"It's been a pleasure to bring my talents to south beach now on to Memphis." That's Paul Pierce's twitter account after last nights victory over the Heat.
I really had a bad feeling going into this game, and I feel bad, because I didn't give the Celtics the credit that they deserve. They are the definition of a team, they live up to the UBUNTU motto that Doc has implemented and have a great chance to not only come out of the East, but to win the championship.
Enough basking in the Celtics glory, time to talk about the game.
It ended closer than the game was, but the Celtics were able to execute plays a lot better down the stretch than we saw in that debacle in Dallas (except for that dunk attempt that got blocked or missed or whatever that was).
But the game was broke out by this face:
Ray was just lights out. He hit his first seven 3-point tries and finished with 35 points, and I believe he's tied with Reggie Millers all time three point record, correct me if I'm wrong. (I have to admit, Reggie was a breath of fresh air over Van Gundy, the NBA has by far the best announcers on cable)
The Celtics led this game from start to finish, which is pretty impressive. They took a 15 point lead into the half thanks to 60+% shooting. And if you listened to Eric Spolstra's halftime speech, you kind of knew that the Heat were in trouble. Paul Pierce scored 11 of his 25 in the 2nd quarter. He repeatedly torched Jerry Stackhouse. The offense was crisp and you can put this win in the "team" concept. The ball movement was spectacular. Rajon Rondo (8 points, 16 assists, 2 steals) was a big reason and another huge double-double for Kevin Garnett: 16 points (6-8 from the field) to go along with 13 rebounds.
Nate Robinson, who I've been ignoring this whole year, because he's been somewhat of a disappointment, had his best game. He finished with 12 points and 3 assists. He also came up big in the 4th when Miami was marching and dwindled the lead down to a 10 point lead, Nate had 6 points and 2 assists to keep Miami humble.
Much like the first game of the season, the Heat turned into the Cavs and LeBron was the main facilitator of the comeback. He had 35 points, 10 rebounds, 9 assists. He got a lot of help from the referees and shot 17 - 22 FTs (The Celtics only shot 25 as a team). Also, this was the first game that I had a major gripe with the refs. Nate Robinson hardly did anything to get a tech in the first, it seemed like he opened his eyes wide and turned and walked away. I'm not saying he's innocent, he probably said that was a bullshit call under his breath and the referee overheard, however, LeBron was yelling that's bullshit to the refs and they didn't dare T him up. That really bothered me. Also, Shaq got a bogus flagrant foul for playing defense.
The Heat just don't seem to know what to do on offense though. They run isolations and that effects both LeBron and Dwayne Wade's style of play (Wade had 8 points on 2-12 shooting ouch) and Chris Bosh is just a non factor. I mean watch the video I put up of the Rondo dunk, It's bad enough he got posterized by a 6'1, 170 point guard, but he did it with his feet on the hardwood. If that were the opposite way and Mario Chalmers or even Dwayne Wade was charging to the basket for a monster dump, you're pretty much guaranteed a hard foul would be at the end of that, and that player would find his butt on the ground.
I mean if Bosh took Rondo out, it could have changed the whole culture in Miami, but once again the Ru Paul of big men, shied from the opportunity.
Box Score
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