Boston 99, Dallas 92

Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Paul Pierce.

[recap] [box score] [highlights]

I had a very early version of FIFA International Soccer for my computer, and if I could maneuver my digital forward to a certain spot on the field -- 18 yards away, on the left side of the penalty box -- and fire a shot while pressing the down and right arrow keys, I would score a goal more often than not. The same combination of keys was deadly on breakaways in a mid-90s version of NHL Live. In one version of EA Sports' college football game, one pass play, Halfback Circle, was good for 15 yards every time. In fact, Halfback Circle was so effective that among my friends, the term "Halfback Circle" became a part of our vocabluary, a term for the status quo.

In the fourth quarter of Thursday night's win over the Dallas Mavericks, the Boston Celtics ran the NBA version of Halfback Circle.

Paul Pierce had 18 fourth-quarter points, and the majority of them came on the same action. It's a very simple play. Three Celtics spread out across the floor well below the free throw line, and Pierce sets a pick for Rajon Rondo. This forces the defense to switch, usually giving Pierce a height mismatch on the man who was guarding Rondo. Pierce locks his man behind him, essentially posting up on the free throw line. Rondo loops a pass to Pierce, who turns and faces up, 17 feet from the basket. If Pierce has a shorter man on him, like Jason Kidd or Jose Juan Barea, he uses his height advantage to shoot over him. If, as Dallas did towards the end of the game, the opposition puts a bigger defender on Rondo so there's less of mismatch once the pick and post forces the switch, Pierce will make a fake, take a hard dribble to the right to create space, then step back and take a jumper.

Boston ran this play over and over again the fourth, and Dallas couldn't stop it. Even when Pierce was covered by the 6'8" Devean George, he was unstoppable. The last time he did it was particularly impressive, as Pierce actually lost his balance on his drive to the right. Unfazed, he stumbled backward, somehow regained his balance, and dropping in the game-sealing 14-footer that put the Celtics up four. (This one's near the end of the highlights clip at the ESPN link, above.)

Its effectiveness against the Mavs aside, I hate this play. For starters, it really bogs the offense down, as everyone else just sort of stands around and watches Pierce play one-on-one. Second, there's so much fighting for position between Pierce and his defender that he has to be careful to not draw an offensive foul. Third, the pass is a difficult one, a lateral pass that must be weighted perfectly and is susceptible to being picked off from a weakside help defender. Fourth, there's always that going-to-the-well-too-many-times feeling, like Pierce has to miss eventually.

He didn't Thursday night, and that's why Boston won.

They won in dramatic fashion, too, coming back from a 15-point third quarter deficit on a strong opponent's home floor. The texture of the game changed late in the third, as Kevin Garnett picked up his fourth and fifth fouls in quick succession jockeying with Dirk Nowitzki off the ball. KG's fifth led to two quick technical fouls and an early exit for Doc Rivers. From that moment on, however, the defending champs played with much more intensity than they had exhibited up to that point. A game that had been played with the dispassion you might expect on the second night of a back-to-back right before the All-Star break turned into a slugfest with a playoff feel to it.

The whole team played with guts. Leon Powe and Glen Davis, Garnett's undersized understudies, controlled the boards in the fourth quarter and forced Nowitzki -- who was having a brilliant night -- into some difficult shots with their physical play. Rondo was outstanding all game, notching a 19/15/14 triple-double.

Boston now heads into the All-Star break with a 44-11 record, the league's best mark, a half-game up on the 42-10 Los Angeles Lakers and a game and a half up on the 40-11 Cleveland Cavaliers. The break comes a third of the way through a six-game Western road trip, and Boston has a week off before facing Utah on Thursday, February 19 (viewing alert: 10:30 p.m. Eastern, TNT). They follow that up with a Sunday-Monday back-to-back at Phoenix and Denver. Next comes the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday the 25th, giving RWH a rare opportunity to catch the team in live.