This was a strange game in which both teams found a nice rhythm offensively in the first half despite too many whistles from the officials, then hit a bit of a lull at various points throughout the third quarter before picking it up again. In the end, the Heat had some key misses and the Celtics made just enough shots to win.
Things to like:
- Kevin Garnett making 11 of 12 shots. He's now 17 of 18 over his last two games.
- Rajon Rondo playing assertively on the road, which he doesn't always do. Rondo was a blur offensively on Sunday. He didn't always make the right decision, but the offense is so much better when he's attacking.
- Rasheed Wallace taking his game to the low post for the second straight outing.
- A strong final four-and-a-half minutes on the road against one of the game's best closers, Dywane Wade. Boston trailed 82-78 with 4:26 to play, and then turned it up on both ends in closing on a 14-3 run.
Things not to like:
- Another game where we played almost no defense in the first half.
- Letting Miami back into it immediately after grabbing an 11-point lead. We scored the first four points of the second half and two minutes in, it really looked like it was going to be the kind of third quarter we saw a lot during the championship season. But this team seems to lose its concentration with a lead, and it only took six minutes for Miami to tie the score.
Next game is Tuesday at Charlotte against a Bobcat team that a) almost always plays us tough and b) has won four straight, including an impressive win over Cleveland. Though we held them to 59 points in their season-opener at the end of October, it's not the team I want to see in the middle of a four-game road trip that takes us to San Antonio on Thursday (8 pm Eastern on TNT) and Oklahoma City on Friday. Tough week.
2 comments:
I was hoping in the "things I liked" section you would note my comment that KG looked spry. I think of the good things coming from the last few games, the best might be that The Big Ticket is starting to more closely resemble his old self.
Truthfully, I don't think he's looked that much different. His jumper's going down, but I don't think he's moving that well. He's not nearly as explosive getting off the ground, and I think you can see that he's a step slow on his defensive rotations. The only difference I've seen these last couple of games is that he's knocking down shots.
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