A "Blountiful" Home Win <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">"The game started with 2 pieces of good news: Big Al Jefferson got his first ever Celtic start tonight(and had a decent night: 12/5). The NBA office overturned the Flagrant 2 foul on Ricky Davis last night and rightly reduced the foul to a flagrant 1 foul and Ricky Davis was in tonight's lineup. Kurt Thomas started the game strong with 6 points by the 9:25 mark and the worries that the C's were going to once again get worked over in the post started to creep up. This early concern wasn't helped when Blount went down with a poke to the eye which no one during the offensive possession noticed and Paul Pierce felt he had to waste an early foul by wrapping up Crawford, when Crawford pushed the ball right back up the floor and Blount was still curled up holding his eye in the Celtics defensive paint. The right move, out of concern for his teammate at the time, this foul ended up causing problems for PP later on. Up to this point, little used Kendrick Perkins went into the game for Blount while the Celtics medical staff attended to him. It was a short lived stint at the time, but Perkins got plenty of time later in the game and had a nice showing with a 4 pt, 13 rebound night. (AHEM, with an absent Raef LaFrentz, those rebounds were key). PP left the game at 8:10 in the 1st with 2 fouls, collecting his second foul on a reach in. The C's started the game with 4 turnovers in less than 4 minutes played. The Boxing out issues continued to haunt the C's as the Thomas Boys (Kurt and Tim) along with Nazr Mohammed (22/18) worked them over early in the paint on the boards. The Knicks got out to an early 23-12 advantage. A GP to Blount dunk at 3:20 ended a 10-2 Knick run at 26-14.</div>
Very nice win for the Celtics, for a while this game had the feel of the Denver game a week ago where they could never seem to get over the hump and claim a solid lead. Good Marcus was in the building tonight as he pushed the ball up the floor and used his clear speed advantage over Marbury. This was how the won their first meeting with Knicks and it was nice to see that Marcus could do it again. I was very impressed with Perk tonight. This is exactally what I wanted to see from him, using his minutes to show what he can do. He was far from perfect, making the mistakes that a young player is going to make, but as Hagrid said, his boards were big. He may have earned a few more minutes with his play tonight. One thing, though: was is neccessary to boo Vin Baker? I know the guy never earned near his paycheck when he was here, but still, kind of low IMO.
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">One thing, though: was is neccessary to boo Vin Baker? I know the guy never earned near his paycheck when he was here, but still, kind of low IMO.</div> I'm not one to condone the use of Boo's (partly because I find the action to be unimaginative and rude) but in this case, I can see why people did it. Vin Baker never admitted that he screwed the Celtics until long after he was gone. He was given SEVERAL chances by the C's to get his career in order and blew them all, while collecting an enormous paycheck and not playing. He forced the team to go to arbitration, after knowingly signing a contract with clauses that he, his agent and lawyer all agreed to. Then when he fell off the wagon, called the contract "illegal" and forced the C's to pay him for more years, while he wasn't even wearing a Celtic uniform. The "nice guy" image that Vin Baker once had here in Boston that caused people to feel sorry for him, all disappeared with his actions when he was terminated for breach of contract. I didn't boo him, but had I been in the building, I might have been tempted. It's not that far of a reach to say that he earned the reaction.
This was a game that was won by our future. Banks, Perkins, Jefferson, and Davis were all huge factors in this game. Of course Blount and Pierce had great games, but I was focused on the young guys. The way this game was playing out, it didn't feel like the Celts were ever going to catch up, but with huge contributions from our bench we finally overcame the Knicks dominance that was the story for most of the game. Everytime the Celtics made a run, the Knicks would put a quick end to it and make a run of their own. It was great when they finally took the lead. This is my favorite kind of game. I get all frustrated because they can't catch up, but then they take over the game in the 4th and never look back.
