Full Court Press: 4/1/05 Celtics vs. Hawks
By Tom
Celtics 116 - Hawks 100
Someone is gonna pay. This is a popular quote made in baseball in reference to a good hitting team that has been shut down for a few games. Usually its the manager or the hitting coach that is making this statement. This quote crossed through my mind last night while watching the Celtics, who entered the game on a 4 game losing streak, dismantle the Hawks in the first half. This was quite possibly the best 1st half the Celtics have played in 15 years. Twenty-three, repeat, twenty-three first half assists to go along with 69% shooting. There was a stretch between the end of the first quarter and the beginning of the second where the Celtics made a Pleasantville esque-12 out of 13 shots.
The star of the game tonight was Ricky Davis who finished with 36 points on 14-17 shooting. It was a tremendous performance for Davis, who capped off his 23 point first half by scoring the last 12 points of the 2nd quarter. The most amazing statistic of Daviss performance, a statistic that would make Bob Ryan spit out his prune juice, was the fact that he did not attempt a three point shot the whole night.
The game started out quickly for Boston with them taking an early 17-7 lead. It appeared that Paul Pierce was heading for a big night when he scored 8 of those 17 points. Unfortunately Pierce would spend much of the game plagued by foul trouble. The Celtics closed the quarter out with Davis hitting an acrobatic leaner to put them up 14. The second quarter was really when the game turned. Marcus Banks and Kendrick Perkins entered the game and were terrific. Give credit to Doc Rivers for switching Perkins and Al Jefferson in the rotation. Jefferson is a tremendous offensive talent who needs some work on the defensive end. Moving him down the bench reminded me of when Pat Burns bumped Joe Thornton to the checking line early in Thorntons career.
This game was heading for epic blowout proportions when the Celtics went up by 30. However, this is the NBA where its very rare that a home team gets blown out without making any kind of run. This even applies to this terrible Hawks team, a team that was missing their starting point guard, Tyronne Lue. Atlanta would open the third quarter on a 12-4 run, led by Josh Childress, who incidentally would probably join Keith Van Horn in making first team All-NBA if he faced the Celtics every night. Atlanta would knock the lead down to 9 points at 84-75 on a Tom Gugliotta jumper. Ironically, the Celtics who passed the ball so well in the first half had only one assist in the 3rd quarter to this point. Nine would be the closest Atlanta would be to Boston for the rest of the night. Justin Reed capped off the 4th quarter with a Dominique Wilkins-like follow up dunk to put the Celtics up 13.
The reserves continued to be effective in the 4th quarter. Perkins started things with a great pass to Jefferson for a dunk. Pierce (17 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists, 23 minutes) would then feed Jefferson again for another dunk. Atlanta would get as close to 10 but that would be it. The Celtics did not fall into their 3rd quarter trap and finished the game with 6 key assists.
