Full Court Press 12/18/04 Celtics vs. Cavaliers
Celtics 114 - Cavaliers 107 OT
367 days past “The Day The Music Died,” the Celtics came back to Cleveland and took a victory from the Cavaliers. Mind you, no one calls the trade that brought Ricky Davis to Boston by this title, but that hasn’t stopped the Boston Globe’s forward thinking NBA guru. You’d think Peter May may be spending too much time with a certain curly haired columnist across the Globe newsroom. Nevertheless, May and then-coach Jim O’Brien hated the move of bringing Davis to Boston. Many uninformed observers believed that Davis’ arrival in Boston began the Celtics horrible decline in the Winter of 2003, but a number of factors contributed to this, most of all O’Brien’s departure half way through the season.
Since that point, the Celtics-Cavs rivalry has become much more heated, particularly in the wake of some on court trash talking between each team’s star player, Paul Pierce and LeBron James. This dispute took place during an exhibition game in Cleveland and ended with Pierce allegedlyspitting in the direction of the Cleveland bench. After a tough matchup the first meeting in the regular season, one the Cavs won with last minute heroics from James and a missed clutch shot from Pierce, the Celtics entered this game still feeling good after their big Double OT win against the Clippers on Monday and a comfortable victory against a Kirilenko-less Utah Jazz team. This game had all the makings of a great game, and it was…. for the last 17 minutes.
For the first three quarters, Cleveland held a comfortable lead for much of the way. Despite some nice scoring from Pierce, the Celtics could never seem to get closer than a few points before the Cavs poured on and extended their lead. Mark Blount filled what may have been his worst game of the season (2 pts, 1 reb.,) in 25 min) and was horrible that Doc went with Walter down the stretch to provide rebounding help instead of Blount. Yikes.
Once Walter, Banks, and Wheezie came in, near the start of the 4th quarter, momentum began to shift in Boston’s favor. The key to this was Banks. His tough D didn’t enable Cleveland to get into its set easily, and Marcus made a number of good decisions on the offensive end. After a poor performance against Denver, it is good to see Banks rebound in two straight games. And, don’t forget Wheezie Jefferson. Big Al had some nice jump hooks in the lane and went after the boards during his time on the floor. He isn’t consistent yet, but no has “figured him out” and that is a good sign.
Ultimately the Boston Celtics won tonightç´ game because of “The Day the Music Died,” but this has little to do with Ricky Davis’ performance tonight. Ricky was solid (14 pts, 4 reb, 4 ast and one nice block on James in crunch time), but the C’s won because he was wearing green and white rather than crimson and gold. Once LeBron fouled out with less than 2 minutes to go in OT, the Cavs had no “go to” players who can create their own shot. Without Ricky D, the Cavs were forced to rely on Ira Newble, Ilgauskas, and Drew Gooden to create their offense… good luck.
While Gary Payton followed up a stellar night on Friday with another great performance in Cleveland (21 pts, 3 ast, 4 reb), it was Paul Pierce who gets the Full Court Press seal of approval in this game. Pierce (34 pts, 7 reb, and 6 ast) not only outscored his rival, but he did not give in to his sometimes frequent urge to personally beat the opposing team’s star player. Against Denver (Carmelo) and Cleveland earlier this year, Pierce took the entire team out of its offense so he could personally beat his rivals. This was the same mentality that has caused Pierce to fail miserably at winning games on the final shot… Pierce feels he needs to do everything himself. Tonight, Pierce did not fall into that trap and hopefully learned from his earlier mistakes. His bounce pass to Payton with seconds remaining in regulation, while exhibiting horrible fundamentals, at least showed him looking up the floor. A small step for sure, but one the Celtics’ star may not have made 6 weeks ago.
Also deserving of mention, and credit, in the Celtics victory is the defense turned in during crunch time. Over the final 17 minutes of play the Celtics scored 40 points the Cavaliers, 20. That is the story of the game. The Celtics defenders were able to take Cleveland out of their game offensively, and while LeBron was able to push the game into OT, once he fouled out, the game was over. Cleveland simply does not have another player it can go to in the clutch to get them a basket. The Celtics win over the Clippers on Monday and the Cavaliers loss this evening are an interesting contrast in the value of a player like Ricky Davis. Granted Ricky has matured greatly as a player and as a person in the last 367 days, perhaps my neighbor Don McLean needs to pen a new song for Peter May to use in his Sunday notes columns because the only thing dying around the Boston Celtics is the malaise that has surrounded the team since “the father (Bird), Son (McHale), and Holy Ghost (Parrish) hit the last train headed for the coast”.
I’VE GOT SOMETHING TO SAY! : Good luck to the Toronto Raptors as they continue to make the Isiah Thomas era, their golden era. Trading for Alonzo Mourning and then shifting him to Miami for Eddie Jones may be the team’s worst move ever. The Toronto post game prior to this deal consisted of phenom Chris Bosh, Loren Woods, and I think Grammy award nominated Canadian rapper Snow. Needless to say they were weak, and Aaron Williams ain’t the answer, bub. As much as I dislike Jalen Rose, the Raptors are better off keeping him and his albatross of a contract rather than moving Zo to much warmer climes.
As for New Jersey? Give me an effin’ break. Everyone is congratulating Rod Thorn for bringing in perennial “Most Overrated Player” Vince Carter to the Garden State, but does anyone realize that his two best players have one good knee between the two of them? And as much hope as some NBA observers express at Kidd’s ability to get Carter going back to the hoop after 2 years away, I can’t see Vinsanity attacking without abandon on alley oops as Kenyon Martin had done. I can just see this Kidd-Carter relationship turning sour like 8 month old Egg Nog. I’ll give them one year before they are sniping at each other in the Daily News or Newsday. And then you have Isiah across the river….
At times like these, it’s good to be a Celtics fan.
