KG and Richardson. A host of Heat players swarmed in and eventually Garnett was distanced, Davis was pushed around before getting him away as well.
Speaking of Glen Davis, he was another role player who played a big part in the comeback win. Along with inspiring games by flu-recovering Rajon Rondo and Tony Allen, some solid moments by Paul Pierce, and a great all around game by Kevin Garnett, the Celtics ‘undug’ their own grave to beat the Heat.
Bloody Good Fortune
Ray Allen went out with a bloody nose in the first quarter and they couldn’t get the bleeding to stop. So Tony Allen replaced him. Tony played extremely well and was hard to get out the game after that, finished with 29 plus minutes. He was a surprise star of the game at both ends of the floor, making a host of big plays.
“The key for us was Tony Allen’s defense on Dwayne Wade,” said Pierce. “I thought that he came in and really did a great job on both ends of the court, on offense and defense. It gave us the spark.”
Tony neutralized Dwyane Wade’s 9 first quarter points with 8 of his own on 4 of 5 shooting. He finished with 14 on 7 of 12 shooting. More important, Tony was the defensive stopper the team had been hoping to find all season. Though Wade scored 26 points, he held Dwyane in check while the Celtics made their second biggest comeback of the season (according to ESPN).
Besides finishing strong in a packed-in Miami defense on a number of lay-ups, Tony had a number of impactful steals, and held Wade out the paint while the Cs made their run to regain the lead.
After a difficult first half, Glen Davis’ first basket of the night was possibly the game’s biggest.
After narrowly missing a few lay ups in a tightly packed middle in the first half. Glen was fouled by Jermaine O’Neal on a strong lay up on a pass from Rondo to give the Celtics their first lead since 8:03 of the second quarter. He made the foul shot to give Boston a 71-68 lead. They would never trail again.
After being down 68-64, Boston went on a 12-0 run sparked by the guard play of Rajon Rondo and Tony Allen with Glen Davis adding some key rebounds and much needed energy at both ends of the floor. The surprising run occurred with Garnett on the bench.
Kevin returned and immediately dunked to charge up the crowd. Boston fans were a little edgy in the first half after two consecutive uncontested fast break dunks by the Heat.
Pierce led with 16 points, Rondo added 10 assists with 7 rebounds and played an intrepid floor game while Garnett finished with 15 points, 9 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals and a key block on an O’Neal shot in the second half.
Glen Davis played great defense and added 8 rebounds with 7 of them in the critical 4th quarter, finishing with 8 points on 2 of 6 shooting. Davis also had 2 steals. Davis had a number of strong rebounds and rebounded as well as I’ve seen him all year.
Toscano at Celtics Blog again
“Tony and Baby (Glen Davis) I thought defensively changed the game for us,” said coach Doc Rivers. “Forget the ‘It’s great to see Baby finish’ and all that stuff.”
Tony Allen led the team with 3 steals while added 2 blocked shots and causing the Heat much pain all evening.
Pierce seemed to be okay after a few minutes and he said he just went numb as he has a few times this season with that same shoulder.
The team absorbed a strong first half by an energetic and athletic Miami team to turn the tide in the final stanza.
The Celtics keyed on stopping Wade with traps and strong single coverage by TA unless Wade attempted to drive. The Celtics cut off the middle very well tonight while holding the rest of the Heat in check. Miami shot just 4 for 21 in the 4th quarter and a mere .397 for the game.
We haven’t seen those kind of numbers from a Celtic defense in a while. Both teams have strong defenses and we can expect more of these kind of games going forward. Both teams play a strong half court game and stress defense. Boston should have too much fire power, though the Heat have the best player in the series on their team in Wade.
It would be nice if the Celtics could close this series out early and get some added rest for their aging veteran core.
I would wager that almost no one would have imagined that headline during the preseason.
But the Boston Celtics have had anything but a consistent year.
In fact, in an article I wrote from August 15th for Celticsblog.com, a mere 17% said the Celtics should play him. The rest were equally divided between waiving him, and keeping him for insurance at 41% each. It looks like that insurance policy is paying off.
Tony Allen was being peddled around the league in various deals like an ugly cousin you can’t find a date for. No one bought. Tony had been injured. Recovering from off season (June 3rd) ankle and leg surgery, he didn’t play again until Dec 8th, 20 games into the season.
Such a headline became even more improbable after the acquisition of Marquis Daniels. And yet more remote with the recent addition of Nate Robinson and Michael Finley.
Like the ugly duckling, this bird has quickly grown into something much better looking. Tony is taking to the air again with confidence of late, playing harassing defense, and teaming up with Rajon Rondo on fast break baskets that look like a great comedy team delivering one liners that kill, except they are killing the opposition with strong finishes.
Tony is finishing at the rim at 66.7%. That is among the tops in the league and more in line with a devastating big man finisher than a 6’4″ slashing swing man.
But it is simply his defense that is making the difference, says Doc Rivers recently to Mark Murphy of the Boston Herald.…
“He just plays hard – he’s our best defensive player,” Rivers said of Allen. “He’s just bought in completely to the team and the way the team plays. He’s no longer trying to score – he understands that scoring just happens. He’s trying to be the best defensive player on our team and he’s figured out that’s how he’s going to play. He gives our team energy.”
I guess he was insurance… as in ‘life’ insurance. He gives a team life that desperately needs it.
It is a surprise move, in that, until the last two games, Tony sat a lot while Doc evaluated Nate Robinson and Michael Finley, the Celtics two late season acquisitions.
Finley has made enough of an impression as a steadying, unflappable ‘on court’ influence, as well as impressing with his shooting to earn some regular minutes.
Nate Robinson has experienced problems adapting. He is shooting just 2 for 14 over his last 5 games and doesn’t add much in other facets of the game. He is out for the moment. That is, he is out of the rotation, but could get minutes if Tony or Rajon are in foul trouble, or if Tony or possibly Ray Allen are having a bad game.
In fact, Doc is keeping the bench players’ rotation situation fluid, as is his usual MO. Starting five is locked in stone. Bench roles are based on match ups, game situations, and individual performance. Doc Rivers explains that Daniels and Robinson are outside the rotation heading into the playoffs in the Boston Herald.…
“Right now they are, but that doesn’t mean they won’t be back in it,” Rivers said.
“They’ll have their day, too. They’ll play in the playoffs. There’ll be games when you’re going to need them. That’s how this team is built. We’ll use who we need to use in that given game to win that game.”
Marquis Daniels was injured early in the year, returning on February 7th after missing 28 straight games with a thumb injury. While a solid player in many unheralded facets of the game, he simply was not making enough impact on the games. You were hoping that there would be at least a few games where Marquis’ contribution would be of the ‘game changing’ variety or at least more impacting than he has been.
For example, Tony Allen just had a 5 steal game. That is impactful. Marquis has not had more than 2 in a game all year. He did that exactly once. In fact, Tony’s 7 steals in the last two games equals the total of Daniels last 16 games and are a quarter of Marquis’ yearly total.
Not that steals are the main key stat to be making a judgment by. But it is revealing nonetheless.
Marquis Having Trouble Scoring
While scoring isn’t a big part of either player’s role, Tony seems to be able to contribute more there lately as well. He hasn’t scored less than 6 points in his last 5 games regardless of minutes played. Daniels has scored as many as 4 points only once in his last 5 games.
More important, Marquis has recently gone scoreless twice in almost 13 and 20 minutes.Not that long ago, in the beginning of March, Marquis had only 2 points in 4 out of 6 games while averaging over 19 minutes in those games. Even for a non-scorer, that is too little for any team to withstand.
Another surprise in a surprising year.
Right now, the Celtics’ record stands at 48-28 with 6 games left in the regular season. Not bad by most standards, but this team was ‘reloaded’ to pick up where it left off after Kevin Garnett got injured and missed last season’s playoffs.
The Celtics won the title in ’08 with a 66 win regular season. But, in a foreshadowing of the future, even with this eager, talented team, they failed to demonstrate a killer instinct in the playoffs. They went 7, 7, 6, and 6 games in consecutive series. They took a whopping 108 games to gain the NBA title.
Last season they surprised most by following up that championship season with a gutty, season long performance. First with a hurting Garnett and finally without him. They won 62 games and you could see the effort being put out, even if not the same team approach all the time.
They played a marathon series with the Bulls, They were up 3-2 and were winning the 6th game against the Magic before crumbling in the second half. They were spent and the real Celtics didn’t show up for game 7.
This Season
Big expectations were hoped for in the preseason. Obviously they haven’t played out. Injuries and slow recoveries are the main culprit.
A perplexing Rasheed Wallace, inconsistent defense, struggling offense, slower than expected Garnett recovery, and Paul Pierce’s lingering injury have contributed to this season’s surprises.
Tony Allen as a significant contributor to the Celtics’ playoff hopes? Why not? It fits right in with this season.
Here’s good read on a couple of intriguing NBA Developmental League players.
The irrepressible and astute Steve Weinman from the D-League Digest site was given the task of naming two D-league players that could help the Celtics, if the Celtics were to dip into the D-League for some talent.
Steve understands that the Celtics are a special situation that wouldn’t really use a D-league call up at this stage of the game. But he pursued his mission with thoughtful analysis and a couple of interesting players (One I didn’t know anything about).
- Here is a portion of the piece…
the Celtics can’t stockpile enough back-up wing players to make it possible to take some of the load off Ray Allen and Paul Pierce on occasion. While the Celts are already using three reserves in those two roles, none of their three back-up swingmen can both create their own shot going to the rim and spot up from the outside.
Enter Almond. The man is a scorer, plain and simple. He can shoot the three (40.1 percent this season, 38.2 percent in 88 career D-League games), get to the rim off the dribble, pull-up in traffic, finish with contact and convert at the foul line (81.1 percent from the stripe this season, 81.9 percent for his D-League career). Almond scores in bunches (24.5 points per game this season) and can play the two and the three. While unspectacular in other aspects of the game, he won’t be a fatal liability either. For a team that ranks 17th in offensive efficiency and second at the defensive end, an added scoring option for the second unit could hardly hurt at this point.
Good Stuff. Click the link below to read the rest and see the surprise ‘other player’.
I particularly like the basis of observation and skill set of the second player, fulfilling a need on the Celtics.
