<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">While Jefferson has shown glimpses of his potential during the first 78 games of the regular season, he provided strong evidence of it last night with a scintillating second half. He scored all of his 19 points in the half and breathed new life into the Celtics, who had gone stone cold after taking a 17-point lead in the first half. He impressed everyone on and off the floor. "We needed a boost and Al gave us that," said coach Doc Rivers. "We needed Al's offense, but we also needed his rebounds." Jefferson had five rebounds as the Celtics beat the Heat off the glass, 50-35, including an 18-6 margin on the offensive boards.</div> Paul Harber takes a look at Big Al's big game. http://www.boston.com/sports/basketball/ce...ie_steals_show/ <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Following the game, with Red Auerbach weaving through the locker room, the kid was yet to truly feel the lift. ``To be honest, it really (hasn't) hit me yet,'' Jefferson said. ``It'll probably hit me about 1:00 tonight. Like, oh my . . . you played a real good game. I know right now it feels good to get that win. ``Doc (Rivers) got on me in the first half, saying I was kind of chasing the ball. He said let the game come to me, and I feel like that's what I did. . . . I feel real good for the team coming in and whipping Miami, the No. 1 team in the East. I feel like now we should never look back. If you beat Miami, you can whip anybody.''</div> Steve Bulpett also focuses on Jefferson's masterpiece. http://celtics.bostonherald.com/celtics/vi...articleid=78760 <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post"> ``They have a lot of veteran, feisty guys over there,'' O'Neal said last night before the C's 101-99 win against the Heat. ``They're a team that's still fighting for positioning in this conference.'' One of the feistiest of the Green veterans is Gary Payton, a teammate of Shaq's on last year's ill-fated Lakers voyage. Payton was a poor fit for LA's triangle offense, and O'Neal thinks the Lakers would have been better if Payton had been allowed the kind of leeway he's gotten in Boston. ``Certain guys are who they are when they're doing their thing,'' said O'Neal, who led all scorers with 34 points last night. ``You've got to let GP be GP. Like me. You've got to let me be me. Last year, I gave up a little too much. </div> Another Bulpett article. This one I found to be very interesting. Nice words to hear from the big fella. http://celtics.bostonherald.com/celtics/vi...articleid=78758 <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">``He does what he does - he's a defender,'' said Celtics coach Doc Rivers. ``The biggest change now is how Perk handles bad calls. He plays forward now instead of worrying about it.'' As much as one can move forward against the likes of O'Neal and Mourning, anyway. ``It feels good,'' he said. ``I just played against the best player in the league - the most dominant. (O'Neal) is every bit as big as he looks, and Mourning is the same way. ``But the thing about playing against Shaq is that you have to make him earn everything,'' said Perkins. ``You can't let him think that you're scared of him. But I think I did a fair job on him.'' </div> Mark Murphy's Celtics notebook shows how far Kendrick Perkins has come. http://celtics.bostonherald.com/celtics/vi...articleid=78762 <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">It was, as Most so accurately described, "a spectacular series" coming to an end "in spectacular fashion." The Bill Russell-led Celtics and the Wilt Chamberlain-led 76ers had battled evenly in the Eastern Conference finals for six games, 47 minutes, and 56 seconds. The Celtics were clinging to a 1-point lead with four seconds left, but the 76ers were putting the ball in play under their basket after Russell made the boo-boo of all boo-boos, hitting a guide wire on an inbounds pass after a Chamberlain stuff had made the score 110-109, and thus turning the ball back over to the Sixers. I can hear the young'uns out there. What's a guide wire, `guy' wire, or whatever? Hey, it was 1965, and this was the beloved Boston Garden. They didn't have a fancy basket standard as we have today. The backboard was supported by wires that ran from the edge of the backboard up to the first balcony. It was one of those wires that Russell hit. </div> Bob Ryan remembers 40 years ago when "Havlicek stole the ball!" http://www.boston.com/sports/basketball/ce...lost_with_time/
