Well done, Lads.
SIGH ...
2008 Game 6 Finals - Kevin Garnett - "Anything is POSSIBLE!!!!!!!
Update May, 2013 Maybe they're better than us and maybe they're not, but our guys don't back down and never give an inch to the Heat or anyone else. That's why, no matter how it ends, this has been an era that made all true Celtic fans very proud.
Game 5 - We win again! Bring it on home, guys!
Game 4
Game 3
Rondo's 44 points 10 assists 8 rebounds in 53 minutes- Game 2
The lion lay aged and crippled on the road yet
roared in the din of the night of
the soon faded reign, Rondo's 44 points 10 assists 8 rebounds in 53 minutes- Game 2
Piercing Hawks and knocks and no calls.
May Celtic warriors with broken wings soar
Through Heat, Magic and Bullish rain
where the noble vanquished may triumph again.
Or, as Bob Ryan of the Globe chronicles it;
ATLANTA - When you play for the Boston Celtics, anything positive
you do always bumps into history. Whatever you’ve just done, somebody is around
to tell you that somebody else did it better in the ’50s, ’60s, ’70s, ’80s,
’90s, or even four years ago.
Nor has this bunch won anything yet. What they do have is the
knowledge that when the great, gutty, inspiring road playoff victories in
Celtics history are annotated, what they did Tuesday night at Philips Arena
will merit one of the top spots.
No Ray Allen. No Rajon Rondo. No worries. Trailing the Atlanta
Hawks by 11 points with just under four minutes to play in the third period,
and very definitely trending downward, they put on a sensational closing burst
to pull out an 87-80 Game 2 victory that restores order in this series and
sends them back home with a chance to do some serious damage to the Hawks this
weekend.
Major contributors abounded, but no one stood taller than The
Captain. Paul Pierce scored off the opening tap with a spinning layup,
triggering a 36-point, 14-rebound, 4-assist game.
“He got off to a fast start,’’ said Atlanta coach Larry Drew, “and
he pretty much rode it to the end of the game.’’
“It ranks right up there,’’ agreed Celtics coach Doc Rivers.
“Factor in no Ray and no Rondo. Literally, we don’t win the game if Paul
doesn’t play like that. He knew that, and so did they.’’
It could turn out to be a doubly disastrous evening for the Hawks.
Team energizer Josh Smith did something to a knee sometime around the 4:20 mark
and was not available as the Celtics took control of this contest at both ends
of the floor.
“I don’t know much about Josh,’’ said Drew. “We’ll know more after
he’s examined. He is one of our go-to guys down the stretch. We were missing
all of the things that he brings to the table.’’
Pierce, Kevin Garnett (15 points, 12 rebounds, 5 assists) and
Avery Bradley (14 points, 3 assists, and 3 blocks from the guard spot) were
obvious standouts, but this memorable triumph would not have been possible
without the contributions of a pair of forgotten men. There’s no high-fiving at
the end of this one if either Keyon Dooling or Marquis Daniels hadn’t gotten
off the bus.
Dooling only had two baskets, but they were vital, and the second
one, in fact, may have been the biggest basket of the first two games for the
Celtics. For there they were, trailing, 62-51, a floundering team going back to
the 6:49 mark of the second quarter (when they led, 34-29), when Dooling nailed
the second Boston 3-pointer of the series.
The first? Oh, that one also belonged to Dooling, who had broken
Boston’s Pujolsian 0-for-19 3-point drought with a transition corner shot that
had made it 55-49, Atlanta.
The second one was a dam-burster, launching the Celtics on a 28-10
romp in the next 12:18.
“The media knew, the coaches knew, and the players knew,’’ said
Rivers about the Celtics having yet to hit a three. “When Paul walked into the
locker room, the first thing he did was walk up to Keyon and say, ‘That was
huge. That shot got us our feet back.’ ’’
Dooling also provided steady physical and emotional support for
Bradley, especially when Atlanta chose to exert extended ball pressure.
Now if someone had told you that Marquis Daniels would have been
discussed in any positive postgame context, you absolutely, positively never
would have believed it.
Talk about a lost season. Mr. D was DNP’d 23 times and left
inactive entirely on five occasions. But for some reason Rivers thought the
most important game of the year was a good time to call his number.
“There was no reason to put him in the game,’’ Rivers admitted.
“Sasha [Pavlovic] had played really well in the first half. But I just thought
he might be able to help us defensively.’’
The Daniels box score contributions were modest (4 points, two
rebounds), but what he did during his 15 minutes of playing time was enable Doc
to strategize successfully while making sure he wasn’t killing either Pierce
(44 minutes) or Garnett (40).
“Marquis allowed us to go small, and going small changed the game,
offensively and defensively,’’ Rivers said.
The one Daniels basket, a dunk following a smart cut down the lane
and a smooth high-low pass from Garnett, broke the game’s last tie and gave the
Celtics a non-refundable 74-72 lead.
But let’s not bury the lead here. The clear man of the match was
Pierce, who scored the first 9 Boston points to set a proper tone, and who then
went into his Mariano Rivera mode by scoring 11 points as the Celtics moved
from a 70-70 deadlock to an 85-78 lead with 1:15 remaining, the highlight a
classic Pierce transition three to make it 79-72.
“A monster tonight,’’ lauded Rivers. “His leadership. His
intensity.’’
Don’t forget his exquisite scoring prowess.
“I can’t take all the credit,’’ Pierce said. “Kevin was great on
defense and Keyon hit a couple of threes to keep us in the game. So it was a
good team win. Those types of moments are what being a professional is all
about.’’
You will always take a split in Games 1 and 2 on the road,
but it’s even sweeter when it’s accomplished in the face of adversity.
As the Brits would say, “Well done, lads.’’
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