Full Court Press: 3/11/05 Celtics vs. Pistons

By Jon Duke
Celtics 115 - Pistons 113 2OT

The defending NBA champion Detroit Pistons visited the TD Banknorth Garden tonight, and left asking themselves, “who were those guys?!” The Boston Celtics, yeah you know… those guys who play in that barn next to the Zakim wearing green and white? Paul Pierce? Antoine Walker? Larry Bird!? I thought you’d remember him. Well his old team still plays in Boston, and for the first time since “The Basketball Jesus” laced them up, the Celtics won the proverbial Game of the Year. Without any hesitation or reservation, I can recommend watching the Boston Celtics to the average sports fan, and feel fairly confident that fan will walk away entertained and impressed with the guys in green.

There have been a handful of Celtics games that were “great”. So great that the Celtics performance warranted discussion on the “Home of Boston Celtics basketball…. talk,” but there is a key difference between this “great” win and those that preceded it against the Suns and Clippers. For one, not only was this win against the defending NBA champion, but also a team that Celtics may face should their winning ways continue into the playoffs. Second, the Celtics had struggled to even stay on the same floor as the Pistons for the last two years, including one loss at the FleetCenter where the Pistons bested the C’s by more than 50 points. My how things have changed.

Obviously the return of Antoine Walker, just over two weeks ago, has been a focal point of the recent media coverage of the Celtics, but what many of these Johnny-Come-Lately’s don’t realize is that this roster was incredibly talented before Walker wiggled his way back to Boston. Walker, himself, repeatedly remarked how much more improved the talent on this roster is over the one that he played with during the “deep” playoff runs in 2002 and 2003. It is this depth that was the difference tonight, not to mention tremendous game plan execution by both Detroit and Boston. The Celtics and Pistons combined for only 19 turnovers in 58 minutes of play, held each other to 43 and 42 percent field goal shooting, and produced almost the same amount off the fast break.

Yet the depth helped keep the Celtics in the game despite a bad-shooting performance by Antoine Walker (4-19, 8 reb., 4 ast.). The Celtics bench provided 45 points, to offset Walker’s woes, spurred primarily by 23 points from Ricky Davis and 17 points from Mark Blount. Who, speaking of missing people, may have returned to relevance himself. As Greg Dickerson noted on Fox Sports New England’s post game show, this was the fourth game in a row that Blount provided a solid performance. Tonight, Blount was fabulous. Not only was Ole StoneHands defending the excellent Detroit big men well, but Blount was making great passes, nailing the 15-18 foot jumper with deadly accuracy, and made very difficult baskets that kept the Celtics in the game when things looked bleak.

Yet, for as good as Blount and Davis were, the Boston Celtics won tonight thanks to the much-maligned Celtics captain, Paul Pierce. Some Celtics fans can’t decide if Pierce is the Anti-Christ or the Second Coming, but warts and all The Truth can ball. Admittedly, I used a number of profane words to describe the half hearted isolation play the Celtics ran at the end of regulation, but I sincerely doubt if the Celtics would be within 10 points of the Celtics at the end were it not for the heroic efforts of their captain. Pierce, who finished with 38 points and 12 rebounds, proved to even the most irrational and psychotic observer (Love ya, Meter) that guys like Pierce don’t grow on trees. When you get a player who can dominate a ball game, as Pierce did, you don’t trade him away without a very good reason. This isn’t to say that I am 100% in Pierce’s corner because I am not. Pierce uses Iso plays far too often and rarely uses much energy moving without the basketball, but much of this can be attributed to Doc Rivers. If Doc didn’t want Pierce dancing with the ball at the top of the key, he would have run a play that used Ricky or Antoine. So far, Doc’s overuse of isolation/clear out plays is my biggest pet peeve with his tenure as coach.

There were a couple of areas that surprised me that Detroit failed to attack, and may have brought them more success. Most notably, Chauncey Billups rarely penetrated into the lane, particularly when Payton was in the game. To say that the former Celtics draft pick is quicker than Payton would be a severe understatement. Last spring in the NBA Finals, the biggest mismatch the Pistons had in their favor over the Lakers was Billups’ match up with Payton. Of course the flip side of this, understands the lack of minutes for Marcus Banks, and to a lesser extent Delonte West. West got more burn than Banks, particularly in the 2nd overtime, but Banks was very effective in his limited time on the court (3 assists in 4 minutes) making the right pass and pressuring the ball heavily. I just don’t understand keeping him off the court 54 minutes in a 58-minute game.

Nor can I understand how one of the best rebounding teams in the NBA can allow the Celtics to beat them in the number boards each roster gathered in the game. Obviously, Ben Wallace, and his 18 rebounds, did their share to fill this void, but the Pistons reserve guards failed to get even one rebound in 36 combined minutes. The Celtics outworked the Pistons on the glass in the second half and overtime, especially Mark Blount and Paul Pierce. This kept the Celtics defense strong and limited the Pistons to one shot per possession. A key to slowing the Piston offensive attack.

So what does this win mean, aside from the improved television ratings for Fox Sports New England? Respect. For years the Celtics have been discarded as an irrelevant team in the grand scheme of NBA basketball. When the national broadcasts followed the Lakers, Spurs, Mavs, and Kings; the Celtics were stuck in anonymity without a talented roster to make them worth viewing. Now that Danny Ainge’s “vision” is becoming clearer by the day, the Boston Celtics are worth discussing for even no-nothing NBA talking heads like Stephen A. Smith and Tom Tolbert. All of the Eastern Conference teams struggle for every bit of credibility they can scrape together, and now that the Celtics have knocked off one of the NBA elite perhaps the discussion can revolve around the quality of the team. For the past three years, the only time the word “Celtics” was mentioned on the ESPN it was probably in reference to that crazy Danny Ainge and all those moves bringing in cancerous players like Walker and Ricky Davis.

Maybe it is too much to ask, but a month ago I never would have thought the Celtics could beat the Detroit Pistons. Now, anything is possible. A trip to the Eastern Conference Finals? Maybe. The Finals? Well, as “Pulp Fiction’s” Mr. Wolf said, “Let’s not start sucking each other’s…” ahh.. you get the point. A great win by the Boston Celtics, the newly relevant Boston Celtics. Let’s see how they can respond off the high from this victory and enter Sunday night’s game against the very good Washington Wizards.