Thanks to Monday's loss to the Nets, the Celtics found themselves in need of a win over the Pacers just to keep pace with the Bulls atop the Eastern Conference. And despite a fierce Paul Pierce dunk for the game's first bucket that I hoped would set the tone, Boston reverted back to the uninspired offensive ball it had played in the last several games, trailing by as many as seven points.
Enter Jeff Green and Glen Davis, who injected energy and, more importantly, offense into Boston. In his finest game in his short Celtics career, Green had 17 first-half points, keeping the home team a few points ahead of the visitors throughout much of the second quarter.
And then, the key sequence, the one that gave the Cs a comfortable lead: two Ray Allen threes sandwiched around a Paul Pierce triple, extending the Boston advantage from four points to eleven in less than a minute. The Garden crowd went crazy; timeout, Indy; but the Pacers wouldn't get closer than five the rest of the way.
Granted, the offense didn't keep rolling that way all night -- in fact, it was a fairly middling offensive performance, aside from that one minute. But that one minute is the kind of minute we'd gotten used to this season, a stretch where Boston's starters played with energy and purpose and rhythm and knocked down some shots as a result. Those are things that have been missing from Boston's offense lately, and hopefully it's back to stay.
Notable
- The Celtics organization honored Mike Gorman and Tommy Heinsohn before the game. They've been talking about "30 years of Mike & Tommy" on all the broadcasts this season, but this was the big evening, so to speak, as far as I could tell. A nice simple ceremony for a couple of guys who I think would rather not have had one at all.
- Perhaps as part of the festivities, Celtics "celebrity" fan Donnie Wahlberg joined them at the broadcast table for most of the second quarter. I was actually pretty impressed with his basketball knowledge; he seemed to understand the game, rather than just know it as a fan. One exception: He kept mentioning that he liked the Perkins trade because Andrew Bynum was the difference-maker in last year's Finals. Ignoring the fact, first of all, that Boston was ahead three games to two before Perk got hurt, it makes no sense at all to say that replacing Perkins with Shaquille O'Neal or Nenad Krstic is going to help Boston handle Bynum.
- Delonte West returned after missing eight games or so with a sprained ankle. Forced to sit the majority of the season due to a couple of injuries, West hopefully can find his rhythm before the postseason. It occurs to me, however, that his role maybe has changed somewhat. In training camp, which is really when he was able to get the majority of his work in, he was handling second-team point guard duties alongside Nate Robinson. Now, Robinson is gone, and West's likely backcourt partner is Carlos Arroyo, a true point guard who isn't suited to play the two. That means that West will probably slide over to shooting guard. On the one hand, it's his more natural position. On the other, it's another adjustment to be made in a season in which he probably hasn't yet felt comfortable.
- Troy Murphy had a two-handed reverse dunk in this basketball game. I can't find video of it, but I promise you that it happened.
I'll probably be tweeting a lot over the next few days, about the NCAA Tournament. My handle there is, of course, @HSSlamPhD.
