Gino's Jungle

Call me a home honkey, I could care less, but tonight's Celtics team reminded me why I watch in the first place. While they started off slow showing us nothing but what we've come to expect.  Heavy on the passing, light on the shooting. With four bed passes and six blocked or missed shots the Celtics looked like the same aging superstars they have all season. Tony Allen came out on top of the first quarter with the Celtics high 8 points. With only seven field goals out of the paint the C's trailed the heat 28-29 at the end of the first quarter.

 

Second quarter yielded little on both ends offensively. Both teams traded off the lead until Jermaine O'neal opened the lead up with a 15 foot jumper with just about 7 minutes left in the half. Followed by Dwayne Wade's single field goal for the quarter. Ray led the green in the quarter with 5 points, while Pierce had one field goal. . At the end of the half the C's again, trailed this time by three 44-41.

 

The third quarter brought what seemed to be a sense of urgency for our boys in green to "turn it up" as Rasheed likes to say. This is NBA playoff baskeyball. Play like you want it guys. This is what you get paid to do. Rebound the ball, make assists (take a tip from Rajon who ended the quarter with five of them), draw some fouls, take some fouls if you have to. Most importantly shoot the ball successfully from both inside and outside of the paint. All of the above stated was done by this Celtics team. They stepped it up defensively by keeping up with key players like Wade, and Rondo attempted to step the team up offensively and make good clean passes for the assist. Well guess what, it started to work, the C's ended the third still trailing 66-64 but looking like a competitive playoff basketball team.

 

In the final quarter of the game the Celtics kicked it into high gear and finally played like they deserve to be there. With good passing and a bunch of good rebounds the C's were able to come back from a 14 point deficit. Rondo played very unselfish basketball tonight with 10 assists proving that he does know when to take the back seat to the other players on the team, WHEN THEY CAN KEEP UP WITH HIM. When this team has energy, they can be competitive against players like Wade, Chalmers and Beasley. The C's walked off the court tonight with a well earned 85-76 win over the Miami Heat here at the Garden.

 

With just about 40 seconds left in the game both Davis and Garnett received double technicals and KG was ejected from the game, with his third technical of the night. Tune in later on this week as the Celtics again host the Miami Heat at 8 pm.