Boston 87, Atlanta 80

[recap] [box score]

I gotta admit it, I wasn't terribly confident heading into Game 2. Already without Ray Allen and now down Rajon R-ndo, our best player in Game 1, I figured Tuesday night was probably a lost cause. I was still pretty sure we'd win the series, but I was thinking we'd more than likely be heading back to Boston down 0-2.

But from the very moment that Paul Pierce stole the opening tip and powered past one defender, spun around another, and laid the ball in, I started to get a feeling that all was not lost, and that we were about to see a vintage Pierce performance. That feeling grew over the next few minutes, as Pierce scored Boston's next seven points, as well: a pull-up jumper; a skip between two Atlanta defenders for a running banker and the foul; another jumper. Largely due to his efforts, the first quarter ended with the score tied at 24.

Truthfully(!), I expected nothing less from the Captain. He was outstanding in the point forward role when R-ndo was out earlier in the year, and after a 12-point performance in Game 1, you just knew he would come up with a big-time performance in this one. The question, though, was whether it would be enough. At his age, in this season, there was no way he could carry us for the whole game. And he didn't. Instead, he paced himself after a 13-point first, coasting through quarters two and three with ten points, before exploding for another 13 in the fourth. All told, he racked up 36 points in 44 minutes, added four assists, and pulled down a game-high 14 rebounds for good measure.

Pierce was far from perfect in this game. He shot 12-for-26, which is good, not great. He made a couple of really strange, lazy passes early in the third quarter, and made a few crucial errors in the fourth quarter. Yet he made up the mistakes with more than enough huge plays. To wit: After Boston climbed back from down 11 to finally take the lead, Pierce tried an ill-advised spin move around Kirk Hinrich that Hinrich snuffed out; Pierce was called for a loose-ball foul trying to recover the ball. A few possessions later, however, Pierce got a dunk on the break, then hit an assassin-like three in transition to push the lead to seven. On Atlanta's next possession, Avery Bradley stripped Ivan Johnson, but Pierce double-dribbled in transition. To make matters worse, he bought Johnson's pump-fake on the ensuing play, and fouled the Atlanta rookie as he was draining a long jumper, resulting in an improbable three-point play that left the game in jeopardy. But on the very next trip, Pierce hit a tough pull-up, restoring order with 2:30 to go.

He wasn't perfect, but he didn't have to be. He was Paul Pierce. And Paul Pierce, when he's playing like Paul Pierce, is spectacular, flaws and all.

Pierce wasn't alone. Kevin Garnett had 15 points and 12 rebounds, and Avery Bradley looked much more comfortable than he did in Game 1 and provided some much needed offense and his usual strong D. Brandon Bass was quiet again, but better. No one off the bench really had a huge impact, but they all managed to play minutes without giving up too much.

A few words about the Hawks: Boston's defense was great tonight, along the lines of what it was in the final three quarters of Game 1, but the Hawks were positively puzzling on offense over the final 15 minutes or so, once they had stretched their lead to double digits. To say even that they have terrible shot selection is probably too generous, since it at least implies that they are being somewhat selective in the shots they take. Jeff Teague dazzled for much of the game, then failed to adjust when Boston clogged the lane against him and forced some tough shots. Joe Johnson was uncharacteristically unassertive for most of the night, then rocketed a crazy 26-footer off the backboard down five with 12 on the shot clock and 1:15 on the game, which effectively sealed Atlanta's fate. Ivan Johnson tried several times to create his own offense down the stretch, which is the last thing the Hawks want. It's hard to blame him, though; he's probably learned from Josh Smith, the classic "remembers-his-makes, forgets-his-misses" guy whose refusal to stay off the perimeter has put a ceiling on both his personal development and the development of his team.

Even worse for the Hawks, Smith hurt his knee while battling for rebounding position with Garnett, and missed the final 4:30 or so. (Incidentally, a lot of people will want to say that Smith's departure cost the Hawks the game, but Boston had taken the lead by then and Atlanta had been lost offensively for several minutes by that point.) There's no word, as of this writing, the extent of Smith's injury or whether he'll miss any time. As confounding as Smith can be at times, he's one of their catalysts on offense and is a huge presence on the boards and on the defensive end. He'd be sorely missed, particularly given that Atlanta is already down a couple of bigs.

Game 3 is Friday night in Boston, at 7;30 on ESPN. The Celtics need to win the next two to keep this momentum going. Boston started the year with one of the worst benches in the league; due to injuries and the suspension, 60% of our starting lineup was filled with guys who were slotted for reserve roles when the season began just four months ago. There's an understanding among NBA types that the bench only matters in the regular season, that starters win playoff games, but that presupposes that the second unit consists of guys who, at a minimum, are competent replacement-level NBA players. Not many guys on Boston's revamped second unit fit that category.